Scriptures Supporting God's Full Providence and Sovereign Ordination of All Events

Me Died Blue · #1 (**permalink**) 04-12-2005, 09:55 PM

Here are many of the Scriptures (all ESV) I have compiled over the past few years clearly showing that God's providence is full, and that He sovereignly ordains every single event that comes to pass, including the sinful and the seemingly insignificant. While it would be impossible to make an exhaustive list without essentially re-printing the entire Bible, hopefully these will make the case clear enough:

-Genesis 20:6 "œThen God said to him [Abimelech] in the dream, "˜Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.´"

-Genesis 35:5 "œAnd as they [Jacob and his household] journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob."

-Genesis 45:5-8 "œAnd now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves [Joseph´s brothers] because you sold me [Joseph] here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt."

-Genesis 50:20 "œAs for you [Joseph´s brothers], you meant evil against me [Joseph], but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."

-Exodus 4:11 "œThen the LORD said to him [Moses], "˜Who has made man´s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?´"

-Deuteronomy 2:25 "œThis day I [God] will begin to put the dread and fear of you [Israel] on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you."

-Joshua 11:19-20, "œThere was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle. For it was the LORD´s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel is battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the LORD commanded Moses."

-1 Samuel 2:25 "œIf someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?" But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the LORD to put them to death."

-2 Chronicles 22:7 "œBut it was ordained by God that the downfall of Ahaziah should come about through his going to visit Joram. For when he came there, he went out with Jehoram to meet Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab."

-Ezra 1:1 "œIn the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing."

-Ezra 1:5 "œThen rose up the heads of the fathers´ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem."

-Ezra 6:22 "œAnd they [returned exiles of Israel] kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the LORD had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel."

-Ezra 7:27 "œBlessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem."

-Job 12:9-10, 13-25 "œWho among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding. If he tears down, none can rebuild; if he shuts a man in, none can open. If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land. With him are strength and sound wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his. He leads counselors away stripped, and judges he makes fools. He looses the bonds of kings and binds a waistcloth on their hips. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows the mighty. He deprives of speech those who are trusted and takes away the discernment of the elders. He pours contempt on princes and loosens the belt of the strong. He uncovers the deeps out of darkness and brings deep darkness to light. He makes nations great, and he destroys them; he enlarges nations, and leads them away. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a pathless waste. They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man."

-Job 14:5-6 "œSince his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you [God], and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day."

-Job 31:4 "œDoes not he [God] see my [Job´s] ways and number all my steps?"

-Job 36:22-33 "œBehold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, "˜You have done wrong´? Remember to extol his work, of which men have sung. All mankind has looked on it; man beholds it from afar. Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable. For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain, which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea. For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance. He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark. Its crashing declares his presence; the cattle also declare that he rises."

-Job 42:2 "œI [Job] know that you [God] can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted."

-Psalm 22:9-10 "œYet you [God] are he who took me [David] from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother´s breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother´s womb you have been my God."

-Psalm 33:10-15 "œThe LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds."

-Psalm 71:6 "œUpon you [God] I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother´s womb. My praise is continually of you."

-Psalm 105:23-25 "œThen Israel came to Egypt; Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And the LORD made his people very fruitful and made them stronger than their foes. He turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants."

-Psalm 115:3 "œOur God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases."

-Psalm 135:6-12 "œWhatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and of beast; who in your midst, O Egypt, sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants; who struck down many nations and killed mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people Israel."

-Psalm 139:13-16 "œFor you [God] formed my [David´s] inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother´s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them."

-Proverbs 16:4 "œThe LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble."

-Proverbs 16:9 "œThe heart of a man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps."

-Proverbs 16:33 "œThe lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD."

-Proverbs 21:1 "œThe king´s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will."

-Isaiah 14:24-27 "œThe LORD of hosts has sworn: "˜As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder.´ This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?

-Isaiah 26:12 "œO LORD, you will ordain peace for us [Your people]; you have done for us all our works."

-Isaiah 43

-Isaiah 45:7 "œI [God] form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things."

-Isaiah 45:20-21 "œAssemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me."

-Isaiah 46:10-11 "œ[God] declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, "˜My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,´ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it."

-Isaiah 55:10-11 "œFor as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my [God´s] word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."

-Daniel 4:35 "œAll the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he [God] does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "˜What have you done?´"

-Amos 3:6 "œIs a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?"

-Nahum 1:3-6 "œ"¦His [God´s] way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it"¦the rocks are broken into pieces by him."

-Matthew 19:26 "œBut Jesus looked at them [the disciples] and said, "˜With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.´"

-Acts 4:27-28 "œFor truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place."

-Acts 16:14 "œOne who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul."

-Romans 8:28 "œAnd we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

-Romans 13:1-2 "œLet every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment."

-1 Corinthians 3:5-9 "œWhat then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God´s fellow workers. You are God´s field, God´s building."

-1 Corinthians 15:10 "œBut by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them [the apostles], though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me."

-2 Corinthians 8:16 "œBut thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you."

-Ephesians 1:11 "œIn him [God] we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will."

