God in the Ordinary

God’s plan includes our participation but he still remains in control working through the ordinary day to day in our lives to bring Him glory.

January 10, 1948, just over two years after the conclusion of World War II, Marcel Sternberger got on a train in the Brooklyn subway he had never been on before. he had changed his schedule in order to visit a sick friend just as he stepped in, one man jumped up and ran off, realizing he was about to miss his station. Sternberger quickly took the seat and sat down. Next to him was a man reading a Hungarian newspaper. Sternberger had been born in Hungary and though he would not normally strike up conversation with strangers in the subway, he felt compelled to say something. He looked over the man’s shoulder and said in Hungarian, “I hope you don’t mind if I glance at your paper.” The man was surprised to be addressed in his native language, and during the half-hour ride to town, they became acquainted.

Sternberger’s companion voluntarily shared his tragic story. His name was Paskin, and he had been a law student when the war started. He was eventually put into a labor battalion and sent to the Ukraine. Later he was captured by the Russians and put to work burying the German dead. After the war he covered hundreds of miles on foot, returned to his home in Debrecen, Hungary, and discovered his entire family gone. Finally, he located old friends in Debrecen sadly informed him his entire family was dead. The Nazis had taken them and his wife to Auschwitz,Stunned by the news, the man fled Hungary, emigrated to the United States in October 1947. As Sternberger listened, the story seemed somehow familiar, He had recently met a young woman at the home of friends who had also been from Debrecen. She had been taken to Auschwitz but was then transferred to work in a German munitions factory. After she had been liberated by the Americans, she was brought to New York in the first boatload of Displaced Persons in 1946. Sternberger had been so moved by her story he had written down her address and phone number, hoping to invite her to meet his family in order to help with her terrible loneliness and grief.

Sternberger thought it impossible that there could be a connection between these two people, but when he reached his station, he stayed on the train with his new friend. He asked as casually as possible, “Is your first name Bela?”

The man went pale as he said, “Yes! How did you know?”

Sternberger fumbled for his address book, as he asked, “Was you wife’s name Marya?”

Looking as though he might faint, Paskin said, “Yes! Yes!”

He took Paskin to a nearby phone booth.he had Marya Paskin on the line. Sternberger asked Marya where she had lived in Debrecen before the war, and she told him the address. Sternberger turned to Bela and said, “Did you and your wife live on such-and-such a street?”

“Yes!” Bela exclaimed, as he turned white as a sheet and trembled.

Sternberger urged him to stay calm but then explained that something miraculous was about to happen to him.

God works in the ordinary still just like he did back in the times of the OT. You see we are called to participate in the plan of God, to seek His will, and we strive to and we need to remember that God is at work to bring glory to himself even in the midst of our mistakes.

Proverbs tells us that man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps. We need to lean on God. Israel was learning this. They wanted the things of the world, they wanted a worldly king and that is what Gd gave them, yet at the same time God used their worldly desires to accomplish His will and His plan. we need to even now pray for God to show us when He is at work drawing us back to himself even in the ordinary.

Let us see what this looks like.

our steps and God’s plan

we meet Saul. One thing to remember is that Israel demanded a King, the way they wanted and how they wanted. They wanted to compromise with the world. They where going to see how that was not going to end well for them.

God was going to give them what they wanted, a king like the nations. So that is wht God does. Saul was someone the nations likely would have seen as kingly material.

1 Samuel 9:1 ESV

1 There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth.

He was from a rich family. So that is a good first start for a worldly king. But it gets even better.

1 Samuel 9:2 ESV

2 And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.

He not only came froma rich family, but he was a handsome tall man. Tall dark and handsome. a good combo for a king I would say.

with this in mind, the tall dark and handsome man lost his donkey’s

1 Samuel 9:3–5 ESV

3 Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost. So Kish said to Saul his son, “Take one of the young men with you, and arise, go and look for the donkeys.” 4 And he passed through the hill country of Ephraim and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they did not find them. And they passed through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then they passed through the land of Benjamin, but did not find them. 5 When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, “Come, let us go back, lest my father cease to care about the donkeys and become anxious about us.”

They did not have a clue where the sheep went, so they went to see the local prophet, who happened to be Samuel.

It would appear that God had orchestrated things in such a way as to allow Saul to meet Samuel that day.

1 Samuel 9:14–17 ESV

14 So they went up to the city. As they were entering the city, they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the high place. 15 Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel: 16 “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me.” 17 When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, “Here is the man of whom I spoke to you! He it is who shall restrain my people.”

Isnt it amazing Ho God can work through the ordinary!

God Orchestrates the Details of Our Lives. What looks like a random inconvenience (e.g., Saul looking for lost donkeys) may be God's way of directing us into His purpose.

we are going to learn that though Saul was what the world would want as a king, God was going to use the mistakes of the people, the mistakes of Saul for His plan and for His glory.

Now this is not an excuse to go about making mistakes and sinning thinking it does not matter, God will use me anyways. But we remember that we serve a sovereign God. His plan will not be thwarted.

so that being said, God uses the ordinary in our lives to get our attention and turn our lives back to Him. Just think. God worked through lost donkeys to get Saul to be in a place to meet samuel to be annointed as king. What an amazing God it is we serve that can even work through lost donkeys.

