R.C. Sproul

I will provide for you and your little ones.

And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Now those of you who listen to our series on renewing your mind on the providence of God will remember that this text that I just read was crucial to the classical doctrine of divine providence as it relates to one of those concepts subsumed under the doctrinal heading of providence, the doctrine of concurrence.

or sometimes called the doctrine of confluence.

And if you recall at that time, I mentioned the city of Pittsburgh as an example of what concurrence is or confluence is, where we have what's called the golden triangle or the point where the

Three Rivers Stadium is, and every time the Goodyear blimp flies over that, the commentators show you that viewpoint from above the stadium and show you how these two rivers, the Allegheny and the Monongahela, flow together at the point in Pittsburgh and form the beginning of one of America's great rivers, the Ohio River, which then flows west until it empties into the

Mississippi and becomes part of the Mississippi River.

And usually the jargon that the commentators use to describe this is they speak of the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers to form the Ohio.

Now what does the word confluence mean?

It simply means to flow together.

it's a synonym for the word concurrence.

We get the word current from the same root that is found in the word concurrence, and it means currents that come together and mix together.

Now, what that doctrine points to is the mysterious way in which God governs the affairs of men,

whereby even though we are acting according to our desires, according to our choices, according to our will, that God brings to pass His sovereign will, not apart from the choices of human beings or apart from the actions of people, but in, through, and by the work of people.

That even though

There are two streams flowing, the human stream and the divine stream.

These two merge into one.

And that's what Joseph is saying to his brothers when he said, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good.

And now he puts his accent on the intent of the action.

He's saying that when you betrayed me, you weren't the only actor in the drama.