Word of Salvation – Vol.32 No.40 – October 1987
God’s Providence
Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 10
Reading: Romans 8:18-39
Singing: Ps.H.286:1,2; Ps.H.286:3,4; Bow.P.91; Ps.H.217; Ps.H.456:1,2
How do we see the providence of God? Two people can look at the same set of circumstances but see them completely differently. Take, for example, the life of Joseph, the second youngest son of Jacob in the Old Testament. You can read about him in Genesis and conclude that because of the favoured treatment he received from his father, he became a bit conceited. Telling his brothers those dreams wherein he was the object of their devotion, it came as no surprise that those brothers hated Joseph and sold him into slavery. However, Joseph must have had a good side to him for he worked hard for his master Potiphar and earned his trust. Joseph was even a man of virtue for he rejected the attempts of Mrs Potiphar to seduce him. Yet, he became a victim of her lies and ended up in prison for a crime he did not commit. In prison, Joseph was forgotten by everyone; even Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer, whose dream Joseph had correctly interpreted, forgot about him when he was restored to freedom. However, a dream by Pharaoh made the cup-bearer recall Joseph and he was brought from prison to do some more interpreting. Joseph deeply impressed Pharaoh by what he said and Pharaoh made him the second most powerful man in Egypt. By and by Joseph met up again with his fathers and brothers, and being governor, Joseph was able to settle his relatives comfortably in Egypt and so they all survived the terrible drought that had come upon the land.
Now you could retell the circumstances of Joseph’s life in those terms and present it as a story wherein the main character rose from rags to riches. But looking at Joseph’s life in that way will not tell you much about God’s providence. If you were to take God’s providence into account, then you would begin to see the events in Joseph’s life in an altogether different way. God’s providence means that God is able to care for and provide for His own because He is almighty and powerful. In the case of Joseph, nothing in his life came by chance. Joseph’s sufferings as a slave, his time in prison, the people that came into his life, were all ruled over by God who not only had a plan for Joseph but for all those who were part of His covenant of grace. This covenant came into being when God promised a saviour to our first parents Adam and Eve, after they fell into sin, but it was later spelled out more clearly with Abraham, the father of all believers. In this covenant of grace God would save the people of His choice from sin and its consequences. It meant a plan of salvation wherein Christ as Redeemer would be the key figure. In order to fulfil this plan God would rule over people and events so that everything would be brought into line with His purpose of saving His people. Thus in Joseph’s case, God in His sovereign good pleasure, ruled over and controlled Jacob and his twelve sons, the slavery and prison term of Joseph in Egypt, the interpretation of dreams, the drought, the coming to Egypt of Jacob’s family, yes all these events were so guided by God that it all was made to serve God’s saving purposes. Now when we see the history of God’s covenant people in this way, a history that is controlled and executed by God for the purpose of saving all of God’s elect, then you are looking at the providence of God.
In Lord’s Day 10 we are dealing with:
The Providence of God.
– 1. It’s making sure that God’s will is done.
– 2. It enables us to have a biblical view of life.
– 3. It can only be accepted by faith.
- In the first place then we see that the providence of God means God making sure that His will is done.
God’s providence is very much tied up with the whole history of God’s plan of salvation from the fall into sin to the end of the world. God has made Christ King and in order to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth, to extend it, to have it come to its fullness and completion at the end of time, God will rule over “leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty.” Yes, God rules over and controls “all things” in order to fulfil His will. 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 wealth and luxury. But God’s providence can also mean the opposite. The end of John the Baptist’s life was prison and beheading. And Stephen also died a terrible death, by stoning. With regard to the bad things that happen in the lives of God’s people, you can see the evil work of Satan and of the enemies of God’s people. Yet, even these bad things with all their terribleness are somehow not equal or independent powers to God’s power. With God being the supreme power we must conclude that for reasons not always clear to us, God allows these bad things to happen in order to fulfil His plan of salvation. We may not be able to understand the full extent of God’s way but we can see that with the death of John the Baptist the spotlight falls on Christ alone. Stephen’s martyrdom caused the early Christian church to scatter from Jerusalem in order to escape persecution but it was precisely in their scattering that they sowed the seed of the gospel far and wide. And that was God’s plan all along. Indeed, both good and bad things, yes, all things, are somehow used by God to fulfil His purposes.
So then, what do you understand God’s providence to mean? Well, the providence of God is His power by which He upholds and rules all things in order to fulfil His all-wise purposes. And when we understand God’s providence in this way, we can see how the people of God can be patient when things go against them, and thankful when things go well.
But let us now come down to earth about this whole doctrine concerning God’s providence. Does this article of our Christian belief really make any difference to your life? Are you one of those people who can be patient when things go against you and thankful when things go well? Or, can you be both patient and thankful when God gives you a mixture of good and bad things?
