Contents

1. God's Providence, God's Pleasure

God's Providence, God's Pleasure

In June of 1995 while attending my first seminary class on the campus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, "God, Man and Christ", taught by Dr. Wayne Grudem, God graciously awakened me to his nearness, his "immanence" as I came to understand and rejoice in the doctrine of God's providence. I was not completely unaware of the idea of God's providence but my knowledge was splintered and fragmentary. As I read about and then discussed this doctrine in class it was as though a bright light was turned on and I saw God where I never saw him before. I began to rejoice in how near he was to me and had been to me since the moment I was conceived in my mother's womb. I understood for the first time that it really is true that "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

One of the main things I learned in going to seminary is that we, the church of Jesus, have forgotten a lot of things. There was a time in the church when the doctrine of God's providence was a well-known, cherished and lived doctrine. Understanding and living in light of this doctrine affects everything: your work; how you live as a single person, a spouse, a child, a parent, a grandparent, an aunt; how you live in your church; how you respond to the weather; your praying; your emotional condition; how you respond to suffering and evil; how you live as a citizen; indeed everything about you is affected by this doctrine. In this short book we will examine this doctrine and its implications for our lives. We will investigate a few of the biblical texts that teach this doctrine and then we will think about how this doctrine affects how we live. In the process, we will also examine several key questions that this doctrine provokes.

Before we look at one of the premiere texts stating God's providential care of his universe I'd like to consider a definition. The Westminster Shorter Catechism addresses providence this way:

”What is God's Providence? God's providence is his completely holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing every creature and every action."

As we consider various texts we will see that his is an excellent summary of this amazing doctrine.

Psalm 135:6 says, "Whatever the Lord pleases, he does; in the heavens and on the earth, in the sea and all deeps." The first thing this verse tells us is that God is a person who has desires, pleasures, things he prefers over other things. There are things that God values; things that he loves. God considers various outcomes and courses of action and he takes pleasure in certain goals and ends and it is in keeping with these pleasing purposes that God acts.

The second thing this verse tells us is that God is omnipotent in his power. Whatever he pleases he does. God says in Isaiah 43:13, "No one can deliver out of my hand, when I act, who can reverse it?" When God determines that he is pleased with a particular course of action he has sufficient power to do what he pleases. Nothing and no one can resist or reverse what he pleases to do.

To say that a person acts according to his or her pleasures is not necessarily a good thing. Adolf Hitler took pleasure in the thought of a world without any Jews and, having sufficient power through his army, he acted according to what he pleased and murdered six million Jewish men, women and children. We can rest and rejoice in the knowledge that God does whatever he pleases because we know who God is.

In Deuteronomy 32:4 Moses says about Yahweh, "He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he." Paul says in Romans 11:33, "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out!" Psalm 145:8 says, "The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all. He has compassion on all he has made."

This Lord who does whatever he pleases never does wrong, is always just, is faithful to all he has promised and said, is infinite in his wisdom, is good and full of compassion and love towards all he has made. Therefore, we can be absolutely confident that what the Lord is pleased with is good and good for us. He never desires anything that is evil or wrong. All that he pleases is in keeping with who he is.

This is great and glorious good news for us as we live in a world in which we have little power to do what pleases us. As the recent flooding in southern Wisconsin, the earthquake in China, the typhoon in Myanmar, the rise in gas prices, the closing of the General Motors plant shows us; we do not live in a world in which we are in control. How joyful it is to know that the world is not a random collection of mindless, purposeless causes and effects nor is it controlled by a malicious or capricious being.

We live in a universe in which the infinitely wise, just, faithful and loving Creator does whatever he is pleased to do.

God’s Providence and Nature

In the last chapter we saw that the most fundamental description of God’s Providence is that in all of creation, all of the time, God does what he is pleased to do. Now, we will begin to consider some of the things that God says he is pleased to do. We will begin with Psalm 135:7-8 which immediately follows the declaration that whatever God pleases, he does. It says, “He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth, he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.” One of the things that God is pleased to do is to send clouds, rain, lightning and wind upon the earth. It gives God pleasure to directly control all weather patterns.

The fact that God directly controls the weather patterns is stated hundreds of times in the Bible. Consider these few:

“In the past God let all the nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony—he has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven…” (Acts 14:16-17).

“He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).

“He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind… See how he scatters his lightning about him, bathing the depths of the sea… He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark. His thunder announces the coming storm…” (Job 36: 27-33).

“He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes and the waters flow” (Psalm 147:16-18).

There are several things we learn about God’s providence by considering the fact that God directly controls the weather all over the planet. First, notice that God’s rule over the weather is connected to his ownership of all creation. It is “his sun”, “his lightning”, “his thunder” and “his hail.” Every part of the weather cycle belongs to him and thus he can do with it as he pleases.

Second, he controls weather patterns and he controls the changing of the seasons. Winter comes and winter goes at his command. Third, in Psalm 147 the response to the fact that God rules the weather is that we are to give thanks and praise to God (vv. 1, 7 & 12).

We are not to complain about the weather, but we are to thank and praise God for it, whatever it might be. Whatever the weather for the day happens to be it is a manifestation of God’s personal involvement with and care for his creation.

Fourth, God controls the weather by means of physical processes. He even acknowledges his use of the water cycle in the Job passage. “He draws up the drops of water” refers to evaporation. “…Which distill as rain to the streams…”, refers to condensation. The fact that we can measure and understand the various physical forces at work in creating weather patterns does not mean that God is not directly sending the weather. God uses means to control the weather, such as the water cycle.

