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What Is Divine Providence?
The reason this book is about the providence of God rather than the sovereignty of God is that the term sovereignty does not contain the idea of purposeful action, but the term providence does. Sovereignty focuses on Godās right and power to do all that he wills, but in itself, it does not express any design or goal.
Of course, Godās sovereignty is purposeful. It does have design. It does pursue a goal. But we know this, not simply because God is sovereign, but because he is wise, and because the Bible portrays him as having purposes in all he does. āMy counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purposeā (Isa. 46:10).
The focus of this book is on Godās sovereignty considered not simply as powerful but as purposeful. Historically, the term providence has been used as shorthand for this more specific focus.
The Building Blocks of Providence
Why was the English word providence chosen to capture this biblical teaching? In reference to God, the word does not occur in most English versions of the Bible (e.g., ESV, KJV, HCSB, NRSV). It is difficult to be certain about the history of a word and why it came to carry its present meaning. But here is a suggestion.
The word providence is built from the word provide, which has two parts: pro (Latin āforward,ā āon behalf ofā) and vide (Latin āto seeā). So you might think that the word provide would mean āto see forwardā or āto foresee.ā But it doesnāt. It means āto supply what is neededā; āto give sustenance or support.ā So in reference to God, the noun providence has come to mean āthe act of purposefully providing for, or sustaining and governing, the world.ā
Why is this? There are two interesting reasons, one based on an English idiom and the other based on a biblical story.
God āSees to Itā
We have an English idiom that goes like this: āIāll see to it.ā Like all idioms, it means more than the words, taken individually, seem to signify. āIāll see to itā in English means āIāll take care of itā (which is itself an idiom!). Iāll provide for it. Iāll see (or make sure) that it happens. So it could be that putting the Latin vide (āseeā) together with the Latin pro (āto,ā ātowardā) produced āsee toā and came to mean more than āforesee,ā but to mean āsee to itā in the sense of ātake care of itā or āsee that it happens.ā That would be what we mean by Godās providence: he sees to it that things happen in a certain way.
Providence on Mount Moriah
Then, even more interestingly, there is the biblical story of Abrahamās offering of his son Isaac. Before they went up Mount Moriah, Isaac said to his father, āWhere is the lamb for a burnt offering?ā (Gen. 22:7). Abraham answered, āGod will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my sonā (22:8). And when God had shown Abraham a ram caught in the thorns, āAbraham called the name of that place āThe Lord will provideāā (22:14).
What is striking is that whenever the word provide occurs in Genesis 22, the Hebrew word is simply āto see.ā Very simply, Abraham says to Isaac, āGod will see for himself the lambā (×Ö“×ØÖ°×Ö¶×Ö¾×Ö¹Ö¼Ö„× ×ַשֶּ×Ö×ā 22:8). Similarly in verse 14: āāThe Lord will provideā [the Lord will see ×Ö°××ÖøÖ£× ×Ö“×ØÖ°×Ö¶Ö×ā]; as it is said to this day, āOn the mount of the Lord it shall be providedā [it shall be seen ×Ö°Ö¼×Ö·Ö„×Ø ×Ö°××ÖøÖ× ×Öµ×ØÖø×Ö¶Ö½×ā].ā
The old King James Version preserves this literal rendering of Genesis 22:14, even transliterating the Hebrew of āthe Lord seesā as Jehovah-jireh: āAbraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.ā The New King James Version has joined virtually all other contemporary versions by translating see as provide: āAbraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, āIn the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.āā
With regard to the doctrine of Godās providence, the question is this: Why does Godās seeing in Genesis 22 actually refer to his providingāhis providence?
The answer I suggest is that in the mind of Moses, and other authors of Scripture, God does not simply see as a passive bystander. As God, he is never merely an observer. He is not a passive observer of the worldāand not a passive predictor of the future. Wherever God is looking, God is acting. In other words, there is a profound theological reason why Godās providence does not merely mean his seeing, but rather his seeing to. When God sees something, he sees to it. Evidently, as Moses wrote Genesis 22, Godās purposeful engagement with Abraham was so obvious that Moses could simply refer to Godās perfect seeing as implying Godās purposeful doing. His seeing was his seeing to. His perception implied his provisionāhis providence.
Catch-22 in Writing a Book Like This
Those are my suggestions for how the English word providence has come to mean āthe act of Godās providing for or sustaining and governing the world.ā Of course, it is of minor importance whether I am right about that. When it comes to words, what matters is not that we know where they came from or how they got their meaning. What matters is that we grasp truly what a writer or speaker intends to communicate with his words.
Then the real task begins: Does what an author intends to communicate with words conform to reality? Is the conception of providence that an author describes true? Or, in the case of this book, since I take the Bible to be the touchstone of truth: Do we grasp truly what the Bible teaches about Godās providence?
So as I turn to clarify more specifically what I mean by Godās providence, it should be clear that I am caught in a kind of catch-22. On the one hand, I should give my evidence from the Bible first, in order to support my understanding of Godās providence. On the other hand, I have to use the term providence all along the way as I lay out that evidence, and the term should have a clear meaning for my readers, which can only come from that evidence. I can either give you a clear sense of what I mean by providence before I give you the evidence for it, or I can use the word providence ambiguously throughout the book and wait for a clear conception until the end.
I donāt like ambiguity. I think it is the source of much confusion and error. So I choose the first option. Here at the beginning, Iām going to give you as clear a conception as I can of what I mean by divine providence, knowing that it is based on evidence not yet provided. Then you may view the rest of the book as biblical support and explanation and application and celebration for this conception of providence.
My aim in this book is not to develop a new meaning of providence that the church has not embraced in its historic statements of faith. Instead, I aim to gather from the Scriptures some very old kindling of truth, pile it up in plain view, and put a match to it. This is not because I want to consume it, but because I want to release its incendiary properties for the intensifying of true worship, the solidifying of wavering conviction, the strengthening of embattled faith, the toughening of joyful courage, and the advance of Godās mission in this world.
Some Good, Old Views of Providence
Letās reach back a few centuries for some definitions of providence that I am very happy with, because I...
