“The LORD directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way.”
It’s easy to see the “blessing of God” when life is Spring green and cloudless skies; but how about those days when gray is the predominant color and foreboding the overriding mood?
Moving Trucks
I was making my daily trek through God’s Word, when my travels took me to Jael’s tent; a quiet woman with steely resolve and a swing that would make Hank Aaron proud. Jael’s husband was Heber, a relative of Moses’ brother-in-law, Hobab. At some point in the past, Hobab had piled his belongings in a U-Haul, waved goodbye to his relatives, and joined Moses’ “motley crew” in order to serve as guide for the wilderness wanderings.
I know, right now, you are thinking, “Do I really want to read this?” Hang in there. If you have ever moved and wondered why, this is for you. Fast forward several years. Now, thanks to Hobab’s decision, Heber lives in some “God-forsaken” corner of the desert. His home is a tent. His front yard, sand. And days pass with boring regularity.
Hmmm, how is Heber’s wife, Jael, feeling about no running water, no indoor plumbing, no AC, or no nearby relatives? Maybe something like this:
God’s I’ve heard about your works in the past, but I’m not feeling it out here in the Arabian sandbox.
Years ago, Shannan and I “packed up” and left the church I had been serving for 17 years, to take a role as Dean of the Chapel and Assistant Professor of Ministry at Palm Beach Atlantic University. I went thinking it was my “last stop.” As it turns out, it was just one place we would pitch our tent over the years. It was a confusing time. “God, I thought my life would like differently now.” In some ways, we were Jael, stranded in a place we didn’t want to call “home.”
But God was doing was God does, working all things together for our good.
God is sovereign over moving trucks
Apparently, Heber was a congenial guy because he built a working friendship with the local Canaanite, King Jabin, whose army Commander, Sisera, made life miserable for the Israelites. Scripture tells us that Sisera, had 900 iron chariots, and ruthlessly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years . . . until . . . God said, “Enough is enough” and brought down his judgment on Sisera’s army.
Sisera went from “man in charge” to “man on the run.” And where did he run, but to the tent of Jael. Sisera reasoned, “Certainly, the wife of Heber, friend of King Jabin, will shelter me from the pursuing Israelite army?” He should have thought twice!
Jael welcomed him like a Venus fly trap. She promised him protection, gave him food to eat, a place to hide; and with Jael’s promise to be both lookout and guardian, the exhausted general fell into a deep sleep.
But when Sisera fell asleep from exhaustion, Jael quietly crept up to him with a hammer and tent peg in her hand. Then she drove the tent peg through his temple and into the ground, and so he died. Judges 4:21
Yes, God works in mysterious ways! He took Jael on what seemed her own wilderness wandering, only to use her to rescue a nation in peril. You see, in God’s economy, there is no such things as a “dead end,” well, except for Sisera. Solomon counsel in Proverbs 20:24 is not meant to discourage us, but to remind us that
“God’s providence extends to our moves and we never know quite why the Lord places us where he does, until we do.”
Boxing Gloves
Like Jael, Naomi lived under the gray clouds and a chilling breeze. To escape famine, Naomi and her husband fled to Moab, where the sun shown briefly - until her husband died. Tough times, but Naomi cheered herself with Annie’s tune:
The sun will come out Tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow, There'll be sun!“
And the sun did come out! Both sons married. Her home was joy, laughter, life . . . until both sons died. No more sun. No more joy. Ruth’s tune shifted to the minor key, as she trudged through dark days, sadly nodding as Ethel Waters sang, Stormy Weather:
Life is bare
Gloom and misery everywhere
Stormy weather
Just can't get my poor self together
I'm weary all the time, the time
So weary all of the time
If you think I’m overdoing the metaphor, you have to listen to Naomi. A desolate woman, with a foreboding cloud following her every step, she decides to move back to Israel. Ruth, her daughter-in-law, wants to go. Naomi objects,
No, of course not, my daughters! Things are far more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord himself has raised his fist against me.” Ruth 13 NLT
What Naomi does not know, but we later learn, is that the “fist of God” is actually not the boxing glove of the Almighty; but rather the kind hand of the Gentle Shepherd.
Ruth returns with Naomi.
Ruth meets Boaz, who treats her (and Naomi) with incredible kindness.
Boaz marries Ruth.
Naomi becomes celebrated grandmother.
Ruth’s son becomes the grandfather of King David.
14 Then the women of the town said to Naomi, “Praise the Lord, who has now provided a redeemer for your family! May this child be famous in Israel. 15 May he restore your youth and care for you in your old age. For he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons!”
16 Naomi took the baby and cuddled him to her breast. And she cared for him as if he were her own. 17 The neighbor women said, “Now at last Naomi has a son again!” And they named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David.
Much of life appears moving trucks and boxing gloves, but Jael and Naomi stand as witnesses that . . .
“God’s providence extends to our moves and our hurts, and we never know quite why the Lord allows what he does, until we do.”
But until he does and until we do, we can rest and relax, confident that somewhere above that stormy weather, the blue skies are smiling on me.