Behind The Scenes

There are moments in our lives that we can look at and see the hand of God at work.   ~~~   One of the most exciting stories in scripture takes place in Judges 4. The Israelites are at war with Jabin, the King of Canaan. One of God’s fighting men, Barak, is chasing down the commander of Jabin’s army, Sisera. Sisera runs to a location and to a tent that he thinks is a safe refuge, and he asks the lady there, “Please give me a a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So the lady gave him some warm milk and a blanket and a place inside the tent to take a nap. But while he was napping, the woman, Jael, took a tent peg and drove it through Sisera’s temple, killing God’s enemy on the spot, literally. In verse 23 of chapter 4, the text reads, “So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of of Canaan before the people of Israel.” In another war story, the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, is at his wits end on what to do against the armies of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, who have come to invade the land of Judah. Jehoshaphat prays, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” Then he receives a word from the prophet Jahaziel, who tells Jehoshaphat, “You will not need to fight this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD.” When it came time to fight, Jehoshaphat sent out the praise team, and they began to sing praises to God. The bible is full of stories like these, where the people look back on an event, and say, “That had to be God.” Sometimes the stories and narrators themselves provide the commentary we need to see that God was the one responsible for what took place. But then there are other times where the narrator is silent in that regard, letting the story itself provide us with the clues. Consider the book of Esther, where God is never mentioned. Are we to think that the story has nothing to do with God at all? Of Course not. We have one such occasion in our text for study starting next Tuesday. God is only mentioned in passing by a pagan king. Otherwise, he is nowhere to be found in the text, but his fingerprints are all over the story. And we can identify with that can’t we. Each follower of Christ here today, can look back over his or her life and see God working behind the scenes at different points and seasons in his/her life, to teach, to instruct, to remind, to warn.