The providence of God! How great, and yet working in ways that transcends our comprehension. Only God can have such providence in the ultimate sense. First, "what is it?" The word literally means a "seeing before," or "seeing ahead." Look at the word. There is the pro (ahead) and the last part of the word is related to words such as vision. Our common term video (having to do with seeing) derives from the term. So by "providence," we mean that God is able to foresee, or see things before the fact.

Men of perspicuity in the scriptures rec­ognized this great trait of God. The story of Joseph's brethren selling him into Egypt is a good example of this. When Joseph's brethren finally recognized him, they were fearful. But Joseph put their minds at rest, saying, "God sent me be­fore you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God..." (Gen. 45:7­-8). Joseph clearly recognized God's providence; he knew that God was able to see beyond the shortsightedness of his brothers. So his residence in Egypt was not to be of his brothers' doing, but that of God. Little did his brothers know the upshot of what they had done; but God did!

The very existence of the Jews was in jeopardy during the time of Esther; the decree was that they should be extermi­nated. The perspective Mordecai was % termined that it should not happen, and so encouraged Esther to approach the king about the matter. Understandably, Esther had some trepidation about going to the king, for to do so without his permission may well cost her life. Mordecai further pressed the matter, saying, "who knows whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Est. 4:14). He knew that their short-sightedness (compared to that of God) could not see what God's vision could see! And he was right - by his providence God knew what must be done to save his people.

Yet there are many who have a skewed and distorted concept of God's provi­dence. It is not uncommon to hear: "I be­lieve God put me here for a purpose and so Iwill wait and see what it is." Such an approach is usually nothing more than a "cop-out" for one taking the initiative in his life to do or be what he should be. Does God layout every plan in the life of every individual? Of course not; man makes choices, which naturally have consequences. Or when one either dies, naturally or through some tragic event, it is not uncommon to hear, "well, it was just his time to go," and so attempt (knowingly or unknowingly) to place such within the purvey of God's provi­dence. Such things are not true provi­dence. They are usually consequences of our own doing. Does God know what will happen? Most assuredly. Does he cause, or bring about such events in an arbitrary way? Certainly not.

True providence will be viewed in events such as God's announcing Cyrus as a deliverer of his people over 100 years before Cyrus was born (Isa. 44:28). Or his seeing ahead of time the usage that he could make of the Assyr­ians being a rod in his angry hand to punish Israel (Isa. 10:5).

This leads some to say, "well then, I have no way of knowing how or when God's providence will work." And that is precisely right! We can never know all the "nuts and bolts working" of God's providence. Don't even try to figure it out, because your mind or mine is not sufficient to always see ahead, and thus work out things to our liking. But God is not so limited. He "sees ahead," and so is able to achieve his purposes and desires. It is an exercise in futility on our part to try and understand all the workings of God's providence. By faith we understand that it is there ­and that we are subject to it.

Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the opening verses of Ecclesiastes chapter three. "There is a time..." Here is a providence that man may not understand and so try to reject. But he is subject to that that providence whether he likes it or not; he can do nothing about it. But rest assured - that God can work it out, for "he has made all things beautiful (har­monious) in its time" (Eccl. 3:11), and so will work it out in perfect agreement with what he sees and knows. - Bill Moseley

 

 

 

Willene was having one of those days. Got up in the morning and wasn't feel­ing too well. You know, one of those "24 hour virus" things? Sick? Well, that hardly describes it, since she spent most of the day lying on the sofa wondering if the nausea would ever go away. Being the sympathetic sort that I am, tried to "make it all better" by this means or that, when finally decided there was no way to fix this except let time take its course. So - I did at least one smart thing - just let her alone.

Then I pulled a stunt that wasn't too smart. Since she was obviously in no condition to fix my lunch, decided to do it myself. Peering in the fridge to find something to eat - aha! - there they were - two salmon patties left over from the night before (probably what made her sick to begin with). Have you ever had a ly pale and sick wife to react to the odor of left over salmon patties being heated in a micro-wave? Classic case of "making bad matters worse!"

You know, this has an application in the every day affairs of life. Ever have something "left over" from a confronta­tion or disagreement with a brother? I guess we all have. Let me tell you the best way not to fix it. Don't drag up the left-overs from your disagreement, or whatever you may have had! That, my friends, will exacerbate the situation. Fix it; start over with something new, be­cause the "left-overs" will stink the mat­ter up worse than before! Throw the old away; start with something fresh! – Bill Moseley