It’s interesting to me that in the middle of “everyman doing what is right in his own eyes,” which characterized the period of the Judges, we see this beautiful story in the book of Ruth, where God’s hand is at work in ordinary people. There is no King, Judge, Priest, or Prophet in this story—just ordinary people. We see God’s hand at work in the lives of ordinary people. When Naomi and Ruth leave Moab, they settle near Naomi’s hometown, Bethlehem. It wasn’t by chance that Ruth and Naomi settled in Boaz’s area. Someone wrote, “By chance,” Ruth settled in Boaz’s area. “By chance,” Boaz saw her working in the fields. “By chance,” he was gracious to her. “By chance,” they got together and had a son that they named Jesse. “By chance,” Jesse had a son named David. “By chance,” David would be the king through whom the Messiah would come and save His people from their sins and rule the nation of Israel forever. I’ve always liked the saying, “coincidence” or “chance” is God’s way of remaining anonymous. God’s providence is always at work in ordinary people’s lives. We don’t always see it, but sometimes we do. When you see it, it’s really hard to deny.
Paul Tan, in his Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, says that on the evening of March 1, 1950, choir practice was scheduled in a local church in Beatrice, Nebraska. When the pastor and his wife and daughter were ready to leave for the 7:30 meeting, they discovered that the little girl had soiled her dress and needed to be changed. So they had to come late. A high school sophomore named Ladona had trouble with her geometry problems and stayed to finish her work even though she usually got there early. Two sisters were delayed because their car wouldn’t start. Mrs. Schuster normally arrived at 7:20, but that night, her mother needed her, so she had to stop there first. One man took a nap and overslept. And so, one after another, the members were detained for various reasons. At 7:25, due to leaking gas, the church blew up! When everyone arrived a short time later, they were amazed to see how their lives had been spared. The fact that all of them failed to come on time—something that had never happened before—had to be more than coincidence. As far as they were concerned, the Lord had been their shield and protector.
C. H. Spurgeon said, “I am glad there is no such thing as “chance,” that nothing is left to itself, but that Christ everywhere has sway.”[1] When things happen in such a way that you can recognize some kind of order or design, it’s always possible that divine providence is at play in our lives. My old professor, Norm Geisler, says, “There may be some theoretical chance that wind and rain erosion could produce the face of four presidents on the side of a mountain, but it is still far more reasonable to assume that an intelligent sculptor created Mount Rushmore.”
[1] Water, Mark. 2000. The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations. Alresford, Hampshire: John Hunt Publishers Ltd.