Divine concurrence means that God directs and works through the particular properties and characteristics of the things, animals and people he has created while they work or fulfill their created functions that also have an impact or affect on their surroundings or environment.
Wayne Grudem writes: “A botanist can detail the factors that cause grass to grow and a meteorologist can give a complete explanation of factors that cause rain (humidity, temperature, atmospheric pressure…) Yet Scripture says that God causes the grass to grow and that God causes rain. This shows us that it is incorrect for us to reason that if we know the ‘natural’ cause of something in this world, then God did not cause it. Nor is it correct to think that events are partly caused by God and partly by factors in the created world. If that were the case, then we would always be looking for some small feature of an event that we could not explain, and attribute that (say 1 percent of the cause) to God. Rather (the Scriptures) affirm that such events are entirely caused by God. Yet we know that (in another sense) they are entirely caused by factors in the creation as well.”[1]
God is at work fully behind the scenes (as it were) directing the grass to grow, the rain to fall, the earth to rotate around the sun, the free choices that people make while each thing, animal or person is functioning fully according to their created characteristics and properties. It may be said that God is always the “primary cause” while the characteristics and functions of created entities are the “secondary causes” of all that transpires in this world.
This is certainly the case with God’s dealing with people who are active in carrying out what they determine to do and in how they respond to various circumstances they face, (like unplanned for occurrences or situations over which they have no control, i.e. the weather) God is nevertheless at work in and through all these things fulfilling his purposes. This can be seen from the account of Joseph's life.
Whereas, Joseph's brothers acted out of hatred for him, intending to do him harm when they sold him into slavery. God was however, providentially concurring in and through their actions to fulfill his purposes.
In 1 Samuel 9, Saul and his servant go to look for two of his father's donkeys that are lost. They were not successful and his servant suggests they go inquire of Samuel the man of God. So they go to see if Samuel could tell them where to find the donkeys. This particular event and their choices were used by God to fulfill his purposes. "They went up to the town and as they were entering it, there was Samuel, coming toward them on his way up to the high place. Now the day before Saul came the Lord had revealed this to Samuel: "About this time tomorrow I WILL SEND you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him leader over my people Israel; he will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked upon my people, for their cry has reached me.'”
Saul was doing all he could to solve a problem he had. God was, at the same time working in and through these events to send Saul to Samuel.
God's providential concurrence includes every day events and decisions we make. This is certainly the point in the following verses:
In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9
A man's steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand his own way? Proverbs 20:24
I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. Jeremiah 10:23
This is why James cautions us against being presumptuous when we make our plans.
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13
Application
1. Affirm that God is even now working His plan
We need to see that despite the naturalistic and materialistic worldview of our secular culture God is intimately and purposefully working broadly and minutely in the universe and in and over human affairs. Yet, at the same time, His providence cannot be easily or readily interpreted apart from a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a humble dependence upon the teachings of God’s Word.
2. Give care in the reading of God’s providences in your life
God’s providence like his sovereign will is shaped by his wisdom and goodness but also his by justice and righteousness. So we must never even in those dark providences of God charge him with evil or injustice toward us. Nor must we necessarily read his abundant providences as marks of his favor on us because of our moral goodness. It is also hard to interpret his work of providence by drawing such inferences from them. The writers of inspired Scripture themselves struggled with this. Job’s so called comforters were certain that the tragedies that God sent upon Job were due to his failure to confess his wickedness so they go to Job to urge him to be honest and confess. We know from the story that they were wrong. The writer of Psalm 73 complains to God that the unrighteous rather than God’s people always seem to prosper. So God’s people will at times experiences those hard providences of God but not always and this is true also of unbelievers. So we see that both good and ill come from God’s providential work.
Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord ordained it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Lamentations 3:37-38
So even now God is working to carry out blessings and judgments.
3. Thus God’s sovereignty and providence should motivate us to truly fear him.
We have all sinned against him. God is speaking to us even in his providential dealings calling us to himself, as C.S. Lewis stated: “God whispers to us in our pleasures and shouts to us in our pain.” Our culture basically has no tolerance for the true and living God. Yet we must be very guarded against having this attitude infect our understanding of God’s dealing with us and with this world. Rather we should fear Him but not run from him but rather fear him and flee to him seeking his mercy.
God’s providence can be like the bitter water of Marah that the children of Israel encountered as Moses brought them out of Egypt (Exodus 15). It was undrinkable. Yet they desperately needed that water. Just as we need to come to terms with God’s providence. What makes the providence of God a source of true comfort – what makes it drinkable as it were? It is the Gospel of God’s grace. The Gospel is like the tree that God showed Moses and had him throw into the bitter waters of Marah and the waters became sweet. Thus the way to interact with God’s providences is to hold fast to Christ by believing the Gospel.
We can never be certain with God’s providences if we are experiencing his blessing or his judgments – both come from God in his providential dealings with people. The only place we can go to discover the love and blessing of God for the undeserving is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is God’s love for the world expressed. Here the message goes out that God is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Only as we see our sin, only as we agree that we actually do deserve God’s just judgment, only as we are truly humbled by this and thus see why we need Christ and his sacrificial death will we come to know God’s love. From the safety of the cross we can be assured that even when God sends those difficult and dark providences into our lives they are not marks of his judgment but signs of his working a deeper and necessary faith in our hearts. Then we can take these texts to heart and strengthen our confidence in his Fatherly care and control over our lives.
4. Thus, the only proper and safe lens through which to read God’s providence for you is the Gospel.
It is the truth of Scripture that only those who seek refuge in Jesus Christ as savior and find his cross their refuge from deserved judgment can be assured that God’s providences are designed for their good. Apart from Christ they are not. Apart from Christ even the welcomed providences of God only increase the ultimate judgment on those who remain in their rebellion against Him.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good? For those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
We only truly can love God if we see our need for the Gospel – as we embrace the call of Christ to believe on Him, we embrace God’s love for sinners. We can only truly love him if we know that he first loves us. Our love is reflexive of His love in the Gospel.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
We have no warrant to take this promise to ourselves unless we take it through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is true of this promise:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make straight your paths. PRO 3:5-6
God is at work through his providence but it is the work he accomplished in Christ that enables us to embrace his providences in such a way that strengthens our faith which is good for our soul and which truly brings him glory.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His holy will abideth;
I will be still whate’er He doth;
And follow where He guideth;
He is my God; though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He never will deceive me;
He leads me by the proper path:
I know He will not leave me.
I take, content, what He hath sent;
His hand can turn my griefs away,
And patiently I wait His day.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His loving thought attends me;
No poison can be in the cup
That my Physician sends me.
My God is true; each morn anew
I’ll trust His grace unending,
My life to Him commending.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He is my Friend and Father;
He suffers naught to do me harm,
Though many storms may gather,
Now I may know both joy and woe,
Some day I shall see clearly
That He hath loved me dearly.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking.
My God is true; each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken.
My Father’s care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
And so to Him I leave it all.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His holy will abideth;
I will be still whate’er He doth;
And follow where He guideth;
He is my God; though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He never will deceive me;
He leads me by the proper path:
I know He will not leave me.
I take, content, what He hath sent;
His hand can turn my griefs away,
And patiently I wait His day.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His loving thought attends me;
No poison can be in the cup
That my Physician sends me.
My God is true; each morn anew
I’ll trust His grace unending,
My life to Him commending.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He is my Friend and Father;
He suffers naught to do me harm,
Though many storms may gather,
Now I may know both joy and woe,
Some day I shall see clearly
That He hath loved me dearly.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking.
My God is true; each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.
Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken.
My Father’s care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
And so to Him I leave it all.
By Samuel Rodigast
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