In theology the doctrine of provi- dence follows directly upon the doc- trine of creation. For the God who creates is also the God who provides for His creation.’ Accordingly, we will observe various aspects of this provi- sion, and in close connection with them we will consider such related matters as the problem of human suffering, the working of God in extraordinary provi- dence (or miracles), and the significant role of God’s angelic messengers.2 The doctrine of providence thus covers a wide and highly important area, and the knowledge of providence and a belief in the God who provides for all of His creatures has great significance for the life of man.3
I. DEFINITION
Providence may be defined as the overseeing care and guardianship of God for all His creation. So vital is this activity that God is sometimes spoken of as Providence.4 In the Scriptures an early designation of a place name is
“the LORD will provide,” for there it was that God provided a ram for Abra- ham in place of the sacrifice of his son Isaac.5 God’s constant care and guardi- anship in a multiplicity of ways stands at the heart of the doctrine of provi- dence .
God, therefore, is understood in providence as One who is intimately concerned with His creation. He did not create a world and then leave it on its own.6 The Scriptures say that on the
‘Creation is ex nihilo; providence concerns the relation of God to what He has brought into existence.
*The latter two: miracles and angels will be treated in Chapters 7 and 8 respectively.
‘Calvin puts it strongly: “ . . .the ignorance of Providence is the greatest of all miseries, and the knowledge of it the highest happiness” (Institutes, 1.17.1 I, Beveridge trans.).
41n American history the early Pilgrims’ sense of God’s providence is enshrined in the
town they named Providence, a town that later became the capital of the state of Rhode Island.
s “So Abraham called the name of that place The LORD will provide [ YHWH yir’eh]; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided’ ” (Gen. 22: 14).
hThe view of deism. The doctrine of providence runs counter to any view of a distant, 117
seventh day God “rested” from His
work of creation, but the rest of God does not mean indifference or indolence thereafter. Quite the contrary, the God attested in Scripture is He who sustains what He has made, who is involved in the affairs of people and nations, and who is guiding all things to their final fulfillment.
Providence is much more than just a general care that God has for His cre- ation. To be sure, it is proper to say that God has a benevolent concern for all His creatures. However, of deeper sig- nificance is His particular care for each and every one of them. For truly, as Jesus declares, regarding even the spar- rows, “not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father” (Matt.
lo:29 NASB), and concerning human be- ings “ . . . even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt. 10:30). God in His providence is concerned with the least of His creation.
The doctrine of providence is not a doctrine of superficial optimism. It is not a looking at the world through rose- colored glasses as if there were no problems, no pain, no evil. It is not saying that because God provides, life is nothing but serenity and ease.
“God’s in His heaven; all’s right with the world”7 is scarcely a biblical under- standing of the plight of the world or of God’s relationship to it. The doctrine of providence is far removed from fatuous optimism; it seeks to recognize the complexity of the world God has made, the trial and travail in it, and to speak realistically of God’s way of acting. It is a doctrine of profound realism.
One further comment: we are moving again in the realm of revelation and
faith.8 The doctrine of providence is by no means based on a large-scale obser- vation of nature and history. There are indeed traces of divine providence in the general benevolence of God for all His creatures. As Paul says, “He [God]
did not leave himself without witness, for he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons”
(Acts 14:17). However, the world as seen by the natural eye may also be viewed as a world in which either fate or fortune reigns supreme. In the for- mer case, rather than being under God’s providential care and guardianship, ev- erything happens by virtue of an over- ruling, all-determining fate or neces- sity;g in the latter, whatever happens is a matter of fortuity or chance.10 Such speculative philosophy, in which God has no significant role (or is nonexis- tent), is far removed from the doctrine of providence. However, the doctrine itself does not stem from any human viewpoint, either speculative or empiri- cal, about nature and history. It is grounded in the divine revelation attest- ed in Scripture and confirmed in many ways by the experience of faith.
II. ASPECTS
Now we will look at various aspects of providence. For more detailed exam- ination, these will be grouped under the headings of preservation, accompani- ment, and direction. God preserves, accompanies, and directs His creation.
A. Preservation
God in His providence preserves His creation. He preserves, sustains, up- holds. This relates particularly to the bring of what He has made.
disinterested God who, having set the world going under its own unvarying laws and inherent powers, has neither need nor intention to be involved in it.
‘lines from Browning’s “Pippa Passes.”
XAs likewise in the doctrine of creation (see comments in chapter 5, section I).
‘As in Stoicism.
‘“As in Epicureanism.