Saul was treated likea king

They through a banquest for Him, He didnt think that He was the right man for the job though he was from a well to do family, who was he to lead the Israelites. Things where set in motion to be the king of Israel.

1 Samuel 10 recounts the selection and anointing of Saul as the first king of Israel. Samuel, the prophet, anoints Saul with oil and gives him three signs, which are fulfilled as Saul journeys on. The signs, including meeting prophets and being touched by the Spirit of God, confirm Saul's destiny as king. Samuel then gathers the Israelites at Mizpah, a place of assembly, and presents Saul as the chosen king through casting lots. Saul, initially hiding from the crowd, is found and presented to the people, who respond with a cry of "Long live the king!". Samuel reminds the Israelites that they had rejected God's rule and were choosing a human king, but God would allow it. After the ceremony, Saul returns to his home in Gibeah, where some of the Israelites express dissatisfaction with his selection. This is a foreshadow of the downfall of saul as king. The chapter concludes with a description of the people gathered with Saul, establishing his initial leadership and signaling the transition from a society ruled by judges to a kingdom. 

1 & 2 Samuel Original Meaning

that Yahweh grants the king that Israel requests rather than the one he desires. Yet God is able to bless even this choice. It is the Old Testament’s constant reminder of the love of God that he so often takes Israel’s failures or compromises and turns them into opportunities for his grace

1 & 2 Samuel Contemporary Significance

Thus, our passage about King Saul has features in common with this verse spoken by the Lord’s Messiah (or “Anointed One”): Both were given the Spirit of the Lord; both were anointed; and both were commissioned for a specific task—Saul to serve as Israel’s first king and the Messiah to proclaim good news to the poor

The king of Israel looked forward to the coming king Jesus, though the task was different.

God’s Plan Includes Human Participation, But He Remains in Control

Even as Israel demanded a king, God remained sovereign and used it for His purposes. Are you trusting that God can work even through imperfect choices or systems?

you see the difference is that we strive to follow God and His will, but we are imperfect. But the point is that we strive together, in unity to work together for the Glory fo God. And as we do that the Lord promises to work through us if we do this faithfully.

But even as we fail and make mistakes, He is still in control and he uses our circumstances to draw us back to Himself. God used a selfish people who demanded a king for all the wrong reasons to glorify Himself. He showed them that they needed to follow Him.

what can we learn from this?

We learn that Saul was a king that the world would have wanted, A king that Israel sinfully requested but God granted none the less. But as we know God used Israels choice for His glory. Though Saul would later fail by trusting in himself rather then trusting in God.

Saul's initial humility (hiding among the baggage in 10:22) was appropriate, but he later failed by relying on himself.

God works through the Ordinary

we need to understand something. We do not often understand what God is doing, or what He is trying to tell us. to Get Saul to come to Samuel so Sam would know the man God was going to call he worked through lost donkey’s.

I imagine that would have been very stressful for the young Saul. He was gone so long that He was worried His dad would stop worrying about the donkeys and start worrying about Him.

though God is sovereign, which means that he carries out his plan and his will as he knows best without defeat. He is in control and nothing that happens is a surprise to Him, we still choose to disobey.

In God’s divine wisdom he calls us back to himself through sometimes ordinary ways. sometimes it is through bad conditions. but we need to understand that if bad conditions exist in my life, they are not there because some evil god has thwarted the good intentions of a kindly but ineffectual grandfather-god, who would like me to have good conditions but cannot bring them about. They are there solely as a factor of my relations to the one God. They may be there because I have sinned against his natural and moral laws, or they may be there because by their means I can become more like him, or they may be there for reasons that he cannot explain to me. But they are not there in spite of God.

God uses what goes on in our lives to call us back to Himself and to grow our relationship with Him.

God’s plan includes our participation

but he still remains in control working through the ordinary day to day in our lives to bring Him glory.

God invites us to come along with what Hre has planned and uses us for His glory for the furthering of His Kingdom.

But what about those of you who are not followers of Jesus? God works through different ways to get your attention as well. You have but to look into the world around us to know and to see that there is a God. The wordl is fallen due to sin.

I ask you to take a minute to the world God created and wonder. I ask you to take a look at the circumstances in your life and think that maybe God is trying to get your attention and bring you to Himself.

He loves us and wants a relationship with you, but you must give your life to Him.

after that we are taught that we must give our lives to the work of God wround us. We are not called to sit around and do nothing, we are not called to sit on our hands and not do anything but to use the gifts that God has given us, the abilities that He has given us and use them for His glory in His church.

God plans can include our participation, if we refuse, He will still acomplish His plan, but the joy we have from srving God who gave His son to die for our sin brings so much joy and peace.

So take a minute to think, Is God trying to get my attention in the circumstances in my life? How can I use the circumstance in my life to glorify God no matter what they might be.

* “Where are You leading me through ordinary circumstances?”

* “How can I step forward with confidence, trusting Your guidance and power?”