Providential Restraints From Evil

    As God by his Providence sometimes opens a way to manifest the evil that is in the hearts of men, and even of his own people; so he also sometimes restrains them from committing the evil which they purpose, or which they would commit if occasion was presented. A providential interference often prevents men from rashly doing what they would have done, if no such interference had taken place, and which would have been irremediably injurious to themselves or others. A remarkable instance we have of this in the withholding of Abimelech from taking to wife Sarah, the wife of Abraham. He had taken her into his house, but God, by the restraints of his Providence, withheld him from accomplishing his purpose, and from the dishonour of Abraham. "I also," says God, " withheld thee from sinning against me : therefore suffered I thee not to touch her." By his overruling Providence God prevented the accomplishment of so great an evil. Had this deed been accomplished, it might have been forgiven; but the evil of it could never have been repaired. Had Abimelech given the injured husband his kingdom, it would have been a compensation utterly unequivalent. God then prevented an injury that could never have been repaired. His Providence then threw an obstacle in the way of the accomplishment of the foul deed.

    By a like pusillanimity, Isaac exposed the honour of his wife Rebekah, and by a like providential restraint, God preserved her uninjured. Though the men of Gerar had asked Isaac about his wife, and he had said that she was his sister, yet he was long in the land without injury to his wife's honour. And at last, by a providential event, Abimelech discovered that Rebekah was the wife of Isaac. Gen. xxvi. 8. "And it came to pass when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou she is my sister?"

    How beautifully, how wonderfully, does the Providence of God co-operate with his purposes of grace! God rules as absolutely on earth as he does in heaven. Nothing takes place but what he has ordained for his own glory, and for the good of his own people. Believers are in the world in the midst of their enemies, who have all earthly power in their hands, yet the Lord preserves them uninjured in every instance in which it is not for his own glory and their good that they should suffer.