Seventh Sunday After Trinity (15 July, 2018)

Provisions

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.  And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.  And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.  The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.  And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.  The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.  And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.  The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."  Genesis 2:7-17

Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.  Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!  Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.  For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.  He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.  By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.  He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses.  Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!  For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.  The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.  The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.  Psalm 33:1-11

I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.  For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 6:19-23

In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, He called His disciples to Him and said to them, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.  And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away."  And His disciples answered Him, "How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?"  And He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven."  And He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd.  And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, He said that these also should be set before them.  And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.  And there were about four thousand people. And He sent them away.  Mark 8:1-9

God provides.

What else more needs to be said?  In every way, and for everything, we are entirely dependent on God.  From the foundations of the world, to every single breath we take.

Its not always easy to see.  It is when we are talking about Jesus literally caring for the people around Him.  The feeding of the four thousand, along with the other crowd feedings, are obvious.  Add to that the healings and the people raised from the dead.

There are many easy to see ways of how God provides for the physical needs of people in history.  Some take a little perspective, such as providing Isaac to Abraham, or defending David from Goliath.  Others seem very obvious in retrospect, like Noah and his family in the ark.

The simple act of creation was God's providence.  He created a world, established it, and fashioned a place for His intentionally formed humans to live.  He even created rules to protect and guide them.  And when they broke those rules, He provided a solution to the greatest need of all: the cost of sin.

He provided Christ as an atoning sacrifice in our place.  Thanks be to God.