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The Invisible Hand
Coming
to Grips With God’s Providence
Genesis 50:20
Dr.
R. C. Sproul one of my seminary professors with whom I had the
privilege of spending a summer
living and studying with has written several books one of his latest is
entitled, The Invisible Hand. I
found it fascinating because it is one of only a few books I know of dealing
exclusively with the providence of God. This is how he begins the very
first chapter:
I had just pulled my car into the garage and stepped
out of it when the door to the kitchen opened and my daughter, Sherrie,
appeared. Her face was ashen, and there was a look of horror in her eyes.
She rushed into my arms, blurting out the words, "Oh, Daddy! My baby
is dead!"
I held her against my chest as she sobbed and
sobbed. She was in the ninth month of her pregnancy and had just returned
from a checkup with her obstetrician. He could not detect a heartbeat. As
gently as he could, he explained what that meant: her unborn child had
died in the womb.
Sproul
goes on to say that the very next day Sherrie entered the hospital, went
into labor, and gave birth to a stillborn daughter.
I have found it difficult to recognize newborn
infants by their facial features; they all seem to look alike to me. But
the image of that tiny child was burned into my memory forever. As I held
her I was overwhelmed by this incredible conjunction of life and death.
The child was perfectly formed in every respect. But she was not
breathing.
Sherrie and her husband, Tim, named their child
Alicia. She was buried with a regular funeral service attended by our
family and our pastor. We stood by the grave and wept together as we
committed her body to the earth and her soul to our heavenly Father.
Every woman who has delivered a stillborn baby knows
the devastation it brings to the heart. Who can experience such a thing
without crying to heaven and asking, "Why?" It is normal to
wonder where God is in such circumstances. It is where the rubber of
human anguish meets the road of divine providence (pp. 1-2)
Why? Why? Why do these
things happen? And why do they happen to good people, decent people,
Christian people?
I. Providence Defined
There
is a biblical doctrine that while not answering every question helps us
understand or at least gives us a foundation for understanding. It is the biblical doctrine of the
providence of God. In English the
word "providence" has two parts. It’s "pro" and
"video" put together, literally meaning "to see
before."
Though
the word providence is not found in most modern translations of the
Bible, the concept is certainly biblical. It refers to "God’s gracious oversight of the
universe." Oversight
means that he directs the course of affairs in this world …. its
gracious because God does so as an act of His love. God doesn't just create the world and
then let it spin on its own … he creates the world and becomes
intimately involved in the affairs of the world … concerning
himself with the tiniest details.
Here
are five statements that unfold the meaning of God’s providence in
more detail.
He
upholds all things.
He
governs all events.
He directs
everything to its appointed end.
He does
this all the time and in every circumstance.
He does
it always for his own glory.
The
doctrine of God’s providence teaches us several important
truths: First, God cares about the tiniest
details of life. Nothing escapes his notice for he is concerned about
the small as well as the big. He knows when a sparrow falls and he
numbers the hairs on your head. He sets the day of your birth, the day of
your death, and he ordains everything that comes to pass in between.
Second, There are no accidents with
God, only incidents. This includes events that seem to us to be senseless
tragedies.
Third, God’s ultimate
purpose is to shape his children into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). He often uses difficult moments and human tragedies to
accomplish that purpose.
Many
verses in the Bible teach these truths, including Acts 17:28 ("in
him we live and move and have our being"), Colossians 1:17 ("in
him all things hold together"), Hebrews 1:3 ("sustaining all
things by his powerful word"), Proverbs 16:9 ("in his heart a
man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."), and
Psalm 115:3 ("Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him"). In the words of R.C. Sproul,
"God doesn’t roll dice." Nothing happens by chance. Ever.
With
that as background, we turn to consider the story of Joseph. If you are acquainted with the Bible
at all, you have heard his story somewhere along the way. It goes
something like this.
Because
Joseph was the favored son of his father Jacob, he was the object of envy
by his many brothers. One day his brothers conspired to sell him into
slavery to the Midianites who happened to be passing by. They did that,
and then splashed his "coat of many colors" with the blood of a
goat in order to make it appear that he had been killed by a wild animal.
They then showed the coat to Jacob, who believed their lie and
sorrowfully concluded that Joseph was dead.
