Shower, O heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
let the earth cause them both to sprout;
I the Lord have created it. Isaiah 45:8
God’s transcendent ultimacy does not make him remote and uninvolved. Who God is as God makes him sovereign and free. He is not standing idly by; he is actively involved, and nothing can hinder him. He does not need favorable historic trends; he is creating both favorable and unfavorable trends and is using them all for his purpose of grace – to pour out righteousness from above and to grow it up from below. It is the Lord’s creative, reviving work, dependent only on his own gracious power in Christ.
His revealed purpose, all our hope.