-- by Stephen Witmer
I shifted
uncomfortably in my chair, conscious of the tension in the little room. I’d
guessed this conversation was coming, since the people now sitting in front of
me had seemed unhappy with my pastoral leadership for a good long time. I
wasn’t sure what would happen now, but I was afraid it might end badly, with
hurtful words spoken and their bitter departure from our church. I mention this
moment not because it’s unusual in pastoral ministry—every pastor experiences
such meetings sooner or later—or because it had a miraculous and uplifting
outcome, but because I recall my own heart in that conversation. I claimed to
be Calvinist, but I wasn’t living like one. I was thinking little of God’s role
in this conversation—and much of the people sitting across from me.
A Doctrine to Cherish
In the years since,
I’ve come to cherish the doctrine of God’s providence and to draw strength and
encouragement from it. I’ve begun learning what a difference it makes in the
Christian life. In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin
underscored the high stakes of believing or rejecting this doctrine: “Ignorance
of providence is the ultimate of all miseries; the highest blessedness lies in
the knowledge of it.”
I suspect relatively
few of us who espouse a classical Reformed view of God’s providence, however,
would say it’s borne the “best and sweetest fruit” or that for us “nothing is
more profitable than the knowledge of this doctrine.” Reading Calvin on God’s providence
leads me to realize we must reclaim the practical benefits of this vital
teaching.
Two Planes
The classical view of
divine providence holds that every event—including human thoughts, choices, and
actions—occurs according to God’s sovereign will. “All things,” the Heidelberg
Catechism declares, “come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.” This view
of providence allows for genuine human causality; divine and human agency are
held together.
And yet there is an
ultimate causality in divine agency that sets it apart from (and over) human
agency. We see this in the famous Genesis 45 passage recounting the story of
Joseph and his brothers. In Genesis 45:4–8, Joseph twice says that his brothers
sold him into Egypt and three times that God sent him to Egypt. Both are true.
But there’s another important and initially puzzling feature here that’s
crucial for grasping how to apply the doctrine of divine providence. After
twice affirming his brothers’ role, Joseph seems to deny it: “It was not you
who sent me here, but God.” Unless Joseph is flatly contradicting himself, he
must mean his brothers were not the ones ultimately responsible. While both
they and God exercise genuine agency, only God’s is ultimate. Their choice is
part of God’s plan.
Providence
Amnesia
This is far from an
irrelevant theological distinction in Joseph’s mind. In fact, it has immediate
practical implications. “Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because
you sold me here,” Joseph tells his brothers. Why? “For God sent me before you
to preserve life.” God’s activity is the reason Joseph’s brothers need not be
distressed. Yes, they really sinned, and that can’t be ignored. But God had a
purpose for their actions, and that must shape their response to what they’ve
done. Joseph urges them to focus more on God’s good purposes in the situation
than on their own sinful purposes. They’re to report to their father Jacob that
God has made Joseph lord of all Egypt (Gen. 45:9)—and the result of God’s
action will be salvation for the entire family (Gen. 45:10–11). Later, we learn
God’s ultimate causality led Joseph to speak kindly to his brothers rather than
seek revenge (Gen. 50:19–21).
“When we are unjustly
wounded by men,” Calvin wrote, “let us overlook their wickedness (which would
but worsen our pain and sharpen our minds to revenge), remember to mount up to
God, and learn to believe for certain that whatever our enemy has wickedly
committed against us was permitted and sent by God’s just dispensation.” I
think Calvin (like Joseph in Genesis 45) speaks hyperbolically to make a point.
We’re not to completely ignore other people’s good or bad intentions, words,
and actions. Calvin further writes, “The Christian heart, since it has been
thoroughly persuaded that all things happen by God’s plan, and that nothing
takes place by chance, will ever look to him as the principal cause of things,
yet will give attention to the secondary causes in their proper place.” In the
same evil deed, a godly man will “clearly contemplate God’s righteousness and
man’s wickedness, as each clearly shows itself.” Calvin’s strongly-worded
counsel to “overlook their wickedness” and “mount up to God” is his way of
emphasizing that our main focus is to be on God’s purposes, not human
intentions.
This is enormously
helpful and practical counsel for all Christians. We’re prone, when confronted
with spiteful and malicious human enemies, to forget God is ultimately behind
what’s happening to us. Perhaps we give lip service to the truth of his
providence, but most of our emotions and responses are directed toward the
human agents. After all, they’re more immediately present to our senses. Too
often the conviction that God is sovereign, and that humans fulfill his good
plans, has virtually no practical impact on the way we live. We suffer from
providence amnesia.
Seeing the Invisible
Hand
We should begin each
day by asking God to give us faith to see his hand in every encounter. Paul
Tripp prays three commendable prayers at the outset of the day: (1) “Lord, I’m
a person in desperate need of help today,” (2) “Lord, won’t you, in your grace,
send your helpers my way?” and (3) “Lord, please give me the humility to
receive the help when it comes.” Daily preparing ourselves to receive God’s
loving help in unexpected ways, through unexpected people—perhaps through
unexpected suffering and hardship—opens our eyes to see the loving activity of
his hand in every circumstance. We’re watching for that fatherly hand.
Moreover, when someone
hurts us, we should spend more time reflecting on God’s good purposes than on
their evil intentions. Or, adapting Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s famous advice, for
every look at someone else’s evil intentions, take ten looks at God’s
providential purposes. This is what Joseph instructed his brothers to do. It’s
what Job did (Job 1:21). Of course we can never fully know God’s purposes, but
that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ponder them. After all, our ignorance of the bad
intentions of those who hurt us doesn’t stop us from endlessly speculating on
their intentions. If we’re going to speculate, why not speculate on God’s good
purposes instead?
A Doctrine for Life
If I were having that
same painful conversation in the little room tomorrow, I’m sure I wouldn’t be
looking forward to it. My palms might still be sweaty. But I hope I’d have a
confidence this time I didn’t have before. I hope I’d be expecting God to work
for me, even through the cutting words of angry people. God’s providence
doesn’t make our troubles go away, but it does frame them within his majestic
and loving purposes for us. This doctrine matters for life.
------------------------------------------------
[originally posted at https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/dont-underestimate-providence/
Stephen Witmer (PhD,
University of Cambridge) is pastor of Pepperell Christian Fellowship in
Pepperell, Massachusetts. He teaches New Testament at Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary and helps lead Small Town Summits, which partners with The
Gospel Coalition New England to serve rural churches and pastors. He is author
of Eternity Changes Everything: How to Live Now in the Light of Your Future
(The Good Book Company, 2014) and the volume on Revelation in Crossway’s
Knowing the Bible series.
