Learning From God's School of Providence

Introduction

You've probably all heard the slogan, "Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat its mistakes." But history can also be a positive thing that moves us to cling to God - the subject of last week's sermon. In an intriguing essay on the importance of studying church history, Fredrick Loetscher explained why the Bible gives so much space to history and why studying church history can be (in his own words) "a mighty means of grace." You may be skeptical that history can be a mighty means of grace, but he points out how the various negative aspects of those histories can make us more vigilant, and the good and beautiful things found in history can fill our hearts with a desire to be more like them.¹

But more importantly, since God personally governs history by His providence, history is not a meaningless jumble of events. And those of you who were part of the Providential History Festivals that we used to organize, saw that that was indeed true.

But the same can be said of your own family history. My mother and father have told stories from their own lives and their ancestors lives that had a huge impact upon my own life in trusting God’s providence. And so today's passage focuses upon learning from God's school of providence.

You cannot pass on what you have not personally embraced (v. 2)

And the first lesson we learn is that you can't pass on to your children what you have not personally embraced yourself. It’s not simply an academic issue. Now, granted, the Hebrew of verse 2 is very difficult, and most commentators admit that. But after reading 154 commentaries on this verse, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on what it is saying. And by the way, I own a lot more than 154 commentaries on Deuteronomy, but I felt reading that many was plenty. The NKJV says, "Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm..." Let me start by clarifying four things that could be otherwise missed.

First, the word "chastening" does not adequately capture the meaning of the Hebrew word mûsār, which refers to the whole education that a parent gives to his child - both negative discipline and positive training.² And in the next verses He will be dealing with both. So several commentaries emphasize that this verse refers to both discipline and instruction.³ God's providences in our lives are designed to both chasten and to positively train us. And if we are going to truly learn from our own providences, we need to see every one of them as in some way training us.

Second, the word "know" is not simply remembering, but refers to internally embracing what God has been teaching them via several providences from the past. As Craigie words it, "The people would understand that the divine education which they had been given, from the time they had left Egypt up to the present, was preparing them for the events still lying ahead of them."⁴ So if you see the word ‘know’ as internally embracing, you will have a better idea of the kind of experiential knowledge that he is referring to.

Third, when he says, "I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God," He is referring to either very young children (who probably couldn't understand a word what Moses was saying) or children not yet born. One commentary gives several contextual reasons why (in his words) "it is a mistake to read 'your children' (Deut. 11:2) as any others than those very small children and infants recently born."⁵ Others apply it not only to those young children, but to future children yet to be born. And let me tell you just one contextual clue of what children he is referring to. In verses 18 and following Moses will tell this generation that they will be responsible in the future to teach those same children what they have learned. But you can't adequately teach your children how to learn from God's providences if you have not been modeling to them the proper responses to providences you have experienced. When you moan and gripe over God's providences you teach your children to moan and gripe over God's providences. They catch more from your reactions to providences than what you verbally and theoretically teach them about providences. We adults have a huge responsibility to submit to God's school of providence that is perfectly designed to prepare us for our future.

Fourth, the phrase "His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm" summarizes everything he is shortly going to mention from the past forty years as being perfectly crafted by God's school of providence. None of it was accidental. None of it was outside of God's mighty hand. None of it was a mistake. All of it was designed to prepare them to be an incredible force for taking on the land of Canaan. These providences had prepared them.

Let me quote two paragraphs from another commentary that summarizes the general consensus of what is being taught in verse 2. It says,

After the Egyptian experience, the Lord sent His children “to school” in the wilderness for forty years. Here their education was further refined as they had to depend upon Him totally for all their needs. In the Exodus experience the people learned about God’s grace and power; in the desert they learned of His providential care. Then in the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram (detailed in Num. 16), Israel learned about God’s holiness...

Moses exhorted the people to learn from their past, for God had constructed their history with a didactic purpose. “Your children … have not known and … have not seen …. but your eyes have seen” (vv. 2, 7) hints at the parents’ responsibility to model obedient living and pass on to their children the truths learned from past experiences.⁶

The point is that the providences we go through are God's formative training in our lives, and our responses to both the blessings and the difficulties God has given to us show whether we have learned our lessons well enough to pass them on to the next generation. You adults have received hand-crafted instruction from the Lord. You have experienced His correction, watched prayers get answered (or not yet answered), and seen God sustain you through difficulty. Those years should give you something to contribute to others.

But we all know that experience by itself does not automatically produce maturity, does it? We need to ask: • Have God’s mercies made me more grateful than I used to be? • Has His correction made me more teachable? • Am I quicker to seek Him when difficulty comes than I used to be? • Do younger believers hear reasons to trust God when they listen to how I respond to God's providence - or do I turn them off? If your children only hear you getting grumpy over God's difficult providences, you are not being a good teacher. You are not modeling to them a heart that is quick to learn. You are modeling resentment, ingratitude, and lack of trust.

So verse 2 - even though it is short - is a gentle reminder that how we respond to God's providences can have a huge impact upon the next generation. God is speaking to those of you who can understand my words- not to somebody else.

Let His victory over Egypt strengthen your courage (vv. 3-4)

But he fills this idea out in verses 3-7. In those verses Moses recalls the particular lessons God had given to them. Verses 3-4 begin with the power God displayed against the greatest earthly threat that Israel had ever known. It was far worse than anything that they would come up against in Canaan. Let's read verses 3-4 again, and then I will comment on them. He says,

3 His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4 what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day...

Why bring up these events from forty years earlier when they are about to enter a totally new land? Well, the God who overthrew Pharaoh would be sufficient for the challenges ahead. Remembered deliverance should strengthen present obedience - at least if we are sensitive to learn from God's providences.

Pharaoh had possessed political authority, military strength, horses, and scary chariots. There was absolutely no way that Israel could have secured its freedom through its own resources. They were slaves. They owned nothing. Yet everything that appeared irresistible eventually proved to be totally subject to the Lord.

Imagine how that memory should have affected their assessment of Canaan. The cities ahead were indeed formidable, but Israel had already seen God overcome formidable opposition. Their future enemies would never be beyond His authority.

This gives courage a foundation in God’s revealed character and faithfulness. The obstacles are real, but they must be considered in light of the God who commands His people to move forward.

When you are training fearful children you can ask, "Son, did God come through for you on x [x being some providential event that the child had already experienced]? Yes He did. Did He come through for you on y and z? Yes He did. So why are you fearful that He won't come through for you now? If God has called you to do something, you can trust Him despite fears."

This of course needs to be differentiated from presumption. Israel had a specific promise concerning Canaan. It would have been a disaster for them to try to conquer Canaan without God's go-ahead - as they discovered forty years earlier - when they tried and God had told them not to try. We should therefore apply this passage by having confidence that God will enable us to do what He commands, without assuming that every plan we devise carries a promise of success. The key thing is to know from Scripture what God has clearly commanded you to do.

What known duty are you postponing because the opposition seems too strong? That's the question. Consider that duty again in light of the Lord’s power. That's what verses 3-4 are calling you to.

Let His wilderness dealings deepen your dependence (v. 5)

But God’s instruction continued after His miraculous deliverance from Pharaoh. Israel had also learned how to depend upon Him through the long journey that followed. Verse 5 says, what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; Those were the more boring provisions God had given over the past forty years. Yes, the wilderness years were sprinkled with some miracles, but most of it was boring - ultra boring.

This verse gathers years of wilderness history into a brief statement. But behind that history stood God's provision, testing, correction, and preservation. Deuteronomy 8:2–5 has already explained how the wilderness humbled Israel and taught Israel to depend upon the Lord for everything. God’s care and correction had accompanied them all the way to this place. They must continue to depend upon Him.

That history of God's daily provision matters. Deliverance from Egypt did not remove their need for God the following morning. Some people wish they could experience God's miracles every single day, but Moses reminds them that God was very involved in the ordinary duties (the boring duties) of every day. They still needed to collect food, water, get direction, and protection from sickness, etc. Each new day gave them another occasion to trust Him.

An ordinary illustration may help: most of us remember only a few exceptional and particularly delicious meals, yet thousands of largely forgotten meals have sustained our lives, haven't they? In a similar way, God’s repeated mercies can become so familiar that we cease to notice how much we depend upon them. But we need to continually remind ourselves that His mercies are new every morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 say,

Through the LORD’S mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

The point is that the greatness of God's faithfulness is seen not just in the awesome times of spectacular deliverance, but also in the fact that we have food, shelter, clothing, and (for most of us) our hair that hasn't fallen out yet, and we still have eye sight, we still have our teeth (at least most of us do), and many other ordinary provisions. He is saying, "That is all God's work, and we need to thank Him for it." Some believers feel that their testimony is unremarkable because they cannot describe a dramatic rescue (like other people have had). Don't worry about that. Years of sustaining grace are plenty of reason for gratitude. God has preserved faith, supplied help, brought needed correction, and enabled perseverance. My mother is thankful every day that she still has her teeth at the age of 101, and can still can walk, and doesn't have the miseries that a lot of people less than her age have. She is thankful for God’s ordinary provisions.

Of course, there is a caution here. Not every difficulty other people face is a discipline for sin - and we shouldn’t instantly jump to that conclusion. We should interpret our experiences through Scripture, without pretending to know every hidden purpose behind a particular hardship. Every day I praise God for the hardships He has taken me through over the past three years. Yes, I have examined my heart to see if there is any sin the Lord is disciplining me for. It’s important that we do that. But I have discovered that those hardships (and God's sustaining grace in them) have hugely increased my faith. They have been good for me. One of the main themes at our elders summit this past week is learning how to benefit from afflictions. David said, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” I think that is at least one of the reasons God has brought these hardships into my life. But there other reasons too. I praise God for sleepless nights (and I have had plenty) not only because of the opportunities they provide for prayer, but also because they make me appreciate the nights of good sleep, and to not take those good nights of sleep for granted. Psalm 127:2 says that God gives His beloved sleep. That is so ordinary, yet it says that God is the one who gave that sleep. He gives and He takes away, and it’s all for our good - and we should be able to say, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

The point is that how we interact with God's ordinary providence reveals our heart as much as how we interact with His spectacular providences. The same people who grumbled over God's ordinary providences in the book of Numbers also failed to appreciate His miracles. The previous generation complained despite seeing miracle after miracle. They longingly looked to Egypt as if it was a land flowing with milk and honey and completely forgot how miserable they were in Egypt. They lost perspective that in the wilderness their clothing and shoes did not wear out. He provided manna. He guided them in ordinary ways. The past forty years of provision should have taught them gratitude in the ordinary affairs of life. And it is my prayer that we will all become more grateful for the ordinary provisions of life as well.

Let His judgment within Israel destroy your presumption (v. 6)

Verse 6 goes on to show how God also taught this generation through tough discipline. He just mentions one discipline, but others could have been mentioned. Verse 6 says, and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel—

The movement of the passage is sobering. Moses first recalls judgment upon Egypt; now he recalls judgment within Israel. When you put on the fear of God that I taught about last week, you will not want to cross God. Belonging to the covenant community did not give anyone permission to rebel against its Lord. Some people misunderstand God’s grace and assume that they are safe during rebellion. Nothing could be further from the truth. That’s like standing on a railroad track with the train bearing down on you. That’s not bravery; that’s foolishness. Others assume that everything will be great when they are faithfully walking with the Lord, and then are disillusioned when a disaster hits them. But even those disasters were meant for their good.

Numbers 16 reveals how distorted Dathan and Abiram’s thinking had become. As I've already mentioned, they described Egypt as a land flowing with milk and honey and claimed that God's providential provision in the wilderness was not good. Resentment had taught them to portray the place of slavery as the good life they had lost. But you know what? We can have the same kind of blindness if we allow bitterness to cloud our thinking. They claimed that their past slavery was good and their present liberty was evil. Reality was turned completely upside down in their minds. That’s what bitterness and resentment does to us. You’ve got to let it go.

We can do something similar when obedience becomes difficult. We remember the pleasures associated with an old sin while forgetting its bondage and consequences of that sin. We begin to treat God’s deliverance as though it deprived us of something desirable. And our heart begins to long for the pleasures of sin even though we know full well the bondage that will come from it.

