Word of Salvation – Vol.45 No.16 – April 2000
The Providence Of God
Sermon by Rev M. P. Geluk on Lord’s Day 10 (Heidelberg Catechism)
Scripture Reading: Psalm 55; 2Cor 4:7-18
Suggested Hymns: BoW.136a; 91; 107a; 426
Beloved in the Lord.
How do you see the providence of God? People can view the same set of circumstances and give completely different accounts. In order to have a biblical understanding of providence let us, in the first place, look at…
- An example from history
We’re thinking of Joseph, the first son Jacob had by Rachel. Suppose someone was to write a book or make a movie of his life but leaves God right out of it. The book or movie might include the following:
Joseph’s father, Jacob, spoiled him by making him his favourite son. It made Joseph conceited and his brothers jealous. They began to hate him as well when he told them of his dreams in which they worshipped him. When the opportunity presented itself they sold Joseph into slavery but told their father Jacob that a wild animal killed his favourite son.
Joseph arrived in Egypt as a slave in Potiphar’s household. There he became a hard-working, honest slave and his master entrusted to his care all he owned. Joseph was also a good looking fellow, and Mrs Potiphar took a fancy to him. When she tried to seduce him, he refused to sleep with her because he did not want to betray his master’s trust.
However, a spurned woman is dangerous and she accused Joseph of sexual assault. Potiphar had no choice but to throw him in prison.
There he was a forgotten man, until one day two of Pharaoh’s servants were brought in. One of them was guilty of attempted murder of the king, but which one? Joseph again had a dream and revealed who it was. When the king’s court had solved the crime, it all turned out exactly as Joseph’s dream had predicted. Unfortunately, the innocent servant forgot Joseph and he remained in prison. Then Pharaoh had some good and bad dreams and did not know what to make of them. Then the servant remembered Joseph. He was fetched from prison and Pharaoh was so impressed with his interpretations that he made Joseph the second most powerful man in Egypt.
In time the terrible drought that Joseph had predicted from Pharaoh’s dream brought great famine. Jacob’s family were also affected. He sent his sons to Egypt for food and that’s how Joseph saw his brothers again but they did not recognise him. Joseph gave them a pretty hard time to see if they had any remorse for selling him into slavery. On the brothers’ second trip to Egypt for food, Joseph revealed who he was. His brothers were both flabbergasted and afraid. They expected revenge from Joseph but none came. They returned home and with Joseph’s backing got their families, their father Jacob, all their possessions, and settled in Egypt. Through Joseph’s influence, they were given the best part of the land, acquired property and over many generations increased greatly in number.
Now you did not hear me mention God in that brief account of Joseph’s life. In fact, in a similar way you have might told Joseph’s story to your children, or to a Sunday School class. Maybe you added somewhere that Joseph was looked after by God because he tried to be a good person.
But, describing Joseph’s life like that says nothing about the providence of God. In life – anyone’s life – nothing happens by chance. Joseph’s dreams about his brothers bowing down to him was God’s message about how He was going to unfold the future. The Bible says specifically that the Lord blessed Joseph’s time as a slave in Potiphar’s household, until he was framed by his wife [Gen.39:3-4 But in prison the Lord was again with him, says the Bible, and although he was not free yet the Lord blessed him there [Gen.39:21,23]. In fact, all the bad things that happened to Joseph during his life were stepping stones used by God to have Joseph become the second-most powerful man in Egypt and opening the way for Jacob and his descendants to settle in Egypt. And that in itself was again God’s way of fulfilling His salvation plans for His people Israel.
Scripture tells us that Joseph gave witness a number of times that he saw God’s hand of providence in the way his brothers had treated him, how he became a leader in Egypt, and why God brought the seven years of abundance and then seven years of famine. Joseph, therefore, was a man of faith.
Hear, for example, how Joseph said to his brothers: “…do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you… God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then it was not you who sent me here but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt” [Gen 45:5-8].
Now that is faith speaking. When later on the old Jacob died, the brothers once again feared that Joseph might still hold a grudge against them and pay them back for all the wrong they did to him. But this is what Joseph said to his brothers, and it shows you how to see God’s providence, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” [Gen 50:20].
Joseph had spoken of a remnant preserved by God. It’s a small number from all the peoples of the earth whom God made into His covenant family. They received His blessing and salvation in Christ. And many years later, in New Testament times, Stephen, in his defence of his faith, just before he was stoned to death, gave an overview of Israel’s history as seen from God’s plan. He, too, made it clear that God was with Joseph and gave him wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh so that all of Joseph’s family could be saved from that famine. It was God, explained Stephen, just like Joseph, who greatly increased Jacob’s descendants in Egypt and in that way fulfilled His promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many people who would know and serve the Lord [cf Acts 7:9-17].
