The Lord Will Provide!
By Grant Gaines
“The Lord will provide!”
What a great phrase! Such sweet words are always music to our ears. Whether it’s concerning our finances, health, or _______ [fill in the blank], the comfort of knowing that the Lord will provide for our greatest need can calm even the fiercest storm.
The phrase “the Lord will provide” or some slight variation of this phrase is used nearly 20 times in the Bible. Some of these include when the Lord provided Abraham with a ram to sacrifice in place of his son, Isaac, in Genesis 22. Another instance is when, “…the Lord provided Israel with a deliverer…” from their enemies in 2 Kings 13. Abraham and the nation of Israel had a need and the Lord provided the answer to that need. The Lord will provide!
But this phrase has another side to it that might not be as well-known or readily accepted as the Genesis 22 and 2 Kings 13 version of “the Lord will provide”. To explain, let me share an illustration.
If you were to take a stroll around your local mall this afternoon, chances are that nearly every single person you walk past has had the chickenpox at some point in their life. Why? Because of a little dosage of modern medicine called the chickenpox vaccine.
The chickenpox vaccine, as you could guess, helps protect people from catching the awfully itchy and always annoying virus known as the chickenpox. The vaccine is made from a live but weakened version of the chickenpox virus which is injected into the human body causing it to break out with the chickenpox. Some great vaccine, huh?
But as counterintuitive as that may sound, there is meaning behind the madness. You see, with or without the chickenpox vaccine you’re pretty much guaranteed to catch the virus at some point in your life. The whole idea behind the vaccine is to provide you with a weaker version of the virus at a time in your life when the ill effects of the chickenpox are as limited as possible—as an infant.
While it’s not fun, pleasant, or enjoyable to be covered from head to toe with red, itchy bumps as a child, the pain and duration of the virus would only be exponentially magnified as you age. In fact, the reason we can be comfortably sitting here right now without being under the weather with the chickenpox is because a doctor provided us with the virus/vaccine early on in our lives.
There’s that word again—“provided”. But unlike it’s usage in Genesis 22 or 2 Kings 13, this “provided” carries a different meaning than we’re used to. We like to think of someone providing us with money, resources, or opportunities…not difficulties, even as momentary as they may be.
But that’s exactly the how the book of Jonah uses the phrase, “the Lord will provide”. Instead of this expression carrying a happily-ever-after connotation, Jonah seems to indicate that the Lord will often provide us with temporary difficulties that will later make us stronger—just like the chickenpox vaccine. To further understand what I am talking about, let’s look at how the four instances of this phrase are used in the book of Jonah.
- “Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17, NIV, bold mine).
- “Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant” (Jonah 4:6, NIV, bold mine).
- “But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered” (Jonah 4:7, NIV, bold mine).
- “When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint” (Jonah 4:8, NIV, bold mine)
Of the four instances in which the phrase was used, only one of them really fits the bill of what we typically think when we hear, “the Lord will provide”.
But if we use hind sight to view these statements we get some insight into why God “provided” Jonah with these circumstances that on the surface level seem like tragic misfortunes. Take the whale, for example. Sure, it may not be the ideal rescue boat but without it, Jonah’s story would have ended with him drowning in the raging sea. Or how about the worm and the “scorching east wind” that made him grow weary and even, “…want to die…” (Jonah 4:8, NIV)? Well those two difficulties helped reveal an ongoing pattern of selfishness in Jonah’s life that was previously hidden in the darkness.
If three fourths of the time in the book of Jonah the Lord provided something that initially was unpleasant but later turned out for Jonah’s good, do you think it’s possible that the same could be said about our life? Maybe the majority of the “trials” we are going through right now are not really trials at all but rather moments that God is sovereignly using to springboard us in the direction of deliverance.
I don’t think it would be too far of a stretch to think that if God wrote a book about your life and put it into the Bible that many of the times what we viewed as a fierce storm would simply read, “the Lord provided ______ [insert your name] with poverty, singleness, or disease, etc.” And just like in the book of Jonah or a doctor providing a child withthe chickenpox vaccine, the word “provided” may not initially seem to make sense, but it’s only after reading the whole story that we see how God uses these momentary struggles to prepare us for a greater glory.
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
—Romans 8:18 (NIV)
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
