Providence. The very word sounds old – fashioned, perhaps a bit out of touch and even boring. Maybe people used to talk that way, but now we rarely hear the word used. So does all of this matter and what’s it all about?
“Providence” has within it the word “provide.” The word may even go back to the Old Testament story of God’s outrageous demand that Abraham sacrifice his only son, Isaac. As they approach the place of sacrifice, Isaac asks his father about the sacrificial animal and the famous reply is, “God will provide a beast for the sacrifice.” (Genesis 22:8) I can’t say definitely that the word developed from this Bible passage, but even if it did not, the story involves providence, defined as “the protective care of God or nature.” God did provide, even as Abraham said.
The reason this is so important is that when you think about it, this idea constitutes the very basis of faith, of our approach to God and prayer. It is not enough to believe that God exists. It is as important to ask what sort of God we believe in. Our God cares for us. God is Creator, the source of life and the one in whom we live and move and have our being. If God does not care for us, then why have faith? If God does not care for us, then why pray? So a word that starts out looking rather abstract and barely connected to us, on reflection is seen as foundational. Without these ideas, there would be no Christian religion.
One of the reasons the word has faded from our modern consciousness is that we do not understand how our free will intersects with God’s provident love for us. Can we really believe that God is involved with our lives and if so, how?
I think it is important that when we ask the question of how our will and the provident will of God intersect in our individual lives, we reply that we just don’t know. It is critical that we learn to live with this paradox, for virtually every page of the Bible implies both our free will and responsibility, and the majesty and power of God, a God that is active and powerful in our lives.
Acknowledging that we don’t know the mechanics of this intersection of our free will and the providential hand of God in our lives relieves us of the pressure to explain everything. We can’t. But perhaps the situation is like a master chess player playing a beginner. We all know who will win, but even the master does not control every move the beginner makes. Yet the outcome is never in doubt and ultimately the master is in control. So it is with God and us. Providence, I think, is something like that.
God is love. God cares. God wants what is best for us in much the same way that a mother beholds her child and wants what is best for her. Biblical language compares God to a hen watching her chicks and a father loving his children. That is the language of providence and it certainly matters.
The other reason people have trouble with this concept is related to the ambiguity and cruelty of some of human existence. There is just so much suffering in the world. In the midst of all this, can we actually accept the idea that God cares and is ultimately in control?
Just as we must allow no phony explanations in bringing together the intersection of the human and the divine will, so also we have to face this one directly. Interestingly, the answer is the same again. Why does a good God allow bad things to happen to good people? The answer is that we just do not know.
But then why believe in providence, in a God of love? The answer is that we have many other reasons for doing so: mostly we experience life as good, even wonderful; all sorts of people suffer and yet are able to believe; the Bible and the witness of the church and its people speak abundantly of the love of God. In a particular way we behold the love of God in Christ, especially in his sacrificial death on the cross. Living Faith (9.3.3) puts it this way:
As we behold our Saviour
on the cross,
We are convinced of
God’s love for us.
Faced with the pain and
agony of the world,
Only a suffering God can help.
God is with us in our anguish.
The Old Testament story of Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, illustrates the meaning of providence. Joseph sums it up by asserting: “You meant to do me harm; but God meant to bring good out of it …” (Genesis 50:20).
