Divine Providence

By William Cunningham
For Sunday March 11, 2007

Introduction

Let’s talk about the concept of divine providence.  One thing that consistently comes up in people’s thoughts is the question of God’s providence.  Does God control history?  Do things happen according to God’s will?  How much influence do we have on the course of history and how does that relate to the will of God?

This is an interesting concept because it touches on many subjects.

1. Predestination
2. Determinism
3. The problem of evil
4. Moral responsibility
5. The omnipotence, Omni benevolence, and omniscience of God

I think it will help us put things more in perspective in regards to life and the purpose of life if we would understand more about God’s providence.  Now I must admit that not everyone needs this type of understanding.  Some people are content to accept things as they are, but still others want answers to the question “why?” 

Many people ask the reason why things happen and why they have to happen that way.  They then wonder what could have been done to prevent the event and even what God’s role was in the whole process.  This is where I believe that understanding or at least becoming more knowledgeable about God’s providence would help us make more sense of things.

The objective of this discussion is not to give you final answers to the question of God’s providence because such an answer probably does not exist in our lifetimes or perhaps ever.  The purpose of this discussion is to help you to understand the course of history and how God relates to us on earth?  I hope to provide insight or at least a direction of thought to help you on the track to making sense out of the course of history and especially how it pertains to your own life.

Since our thinking and understanding are finite, I doubt that we will ever be able to comprehend the whole of God’s purpose to say nothing of God himself.  However, I do believe that we can know something about it so as to help us cope with life on earth.  Not all people need this coping, but for those who do I think it is helpful if we could at least know as much as we can about God’s providence if for no other reason but to protect us from those who suggest that God doesn’t care about us.

What is Providence?

The Bible presents providence as the plan or purpose or goal of God for his creation.  God is actively involved in moving his creation to the desired end.  The word literally means foresight.  It generally refers to God’s preserving and governing all things by means of second causes.

The Harper’s Bible Dictionary gives the following description of providence.

There is a benevolent and purposeful ordering of all events of history. Nothing happens by chance; though not always perceptible to human understanding, there is a divine or cosmic plan to the universe, a reason for everything.

One philosophical version of the concept of providence is ‘determinism.’  Closely related to determinism is fatalism, which is actually a kind of apathetic view of determinism.  Let me list the related terms so far.

1. Determinism – This is the belief that all things that happen has a cause and those events could not have happened any other way.
2. Fatalism -- This is the belief that we have no influence over what will happen.  What will be, will be.  We are powerless to do anything about the events that will happen to us or around us.  This is the belief in fate.
3. Free will – This is the concept that we somehow control our destiny and in a more general sense history itself.
4. Predestination – God already knows what he is going to do and plans in advance how he will carry out those plans.

The problem here is in reconciling free will with the will of God.  If we have complete free will then that implies in one sense that God doesn’t know really what we will decide at any time, which further implies that God really doesn’t know the future nor could he.  How can we have free will if the will of God is accomplished no matter what?  Does this mean that our actions are controlled by God, which further means that we really don’t have free will?  The consequence of this is that those who would be saved and damned are already determined.  If this is the case then the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was not only unnecessary, or it might appear to be so, but it was actually irrelevant.  However, it could also be that Jesus’ death and resurrection were necessary events that had to take place even if we do not have free will.

In any event, I would like to discuss these concepts so as to help us understand more about the journey of history and most of all to get a better grasp on God’s relationship with us.

A Biblical Perspective of Providence

The interesting thing about the Bible is that it does not define providence and then proceed to give us a dissertation of the topic.  It instead makes certain assumptions about how God interacts with his creation.   Let’s look at the biblical insight to providence

Psalm 104:14 (NKJV) -- {14} He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the service of man, That he may bring forth food from the earth,

I find this scripture to be very interesting.  It is worded as though God specifically causes the grass to grow.  Is God specifically causing the grass to grow?  In other words, does the grass grow directly because of the act of God?  We would say that the grass grows because the grass seed is designed to grow if placed in the appropriate environment.  If the former were strictly true then we really wouldn’t need to put grass seeds in the ground and water them.  We could just throw them outside and ask God to make them grow by his direct intervention.  We all know that you have to properly sow grass seeds in order to get grass.

So how does God cause the grass to grow?  We could ask the same question of anything else in life assuming that God directly causes things.  Do things happen as a direct consequence of God?  Are God’s activities or perhaps his will the first cause of things that happen on the earth?

Psalm 104:21-29 (NKJV) -- {21} The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their food from God. {22} When the sun rises, they gather together And lie down in their dens. {23} Man goes out to his work And to his labor until the evening. {24} O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions— {25} This great and wide sea, In which are innumerable teeming things, Living things both small and great. {26} There the ships sail about; There is that Leviathan Which You have made to play there. {27} These all wait for You, That You may give them their food in due season. {28} What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good. {29} You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

We see again a seeming reference to God as the first cause.  Do lions go to God for food?  Does God hand feed the lion or does the lion have to kill its prey to eat and to survive.  We need to correlate the statements made in this and other scriptures and relate them to how we know things really are.  At that point we can better discern how God operates within our lives.  However, we should not put God in a box so to speak.  God may not do the same thing the same way all of the time.