Have you ever realised that a right understanding of God’s providence can calm our nerves tremendously? Our present generation shows many signs of being a nervous and jumpy generation, doesn’t it? I mean, people find it quite difficult to cope with all the pressures and tensions of life. Anxiety and frustrations start to show when people no longer consciously think about God upholding and ruling over all things by His almighty power. Many people today have increasingly let go of a providential view of this world and of their own lives. They have replaced it with a fatalistic view. For many the world has become a mad whirlpool and their destiny in that whirlpool is very uncertain. People talk about the way the world is going as though it’s a spaceship gone out of control. They describe the world as a giant roller-coaster that is hurtling towards a catastrophic end, possibly by nuclear disaster. Everyone knows, of course, that we all must die some day, yet, there seems to be a restless urge to control one’s destiny between the present and the end. It is a strange and contradictory world isn’t it? Society today wants to have a definite say over life at both its beginning and its end. So there is concerted push to relax the laws against abortion and euthanasia. People do not want unwanted children cluttering up their lives and upsetting their materialistic plans. So they kill them before they are born. But when people feel they are too old for anything, they also want the right to take their own life. People can do that of course in any case and once dead the law can’t punish them. But they feel it should not be a crime when others agree to put them to death. It’s just like in abortion, but now it’s not killing at the beginning of life but at the end. Behind it all is the desire to be free to decide on one’s own life, and, if need be, on that of others. And yet, as never before people are turning to all kinds of gimmicks in order to find out what lies ahead of them. They want to know what they can expect. Horoscopes and the occult are as popular as ever. People turn to eastern religions in the belief that these may provide what they are looking for. And just look at the tons and tons of pills the nation is swallowing in order to soothe the nerves. Not only drugs in the form of pills but also alcohol and tobacco. I got to have a drink, a smoke, to get me through the day. Yes, we’re a nervous and jumpy generation all right, and that in spite of all those attempts to control life at the beginning and the end.
To the Christian who has seriously thought about the providence of God, all this must be abhorrent and ridiculous. But even Christians sometimes behave as though God is not there to uphold and rule over all things. When we read in Lord’s Day 10 about the providence of God then we say that this is just what our generation needs. And yet, does knowing about it make any difference to the way you see your life?
- Let us, therefore, in the second place see how knowing about God’s providence enables us to have a biblical view of life.
It’s quite possible that your experience in life tends to be in conflict with our confession here in Lord’s Day 10. On the one hand we believe that what it says is in agreement with what the Bible teaches about God’s providence but on the other hand there is our actual experience and maybe the two don’t match up. When someone very close to you is dying from cancer, how can God’s providence comfort that person? Or how does it help you face such a situation? And what about those who feel they are going out of their minds because life has become too much for them? We have this confession in front of us but we can stand so helpless at the bedside of someone who dies young. We feel so powerless at the sight of bloated stomachs of starving children. So hopeless about the refugee problem. So angry about the ongoing slaughter of millions of children still in the wombs of their mothers. In our hearts we cry out: ‘God, where are you as the One who upholds and rules over all things? Can’t you do something?’ People are known to have become very bitter and cynical about God in terms of His ruling, guiding and controlling all things. Therefore, in the hour 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, before they come to face those dreadful experiences. In other words, know about God’s providence now and don’t wait until the evil day comes. The confession, therefore, about the almighty and ever present power of God by which He upholds all things, is better suited to prevention than to rehabilitation. We should learn about this doctrine before we face a crisis for then we will be prevented from going under. This confession about God’s providence is not the sort of thing which is likely to emerge naturally from situations of agony and pain. Knowing beforehand about the power of God by which He upholds and rules all things in order to accomplish His all-wise purposes, will keep us going in difficult times. The biblical knowledge we have of God now will keep us from despair when things go against us. This doctrine prevents you from beginning to feel hopeless.
Do we not say: prevention is better than cure? Prevention is far better than knowing nothing about God’s providence and trying to discover its comfort when you are already in deep difficulties. When everything is against you and you do not know about God’s providence, it’s then that it seems outside your grasp. It’s also the time when God gets the blame for the misery people are in. It’s such a tragedy that so often people come to God only in the time of crisis, in the hour of their need. They treat God as though He is a slot-machine, expecting an instant result at the first desperate prayer for help. And when help is not immediately forthcoming God is judged to be cruel and unloving.
Mind you, we don’t want to say that God’s providence is absent in those times when things go against you. God is never absent from His people and He never ceases to uphold and govern. In fact, when we look back upon difficult times, we can usually see that God was never more faithful than in the darkest hour. But during that darkness we may have difficulty seeing the reality of God’s providence, especially if we have not learnt it before.
