1. Scriptural Proof.
The Scripture witnesses to
A. A general providential government and control (a) over the universe at large; (b) over the physical world; (c) over the brute creation; (d) over the affairs of nations; (e) over man's birth and lot in life; (f) over the outward successes and failures of men's lives; (g) over things seemingly accidental or insignificant; (h) in the protection of the righteous; (i) in the supply of the wants of God's people; (j) in the arrangement of answers to prayer; (k) in the exposure and punishment of the wicked.
(a) Ps. 103:19—“his kingdom ruleth over all”; Dan. 4:35—“doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth”; Eph. 1:11—“worketh all things after the counsel of his will.”
(b) Job 37:5, 10—“God thundereth ... By the breath of God ice is given”; Ps. 104:14—“causeth the grass to grow for the cattle”; 135:6, 7—“Whatsoever Jehovah pleased, that hath he done, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps ... vapors ... lightnings ... wind”; Mat. 5:45—“maketh his sun to rise ... sendeth rain”; Ps. 104:16—“The trees of Jehovah are filled”—are planted and tended by God as carefully as those which come under human cultivation; cf. Mat. 6:30—“if God so clothe the grass of the field.”
(c) Ps. 104:21, 28—“young lions roar ... seek their food from God ... that thou givest them they gather”; Mat. 6:26—“birds of the heaven ... your heavenly Father feedeth them”; 10:29—“two sparrows ... not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father.”
(d) Job 12:23—“He increaseth the nations, and he destroyeth them: He enlargeth the nations, and he leadeth them captive”; Ps. 22:28—“the kingdom is Jehovah's; And he is the ruler over the nations”; 66:7—“He ruleth by his might for ever; His eyes observe the nations”; Acts 17:26—“made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation” (instance Palestine, Greece, England).
(e) 1 Sam. 16:1—“fill thy horn with oil, and go: I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided me a king among his sons”; Ps. 139:16—“Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance, And in thy book were all my members written”; Is. 45:5—“I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me”; Jer. 1:5—“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee ... sanctified thee ... appointed thee”; Gal. 1:15, 16—“God, who separated me, even from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles.”
(f) Ps. 75:6, 7—“neither from the east, nor from the west, Nor yet from the south cometh lifting up. But God is the judge, He putteth down one, and lifteth up another”; Luke 1:52—“He hath put down princes from their thrones, And hath exalted them of low degree.”