0428 THE HAND OF PROVIDENCE

PROVIDENCE

Today’s reading provides us with an excellent example of Providence. You know about Providence, right? It is God’s “provision” (that’s why they call it providence, don’t you know) for people. 

God regularly provides universally for mankind, with air, water, seasons and soil, health and happiness. Indeed, the sun, moon and stars agree with the rest of God’s creation that He provides what he deems to be in our best interests. But He also sometimes provides more particulars for someone. In God’s kindness, He gives special provision for his child in the form of unusual timing, special resources and improving health, insight and understanding. 

Everyone lives with Providence, but not everyone sees it. Some see Providence as merely a happenstance of time, energy and matter, and all of life is a set of evolutionary battles, in which the fittest survive. Providence is chance. 

Others interpret Providence as a kind of battle of the gods, with a kind of superstitious cause-and-effect to explain the twists and turns of life. Providence is superstition.

Perhaps Providence is best seen as a loving Creator who chooses to bless his creation from a motive of love and grace, while trying to steer them from immoral and sinful lives through what he provides. Providence is loving provision.

The story for us in this chapter involves Paul after the shipwreck near the island of Malta. Here it unfolds:

“The people of the island were very kind to us. It was cold and rainy, so they built a fire on the shore to welcome us.”

God has provided for  Paul and his companions by rescuing them from the sea, and then bringing them to a friendly tribe of people. What are the chances, huh? God is good!

“As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, bit him on the hand. The people of the island saw it hanging from his hand and said to each other, “A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live.” 

The people of the island are of the second group of superstitious people. Paul is shipwrecked, and he survives. But the gods wanted him dead, so they sent a poisonous snake to bite his hand and kill him. Seems pretty straightforward, right? The gods are angry!

But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw that he wasn’t harmed, they changed their minds and decided he was a god.”

Now the superstitious theology of provision turns on its head. The snake may have been a punishment sent by the gods, but apparently this stranger is stronger than the gods! That must make Paul a god himself! A god has come to visit us on Malta! Such providence!

Of course, there is another way to see the hand of Providence in this account. Which is that natural things occur—a snake is driven out by the heat and goes to hide in a woodpile. Paul just happens to pick some up. He is bitten. All of this was not a punishment, but a set of natural circumstances, explained by nature. Sometimes car wrecks and cancer, or war and famine simply happen.

But there is One who is stronger than nature, stronger than a poisonous snake He is One who is able to conquer and heal. And He is the One who is with Paul, as a follower of Jesus Christ. So the name of Jesus is the “natural immunity” that some might write off as coincidence or luck, and others might see as the active war between forces of good and evil.

But this particular set of Providential events is the backdrop for Paul to preach about Jesus, and the snake was a way of drawing attention to the power of the name of Christ. Paul doesn’t miss the moment, I’m glad to report. After healing the daughter of the chief official of the land, many showered honors on them.

And then when spring came, and it was time to sail away and complete their journey to Rome, guess what the people of Malta did? They “supplied us with everything we would need for the trip.” 

How’s THAT for Providence?