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Experts About Providence (continued) Elder Mark Green

God acts providentially in both miraculous and non-miraculous ways. When the ax

head flew off the handle of one of the sons of the prophets in Elisha's day, it fell to the
bottom of the stream. This is what would have happened in the ordinary course of
events, according to the previously established law of gravity. When Elijah caused it
to float, that was a miraculous intervention into the ordinary course of events that

caused something extraordinary to happen. Let us take another example: had Joseph's
brothers killed him as they had intended, that is what would have happened had not
God intervened. Through God's providence, however, Joseph's life was spared, and
he was carried to Egypt, where he became the deliverer of the land through his admin-

istrative ability and wisdom; but nothing contrary to nature occurred in that sequence
of events. This is an example of a non-miraculous intervention by God into the affairs
of men. In both examples the outcome was changed from what it would have been;
both are examples of God's providence; but in one the laws of nature were suspended,

and in the other they were not.

When a miracle happens, it is obvious that God has intervened in the affairs of men.
However, when God intervenes non-miraculously, we may or may not know it. In

Biblical times, God sometimes told men that He had acted, but today we are left with-
out such a divine explanation. A man is a fool who sees all the recklessness and negli-
gence that occurs upon the highways of this country and does not believe that God
intervenes to protect his people. How many times each and every day are we pro-

tected by an unseen Hand from our own and other men's folly, not to mention from
the might of Nature? You may not believe that God has turned storms to protect his
people, but I certainly do. I did not get a letter from heaven telling me that He did it,
but I believe it nonetheless, knowing some little bit of the mercy and power of God in

my own life.

It is amazing how easy it is for people to become "experts" about God's providence.
They are able to tell us just how God has worked — or has not worked — in the

affairs of men. Some seem to think that God cannot overrule evil so as to bring good
from it without their knowledge of it. He did it frequently in the Old Testament, but
suddenly He does not seem to be doing it today. They seem to have comprehended the
workings of divine providence so well that they are able to say with remarkable confi-

dence that "God did not do that" when some cataclysmic event happens. Nahum said
that "the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm," but evidently things
have changed since those days, for according to them, He never uses the forces of
nature as judgment upon men today. Moreover, according to them, God seldom if

continues