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On the morning of your kindergarten graduation, if someone had knelt down in front of you with a microphone and asked what you wanted to be when you grew up, what would you have said? I’ll never forget the friend who said she wanted to wash dishes.
Who could blame her? She liked the bubbles.
That friend’s childhood dream did, in fact, come true. As an adult, she’s done her fair share of kitchen cleanup. But the rest of us who aspired to be ballerinas, baseball players, astronauts, or animal rescuers eventually discovered that life has a way of diverging from the script we imagined for ourselves.
Somewhere between kindergarten and adulthood, the story split into a thousand different directions, which makes it an interesting question to ask someone across a dinner table: “If just one thing had gone differently in your life, what would it look like today?”
What was the college you almost attended, and what direction do you think your life would have taken if you had gone there instead?
Who was the person you wanted to marry, and what would your life look like if you had ended up with them?
What was the job rejection that redirected you, or the city you considered moving to, or the opportunity that went to someone else? What would have happened if your life had gone the way you wanted it to go?
When we think about God’s providence in our lives, we often think about the ways God provided, opened doors, answered prayers, and brought a positive opportunity into our lives in moments that only He could have made possible.
But as I was reading the book of Ezra this week, a commentator’s note reminded me that there’s another side of providence too—not merely what God makes happen, but that which He sovereignly and graciously prevents.
The God Who Brings His People Home
Throughout the book of Ezra, God’s providence is present on every page. We see it in His power as He sustains and provides for His people and works to bring about His plans. His providence works to ensure that every promise He’s made comes true.1
As chapter one opens, the people had been in captivity in Babylon for 70 years. Verse one begins, “In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah . . .” (Ezra 1:1).
What had the Lord spoken through Jeremiah?
This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place. For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer. 29:10–11)
The second part of that passage is so familiar to us, we often miss its incredible historical context. God had spoken those words to a people living in exile, promising that their captivity would not last forever—and it didn’t. God already knew the plans He had for them.
There’s a title for God that shows up in Ezra more than in any other book. It first appears in Ezra 1:2, as Cyrus refers to the Lord as “the God of the heavens,” pointing to His sovereignty. This was the God who made the world and rules over it from heaven, high above His creation. Yet Cyrus also referred to Him as “the God who is in Jerusalem” (v. 3). He was a God who was accessible to His people.
The word “Jerusalem” appears seven times in the first chapter, but the people weren’t merely on their way back to a city. God was making a way for them to return to Him. That generation of exiles had never seen the temple or experienced worship in it, but now God was bringing them home—to the place where His presence dwelled and His covenant purposes for Israel would continue unfolding.
Their time in exile had been purposeful, not merely judgment for their sin. In the hands of a sovereign God, even the most difficult, seemingly chaotic years were part of His good plan, plans for their well-being, to bring them back to Himself.
Every Mercy We Miss
In Ezra 5, after the people had returned to Jerusalem and were at work to rebuild the temple, the project had faced opposition and intimidation, pausing for ten years until the prophets Haggai and Zechariah called the Jews to begin again. In Ezra 5:2, “The prophets of God were with them, helping them.”
In Ezra 5:3–5, “it looked like there might be more trouble when [the provincial leaders] came investigating, asking about who gave the Jews authorization for this building project.”2 While they weren’t necessarily hostile, their request could have caused the building project to pause again.
Instead, Ezra 5:5 says, “But God was watching over the Jewish elders. These men wouldn’t stop them until a report was sent to Darius, so that they could receive written instructions about this matter.” The Jews’ work was vulnerable to interruption once again, but only within the limits God allowed, because He was “watching over” them.
While this was a small incident in the temple rebuilding project and an even smaller interaction in Israel’s history, one scholar says that we should pay more attention to moments like these. He refers to this one as a negative providence “because it deals with what God did not allow to happen.”3 He goes on to say, “Knees should bend and heads bow at the memory of negative providences.”4
Have you ever considered how many times God has prevented something from interrupting His purposes for your life because He was watching over you?
The problem is, from our perspective, we often only see the interruptions and inconveniences, the delays but not God’s deliverance. This is one reason why we study Scripture—because it shows us that the God of the heavens has His hand over the whole story, even when His people can only see the part that’s in front of them.
The same God who watched over the Jewish elders in Ezra is still watching over His people now. He’s still sovereign over kings and nations, over closed doors and disappointing outcomes, over every protection we recognize and every mercy we miss.
Today, we’re the exiles (1 Pet. 2:11), and we’re waiting for the New Jerusalem. But one day soon, heaven will reveal how many times grace appeared not only in what God allowed, but in what He lovingly kept from occurring. This side of eternity, we may not know the details of all God is doing, but books like Ezra and Nehemiah and Zechariah and Haggai remind us that we can trust God’s heart.
Every providence—seen and unseen, positive and “negative”—is shaped by His goodness toward us. For God knows the plans He has for our lives, plans for our well-being, to give us a future and a hope and a home with Him forever.
Eyes on the Horizon
Questions, reflections, and Scripture to set your hope on eternity with Jesus.
Looking back, what might God have been protecting you from in situations that felt frustrating or confusing at the time?
What are ways you can approach this week differently knowing that God is “watching over” (Ezra 5:5) your life?
If heaven someday reveals every unseen mercy and protection in your life, what do you imagine might surprise you most? What can you thank God for today?
One Day Closer
Lord, we’re so thankful You’re still the same God who watches over His people. We praise You that You’re sovereign over all that happens in our lives and all that doesn’t. We don’t say it enough: thank You for every act of unseen mercy You’ve provided along the way. Help us trust You more fully in both the seen and unseen parts of our story, knowing You’re working all things for our well-being and believing Your goodness never fails. Astonish us this week with the ways You’re at work in our lives, drawing us closer to You and guiding us home.
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Dale Ralph Davis, Ezra & Nehemiah: The Quest for Restoration, Focus on the Bible (Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2025), 18.
Dale Ralph Davis, Ezra & Nehemiah: The Quest for Restoration, Focus on the Bible (Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2025), 50.
Dale Ralph Davis, Ezra & Nehemiah: The Quest for Restoration, Focus on the Bible (Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2025), 51.
Dale Ralph Davis, Ezra & Nehemiah: The Quest for Restoration, Focus on the Bible (Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2025), 52.
So many things:
-My pastor regularly quotes Dale Ralph Davis-good stuff!
-I love the thought of negative providence.
-God’s providential protection in so many things from close calls in cars to removing really rough relationships.
I love it when Scripture talks with itself.
Thank God for negative providence!