Divine Providence – Acts 8:26-35

Do you believe that God controls the weather?

Do you believe that sees the weather and responds to it, correcting and adjusting as necessary, or does He actually ordain what the weather will do on any given day?

Would you be surprised, if just after the Jesus said that the Lord has numbered the hairs of our heads, He added that the Lord has numbered and directed every rain drop that falls from the clouds?

Do you believe that there is anything intrinsically, or essentially, wrong with praying about the weather?

If you do believe that God controls the weather, then you believe in the sovereignty of God.

If so, like it nor not, you believe that Jehovah is actually and truly God.

It is sometimes said that some people are detail-oriented, while others see the so-called “big picture.”

Well, the Lord is detail-oriented, BECAUSE He has ordained the big picture.

And not only has he ordained the big picture, but he has ordained the details too.

I know that I’m being repetitious in this message, but because you love me, you’ll put up with me once again.

I want you to notice some additional details about God’s providence as seen here in this chapter.

First, do you know what the common, old, everyday word “providence” means?

People sometimes complain that the preacher uses words that are too big.

I admit that I use words that are sometimes on the fringe of common use.

Like “simony” a couple of weeks ago.

(Actually “simony” is a little word, containing only six letters).

But there is almost always a purpose, even if it’s just to put a smile on your face.

And most of the time I try to define the words that I use, or at the very least illustrate them.

For example just a moment ago, I used the word “intrinsically” and I immediately added the word “essentially” because that is essentially what “intrinsic” means.

And sometimes I define words because I know that many times we think that we know a word, but we only know what we think.

The word “providence” means “to prepare in advance.”

I admit that 95% of the time when I use that word, I am thinking of God’s providence.

But humans can display or practice providence too, even though it is imperfect.

Divine providence, is infinitely superior to ours, and over the years has come to dominate the field.

Divine providence means that God has prepared things in advance and works all things to His glory.

Let’s think about God’s providence as seen in this chapter.

Let’s think about its ARCHITECT, SUBJECT, OBJECT and a couple of other things as well.

Let’s begin with the word “RETROSPECT.”

I wear glasses because I am terribly near-sighted – I am myopic.

Some of you have very good eye-sight, and for this you should praise the Lord.

But then again, in some ways, we are ALL myopic.

For example, almost no one can see the providence of God working around him at any particular moment.

Do you think that Job could see what the Lord was doing when He permitted Satan to destroy his life?

And did Joseph understand the providence of God when he was first sent as a slave into Egypt?

Later both men became well aware of the great plan of God, but as it was transpiring they were ignorant.

And today, the last day of March, 2004, there might be huge things taking place, which will affect the rest of your earthly life.

But right now, at this point of the evening you are not aware of them, and you’re thinking that this has been another rather uneventful, or even boring, day.

One of the key’s to understanding God’s providence is retrospect.

By “retrospect” I mean “looking back.”

More often than not, unless we are talking to angels in their heavenly garb,

Or hearing the voice of God as rolling thunder out of a clear blue sky,

Or feeling a physical tug on our hand by some unseen force,

We are not consciously aware of God’s direction and providence.

But perhaps we ought to be aware of it;

Perhaps we need to constantly make ourselves remember that our God is in control of everything,

But most of us don’t think in such lofty and spiritual terms.

Then one day, we are forced to stop and turn around to look back.

And when we do we see the unmistakable handiwork of God.

Retrospect gives us the spiritual eye-glasses necessary to see the beauty of God’s providence.

Of course, the ARCHITECT of the Providence of which I am thinking, is Jehovah the Lord.

Satan may try to predetermine things, but he isn’t much more successful in this than humans are.

Ultimately, only the Lord can successfully manage providence.

And “manage” is a good word, because the Lord might orchestrate a thousand different things to accomplish a single result.

Let me remind you of the tools that He used in this particular case.

Last Sunday I pointed to the angel of Lord who was sent by God to direct Philip south.

And again, which angel was it?

Was this Philip’s angel, the Ethiopian’s angel, Ethiopia’s angel, or one sent on a special mission?

Whoever it was, after that initial contact, I have no proof that he played any more of a roll in this drama.

But then again, he may have been ordered to control many of the behind-the-scene aspects.

No one can say for sure.

But we CAN say that the Lord was in complete control, whomever He might have used.

Verse 29 says that the Spirit told Philip to join himself to the chariot.

Since the word “Spirit” is capitalized, we see that the translators believed Him to be the Holy Spirit.

It might be argued that it was an angel, who are all spirit-creatures, but I have to go with my Bible.

Another piece in the puzzle surrounding the Ethiopian was Philip, but I’ll come back to Him in a moment.

The point is:

Just as Joseph’s ascendancy to the office of Prime Minister of Egypt, from the dusty pastures of Canaan,

Was controlled every step of the way by the providential hand of the Lord,

Everything about this chapter was directed by the Lord as well.

And what’s even more awesome and important, is that you are in the palm of the hand of God’s providence as well.

That isn’t to say that we don’t make our own choices, our stupid mistakes and our wise decisions,

But the Lord is in sovereign control of each of them to His glory.

And once again we consider the SUBJECT of this providence – the SUBJECTS.

First there was Philip.

Just imagine all that took place to bring him to this oasis down toward Gaza.

Probably, he had been raised to have respect toward the Word of God.

He had been taught to look for Israel’s Messiah.

And then someone like the other Philip said, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

The Holy Spirit had prepared and softened his heart so that the facts about Jesus proved to him that not only was He the Christ, but that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Philip, the deacon-turned-evangelist had been introduced to an evangelist before him by the providence of God – the preplanning and command of God.

And Philip had a quick & discerning mind, so that he readily grew in his understanding of the Scriptures.

Soon he had been prepared of God sufficiently to share what he knew about the Lord with others.

And the Lord led the church in Jerusalem to ordain him as a missionary-evangelist.

He laboured some weeks or months in Samaria, and when that work was sufficiently well-established, it may have been just in time to send him toward Gaza.

There were probably a thousand things ordained, arranged, harmonized and orchestrated to prepare this man to meet that southern gentleman.

And in just the same way the Lord has been, and is, preparing you to be a blessing to someone.

What will be your greatest act in the on-going providence of the Lord?

Who will be that Ethiopian in your life?

What roll do we play in the Lord’s “big picture?”

Then there is that Ethiopian.

Last Sunday, I spent some time describing some of the things which might have been involved in the Lord’s providential preparation for this meeting.

How did he become a proselyte?

And of what kind of proselyte was he?

Was he a “proselyte of righteousness” or just a “proselyte of the gate?”

The first was someone who had renounced idolatry and was learning about Jehovah.

The second had submitted himself to all the rites and ceremonies of Judiasm, including circumcision and all the sacrifices and feasts.

Then where and when did he pick up the Book of Isaiah.

It doesn’t appear to have been an Hebrew copy.

Was this the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, which was first produced in Alexandria, Egypt?

Did he bring this copy from home in Ethiopia; did he buy it in Egypt on his way north or did he pick it up in Jerusalem?

The possession of the Bible is a very important aspect of God’s providence in any person’s life.

Sunday we thought about how the Lord might have brought these two travelers together.

It seems to me to have been nearly miraculous.

Then there was the choice of chapters which he could have been reading.

There was none so appropriate as Isaiah 53.

Now consider this: how many times have you been to church, and as soon as you hit the front door, your thoughts had moved on to other more-worldly things?

This man was beginning a long, weary journey home.

But he didn’t pull out the latest novel by John Grisham, or even the plays of Shakespeare.

It was to the scriptures he turned for entertainment and instruction.

Is it possible that during one of his last visits to the synagogue, the scripture was Isaiah 53,

And what if the reader began to explain it as though Isaiah was talking about himself.

What if the Holy Spirit pointed out to this visitor that that explanation didn’t make any sense?

Could he have been reading & re-reading Isaiah, trying to make sense out of what he had heard?

And then all of a sudden, so to speak, the Lord put Philip into his chariot.

How often on the way home from church you seriously talk about the message heard that day?

These things about Philip and this man make my jaw drop open in awe at the handiwork of the Lord.

This truth really is more miraculous and unbelievable than any fiction.

Perhaps the next word in our outline ought to be “INTERSECT.”

And this is perhaps the most amazing thing about God’s providence:

The Lord has the omnipotence to make a thousands apparently random things to meet together at a specified point at the specified time.

What if it there had been one of those terrible sand-storms which can afflict that region?

Would they have been able to quietly talk about the things of God?

The Lord made sure that there wasn’t a bad wind or even a desert rain storm.

What if Philip had broken a strap on one of his shoes that morning, and he’d been unable to run?

Did you ever play with one of those plastic magnifying glasses that came in the old cereal box?

Did you ever hold it under the light and adjust it to the right distance so that the rays of the sun became so concentrated that they could warm the skin on the back of your hand?

(I might ask you ever if ever tortured any bugs that way, but you’d all deny it.)

Like the way that a magnifying glass can concentrate the rays of the sun, the Lord’s providence may bring together a multitude of different agents to produce His perfect will, and even set the world on fire.

Praise ye, the Lord.

And what is the OBJECT of providence?

First and foremost, the object and end of God’s providence is God’s own glory.

“That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

One of the ways to reach that glory, is through the salvation of the sinner.

In this case God’s providence was working to bring this Ethiopian Eunuch to Himself.

And then in the months or years that followed, who knows what role this man played in the further operations of the providence of God.