Christian Age Genesis 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here: for God did send me before you to preserve life. It were a mockery to tell us that we should have safety by the hand of Omnipotence, in regard to the powers of irrational nature; but that in all that concerns the free or the wicked actions of men, we must rely on ourselves or on chance. It were a crippled and insufficient Providence which should guard us against the serpent or the tornado, but which should leave us to ourselves the moment a moral and responsible agent came upon the stage. Yet this is the strange uncomfortable doctrine which prompts the language heard in many a Christian circle. Which of us has not listened to such words as these: "I could bear this trial if it were ordered of God, but it proceeds from man. It is not Providential, but from wicked human beings." There is in this a sad confusion. Such a government as is here assumed would be no Providence at all; and would render all rule impossible, as excluding the very agencies which are most important. And we venture to say that the Bible teaches no such doctrine. While it abhors the thought of making God the author of sin, it does not exclude sinful acts from His wise and holy plan. While it evermore denies God's participation in the evil of wicked deeds, it still asserts that, in the directing and governing of such deeds, there is a sovereign Providence, working out its own wise and holy ends: "Man's goings are of the Lord; how then can a man understand his own way?" "A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps." The wrath of man shall praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain. Let it be clearly fixed in our minds, as the only true philosophy of this subject, that an act may be wicked as to the intent of its agent, and yet its result may be really intended by God. Were it not so we could have no relief under our worst sufferings, namely, those which we endure from depraved and malignant human creatures. But these also are Providential. Joseph's brethren committed a great sin. This none can deny, so far as they were concerned. Yet was it strictly and particularly Providential: "So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God." (Christian Age.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. |
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