THE GOD OF PROVIDENCE

Hugo McCord

No translation of the Bible, to my knowledge, speaks of the providence of God. In some translations the word “providence” appears one time (Acts 24:2), but not in reference to God. Yet the Bible teaches much about the God of providence. Were it not for his providence we would have no air, no water, no life, no universe. Jesus said that his Father “makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Every human being, therefore, is a recipient of God’s general providence. Is there a special providence for people whose hearts are set on God?

Abraham proved that he put God first “when he offered his son Isaac on the altar” (James 2:21). God’s special providence caused a ram to be “caught by his horns in a thicket” behind Abraham (Genesis 22:13). Abraham attributed the ram’s presence to the providence of the Lord:

Abraham called the name of the place “Yahweh Will Provide” because, as it is said to this day, “In the mountain of Yahweh it will be provided” (Genesis 22:14, FHV).

Joseph proved that he put God first when he refused the temptation brought by Potiphar’s wife, saying to her: “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). Joseph believed that it was not his brothers who sent him to Egypt, “but God” did it “to preserve life” (Genesis 45:5, 8). His statement shows he believed in custom-made providence.

Mordecai, a worthy step-father, had no revelation that God’s special providence had caused his adopted daughter Esther to be selected as queen in Medo-Persia, but he believed that she had “come to the kingdom for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).

A black man from Ethiopia did not know that God had dispatched an angel and the Holy Spirit to bring Philip the evangelist to him (Acts 8:26, 29). All he knew was that an itinerant preacher came along, told him about the Savior, and baptized him. He went on his way rejoicing, unaware of the heavenly, custom-made providence that had led him to Christ.

Dedicated Christians have confidence that the God who changes not still works in and through them “both to will and to do” his “good pleasure” (Malachi 3:6; Philippians 2:13). Furthermore, they believe that “God is faithful,” and will not allow dedicated Christians “to be tempted” beyond their ability, but that “with the temptation” he will provide an “escape,” so that they “may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

He himself has promised, “I will never leave you, and I will not forsake you!” Therefore we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid!” (Hebrews 13:5-6, FHV).

No trial can my spirit break,

For God will not forsake;

He will with each temptation make

A way for my escape. (“The Providence of God,” L. O. Sanderson.)

Special, custom-made, providence for each Christian is also the only plausible explanation of the inspired words:

We know that to them who love God, the ones called according to his purpose, God works all things together for good (Romans 8:28, FHV, and similarly NASV, NIV).

But beware of those translations that say “all things work together for good to them that love God” (KJV, ASV, RSV), for “things” are mindless. On their own, things are under no director, and what happens to them is purely accidental. But when God takes over “things,” he can make them “work together for good to them who love” him.

Even though some reputable Greek manuscripts omit “God” as the director, Paul did not omit the word. The manuscripts that put God in as working “all things together for good” are also reputable, and they are the only ones that Paul (a devout believer in special providence, Galatians 1:15-16) would have written.

Thus God has his eyes on each Christian, and he arranges circumstances for the long-range good of each one. However, great and deep faith is required, after a tragic death, to hold on to a belief in special providence. It takes grit on sad occasions to look beyond today, and to say, “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning” (Ecclesiastes 7:8). Jesus challenged one who had just buried a loved one:

He who believes in me, though he dies, will yet live! He who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26, FHV.)

H. G. Cassell, in the early forties, preaching in the Philippines, converted and baptized many natives, and established several congregations. Then came the marauding, murdering Japanese, taking over the Philippines. Often the rampaging soldiers went through the villages pillaging, raping, killing, and burning homes.

General McArthur promised to come back, and did so. Likewise, Bro. Cassell returned, worried about those Christians whom he had converted. He went to village after village where he had preached before the war. In one he met a man whom he had baptized, and asked how he had managed. The brother told him that he had heard about the approaching Japanese, coming by night fall. He told his family, “Raise every shade, turn on all lights, sit in the living room.” Then he turned to Psalm 91, and read aloud to his family the entire psalm, including these words:

He who lives under the protection of the Most High abides in the shadow of the Almighty. … You will not be afraid of a night-time terror. ... A thousand will fall at your side, and a myriad at your right hand, but death will not come to you. … He will give orders to his angels about you, to guard you in all your ways. ... (FHV).

After a prayer, he and his family heard the on-coming Japanese, and could see houses burning. Presently the screams and noises quieted, and all was still. The Japanese had passed on to another village. No one had come to the brother’s door. He attributed their deliverance to special providence. He believed God had a purpose in protecting him and his family.

In 1946, Bro. Cassell came to Alexandria, Va. At a prayer meeting service in the Echols’ home (we had no church building) he gave us the above account, and we rejoiced with him.

But the heavenly Father, whose “understanding is infinite,” knowing “the end from the beginning,” sometimes does not order his angels to camp “around those who fear him and deliver them” (Psalm 147:5; 34:7; Isaiah 46:10; Romans 11:33-36).

Danny Dennis, an Oklahoma City young Christian, was sent to Saigon in the army during the Vietnam conflict. There, his heart was touched by the sight of orphaned children eating from garbage cans. Unbelievably, with the help of an Oklahoma City congregation, he started a small orphan home, and spent all of his spare time with the children.

When his time was up, he was sent back home, where he immediately re-enlisted in the army so as to go back to the Saigon children. The war was raging. In two weeks’ time a bullet ended Danny’s life.

The only reason why Danny had re-enlisted was to return to Saigon to help children. Jesus had taught him to love them (Matthew 19:14-15). Why did God allow this to happen to a dedicated Christian? No human knows, but somehow it was “for good” (Romans 8:28). Moreover, “God is not unfair to forget” what Danny did for children (Hebrews 6:10, FHV):

Whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, indeed, I assure you, that he will by no means lose his reward (Matthew 10:42, FHV).