This also means that God knows about and is using human activity to direct the weather as he wills. While controlling air pollution and greenhouse gases may be good public policy we should not think that somehow human beings are doing things to the weather that are outside of God’s control. Pumping CO2 into the atmosphere does not change the fact that God sends all the weather to every part of this globe just as he wills. He directs whatever impact human activity has on the weather as he pleases for his purposes.

Fifth, this means that the devastations caused by tornadoes and rain and hurricanes and drought are caused by God himself, just as all of the good things that come from weather come directly from God. As Job says, “…he fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.” Whatever lightning strikes, God commanded it to strike there. The scores of fires begun by lightning this past month in California were started by God.

This fact then begins to raise one of the fundamental questions associated with the doctrine of providence. If God sends all weather and various kinds of weather patterns cause untold harm and destruction to human beings, does that mean that God does evil? I will answer this question in the future but for right now I am drawing your attention to this fact.

The Bible unequivocally declares that God sends all weather and we know that many times the forces of nature bring much harm to human beings. Therefore, how do we reconcile belief in a good and loving God with the fact that this God commands lightning to start fires and kill people?

Before we get to that question we need to look at several other things that the Bible tells us that God is pleased to do. That is what we will continue to do in chapter three.

God’s Providing Providence

Do you thank God for your food when you sit down to a meal? Why do you do that? Is it not true that when you thank a person for something you are acknowledging that the gift you have received has come from that person? If your Aunt Sallie gives you a new pair of socks for Christmas you do not write a thank you note to your Uncle Joe. You thank Aunt Sallie for the socks. So, each time you thank God for your food you are acknowledging that God himself gave you this food to eat. According to the Bible you are right to thank God for your food because the Bible declares that God is indeed the one who gives you your food and so you should thank him.

God giving us food to eat is another work of God’s providence, another thing that God is pleased to do (Psalm 135:6). This fact is attested to by hundreds of verses in the Bible.

“The eyes of all look to you and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing (Psalm 145:15-16).”

“Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them (Matthew 6:26).”

“He has shown you kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their season. He provides you with plenty of food… (Paul speaking to idol worshipping pagans in Acts 14:17).”

“He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate—bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his life… The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God (Psalm 104:14-15, 21).”

All the food that every creature on the face of this planet consumes, from single-celled bacteria to blue whales is given to each one by God himself. Whether they are herbivores (plant-eaters) or carnivores (meat-eaters) or omnivores (plant and meat eaters) or plants themselves, God gives to each living organism the food they need to live. God’s providing Israel with manna on the desert floor six days out of every week was an unusual way for God to provide food for people. Jesus providing food for the crowds by supernaturally multiplying the fish and bread was an unusual way for God to feed people. However, God is no less directly involved in his providing food for every human being and every other living creature every day than he was in providing manna to Israel or fish and bread to the crowds.

Just as we saw in God’s using means (such as the water cycle) to control weather patterns, so we also see here that God uses means to provide food. He describes the provision of sun and rain as necessary for the growing of plants for food. He recognizes that man must sow and cultivate and reap in order to obtain the food that he provides. So when you give thanks for the steak you are going to eat, you are thanking God for giving you the steak by his controlling and directing of an innumerable number of processes and people to bring that steak to your plate.

The fact that rain had to fall so grass would grow and the cow had to eat the grass and a rancher had to protect the cow from harm and a butcher had to cut up the steak and a grocer sold the steak and your mother cooked the steak does not mean that God did not give the steak to you. He managed all of these things and many more so that you could have the steak. It is his gift to you.

God provides his food to all without discrimination. Food truly is a gracious gift. You do not earn or deserve food. God freely, out of his own pleasure gives food to all. Every morsel of food that you and I eat is a gift that we have not earned, nor do we deserve it and thus we should always be grateful. God is intimately involved in our lives. He is carefully, wisely caring for us in the weather he sends and in the food he supplies.

However, we must also recognize that God not only is pleased to provide food for his creatures but, according to his own wise purposes he also determines when to withhold food and to create famine. Joseph told Pharaoh that the dream he had of seven starving cows swallowing up seven well-fed cows and seven withered heads of grain swallowing up seven full heads of grain was a dream sent by God to let Pharaoh know that he was going to send seven years of abundant harvest followed by seven years of famine (Genesis 41:1-32, esp. 32).

Thus, Psalm 105:16 says, “He (God) called down famine on the land and destroyed all the supplies of food…” We know that God sent these seven years of famine to exalt Joseph and to bring Israel and his sons to Egypt. In 2 Samuel 21:1-14 we are told that during the reign of King David there was a severe famine for three years. David, we are told sought the face of the Lord and this is what the Lord said to David, “It (the famine) is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

While in the Scriptures we are often told why God has sent famines upon people, most of the time God does not tell us the specific reasons for why he withholds his food from certain people. God does tell us that we should seek to alleviate the suffering of the hungry as we are able (Luke 12:33, Acts 20:35). What we do know is that God is in charge of giving his food to his creatures as he pleases. Therefore we are to give thanks for our food and recognize famine as an out breaking of God’s just anger against human sin. We should repent of our sins so that something worse does not happen to us as Jesus counsels the crowds when hearing of or experiencing suffering in this world (Luke 13:1-5).

God’s Rule Over Life and Death

God is the one who determines the time and manner of every human being’s coming to life and he determines the time and manner of every person’s death. He not only determines these most basic facts about each individual but makes sure by the exercise of his sovereign power that what he determines comes to pass.

