Interpreting God’s providences and your circumstances

When we read set your heart upon my providences, upon the circumstances which I brought to you - we need to be careful, and I want to erect a little yellow blinking caution light right at this point. I want to say this: that it is a very tricky business for God's people to read or interpret God's providences in their lives. I am not saying that God never gives us guidance, or in one sense communicate to us through the circumstances of our lives. But I am saying you need to be very careful about the inferences and the conclusions you draw from your circumstances and your situations. I think it was in July 1944 that Adolf Hitler in his Wolf's Lair hideout was almost blown to smithereens. But it just so happens that the briefcase in which the time bomb was planted was behind the post and the table over which Hitler leaned. Even though the building seemed to go into tatters and there were several who lost their lives in that assassination attempt, nevertheless Hitler was relatively unharmed. Aside from his eardrum being pierced and his right arm being paralyzed, he came out of that still alive and functioning. He met Mussolini that day, and he said to Mussolini that he saw the event he had just been through as a pronouncement of divine providence. He said that his preservation from that bomb attempt was God's intervention. He said, When I reflect upon that, I now see that nothing will happen to me. Well, that is one way of trying to read Providence, and we would beg to differ with Hitler on that, because before a year had gone by something very, very different had happened to Hitler. The reason I mentioned that is that you need to be careful about interpreting God's providences and your circumstances. And the reason I enter this caution is that there are some of the Lord's people, some of us that are very hard-headed and hard-hearted, and you almost need to create an explosion in order to get through to them. And there are others of us that are overly sensitive, and I am particularly concerned about the latter. There are some of the Lord's people that whatever comes to them, especially in terms of trial and affliction, will automatically interpret it as, "Oh, the Lord is displeased with me! He is punishing me for something and I must now discover what it is.” We need to remember by way of caution and balance, that the Bible teaches that there are frequently going to be troubles in the lives of believers. And you need to be careful about too quickly drawing the conclusion that the Lord is necessarily chastening you for something, because many are the afflictions of the righteous (Psalm 34:1–22). Remember that.¹

Dale Ralph Davis