Meanwhile
Joseph was taken to Egypt
by the Midianites. There he was
sold again, this time to Potiphar, who was head of Pharoah’s
security force. Genesis 39 tells us that Joseph gained favor with
Potiphar because the Lord was with Joseph to bless him. Eventually
Potiphar put Joseph in charge of his entire household, which included the
land, care of the property, and oversight of the other slaves. This was a
signal of honor for a Hebrew slave.
Because he was competent,
confident, and good-looking Potiphar’s wife approached him about
having a sexual affair. Joseph refused, pointing out that he could not
betray Potiphar and he would not sin against God. The woman persisted, to
the point that one day when everyone else was gone, she attempted to pull
him down on her bed. Joseph fled from the scene, leaving his cloak
behind. The woman was humiliated and accused him of rape. It was a false
charge, of course, but Potiphar believed his wife and had Joseph thrown
in prison.
And in prison Joseph
prospered once again and gained the respect of his fellow prisoners and
of the guards. This
happened because the Lord was with him to bless him. Eventually the
cupbearer and the baker were thrown in the same prison and Joseph
befriended them. One night they both had dreams they could not interpret.
But Joseph was able to interpret them with the Lord’s help. The
dreams came true exactly as Joseph had predicted—the baker was hung
but the cupbearer was released. Joseph asked him to remember him after he
was out, but he didn’t.
Two
years passed and Pharoah had a dream that he could not interpret.
That’s when the cupbearer remembered Joseph’s amazing ability
and mentioned it to the Pharoah who ordered Joseph brought before him. Joseph correctly interpreted his
dream and was rewarded by Pharoah, who made him the Prime Minister of Egypt.
Not bad for a Hebrew slave who had been sold into slavery by his
brothers!
Eventually
a famine settled on the Near East. Jacob
told his sons to go to Egypt
and buy some grain. They go and in the process meet Joseph—only
they don’t know it’s Joseph. This happens twice. Then Joseph
reveals his true identity. They are shocked and then scared because they
betrayed him and now he is in a position to get even. But Joseph
doesn’t do that. In fact, he stuns them with these words:
And
now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling
me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.
For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the
next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me
ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your
lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent
me here, but God. Genesis 45:5-8
But
that’s not the end of the story. The brothers go back to Canaan and tell their aged father that Joseph is
still alive. He can’t believe it but eventually they convince him
to come to Egypt
with them. He makes the trip and is
reunited with the son he had given up for dead many years ago. Then
he meets the Pharaoh who offers to let Joseph’s family settle in Egypt
for as long as they like. The family settles in Egypt and lives in peace
there for many years. Finally Jacob dies at the age of 147. Now
it’s just Joseph and his brothers. They fear that with
Jacob’s death Joseph will be free to take revenge on them. So they
tell Joseph, "Oh, by the way, before Dad died he told us to tell you
to treat us kindly." It sounds like just one more deception to cover
their guilt.
Listen
to Joseph’s response. These are the words of a man who believes in
the providence of God:
Don’t
be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me,
but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the
saving of many lives. Genesis 50:19-20
The
King James Version translates verse 20 this way: "You meant it for
evil, but God meant it for good." Both sides of that statement are true. "You meant it for
evil"—what the brothers had done was indeed evil and Joseph
doesn’t sugarcoat the truth. They are 100% responsible for their
sin. "God meant it for good"—this doesn’t mean that
evil isn’t evil. It just means that God is able to take the evil
actions of sinful men and use them to accomplish his plans. Joseph saw the "invisible
hand" of God at work in his life. He understood that behind his
conniving brothers stood the Lord God who had orchestrated the entire
affair in order to get him to just the right place at just the right
moment in order to save his whole family.
Joseph
is saying, "Though your motives were bad, God’s motives were good."
And though it took years and years
for God’s purposes to be clear, in the end Joseph saw the hand of
God behind everything that had happened to him.
Think
about the implications of that statement:
At
just the right moment his brothers threw him into the cistern.
At just
the right moment the Midianites came along.
At just
the right moment he was sold to Potiphar.
At just
the right moment Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him.
At just
the right moment he met the baker and the cupbearer.
At just the
right moment the cupbearer remembered Joseph.
At just
the right moment Pharoah called for him.
At just
the right moment he was promoted to Prime Minister.
At just
the right moment Jacob sent his sons to Egypt.
At just
the right moment the brothers met Joseph.
At just
the right moment Jacob’s family moved to Egypt.
At just
the right moment Pharaoh offered them the land of Goshen.
