Jeremy Thomas – Teacher

1. Introduction to God’s Providence
   1. Providence as comprehensive yet incomprehensible, to be believed and embraced even though it cannot be fully explained (1 Corinthians 13:9 implied “know in part”).
   2. Call to fully believe in God’s providence even when the realities cannot be fully articulated.
   3. Need to define God’s sovereignty before defining providence.
   4. God’s sovereignty as His supreme and ultimate control over everything, everyone, everywhere, every moment.
   5. Providence defined as God’s purposeful sovereignty, with sovereignty emphasizing strength and power and providence emphasizing purpose and plan.
2. Biblical Depth of God’s Wisdom and Ways
   1. Romans 11:33–36 and the unsearchable judgments of God
      1. “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God” highlighting the unsearchable nature of His judgments and inscrutable ways (Romans 11:33–36).
      2. Human beings cannot package or exhaustively explain God’s providence in statements, papers, or books.
      3. Question “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” showing that fully knowing God’s mind cannot be the goal (Romans 11:34).
      4. “Who has been his counselor?” exposing the folly of thinking we can advise or correct God’s ways (Romans 11:34).
      5. “Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” affirming God’s independence and our inability to put Him in our debt (Romans 11:35).
      6. “For from him and through him and to him are all things” declaring God as source, means, and goal of all things; to Him be glory forever (Romans 11:36).
   2. God’s thoughts and ways higher than ours
      1. Isaiah 55:9 cited: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
      2. When our ideas about God clash with Scripture, the problem is never that our thoughts are higher than His.
      3. Providence described as perplexing, provocative, pervasive, and always purposeful.
   3. Working definition and teaching outline for providence
      1. Providence summarized as God’s purposeful sovereignty.
      2. Outline for exploring providence: God’s providence for Joseph, in Jesus, over Judas, in James, and in the life of Jeremy.
      3. Noting the providential “J” pattern in Joseph, Jesus, Judas, James, and Jeremy.
3. Providence in the Life of Joseph
   1. Narrative context in Genesis
      1. Encouragement from the lesson to read Genesis 37–50 as a sweeping narrative of God’s providence.
      2. Joseph hated by his brothers and sold into slavery (Genesis 37).
      3. Joseph raised by God to become second in command in Egypt (Genesis 41).
      4. Backdrop of a devastating famine across the known world affecting Egypt and Joseph’s family (Genesis 41–42).
   2. Genesis 45 and Joseph’s perspective on providence
      1. Joseph addressing his brothers after being exalted in Egypt (Genesis 45).
      2. “Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here” showing his settled heart (Genesis 45:5).
      3. “For God sent me before you to preserve life” emphasizing God’s sending over their selling (Genesis 45:5).
      4. Explanation of the ongoing famine and Joseph’s confidence in God’s plan for the remaining years (Genesis 45:6).
      5. “And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors” tying providence to preserving a remnant (Genesis 45:7).
      6. “So it was not you who sent me here, but God” summarizing Joseph’s theology of providence (Genesis 45:8).
   3. Genesis 50 and the “you meant evil, God meant good” principle
      1. Joseph’s brothers fear retaliation after Jacob’s death (Genesis 50:15–17).
      2. Brothers confess their evil and ask for forgiveness, acknowledging transgression and sin (Genesis 50:17).
      3. Joseph weeps and hears them declare “We are your servants” showing their changed hearts (Genesis 50:18).
      4. “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?” revealing Joseph’s refusal to claim ultimate authority (Genesis 50:19).
      5. “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” affirming simultaneous human evil intent and divine good intent (Genesis 50:20).
      6. God’s intent to save many lives, including Joseph’s family, and to advance His redemptive plan (Genesis 50:20).
      7. Joseph’s choice to provide for his brothers and their little ones, comforting and speaking kindly to them (Genesis 50:21).
   4. Joseph’s model of living by faith in providence
      1. Joseph acknowledges the real evil of his brothers’ actions yet focuses on God’s higher purpose.
      2. He chooses to reflect God’s love rather than react in kind to his brothers’ sin.
      3. Joseph becomes an example of trusting God’s providence in the midst of profound injustice and suffering.
4. Providence in the Crucifixion of Jesus
   1. Greatest human evil and greatest divine good
      1. The crucifixion of Jesus identified as the greatest evil ever worked by man.
      2. The cross likewise identified as the means of the greatest good ever done by God in redemption.
      3. Jesus’ followers, especially Peter, reflect on the cross through the lens of God’s providence.
   2. Acts 2 and the definite plan of God
      1. Peter preaching in Acts 2 after spending time with the risen Christ (Acts 2:22–23; Luke 24 background).
      2. Jesus of Nazareth attested by God through mighty works, wonders, and signs (Acts 2:22).
      3. “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” highlighting divine providence (Acts 2:23).
      4. “You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” underscoring human responsibility and guilt (Acts 2:23).
      5. Affirmation that God’s sovereignty does not cancel human culpability for sinful actions.
   3. Acts 4 and compatibilism in the cross
      1. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, declares to rulers and elders that they crucified Jesus, whom God raised (Acts 4:8–10).