Consider a few passages that clearly state this fact:

”The God who made the world and everything in it … is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.” (Acts 17:24-25)

“See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.” (Deuteronomy 32:39)

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb…. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13 & 16)

“You turn men back to dust, saying, ‘Return to dust, O sons of men’.…You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning--though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.” (Psalm 90:3-6)

"The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.” (1 Samuel 2:6)

So God determines the exact time and manner of every human being’s conception and birth. He sustains our lives for the exact number of days he has ordained by giving every human being every breath they draw and all the other resources they need to live out those days he has determined. Finally, he alone determines the exact time and manner of each person’s death. As we remember from the first chapter, God is always doing what pleases him (Psalm 135:6) then we must conclude that God has a specific, wise and good purpose for giving every human being life, for his sustaining each life and then ending each life.

Most of us do not have much trouble with acknowledging that God gives life to every person, nor to the fact that he sustains each person’s life. What most of us have trouble with is that God is the one who determines and then carries out the time and manner of every person’s death. This is difficult because death appears to us to be such a great evil. We all know that we are forbidden from killing other human beings and yet the Bible says that God executes every single human being. This becomes even more difficult when we consider the often horrific ways in which people die. The vast majority of people do not die in their sleep. Most suffer the ravages of disease or experience the terror of accident or natural disaster or we die at the hands of other humans, often in terrible ways.

There are two things that need to be said. First, death is God’s just sentence against human sin. Paul, in summarizing the presence of death in the world says this in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” Every human being, from the moment of conception (Psalm 51:5, 58:3) is sinful and a sinner and thus justly condemned to death. Death is God’s just sentence against our willful, criminal rebellion against God. Second, just as we saw that God uses “means” or “secondary causes” in his providential provision of food and weather so here in his giving life and death God uses “means.” He uses sexual intercourse between married and unmarried people to give life. He uses disease and accidents and the wicked actions of wicked men to execute his just sentence of death on each and every human being.

Recall a few of the hundreds of examples from the pages of the Bible which describe the various ways God gave life and took life. In addition to the numerous examples of children being born through married parents (Isaac from Abram and Sarai) we also have the examples of Moab and Amon the sons of Lot born by means of his daughter’s incestuous plot to be impregnated by their father. Also consider the birth of the unnamed baby from David’s adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. These lives were brought into existence according to the will and work of God no less than those from married unions.

We have in the Bible scores of examples of God’s just execution of people in many different ways. He kills the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah by a direct act of destructive power from heaven. He directly kills all the firstborn of Egypt. He kills the Egyptian army through the waters of the Red Sea. He kills the children of Job by the hand of Satan sending a tornado to destroy the house in which they are all sharing a meal. He killed large groups of Israelites in the desert through disease and snakes and the earth opening its mouth and swallowing them up. He killed other groups of Israelites throughout the time they lived in the land of Canaan through the swords and spears of foreign armies. He killed his own Son by the hands of wicked men.

These facts again raise two critical questions:

1. What is the relationship between God’s will and human will?

2. What is God’s purpose in the suffering that accompanies death?

We will deal with these questions later but right now we are simply observing that God is the one who determines the time and manner of every human being’s birth and every human being’s death. So we ought always to be grateful for our lives as life is a gift and we ought always to live in the knowledge that God may justly take our life at any time.

God’s Providence Over Poverty and Wealth

All of us are wondering in these days of economic turmoil, who is in charge of this mess? Politicians daily attack their opponents as being the culprits behind this debacle. Even though our Federal government has promised to pour over $800 billion dollars into the financial system and the European governments have promised $2 trillion for their banks, yet the world remains in a state of fear and uncertainty as we can easily see in the dramatic fluctuations of the world's stock markets. We all feel that things are out of control; especially here in Janesville as we are faced with the closing of the GM plant this December in addition to the broader economic crises.

In view of these uncertain economic times I felt it would be helpful as we are considering the doctrine of God's providence that we consider what the Bible tells us about God's involvement in economics. Here are a few of the dozens of passages that describe God's involvement: First, in Hannah's prayer of praise as she gives her son Samuel to the Lord at the tabernacle she prays, "The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts (1 Samuel 2:7)."

In Deuteronomy 8 God warns Israel that when they enter the Promised Land and "…you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase… then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God… You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth…"

God says in Isaiah 45:5-7, "I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you… so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things."

In all three of these passages we are told that God is the one who determines the financial condition of all human beings. As he says in Isaiah, his control over poverty and wealth is for the purpose of making himself known. This is God's purpose in all that he does: to awaken human beings to his greatness. He uses poverty and wealth to confront us and humble us and show us his power, wrath and love so that we will not trust money but the God who controls wealth.

As Deuteronomy 8 tells us, the danger that wealth presents to us is that we assume that we deserve the wealth we have because we gained it by our own power. We become proud and forget God because wealth becomes our security and our fortress rather than God alone. Jesus warns about this in Matthew 6:24 when he says, "No one can serve two masters; either he will hate the one and love the other or he will love the one and hate the other. You cannot serve both God and money (See also 1 Timothy 6:9-10).”

So how should knowing that God is the one who determines our financial condition cause us to live? Hebrews 13:5 gives us one of the most straightforward answers to that question: “Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have…” First we should not love money but we should love God. We should love, trust and seek God as our joy and life and security and not money. Second, we should be content. Contentment is being happy with what I have and not needing more in order to be happy. Contentment is the antithesis of our culture.

Our culture is wired to create dissatisfaction with what we have and to create desire to have more and better stuff. Our culture portrays the desire for more, the “wanting” to get rich as a virtue. If you don’t keep buying you will hurt the economy. The apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:12, “I know what it is to be in need and to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” Contentment with our current financial condition is something we learn. Understanding that God is the one who determines my current economic status is part of that learning.