The world is preserved in being by Almighty God. All creation stands mo- mentarily under the threat of dissolu- tion. Its outward solidity is nothing more than the movement of countless atoms that maintain regularity and or- der through some external force. Struc- tures and laws are but continuing se- quences that would break down imme- diately without a power that restrains them. The revolution of the earth around the sun, the earth’s turning on its axis, the oxygen level in the atmos- phere -whatever exists by God’s crea- tive act-would break apart, dissolve, go back into chaos if God did not sustain and preserve.” Through God’s Word they were made; by it they came into being; and accordingly “in him all things hold together” (Col. 1: 17).i* Tru- ly, He “upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3 NASB).*~ The universe,‘4 the world-all things-are sustained by the power of God. So may we praise God in the words of Ezra:
“Thou art the LO R D, thou alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and thou preservest all of them” (Neh. 9:6). God the creator of all things preserves all that He has made.
It follows that this preserving and sustaining is true also in regard to creaturely existence, especially human existence. The psalmist declares to God: “0 LORD, thou preservest man and beast” (Ps. 36:6 KJV). Again, “0 bless our God . . . [who] holdest our soul in life” (Ps. 66%9 K J V). In the Book of Job there is this declaration: “If he [God] should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust” (34:14- 15). Such Scriptures attest that physical life is continuously and vigorously maintained and sustained by the mighty power of God.
We need to pause a moment to reflect on the marvel of our continuing physi- cal existence. The regular beating of our heart, the circulation of blood through the body, the literal carrying of life in the blood stream - a l l of this goes on moment-by-moment without any effort or direction on our part. Truly it is a marvel that we stay alive. And there can be but one ultimate source: the living God, who keeps “our soul in life,” who sustains the breath in o u r nostrils, who enables our hearts to keep up their life beat. 1s We should never
“Many physicists today refer to “the strong force,” which is said to be a vast power that holds together the atomic nucleus. It is described as neither gravity nor electromagnetism, but a primal power holding proton to neutron and connecting bits of matter called “quarks.”
If it were not for “the strong force,” all atoms, and therefore the universe, would collapse.
i2This is said of Christ. The background words are: “all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.” (The KJV translation as “all things consist” is possible; however, “hold together” [as also NASB, NIV, and NEB] is more likely. See sunistPmi in BAGD .) God through Christ, the eternal Word, holds all things together.
“Again this is spoken of Christ, He who “is the radiance of His [God’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature” (NASB), who “upholds all things.”
idThe “all things” mentioned in Hebrews 1:3 is translated in RSV as “the universe.”
Recall the words of Paul in Colossians 1: 16-“In him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.” It is the vast creation, extending even beyond the visible universe, that God preserves in being.
i50ne must guard against any view that would identify God with the life of man (or the world, as previously described). God is not the soul of man (or the structure of the world) though He providentially sustains all. The doctrine of providence, while stressing the divine 119
lil:NI:\/t’/ZI_ ‘I.1 II:oI.cK;Y
cease to bless C;od for the marvel and wonder of life itself.
Next we call to mind the wonder of God’s continuing preservation of His creatures by His regular provision for their needs. In the beginning of creation God provided food for His creatures:
“And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food” (Gen. I :30). Also for man “the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (2:9). Thus did God bounteously preserve what He had made. Even when man sinned and the ground was cursed so that he had to sweat and toil in tilling it, God still provided (see 3: 17- 18). Even when evil grew to such proportions that God sent a flood to blot out all living creatures- except for Noah, his family, and the pairs and sevens of animals-God af- terward declared: “While the earth re- mains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (8:22). All of this is a demonstration of God’s gracious preservation.16
This continuing preservation of God’s creation is beautifully expressed in the words of the psalmist: “The eyes of all look to thee, and thou givest them their food in due season. Thou openest thy hand, thou satisfiest the desire of every living thing” (Ps. 145: 15-16).
Regarding mankind at large, Jesus de- clared: “Your Father who is in heaven
. . . makes his sun rise on the evil and
on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). God providentially sustains all. Similarly,
Paul said to a pagan audience: “He [God] did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, satis- fying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14: 17). The providence of God to all people continues through all generations.
Such an understanding of God’s un- failing preservation should make for a life of freedom from anxiety, especially for those who know Him as Father. In a number of memorable statements in the Sermon on the Mount about life, food and drink, and clothing (Matt. 6:25-34), Jesus stressed that God the Father knows all our needs and will surely provide for them. If He takes care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, will He not much more provide for us? For “your heavenly Father knows that you need them all” (v. 32).
The important thing is to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.
