I came across an intriguing thought not too long ago: The phrase “but God…” appears almost fifty times in your Bible. The two words might not seem like a particularly noteworthy pairing but I would argue the two words are tremendously important. “But” is an interjection. It’s a word designed to cut in the middle of an ongoing process and shake it up with something new. Throughout the Bible, God does many things. His deeds are innumerable; certainly they exceed forty-four or forty-five instances. And yet, there are a number of times—forty-four in my translation; maybe forty-five in yours—where something is happening along its natural course and then God doesn’t just act; He intervenes. He interjects. On those occasions, the text says “but God.”
For example: David intended to build a Temple for the Lord in Jerusalem, “But God said no, because he was a man of war” (1 Chronicles 28:3). Isaiah writes of great and powerful nations, that rise like a terrible wave of the sea, about to crash onto the land, “but God shall rebuke them, and make them flee” (Isaiah 17:13). There once was a farmer whose harvest was beyond plenteous, and he intended to build great barns to store all his good, expecting he could live off his crops for many decades to come, without worry or trouble, “but God knew his life would end that night, and shamed him for his arrogant presumption” (Luke 12:20). We may suffer a great many trials and hardships, from which we might struggle to see an escape, “but God is faithful, and will provide a way of escape for us” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Those two words, paired together, bring us a powerful reminder: The Lord is not passive. He is active in our lives, and willing to intervene according to His will, for our betterment and His glory. Thank God for “but God!”
~ Matthew