Behold, Happy is the man
whom God corrects;
Therefore do not despise
the chastening
of the Almighty,
for He bruises,
but He binds up;
He wounds,
but His hands make
whole.
Job 5:17-18
God in His Providence preserves His creation and makes them ready to be with Him for an eternity. Faith is not faith unless it is tested, but, once tested then faith actively, in power, may be a sure guide for our lives. Faith includes all the elements of faith, belief, trust, hope, and a surety that God in His Providence will do what is necessary for His people. Intuitively in the nature of man is the instinctive and necessary belief that God is providential. In Scripture we have the doctrine of a universal Providence. Together, our religious nature, while demanding that necessary belief, is bound in that knowledge and gives a sure hope that God is Love, and Good, and will accomplish His purpose to have a holy people. If we, as some do, belie this fact, all that has been done is to limit God. If we say that there is no God, or that God is limited in some way only degrades God because there is an acknowledgment that He either does not exist or that He does not have the power to preserve and maintain, control, by means of Providence that which He created. What has been asserted is the nature has a power that is either equal or greater than the power of God. It is our sense of dependence that involves our conviction that we owe our existence to His will and that in Him all His creatures and creation live and have their existence. In Him we have our being and in Him we are shaped into the people that He has chosen before the foundation of the world. He does not intrude on our will but He does as one Pastor reminded me with this question: "How do you shape an elephant?" The answer: "Take a rock and anything that does not look like an elephant chip it away!" This God does to all His people, the children of God, His elect. Furthermore, our sense of responsibility implies that God knows all, that He is omniscient of all our thoughts, words, and actions, that He controls all our circumstances. By this exercise of control He advances our destiny both in this life and in the life to come. This conviction is universal, even though there are those who do everything possible to avoid and shun this conviction. Yet, we find this conviction in men of all ages, and under all forms of religion, in all the various forms of civilization.
Wherever one looks in all civilizations there is to be found a universal belief in the moral government of God and they believe, at least in part, that that government is administered in this world. Men admit to the knowledge that God often restrains or punishes the wicked. In utter natural thinking did those disciples ask Jesus about the blind man: "And His disciples asked Him, saying, 'Rabbi, who sinned, that this man or his parnets, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him" (John 9:2-3). How often do we use that same natural utterances when circumstances seem so out of place with the goodness of God? This expression by the disciples was erroneous in its form, that is, that everything is ordered by God. It is not! To decree that something is allowed to happen does not imply that the decree caused that something to happen. The Westminster Confession; Chapter 5; paragraph 2; gives a solid answer: "After God had made all other creatures, He created man, male and female (Gen. 2:7), with reasonable and immortal souls (Gen. 2:7; Ecc. 12:7; Luke 23:43), endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image (Gen. 1:26; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24); having the law of God written in their hearts (Rom. 2:14,15), and power to fulfill it (Ecc. 7:29): and yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject unto change (Gen. 3:6; Ecc. 7:29). Beside this law written in their hearts, they received a command, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which while they kept, they were happy in their communion with God (Gen. 2:17; 3:8-11; 23), and had dominion over the creatures (Gen. 1:26,28). Cavil all a person may do, God is Providential and does all for His glory and purposes: "For God has committed them all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all" (Romans 11:32).
It is to this Providential, and Sovereign God that we look upon and for when there is trouble or danger, we call upon Him for help, and we thank Him for our mercies. If the doctrine of Providence and Sovereignty are not true then all the calling, prayer, is only a delusion. Yet, we do not find in our nature anything other that we are dependent upon God and that He is ever present giving to us mercies and hears our prayers; in fact when we pray the Lord's prayer we say: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed by Your name, Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen" (Matthew 6:9b-13). This doctrine is the foundation of our religion, in fact it is the foundation of all religions, that there is a supreme being who acts upon the affairs of men. Only in the Bible, the very Scriptures of God do we come to know the True God of the Universe, His purposes, and all that He has revealed of Himself to man. To deny this fact is atheism. Those feeling do reveal themselves to man by education, or of some supernatural agency of any kind, or events that seem to come from God, rather those feeling, that knowledge is what we are so constituted and that God controls all events. It is a valid doctrine and meets the demands of our moral and religious nature.
The LORD executes
righteousness
and justice for all
who are oppressed.
Psalm 103:6
Today, sing a new song to the LORD
Richard L. Crumb
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