- In the third place we see that God’s providence can only be accepted in faith.
What faith tells us will often be in conflict with the messages we receive from our experience in hard times. If Stephen had not seen in faith that God was building and extending His kingdom, even through persecution; had Stephen not believed that a future glory awaited him in that full kingdom at the end, then he would have despaired and died a most terrible and lonely death. But as it was, he died with a prayer for his killers.
And you must look to Christ, to see how He believed His Father’s all-wise purposes, even in His darkest hours on the cross. What is faith again? It’s a knowing and a trusting – and in no one else was that so obvious as in Christ.
So then we must have a world and life view that is in keeping with Scripture’s teaching about God’s providence. We read earlier on from Romans 8. Now you can be the person who is speaking there. You also can be more than a conqueror in Christ, and you also can be fully convinced that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing in all creation. But before you come to that unshakable faith, you have got to realise that God is causing or allowing things to happen in keeping with His time-table. The creation, says Romans 8, is like a pregnant woman who believes and expects that at the end of nine months she will have a wonderful child. And when the morning sickness comes, or the heartburn, or any of the other unpleasant side-effects of pregnancy, then she does not become panic-stricken. She knows that all these things are to take place. They may be difficult for her but it’s not something to be in despair about.
Well, so also with our lives in this present world. God is busy preparing the new heaven and earth for His covenant people. His kingdom is coming in its fullness. But on the way to it we have troubles, as of a pregnancy. We have to cope with the temptations to sin, with Satan, with our own weaknesses, and with the enemies of the church. But remember the central lesson from the book Revelation? It’s Christ’s watching over His people and caring for them. They may be attacked by all the enemies of Christ and in waging war against them the Lord’s people too may go through great suffering. However, no one, not even Satan, can prevent the Lord from gathering His church from everywhere and establishing her in glory upon the new earth for all eternity. God’s providence is what the book Revelation is all about. Think of the apostle Paul whose task it was to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. It was God’s plan to save many Gentiles and the Spirit of God would draw them in as Paul worked among them, preaching Christ. But as he did so, Paul suffered quite a few hard knocks as Satan contested every inch won by the kingdom of God. Humiliated, beaten, left for dead, shipwrecked, imprisoned and so on. But what did Paul say? He said: “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). How could Paul speak like that? Well, he quoted a Psalm where it said, “I believe, therefore I have spoken.” And Paul goes on to say, “…with that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us in your presence.” (vs.13,14).
You must believe then, O Christian, that the everlasting arms of God are underneath you, to hold you, to embrace you and to support you. Never once does God promise that we shall never have to suffer. But what is promised, and repeated many times, is that we shall never have to suffer alone.
What we must not overlook either is that we should not expect a better life than Jesus had, or one with fewer problems than He experienced. Too often we assume that life must be kind to us and that we should not have to experience any serious difficulty. Because we tend to assume that, we tend to get confused with our confession in the providence of God. But if we are Christ’ s servants, and every Christian is called to be one, then we are to be like Him, not above Him, but like Him (Mat.10:24). Christ was the odd man out in society because He was meek and humble. They could not fail to notice Him because of His burning desire for rightness and justice, for purity and holiness. He showed mercy and compassion. He was willing to accept injury and insult as a price to pay for being loyal to God. Because Christ had characteristics not found in people of the world He stood out. But if Christ was at odds with society then so will we if we are like Him. Being a servant of Christ will mean unpopularity and worse. Jesus was hated, hounded, and eventually tortured to death. His followers, therefore, cannot hope for a life free from trouble and difficulties. He said: “People will hate you, because of Me.” But He also said, “Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” (vs.28).
God upholds and rules over all things. Not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without the will of the Father in heaven (vs.29). Will He not also watch over you? “Even the very hairs on your head are all numbered,” He said, “So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (vs.30,31).
Certainly, God may spare us from suffering but He never guaranteed that He will always do it. What He did guarantee was that nothing in all creation will be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
The providence of God. Let us avoid a sentimental view of providence in which we project our unrealistic wishes and hopes on God and then think He has left us in the lurch when things work out differently than we had expected.
But we must also not use the providence of God to excuse our irresponsibility. If we sow seeds of sin or are full of neglect, or apathy, or just lazy, then expect a harvest of misery which is not God’s doing but our very own. Nor must we resort to gambling as a means to provide for ourselves by way of a short-cut. If you believe in God’s providence then you don’t buy lottery tickets, for you will have nothing to do with the TAB, Tattslotto, bingo, or any such thing. These things are not harmless fun, for people will not give the money back when they win.
Let God provide! But don’t just sit down and do nothing. Work and effort are virtues, not nuisances. Have a good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from His love. Be patient when things go against you. Be thankful when things go well.
Amen.
