Divine Providence, by Rev. Everett Henes

Divine Providence

by Rev. Everett Henes(Hillsdale OPC)

Divine Providence 1.

We often think of God’s activity in the world as passive. He rarely interferes, unless there is something big that needs to be taken care of. This is how we can make room for the burning bush, the parting of the Red Sea, the prophets, and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. These are all things that happen contrary to the normal course of nature. We have as a ruling thought, that nature has its own course, and outside of that God may work. This gets the doctrine of Providence backwards. In fact, Providence is the term we give to God’s governing all of creation.

Westminster Shorter Catechism # 8: How does God execute his decrees? God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence.

Creation is God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good. His Providence is how he continues to uphold that creation. Hebrews 1:3 teaches us that “He (Jesus) is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”

Think on that truth, that Christ is upholding the universe by his powerful word! Everything that takes place is under the direct control of the Lord. He is not aloof, waiting until there is something important for him to do. No, the very day-to-day moments of our lives are under his divine watch. The very activities that we take part in, each day, are only possible because he is upholding his creation.

I know that this brings as much challenge as it does encouragement. We often feel like Job, who did not know what was going on or why everything in his life was falling apart. There’s no doubt that Job felt that way, even as he called upon the Lord. This becomes the key to understanding Job, and why his story is so important for us. Trusting God in the midst of trials is difficult. We’re often better at encouraging others to do so than we are in following our own advice. However, Job reminds us of another who suffered greatly. It was God’s will to crush Jesus (Isaiah 53:10). Job’s suffering was not the end of the story, and neither was Christ’s death the end. Because Jesus has been raised from the dead, we also know that our sufferings are not the end. The one who upholds all of creation is upholding you even as you suffer.

Divine Providence 2

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks, laying out what Divine Providence is, how far it extends, and how it is grounded in God’s nature. For our God to be God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, then he must preserve all his creatures and all their actions. This given, in Scripture and our Confession, to be a supreme comfort to us when we face trials and tribulations. However, what about when it is not a comfort? What about when we feel more like Job, who said, “For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me” (Job 6:4)?

There is a danger in the doctrine of Divine Providence, if we divorce it from God’s love on the one hand, or from redemption on the other. We read Job’s story and we’re a little too comfortable with it, because we know the end. However, it is the end that we must meditate on if we are to trust God in the midst of trials. That is why Job has been given to us in Scripture.

Another passage that makes this same point is Psalm 73. There the Psalmist begins, “Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.” He knows that God is good and that God is over all. And, yet, it’s these very same truths that present him with his confusion. God is good to his people, and yet it seems oftentimes that the wicked prosper in life. Even more than that, those who are supposed to be objects of God’s affection find themselves in moments of intense grief.

The Psalmist wrestles with all of this, and, he cries out, “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.” It can seem that all our devotion to and love for God is in vain. Job felt this, and I know that we feel it from time to time. It would be different if loving and serving God led to prosperity and ease. Our message would be an easy sell to unbelievers the world over! However, even Jesus says that to follow him requires taking up our cross and expecting rejection in this world.

This is where Job and Psalm 73 are helpful, and the whole Bible really. The Bible ends with the message of a new creation just as Job’s story ends with the restoration of all things. Psalm 73 wrote, “But when I thought to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” It’s the end, once more, that gives perspective.

When we struggle with Divine Providence, God’s control over all things, it is often because we have become near-sighted. We forget that God is working all of history together for his glory and for our good. We forget that there is, in fact, an end and it will be one where he is declared just and holy in all that he has done in creation. The doctrine of Divine Providence challenges us, because we are like Job, the Psalmist, and the disciples who followed Jesus. We see the storms and forget that the one who is over the storms is with us and that he will bring us safely to the other side.

