Providence and vocation

One’s vocation must be selected with regard to the particular providential circumstances of one’s life. While many vocational possibilities may at first appear possible, while many theoretically may seem available, yet God’s providence may well and wisely limit them. Now here is an example of that very thing, the example of the man of God, Joseph, in the book of Genesis. Joseph, I believe we can deduce, was clearly an able man who would have succeeded at about anything he tried. But his possibilities were providentially limited by the slavery into which he was sold. And thus, in the language of Genesis 39:4: he [that is Potiphar] made him overseer of his house. The providential circumstances of Joseph limited his choices, not withstanding his gifts and other possibilities he may have pursued, were he not where he was in Potiphar’s house. Further with regard to Joseph, upon the false charges of Potiphar’s wife, Joseph was put into the jail and yet Genesis 30:22 reads: The chief jailor committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners in the jail. Now how did he get that job? He got it by the overruling providence of God that limited him to it. Two years later in the providence of God, a fellow inmate of Joseph’s, the chief cup bearer, remembered a Hebrew youth who had interpreted his dream. His mention of this to Pharaoh lead Joseph to eventually becoming, what we might call the prime minister of Egypt. I point out the narrative, because it is an example of the providential circumstances God has ordered by limiting one’s choices.

Likewise, with Daniel. Daniel, in the language of Daniel 1:1–21 had intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge. He was plainly a man of high intellectual gifts, plainly a man who could have made it in a number of occupations. And yet the providence surrounding the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, king Nebuchadnezzar, king Belshazzar, the mean old Persian Empire that followed—these providential circumstances served to confine Daniel’s vocational future. My point is, to some extent, that this is probably the case with all of us. Providential circumstances may well serve to limit or narrow or simplify one’s occupational possibilities.

Here are a few of the providential circumstances that may bear upon the matter of vocational choice. One of them may be the financial capacities of your own family. Family income or family resources may not allow the pursuit of an education that is necessary to secure a certain vocation. Again, my own opinion is to beware of trying to defy that providential circumstance by loading up yourself with debt, with college loans that are so readily marketed. Another providential circumstance that may limit your choice of occupational possibilities is in the realm of your health and your physical features and capacities. Particular aspects of health and one’s bodily strength and stamina may rule out some vocations and rule in others. There is the matter of educational background that may limit possibilities at least for the present moment. There is the matter of talents given—the nature of those talents, the degree of those talents. Another providential circumstance is geography—where you live in view of the priority of remaining in the true church. Do you think of that as you look toward your future? That may bear quite determinately on your line of work. Are you going to put yourself in an ecclesiastical wasteland for the sake of career? I hope not. Geography, in view of the priority of remaining in a true church, where you sit under a vital ministry of the Word of God, where you can confidently place your family and integrate them into the life of that church—are you going to forsake that in the pursuit of a vocation? Again, I hope not. With regard to geography—what about your aging and perhaps infirm parents for whom you have or will have a measure of responsibility to help? That is where 1 Timothy 5:8 actually primarily applies. Are you going to move to the other coast when your parents live here and they genuinely need your help?

Then here is another providential circumstance: your gender. In view of the normative (not absolute) vocation of a woman, being a wife and a mother. This will be discussed below. This basic, fundamental providential circumstance mightily impacts vocational choice for a woman. I know our culture does not tell you that. Our culture says you can do anything a man can do. Well, maybe you can to some extent, but that is really not the issue. The issue is what God has revealed as your normative and primary vocation. Your gender is a major providential factor. And especially for a woman it narrows the field of choices.

Proverbs 20:24 reads: A man’s steps are ordained by the Lord. Jeremiah 10:23: “I know, O Lord, that a man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps. Job 23:14: He performs what is appointed for me, and many such to decrees, and many such [providential] decrees are with him. These statements and others that could be added would speak to the providential dealings of God to the lives of men including, surely—they must—the central aspect of a vocation.¹

George McDearmon