We may not know the “why’s,” but we can know that because God is sovereign, one day all evil will be dealt with, and all things will be made right because God is sovereign and will judge rightly. Because if God is not sovereign, then all evil is pointless, and the Christian has no hope.

Tragedy, fortune, good times, hard times, success, and failure. How and why do all these things happen? Is your success at work a product of your hard work or God’s blessing? Is the tragedy that just befell your family a result of the fall or a trial from God?

No matter what background of Christianity you come from, we all wrestle with trying to understand how our actions and God’s sovereignty work. What Christian hasn’t turned their eyes toward the heavens and sought to understand how the hand of God moves the winds of time?

In some ways, discussions around what it means to be Reformed have been (unfortunately) reduced down to the topic of God’s sovereignty—though typically this is limited to his sovereignty in salvation (i.e. the ever-abused and often less-than-helpful moniker of Calvinism). But there is some warrant for this as the Reformers, not ones to shy away from tackling challenging issues, took a very high view of God’s sovereignty in the “governing all his creatures, and all their actions.”

Let’s take a look then at some representative texts from the Reformed tradition so as to better understand how they understood the Scriptures to speak to God’s providence over all things, and man’s responsibility as a free agent.

Defining God’s Providence

The Heidelberg Catechism Q.27 defines God’s sovereignty/providence as follows:

God’s providence is His almighty and ever-present power, whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come not by chance but by His fatherly hand.

This statement is remarkably comprehensive and all-encompassing. The question is, however, is it scripturally warranted?

Scripture’s Testimony

The catechism lists some of the following as texts the authors believed taught this view of God’s sovereignty:

Jeremiah 23:23-24
“Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.”

Proverbs 16:33
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”

Acts 14:15-17
“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

But why does this matter? Why is it important for us to see that God’s hand steers the ship? The Heidelberg again has our answer in Q.28:

We can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and with a view to the future we can have a firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from His love; for all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move.

Because not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from our Father (Matt. 10:29), even though we may not know the exact answer to our “why?”, we can rest in the Father’s love and wisdom. He is above all things, and nothing catches him by surprise.

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