“But the Christian life is lived not only by faith; it is also lived in hope. The Christian is in the midst of a sore battle. And as for the condition of the world at large − nothing but the coldest heartlessness could be satisfied with that. It is certainly true that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Even in the Christian life there are things that we should like to see removed; there are fears within as well as fightings without; even within the Christian life there are sad evidences of sin. But according to the hope which Christ has given us, there will be final victory, and the struggle of this world will be followed by the glories of heaven. That hope runs all through the Christian life; Christianity is not engrossed by this transitory world, but measures all things by the thought of eternity.” ~ J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism

May God continue to remind and comfort us with these great truths.

Divine Providence 3

John Calvin writes, “we must be persuaded not only that as he once formed the world, so he sustains it by his boundless power, governs it by his wisdom, preserves it by his goodness, in particular, rules the human race with justice and judgment, bears with them in mercy, shields them by his protection; but also that not a particle of light, or wisdom, or justice, or power, or rectitude, or genuine truth, will anywhere be found, which does not flow from him, and of which he is not the cause; in this way we must learn to expect and ask all things from him, and thankfully ascribe to him whatever we receive.”

This doctrine of Providence is one that we must persuade ourselves of almost daily. It is easy to lose sight of God’s care, or to give ourselves over to despair and thoughts of pointless chance. Even worse, we can too easily become convinced that God is not for us, but against us. We must wrestle with the mystery of God’s Providential care for us, always looking to the completed work of Christ in our behalf.

Romans 8:31-32 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

"Mystery is the lifeblood of dogmatics." -Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 2 by Herman Bavinck - In theology we, as finite creatures, try to articulate what has been revealed to us by the Infinite and Incomprehensible Lord of Glory. Mystery does not begin when we have reasoned to the point where we don't understand anymore. Rather mystery is before our theologizing, permeates our theology, and ends our theology with the call to worship and adore the Incomprehensible one who has revealed himself to us. Though we cannot comprehend God we do know him truly through his word and creation ( Psalm 19 & 119; Proverbs 1:7; Romans 1; Ephesians 3:1-13; Revelation 21:1-5). At all times we must remain under the authority of God's word which requires us to embrace mystery (Deuteronomy 29:29; Matthew 4:4; 1 Corinthians 6:4; 1Timothy 3:9 & 16; 2 Timothy 3:15-17).

Knowing the revelation of the mystery of the incomprehensible one is what leads Paul to burst out in praise. For, under divine inspiration, he writes, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:33-36.

Divine Providence 4

The Apostle Paul write, in Ephesians 1:11, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…”

When we talk about the doctrine of Divine Providence, we recognize that God is in control of all of creation. There is not a sunrise, or a baby’s cry that is outside of his sovereign care. But why? What is God doing through all of this providential care? Paul tells us that God has a purpose. The smallest things that happen in our lives all the way to the greatest joys and sorrows, they are all part of God’s purpose.

God’s purpose is eternal and has been determined according to the counsel of his will. It’s that perfect will that led Joseph into prison, so that his brothers and family would be saved in the famine. What they meant for evil, God meant for good (Genesis 50:20). The perfect will of God brought Job, through suffering, to trust the one who made and redeemed him (Job 42:1-6).

This puts the providence of God outside of our scrutiny. We cannot judge God. He is good; he is holy; he is perfect. All that he does conforms to his perfect will. That means that even when we cannot see how he is good, we trust that he is. Paul doesn’t just leave it there, though. Look at the context of this purpose and counsel. It is for the sake of God’s people. Paul is speaking here about salvation and the inheritance that we have in Christ.

This reminds us that God’s providential care is in this world, but looks forward ultimately to the world to come. This is why so many things in this world will seem outside of what we think God should do. He sees not just time, but eternity. Our citizenship is in heaven, and so we look forward to that glorious promise of the life to come. Our inheritance is not in this life, but the life to come. It is an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading (1 Peter 1:3). God’s providential care, now, looks forward to all that he has promised us in the life to come.

Divine Providence 5

Sometimes God's providence can be frustrating, or confusing, or downright painful. In fact, I've come to understand that this is often the case. We all know those moments when we wonder what it is that God is doing, or why he is doing it. Even more, we wonder how his providence fits in with all the choices and actions that ourselves and others make.

Our Confession is helpful here. In chapter 5, Of Providence, we read in section 2, "Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, He orders them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently."