Psalm 135:5-7 (NKJV) -- {5} For I know that the Lord is great, And our Lord is above all gods. {6} Whatever the Lord pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places. {7} He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries.

Here again we see God as the seemingly the first cause for events that happen in nature.  Does God really specifically water to evaporate or does it happen because of natural phenomenon or both?

Acts 14:17 (NKJV) -- {17} Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”

Why does it rain?  It rains because the percentage of water in the air becomes so great that it begins to fall to the ground.  The air can hold but so much moisture and beyond certain point that moisture in the air condensates and falls to the ground, which we call rain.  Therefore, how did God give us rain?  We can explain rain scientifically so perhaps God gave us rain by organizing nature the way he did.

Matthew 6:26 (NKJV) -- {26} Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Does God hold out his hands and feed the birds or do the birds have to find or kill their food to eat else they die of starvation.  In this and similar scriptures we can get an idea of how God actually intervenes in the affairs of his creation.  It appears that second causes may be a method that God intervenes on earth.  Notice how the Bible presents the providence of God in the above cases.  There is no magic.  The Bible seems to present the providence of God in terms of provisions by normal things that we (and the animals) do.  Keep that in mind.

Providence in the affairs of men

• Daniel 2:21 (NKJV) -- {21} And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding.
• 1 Samuel 2:6-8 (NKJV) -- {6} “The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up. {7} The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. {8} He raises the poor from the dust And lifts the beggar from the ash heap, To set them among princes And make them inherit the throne of glory. “For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, And He has set the world upon them.
• James 4:13-15 (NKJV) -- {13} Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; {14} whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. {15} Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
• Job 12:23 (NKJV) -- {23} He makes nations great, and destroys them; He enlarges nations, and guides them

These scripture appear to reveal God’s activities in the affairs of people.  Does God directly cause nations to prosper and other to fall?  Does he specifically change the seasons?  Does God directly raise the poor from the dust and what about those who are not raised up?  Does God care?  If God truly controls the affairs of people then why do we have to do anything at all?  You know as well as I know that we do have to do something, but how does this fit in with the concept of providence, predestination, determinism, and free will?  Let’s keep going.

Exodus 12:36 (NKJV) -- {36} And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

This is a concept that faith and prosperity teachers twist.  God’s favor is perhaps a form of God’s providence.  He fashions events such that we receive an advantage or “blessing.”

1 Samuel 24:9-15 (NKJV) -- {9} And David said to Saul: “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’? {10} Look, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.’ {11} Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it. {12} Let the Lord judge between you and me, and let the Lord avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you. {13} As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand shall not be against you. {14} After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea? {15} Therefore let the Lord be judge, and judge between you and me, and see and plead my case, and deliver me out of your hand.”

This last scripture is most interesting.  God providence involved not only David and Saul, but also David’s decision not to kill Saul.  David was influenced by external motives, which caused a particular reaction.  We’ll discuss this aspect of providence (how it relates to determinism and fatalism) in an upcoming discussion).

Psalm 33:14-15 (NKJV) -- {14} From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth; {15} He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.

This verse of scripture implies that God is directly and individually involved with us.  We may find it easy to accept that (and we should), but what remains is how he is involved and how do we reconcile that with the difficulties that are so common in life.

• Proverbs 16:1-4 (NKJV) -- {1} The preparations of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. {2} All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the spirits. {3} Commit your works to the Lord, And your thoughts will be established. {4} The Lord has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.
• Proverbs 19:21 (NKJV) -- {21} There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.
• Proverbs 20:24 (NKJV) -- {24} A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way?
• Proverbs 21:1 (NKJV) -- {1} The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.

These verses of scripture are very interesting in regards to reconciling our free-will and the purpose of God.  They seem to imply that we do have a free-will in that we can truly make our plans and do what we want, but at the same time God’s purpose will ultimately prevail and what he wants will come to pass.  So it is as though we do have free will and God does have ultimate control over history.

Conclusion

At this point we can admit that mode of God’s providence is unknown.  We only know that God does govern all his creation and all actions are within his control.  We do know that we do have a choice in our actions, but this does not make us have ultimate control or in any way creates the possibility of thwarting God’s plan and it surely does not oppose the sovereignty, omnipotence, omniscience or goodness of God.

The point is that God does intervene on our behalf.  He is moving history according to his plan.  However, our actions do matter and the choices that we make do matter.  We don’t understand completely how this can coexist with God’s providence, but we do know from the biblical text that the two exist side by side.

The providence of God appears to not be absent from our involvement or more precisely the other way around.  The lion goes and hunts its food to kill and eat it and yet the Bible refers to that as God feeding the lion.  So we should keep that and similar presentations from the Bible in mind when we think of the providence of God.  It is important that we use the data provided from the Bible and not our presuppositions about how things should be.  We therefore, should be diligent to “do the right thing” and do those things that are consistent with God’s will since we know that is what will be fulfilled in the end.