A quarter of a shekel makes all the difference

Do you believe that God plans every step of your life? I know some people who believe that God has a perfect plan for their lives right down to the very last detail and that nothing can happen in their lives without God’s express permission. Equally however I know people at the other extreme who see life simply as a series of random events, good and bad, which happen to all and from which no-one is exempt.

I don’t know for sure where the truth lies but I do know that God is able to intervene in our lives in both the miraculous and the mundane to ensure that His purposes are fulfilled. There is also I believe sufficient evidence to support this from scripture.

The first example I found was that of Saul in the Old Testament in the days before he became king. It is stated that some of the family donkeys had wandered off and Saul’s father Kish asked his son along with a servant to go looking for them. (1 Sam 9:3)

Saul and the servant set off and they wander aimlessly for a day or two in search of the donkeys finding nothing. By the end of a couple of days Saul has had enough and says to the servant ‘Lets go home, by now father will have forgotten about the donkeys and will be more concerned for us’. The servant however determined not to give up co-incidentally remembers that there is a prophet in a nearby town and recommends that they go and ask him for some advise. Saul agrees but then subsequently discovers that there is nothing to give him as a gift, which was the custom in those days. It seems that they would have to give up on the idea when the servant suddenly calls out ‘Hang about a bit (or words to that effect) I have here in my pocket a quarter of a shekel. Lets give him that’.

Well there is no arguing with that and off they go to the city. On the way they meet some servant girls fetching water at the well and ask them for directions. These girls must have been experiencing a boring sort of day for in return they give a very longwinded set of instructions and diretions, oh and by the way the prophet is arriving today for a big feast in the town. How co-incidental!

So the pair of them servant set off and on entering the city who is the first person they see and to whom Saul just happens to ask for directions? None other that Samuel the prophet himself. By the end of the day Saul is annointed king of Israel.

You can argue that to the casual onlooker it seems to be nothing more than a set of random events and circumstances that bring Saul to Samuel together and prepare the way for the fulfillment of the purposes of God in Saul becoming the first king of Israel. The donkey’s just happening to get lost, Kish asking his son rather than a servant to go looking, the servant just happening to be well informed about the location of prophets in Israel and of course finding the quarter of the shekel in his pocket at just the right moment which kept them going when they would otherwise might have just given up and gone home.

Yet the truth of the events are revealed in 1 Sam 9:16 where God says to Samuel “I will send to you a man..”

Another similar sort of example is found in Genesis 37:13 where Jacob asks his son Joseph to go and check up on his brothers in Shechem. Off he goes and when he arrives at Shechem they have moved on to another location. Joseph would like the rest of us simply have given up and gone home when it is stated that ‘a man found him wandering in the field’. They get into conversation and it just so happens that this man somehow overheard the brothers saying they were going to Dotham a city nearby. Joseph takes the advice of the stranger and heads off into a life changing adventure.

Many years later we read in Genesis 45:6 when Joseph meets up again with his brothers ” God sent me on ahead of you ..” In both these incidents God is directing circumstances and events down to the minutest detail to ensure that His purposes are fulfilled.

I am reminded of Psalm 1:6 (right to left)

 כִּֽי־יֹודֵ֣עַ יְ֭הוָה דֶּ֣רֶךְ צַדִּיקִ֑ים the righteous – the way of – YHWH – is knowing – For

I like in particular the use of the verb יודע (pronunced ‘yothea’ ) in its particple form. The translation ‘is knowing’ is perhaps a little over the top but nevertheless captures the meaning of the verse very well, God watching over our ways in love and with the greatest attention to detail.

Lord, grant us faith to believe that You are near and watching over our lives. Nothing can overtake us that is not already know in advance to You, the LORD omniscient from everlasting unto everlasting.

The Scribbling Scribe 22nd October 2009