Two other things that the Bible says about how we should live in light of the fact of God’s sovereignty over economic reality are contained in Ephesians 4:28, “He who has been stealing must steal no longer but must work, doing something useful with his own hands that he may have something to share with those in need.” First of all, we must work. As we have seen in every aspect of God’s providence, God uses “means” to carry out his will. In the case of our financial provision God has ordained that we work in order to eat. God provides for our needs by means of our work. Second, we are to be eager and willing to share what God has given us with those who are in need. All we have comes from God and so we are to use some of what he gives us to help others. Giving demonstrates that we are trusting God, not money and that we are confident that God will give us what we need.

It is my prayer that as we go through these difficult financial times that we will show by our refusal to panic, our contentment, our diligent work and our generous giving that God is a great ruler and provider. We are going to have many opportunities to spread the knowledge of God in our city as we trust and love God, not money.

God’s Providence in Government

The Bible speaks frequently and directly to God’s relationship to governing authorities. Consider these few examples:

(God speaking to Pharaoh, king of Egypt), “But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Exodus 9:16)

“He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers… He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.” (Isaiah 40:22-23)

“This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut..” (Isaiah 45:1)

“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing” (Ezra 1:1)

“The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” (Proverbs 21:1)

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted… (the one in authority) is God's servant to do you good…. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer… This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing.” (Romans 13:1-6)

One of the clearest things that the Bible says about governing authorities is that each and every one of them is personally appointed by the Lord. We see this in the numerous statements regarding God’s appointment of particular men to be kings (like Pharaoh and Cyrus) and to the more general statements like in Romans where we are simply told that “there is no authority except that which God has established.” And it is not only that God establishes every governing authority but he also directs every governing authority in their decisions and actions. Again, we see this in the case of particular kings, like Cyrus and in general statements like Proverbs 21:1.

It is important to note that the Scriptures are not only speaking about the highest rulers in a nation, like kings and Presidents, but also God appoints and directs all governing authorities, down to the local school board member, the local police officer, the principal of your child’s elementary school. In addition, the manner by which God puts authorities in power varies. There were many of Israel’s kings who were put in place through armed rebellion, like Jeroboam the 1st, others came to power through political intrigue and assassination, like Joab, general of the armies of David, others came to power by appointment as David putting Benaiah in charge of his body guard and others came to power through a peaceful transition from father to son. In our own day God puts many rulers in place through the democratic process. Regardless of the means God uses, every authority is established by God and God is directing their decisions and actions. He rules us through the rulers he has appointed.

Obviously, this clearly stated fact in the Scriptures raises profound questions regarding God’s relationship to evil because it is quite clear both in biblical history and in world history that rulers often do evil. Again, I’m going to ask that we postpone our discussion of this critical topic until a later chapter as it relates to every aspect of God’s providence. I want us to consider what difference it should make in our lives to know that God has established all authorities, that he rules us through our rulers. Our first duty is to submit to and obey the authorities God has placed over us. We are to obey because the authorities govern for our good. It is God’s intention to do good to us and for us through our rulers. Civil government is a mark of God’s grace towards us in that he intends to do good to us by means of the civil and other authorities.

In both Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 we are told that the civil authorities exist to punish those who do wrong and to reward those who do right. So God does good to us by restraining and punishing evil through our government and he rewards us for the good lives we lead through our government. I think most of us know that if we did not have a police force governed by civil authority and law we would all be much less safe. In addition the government does me good by picking up my trash and my recycling and my leaves if I do the right thing by taking it all out to the curb. The government makes sure I have clean drinking water and that the wastewater from my house is treated and returned safely into the Rock River as I do the right thing by paying my taxes and my water bill. All of these activities are God caring for me and my family through the governing authorities.

A second but closely related duty we have to government is to respect the governing authorities. This only makes sense. If the authorities are God’s servants through whom God exercises his rule over us, then to disrespect the authority is to disrespect God and to “honor the king” is to honor God. There is an interesting example of how important this is in the book of Acts (23:1ff.). The apostle Paul is in front of the Jewish ruling council and he is being falsely accused by them. After he tells the council that he is simply serving God, the high priest Anannias, commands that he be slapped. Paul responds by saying, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck.” Several people immediately say to Paul, “You dare to insult God’s high priest?” Whereupon Paul apologizes and asks forgiveness from the entire council for his disrespect because he says he did not know that Annanias was the high priest and he knows that the law says, “Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.”

There is a serious question that is to be raised at this point: do I have the right to ever criticize, disagree with or even resist the governing authorities? This is a far bigger question than I have space to deal with here. Let me simply draw your attention to Peter’s response to the same Jewish ruling council when they commanded that he and John no longer preach the gospel. He says, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." In other words, when the governing authorities command us to do that which would be disobedience to God, we must disobey them. Yet, even then we must do so with respect as the rulers still have been established by God.

Responding to God’s Providence

The chief thing that God reveals about himself in the doctrine of Providence is that he is always present and always working. "The heavens declare the glory of God." Psalm 19:1 "In him we live and move and have our being." Acts 17:28 He is not a god who is far away or whose presence can only be experienced through some esoteric spiritual experience. Every moment of every day God's presence and purposes and power are being put on display for the whole universe to see. And God's glory is not only seen in nature but in every aspect of human activity and culture as well. God's glory is seen in cars and bridges and iPhones and art and athletic ability and novels and the internet and loving families and neighbors helping fill sandbags to stop the flood from reaching your house and satellites in outer space and the list goes on and on.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning captures both the reality of what providence means and the primary response it ought to illicit in us in her short poem:

”Earth's crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees takes off his shoes;

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries."

