In Genesis 23, Abraham’s wife, Sarah, dies and is buried in the Promised Land. And so, as one generation is buried, another is raised up, because in the next chapter, the text speaks about Sarah’s son, Isaac. Sarah’s husband, Abraham, is still alive, so he takes it upon himself to ensure that Isaac finds the right woman. So, what does Abraham do? The Bible tells us. Let us now read Genesis 24:1–27. That text says:
Now Abraham was old, advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way. Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, “Please place your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live, but you will go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” The servant said to him, “Suppose the woman is not willing to follow me to this land; should I take your son back to the land from where you came?” Then Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there! The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this my oath; only do not take my son back there.” So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.
Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and set out with a variety of good things of his master’s in his hand; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. He said, “O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing by the spring, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water; now may it be that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar so that I may drink,’ and who answers, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’—may she be the one whom You have appointed for Your servant Isaac; and by this I will know that You have shown lovingkindness to my master.”
Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder. The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, and no man had [had relations with her; and she went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. Then the servant ran to meet her, and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar.” She said, “Drink, my lord”; and she quickly lowered her jar to her hand, and gave him a drink. Now when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw also for your camels until they have finished drinking.” So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, and ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. Meanwhile, the man was gazing at her in silence, to know whether the Lord had made his journey successful or not.
When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half-shekel and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels in gold, and said, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room for us to lodge in your father’s house?” She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” Again she said to him, “We have plenty of both straw and feed, and room to lodge in.” Then the man bowed low and worshiped the Lord. He said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master; as for me, the Lord has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”
What happens next is that Rebekah tells her immediate relatives about all that happened. Abraham’s servant then gives his side of the story and again recounts everything that transpired—from Abraham’s commission to Rebekah’s actions—to highlight the hand of God in the whole affair. Ultimately, Rebekah agrees to go with Abraham’s servant. She then meets Issac and the two are married.
So, Genesis 24:28–66 says:
Then the girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things. Now Rebekah had a brother whose name was Laban; and Laban ran outside to the man at the spring. When he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, “This is what the man said to me,” he went to the man; and behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring. And he said, “Come in, blessed of the Lord! Why do you stand outside since I have prepared the house, and a place for the camels?” So the man entered the house. Then Laban unloaded the camels, and he gave straw and feed to the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. But when food was set before him to eat, he said, “I will not eat until I have told my business.” And he said, “Speak on.” So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. The Lord has greatly blessed my master, so that he has become rich; and He has given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and servants and maids, and camels and donkeys. Now Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master in her old age, and he has given him all that he has. My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live; but you shall go to my father’s house and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son.’ I said to my master, ‘Suppose the woman does not follow me.’ He said to me, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, will send His angel with you to make your journey successful, and you will take a wife for my son from my relatives and from my father’s house; then you will be free from my oath, when you come to my relatives; and if they do not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.’
“So I came today to the spring, and said, ‘O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now You will make my journey on which I go successful; behold, I am standing by the spring, and may it be that the maiden who comes out to draw, and to whom I say, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar”; and she will say to me, “You drink, and I will draw for your camels also”; let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’
“Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder, and went down to the spring and drew, and I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’; so I drank, and she watered the camels also. Then I asked her, and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him’; and I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her wrists. And I bowed low and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had guided me in the right way to take the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. So now if you are going to deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, let me know, that I may turn to the right hand or the left.”
Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “The matter comes from the Lord; so we cannot speak to you bad or good. Here is Rebekah before you, take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has spoken.”
When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the ground before the Lord. The servant brought out articles of silver and articles of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother. Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night. When they arose in the morning, he said, “Send me away to my master.” But her brother and her mother said, “Let the girl stay with us a few days, say ten; afterward she may go.” He said to them, “Do not delay me, since the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master.” And they said, “We will call the girl and consult her wishes.” Then they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” And she said, “I will go.” Thus they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse with Abraham’s servant and his men. They blessed Rebekah and said to her,
“May you, our sister, become thousands of ten thousands,
and may your descendants possess the gate of those who hate them.”
Then Rebekah arose with her maids, and they mounted the camels and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and departed.
Now Isaac had come from going to Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in the Negev. Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, camels were coming. Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from the camel. She said to the servant, “Who is that man walking in the field to meet us?” And the servant said, “He is my master.” Then she took her veil and covered herself. The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her; thus Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
As Zack Kelle writes in the Sola Media Bible study guide for Genesis:
“[T]he servant loads the camels and sets off on his journey. And the story that follows is one that unveils God’s providence. There are no miracles; the Lord does not openly speak but his providence is guiding everything, just as it did with getting a tomb for Sarah. This story demonstrates to us that we can trust in the providence of God.” (italics mine)
The author repeatedly mentions the providence of God as it pertains to Abraham’s mission to secure a bride for Isaac. This, then, begs the question: What is divine providence?
