Elective Process and the Providence of God
“There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come.” —Hamlet
It was Mark twain, I think, who said he didn’t vote because it only encouraged the politicians. That’s a very shortsighted, if humorous point of view, especially in a nation in which we have free elections and can, in this way, seek the good of our country, a responsibility incumbent on us all.
But we should understand that our vote Is a second cause. The first cause is God. “He puts down one (ruler), and exalts another,” he determines who sits on the throne, or occupies the White House (Psalm 75:6,7). He said to the Pharaoh of Egypt, “Indeed for this purpose (to effect the Exodus) I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth” (Exodus 9:16), a verse Paul quotes with approval as a demonstration of the providence of God (Romans 9:17).
The Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser (Isaiah 10:6, 7), the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah25;9), the Persian kings, Cyrus the Great (Isaiah 48:14,15) and Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:21) are other examples of autocrats who, in pursuing their chosen careers, fulfilled the will of God. “The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord” (Proverbs 21:1). The principle is still in play.
The Bible makes us look beyond secondary causes (e.g., elective process) to our sovereign Lord, the ultimate determinative factor. The Bible does not deny the efficacy of second causes, but it traces everything directly to the hand of God—even the election of unscrupulous, ungodly women and men. He has a purpose in it all.
Both “causes" are true: elective process and the providence of God. I can’t explain the paradox; the logic is beyond our ken. (The “’absurdity’ in it cuts us down to size,” a thoughtful friend of mine once said.) I can only say it is true.
Preoccupation with secondary causes encourages us to fret and stew and spread our anxiety to others; focusing on the First Cause draws us to tranquility in the midst of chaos and confusion, what Paul called that “inexplicable peace of God” (Philippians 4:7).
Know well my soul, God's hand controls
whate'er you fear.
Round Him in calmest music rolls
whate'er you hear. —FB Meyer
David Roper
8.14.20
