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The Providence
of God
Jeffrey Khoo
God is in control … because He is still on the throne.
What is Providence? Providence is all about
God and His Creation. The Westminster Confession of Faith (5.1), states,
“God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and
govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the
least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible
foreknowledge, and the free immutable counsel of His own will, to the
praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.”
In other words,
providence is God’s care of His creation and control over the affairs of
man in high and low places, in small things and big things, so that
whatever happens on earth and in history will ultimately fulfill His
predetermined plan and glorify His Holy Name.
Providence simply tells
us that God is in control because He is still on the throne. God is
Cosmic Overseer and Supervisor. Nothing escapes Him, nothing happens by
chance. There is no such thing as luck. Do not thank your “lucky stars”!
Where do we see God’s
providential hand at work? We see it in His providential (1) maintenance
of His Creation, (2) protection of His people, and (3) preservation of His
words.
God’s
Providential Maintenance of His Creation
We are
not frozen nor fried
Deism teaches that God,
after He created the universe, got so tired that He took a long nap and
never woke up. Such a concept of God is indeed laughable; yes, even
heretical! The Bible teaches an omnipotent God who is still very much
alive and awake, and very much in control. The Psalmist wrote, “Let them
praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created. He
hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which
shall not pass” (Ps 148:5-6); “Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who
prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry” (Ps
147:8-9). The God who made the heavens and the earth continues to sustain
His creation and His creatures.
Consider the fact that planet earth is
hanging on nothing, suspended in thin air, and moving around the sun. Why
does it not drop off the sky, or stray off course from its orbit? Is it
not amazing that the earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours at a speed
of 1,000 miles an hour, revolves around the sun once a year at a speed of
66,660 miles per hour, and yet stays on course? The earth is not like an
uncontrolled spinning top. God is in control. He not only causes the earth
to spin, but also controls its movement. The earth would either freeze or
fry if it were just a fraction off course in relation to its distance from
the sun.
We echo the words of
Isaac Watts:
Jesus shall reign
where-e’er the sun
Does his successive
journeys run,
His kingdom spread
from shore to shore
Till moons shall wax
and wane no more.
Is not God’s providential
maintenance of His creation perfect?
God’s
Providential Protection of His People
We are not starving nor
unclothed
As
Christians we are the most happy people on
earth. This is so because we have a Father in heaven who takes meticulous
care of all our needs. “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of
before ye ask him … Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your
life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body,
what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they
reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are
ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add
one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they
spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the
field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he
not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no
thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or,
Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the
Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things. But seek ye first the
kingdom of
God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”
(Matt 6:8, 25-33).
God assures
His people “that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). God knows the
future. God knows what is good for us. Even when evil (illness, accidents,
bereavement, retrenchment, failure, etc.) befall us, He knows how to work
things out for us. He only asks that we love and trust Him 100%.
Only trust Him, only
trust Him, only trust Him now;
He will save you, He
will save you, He will save you now.
Nothing at all can
separate us from the love God has for us. So, why worry!
Do we doubt
that God’s providential protection of His people can be less than perfect?
God’s
Providential Preservation of His Words
We not
only have all of His doctrines but also all of His words
Jesus quoting Deut 8:3
said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4). Every word of Holy Writ is
vital for godly living. As such, God makes sure that every single one of
His words is preserved “by His singular care and providence, kept pure in
all ages” as stated in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1.8). This is
in keeping with God’s promise to preserve His words even to the jot and
tittle, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in the
furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou
shalt preserve them from this generation for ever” (Ps 12:6-7). “For
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matt 5:18).
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matt
24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33).
God’s providential hand
in the preservation of His Word and words is seen in the canonisation and
transmission of Scripture. All the inspired NT books were completed by the
end of the first century when the Apostle John wrote the last book of
Revelation, and God warned against adding to or subtracting from His Word
in Rev 22:18-19. However, we know that in the first few centuries, there
were uninspired men who penned spurious writings and passed them off as
Scripture. Some of these were the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of
Nicodemus, the Epistle of Barnabas, etc. Nevertheless, none of the
inspired books of Scripture have been lost or obscured in the canonical
process. By the providential guidance of the Holy Spirit, God’s people
were led to identify the 27 books to become our NT Canon, no more, no
less. There was a terminus to the canonisation of Scripture at the Council
of Carthage in AD 397.
In like manner, the Lord
allowed copyist errors to enter into the transmission process through the
pen of fallible scribes. Nevertheless, His providential hand kept His
inspired words of Scripture from being lost. In light of God’s providence
that nothing happens by chance and that history is under His sovereign
control, in the fulness of time—in the most opportune time of the
Reformation—when the true church separated from the false, when the study
of the original languages was emphasised, and the printing press invented
(which meant that no longer would there be any need to hand-copy the
Scriptures thereby ensuring a uniform text)—God restored from out of a
pure stream of preserved Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, the purest of all
Hebrew and Greek texts—the texts that underlie our King James Bible—that
accurately reflect the original autographs.
The same powerful God who
inspired His words to the jot and tittle, is He not powerful enough to
preserve His inspired words in like manner? If God’s providential keeping
of His creation and His people is nothing short of perfect, how then can
the providential preservation of His very own words be anything but
perfect? “Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar” (Rom 3:4). As God is
immutable, so is His Word. “The Law of the LORD is perfect, converting the
soul” (Ps 19:7).
The Bible stands like
a rock undaunted
’Midst the ranging
storms of time;
Its pages burn with
the truth eternal,
And they glow with a
light sublime.
The Bible stands
though the hills may tumble,
It will firmly stand
when the earth shall crumble;
I will plant my feet
on its firm foundation,
For the Bible stands.
What a powerful and
wonderful God we have! He is in control! He is still on the throne! Jesus
Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever! Glory to His Name!
Dr Jeffrey Khoo is
academic dean of the Far Eastern Bible College.
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