Whereas the Philippine family received the protection of unseen angels, Danny Dennis did not. Moreover, someone greater than Dennis could get no comfort from Psalm 91. The devil tried to get Jesus to apply that psalm to himself, challenging him to jump off the summit of the temple:

If you are God’s Son, throw yourself down, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,” and “they will catch you in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone” (Matthew 4:6, FHV).

But Jesus replied that such a jump would be a sinful trial of God, and so he refused to jump (Matthew 4:7). There are times, then, when Psalm 91 does not apply. In another example, “righteous Abel” (Matthew 23:35) would say that psalm was not written for him, the last verse promising a life “with length of days.” No angel stopped Cain’s attack.

No angel protected Stephen from deadening rocks (Acts 7:58-60). However, though the Lord let Stephen die, as he did Danny and Abel, Stephen was not forgotten. He saw “heaven opened, and the Son of man standing at God’s right hand” (Acts 7:56), but Psalm 91 was not written for his edification.

Not only did Jesus refuse the devil’s challenge to apply Psalm 91 to himself, but three years later God refused to apply Psalm 91 to him. Jesus prayed that this time it might apply, for he dreaded death: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away” (Matthew 26:39). He knew that 73,200 angels stood at the ready to deliver him from his crucifiers, if he could get his Father’s permission (Matthew 26:53). While Peter, James, and John were sleeping, Jesus, in the darkness of Gethsemane, alone, pleaded for special providence “with loud crying and tears to the One who could save him from death” (Hebrews 5:7), but he was turned down.

The Son of God was persistent: he “prayed the same words a third time” (Matthew 26:44). Also, another persistent son of God (Galatians 4:6) prayed “three times” for special providence, pleading for relief from “a thorn in the flesh, a grievous bodily malady from Satan,” begging “the Lord to heal me” (2 Corinthians 12:7-8, FHV).

Paul, like Jesus, was turned down, but for a different reason. Jesus had been turned down because Hugo and all other sinners could not be saved without the shedding of Jesus’ blood (Hebrws 9:22). Paul said that, because of “the excellency of the revelations” given to him, he was turned down to keep him humble: “that I might not be conceited” (2 Corinthians 12:7, FHV). Special providence to Paul, tailored to his individual need, was a providence he did not want. But God knows what is best for each individual.

Though Paul had the miraculous ability to lay hands with prayer on the father of Publius, “suffering from fever and dysentery” (Acts 28:8), to heal him, Paul could not heal himself. Also, all Christians are not to forget that the Father’s providence may give them something they do not want, a discipline that only a father would administer:

My son, do not think lightly of the Lord’s discipline, and do not give up when you are corrected by him; for the Lord loves those whom he disciplines, and he chastens every son whom he receives (Hebrews 12:5-6, FHV). And certainly a good father does not discipline all his children in the same way. Special providence then is tailored for one person only.

Some of a father’s children may need no discipline. Sometimes special providence results in financial prosperity, if his children do not “put their hope in uncertain riches, but in God who richly supplies to us all things for enjoyment,” if they are “rich in kind deeds, willing to give and to share” (1 Timothy 6:17-18, FHV). To such Christians special providence brings “all sufficiency in everything” (2 Corinthians 9:8). To them who can take prosperity, the unchanging Father has said that he would open “the windows of heaven” and pour out “a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10).

More important than money is one’s life companion. Since “a discreet wife is from Yahweh” (Proverbs 19:14, FHV), a discreet husband also must be from Yahweh. Therefore, every wise young person will pray that the unseen Hand will lead him or her to a discreet companion. This working of God will make the joy of the wedding day a growing happiness for all of life. The first groom was excited when he first laid eyes on his bride, and exclaimed, “This is the time! Bones from my bones! Flesh from my flesh!” (Genesis 2:23, FHV). Sometimes the special providence in store for a Christian couple is beyond all expectations! Then they praise him “who can do infinitely more than we ask or imagine, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20, FHV).

Providence is not only for this life. In “the city which has foundations, whose architect and maker is God,” Jesus, our older brother, is preparing “many rooms” (monai) in his Father’s house (John 14:2; Romans 8:29; Hebrews 11:10). The “rooms” in that heavenly hotel are all “reserved” for those whose names “are written” in “the book of life” (1 Peter 1:4; Hebrews 12:23; Revelation 3:5).

Is my name written there,

On the page white and fair?

In the book of Thy kingdom,

Is my name written there?

(“Is My Name Written There?,” Mrs. Mary A. Kidder.)

My name is in the Book of Life,

O bless the name of Jesus!

I rise above all doubt and strife,

And read my title clear.

While others climb thro’ worldly strife,

To carve a name of honor,

High up in heaven’s Book of Life,

My name is written there. (“I Know My Name Is There,” D. S. Warner.)

The righteous people of all ages have not yet received “the promise”: a heavenly “homeland” (Hebrews 11:16, 39, FHV). They must wait until all of the redeemed have completed “their course” (Revelation 6:11). Then that “something better,” which God has “provided,” everyone will enjoy “forever and ever” (Hebrews 11:40; Revelation 22:5, FHV).

He’s here, and there, and ev’rywhere

In all the ways I’ve trod.

I’ve never passed beyond the sphere

Of the providence of God.

The future beckons and I bow--

My God removes the care!

Behold, He goes before me now,

And will my way prepare.

(“The Providence of God, W. E Brightwell and L. O. Sanderson.)

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