Quite simply, as the word suggests, providence means that God provides. The Westminster Confession of Faith (V, I) says:
“God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible fore-knowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.”
God’s providence tells us that God is provident, meaning He has not abandoned the world He created but rather actively works in that creation to manage all things according to His will. God never “sets it and forgets it” but is actively involved in creation. Hence, as Thomas Watson writes in Body of Divinity, providence refers to “the hand of God in the glove of human events.”
If we now return to Genesis 24, I think what happens in this historical narrative is very straightforward. Accordingly, using this text, I have twenty observations on the providence of God.
First observation: God governs the world by providence, not by miracles. The fact that nothing miraculous happens in the text points to the pressing reality that our natural world is ordered by laws that animate regular, common, and everyday events. There are basic things that we all must do in the natural world to beget natural results. So, Abraham speaks to his servant and gives him a commission. Next, the servant loads up on supplies and then has to travel to a faraway place to get to Abraham’s native homeland. The servant and the camels need water, so they have to be given nourishment from a well. There is no manna from heaven, nor does an angel fly them from one place to another. God directs all of creation to fulfill a purpose, and the regular and ordinary means by which He does that are providence, not miracles. Do miracles still happen? Of course they do. Whenever someone is born again, that is a miracle. But the miraculous is not the normal means of operation; providence is.
And, because God is “[directing], [disposing], and [governing] all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least,” this means words like “fate” and “chance” do not refer to anything substantive or real. Fate and chance are often used deceptively to take your eyes off a provident God, so as to attribute phenomena to blind, purposeless forces. It wasn’t fate that led the servant to Rebekah, but the hand of God. It’s not chance that causes a quarter to land heads up; it’s forces that are under God’s control.
Second observation: Providence does not discriminate. In Genesis 24, God uses Abraham to send his servant, who then finds Rebekah, who will later bear a son (Jacob), who will perpetuate the Abrahamic covenant through Isaac. God is working through pivotal covenantal figures, but the Lord isn’t just directing the elect. He’s directing everything. He’s directing the sunrise, day and night, the wind to blow, the tide to rise and fall, and the stars to shine in the night sky. He causes the “rain to fall on the just and unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Hence, providence does not discriminate. Therefore, every person and everything that exists in this world experiences the providence of God and is affected by it. For example, what do you think gravity is but the figurative hand of God holding the universe together? Who keeps the earth rotating about its axis and revolving around the sun? Why is there a predictable order to the universe, and why can any person trust in the laws that govern reality? Providence, which does not discriminate.
Third observation: God has ordained special means of providence. This means God works in special ways in and through His people. Particularly, by these means, God works spiritually in the natural world. Examples include His work through the Church, His Word, sacraments, fellowship, and prayer. The Lord regenerates hearts through the preaching of His Word from pulpits all around the world; He also inclines His ears to His own children through prayer. God’s special providence for His people is particularly encouraging because it nudges us to look at God as the author of all contentment. Without God, no mercy or comfort would come to His people.
Truly, it is not enough to recognize God’s hand in providence in general; you must also consider how He takes special notice of you. He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7); He knows what you need (Matthew 6:32); and He tells you not to worry (Philippians 4:6). And look at how our text in Genesis 24 speaks to the timeliness of God’s special care. He directed Abraham’s servant to Rebekah so that Isaac would have a wife soon after His mother died. In other words, in God’s special care for His son, as one comfort was removed, another was raised up in its place. As it says in Genesis 24:67:
Then Isaac brought [Rebekah] into his mother Sarah’s tent, and he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her; thus Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
Hence, God ordains special means of providence for His people, who then engage said means and then receive special spiritual mercies.
This brings me to my fourth observation.
Fourth observation: Prayer honors providence, and providence honors prayer. After Abraham’s servant arrived at his destination, he didn’t presume God’s providence and merely wait for God to act while he did nothing. Instead, the servant was wise enough to know that God is the One who ordained prayer, so He expects us to use it cognizant that prayer honors providence and providence honors prayer.
Genesis 24:12–18 says:
[Abraham’s servant] said, “O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing by the spring, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water; now may it be that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar so that I may drink,’ and who answers, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’—may she be the one whom You have appointed for Your servant Isaac; and by this I will know that You have shown lovingkindness to my master.”
Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder. The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, and no man had had relations with her; and she went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. Then the servant ran to meet her, and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar.” She said, “Drink, my lord”; and she quickly lowered her jar to her hand, and gave him a drink.
Beloved, prayer never changes God, but it does change us, and it certainly changes things. A person may therefore ask, “Because God is working in and through all things, then why should I pray?” To which I would respond, “Because the way the Lord will providentially work is through your prayers.” Furthermore, in Genesis 24, the servant’s prayer was particularly special because God answered the prayer before it was finished. One of the sweetest experiences of special providence is when God answers our prayers, and in some situations, He is so quick to respond, He condescends to our requests before we can finish making them. When divine mercy is right on time, it makes the experience all the more soul-satisfying and elevates our opinion of God in His providential dealings.
Fifth observation: Providence doesn’t supplant common sense. This reflection builds upon the first observation that God governs the world by providence. Accordingly, because the Lord has ordained regular rules by which the world operates, He expects us to use them. Common sense merely recognizes and respects that the world works in a certain way. As a result, when tasked with a mission to find a bride whom he has never met in a faraway land, Abraham’s servant initially asks a reasonable question, “What if the woman doesn’t want to come with me … should I then take Isaac to where she is?” (paraphrase of Genesis 24:5). The oldest servant in Abraham’s household has been around long enough to know that plans construed by men—even virtuous men—are not guaranteed success. Furthermore, the servant engages common sense and prepares for his long journey with supplies and camels. Upon arrival, since he is in search of a bride, he goes to where the women are, at the time when women go out to draw water (Genesis 24:11). Thus, the servant never expects God to supplant natural rules but trusts God, expecting him to use natural rules, including common sense.
Sixth observation: Sometimes great mercies are providentially supplied by improbable means. Did Rebekah’s brother (Laban) or her father (Bethuel) act in order to secure her a husband? They did not in Genesis 24. This does not suggest they were at fault or negligent in the matter because the focus of our text is neither Laban nor Bethuel. Yet, by providence, a strange man from a faraway land—whom Rebekah had never met—was stirred up to do for her what a close relative did not. The point is that by providence, great mercies can be supplied by improbable means. The means by which Rebekah secured a husband and confirmed her suitability as a bride was demonstrating hospitality to a stranger, not direct service to a potential suitor.
Sometimes, great mercies are providentially supplied by improbable means, such as God bowing the hearts of wicked men to show kindness to God’s people (Acts 28:2). Another example is God making Gideon victorious by lessening his army (Judges 7:1–8). The Cross proved to be the ultimate example of this, as the Lord secured the salvation and life of His innumerable elect through the death of His Son.
Seventh observation: Pondering divine providence sweetens the Christian experience. It’s relevant to note that in Genesis 24, we have Abraham’s last recorded words in the Bible. And what does Abraham do with his final words? He recounts what God has done for him. In Genesis 24:6–8, the text says:
Then Abraham said to [his servant], “Beware that you do not take my son back [to my homeland]! The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this my oath; only do not take my son back there.
Beloved, Abraham did not waste his final words but used them to reflect upon divine providence. Accordingly, then, don’t deny yourself the full pleasure of the Christian experience but meditate on what God has done for you. Consequently, as Asaph did, search back through your life and fill your heart with thoughts of God and His ways. As it says in Psalm 77:11–12:
I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds.
As John Flavel writes in his Works:
“It is the unquestionable duty of God’s people at all times to reflect upon the performance of God’s providence, but especially in times of trouble. We are called to consider it, that we may prop up our faith by these considerations. In Scripture, the Holy Spirit has affixed our attention to the narratives of the works of providence, which invites men to a due and clear observation of them. … Without due observation of the works of providence, no praise can be rendered to God for any of them. Giving praise and thanksgiving for mercies depends upon this.”
The next observation builds upon this one.
Eighth observation: Recounting providence fuels present faith and grows future hope. Again, if we consider the content of Abraham’s words in Genesis 24:6–8, he in essence says, “Look at what God has done for me. Because of this, I trust in what He will do for me.” Past providence grows present faith and future hope.
Again, John Flavel writes in his Works:
“From providences past, saints use these to argue fresh and new ones to come! So David, in I Samuel 17:37 says, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” … Jesus called the disciples to remember divine providence (Matthew 16:9). Saints can draw arguments in prayer for new mercies from this fountain.”
