There Are No Meaningless Tuesdays

Why does so much of my life feel random and pointless?

Saul was just chasing lost donkeys, but God had already set up a meeting with Samuel. An ordinary day can be the hinge of something much bigger.

A man’s steps are from Yahweh; how then can man understand his way?

Proverbs 20:24

The donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost. Kish said to Saul his son, “Now take one of the servants with you, and arise, go look for the donkeys.” He passed through the hill country of Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they didn’t find them. Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and they weren’t there. Then he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they didn’t find them. When they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, “Come! Let’s return, lest my father stop caring about the donkeys and be anxious for us.” The servant said to him, “Behold now, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor. All that he says surely happens. Now let’s go there. Perhaps he can tell us which way to go.”

1 Samuel 9:3–6

Jacob lived in the land of his father’s travels, in the land of Canaan. This is the history of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a tunic of many colors. His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and couldn’t speak peaceably to him. Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and behold, your sheaves came around, and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers asked him, “Will you indeed reign over us? Will you indeed have dominion over us?” They hated him all the more for his dreams and for his words. He dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, “Behold, I have dreamed yet another dream: and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me.” He told it to his father and to his brothers. His father rebuked him, and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves down to the earth before you?” His brothers envied him, but his father kept this saying in mind.

Genesis 37:1–11

She went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

Ruth 2:3

If God is in control, why do I have to make choices?

Saul still had to decide to go, to take a servant, to ask for directions. Providence does not cancel human responsibility; it works through it.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.

Genesis 50:20

A man’s heart plans his course, but Yahweh directs his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

…him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;…

Acts 2:23

Does this kind of teaching mean everything painful is somehow good?

The sermon admits that not every hard thing makes sense to us now. But it insists that God's providence can be trusted even when we cannot trace the reason.

Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

Then Job answered Yahweh: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained. You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.

Job 42:1–3

By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, a thorn in the flesh was given to me: a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively. Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me. He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.

2 Corinthians 12:7–9

How does my character get tested in the midst of my plans?

The story of Saul exposes his passivity and fear, but also a moment of humility. God uses the journey to reveal what is in us, not just to get us somewhere.

Therefore they asked of Yahweh further, “Is there yet a man to come here?” Yahweh answered, “Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.”

1 Samuel 10:22

Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me like this?”

1 Samuel 9:21

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2–4