Most of my thinking and living is stuck in our natural world. With my science/engineering background, I am trained to examine the world as we know it, learn its laws and then act accordingly. All this is very rational and logical. Then I come to a text like this (not to mention the previous chapter, too) and my worldview is scrambled.
I supposed two, never-yoked cows could pull a cart along a path without incident from one place to another but honestly, is it likely? NO! Farmers took hours training oxen to pull evenly and to follow their lead so that they could furrow straight rows and/or drive product to and from town. And even trained oxen needed a driver to keep them on the path and to make the correct turns at forks in the road. No farmer would load his cart, tap the cows and leave them alone to drive the produce to market. It just wouldn’t happen. And yet, that is exactly what happened, two rookie cows pull a cart to a particular town without incident.
The understood answer of the text is that the Lord directed them. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the LORD has brought this great disaster on us (9).
I accept this account as a God-working from the Bible, yet, and here is my rub, I often neglect to bring similar possibilities into my 21st century world.
As I am pondering this thought, I am realizing how often my prayers limit what God can do. I pray for God to ‘work’ through natural ways rather than however He chooses to work, including super-natural ways. I am realizing anew (this is not the first time) how often I create boxes for God limiting how He will work within a given situation. And my boxes too often do not allow for God’s supernatural intervention in the world…
O, God, forgive me for limiting You… pagan statues fall before Your ark, ox-carts walk home by themselves. Jesus walks on water, calms the wind and waves, heals all kinds of diseases, raises the dead. Peter and Paul speak healing in Jesus’ name and Philip is teleported from one place to another. All of these are biblical accounts of God acting in our world in ways that are beyond natural law. O, God, forgive me for limiting You in my world, for silently thinking “O God wouldn’t…”
Lord, beyond forgiving me, please lead me to a faith that depends on You totally, trusts You completely and rests in You no matter how You choose to work or not work. Lord, You alone are God and I rest my life in Your Almighty hands… amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment