While I consider it a privilege to have been asked to contribute to this special series of articles on divine providence, my first impression was like the farmer who was carrying a load of firewood to town, runs over a railroad track jarring his tailgate out, causing all his wood to roll out – then his wagon sinks into a mud hole up to the axle.

He gets off the wagon, assesses his situation and says, "Well, it looks like I am stuck with nothing to unload."

The scope of God's providence is so vast and its effect so profound that it is almost, like the peace of God, past all understanding. It is hard to wrap our minds around it and then to expound on it in a way easily understood. The title assigned to me bears out this observation because no matter how many certainties we may have in our minds about providence, there are still many mysteries connected with it that elude our best efforts to reign it in. So, we will just do the best we can to point out what the Bible teaches on the subject. We will have little to say about the difference between miraculous divine interventions and providential interventions because that is to be dealt with in another article in this series.

Few believers in the person, power, and wisdom of God would deny the existence and importance of divine providence despite there being no specific mention of it in the Bible. The word providence appears only once in our more used English translations of the Scriptures. There it is used by the orator, Tertullus, in reference to Felix, the Roman governor's foresight (NKJV) or providence toward the Jewish nation (Acts 24:2).

There are extreme views among professed Christians about God's continuous involvement in the daily affairs of this world. On the one hand, some seem to think that God created the world, wound it up like a string-launched top, pulled the string, setting it spinning, then left it to spin itself out. At the other extreme, some think that God micro-manages every minute detail of their lives even down to directing them to a certain parking space or to directing a football they have kicked through the goal posts. To the one extreme, virtually everything is left to chance, to the other nothing is left to chance. The Bible is clear that, at least, some things do happen by chance. The priest, in the parable of the good Samaritan, came along "by chance" (Luke 10:31). Thus, we may not always know whether a specific event is a result of God's providence or a matter He has left to chance. Also, in our consideration of this difficult subject we must be careful not to form a view that would contradict two fundamental things pertaining to God and man. One is the sovereignty of God over His creatures and the other is the free-agency of man as created by God.

Various lexicons and dictionaries give a number of similar formal definitions of providence. For our purposes, we will simply use the popular meaning of God's ongoing management and care for all of His creation – including man as the crown of His creation. There is nothing more clearly taught in the Scriptures than the doctrine that God perpetually manages, oversees, and cares for His creation – "the world and all things therein." There are many things we can know about divine providence because they are revealed. But, we must be content with the fact that there are many things about the workings of God that are "past finding out" (Job 9:10; Rom. 11:33). Most of the "certainties" in God's providence are in the area of what is done and most of the "mysteries" in the area of how it is done. We must not allow the "mysteries" to shake our faith in the "certainties," nor vise versa.

In order to understand more about divine providence, it is important to distinguish between God's ordinary general providence and special providential interventions from time to time. Also, the difference between God's general provisions for His whole creation and His special providence for His children. Jesus used examples of His Father's general providential care for His creatures (birds and lilies) to teach His disciples about the Father's special care for His disciples (Matt. 6). It is true that man's very existence depends on the providence of God. "For, it is in him that we live, move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). He also "makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:45). So, the very rising of the sun every morning is an act of divine providence as is every rain drop that falls upon the earth – all being parts of God's general care of His creation. These benefits come to all unconditionally without any action of their part. But, some rain may come as a result of a special act of God's providence in response to the prayers of righteous people. Elijah, a righteous man, prayed and God withheld His rain from a certain portion of His creation for three years and six months. He prayed again and God sent His rain once again (James 5:17-18). Did this rain appear any different from all the rains of the past? Only in that it may have seemed to be a little long in coming. It did not rise to the level of a miracle (sign or wonder), but came from a cloud that had formed over the sea and intensified and moved over the land and dropped its rain. That was how it always rained in that part of the world! It appeared as a natural ending of a long dry spell.
Another difference that needs to be considered is the difference between divine providence and divine guidance. I hear some who speak of the indwelling of he Holy Spirit as though He is an agent of God's providence in the life of a Christian. I read of one account where one described how the Holy Spirit found and guided him to a much needed parking space at a time he was late for an event. There is no evidence whatsoever in the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit guides the lives of Christians separate and apart from the Holy Spirit inspired Scriptures today.
There are times when one can be reasonably sure that something is a result of providential intervention, yet there are other times when one may be far less confident. We must remember also that certain things that are shown to be acts of providence in the Bible are being shown to us by those who had the benefit of divine revelation in determining such matters. Mostly one, without the aid of divine revelation, just has to look at the event and say, "who knows?" Mordecai was such a person. "And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: 'Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?'" (Esth. 4:13-14, italics mine EB).
While we might like to see all the behind the scenes workings of God in the running of His world, especially that part that affects us, we must be content with the secret things belonging to God and the revealed things belonging to us (Deut. 29:29).
What then are we to do? We are to rely on the certainties revealed in God's word and trust God to work out the mysteries behind the scenes. We will continue to pray and put matters in His hands to work out and implement the answer. We will continue to "seek first the kingdom of heaven" and trust Him to work out how He will add all these things (food, clothing, and shelter) to our lives. We will continue to thank and praise Him for these, because we believe they either come to us by His power through His general providence for His creation or His special providence for His children.
There are enough certainties of divine providence to motivate us to trust God to provide for us while we are in pursuit of a better country. We do not have to solve all the mysteries associated with that providence to receive and benefit from it or to forge ahead with the confidence that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5).

Edward O Bragwell just completed seven years working with the Washington Avenue church of Christ in Russellville, Alabama. He has just recently moved to Morris, Alabama where he and his wife, Patsy, worship with the Kimberly church of Christ. After 58 years of local work with congregations in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, he is now devoting more time to gospel meetings and writing.