The first response, after God has given you eyes to see him in everything, is worship. Worship is joy and delight in God that is expressed in praise. The Scriptures are full of this response to God's providential care of his universe. Psalm 147 is a command to praise God and a list of reasons for why it is good to do so. Most of the reasons for praise are related to God's providential care. He determines the number of stars. He sends rain and makes the grass grow. He creates physical safety for the city, he blesses your children, he gives peace with the surrounding nations, he provides with abundant food, he gives snow, he sends hail and cold, he melts the snow and makes his winds blow and on and on.

We must remember what C. S. Lewis says about praise. It is what every human naturally does in response to the things and persons in which we delight. Praise is the verbal expression of our joy in people and things. What we delight in is God as he is seen in everything and out of our joy we praise: we sing and declare his greatness. We glory in his glory. The apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20-24 that the fact that we do not glory in God as he reveals himself in everything is the chief evidence of our perversion and the primary reason for God's wrath against us. Seeing God in everything and glorifying him as we see him is the chief duty of humanity.

Following close upon the heels of joy and praise as we see God in all things is gratitude. We are grateful people as we see God caring for us and creation in the multitude of ways that he does. We are grateful because it is always true that God is "good to all, he has compassion on all he has made." Again, this helps us understand why God is so angry about grumbling and complaining. It is the opposite of how we ought to live in this world in which God governs and directs everything. God's providence is the reason we are "to give thanks in all circumstances." There has never been and never will be a time when we will not have reasons to give thanks to God.

We also are contented and courageous people as we see God in everything and every event and every circumstance. We are content because we know that God will give us everything we need to live out the lives he has called us to live. Greed and envy and discontent are crushed as we recognize God's loving and wise and good and just hand in every event we encounter. We are courageous in our love for others because we are confident that God is expressing his love through our love and because we know that we cannot lose anything that we need to live the life God has called us to live.

We work and act but we do so without panic or fear or envy because we know it is not our work but God's work that matters. This is one of the main points of growth in my life. I often feel overwhelmed with all I think I need to do and so I panic and become harsh and demanding and impatient with those around me. The only reason I am not worse than I am is due to those times I call to mind that God is always working and if I don't complete some of my tasks it will be OK because God will accomplish all that needs accomplishing. If it doesn't get done by me doesn't mean that God's will is not going to be done.

Finally, the knowledge of God's providence motivates believing prayer. The Bible clearly teaches us that God gives every human, both the wicked and the good, both non-Christians and Christians the food they need to eat. Yet, Jesus commands us to ask God to give us the food we need in the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread."

Also, just prior to Jesus' giving to us that prayer he commands us to not pray like pagans who believe that the quantity of words used will determine God's response. He says our prayers should not be like that because "your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask him." If he is my Father and he knows what I need, then why do I need to ask? The answer is that this is how children live with their omniscient and omnipotent Father. Because he knows and because he is going to provide we should ask. This led John Calvin to say: "God has promised us nothing that he has not also commanded us to ask of him in prayer."

Therefore we are people who ask God to do what God says he wants to do. When we are unsure what God might want to do then we express our desires as Jesus did, "not my will but yours be done."

God’s Providence and Evil: A Common Response

As we have discussed God’s Providence in the preceding chapters, we have noted that this doctrine does raise a most important question. If God directs the weather and a hurricane kills hundreds of people and destroys billions of dollars in property, is God doing evil? If God raises nations up and puts nations down and this often by war which kills and maims hundreds or thousands of people, is God the author of evil? If God determines the time and manner of every person’s death and millions of babies die in abortion mills and tens of thousands of people die by murder, then does God do evil? Closely related to this question is the question of human freedom. If God has determined everything that comes to pass, then how can humans be free? If God sovereignly ordains all actions of all human beings, then are my choices real?

In this chapter I simply want to give a brief overview of the kind of answer that has been given over the years by Christians who take the Bible serious. It is simply not possible to consider every way that humans have sought to deal with the “problem of evil” in this brief chapter so I will limit my overview to the main one proposed by Bible believing Christians. I will also limit my discussion to God’s relationship to human evil and not to the “evil” caused by weather and accidents, etc.

The most common way of dealing with the existence of a powerful and loving God and the presence of evil in the world is to say that God made human beings and demons with a free will and so he cannot control what humans choose to do. All the evil that is in the world is the result of either human or demonic free will. God in no sense ever wills or ordains evil but evil is always the result of the free choice of free moral agents. The argument that is put forth is fairly straightforward. First, the Bible regularly describes human beings as choosing to do evil, beginning with Adam and Eve’s choice to eat from the tree. Cain chose to murder Able. Noah chose to get drunk. Abraham chose to lie about Sarai to Pharaoh. The sons of Jacob chose to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelite traders, Judas chose to betray Jesus and on it goes. All the evil done in the Bible is done by either humans or demons.

Second, God holds humans responsible for the choices we make. He punishes people for doing evil. Again, there are countless examples of this fact in the Bible beginning with Adam and Eve whom God cast out of the garden in judgment of their eating. He sent Cain to wander in the land of Nod for murdering Able. He burned up Nadab and Abihu for offering the wrong incense in direct violation of his word to them. He rejected Saul as king for not obeying his order to kill all the Amorites as he commanded and the list goes on. The argument is that the only way that God can justly condemn a person for doing evil is if that person freely chose to do evil. Just like it would be wrong for a judge to punish a man who robbed a bank because criminals were holding his family hostage and said they would kill his family if he didn’t do what they said so God could not punish someone for doing what he ordained that he or she do.

Third, God commands people to do things and if whether or not people obey God is determined by God, then how are the commands to believe and obey real commands? The point usually made here is in relation to the command to trust in Christ to be saved. If God is the one who determines whether or not a particular person will respond positively to an invitation to repent and believe then how is it a real invitation to believe? How can God command that the gospel be preached to every person when only the elect can believe?