Therefore do not be anxious . . . ” (vv.
33-34). We do well to reflect on the significance of this teaching especially for the Christian life. Those who have experienced God’s saving work in Jesus Christ and thus know the abundance of God’s grace should all the more be aware of God’s goodness in providence.
If God provided this gre? salvation to us sinners and has given us freely to partake of His bounty, how much more fully than others should we be able to rejoice in His common grace? We know what He has done spiritually for us in Christ; how then can we ever again be anxious about physical needs? Truly, as Paul puts it, “my God will supply every need . . . according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
immanence (over against deism; see above, pp. 117- 18), does not identify God with His creation in any aspect as does puntheism. Incidentally, a doctrine of creation without a doctrine of providence readily becomes deism; a doctrine of providence without creation easily slips into pantheism.
lhSometimes this is called God’s common grace, that is, a grace experienced in common by all God’s creatures. In regard to people, this grace is conferred on sinner and believer alike.
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Finally, there is the marvelous reality of God’s preservation of our being in the midst of the perils and dangers of life. On the one hand, there is God’s assured protection for those who dwell in His presence. The whole of Psalm 91 is a striking portrayal of the situation of one’ who “dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty” (v. 1). There is deliv- erance from “the pestilence . . . no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. . . . You will tread on the lion and the adder. . . . I will protect him, because he knows my name” (vv. 6, lo- 11, 13- 14). These extraordinary promises of divine protection from physical danger are clearly made to persons who truly look to the Lord. On the other hand, there is also the assur- ance of God’s deliverance from the attacks of one’s enemies. In the words of Psalm 138: “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou dost preserve my life; thou dost stretch out thy hand against the wrath of my enemies, and thy right hand delivers me” (v. 7). This confidence of deliverance is given to one who spoke forth: “I give thee thanks, 0 LORD, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing thy praise”
(v. 1). God the Lord is the protector of those who rejoice in His presence.
In the Neyl Testament the most sig- nal note of preservation has to do with the divine protection of those who belong to Christ, keeping them from all evil. In the great prayer of John 17 to God the Father, Jesus says, “I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep
PROVIDENCE
them from the evil one” (v. 15).17 Simi-
larly, Jesus taught His disciples to pray to the Father: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”
(Matt. 6:13).‘* Jesus’ prayer and His disciples’ prayers are essentially the same: intercession to God the Father for His safekeeping and deliverance.
We may be sure that such prayers (of believers plus Christ’s!) are heard and that God will surely protect. Paul’s words to the Thessalonians are a further emphasis of this fact: “The Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from evil” (2 Thess. 3:3).
The protection of believers from evil (or the Evil One) is a deeply meaningful truth of the Christian faith.
B. Accompaniment
God in His providence accompanies His creation. He is present and in- volved with it. This relates particularly to the activity of God’s creation.
From the beginning God has revealed Himself to be involved with His cre- ation. As the Spirit of God, He moved powerfully upon the face of the waters, thereby bringing forth life and order (Gen. 1:2).19 And when man was made, God “formed . . . [him] of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7).*0 This close, even intimate, involvement of God with His creatures from the begin- ning was not a momentary matter. In regard to the creation at large He con- tinued to shape it and mold it, to water it and provide for it (Gen. 1:2-3:6).
With man He continued His active presence, placing him in a garden and Himself walking in it,* 1 bringing man the living creatures for naming, and 170r “from evil” (RSV mg.). The Greek is ek tou pont?rou.
l8Or “from the evil one” (RSV mg.). The Greek is upo tou ponc?rou.
19See the discussion in the preceding chapter on “Creation.”
2oSee the later chapter on “Man” for further discussion of this act of God.
2’This is stated in Genesis 3:8-“They [the man and woman] heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.”
taking a rib out of the man to form a woman (2:8-25). Thus was God present from the beginning with His creation and actively involved in it.
Even after man’s sin, God provided
“garments of skins” (Gen. 3:21) for Adam and his wife. When Eve con- ceived and bore her first child, Cain, it was “with the help of the LORD ” (4:l).
Although the man and the woman were banished from Eden and from close fellowship with God, God did not for- sake them. Indeed, even after Cain murdered his brother Abel and was punished by the Lord, thereafter to be a fugitive and wanderer, “the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him” (4:15) Cain then
“went away from the presence of the
LO R D, ” but not from beyond the reach of God’s providential care and concern.
