Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

“Rube Goldberg Machine” - Joseph Machines

Tension

Unpacking the term

Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor who was best for his political cartoons, and especially the ones depicting complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect ways.

The cartoons led to the expression "Rube Goldberg machines", which is how you would describe similar gadgets and processes like the one you just watched in action.

Can you imagine how much time it must take to design the connections to each of these items in such a way that each movement would positively affect the next item and not throw it all off course?

The closest most of us have probably got to something like this is to set up a table of tumbling dominoes display, (Right Rachel) where each domino is the same size and moves in the same direction.

Goldberg is best known for his political cartoons, and especially the ones depicting complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways.

The cartoons led to the expression "Rube Goldberg machines" to describe similar gadgets and processes like the one you just watched in action.

What I found so intriguing in this particular “Goldberg Machine” is that if you were to zoom out to see the whole room you would barely be able to tell that the random items in the room have been carefully and methodically placed there to be in along chain of reactions that will move throughout the whole room.

Things just start lighting up or falling off shelves and tables in seemingly unrelated ways.

When that on yellow cup was on the right side of the table all alone I figured he had messed up cause there was not where to go now…but it just kept going and...

In the end we see that it was all carefully designed to accomplish a specific goal.

None of it is there by chance, it was all part of long and elaborate plan designed by it’s creator.

Tension

The truth is, each one of us could say that exact thing about our life.

That none of it is there by chance.

That all of it is part of a long and deliberate plan designed by it’s creator to accomplish a specific goal.

Do you know what we call a plan like this?

We call it Providence

If we were to take that same principle and the relationship that the machine has with it’s creator and apply it to the world that we know and it’s creator then we would have something that we call: “PROVIDENCE”.

Are you familiar with this word?

I rarely hear anyone use that term anymore outside of a theological context.

In truth, it is not a Biblical word in the sense that the word itself is not found in Scripture, but the principle it describes is one of the major doctrines of the Christian faith.

The English word “Providence” is from a Latin compound word where “pro” means “before” and “vide” means to see.

So Providence is to “see before” or “to look ahead, prepare, supply, act with foresight.”

but when I do it is typically someone reflecting on something and responding something like, “Well isn’t that providential”.

but when I do it is typically someone reflecting on something and responding something like, “Well isn’t that providential”.

act with foresight.

Just like the creator of a Goldberg Machine has to design each element of his machine in consideration of what is going to happen next, the doctrine of Divine Providence says that our creator God has designed every element of our life in consideration of what will happen next, and then next, and then next right up until He accomplishes His will in our life.

Nothing is in our life is there by chance, it was all a part of a long and elaborate plan designed by it’s creator.

He is able to “see” “before” and act accordingly.

Of course our creator God is not limited like any earthly creator would be, He is able to see to the end of all things.

Even more than that...

Just like the creator of a Goldberg Machine has to design each element of his machine in consideration of what is going to happen next, the doctrine of Divine Providence says that our creator God has designed every element of our life in consideration of what will happen next, and then next, and then next right up until He accomplishes His will in our life.

Nothing is in our life is there by chance, it was all a part of a long and elaborate plan designed by it’s creator.

The Providence of God is the belief that God guards, guides and governs all things.

The Providence of God is the belief that God guards, guides and governs all things.

The Providence of God is the belief that God guards, guides and governs all things to his intended outcome.

In other words, nothing happens in our life outside of God’s will to make it happen, his hand to move it into existence and his protection that nothing will stop it from happening in the way he created it to.

It is a word closely related to the word we used last week: Sovereign.

They are not synonyms, they don’t mean the same thing, but we find that one is never in view without the other.

One of the ways that I find helpful to understand their differences is to look at smaller words found inside of the larger ones.

Encapsulated in the word “Sovereign” is the word “reign”.

God’s sovereignty is his rightful authority to bring about everything He intends to happen.

His reigning, his ruling and his unquestionable position of power over all things.

As a king is sovereign over his kingdom, so the “King of Kings” is Sovereign over every kingdom.

Inside the word “Providence” is the word “provide”.

God’s Providence is his movement in his Sovereign authority.