So the most common biblical answer to the question as to how is it that there is an all powerful and loving God and yet there is so much evil in the world is this: God made demons and humans with free will and so he cannot interfere with what demons and humans choose to do. God has nothing to do with evil in this world as it all is a result of the free choices of demons and humans. Even the evil that comes from natural disasters and disease are the result of human choice, that is Adam and Eve’s choice to sin which brought God’s curse upon the world.

This brief overview of the most common response to the existence of God and the presence of evil is held by the majority of people who believe the Bible to be God’s word. It is my intention in the following chapters to show that this is a very inadequate answer as it does not take into account all of what Scripture says and is more the result of a philosophical presupposition than the result of a careful explanation of biblical texts. I hope also to show that believing the full revelation of God regarding the relationship of a sovereign God to moral evil will lead to happier and more holy Christians.

God’s Providence and Evil: The Bible’s Response

In the last chapter I outlined the predominate answer given by Bible believing Christians to the “problem of evil”. In brief, that answer states that because God created human beings and angels with free will he cannot interfere with those free choices without making a mockery of their free will. Thus all the evil that exists in the world is due to those free choices of humans and demons and while God hates the evil and will one day punish those who do evil, he cannot stop evil or control it other than by coercive force, i.e. he can make the murderer sick before he murders.

My aim in this chapter and the next is simply to look at various stories and statements in the Bible to see if this is actually how the Bible addresses this “problem.” One of the earliest and most famous stories that emphasizes the relationship between God’s absolute sovereignty over all things and human responsibility is to be found in the story of Joseph (Genesis 35-50). Joseph is the victim of a whole range of evil actions carried out by human beings. His brothers sell him into slavery, he is falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and thrown into prison, he is forgotten by Pharaoh’s cupbearer for two years to name a few of the unjust, evil things that were done to him. If you will remember, at the end of all these indignities Joseph is made second in command to Pharaoh over all of Egypt in order to prepare the country for the 7 years of famine that will begin after seven years of abundant harvests (NOTE: Here is another example of God’s providence. These seven years of abundance and famine are sent by God. See Genesis 41:32).

After the famine begins and Joseph’s family back in the land of Canaan run out of food, the 10 brothers who sold him into slavery come to Egypt to get food. They do not know that it is Joseph their brother whom they betrayed who is selling them food. He finally reveals himself to them and when he does, this is what he says to them (Genesis 45:4-8):

”I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.”

Many years later, after Jacob, the father of Joseph and his brothers dies; the brothers come to Joseph, afraid that he will now, with their father dead, seek his revenge upon them. However, Joseph has no interest in revenge because he knows that while they were doing evil, God was doing good. Listen to what he says to them (Genesis 50:20, ESV), “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.”

Here we find that in the same events human beings are choosing to do evil and, at the very same time, God is working for good. Notice carefully how Joseph’s answer does not say that his brothers did not do evil. They did evil by selling him into slavery and for which it would be just for him to harm them. They are truly guilty and it is only because Joseph chooses to forgive them that they are not punished. However, notice also that he says that God is the one who sent him to Egypt. God did this for a good purpose, in order to preserve the lives of many people, but especially the lives of his people, the children of Israel.

Notice how these statements do not say that God was standing helplessly by while the brothers did evil. Nor does it say that God forced them, against their wills to do evil. No, what it says is that the brothers of Joseph willingly chose to do evil and that the evil they chose to do is exactly what God wanted them to do for his very good purposes. God does not do evil, the brothers do the evil and yet the evil they do perfectly fulfills God’s perfect will to save his people and others.

A second example of this is found in the story of the Exodus. God tells Moses in Exodus 4:21 that he “will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” Then seven more times in the following narrative we are told that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not listen to God’s command to release Israel but continued to hold them in their slavery.

On three occasions in the narrative we are told that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Exodus 9:34 says it this way, “…he (Pharaoh) sinned again: he and his officials hardened their hearts.” Another dozen times the narrative simply says, Pharaoh’s heart was hard, just as the Lord said.” Pharaoh has a hard heart because he wants to have a hard heart. And Pharaoh has a hard heart because God wants him to have a hard heart. Because his heart is hard, Pharaoh does evil and the evil that he willingly does serves God’s good purposes. The Lord declares this good purpose in Exodus 9:16, “I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Later in the story (14:17) God says this about the Egyptian army, “I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen.” The great and good purpose of God being glorified is accomplished by the willing, sinful, evil actions of humans whose actions are ordained or decreed by God.

As we close this chapter let me tell you three things the Scriptures make clear about God’s relationship to evil: God never directly does anything evil. God is never blamed for evil. God never takes pleasure in evil.

God’s Mysterious Providence

The doctrine of God’s Providence is succinctly summarized by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:11 which reads, “In him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will…” God’s providence is God’s working out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. In this chapter what we are seeking to understand is this: “Everything” includes all the evil actions of evil human beings, and so how is it that God works out evil actions in conformity with the purpose of his will? How does he do this without himself doing evil and remaining just in his punishing of men for the evil they do?

As in the last chapter I am seeking to show that the Bible does indeed say that all things, including the evil things that evil people do, are ordained by God and yet people willingly choose to do evil and God justly punishes those who do evil. Next I hope to show how we should and should not respond to this knowledge about God’s relationship to evil in the world.

The Assyrian Empire with its capital at Ninevah was one of the great empires of the distant past. They figure prominently in the Biblical narrative as they are the ones who wiped out the northern kingdom of Israel, whose capital was Samaria and carried those 10 northern tribes off into captivity (2 Kings 17:7-41). Assyria planned and then executed a campaign of war against Israel. Listen to how God, through the prophet Isaiah, describes his relationship to Assyria and its aggression towards Israel. Isaiah 10:5-6, “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath! I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.”