Ninth, because the Lord will provide (Genesis 22:14), providence reinforces that God will help those who recognize they are helpless. You may have heard the expression that “God helps those who help themselves.” I do not know the original author of those words. All I do know is that God never said that. The biblical reality is that without God, we are truly helpless, and the Lord assists those who recognize their need for Him. God knows that we are not independently strong, for as it says in Psalm 103:14, “For [the Lord] Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” In Genesis 24, Abraham gives the servant confidence for his mission with the assurance that an angel will go before him (Genesis 24:7). And once he arrives, the servant does not move forward in his own strength, but rather, the first thing he does is pray and ask God for help (24:12–14). God honors that prayer.
Tenth, as we mature, so does our faith in God; therefore, so does our trust in providence. In our text, Abraham had no direct command from God about how to find a wife for his son. All he had was a promise that “through Isaac your descendants shall be named” (Genesis 21:12). And so, because Abraham trusted God, He didn’t need any more revelation from the Lord because Abraham knew if God promised descendants through Isaac, then Isaac was destined to get married and have children. Abraham simply trusted that God would work through reality to make good on His promise. The effect, then, of this increased trust in providence was not passivity; rather, it enabled concrete action, trusting that God would direct.
Eleventh, providence opens doors, and providence also closes doors. I think it is readily obvious how God opened many doors in Genesis 24. Yet, what many people don’t realize—and what took me nearly three decades to finally embrace—is that God will often providentially close doors to reveal His will. This means, in some situations for some people, your plans being frustrated or your path being blocked is God telling you, “Not this time” or “Not that way.”
Consider what happens to the apostle Paul in the Book of Acts. In Chapter 16, he is on a mission trip with Timothy. Then, verses 6–8 say:
[Paul and Timothy] passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.
In these verses, Paul and Timothy were doing the right thing: preaching God’s Word and strengthening the churches. Did they worry themselves about God’s exact plan for their current situation? They didn’t. They simply obeyed what God had already said: to preach the gospel. And then, while they were doing the right thing, God prevented them from going to a particular geographic area. So, they redirected and kept on following God’s Word. Providence can open doors, and providence can also close doors; we have to be wise enough to discern that sometimes, plans falling apart does not mean we are failures or we are doing the wrong thing. It could just mean that God is redirecting us by closing a door.
Twelfth, don’t underestimate how providence uses simple and ordinary means to produce big results. In the narrative of Genesis 24, Rebekah did something very simple, plain, and ordinary: she offered water to a stranger. Yet, this simple act of hospitality proved to be a crucial turning point in her life, an act that would tell Abraham’s messenger this was the woman he was looking for. By simply demonstrating kindness to a stranger, Rebekah would forever be memorialized in the canon of Scripture and play a crucial role in the drama of redemption.
Other examples of simple, small acts yielding big results are when Abraham yielded to his nephew, Lot, and let him have first choice of the land in which he would dwell (Genesis 13:8–10). It is after this separation that God promised to give the Promised Land to Abraham’s descendants. And it was Lot’s simple act of hospitality toward strangers that set in motion a chain of events in which those two strangers (angels) would spare the lives of Lot and his entire family while Sodom was destroyed. Oftentimes, providence works through small, simple things to produce big results.
Thirteenth, because God is provident, there is no “Plan B.” All of reality is “Plan A.” Again, we go back to our definition of providence from the Westminster Confession:
God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible fore-knowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will. (italics mine)
In other words, everything in our world is governed and directed by God. To suggest, then, that it is possible for us to make the wrong choice and then divert from God’s Plan A is not biblical because that would mean human choice can override God’s providence. By no means! There is no Plan B.
As it says in Proverbs 16:1, 9:
The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord … The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
Even those “small” things in life that the world may tend to attribute to chance or blind natural forces are, in fact, ordered by the Lord. Proverbs 16:33 says:
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
You may then ask yourself, “Well, what about evil? Does God’s providence direct evil things as well?” This leads to the next observation.
