Meeting God In Unexpected Places

Meeting God in Unexpected Places
or
Unexpected Encounters of the Ultimate Kind!

Amos 9:2,3 Though they dig into hell, thence shall my hand take them; Though they climb up into heaven, thence will I bring them down and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence.

As the affairs of life press in around us we often forget that the hand of God can reach into every place and every situation. Yet, even though we are occupied with temporal matters, we must remember that we are apt to meet God in even the most unexpected places!
If we could only know in advance when and in what circumstances we would meet God it would be a simple thing to make preparation for the meeting. We have no way of knowing either the time or the circumstances, even though an eventual meeting with Him is inevitable for every person. Therefore the most sensible thing for anyone to do is to remain prepared at all times.

Wehave no way of knowing what may have been going through the mind of Moses as he wandered through the backside of Midian's desert with his father-in-law's sheep. We can be sure, however, that he was NOT there to keep a previously set appointment with the eternal I AM.

He was no stranger to God. Forty years earlier he had made a choice between enjoying the pleasures of Pharaoh's palace and enduring the affliction of God's people and that choice had led to his present exile. He knew that God had promised to use him and had tried to go ahead of God's time-table in the matter, and had only gotten himself in trouble with all concerned. Now, he is about to meet God in a new way. It is not the time or the place he might have chosen for the encounter but it IS at the point in his life which God chose.

Pharaoh too, soon had an unexpected face to face meeting with God. He had finally had to admit that the God of Moses was more powerful than the gods of Egypt and asked Moses to entreat God that the plague of locusts be removed. Soon his heart was hardened again however, and as he plunged headlong into the Red Sea opening, he had no thought of meeting God. Yet, in a few moments, the God who had sent the death angel into Egypt to smite the first born, had reached down to destroy him and all his army!

As Jacob fled from the face of his brother, Esau, he certainly didn't expect to meet God at night in an open field. Yet, as he laid his head that night, upon his pillow of stone, he learned that though he might flee in fear from men and from his responsibilities, he could NOT flee from the presence of God. I think it is especially striking that Jacob had two notable meetings with God. This one as he flees from his brother in fear and another as he returned many years later to face up to his brother and to accept the responsibilities which went with the birthright and blessing he had stolen from him. On this later occasion, Jacob's all-night wrestling match with the Lord ended with a great victory for Jacob. Not a victory by overcoming the Lord, for that is impossible, but a victory that came when his own strength was at last broken. From that day, his withered thigh was a constant reminder of his need to depend on the strength of the Lord and not upon his own power. He received a new source of strength on that occasion, as he was told, " As a prince, thou hast power with God and with man."

For those who know Christ as their savior, a great lesson is to be found in the life of this man. Though we may try to flee from God and from our responsibilities, He will not let us get away! His promise to never leave us nor forsake us is ours wherever we may go. He may reach out His hand to chastise us, but even then we can rejoice because "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." Then,as we turn again toward Him, we find Him waiting there for us. When our strength is broken or laid aside, we too, can find that He has a strength available to us which can enable us to do more than our own strength could ever hope to accomplish.

Saul of Tarsus became a prime example of one who meets God in unexpected places. As he left Jerusalem and headed one day for Damascus with hatred in his heart and curses on his lips, he certainly never thought to come face to face with Jesus before the day was over! Yet that was exactly what took place.

The meeting wasn't in a fine cathedral with carpeted floors, soft lights and music in the background. But there in the blazing mid-day, Mediterranean sun he fell into the dust and had the first of his many talks with Jesus! The journey from Jerusalem to Damascus is not a long one as trips go,but on this occasion it began in the kingdom of darkness and ended in the kingdom of God's dear Son!

The day of unexpected meetings is NOT over. Every man, woman, boy or girl IS going to meet Jesus some day. The Bible points this out in Philippians 2:10-11, `That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in the earth and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.'

You may have had no intention at all of being confronted by God as you opened your eyes this morning. He may have been the farthest thing from your mind as you absently began your day. Yet if you have read these words to this point, God IS confronting you! You may not have planned it that way and you may not have expected God to bother with you today, but HERE HE IS!! Now, the question is, Will you turn him away or welcome Him?

Man not only comes face to face with God through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in response to the Word of God, but he also meets him as the death angel comes to cut us off from the land of the living, for then, as Solomon tells us, "The soul returns to God, who gave it." It has happened on the battlefields of the world. It happens daily in accidents on the nations highways; In homes; factories; fields; or wherever men are found. There, the hand of God may suddenly reach. Neither the infant's crib, the high school class nor the old folks home are off limits to God!

Too,there are still many, who, like Jonah of old, try to flee from God's service. Today we usually call them `backsliders'. They have been saved and they know what God wants them to do, but there are other things they would rather be doing. Surely, Jonah didn't expect a voyage which began by ship to Tarshish to end by `whale's' belly to Ninevah, but he found to his sorrow what backsliders are still discovering: God's arm is long! You may have tried to leave God `back home' or you may have tried to abandon him somewhere along the way, but you may be sure that if you were really saved, then somewhere, sometime, when you least expect it, your storm and your `whale's belly' will be waiting for you!

If you had been a traveller approaching Jerusalem from the North or West almost 2000 years ago, it would have come as a complete surprise to you as the earth began to shake beneath your feet and the sky began to darken for no apparent reason. Yet, if you had turned your eyes toward the hill called Calvary, you would have seen the reason. If you had been close enough to hear, you may even have understood why, as the Roman officer cries, "Surely,this was the Son of God!" No one who was involved in the events that day expected things to turn out as they did, except Jesus. The spectators saw the lamb of God die for the sins of the whole world and heard the divine proclamation from the lips of Jesus, "It is finished." Both the thieves had begun the day expecting condemnation and death, but one of them ended the day in Paradise because he met Jesus and had cried out, "Lord,remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."
Whatever else you may have been planning for this day, why not make it a grand and glorious day to always remember by spending it with Jesus. It will change the whole course of your life!