The account also exposes the limits of simply experiencing God's providence without having a changed heart. Just like some children don't learn from the disciplines they receive, and they continue to buck their parents, some Christians fail to appreciate God's providences and take any disciplines God may bring as proof of God's absence rather than God's love. I won't read all of Numbers 16, but I think it is worth reading the last few verses. Here is how many in Israel responded to God's just judgment of Dathan, Abiram, and those who stood with them. It says,

Num. 16:41 On the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the LORD.” 42 Now it happened, when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting; and suddenly the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared. 43 Then Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting. 44 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 45 “Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces. 46 So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the LORD. The plague has begun.” 47 Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. 48 And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped. 49 Now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the Korah incident. 50 So Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, for the plague had stopped.

Some people never seem to learn - no matter how many privileges God has bestowed upon them, they don't seem to learn from God's providential lessons. If they lack some cherished desire, they ignore the enormous number of blessings that God has already given. Moses reminds them of this history to help encourage them to appreciate the fact that God's mercies are new every morning. I know some of you doubt that. Well, this is a call to trust God.

Respond faithfully to what your own eyes have seen (v. 7)

He concludes in verse 7 by saying that since they had witnessed forty years of God's provision, they had no excuse for unbelief. What would they now do with what they knew? Verse 7 says, "but your eyes have seen every great act of the LORD which He did."

Remembering God’s works must bear fruit in trust, repentance, and obedience. Verse 8 makes that response explicit and points toward the conquest. And we will look at that next week, Lord willing. But the point of verse 7 is that the historical review presses for a present response. Israel must face the next stage of its calling as a people instructed by God’s power, care, and holiness.

Deuteronomy 29:2–4 later distinguishes between seeing God’s mighty acts and possessing a heart that understands them and walks continually with a consciousness of God's goodness. That is why our response must include prayer for inward renewal. David said, “create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” If even David needed to pray that, you do too. We need God to make us receptive to His providential lessons.

First Corinthians 10:1–13 brings this warning directly to the church. Paul tells us that we need to learn from Israel's forty years in the wilderness. And he wants our responses to be specific: • It should include trust: Entrust the next difficulty to the God who has revealed His faithfulness. • Second , Paul says that it should include repentance: Turn from any and ever sin that His Word exposes. We may not know for sure whether a difficult providence is a discipline for sin, but it is worth asking God to search our hearts and to expose anything we need to repent of. • Third, Paul said that it should include obedience: Take the next step He has clearly commanded. • And fourth, it should include remembrance and praise. There is something healing and restorative about praise. Recount His mercies in ways that strengthen faith and prepare you to teach others.

Our confidence rests in Christ, who perfectly obeyed the Father and bore the judgment His people deserved. We come to Him for forgiveness and for the Spirit’s renewing work. His grace enables us to receive God’s providential instruction and to act upon it.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, let me sum up by saying that on the verge of entering Canaan God reminds them of a history of providence that He has brought them through that was filled with instruction. Jon Courson comments on this passage saying,

I find it interesting that Moses would address this to the adults, to those who had seen so much, who know a lot because, as adults, we have a tendency to say, “I hope my kids heard that sermon,” or, “I hope my kids got that lesson,” or, “I’m going to send the tape to my son-in-law or my granddaughter.” There’s nothing wrong with that, but our kids want us to be godly, to live lives that are exemplary, to have integrity, to be holy, to be godly. It’s not [just] about learning something to pass on to our kids, but about applying it to our own lives.⁷

So what difference has God's providential history made in your life?

• The fearful believer should learn to take courage from God's power. When you model such courage in your own life, you will be surprised at how your kids will similarly respond with courage to the tough challenges they face. • Second, the weary believer should remember God's sustaining care for those who are weary. That too translates well when we train our children. • Third, the complacent believer must take His warnings seriously. If we want our children to take God’s warnings seriously, we need to model that. • Fourth, every one of us needs to come to Christ for grace to respond.

So think of one responsibility that the Lord has laid before you this week. Bring to mind what Scripture reveals about the character of the God who calls you to it. Remember His mercies. Ask Him for a teachable heart. Then take the next step of obedience in dependence upon Him. Amen.