At just
the right moment they settled there and prospered.
All
of this happened at "just the right moment" and "just the
right way" so that the right people would be in the right place so
that in the end everything would come out the way God had ordained in the
beginning. God never violated
anyone’s free will, yet everything happened as he had planned. That’s
the providence of God in action.
That’s also what
Romans 8:28 means when it says that "In all things God works for the good of those
who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose" (Romans 8:28).
III. Some Implications of God’s
Providence
A. Providence frees us
from bitterness.
This is clearly the message
of Genesis 50:20. If ever any man had the right to get even it was Joseph. We get
bitter because we doubt God’s goodness and we don’t see his
invisible hand at work in our lives. We think God isn’t involved in
our situation and that’s why we get angry and try to get even and
hurt the person who has hurt us. If you really believe God is at work in
your situation, you can just stand back and let God do whatever he wants
to do.
B. Providence gives us
a new perspective on our tragedies.
That
perspective might be stated this way:
God is involved with us even in the worst moments of life. I believe
that in the great issues of life we will generally not have an answer to
the question "Why did this happen to me?" That is, we
won’t know why our mate got sick or why we lost our life savings or
why God didn’t intervene when we were being sexually abused. Most
of the time we are simply left to wonder why these things happen. Who would
dare to say to a woman, "This is why your child was stillborn"
But
it is at this point that God’s providence is so crucial. It doesn’t tell us everything we
would like to know about the mysteries of life, but it does assure us
that God is there and that he cares for us. He is somehow involved
even in our darkest moments in a way we cannot see—and probably
wouldn’t understand even if we could see it.
Because
of God’s providence we can keep believing in God even in the face
of many unanswered questions. He can bear the burden of all our
unanswered questions.
C. Providence gives us
courage to keep going in hard times.
Because God is there, we
know that he cares for us, even when life is tumbling in all around us. This Biblical doctrine
doesn’t answer every question, it doesn’t make our problems
go away, and it doesn’t give us an easy road. But it does tell us that there is a
pattern to the seemingly random events of life and that God is designing
something beautiful out of that which now seems to be only a chaos of
clashing colors. Life is hard—make no mistake
about that, but God is good.
Both those statements are true all the time for all of God’s
children.
D. Providence forces us
to make a choice by faith.
The
older I get the more I understand that faith is a choice, not a feeling. Many times we won’t feel like
believing in God. But faith is a personal choice we make to believe
that God is good and that he can be trusted in every situation. Faith
rises above feelings to choose to believe even when our circumstances may
argue against it.
E.
Providence helps us
understand why Jesus died.
Listen
to these amazing words from Acts 2:23, "This man was handed over to you
by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of
wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross." There
you have both sides of the truth. Jesus died "by God’s set
purpose and foreknowledge." That
tells us that the Cross was not an accident or some afterthought in
God’s plan. But who crucified him? Remember that Peter is
preaching to the men who participated in that evil deed. "You, with
the help of wicked men, put him to death." His death was no
accident. God foreordained it from the foundation of the world. Yet the
men who crucified him were guilty of the most heinous crime in human
history. They were morally guilty, but what happened to Jesus happened
because of God’s divine plan.
God’s
providence leads us to Jesus and Jesus leads us back to the Cross.
He Maketh No
Mistake
I
close with a poem by A.M. Overton. The poem is called "He Maketh No
Mistake."
My Father’s way may twist and turn,
My heart may throb and ache
But in my soul I’m glad I know,
He maketh no mistake.
My cherished plans may go astray,
My hopes may fade away,
But still I’ll trust my Lord to lead
For He doth know the way.
Tho’ night be dark and it may seem
That day will never break,
I’ll pin my faith, my all in Him,
He maketh no mistake.
There’s so much now I cannot see,
My eyesight’s far too dim;
But come what may, I’ll simply trust
And leave it all to Him.
For by and by the mist will lift
And plain it all He’ll make,
Through all the way, tho’ dark to me,
He made not one mistake.
In the end that will be the
testimony of every child of God. When we finally get to heaven, we’ll look back
over the pathway of life and see that through all the twists and turns
and seeming detours that "He made not one mistake."
Until that morning comes and the sunlight of
God’s presence fills our faces, we move on through the twilight
still believing that though life is hard, God is good. And in the end we
will say with all the children of God as we look back on our earthly
pilgrimage, "He made not one mistake."
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