-James 1:17 "œEvery good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

-James 4:13-15 "œCome now, you who say, "˜Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit´"”yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "˜If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.´"

[edited for ease of reading]

[Edited on 1-8-2006 by Me Died Blue]

Bladestunner316 · #2 (**permalink**) 04-12-2005, 10:05 PM

VirginiaHuguenot · #3 (**permalink**) 04-13-2005, 09:52 AM

Well done, Chris!

Anton Bruckner · #4 (**permalink**) 04-15-2005, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Me Died Blue

-Genesis 20:6 "œThen God said to him [Abimelech] in the dream, "˜Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.´"
-

I like the above scripture. It is going to become my new favorite. I now see the reality of the Lord's prayer where Jesus said, "And deliver us from evil", as well as the prayer of Jabez, "That you keep me from evil".

Sad thing is, it is now I am realizing what true wealth consists of. "Being kept from evil"

BobVigneault · #5 (**permalink**) 04-15-2005, 11:49 AM

Excellent, excellent, excellent!! The only one I might add to your list :

Gen. 1:1 "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

This is the right to God's ownership and disposition of all he owns according to his pleasure.

tdowns007 · #6 (**permalink**) 04-15-2005, 12:05 PM

Sweet! I'm printing it up!

Thanks

Average Joey · #7 (**permalink**) 04-16-2005, 12:08 PM

Awesome Chris!Thanks!This is worth reading every day.

yzf 426 · #8 (**permalink**) 07-17-2005, 10:07 PM

Thank you for the list. I find comfort in Lamentations 3:37 as well.

Mark

Me Died Blue · #9 (**permalink**) 07-30-2005, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by yzf 426
Thank you for the list. I find comfort in Lamentations 3:37 as well.

Mark

I'm glad you found it helpful. And thanks for pointing out that verse as well: "Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?" (v. 37-38)

And though I'm a bit late,

to the board!

LauridsenL · #10 (**permalink**) 07-30-2005, 04:33 PM

Very nice, Chris. Thanks!

Here's one of my favorites on this topic, which was brought to my attention by a teaching series by D.A. Carson in which he refutes Open Theism. It's in Isaiah 10, and shows God stating that He will send the Assyrians to punish faithless Israel, and then He will punish the Assyrians because they will think that they had done it themselves, through their own independent idea and strength! I especially like the last verse, v. 15.

Isaiah 10:5-15 "5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, 6 I send it against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My fury To capture booty and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets. 7 Yet it does not so intend, Nor does it plan so in its heart, But rather it is its purpose to destroy And to cut off many nations. 8 For it says, "Are not my princes all kings? 9 "Is not Calno like Carchemish, Or Hamath like Arpad, Or Samaria like Damascus? 10 "As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, 11 Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?" 12 So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, "I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness." 13 For he has said, "By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this, For I have understanding; And I removed the boundaries of the peoples And plundered their treasures, And like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants, 14 And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest, And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped." 15 Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a club wielding those who lift it, Or like a rod lifting him who is not wood."

[Edited on 7-30-2005 by LauridsenL]

[Edited on 7-30-2005 by LauridsenL]

Bryan · #11 (**permalink**) 08-06-2005, 10:03 PM

Printed out this list to use in the discussion on Calvinism I'll be doing at my church tomorrow.

Bryan
SDG

Laura · #12 (**permalink**) 08-07-2005, 10:20 AM

Ahh, very nice. I've heard that Stephen Charnock's "Treatise on Providence," within a work called The Existence and Attributes of God, is exhaustive on this topic - you might want to check it out to add to the list. It's $10 at CBD normally $40...wow. I might have to get it myself now.

C. Matthew McMahon · #13 (**permalink**) 08-07-2005, 08:56 PM

Charnock is brilliant. It is something every Christian should read, and reread.

crhoades · #14 (**permalink**) 08-31-2005, 03:16 PM

bump - in light of this weeks events...these verses were especially striking to me:

Job 12:9-10, 13-25 "œWho among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding. If he tears down, none can rebuild; if he shuts a man in, none can open. If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land. With him are strength and sound wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his. He leads counselors away stripped, and judges he makes fools. He looses the bonds of kings and binds a waistcloth on their hips. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows the mighty. He deprives of speech those who are trusted and takes away the discernment of the elders. He pours contempt on princes and loosens the belt of the strong. He uncovers the deeps out of darkness and brings deep darkness to light. He makes nations great, and he destroys them; he enlarges nations, and leads them away. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a pathless waste. They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man."

Job 36:22-33 "œBehold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, "˜You have done wrong´? Remember to extol his work, of which men have sung. All mankind has looked on it; man beholds it from afar. Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable. For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain, which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea. For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance. He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark. Its crashing declares his presence; the cattle also declare that he rises."

Psalm 115:3 "œOur God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases."

-Psalm 135:6-12 "œWhatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and of beast; who in your midst, O Egypt, sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants; who struck down many nations and killed mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people Israel."

Isaiah 45:7 "œI [God] form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things."

Isaiah 55:10-11

"œFor as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my [God´s] word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."

-Daniel 4:35 "œAll the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he [God] does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "˜What have you done?´"

-Amos 3:6 "œIs a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?"

-Nahum 1:3-6 "œ"¦His [God´s] way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it"¦the rocks are broken into pieces by him."

Average Joey · #15 (**permalink**) 11-21-2006, 02:04 PM

Act 13:47 For so hath the Lord commanded us, [saying], I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.
Act 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.