Later in v.15 the Lord refers to Assyria as being his axe, his saw, his rod and his club. God is the one who sends Assyria against Israel. Assyria carries the club of God’s wrath and Assyria is the club of God’s wrath. He does this because Israel has made him angry by their disobedience and idolatry. He sends them to seize loot and snatch plunder and to trample Israel down like mud. This is a poetic description of the violence of warfare. God most definitely is the one who sent Assyria to wage war with all of its violent evil against Israel.

However, as you can see in the first word of this quotation, God also punishes Assyria for doing what he sent Assyria to do. The word “woe” in the Scriptures refers to God’s just punishment of those who do evil. Listen to how God’s punishment of Assyria is described:

“When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, ‘I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes. For he says: "'By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings. As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as men gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries; not one flapped a wing, or opened its mouth to chirp.'" Does the ax raise itself above him who swings it, or the saw boast against him who uses it? As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up, or a club brandish him who is not wood! Therefore, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame. The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers.’” (Isaiah 10:12-17)

God sends Assyria to destroy Israel and yet God justly punishes Assyria for destroying Israel because they did it willfully, arrogantly, with evil intent. It was God’s good purpose and will that Israel be destroyed by the Assyrians. Yet the Assyrians willed the destruction of Israel with an evil will. God did not “force” Assyria to do evil. They did exactly what they wanted to do. Therefore, it is right and good for God to punish Assyria for the evil they have done. Yet, the evil they did was exactly what God wanted them to do.

This is the basic description the Bible makes of all that happens in the world. Listen to how the prophet Jeremiah describes this in Lamentations 3:37-39, “Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come? Why should any living man complain when punished for his sins?” (NOTE: the word translated “calamities” is the Hebrew word which is usually translated “evil things.”)

Time and space do not permit my telling you of the scores of times the Bible describes the evil actions of evil people as being ordained or decreed by God while at the same time insisting that God does not do evil. Rather, evil men willingly do evil and thus God is entirely just to punish those who do the evil that fulfills his good purposes (You can find a very large list of these passages in Dr. Wayne Grudem’s “Systematic Theology,” pp. 323-327.).

The only way we can resolve these passages is to recognize that God is able to do things that we cannot do. He has made a way to create moral creatures that are able to willingly choose to do evil and thus he is just to punish us for the evil we do and yet these creatures are not free from his sovereign control over their evil actions. Yet, he never does evil while decreeing their evil actions. There is a mystery at the heart of this that we are unable to comprehend. But that should not cause us not to believe what we clearly read in the Bible.

Like so many other doctrines (the Triune nature of God, the incarnation of the Son of God, etc.), this doctrine is beyond our full comprehension. As I hope to show in the next chapter, knowing this doctrine enables us to live joyful and productive lives for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor.

Responding to God’s Sovereignty over Evil

In our consideration of the doctrine of God’s providence we are now going to consider how we are to respond to the fact that God ordains all that comes to pass in the world, including the evil actions of men and demons, yet God never does evil and he is right to punish men for the evil we do. The fact of God’s sovereign rule over evil is to be a source of great help for Christians. But before we look at how knowing this helps us as Christians let me first be clear about two ways we cannot respond to this fact.

First, we can never accuse God of doing evil, nor should we ever thank God for evil as we thank him for good. God ordaining evil and God doing evil are two different things. Even as the Bible clearly teaches that God ordains evil yet these same Scriptures clearly teach that God does not directly do evil.

“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.” (James 1:13-14)

“The LORD is righteous in all his ways…” Psalm 5:4, “You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil…” (Psalm 145:17)

Therefore, we must never call evil good. We must never excuse the evil that we or others do by saying it was God’s will we do it. We must always condemn ourselves and others for the evil we do. We must always recognize that we and others are justly accountable for the evil we do because all the evil that is done in the world is willingly done by us, that is, we want to do evil.

Second, we must always resist evil in ourselves and in others. We are not fatalists. We do not live as though the evil we or others do is inevitable as it is the “will of God.” We must fight against the evil that is in us as Paul says in Colossians 3:5-8, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry… You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.”

We must work to help our brothers and sisters overcome the evil in them as Paul says in Galatians 6:1, “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently…”

We must stand up for justice in the world and work to lawfully protect the weak and the vulnerable from the predation of wicked people. Proverbs 29:7, “The righteous care about justice for the poor...” Proverbs 31:8-9, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Romans 13:3-4, “For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong… if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

A good friend of mine, together with her sister, was sexually molested by their grandfather. Their grandmother knew what was going on but rather than confront her husband and rescue these little girls from him she told them it was God’s will and that they must submit to it. This was gross and perverse evil for which you can be sure that both of these grandparents are suffering in hell as there was never any acknowledgement of these sins, nor repentance from them. We are not fatalists. We “hate what is evil and cling to what is good (Romans 12:9).”

Yet, the fact that God sovereignly rules over all the evil that is done in this world is a source of great comfort and help to believers. When evil is done to us, while we are encouraged to lawfully resist it, yet we also recognize God’s good purposes for us in it. Hebrews 12:4-11 is probably the clearest description of God’s good purposes in the evil that is done to us. This letter is written to people who are undergoing the evil of persecution for their faith (see Hebrews 10:32-39). In Hebrews 12:5-7 the author asserts that the suffering of persecution is God’s discipline. God is the one who has sent the persecutors even though what they are doing is evil and God is going to punish them for doing this if they do not repent (2Thessalonians 1:5-10).