The Confession cites some helpful passages of Scripture. From the Old Testament, they cite Isaiah 10 and the work of Assyrian in God's plan. God refers to Assyria as "the rod of my anger; they staff in their hands is my fury!" In verse 7, regarding the king of Assyria, God says, "But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think..." There we have God, directing the nation through the ruler, for his purposes. The intention of the king of Assyria is his own. His choices are his own, and yet they will carry out the will of the Lord. "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will." (Proverbs 21:1)

There is a New Testament passage cited as well (along with many others). Acts 2:23, where Peter tells the people, regarding the death of Jesus, "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." Peter does not let them off the hood for the part they played in the death of Jesus, the Son of God. However, he declares clearly that it was all part of God's definite plan and foreknowledge. They chose; they handed Jesus over, yet it was God's will being carried out.

Perhaps it's easy to accept this whne it comes to the ancient Assyrian empire, or the life of Jeuss. But God's word makes clear that he is providentially ruling over all of creation at all times. This is meant to be for our comfort, knowing as we have learned from his word that God is good. We can trust that he is working all things together, even the choices that we and others make around us that seem less than good. But, make no mistake, this teaching on providence reminds us how great our God is. He is truly worthy of our worship.

Divine Providence 6

The doctrine of God’s Divine Providence can oftentimes seem sterile. We talk about creation and God’s governing all his creatures and their actions. We think of the sun that rises and sets, and know that it does not do so by mere chance. Even if we choose to use various scientific laws and ideas to describe the rising and setting of the sun, we acknowledge that it is God who actively upholds all of these things.

Providence can seem like it’s a topic for a theological textbook. In my series of devotionals, I’ve sought to bring the doctrine home to us. The daily food we eat, the health we enjoy, or the family that surrounds us, these are all gifts of God. What do we make of God’s providence, though, when things go terribly wrong? How do we respond when we are forced to acknowledge that we are not in control and, what’s more, we cannot make sense of God’s control? How does God’s providence encourage us when it can feel as though everything is going against us?

Once more, our Confession is helpful. Chapter 5 is on providence and includes both the definition and the extent. In section five, in speaking of how Christians can wrestle with sins, the Confession says that there can be different reasons for this. There are times that God is correcting his children through such actions, or perhaps he is humbling them. The Confession goes on to say that it may be in order “to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.”

I’d like to extend this beyond the question of ongoing sins. I believe that when we talk about things in our lives that are going wrong, we can also see how God is using these things to correct, humble, or draw us closer to himself. We can think of Paul’s words, when he lost everything that he had counted as valuable in his life, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:8)

Geerhardus Vos gives a good challenge, “Let each one examine himself whether to any extent is he caught in the whirl of this centrifugal movement. The question, though searching, is an extremely simple one: Do we love God for his own sake, and find in this love the inspiration of service, or do we patronize him as an influential partner under whose auspices we can better conduct our manifold activities in the service of the world?”

When we suffer, when things are out of our control completely and going the wrong way, we are challenged to examine who is at the center of our world. Do we see God as a helpful partner, or as the Lord of the universe before whom we are called to bow?

John Calvin makes a helpful point about the steadiness of the Christian life under such trying circumstances: Happen what may, he whose mind is thus composed will neither deem himself wretched nor murmur against God because of his lot. How necessary this disposition is will appear, if you consider the many accidents to which we are liable. Various diseases ever and anon attack us: at one time pestilence rages; at another we are involved in all the calamities of war. Frost and hail, destroying the promise of the year, cause sterility, which reduces us to penury; wife, parents, children, relatives, are carried off by death; our house is destroyed by fire. These are the events which make men curse their life, detest the day of their birth, execrate the light of heaven, even censure God, and (as they are eloquent in blasphemy) charge him with cruelty and injustice. The believer must in these things also contemplate the mercy and truly paternal indulgence of God.

May we love God, for God’s sake, trusting him in all that he does. Though he slay me, I will hope in him. (Job 13:15)

Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church: http://www.hillsdaleopc.org