These early narratives in many and various ways depict the divine involve- ment and presence. Tragically, through the sin of man, there was a forsaking of God’s presence and the ensuing punish- ment of banishment, but God never ceased to be involved with man. Just before the flood God declared, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh” (Gen. 6:3
NASB). Nonetheless, although man’s lifespan was to be shortened and a flood was sent by God to wipe out the human race except for Noah and his family, God did not give up: He continues to work with His creation.
We need not go on in any detail, for the biblical narrative-Old Testament and New - i s the continuing story of God’s involvement with man. God’s concern throughout is for the whole human race. When God called Abraham and promised that he would become a great nation, it was for the sake of all mankind: “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3
NASB). Thus it was not that God has no dealings with other nations, for He did so throughout history; but He worked particularly with one people that He might bring all back to Himself.
The divine presence, accordingly, was known in a particular way by Israel. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob often experienced God’s presence, as did Joseph and Moses later. The Israelites themselves in their wilderness wander- ings, despite their many failings, knew God’s accompanying presence. The pil- lar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, the theophany of God on Mount Sinai, the ark of the covenant in the midst of the camp -all signified God’s awesome presence. So does the story continue. . . .
Just to pick up one much later ac- count of the time of Israel’s captivity in Babylon: it is beautiful to note God’s presence with the three Israelites bound and thrown by King Nebuchadnezzar into the fiery furnace. The king, upon hearing that they were still alive, looked into the furnace and with vast astonish- ment declared: “But I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appear- ance of the fourth is like a son of the gods” (Dan. 3:25) .** Even in the fiery furnace God has not forsaken His peo- ple.
Here we may recall the words of the psalmist: “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there!” (Ps. 139:7-8). Also the words in Isaiah come to mind: “When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not con- sume you” (43:2). Words such as these,
:‘Keferring to God’s presence in angelic form. Nebuchadnezzar later added that “God sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him” (v. 28).
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in psalm and prophecy, declare the wondrous reality of God’s accompany- ing presence.
And surely the New Testament sets forth even more vividly a picture of the divine accompaniment. For the Incar- nation itself is the miracle of Emmanu- e l - “God with us” -in human flesh.
Here was God’s presence through Christ in a manner far more intense, direct, and personal than ever before in human history or in the history of Israel. Moreover, it was not just God’s being with people; it was a deep sharing of their life, their existence, their sin, their guilt and despair-going all the way to the cross to work out human salvation. Truly God in Christ accom- panied His desolate creatures into the final depths of lostness that He might bring them forth into the light of glory.
Nor did God forsake His own there- after. Jesus declared to His disciples:
“Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matt. 28:20). He sent the Holy Spirit to be the concrete reality of God’s continuing presence. God with us-indeed Christ with us-until the end of the world!
But now let me emphasize: the reality of God’s presence in Christian life and experience does not mean that He is distant from other people. As the apos- tle Pad1 said to the Athenians: “He [God] is not far from each one of us”;
and then, quoting one of their poets, Paul added, “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ ” (Acts 17:27). God is indeed near at hand, since we have our being in Him (as noted, man exists by “the breath” of God), and thus He cares for all people and ever seeks to bring them into truth. These are “the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience” with the intention to
“lead . . . to repentance” (Rom. 2:4).
PROVIDENCE This concern relates to all people every- where.
God does not forsake His creation;
He is present and involved with all He has made.
C. Direction
God in His providence directs His creation. He guides and governs all things. This relates particularly to the purpose the creation is to fulfill.
From the beginning God has been directing His creation. He not only preserves and accompanies His crea- tures, but also rules and guides them.
He does not allow anything to get out of hand. All things fulfill His intention and end.
The opening narrative in Genesis shows that in spite of God’s providen- tial goodness in Eden, man disobeyed God’s commandment, and so was con- demned to die. However, there is no suggestion that this frustrated God’s purpose, because immediately after man’s disobedience God declared that the serpent who had brought the temp- tation would ultimately have his head
“crushed,“*3 and thus God’s saving purpose would be fulfilled. Accord- ingly, the fall of man will be used to bring about the destruction of Satan, and-as becomes increasingly apparent in the unfolding narrative of the Bible- the Fall will highlight the wonder of God’s glory and grace.
This means, for one thing, that God is the Lord of history. It is a long and complex story: the increasing evil of mankind to the Flood; a new beginning with Noah; the dispersion of mankind after the tower of Babel; the call of Abraham; the serfdom in Egypt; the formation of Israel to be God’s special people; the giving of the law and the commandments; the rule of judges and kings; the exile in Assyria and Babylo-
Z3The offspring of woman, God said to the serpent, “will crush your head” (Gen. 3:15
NIV).
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