April 23, 2024 / The Providence of God

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

Everybody is waiting with baited breath to see if, come November 2024, Donald Trump will be on the ballot or behind bars. Will he be elected or ejected? Will he be wearing pinstripe suits or sitting in a pen wearing a suit with stripes? Both sides believe that the fate of America hangs in the balance. If Trump is reelected, all is lost! If Trump is reelected, all is saved! And on it goes. When this rhetoric enters the Church, know for certain that the Church has lost sight of the Providence of God. If you believe that the controlling hand of Almighty God will be established or prevented by the votes of a bloc of people, you need to refresh yourself in the glorious doctrine of the Providence of God.

The Biblical doctrine of Providence states that God is directing everything to its divinely appointed end. Here’s how Thomas a Kempis described divine Providence: Man proposes, but God disposes. David put it this way in 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 –

•     YOURS IS THE DOMINION, O LORD, AND YOU EXALT YOURSELF AS HEAD OVER ALL. BOTH RICHES AND HONOR COME FROM YOU, AND YOU RULE OVER ALL, AND IN YOUR HAND IS POWER AND MIGHT; AND IT LIES IN YOUR HAND TO MAKE GREAT AND TO STRENGTHEN EVERYONE.

David writes again in Psalm 103:19 –

•     THE LORD HAS ESTABLISHED HIS THRONE IN THE HEAVENS, AND HIS SOVEREIGNTY RULES OVER ALL.

Providence doesn’t remove human responsibility. We make choices we think are best, yet God’s Providence works through them. God will not lose control of the flow of history if you vote for the wrong person or if you think the wrong person gets elected. God will not lose control of the flow of history if Trump is reelected or loses or goes to jail. Human unbelief and irresponsibility and sin can delay, but cannot derail the providential will of God. Consider the following…

•     Israel’s unbelief caused a 40 year delay in entering the Promised Land. She made the wrong choice – but her unbelief did not derail God’s providential purpose. The next generation entered in.

•     Joseph’s brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. That was the end of him – or so they thought and so they intended. Yet God providentially brought Joseph to be the second greatest authority in the kingdom of Egypt. Joseph told his brothers, “What you meant for evil, God intended for good.” God providentially overrode the actions of Joseph’s brothers and undermined their purpose in order that His purpose would be established.

•     The antisemitism of millennia and Hitler’s demonic attempt to eradicate the Jewish race was providentially used by God to bring into reality the nation of Israel in 1948.

You cannot prevent the Providence of God. We make choices we think are best, and God’s Providence will work through them – or around them! God is a genius! He has so many work-arounds. Satan engineered the crucifixion and walked away chortling. But he never expected the Stone to be rolled away. Even death cannot stop the Providence of God! God can even work-around death! No Presidential candidate, no political party, no prevailing ideology can override or undermine, derail or destroy the Providence of God.

I encourage you to avoid the apocalyptic and apoplectic rhetoric that will surround the upcoming election and is even now heating up. Whatever happens, God will work through it – or around it. God will do what God will do. The Providence of God slices through indifference, unbelief, rebellion, and disobedience like a hot knife through butter. Some may view this as a passive, irresponsible attitude toward matters of huge importance. I view it as a glorious resting in the promise of God. If the worst possible thing happens, I know that God is working through it – or around it (or over it or under it). The Providence of God is a Friend that holds my hand through the dark corridors of life and history. May the Church become reacquainted with its Friend – the Providence of God.

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim