It is worthwhile, in our reading of the Scriptures, to observe the presence and working of God in the ordinary affairs of everyday life. For instance, in Genesis 37, Joseph is seen on his way to visit his brethren in obedience to his father’s command, but is unable to find them. It is said:
“A certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field.”
It so happened that the “certain man” had heard Joseph’s brethren say they were going to Dothan, and thus he was able to direct Joseph on his way. Now, what believer would dare to say that the finding and directing of Joseph as here recorded happened by chance, and that God had nothing to do with the “certain man” finding him in that field?
Great events often spring from seemingly small and unexpected causes, and from what seem to us trivial and common-place things. When we “know as we are known” and understand fully the working of God in the lives of those who trust Him, we shall be filled with wonder to know how constantly He was present, though often unknown to ourselves, and how much and how continually we were indebted to Him. There is great truth in the words of the poet:
“He everywhere hath sway
And all things serve His might.”
When David was pursuing the Amalekites who had smitten Ziklag, an Egyptian, apparently dead, was found in the field. (1 Sam. 30:1111And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water; (1 Samuel 30:11).) This man, after being restored, was able to give David the information he needed to enable him to overtake the Amalekites and recover all they had taken away. God used this weak and apparently impossible instrument to promote the victory of David by giving him directions.
We do well to ponder these simple narratives and observe the ways of God’s working in everyday life. For it is blind unbelief to limit the presence of God to that which is called miraculous and supernatural, and not to see and trust Him in the things which we call commonplace and ordinary.
It is a matter of divine revelation that God commanded the ravens to bring Elijah bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening. Yet God was not more truly present in providing for His servant then, and there, in the time of famine, than He is in commanding the needful provision here and now, it may be in a time of plenty, and by means of very ordinary circumstances.
We cannot read of the needs of God’s people in Scripture, if our eyes have been opened to see, without reading of the way in which God supplied them. Sometimes those needs were very apparent and were even allowed occasionally to become urgent before they were met. But God in giving a record of the trials of His saints does not leave us without an account of their deliverances. Thus the generations of His children that follow are able to say, as they study the record:
The word salvation in Scripture does not always mean the salvation of the soul, nor yet being clothed with a resurrection body, though, thank God, these sure mercies are presented to us therein. But the Word of God is rich in its faithful record of various kinds of temporal deliverances, and not a few of these are celebrated in thankful songs of praise.
Further, these deliverances are by no means written for the sake of those for whom those deliverances were wrought, but for all those who in time to come should read or be instructed by these divinely inspired records, and thereby encouraged to put their trust in God. For God is not retired to the heavens, having left the world to itself, or His people to themselves in the days in which we live. It must strike an unbeliever as somewhat singular to hear a Christian singing heartily about the salvation of his soul, and yet soon afterward to discern in his anxious, careworn appearance, and perhaps in his speech too, a lack of confidence in God about the living present. It is not according to Scripture that such matters as God’s care for the soul, and God’s present care for the body, should be divorced in that way.
God is present with His children for many purposes; but not only so, for the Apostle was able to tell heathen men—applying the words both to heathen and Christian—
Take an illustration of the way in which God is near His people to protect them:
“There came a messenger unto Saul, saying, Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land. Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Sela-hammahlekoth (that is, the rock of divisions or escape). And David went up from thence.” 1 Samuel 23:27-2927But there came a messenger unto Saul, saying, Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land. 28Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Sela-hammahlekoth. 29And David went up from thence, and dwelt in strong holds at En-gedi. (1 Samuel 23:27‑29).
Saul was pressing David very close. It seemed as if Saul had captured his long pursued quarry on this occasion—
“Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them.”
But suddenly a messenger appeared saying to Saul, “Haste thee, and come.” Saul was called away, and thus one of the spots of David’s greatest danger became henceforth a monumental place of divine deliverance, for in all this the believer sees God’s intervention in David’s escape. Are there not places in our own experience over which we, too, might write as truly as these Hebrews did, the long and difficult word:
“Sela-hammahlekoth”?
God was no more David’s deliverer than He is the deliverer, in these days, of those who put their trust in Him. Let us not forget the words of our Lord Jesus Christ— “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
Again, God is present with His people to provide for them. We read of the disciples of Jesus on one occasion that
“They reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, He said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up.” Matthew 16:7-97And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. 8Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? 9Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? (Matthew 16:7‑9).
Jesus had wrought two miracles in both of which He had shown how fully competent He was to satisfy the hungry with bread in places where there was none. Did He not expect these disciples to learn from these miracles that He was all-sufficient for every emergency? He is the Creator. He asks us to trust Him when we have no bread, and not to be overcome by difficulties like the one we read of here, which His disciples were unable to master. It is His will that we should “understand” and “remember” (and may divine grace accomplish this in us!) that while man thinks he can prepare a table in a land of plenty, God can prepare a “Table in the Wilderness.”
If we have what seems like needs unmet, or difficulties unremoved, it is certainly not because God is unable to deal with these if He chooses. The Lord on this occasion said to the disciples, “O ye of little faith,” and He says to us today:
But God is working for His people oftentimes, not only to provide for them, to protect them, to save them out of danger, but also to prevent them from entering into danger, or temptation, and from falling into sin. Oh, may we be more ready to observe His wise direction in our daily circumstances; to see His faithful care, to heed the little warnings when we deviate from the path of His guidance, and to bless Him for all!
One time David seemed under a cloud, and after many deliverances said in his heart,
As a consequence of this step, taken in unbelief, David is seen in the next chapter in company with the Philistines as they went to fight against Israel. He was in danger of actually fighting against his own nation, the people whom he defended when he slew Goliath. Had such a thing been allowed to happen, what remorse would have been his portion afterward! But his ever-faithful God kept him from such a calamity. And only God could extricate him in this extremity. It happened that the lords of the Philistines objected to David’s presence on the battlefield against Israel. Could David have wished for anything better? Deliverance came at the last moment, but what a deliverance it was! When God acts He is never behind the time. He delivered David, not because David was worthy, but because of His own sovereign grace. But where there is wilfulness and lack of integrity of heart toward God, He may allow us to go farther and even to reap some of the fruit of our ways. But in whatever way our God may work, be it ever remembered, He loves us and is faithful.
“How good is the God we adore,
Our faithful, unchangeable Friend;
Whose love is as great as His power,
And knows neither measure nor end!”