Providence
“The Finding of Moses,” Orazio Gentilesschi, Museo del Prado, Madrid, click image to link to gallery.
Sermon Series “Through the Bible,” № 10, Exodus 1:22-2:10
“She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him.” –Exodus 2:5-6
In our journey through the Bible, we move from Genesis to Exodus. Last week, as we concluded Genesis, we saw how God’s providential care was evident in the story of Joseph. Today, as we enter Exodus, we move into a time in which the Hebrew people are prospering in the land into which Joseph brought them. Joseph never could have imagined, when he was in the pit, in slavery, or in prison, that one day his descendants would be so prosperous that they would be a threat to the mighty Egyptians.
We read that at the peak of prosperity, the Hebrews are enslaved. A program of genocide begins. God’s people are in need of saving. Now, we are introduced to the one who will be God’s agent of justice and change. Today’s text introduces us to him as a helpless baby, without a name, doomed to death, cast adrift upon the water, and ultimately saved.
Pharaoh’s daughter, who is bathing at the river, spots the basket. One of the few people with the power to give the baby life, she is moved by pity to an act of compassion. The baby’s sister, who had never really left him alone but watched from the shore, suggests a plan that is both convenient for pharaoh’s daughter, and guaranteed to save her brother’s life. In this fragile beginning of Moses, God’s providence is made known.
Webster’s Dictionary defines providence as “the foreseeing care of God over his creatures, especially omnisciently directing the universe with wise benevolence.” The concept of providence is an important focus for many biblical writers, and is a major theme in the history of Christian theology. Theologians think of providence when they observe a pattern emerge from chaos, or a great goal reached despite many obstacles along the way. Through the course of Church history,, providence often has been the theologian’s simplest and best answer for explaining why things turn out all right in the end.
But for some people, life’s problems are more complex. Some of you may silently wonder, “If God’s care is so evident in this story, why did God allow the evil at all? Why didn’t God depose the insecure pharaoh before he could do any harm? Why didn’t God bring on the scene a ruler sympathetic to the Hebrews? Why did babies have to be slaughtered? Why did God’s people have to suffer at all?
In our struggle for answers, it is important to recognize the evil at work in the stories of Moses and Joseph. These are not cases of things going wrong because of an accident, a natural tragedy, or inner psychological turmoil. These are cases in which human beings make moral choices to commit evil acts. In such instances, it may be helpful for us to think about a distinction between God’s “intentional” will, and God’s “circumstantial” will.[i]
We may think of God’s “intentional will” as a sort of master plan for how things should be. Was it God’s intention from the beginning that the Hebrew people should be enslaved, and that their sons should be senselessly slaughtered by drowning in the Nile? Or in last week’s text, was it God’s intention that Joseph should be attacked, sold into slavery, and imprisoned? I think the answer to these questions is no.
If events had unfolded according to God’s intention, perhaps Joseph would have struck up a conversation with traders in another caravan. He may have been enticed by the adventure of finding work in another land, much like his father had done when as a young man he went to work for his uncle. Perhaps the Egyptians would have appreciated the strength and vigor of the Hebrew people, and struck up an equitable partnership to benefit both groups. According to God’s intentional will, the evil decisions and actions of humans never would have occurred.
We may think of God’s “circumstantial” will as something that comes into play when evil sets up a dilemma. In those circumstances, the master plan must be modified in order to address the consequences of evil. The false witness of Potiphar’s wife landed Joseph in prison. In those circumstances, it was God’s will that Joseph should not sulk, but work to find a way out, which he did when called upon to interpret the king’s dreams. Pharaoh feared the Hebrews enough to institute a program of genocide. In those circumstances, it was God’s will that Moses’ mother should place him in a basket upon the river. It was God’s will that Moses’ sister should watch over him, and help him come to the notice of Pharaoh’s daughter, and so be spared.
There is a third way of thinking about God’s will -- something we can call God’s “ultimate” will. Leslie Weatherhead, for many years the minister of City Temple in London, says that the ultimate will is “the purposefulness of God which, in spite of evil, and even through evil, arrives, with nothing of value lost, at the same goal as would have been reached if the intentional will of God could have been carried through without frustration."[ii]
Weatherhead uses the image of a river that has been dammed up. He says that no matter how large and sophisticated the dam, something still has to happen to the water. Between the mountaintops and ocean, you can divert the water; you can store great quantities of it at one site or another. But ultimately the water that started at the mountaintop must reach the ocean. Ultimately, God’s plan for history is accomplished.
A few weeks ago, Nicholas Kristof wrote his final essay for The New York Times. For nearly forty years, he has been covering news and writing columns, good enough that he has earned a couple Pulitzer Prizes for journalism. He has said that he is not a particularly religious Christian, though he does see faith as one of the most important forces for good or ill.[iii]
He says that he has spent his career on the front lines of human suffering and depravity, covering genocide, war, poverty, and injustice. Still, the number-one lesson he has learned is that side by side with the worst of humanity, you will find the best.
He remembers his time in Darfur, and the way the evidence of genocide terrified him. It was hard to keep from weeping as he interviewed shellshocked children who had been shot, raped, or orphaned. Yet alongside the monsters, he says he invariably found heroes. There were refugees who sacrificed their well-being, if not their lives, in order to save members of their communities. He writes, “Even in a landscape of evil, the most memorable people are not the Himmlers and Eichmanns but the Anne Franks and Raoul Wallenbergs capable of exhilarating goodness in the face of nauseating evil. They are why I left the front lines not depressed but inspired.”[iv]
Kristof’s message is a good one to hear when we doubt that God’s plan for history is being accomplished. His realistic but hopeful perspective is not unlike the editors who put the first five books of the Bible into final form. Those who put the stories of Joseph and Moses in our Bible wanted us to know that one impressive thing about God’s people is their miraculous preservation. Over the generations, the promises of God to Abraham have been in danger many times. But always God’s people are rescued and preserved. God’s intentions can be temporarily defeated by human evil. But the good news is this: eventually a great force, you may call it providence, will move the world along towards God’s intended goals.
NOTES
[i] This distinction is the one made by Leslie D. Weatherhead, “The Will of God,” New York: Abingdon Press, 1954.
[ii] Weatherhead, p. 12.
[iii] Nicholas Kristof, “What Religion Would Jesus Belong to?” The New York Times, 3 Sept. 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/opinion/sunday/what-religion-would-jesus-belong-to.html?emc=edit_nk_20160902&nl=nickkristof&nlid=70839476&te=1&_r=0, accessed 3 Nov. 2021.
[iv] Nicholas Kristof, A Farewell to Readers, With Hope,” The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/opinion/sunday/nick-kristof-farewell.html , accessed 28 Oct. 2021.
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