Strange Providence
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
— Isaiah 55:8
In 1526, there was a war raging in Britain over the translation and production of English Bibles for the masses. The Roman Catholic Church and its politically-influenced leaders had outlawed the practice of translating the Bible from its original language from Latin into an accessible resource for the average Englishman. William Tyndale was at the very center of this war. In that year, Tyndale sent a new translation to the printers to be distributed and they were wildly popular. An official of the RCC—Bishop Turnstall—went about buying all those copies and had them burned. Unwittingly, as he spent his shillings on these Tyndale Translations he was funding Tyndale’s revisions, actually helping the scholar to make great strides in refining the language for his new translation which would go on to be printed and distributed a few years later.
God operates in what we might call “Strange Providence.” This doesn’t mean that He goes about in any underhanded or immoral manner but that He works beyond our comprehension and sometimes to the opposite of our ideas. Yet, He reigns supreme and ultimately He speaks His will into being for His glory and our benefit. If we could see our lives and the history of this world from God’s perspective, we would see a divine plan unfolding to perfection. But faith is the key to unlock our peace of mind, even though our knowledge is feeble. Blessings. SDG.