This world is not friendly to God’s people. Because this world hates God, the world also hates us. The world has raged in war against God and God’s anointed since the beginning: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed…” (Ps. 2:1–2). As Jesus prepared to endure the rage of the world at the cross, he warned his disciples that they would suffer the same kind of treatment from the world: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). In the midst of the world’s rage, what can God’s people do? Furthermore, why does God seem to allow our enemies so many opportunities to rage against us? How far will the hatred of the world go against us?

God does not overlook even the smallest detail in his providential care for us. Even when our enemies rage against us, and even when God allows our pursuing enemies to overtake us, God has a plan for our good. This does not mean that what we suffer at the hands of our enemies is good in itself. Instead, this means that God will not permit us to suffer beyond the limitations he has appointed. Furthermore, this means that even through great evil, God will be working together that evil for the ultimate good of his people. It is when our circumstances seem utterly hopeless that God intervenes most gloriously. In Jacob’s flight from Laban in Genesis 31:22–55, we see an encouraging reminder that God conquers the enemies of his people at the darkest hour.