God’s plan for and involvement with humanity is central to the story’s plot. Michael’s failure to follow God’s plan leads to his fall, which is orchestrated to teach him not only the inevitability of God’s will but the truth behind it. People are shown to be united in certain uncertainties, such as what the next day will bring and when death will come. Individuals who act as though they are above such uncertainties, like the gentleman who orders the boots, do not keep God’s plan from acting upon them. However, providence and the uncertainty that accompanies its existence do not exclusively control life’s ills; the mystery behind good events is also a result of God’s incomprehensible plan. Within “What Men Live By,” when one trusts in providence to provide and uses that trust as motivation to help others, the world becomes a better place.

The night that Michael is found, Matryona asks “We give; but why does nobody give us anything?” (Part 4, paragraph 30). Unknowingly, she has already been given an enormous gift in the form of Michael, who will vastly improve their circumstances. Simon states earlier in the chapter that “God sent me to him, or he would have perished” (Part 4, paragraph 2).