Fourteenth, divine providence runs parallel to the biblical idea of concurrence. Concurrence basically means that two or more parties can act in the same event and produce a given outcome without all parties having the same intent. The classic biblical example is the life of Job, where Satan and Job’s three friends each played a role in Job’s suffering to different degrees. They each had different motivations as well. Yet, as the end of the book of Job tells us, God used the malevolent intent of some to bring forth a good purpose. Another example of concurrence can be seen in the life of Joseph, whose brothers meant evil for him. Yet, as Joseph says to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
The greatest example of concurrence is seen at the trial, persecution, and Crucifixion of Jesus, where multiple different actors had varying degrees of malevolent intent against the innocent Son of God. Yet, God permitted the evil intent of evil men to bring about the greatest good for humankind: Christ’s atoning work on the Cross, followed by the Resurrection. As Proverbs 16:4 says:
The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Fifteenth, God’s providence is still active even if you don’t observe it. In Genesis 24, both Abraham’s servant, Rebekah, and her family could observe what God was actively doing. Yet, before the servant set off, Abraham assured him that an angel would go before him. We hear nothing about what this angel does in the following narrative. In other words, the work of the divine messenger is invisible to us. Consequently, there is such a thing as invisible providence (my term) where God acts for you without you even being aware. A classic example of invisible providence is seen in the narrative of King Balak and the prophet-for-hire, Balaam (Numbers 22–25). In short, Balak hires Balaam to curse the wandering Hebrews, but Balaam ends up blessing the people three times instead. And where were the Hebrews during this time? Far off, encamped in the distance. God was working for His people behind the scenes without them even being aware.
Sixteenth, you can rest in God’s providence after you have used God’s means. As mentioned before, providence does not supplant common sense, and God has ordained special means of providence, especially the Scriptures and prayer. So, do you want to see God’s providential work in your life? Then use the means God has already given you! Meditate on the Scriptures to learn God’s will. Then pray as a means of His providential work. We can’t expect God to do anything if we aren’t doing what He has told us! I will paraphrase what Saint Augustine once said: “Pray as if everything depended on God and then do as if everything depended on you.”
Seventeenth, providence is always clearer looking back; it is often unclear looking forward. In Genesis 24, it was clear to everyone at the time what God was doing. He was providentially bringing Isaac and Rebekah together. Yet, at the time, it would not have been immediately clear why God was bringing these two people together. The answer to why would be parsed out throughout the rest of Isaac and Rebekah’s life, and additional answers to why would be progressively revealed throughout the drama of redemption. The point is that as you begin to discern God’s providential work in your life, you will often frustrate yourself if you try to figure out why, right now, God is doing what He’s doing. The why will become clearer and clearer only when you look back into the past and then can see what resulted from what transpired before. Providence is always clearer looking back; it is often unclear looking forward.
Eighteenth, providence can be discerned communally. After Abraham’s servant is brought to Rebekah’s family, it is important to note what he does: he recounts all of what happened to Laban and Bethuel. It’s also important to note what the servant doesn’t do: he doesn’t force his interpretation of providence on Rebekah and her family; he doesn’t say, “In my eyes, this is clearly the hand of God; now, you must come with me.” Instead, the servant allows providence to be discerned communally; that is, after he explains all that transpired, in Genesis 24:49 he says, “So now if you are going to deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, let me know, that I may turn to the right hand or the left.” It is then that Laban and Bethuel reply, “The matter comes from the Lord; so we cannot speak to you bad or good. Here is Rebekah before you, take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has spoken” (Genesis 24:50–51).
Proverbs 11:14, 15:22, and 24:5 all communicate the principle that there is safety and wisdom in an abundance of counselors. Meaning, when we attempt to discern providence in our lives, let us not be too hasty about forcing our interpretation of things on others. Let us not think, “This is the way things seem to me,” and then treat our interpretation as infallible. Rather, there is wisdom in getting input from a multitude of believers who also use Scripture as a guide.
This leads to my next observation.
Nineteenth, providence is our diary, not our Bible. In other words, we don’t use providence for guidance, nor does the way reality plays out give us ironclad rules to follow. Rather, we look to the Bible for guidance and instruction and then apply those truths to our lives. We always start with the Word first.
This leads to my last observation.
The final, twentieth observation on providence is that the Word interprets the works of God. The other way of saying that is the Bible makes sense of providence. Beloved, as mentioned in the last observation, providence is not the final rule in our lives; the Bible is the only infallible rule that animates who we are called to be, how to think, and how to act. Hence, no matter how clear the Lord’s leading may seem to us, we are called to subject our understanding of things to the Scriptures. We also have the advantage of the local church, where we can subject our understanding of things to the wisdom and discernment of the wider body of Christ.
The great hope that the doctrine of providence gives you is that right now and every moment from now on, the Lord isn’t far away and disinterested. Instead, He is actively weaving His fingers through the fabric of reality to bring all things together for good for those who love Him. And He is also weaving all the seemingly disconnected fibers of creation into the apex of human history: the return of Christ the King.
Dr. C. H. E. Sadaphal