He tells these persecuted people to recognize that God is disciplining them for their good which is that they may share in his holiness. The loss of earthly comfort and security brought upon us by the evil actions of others is used by God to enable us to know the glory and greatness of belonging to God, of being his holy, that is, set apart people. Our joy in God is increased as our joy in the pleasures of this world is taken from us. This does not mean that we are not sad and do nothing to escape or halt the evil being done to us but it does mean that we know that God himself has sent these evil actions for our eternal good and so we rejoice in that eternal good even while we grieve the present pain (v. 11).

In addition, God’s rule over evil men also gives us confidence that we can ask God to stop those who are doing evil and to deliver us from them as we see Paul doing in Romans 15:30-31, “I urge you, brothers… to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea…” We also see this same prayer repeatedly in the Psalms, for example: Psalm 7:9, “O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure.” Psalm 33:10-11, “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.” If God cannot interfere with the “free wills” of evil men then it makes no sense to ask him to rescue us from evil men.

It is because we know that God rules over evil men that we are courageous, joyful and loving people in the face of the threats and actions of evil people. We are not people who take revenge or repay those who do evil to us with evil. Our sovereign king is in charge of what is done to us and every person who does evil will one day have to face him and give an answer. Therefore we seek to bless those who do evil to us. We rejoice when men insult us, persecute us and falsely say all kinds of evil against us because of Christ because we know that great is our reward in heaven (Matthew 5:11-12). We know that they may kill us but they cannot harm us because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ for us. Indeed not only can evil men not harm us but the evil they do to us is sent by God for our eternal joy.

Living Under God’s Providence

In this final chapter we are considering how God’s providence relates to our work in all the roles we fill. Christianity, from its beginning, has had an enduring problem to which Christians have given a variety of answers. Since Jesus came to establish a “kingdom that is not of this world,” then how are we as Christians to relate to this world and its concerns?

The problem was clearly articulated to me by a freshman in college a number of years ago. At our weekly meeting we had paired up the younger students with either older students or Campus Crusade staff members. Our objective was to go onto the campus and find a student with whom we each might share the gospel. We were all to assemble back in our meeting place an hour later to share what happened and to pray together.

I was paired up with Lesen. We found a graduate student studying in the student union who let us go through a presentation of the gospel. We had a polite conversation but he was not interested in talking any further. On the way back to the meeting Lesen said to me, “In light of the fact that people will go to hell without Christ, shouldn’t all Christians drop out of school and quit our jobs and give all our time to sharing the gospel and helping people know and grow in Christ?”

That question has been asked and answered in a variety of forms for the past 2000 years. H. Richard Niebuhr, in his classic 1950 book “Christ and Culture” suggests that there have been 5 general types of answers to the question of how Christians should relate to the culture in which we each live. As he masterfully shows there are a large number of theological and biblical principles that come into play in answering this question, yet the doctrine of God’s providence, it seems to me, has a particularly critical function to play.

If I could state the question this way: Does God only care about saving people from hell and for heaven or does he also care about what happens to this physical world and the cultures that inhabit it? Since this world is “passing away” (1 John 2:17) and since “the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire” (2 Peter 3:7) then is the only thing that matters to God the salvation of his people out of that judgment? Does he really care about what happens in and to this present world and the societies which inhabit it?

I want to begin to look at how God’s providence informs this question by returning to our basic text that teaches God’s providence, Psalm 135:6: “The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.” What I want you to notice is that the immediately-following verses, vv. 7-9, tell us two things that God is pleased to do. “He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses. He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, the firstborn of men and animals. He sent his signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants.”

Verse 7 tells us that God is pleased to rule over and care for his creation. Verses 8-9 tell us that God is pleased to save his people. In other words, God is always working at two things, preserving and governing his creation and redeeming his people. God is not more pleased to do one thing over the other. He is pleased to do both things.

God governs and preserves his creation and he saves his people, in part, through the work of human beings. The apostle Paul shows the necessity of human participation in the work of redemption in Romans 10:14-15: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

Humans must work at preaching in order for God to save his people. Additionally, the Scriptures regularly teach that God governs and preserves his creation through the work of humans.

God restrains evil and rewards good behavior through civil government (Romans 13:1-6, Proverbs 21:1).

God provides humans with food and other physical necessities by our own work (Prov. 20:4, 13, 27:23-27, 1 Thess 4:11-12).

God cares for children through their parents (Matthew 7:9-11, 1 Thess. 2:7, 1Timothy 5:8).

God cares for aging parents through children and grandchildren (1Timothy 5:4).

God teaches wisdom to the young through parents (Proverbs 1:8-9, 2:1-8, 3:1-2, etc.).

The list goes on and on. God is delighted to care for the world of human beings by means of the work of human beings. To borrow the title to a book by Doug Sherman and William Hendricks, “Your Work Matters to God,” because it is through your work in providing and preserving and governing that God provides and preserves and governs.

Whether you are stocking shelves in the grocery store or clothing store or repairing cars as an auto mechanic or writing programs for computers or changing diapers or mowing your lawn or picking product to put on a truck or milking cows or teaching Spanish or repairing roads or working in an emergency room—your work, whether you know it or not, is God’s work in caring for his world. No lawful work is useless or meaningless.

It all matters because God is working through you. The work of the pastor or missionary is not more important than the work of the trash collector as both are doing God’s work, one in preserving creation, the other in redeeming creation. Thus all of us can rejoice in the work that God has given us to do in all the various capacities and roles he has assigned to us as we are participating in his work.

This was one of the most freeing things I ever discovered. Prior to understanding this fact I would regularly feel guilty about having to fix some broken thing in the house or to take time to plant flowers because I believed I was wasting my time on things that did not matter. However, I now see and rejoice in all the work I do, whether it’s creation work or redemption work, because it is all God’s work.