So when you give God His rightful place in history and you tell the story of Joseph as God meant it to be told, then you see a history that is controlled and ruled over by God for the purpose of saving all of His elect. Doing it that way you are looking at the providence of God.
- God’s providence means that God’s will is done
God’s providence then is very much tied up with God ruling over “heaven and earth and all creatures” in order to fulfil His plan of salvation that extends from the fall into sin to the second coming of Christ. This rule is all-inclusive so that “leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years [think of the years of abundance and famine in Egypt in Joseph’s time], food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty — all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from His fatherly hand.” That’s how the Catechism puts it.
We have to believe, therefore, that it is God’s sovereign good pleasure to freely use good and bad things in order to accomplish His saving purposes. In the case of Joseph, the end of his earthly life was a good name, power, wealth and luxury. He did not misuse these things. We heard a moment ago from Genesis that Joseph believingly acknowledged God’s hand in all of it, and so he honoured God and humbly served Him.
But God’s providence can also mean very different things. Indeed, at first it brought Joseph enslavement and imprisonment. The end of John the Baptist’s life was prison and beheading. Stephen died a terrible death by stoning. A number of apostles were violently killed. Throughout history many Christians suffered a martyr’s death. It is still happening today, even as we speak.
As to the bad things that happen in the lives of God’s people, can we really say that God also causes them? Well, our understanding of God’s providence must include positive and negative things because Scripture does that. Of course, there are also human factors and even the hand of Satan is at work. The selling of Joseph into slavery was the work of his brothers and Mrs Potiphar was responsible for her false accusation of attempted rape. These were sinful acts and Satan’s hand was present in them. But not even sin and Satan can act independent from God’s overall control. Scripture says that Christ the King sustains all things by His powerful word [Heb.1:3]. Heaven and earth and all creatures are ruled over by the almighty and ever-present power of God. This is what Joseph believed. “You intended it for harm, he said to his brothers, but God intended it for good, to accomplish His plan of salvation.”
Many times we will not be able to understand the ways of God when He allows the evil of man and Satan to fulfil the mystery of His will. But we can see with the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist that the spotlight is taken away from John and begins to shine on Jesus alone, and that’s exactly what had to happen. The same with Stephen’s death by persecution. It frightened the early Christian church and many believers left Jerusalem and scattered in all directions in order to avoid death themselves. But this was precisely what God wanted to happen. These believers took their faith with them and wherever they settled they sowed the seed of the gospel and Christianity spread. It was God’s plan all along. So, good and bad things, yes, all things are somehow used by God to fulfil His purposes.
So, when you understand God’s providence to mean all that, then, you can see how the believer by faith can be patient when things go against him and thankful when things go well. After all his many troubles, Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked will I depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” [1:21]. The apostle James looked at the negative things a bit more positively. He said, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” [1:2,3]. But with things going well, we read in Deuteronomy 8:10, “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.” And the warning follows not to forget the Lord God to obey His commandments, for that’s easily done when life is good to you.
Have you realised that a biblical understanding of the providence of God can have a wonderful calming effect on your nerves? People generally, even Christians, can find it difficult to cope with life’s pressures and tensions. Anxiety and frustration take hold when a quiet confidence in God upholding and ruling over all things begins to slip from one’s faith. Where there ought to be a firm faith that God will not desert the world He has made, nor the people He has saved in Christ, there is often a fatalistic view. For many the world has become like a whirlpool and they regard their destiny in that whirlpool very uncertain. People can talk about how the world has gone out of control. It’s like a giant roller coaster hurtling towards a catastrophic end.
Every believer knows, of course, that we all must die some day, unless Jesus returns before we do. Now until the Lord calls us out of this life, why can’t we “be patient when things go against us and thankful when things go well?” And as regards the future, why can’t we “have a good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from His love”? Because “all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they can neither move or be moved.” Let us put to rest that restless urge to control one’s destiny between the present and the end. Let us trust God that He knows what He’s doing.
- Knowing about God’s providence enables us to have a biblical view of life
Frequently we Christians experience a conflict between what we believe the Bible to be saying about God providing for us, and how things actually work out for us in practice. How can God’s providence comfort when terrible things happen to us or to our loves ones? Think of a tragic accident leaving a person a paraplegic, or a rape, or the loss of all your possessions in a fire. And looking further than just our own lives and our small corner of the world, we also see the bloated stomachs of starving children, the thousands of refugees having escaped from some war, the chaos and poverty caused by war, the ongoing slaughter of countless children through abortion. Faced with all this we feel helpless and hopeless, experience anger and frustration. In our hearts we question God. We say, “Lord, where were You as the One who upholds and rules over all things? Where are you now?” We can see why some have become bitter and cynical about God. It would appear that when it is most needed, God’s providence also tends to become the most elusive.
