Beware the Perils of Interpreting Providence

On Saturday, July 13, 2024, we witnessed a truly historic moment in the failed assassination attempt of President Trump. We witnessed an heroic response on the part of the former President just moments after he had literally dodged a bullet. I am grateful for the providence of God in sparing President Trump.  I am thankful that the designs of the assassin were foiled.  This was simultaneously a terrible security failure on the part of the Secret Service as well as a wonderful escape on the part of the President.  It is a blessing for the country that the bullet was off a few centimeters from sending the former President precipitously into eternity.

However, it is inevitable that there are going to be folks who look at the attempted assassination attempt of President Donald Trump and will say that here is evidence that God is on his side and that this is clearly a sign from heaven that God is a Republican.  In other words, there are going to be those who jump in and are ready to tell us exactly what God intended in this providential escape.  I want to warn us against that.

You can't interpret God's providence except at a distance and maybe only in light of eternity.  As one Puritan put it, you have to read Providence like you read Hebrew: backwards.  The fact of the matter is that we don't often know what God intends in an event.  And so we have to be careful that we don't use our particular interpretation of what God was doing to justify things that God did not necessarily intend.

History warns us against this.  Abraham Lincoln was assassinated; but that was no clue that God was on the side of slavery.  Adolph Hitler survived multiple assassination attempts - and he interpreted these as evidence that God was on his side!  Clearly, history shows us that just because something good happens to a person is no evidence that they are under God's blessing.  And if something bad happens to a person it is not evidence that they are under God's curse - witness Job!

Why do I emphasize this?  It is because you can justify almost any course of action by putting your own interpretation on the providence of God.  This has happened over and over again in history.  Beware of that, my friends.  Rather, what we ought to always do is to read the events of our times in light of what God has written to us in his inspired and inerrant Word.  

What God's word tells us is not why God intended President Trump to narrowly escape death.  But what it does tell us is that God ultimately is the one who caused that bullet to hit his ear rather than his brain.  God is in control and he is sovereign over history.  He does have a purpose for keeping the President alive, and we pray that it is a purpose that will be for the good of our country.  All this ought to remind us that history often turns on a dime, and we ought to be grateful that God is sovereign not only over the big things but over the little things as well.  "Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased" (Ps. 115:3).

And we know that whatever happens, it will be for the glory of God and the good of his people.  We need not hang our hopes upon a certain course for history, for we know that whatever happens God is still on the throne and in control.  God spared President Trump yesterday.  I don't know all the reasons he did so, but I do know that in the long run this will be for the good of all who put their trust, not in horses and chariots, but in the Lord their God.