He not only has the authority over all things, but he himself is what keeps all things moving in the direction of his intended will.

So he guards, guides and governs all things (Providence) because he has the rightful authority over all things (Sovereignty).

Truth is we often find the two written together as God’s Sovereign Providence.

Well as always, I wouldn’t take my word for it, so lets look at some places where we find this attribute of God laid out for us.

Do you hear that?

It’s not just that God wills it to be a certain way, that is his Sovereignty, but he also “works all thinks according to the counsel of his will” That is his Providential hand at work.

Another place where this is laid out is in where in speaking specifically about God the Son it says:

Or going to the book with such an elegant name we can read in

Daniel

In heaven and on earth God’s unstoppable hand is moving to fulfill his purposes according to his Providential plan.

We don’t have anything we can say to Him.

Why do I bring in all this theology this morning?

Because we are continuing today in the story of Joseph from the book of Genesis.

The story of Joseph’s triumphs and tragedies is one of the best places where we see this principle of the Providence of God at work.

If you were to open up most any book on theology and go to the section that talks about “The Providence of God” you wouldn’t have to read long before you got to Joseph’s story.

The reason is, like the Goldberg machine we just saw, there are points in Joseph’s life where seem to be excitedly moving forward in a clear laid out direction and at other times is just seems like things are just randomly falling off the table.

In one scene Joseph is being raised up to positions of leadership and honor and then in the next moment he hit with a problem that drags him to new places and positions of adversity.

I know this is heady stuff, but lets go back to the Rube Goldberg Machine for our example.

The creator of that machine, Joseph, only

And this is where we find the tension of the doctrine of Providence.

Our appreciation for this doctrine often depends on which part of a story you are looking at.

I have stories, and I have heard stories of many of you where you looked back over a situation in your life and were just blown away at how amazingly God’s hand was in it all.

After months of searching and asking God for his favor, someone just happened to mention to someone else about a new job opportunity and the chain of reactions off of that tumbled all the way to you so that you now have what you think is the perfect job for you.

That’s God’s Providence.

And this is the tension that find with the doctrine of Providence.

I have stories, and I have heard stories of many of you where you looked back over a situation in your life and you clearly saw the hand of God move in such a beautiful way.

And place whatever you want in there.

A new house, the perfect school, a husband or wife all found though this incredible chain of events that you look back over and you celebrate how amazing God is as he clearly had his hand in it all.

It is just a beautiful thing how God guarded, guided and governed all of these events to this fantastic end.

But there is a flip side of that too, isn’t there.

We love the idea of God’s sovereign providence in the stories where we have already reached the happy ending, but what about the point in the story where all we see is the adversity.

What about stories like the one that has played out before us this week.

The story of Jayme Closs whose parents were killed and she was kidnapped and held in the woods for three months.

Sure we could point to some wonderful high points of Providence in her rescue , how this woman just happened to be out walking her dog and she just happened to be a retired social worker who would know what to do and how to react.

That is a happy ending kind of Providence - but what about the journey up to that point and the journey that Jayme has now to overcome the effects of such an ordeal.

Could we say that God guarded, guided and governed those things into her life?

Come on Dan, did you really have to go there?

Yeah, I did.

Because too often we read Bible stories as if they happened on another planet.

Joseph was a real person just like us.

He had real brothers, just like many of us.

And just as real as those things are, is the fact that his brothers really did plan on murdering him.

That was the condition of these mens hearts, the same murderous condition that someone brought into Jayme’s house three months ago.

So as we work through the story of Joseph this morning, my hope is that you will see both the good and the bad that happened to him as real events that happened in the Divine Providential Plan of God.

Making it real like I just did might make that more difficult, but all the more important.

Because unlike any Goldberg machine that intentionally ends insignificantly, God’s providential plan has the most significant ending imaginable, we just haven’t got there yet.

But at the end of the story we hear Joseph himself declare that everything that he went through was carefully designed by God for an intended purpose.

Unlike the Goldberg machines that intentionally end insignificantly, God’s providential plan in Joseph’s life serves to bring salvation to a multitude of people.

in Joseph’s life serves to bring salvation to a multitude of people.

And that is great news, for those people, but what does it mean for us today?