Foundations for a Christian Worldview: The Works of God (7)

“And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the LORD your God. And when you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh. Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.” Deuteronomy 29.5-9

An administration within the administration
We have previously described the Lord’s work of providence, what He does, every moment in every place, to sustain and administer His creation and maintain its creatures. God’s providence bears witness to the love He has for His creation, and even for those people who oppose or deny Him. The goodness of the Lord is in all the earth, as we have seen in so many ways during our investigation into the worldview vision presented in the Law of God.

Within God’s providential administration of all things, a special exertion of divine attention and energy is directed toward His people, those He calls to Himself within His covenant. This administration is designed to keep, preserve, increase, and prosper – to bless – those who have responded to His grace by faith and obedience. We may call this particular component of divine providence God’s work of keeping. God keeps to Himself, and within the parameters of blessing marked out in His covenant, those He has chosen, redeemed, and saved. Keeping is a special component of divine providence. Like the Gulf Stream, it is a river of spiritual energy which flows with the riches of grace within the ocean of providence, and in ways that only the faithful people of God can know.

Whereas providence expresses the grace of God to all creation, keeping expresses His special grace to those who dwell within His covenant.

We can understand the uniqueness of this “administration within the administration” which is divine providence by looking at its focus and ends, as Moses outlines these in Deuteronomy 29.5-9.

Focus of God’s keeping
Five foci outline the purpose and effects of God’s keeping.

Presence. First and most important of these is the presence of God with His people (v. 5; cf. Ex. 33.12-14). God was with His people throughout their sojourn in the wilderness, as He had been with their forebears in every generation. He revealed His glory to them so that they saw Him in His greatness, majesty, power, beauty, and fearsomeness. As His people knew and practiced the presence of God, they entered the rest He provided for them – that condition of peace that leads to joy in knowing the Lord.

Guidance.Second, God guided His people each step of their way (v. 5). He guided Abram to the land of Canaan, Jacob to Ur and back to Canaan, and Israel through the desert to the banks of the Jordan River. The daily guidance of God is especially evident in the pillar of smoke and the pillar of fire by which God indicated His presence with His people. When these moved, Israel moved, and they went only so far as God directed them. Each day for forty years, they were learning how to follow the guidance of the Lord ever further into the promises of His covenant.

Provision. Third, God provided for His people’s needs at all times (vv. 5, 6). Daily they had food, water when it was nowhere to be seen, clothing, flocks and herds, and the wealth of the Egyptians to supply all their daily needs. All this came from the hand of God in a place where such supplies were not available to other people.

Protection. God protected His people throughout their sojourn in the wilderness, just as He protected their fathers before them (v. 7). At times He used skilled leaders, such as when Joshua defeated the Amalekites who were harassing the camp; at other times He protected them by direct intervention, such as at the Red Sea. God consistently made sure that the enemies of His people could not realize their plans against His chosen ones.

Promises. Finally, God daily led His people to a fuller realization of and greater trust in His precious and very great promises (v. 8). This is especially seen in the way Israel defeated and appropriated the lands of the kings east of the Jordan – the “firstfruits” of the larger conquest of Canaan which was to come. Each day, as God shepherded His people with food, water, protection, guidance, and the presence of His glory, He was granting them a greater measure of the promises of His covenant, and leading them to live toward more of those promises day by day.

God did not administer His grace in these ways to any nation other than Israel, on whom He set His special love, and for whom He administered His grace in these special ways, to keep them and bless them as His people.

Ends of God’s keeping 
Why did God do this? We may note three purposes for God’s work of keeping His people. First, by this special administration of His grace, which stands out in stark relief to the grace He shows the rest of the world, God intended His people to grow in the knowledge of Him and His glory (v. 6). The greatest benefit of covenant membership is that people can know God, can relate to Him, come before Him in worship and prayer, delight in Him, increase in His virtues, and partake of His glory. God’s keeping of His people is designed above all to help them gain more of this great boon, that they might realize in knowing Him all the greatest hopes, fondest desires, most earnest purpose and meaning, highest aspirations, and deepest rest.

Second, God keeps His people so that they remain within and enjoy more of the benefits of His covenant (v. 9). The special grace He showed by His daily keepingof Israel was designed to induce them to daily and increased keeping of His covenant. As they realized His presence with them and all the benefits of His keeping, the people were greatly encouraged in their calling to increase, multiply, and exercise dominion according to God’s Law, and for His glory and the blessing of the world.

As they did, as God’s people walked in faithful obedience to the directives of His covenant, they increased in His blessing (v. 9) and “prospered” in every aspect of life. 

Keeping is the ongoing work of God by which He shepherds His people, within the framework of His covenant love, to help them realize all the goodness He intended for them from the beginning, and that He still seeks for them today.

Questions for reflection
1. What do we mean by saying that God’s keeping of His people is an “administration within the administration”?

2. How do you experience the five foci of God’s keeping?

3. How does God want you to respond to His keeping you to Himself?

Next steps – Transformation: Make a list of all the ways you experience God’s keeping today. Use that list to pray with thanksgiving and praise at the end of the day. Share this exercise with a Christian friend.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.