Genesis 50:20 “As
for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it
about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
I came across this devotional that uses the Sunday Sermon series that we just finished, so i though that I'd share it with you today. It says, Divine
providence, though it was once spoken of reverently by people throughout Western
culture, is today but an afterthought for the vast majority of people both inside
and outside the church. Our society is dominated by naturalistic materialism;
we are conditioned to think that we can explain everything by reference to
fixed causes within a closed universe that is not subject to divine
intervention. Though believers confess faith in a Creator who continues to work
in His creation, we often end up living as practical atheists, failing to
recognize the Lord’s continual guidance and control of everything that happens.
Scripture,
however, cautions us never to ignore God’s providential ordering of His
creation. Biblically speaking, providence refers to several different
activities of our Creator in this world. First, there is the sustaining
providence of the Lord. God did not just create the universe and then walk
away, leaving it to depend on itself for its own existence. Instead, the Lord
continues to sustain all of creation. If our Creator were not actively
sustaining that which He has created, it would simply cease to exist. God,
through His Son and by His Spirit, upholds the world by “the word of his power”
(Hebrews 1:3). That is the only
reason why everything continues to exist.
Providence
also refers to divine concurrence, which is the Lord’s working in and through His
creation and His creatures to bring about what He has planned. Concurrence affirms
that in all of our activities, God is working at the same time we are working.
We may not have the same intent, but the Lord is acting through our actions and
intentions to fulfill His plan for creation. Perhaps the clearest example of
this is the story of Joseph, at the end of which we read that what Joseph’s
brothers meant for evil, God meant for good (Gen. 50:20). Joseph’s brothers did not sell Joseph into slavery
apart from the decree of the Lord. In fact, God’s decree established that they
would sell him into slavery and that the Lord would work through this decision
to save many people. God’s working in the situation was pure, for although the
selling of Joseph into slavery was an evil, our Creator had a righteous intent
in permitting it. Joseph’s brothers truly intended to do him harm, and God let
them do that so that He could put Joseph in a place to save the world from a
horrible famine. Thus, we derive great comfort from God’s providence. Because
the Lord ordains whatsoever comes to pass, we can be sure that He is always
working—even in the midst of evil—to bring about a marvelous good (Romans 8:28).
Only
if God ordains all things can we be confident that He is working all things together
for our good. Because even evil is a part of the Lord’s plan, we know that
there is a reason for every bad thing that happens to us, even if we do not
learn the reason on this side of heaven. God is not the author of sin; that is,
He is not morally responsible for it. But He uses sin and all other things to
bring about our good and His ultimate glory.
Blessings