4. Law of Conditioning Providence
The law of conditioning providence refers to the fact that, if a central person fulfills, or fails to fulfill his or her human portion of responsibility in accordance with God’s will in a providential event, that will condition a specific providential event of a later period. This means that a providential event not only has an important significance in and of itself, at that time, but also becomes a condition that will determine the characteristics of providential events that will follow later in history.
For example, we know of the case in which Moses struck the rock twice in the wilderness (Deut. 20). Moses’ action had, in itself, an actual necessity due to the particular circumstances of that time, namely, to enable the thirsty Israelites in the wilderness to have water to drink. At the same time, however, it also had the significance of symbolizing, and conditioning, God’s providence at Jesus’ coming, at a later date. About this matter, the content of the Divine Principle may be paraphrased as follows: 9
The rock symbolized Adam. Specifically, the waterless rock, before being struck by Moses, symbolized the first (fallen) Adam; in contrast, the rock bringing forth water, after being struck once by Moses, symbolized Jesus, the second Adam. Since water symbolizes life, the first Adam, who was in the state of spiritual death due to the fall, could be symbolized as a rock that does not bring forth water; and Jesus, the second Adam, who would come in order to give life to spiritually dead people, could be symbolized as the water-giving rock. Yet, Moses struck the rock twice in anger at the faithlessness of the Israelites; and in so doing, he struck the rock bringing forth water, which symbolized Jesus. Through that act, the condition was established whereby, if later, when Jesus came, the Israelites were to turn faithless, Satan would have the condition to be able to strike Jesus, the fulfillment of the rock.
Jesus was, in fact, crucified due to the faithlessness of the Israelites. This was in part because the double striking of the rock by Moses conditioned the providence at the time of the coming of the Messiah. This is one example from history as recorded in the Old Testament. The law of conditioning providence was at work not only in this incident, but also in other historical events that were significant in God’s providence. This means that providential events did not simply happen in their time, for no particular reason, but rather they were conditioned, to a certain degree, by various factors which preceded them. How a particular event in a certain age developed, in turn, has influenced later historical events. This is what the law of conditioning providence tells us.