      2. Jesus as the stone rejected by the builders, who has become the chief cornerstone (Acts 4:11; Psalm 118:22 allusion).
      3. Believers gather to pray, addressing God as “Sovereign Lord” (Acts 4:24).
      4. Prayer recalling those gathered against Jesus: Herod, Pontius Pilate, Gentiles, and peoples of Israel (Acts 4:27).
      5. They did “whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place,” combining divine predestination with human choices (Acts 4:28).
      6. Example of “compatibilism”: God ordains and humans freely choose, side by side, without contradiction in God’s perspective.
   4. Jesus’ own submission to the Father’s will
      1. In Gethsemane Jesus prays, “Not my will, but your will be done,” trusting the Father’s purpose in suffering (Luke 22:42).
      2. Jesus affirms that there is a divine purpose in the pain of the cross and submits to it by faith.
5. Providence and the Betrayal of Judas
   1. Jesus’ knowledge and choice of Judas
      1. Jesus chose Judas knowing he would betray Him (John 6:70–71).
      2. Jesus knew from the beginning who did not believe and who would betray Him (John 6:64).
   2. Satan’s role and Judas’s character
      1. The devil puts betrayal into Judas’s heart and later enters him (John 13:2, John 13:27).
      2. Judas described as a thief whose master was money (John 12:4–6).
      3. Judas acts according to his own greedy and sinful character even while being influenced by Satan.
   3. Judas fulfilling Scripture and his own will
      1. Judas’ betrayal understood as fulfillment of Scripture (Acts 1:16; Mark 14:21).
      2. He simultaneously fulfills his own sinful will and choices.
      3. Matthew 27:3–5: Judas changes his mind, admits “I have sinned,” and hangs himself, acknowledging his own guilt (Matthew 27:3–5).
      4. Judas’ self-evaluation confirms his moral responsibility despite God’s sovereignty and Satan’s influence.
   4. Parallel with Job and spiritual warfare
      1. Satan’s activity in Judas parallels Satan’s activity in the book of Job (Job 1–2).
      2. God remains sovereign over all satanic and human actions, using them without being the author of sin.
6. Living under Providence: The Book of James
   1. Planning under God’s will in James 4
      1. James addresses those who confidently plan business and profit “Today or tomorrow we will go…” (James 4:13).
      2. Reminder that we do not know what tomorrow will bring; life is a mist that appears briefly then vanishes (James 4:14).
      3. Challenge to consider whether our brief lives will reflect Christ or merely self-driven striving.
   2. Saying “If the Lord wills” as a posture of submission
      1. Instruction: “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:15).
      2. God has a providential plan; humans have real choices and actions within that plan.
      3. God has not deified human decision-making, but He has dignified human beings as real moral agents with accountable choices.
   3. Desiring to align with God’s revealed will
      1. Christians are called to long to live in accordance with God’s purpose rather than in rebellion against His revealed will.
      2. Providence invites humble planning, active obedience, and trust rather than anxious self-sovereignty.
7. Experiencing Providence: The Life of Jeremy
   1. Move to Minnesota and seminary discernment
      1. Story of moving from Ohio to Minnesota connected to God’s providence.
      2. Application to Bethlehem College & Seminary and receiving a “waitlist” response instead of clear acceptance or rejection.
      3. Struggle with confusion, frustration, and the unknown while seeking God’s will.
   2. Waiting on God versus demanding answers
      1. Decision to call on the Lord before calling the seminary, choosing to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33 allusion).
      2. Phone call with the school revealing that the dean (Tom Steller) was leaving on an early-morning missions trip to Myanmar.
      3. Choice to wait for answers, recognizing that human explanations would not resolve all heart-level questions.
   3. Learning to “wait on the Lord”
      1. Remembering Isaiah 40:31: those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength, mount up with wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, walk and not faint.
      2. Experiencing that promise in the unknown period between application and decision.
      3. Realization that God wanted to be known not only through professors and books but personally in the waiting.
   4. Perspective gained in retrospect
      1. Looking back like Joseph on 22 years, seeing God’s good hand in the eventual move and ministry.
      2. Shift from primarily wanting to know God’s future will to primarily wanting to know God Himself.
      3. Contrast with earlier seasons (college, marriage decisions) when the focus was trying to decode God’s specific will rather than trusting His providence.
   5. Deuteronomy 29:29 and revealed versus secret things
      1. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
      2. God keeps some aspects of His plan and providence hidden, calling us to trust Him with mysteries.
      3. What God has revealed belongs to us and our children so that we may do all the words of His law, emphasizing obedience over exhaustive understanding.
   6. Closing pastoral prayer
      1. Prayer that when understanding is lacking, God would help His people walk by faith, trusting Him as Shepherd (Psalm 23 allusion).
      2. Request for faith to trust God’s heart when His hand cannot be traced, embracing His purposeful sovereignty.
      3. Affirmation that God comprehensively, pervasively, and purposefully governs all things perfectly, and that the perfection lies in His ways, not in our understanding.