Focus: Divine Providence!

Text: Ruth 2:3

"She gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech."

What's divine providence? Divine providence is a theological term that implies that God is involved in human history, and like others have said, "History is His story." 

The word 'providence' is derived from the Latin. It's a compound word, 'pro,' before, in front of, or ahead of; and 'videre' or vida, to see. Putting the two together, it means 'to see before or ahead,' and that's having foresight or foreknowledge. God, according to the Scripture, sees the end from the beginning, and beyond seeing ahead, He also ensures that He sees to it that what He sees is taken care of. In other words, God controls history from start to finish. He is actively involved in the affairs of men. 

As the sovereign God of the universe, He rules over the affairs of men, and wherever He does not directly rule, He overrules indirectly.

God cares for the world He has created and for every individual who lives in it. From the commencement of human history to the consummation of it, God is advancing and fulfilling His purpose. From God's standpoint, the goal of creation and history is His glory. History will be consummated as God has planned it, not as man has designed it. All of history is moving towards the end that God has in mind from the beginning, and there's no force of hell that can stop or hinder it. Experience teaches us that man proposes, but God disposes.

In the life of Ruth we see divine providence in action. Her husband died in the land of her birth, and she decided to follow her mother in-law back to the land of her husband's birth - a place called Bethlehem in Judah, the city where David was born years later. It is beyond logic that a young woman with a whole lot of future in front of her would follow an old woman, whose life was already winding, back home to virtually nothing. That's divine providence playing out in her life.

On a particular day she providentially got into a field to glean the best of the worst crops, just to make sure that she brought food home for her mother in-law to feed onto, and she had no idea that the field belonged to the richest man of the city. His name was Boaz, and interestingly, he belonged to the family of Naomi's dead husband, and his two dead sons as well.

To cut the long story short, Boaz eventually married Ruth and recovered the family land for Naomi. On top of that, the Scripture says, "So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son" (Ruth 4:13). Boaz the richest man in the land got married to Ruth the foreigner from Moab, and amazingly, Jesus Christ came from that lineage. If that is not divine providence, what is it?

Who says that God is not in control of your steps and stops? Who says that God is not the event planner of your life? Who says that God is not working out His grand plans through the events of your life? Truly, God cares about you!

Saul went out in search of his father's lost donkey and came home without the donkey, but with the oil of God upon his head as the first king of Israel. David went to the field to take care of his father's few sheep, and he was brought back home, because the Lord had chosen him as the next king of Israel. Joseph was sold to slavery in Egypt, and in that same land of slavery, God made him to become a prime minister under Pharaoh. That is divine providence!

Hear me, God knows all about you! He is working things out for you. Divine providence is at work in your life. Have faith in God and look up to Him at all times.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter