God’s Providences by L. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 17, 1906

God’s Providences

By L. A. S.

God’s ways are not man’s ways. If they were, God would be but a man, and we could not look to him for salvation. But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than man’s ways. This being so, it must follow that his ways will often look mysterious and dark to human minds, and utterly beyond their comprehension.

God permits seeming misfortunes to overtake his servants and his work. There was Job, a “perfect and upright” man, who was permitted to pass through an experience that forever linked his name with the thought of misfortune and trial. Job regretted that he had ever been born. This was not because Job was not walking in the way that God would have him, but because God permitted Satan to afflict him. He was afflicted because he was righteous; and in it God had a purpose in view. Succeeding generations “heard of the patience of Job,” and beheld “the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

Jacob was a servant of God, yet he was sorely afflicted by the loss of his favorite son Joseph. “All these things are against me,” he exclaimed at one time under the weight of his troubles. But he found a little later that the seemingly great misfortune of the loss of his son was not against him, but, on the contrary, was the means of salvation to himself and his family.

Another example occurs in the history of David. About the time of the battle in which King Saul was killed, David and the company of his followers came to Ziklag, where they had left their wives and children and their goods, and found that in their absence the Amalekites had come upon the place, “and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; and had taken the women captives, that were therein.” “So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. And David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. . . . And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” 1 Sam. 30:1-6.

Why had this terrible misfortune been permitted to occur? David was a servant of God, and in making war upon the Amalekites he was carrying out the purpose of God that the Amalekites should be destroyed. Seemingly there had come a sudden painful experience contradictory to the providence of God in which they had trusted. No one could explain the situation. But David, notwithstanding the darkness of the prospect, “encouraged himself in the Lord.” Then “David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.” David did pursue and overtook the Amalekites and smote them with a great slaughter; and “recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away.” More than this, he captured the flocks and herds which the Amalekites had with them. So the seeming misfortune resulted in gain to David, and not in loss.

We need not be perplexed or dismayed when seeming misfortune overtakes the servants of God in the pathway of duty. The same experience has come in the past history of God’s work. It is just as fitting a time for God’s people to encourage themselves in the Lord, as when they are in the midst of the greatest prosperity.

L. A. S.