CHAPTER 12
PROVIDENCE
One day a cook poured out a cup of tea for two servant girls. One gladly picked hers up and drank it. The other flung hers right across the room, and immediately cried, 'Oh I am sorry! I don't know why ever I did such a stupid thing!' There was poison in the cup. The girl who had drunk her tea fell dead on the floor.
Why did this happen? People would say it was a lucky chance. But the Bible knows nothing of luck, or chance, or fortune. The Bible, rather, tells us of God's providence. Paul says, 'The things which happened have fallen out unto the furtherance of the gospel' (Philippians 1: 12). They did not just happen. They 'fell out' of God's providence; they 'fell out' as He had planned.
Providence is God ordering everything that ever happens, yet without in any way being responsible for sin. What God planned in eternity (His purpose) He actually does in time (His providence).
Providence touches even the smallest detail in the lives of men, and in all creation. The best little sermon on God's providence is that of the Lord Jesus: 'Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered' (Matthew 10: 29-30).
Not a sparrow can fall to the ground without God ordering it (and the point is: how worthless men count sparrows to be—as we should say, 'two a penny').
If you go home from school and you have lost 1 Op you immediately tell your mother, but you do not if you have lost one of your hairs. Well, you probably do not know whether you have or not. But God even knows the number of hairs on our head, and sees when one falls.
My life's minutest circumstance
Is subject to Thine eye.
For God's people His providence always works for good. You all know the well-known verse: 'And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose' (Romans 8: 28).
The Bible in a special way shows God's providence working for good in the Book of Esther. You will have noticed that God's name is not mentioned throughout the whole book, but His hand can be seen on every page.
Notice how things happened. Haman was going to come before the king the next morning to ask for the death of all the Jews. He specially wanted to be rid of good Mordecai. 'But that night the king could not sleep.' Why that night? His bed would be the best and most comfortable. So he sent for the book of the chronicles of what had happened during his reign. Why choose to read a book? Why not something else? And why that special book? And then he read of how Mordecai had saved his life. Why did he turn to that page? Then he found that Mordecai had never been rewarded. Why was he never rewarded? And why did the king decide to do it now? How true: 'The king's heart is in the Lord's hand as rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will' (Proverbs 21: 1).
So when wicked Haman next morning came seeking the lives of the Jews, he found a much different king from the one he had known the day before. 'What shall be done to the man the king delighteth to honour?' asked the king. And it was Mordecai, not Haman, who rode through the city on the king's horse in the king's robes!
Many of you girls and boys will know the wonderful hymn on God's providence:
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform.
The story of Joseph is well known. Everything seemed to be going wrong, yet really everything was going right. His father sent him to visit his brothers, who hated him. But he could not find them. He was about to go back home. But a stranger asked him what he was doing. Why should he ask? And it happened that this particular stranger had heard his brothers say, 'Let us go to Dothan.' Why had he overheard? And why had he remembered? And why should it be their brother he meets? You all know the rest of the story, do you not? Thrown into a pit, sold to the Ishmaelites, a slave to Potiphar, wickedly accused by his mistress, thrown into prison, forgotten ... until at just the right time God brings him out, he explains Pharaoh's dreams, and Pharaoh makes him the most important person in Egypt. Later he saved the lives of his father and his brothers. He could say to his wicked brothers, 'You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good' (Genesis 50: 20). This is God's providence.
And how much depends on how little! Do you know William Gadsby's verse?
There's not a particle of dust can fly,
A sparrow fall, a cloud obscure the sky,
A moth be crushed, a leaf fall from a tree,
But in submission to His wise decree.
Years ago a minister, persecuted because of his religion and hunted by cut-throats, hid in a loft from his enemies. There was nothing to eat and he dare not come out. But each day a hen came where he was hiding and laid an egg for him!
We have mentioned John Newton. He was a man who was never late. But one day, when harbour master at Liverpool, he was late. The boat he was to inspect had gone. But a few minutes later there was an explosion, and it sank!
Augustine (the famous 'St Augustine') always went home the same way. But one day, for some reason, he decided to go another. There were hidden murderers along his usual route waiting to kill him!
A Puritan minister, Mr Dod, one night could not sleep. He felt he must go and visit a man in his congregation. His wife told him to go to sleep; at least wait until the morning. 'No,' he said at last, I must go now.' And he arrived at the house just as the man was about to kill himself!
At the time of the Reformation Bernard Gilpin was to be put to death for his religion. He was a minister who was always saying, 'All things work together for good to them that love God.' How his enemies laughed when he broke his leg on his way to be killed! They asked, 'How can this work for good?' But it did. Before his leg was healed sufficiently for him to walk to the place of execution, Queen Mary was dead, Queen Elizabeth was reigning, and he was set free.
Perhaps some of you know that over the Royal Exchange in London there is a large grasshopper as the emblem. As a small baby, the founder, Sir Thomas Gresham, was thrown out into a field to die. A little boy passing by heard a grasshopper chirping, and searching for it, found the baby, which his mother nursed and brought up.
During the terrible slaughter of godly people in Paris (the Massacre of St Bartholomew) a minister named Du Moulin crept into an oven to hide. Immediately a spider spun its web over the oven door. 'No use looking in there,' said his cruel enemies.
And hundreds of such stories might be told about the mystery of God's providence, ordering, controlling everything.
Suggested Bible readings
The story of Joseph (Genesis 37-50).
The Book of Esther, especially the first seven chapters.