Tom Burke
April 2005
© 2005 Scriptural Study Groups. All Rights Reserved.
First Peter chapter five proclaims a truth that should bring great comfort to the hearts of all believers.
I Peter 5:7
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
What a wonderful assurance! And it gains even greater significance when we examine the verse a bit more thoroughly. The first word translated “care” is the Greek word merimna, meaning anxiety or distraction of the mind. But the second word translated “care” is of even greater significance to the believer, for it does not mean to be anxious or distracted, but rather to be interested in, to be lovingly attentive to.
God is not distracted by us! He is lovingly attentive to us, which is why we are able to cast our care upon Him. If the latter part of the verse were not true, the opening exhortation would be meaningless.
Jesus Christ taught this same truth to God’s people of a different administration.
Matthew 6:31–33
Therefore take no thought, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or, ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘Wherewithal shall we be clothed?’
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
The word translated “take thought” is the verb form of merimna [merimnao]. Food, drink, and clothing are certainly the kinds of things that many people get anxious about, aren’t they? In fact, verse 32 states that these are the things which the Gentiles (who were not God’s people) spent their lives seeking. We see the same thing today — unbelieving men and women expend their lives trying to ensure that today’s needs are met. And if today’s needs are met, what about tomorrow? What about next week? What about next year? What about …? For them, the mental slavery of self-provision ends only with the grave.
But we have a promise. God knows that we need these things.
And He cares for us.
Examples of God’s bountiful provision for His people can be found throughout the Word of God. Here are just a few:
Psalm 34:9, 10
O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
The lion’s predatory skill is legendary. We call him the “king of the jungle.” In his natural habitat, he sits at the top of the food chain. Perhaps circumstances could get so bleak that the older, slower, weaker lions might have to go without food. Can you imagine how bad things would have to get for even the young lions — swift and powerful — to suffer lack? Yet even in this time of most dire need, God’s people, regardless of age, strength, or skill, have a supply, and not merely a supply of “survival rations.”
Jeremiah 17:7, 8
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
While the world around them predicts disaster, God’s people look to Him. While the world around them struggles through disaster, God’s people continue bearing fruit.
Proverbs 15:25
The LORD will destroy the house of the proud: but he will establish the border of the widow.
In the times of the Old Testament, the widow was in a most precarious position. Very few means of self-support were open to her, and no legal provision was made for her welfare. In such a cultural climate, it would have been extremely difficult for a widow to own a piece of property, let alone to maintain it. But what if God were watching over that property, and standing at its borders? In such a case, culture becomes meaningless, as do all other man-made restrictions.
Habakkuk 3:17, 18
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Verse 17 paints a harrowing picture, doesn’t it? Here Habakkuk describes a situation in which virtually every source of food for the Eastern man has been decimated. How could one rejoice amid such devastation?
Habakkuk 3:19a
The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.
God has not changed. In fact, if anything, His promise is more sure to His people today.
Matthew 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Much better, isn’t it, to cast those things on Him? He cares for you.