It is, therefore, of crucial importance that Christians learn of God’s providence before the life-shattering experiences come along. Yes, that they know how to see God’s providence before they face the cruelties of life In other words, it’s best to know about God’s providence now and not wait until evil strikes you. Belief, therefore, in the almighty and ever-present power of God by which He upholds all things is better suited to prevention than to rehabilitation.
A person who has not tried to understand from the Bible how God directs, rules, upholds and fulfils His purposes in a world where sin and Satan are also working, will have a hard time understanding God when his life has been turned upside down by some terrible thing. But the person who beforehand has taken a close look at how God works in an evil world will not be bowled over when trouble strikes. Such a believer will also suffer and have pain but his knowledge of God learned from the Bible will keep him from despair and hopelessness.
You are working with a false sense of security when you think no harm will ever come to you and no evil will strike you or your loved ones. In this world so deeply affected and troubled by sin, God’s children have to live side by side with unbelievers and face the consequences of their sinful actions. On the new earth everything will be just perfect but not yet here. Here people will experience all kinds of troubles and difficulties because that’s part and parcel of a sinful, imperfect world. Why should it not happen to you? Don’t say “Why me, Lord?” Say, “Why not me? Why should it always be someone else?”
And you will have to remember this, too, many times in your life. As a Christian you will experience opposition just as Christ did. He warned us about that. His burning desire for righteousness and justice, for purity and holiness, was often met with resistance and ridicule. You are to be like Christ in these things and when you are, you, too, will be resisted. The Lord was willing to accept injury and insult as a price for being faithful to His Father. With you it will be no different. Jesus even said that people will hate you because of Him.
Think of the apostle Paul as he laboured to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. He saw sinners come to faith and being converted, he loved, cared for and looked after churches, but in all that he suffered quite a few hard knocks because Satan contested every inch won by the kingdom of God. He experienced frequent imprisonment, severe floggings, came close to death several times when stoned, shipwrecked, and faced numerous dangers. He suffered hunger and thirst, cold, poverty and sleepless nights [2Cor.11:23-27]. How did Paul cope with all that? How did he see God’s providence in all those troubles? Well, he said this: “We are hard pressed on every side but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed.” [2Cor 4:8,9].
Now that shows a biblical view of life, and Paul had that because he had learnt about God’s providence early in his Christian life. When trouble struck, he knew God had not forsaken him. If anything, trials and hardships indicate that God is very much at work. He is waging a spiritual battle against sin and Satan and every battle has its casualties.
Therefore, don’t just come to God when you’re in trouble. Come to Him long before that. Some people expect God to do something for them at the first sign of trouble. And when there is no instant response they think God does not care or is incapable.
- God’s providence has to be accepted in faith.
If Stephen, in faith, had not seen that God was building His church and extending His kingdom… had he not believed that a future glory awaited him, then he would have died with despair and blackness in his heart. But Stephen could see the hand of His heavenly Father in all things and, therefore, he was able to pray for his killers before he died.
Look also to Christ Himself. See how He in the darkest hour of His sufferings hung on to His Father, prayed for His killers, and encouraged His followers even from the cross on which He so cruelly suffered. How was this possible? Christ believed that His Father was working out His plan of salvation. What is faith again? It’s a knowing and a trusting that God knows what He is doing, and in no one else was that faith so obvious as in Christ Himself.
Remember that wonderful teaching of Romans 8. Who is that person who says that his present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed? Who is it who says that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose? Who said so confidently that nothing in all creation can separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord? It is not the super-saint, who don’t exist anyway. It is not someone who never experienced trouble. It is the ordinary Christian believer who has learnt about God’s providence.
There are the temptations with sin to struggle through, there are the wicked to put up with, there are sufferings and death, and there are failures and shortcomings in the church. Yes, there are all these groans and frustration. But nothing and no one is able to prevent the Lord from calling all God’s elect into His church and keeping them in His hand until they all make it to the new earth.
Believe then, O Christian, that the everlasting arms of God are underneath you, to hold you and embrace you. Never once did God promise that we shall never have to suffer. But what He has said many times is that you will never have to suffer alone. God upholds and rules over all things and not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without His will. So also will He watch over you.
But don’t take any shortcuts with regard to God’s providence. You know, a little bit of gambling here and there. If you are going to be serious about trusting God to look after you then you will have nothing to do with any kind of lottery, bingo, or anything like that. God’s providence is also a good tool to use in witnessing. When someone near you speaks about luck and fate and chance, then try to point out to them that there is no such thing. If they ask as to what you mean, then you can speak of your heavenly Father who is the Creator, Provider and Sustainer of all things.
Yes, faith in God’s providence allows you to be a salt and a light to those who try to live with the uncertainty of ‘whatever will be, will be.’ You, the Christian, can show with your life and attitude how to be patient when things go against you and thankful when things go well. And for the future, having a good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing can separate you from His love.
Amen.