| The Hand of God, Part 2: Signs of Providence |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, August 27 2007 00:00 |
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The word providence comes from the Latin word provideo, a combination of the word video (“I see,” a word that is familiar to all of us in this era of technology), and pro which means “in front of” or “before.” It refers to God’s seeing before Him all that shall be; to God’s laying in front of Him all that He plans. But providence does not mean that God just looks at what is going to happen and then sits back and watches it like a “video.” Rather the word indicates that God actively works His plan that He determined in eternity past. This plan extends to the tiniest details of life, because tiny details become big consequences. As a nephew of mine once remarked, “How could God control the avalanche if he did not control every single snowflake that fell?” We find a good working definition of providence in the Westminster Confession of Faith: “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 knowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.” John Calvin devotes Book One of his Institutes of the Christian Religion to the knowledge of God and discusses in depth the providence of God in human affairs. St. Augustine in The City of God bases his argument concerning God’s great purpose in human redemption on His providential working in the world. Every reputable Christian theologian addresses the subject of God’s providence, and the word has found its place into the vocabulary of nearly every Christian. Unfortunately, many people do not stop to consider the full extent and ramifications of providence, nor the abundance of Biblical testimony to this subject. We shall begin to examine that Biblical testimony in the next devotional. |
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