Confluence

So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before he died your father gave a command: ‘Please forgive your brothers’ transgression and their sin – the wrong they have caused you.’ Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when their message came to him. Then his brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves.”

But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result – the survival of many people. Therefore don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. --Genesis 50:16-21

This is a theme that I come back to time and again. Understanding this concurrence between the will of man and the will of God was vital to me early in my life as a Christian. Yet, as convinced as I am of its truth, I still find myself struggling with it in daily practice.

It’s not the power and foresight of God that trouble me. I can believe that the manager of a baseball team will make the right moves, but there remains drama in the execution because, when it comes right down to it, it must be up to the hitters, the pitchers and the fielders. An analogy to baseball is inadequate but it illustrates the aspect that bothers me. When you think about it, how often has God’s plan through the ages hung by a thread? We have no idea how many times history has turned on a single decision by a single individual.

What if Joseph had been sold into slavery and decided to give it all up? What if he had abandoned his principles and taken advantage of the opportunity offered by Potiphar’s wife? What if his years in Egypt had left him callous and vindictive? What if being the prime minister of the most powerful empire on earth had gone to Joseph’s head? Does God have Plan B?

When Mordecai spoke to Esther about her role in delivering her people, he believed that if she failed to fulfill her purpose, God would raise up another deliverer for the Jews. Perhaps that is true. Certainly it appears that God has worked this way in times past, through the many dead-ends of evolution and the cyclical failures of human history. In the long run, God’s plan and purpose cannot be thwarted, and while that is reassuring in a general sense, it is less satisfying from my limited perspective.

If we consider the current state of the world, we realize that momentous decisions are being made by people who are apathetic or even antagonistic to the One True God – not in some limited sectarian sense, but they simply do not value absolute truth, and thus the foundation of that truth. Their decisions are based on political expediency and personal gain. This is nothing new. God must always work with such people, from Pharoah to Nero to Bozo. The scary thing is that I can fulfill my destiny regardless of how badly the politicians and the journalists screw things up.

Why is that scary? Consider that, however unlikely, we could find ourselves following the Lord through collapse and chaos, poverty, persecution, even unto death. At best we are likely to become more “European”, less free and independent, saddled with inflation and higher taxes. But our call to obedience will not lessen. I will still be able to pray and seek God. I will continue to be His child. I will still love my brothers and sisters. God isn’t going to change. Even if our branch of history has hit a wall, even if we have to take some steps back in terms of liberty and prosperity, the kingdom of God will move on.

It may seem that we have dead-ended. If that happens, the temptation will be great for me to say that my individual decisions no longer matter. And they may not. That’s the mystery of concurrence. But what I say, what I do, how I live, and my attitude toward God may, on the other hand, be some obscure, but pivotal point on which the doors of history swing. From inside I have no way of knowing. Could Joseph have seen his positive and godly attitude in Pharoah’s dungeons would save a nation? Could an unknown Roman soldier have understood the significance of plunging his spear into a dead man’s side? Could the individual soldiers of the 20th Maine have realized the weight of history that turned on a little rocky hill that 2nd of July? While I will never be in as significant a position as these people, I have no way of knowing how or where the little ripples that go out from my life might strike someone who does have a critical role to play.

Not knowing, I trust, and obey.


Its a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken,
Perhaps they're better left unsung.
I don't know, don't really care
Let there be songs to fill the air.

Ripple in still water,
When there is no pebble tossed,
Nor wind to blow.

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty,
If your cup is full may it be again,
Let it be known there is a fountain,
That was not made by the hands of men.

There is a road, no simple highway,
Between the dawn and the dark of night,
And if you go no one may follow,
That path is for your steps alone.

Ripple in still water,
When there is no pebble tossed,
Nor wind to blow.

From “Ripple” – The Grateful Dead

Anonymous

God is not named in the Book of Esther. Esther is a young Jewish girl who winds up in the harem of the Persian king and wins a, uh, “beauty” contest to become the queen. Some have suggested that both “Esther” and “The Song of Solomon” should be removed from the Canon of Scripture. I will admit that I did, at one point, wonder how “The Song of Solomon” got by the censors. But Esther is different. In fact, until someone pointed it out, I did not realize that God’s name does not appear in any form. The assumption of His presence is so obvious that the absence of a direct mention never occurred to me.

God is seen in Esther’s story, but He is anonymous. It’s rather like in the story of Joseph where the brothers throw him into a dry well, and, as they are trying to figure out what to do with him, a caravan of traders “just happen” to come by and Joseph ends up in Egypt. So, too, Mordecai, Esther’s cousin and adoptive father, “just happens” to learn of a plot to assassinate the king. Later, the king can’t sleep and “just happens” to have his scribes read from the chronicles where he is reminded of the plot and of the fact that he owes his life to Mordecai the Jew. He also learns that Mordecai received nothing for his loyal service. It “just happens” that Mordecai’s mortal enemy, Haman, is entering the court at that very moment. The king asks Haman, who knows nothing of what is being discussed, “What should be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?”

In his pride, Haman thinks the king is referring to him, so he launches on an elaborate, over-the-top scenario. When Haman finishes, the king says, “That’s a great idea. Now, you go do exactly that for Mordecai the Jew.”

JWM, on his World-Famous Blog, was talking about coincidences and started me on this thought. Just as with Esther and Joseph, most of us, if we stop to consider it, recognize that something seems to be going on. The events in our lives appear to be guided rather than random. Now the materialist will argue against this pointing out that such superstition arises because people tend to notice when something hits but not when it misses. My mother used to say, upon hearing thunder at this time of the year, “Thunder in February, frost in May.” Actually, around here, February thunder is not that uncommon while May frosts are – but if it happened once, no doubt Mom’s belief would be confirmed, similar to her belief in following the “signs” in the Almanac for planting. My father was a skeptic. The theory goes, for example, that you are supposed to plant root crops – potatoes, carrots, turnips, etc. – in the dark of the moon. Dad’s inevitable response was, “I think they do better if you plant them in the ground.”

But we are not talking about old wives’ tales. Many of us have seen God work in our lives through extraordinary circumstances. Excuse me if I have related this story before. I couldn’t find it in the archives. Years ago, I quit my job and moved to a small town in Texas to help rebuild a church. I think I was doing God’s will. After a couple of months in a less than booming economy, I found what I considered to be a temporary position, making very little money, well below what I was qualified to do. We wanted to buy a house in the community. We had some money to put down but as I was in a different line of work, we had to do a lease option. The lease was only good for a couple of months, at which time we would have to get a loan or move on.

Jobs in my field were hard to come by at that time. One day I drove over to a neighboring town to the library and read through the paper. An ad jumped out at me. It was calling for my specific skills. It was almost as if it had been written for me. This was on Tuesday. I hurried home, and we put together a resume and cover letter which I sent the next day – Wednesday. The month ended on Sunday and with it the window to exercise our lease option. I needed to be on the job for at least a month. This was a last chance to get back to my regular line of work, qualify for a loan, and close in time to avoid another expensive, undesirable move. On Thursday night a man called and asked if I could come up Friday afternoon and interview.

My wife rode up with me and waited in the car, praying, while I went up to the eleventh floor. They gave me a little test, and I talked to three or four people. Finally I came back into the room with the first man who interviewed me. I really expected that he would tell me they would think it over and let me know. Instead he said, “How much did you make at your old job.” I told him. “Things are more expensive here,” he observed and then asked if I thought a twenty-five percent increase would be about right. I said, yes, as calmly as possible. “One more question,” he said. “Is there any way you could start Monday?”

“I can do that.”

We got the loan and went on from there. I got my next job in a similar, equally timely fashion. Later, we sold a house in one day. We wanted to move across country again. I turned in my resignation, and I didn’t have a job in the new location until three days before we loaded the truck. I got it sight unseen because a guy I had worked with five years before “just happened” to be the hiring authority at a business in a town near the one to which we were moving.

Coincidence? Sure. If it makes you more comfortable to think that I’m unbelievably lucky or gifted I probably can’t convince you otherwise – no matter how many synchronicities I can relate. I know better. I know my life has been guided. Jesus said the Way is strait and narrow – not straight. It’s sometimes like walking a razor’s edge but it is not without its bends, blind corners, hills and valleys. Even when I am blind to my destiny, even when I am stupid, the Lord continues to move me along the road and have me in the right place at the right time.

When Paul went to Athens, he saw the many altars to many gods, and one, even, inscribed "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD". The Athenians were superstitious and fearful of offending a god they knew nothing about. They thought that, possibly, an Unknown God might be more powerful than the gods they named. And Paul thought, "Cool."