God's Providence

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 26, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 21.

God's Providence.—There is no more nourishing food for faith and hope than the study of God's special providences, or providings; that is, God's meeting some one or more of his creature's needs just when required, or thwarting the powers of evil when all seemed lost. Nothing more fully brings out God's tender love and faithful watchcare, which are ever over the children of men.

God's Name.—The Lord has implied all this goodness in his wonderful and ineffable name, Jehovah, the great I AM. It is a blank pledge, which faith may fill out with any or all of God's precious promises as necessity requires, and which a record of his dealings with the children of men shows will be honored at the Bank of Heaven. God has demonstrated this over and over again, "that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."

Jehovah-jireh.—Abraham, the "father of all them that believe," found God a present provider in what seemed to be the direst hour of his life. Under God's command he had risen early in the morning, awakened his beloved son, Isaac, the promised heir, the hope of his posterity, and started out on his three days' journey to offer that son as a burnt offering at the place pointed out by the One who gave the awful test. We may conceive somewhat of the feelings, the emotions, the anguish of that father during those three days, but to realize we must experience them. He reaches the place, builds the altar of rude stone, lays the wood, binds the son upon the altar, and raises the knife to take the life-blood of him who was only dear, when the command of the great Jehovah bids him to stay his hand. A sacrifice is indeed to be offered, but the substitute, the only-begotten Son of God, typified by the ram caught in the thicket, is at hand. "Jehovah-jireh," the Lord provides. It is a lesson for the ages.

"And Gave Them Provision."—A few years later Abraham's grandson loses the son of his old age, his best beloved. Joseph, whom he mourned as dead, is sold a slave into Egypt. A famine comes upon the land, and thousands doubtless die because of it. But down in Egypt is deliverance. But right on the eve of light and blessing Joseph's brother is held captive in Egypt also. Benjamin is demanded, and the old patriarch, in the bitterness of his soul, groans aloud, "Joseph is not, Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away; all these things are against me." Yet by these very things, which Satan and envious men meant for evil, God was working out deliverance and bounteous provision for the years of famine. The Lord did provide; and so he always will. He provideth for the raven his food; he causeth the grass to grow for the cattle; he careth for the sparrow. Will he not provide for all those who put their trust in him?

Clouds and Darkness are Round about Him.—God veils his glory when he meets with mortals. His greatest blessings often reverse the fleshly aspirations and ambitions of our hearts. The brightest glory hides in the thickest clouds. When the heaviest shadows and deepest gloom settle down upon us, God is often nearest. Just then is the time for faith to pierce the darkness and behold God watching over us with the tenderest solicitude. He will not, if we trust him, suffer the trial to be too great. He will bear the burden if we will roll it upon him. The thick cloud will be cleft before living faith. He suffers the cloud to come, because it is best for us. It is the shadow of the glorious blessing behind it if faith holds fast.

A Constant Giver.—But God always provides. He gives to all life and breath and all things. Sometimes his glory breaks through, the deliverance is startling, the preservation from disease and death wonderful, the calamity awful from which we are saved. We see and feel his presence then, and our heart believes for a little time. But saving faith, the faith which abides to the end, trusts God always, sees him in everything, knows him ever near, realizes his kind providence at every step. An anecdote of the Pascals well illustrates this. One evening the younger Pascal came in and said, "Father, I have had a most wonderful escape to-day; my horse stumbled and fell under me, and I escaped unhurt." "Son," said the father, "I have had a far more wonderful escape; I have ridden twenty miles, and my horse has not even so much as stumbled." The one saw God's seen providences; the other, his unseen. The one saw deliverance in the one moment of the day; the other, in every moment. God knoweth the way that we take. Our feet are held from slipping, the unseen dangers are turned aside, by his loving power. Let us remember him alway, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever," and remembering let us commit our souls to him as unto a faithful Creator.