Not a Sparrow Falls
Dr. Stephen Yuille is a Content Director and Editor at Reformation Heritage Books, while also serving as a Professor of Church History and Spiritual Formation at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He has over thirty years of ministry experience and is currently the preaching pastor at Fairview Covenant Church in Granbury, Texas. He has published an extensive list of academic articles and books in Puritan studies. He has also published several popular works in biblical studies.
The following is an excerpt from his upcoming study, Kingdom Life: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. Click here to watch the trailer!
For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you
will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor
gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not worth much more than they?
And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?
Matthew 6:25–27
Christ declares, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.”
Matthew 10:29
I like to imagine that a flock of sparrows flew overhead as [Christ] uttered those words, and that his disciples lifted their eyes to observe a common occurrence which had so often escaped their notice. How many sparrows have dotted the sky since the creation of the world? Countless. Relatively speaking, they are insignificant. Yet Christ proclaims that not one of them dies apart from God’s will.
He is not simply saying that God is aware of every sparrow’s death. His words imply more than that. He is emphasizing that God governs the death of every sparrow. The inference is obvious: If God’s providence extends to something as trivial as the sparrows, then it extends to us as well. We can be certain that he governs his creation (general providence) in the interest of his people (special providence).
Obadiah Sedgwick declares, “The Father regards His people far more intimately and affectionately than those outside His church.” Again, “God has a double flock—a great flock in respect of creation, and a little flock in respect of election. Though He looks on both, His principal care extends to His people.”
Does that encourage you? When we speak of God’s providence, we are acknowledging that he “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11). That means there are no random events, freak accidents, or chance encounters. God’s knowledge is perfect. He knows all things perfectly and immediately—at every moment. Every detail of every life was in his mind before the foundation of the world. The magnitude of God’s providence far exceeds our comprehension. “Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Ps. 139:14). We have but one response to such splendor—we prostrate ourselves before the throne of God’s providence.