A Sign from God

"Give me a sign, if you exist, God!" Many of us have asked that question; most not expecting an answer. God is kinda quirky about how "signs" are parceled out. It's not usually what we expect or when we hope for it, but it comes if we keep our eyes and ears open. There is precedent.

In the fourth and fifth chapters of the book of Judges in the Bible there is such a story. Deborah, a prophetess of Israel is appointed as a judge by God. She talks an Israelite general named Barak into taking on the iron chariots and footsoldiers of Canaan. "The LORD will deliver them into your hands," she says. He agrees to do it but insists that she come along. The price for this is that he will not get the chief glory for the victory; a woman will.

The story relates the Israelite victory over the Canaanite army. The Canaanite general, Sisera, escapes on foot and hides in the tent of a woman. She kills him and in so doing receives the glory for the defeat.

Now in our day and time that might seem pretty clever. Jael, the woman, gets to show what women are made of. Back in that day, however, it was a sign that God was on the side of Israel against Canaan because women weren't supposed to be able to kill men. (It's part of the underdog thing that goes on throughout the Bible. God loves the underdog.)

That leads me to thinking. How often does it happen that we work hard to make something good happen, and even with our best plans the objective is accomplished and our plans had nothing to do with it. Something else turns out to work better instead. I suggest that this may be a sign from God.

We want to believe we can do things without God. The Lord doesn't need to be a part of everything, right? We've got it covered. So the Almighty allows it to happen but through different means, proving that we don't really have it covered after all.

So the next time you're sure you've got all the details worked out for an important project but its success turns out to have little to do with you, give God the glory. The Lord wants us to work with Him.