January 26
Don't Do the Devil's Doomscrolling
Genesis 27; Matthew 26; Esther 3; Acts 26
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God is sovereign. This means he is in control of all things, period. Yes, all things, including the sins of human beings. Somehow, however, they are our sins, and we are still guilty for them. We choose what we do. It’s on us. Yet at the same time God is sovereign over all of it - in charge of it, ordaining all of it, yet not being the author of it.
Now, He exercises His sovereignty through the seemingly ordinary and often “grubby”1 actions of sinful human beings. Even our own sin does not put anyone outside his sovereignty. And that working through the ordinary actions of ordinary people we call providence.
We see the providence of God working throughout each of today’s readings. In Genesis 27, somehow the sinful actions of Jacob and his mother bring about the line of the people of God. In Esther, the providence of God works through the sinful setup of Haman, such that he is hung on his own gallows and the people of God are saved.
In Matthew 26, Jesus is subjected to the agony of Gethsemane, the betrayal by Judas, a sham trial before the authorities, brutalized by soldiers, and denied by his closest disciple. Yet God providentially uses all of this to bring about the salvation of the world. And in Acts 26, Paul could have been freed, but instead he appeals to Caesar, sealing his fate. But his life is not his own; he was bought with a price, and he longs to preach the gospel to his levels of Rome. God’s providence will bring that about.
Providence is a doctrine. And we must understand where they come from. They do not come from smoky, back-room deals between theologians in ancient times. They come from Christians through the centuries simply reading their Bibles, putting together various points of recurring themes, and then applying it to life. Doctrines are dusty bits of information for theology geeks to argue over. They’re the bones that allow the Christian to stand, even in the hardest of times.
The doctrine of providence allowed the first Christians to stand in the coliseum as they faced their deaths. It drove men like Martin Luther to preach and write and William Tyndale to translate, though it could mean their deaths.
Thus we must not doomscroll in the morning without regard to God. For He is still today using all that we see to bring about His good and perfect purposes.
The term used by D.A. Carson in today’s readings. His book, “For the Love of God,” is at his finest in his commentary on today’s readings. He observes how they all are driven by one feature of God: his providence.