Accepting God’s Providence
We all live in historic times. Often, the significance of daily events flows over us. That is, we easily dismiss the seemingly usual course of affairs as “ordinary times,” yet later historians will mark many of our events as significant elements of the changes we are living through, creating a new era which will affect the world for generations to come (if the Lord tarries).
Other events seem immediately historic, and we grasp something of their significance almost immediately. In our post yesterday, Kevin Schaal offered some thoughts on the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump. I recommend it to you, if you haven’t seen it. But of course, there are more things to be said.
I am not alone in thinking how providential Donald Trump’s escape from death was. As I watched replays of the event, just moments after it happened, I quickly noticed the turn of Donald Trump’s head just as the shot was fired. Had he not turned, the bullet that clipped his ear would have ended his life.
President Trump himself seems to acknowledge his providential escape, giving credit to “the grace of God” in his convention speech on Thursday night. No one really can deny this, and many speak of his escape and the providence of God as if this marks Trump out for a special mission from God in the coming presidential election and subsequent term of office. That might be true.
However, along with Trump’s escape, we must also think about God’s providence in allowing the heroic Corey Comperatore to lose his life in the same event. Realizing what was happening, he shouted, “Get down,” to his wife and daughters then covered them with his body. Those were his last words — and in taking his heroic action, he gave his life for sake of his family.
What should we think of God and providence as we consider this loss?
Millard Erickson, in his Christian Theology, defines providence this way:
By providence we mean the continuing action of God by which he preserves in existence the creation he has brought into being, and guides it to his intended purposes for it. (413)
Charles Hodge (Systematic Theology) says:
God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. Providence, therefore, includes preservation and government. (1:575)
Both authors refer to providence in preserving the world as it is, such that everything about creation depends on God’s power for creation to continue. They also refer to “government” or “guidance” in the sense that God orders the affairs of man so that God’s purposes come about, no matter what men may do or plan.
It is this area of governance that concerns us in these recent events. The Bible doctrine of God’s providence teaches that God is involved in even the seemingly mundane affairs of life, even seemingly random events. For example, Pr 16.33 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD.” When David has the opportunity to kill Saul by his unexpected presence in the same cave, David says, “Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD had given you today into my hand in the cave…” (1 Sa 24.10) There are many more references like these, all of them show the involvement of God in all the affairs of life.1
Erickson says, “God’s governing activity is universal. It extends to all matters: that which is obviously good and even that which seemingly is not good.” (426) One of the great treatises on providence is the book of Job. You know the story how Job was mightily afflicted, lost everything, endured the “comfort” of his friends, questioned God, only to repent and acknowledge he knew nothing when God came to speak to him about his troubles. As far as we know, Job never learned the reason for his afflictions. Though God restored much to him, his terrible experience marked his memory and his deceased children remained in the grave. The challenge for Job was to trust God, no matter what happened.
It is easy for us to acknowledge these facts when they are at a remove from us. We can read Job and know how Job should respond. We can come to an intellectual appreciation of the lessons he learned. We can even appreciate God’s providence when he bestows what seems good in our lives. In God’s providence, we gain a good job, are able to buy a comfortable home, lead a productive life, and so on. We can appreciate and thank God for these good things (and we should).
But when the providence of God allows all our camels to be taken, all our flocks and herds, all our children, as happened to Job in one day, what then? Can we bless God for his wise providence?
In the providence of God, just a few days ago Donald Trump’s life was spared and Corey Comperatore’s life was taken. Which event was the providential good? Which the providential evil?
Millard Erickson says,
God is good in his government. He works for the good, sometimes directly bringing it about, sometimes countering or deflecting the efforts of evil human beings toward good. We have seen this in Romans 8:28. We must be careful, however, not to identify too quickly and easily the good with what is pleasant and comfortable for us. In Romans 8:28, the good is associated with God’s purpose, and that in turn is identified as the conforming of his children to the image of his Son (v. 29). Being conformed to the Son’s image may sometimes involve suffering trials (1 Peter 1:6–9) or enduring discipline (Heb. 12:6–11). (427)
We cannot tell whether God means to bless America and the world by preserving Donald Trump, or to judge it. Time will tell. The same is true (although most likely on a smaller scale) for the Comperatore family. Surely, God’s providence allowed their loss. Both outcomes fall under the providence of God, both could have turned out the opposite way. Since God allowed these outcomes, we must trust that our good God knows what he is doing. We should not assume we know God’s reasons, we can only observe God’s providence. And submit to it.
We should always acknowledge God’s sovereignty in all things. We should put our hopes in no one man for the ultimate blessing of our world, other than our Lord Jesus Christ. We should never allow the losses we endure to sway us from this faith. There is only one God, and he moves in history as he sees fit, for his purposes, and for our good, especially if we are among those who love God.
Rm 8.28 ¶ And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
- For more, read either of Erickson or Hodge on this, or any other good systematic theologian. [↩]