It doesn’t have to make sense 

for God to make it work

 

Have you ever stopped to think about all the things in the Bible that just don’t make sense?

Did you know that it’s okay if things don’t make sense? Do you realize that God can make things work even though we have no clue how?

Let me give you a few examples in explanation.

We read in 1 Samuel 17 the story of David and Goliath. It’s a very well-known story, and for good reason. God took a good-looking teenager, a keeper of sheep, from a family of strong men, men of valour, and used him to defeat a giant!

And not just any giant. Look at what the Bible says about him.

1 Samuel 17:4-7 KJV - And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.

Now, we all know the all too familiar story, how that David refused Saul’s ill-fitting armour in favour of 5 small stones and a sling. It didn’t make sense!

1 Samuel 17:45-46 KJV - Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

Not only did his choice of weapon not make sense, but neither did his taunting words to this beast of a man, Goliath.

Here was a teenager, not yet fully muscled out like his older brothers, with no past experience at warfare, and yet he boldly told the Philistine that he would kill him and chop off his head! All with a few small stones, a sling and the use of the giant’s sword to finish off the deed!

None of this story makes sense. But God didn’t need it to make sense, in order to get the glory.

Did you see what David told Goliath? “that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” He made sure that everyone would know that it was God who was to get the glory from this amazing victory.

Nothing in that story made sense. His age. His ability. His weapon. But God didn’t need it to make sense to make it work!

How about the story of the fall of Jericho? God told the people to walk around the city a bunch of times, blow some trumpets and shout real loud and then CRASH! Down came the walls and the city was defeated.

Can you imagine the thoughts going through Joshua’s head when the Lord told him his instructions? Yeah. It didn’t make any sense at all!

And I’m sure the people of Jericho looking on for those seven days, watching over the walls as the people marched around, just scratched their heads in disbelief and thought to themselves, “this doesn’t make any sense!”.

And yet it did. God had it all figured out. And once again, victory was had, and God got the glory.

And what about the miraculous story of a little boy’s lunch feeding a huge crowd of tired, hungry people? When the five loaves and two fish were brought to Jesus, and he told the disciples to sit the people down in an orderly fashion, it made no sense that so little could feed so many.

It didn’t make sense to them. But it did to God.

Or what about the time when God used an army of 300 men, armed with only a ceramic jar, a flaming torch and a trumpet, to defeat a great army of possibly over 100 000 men?

Talk about not making any sense. There was nothing special or warlike about a piece of baked clay, fire on a stick and the horn of a ram to blow into. But God used something simple to do something great!

All this to say, it doesn’t need to make sense for God to make it work!

What God tells us to do seldom makes sense, and yet he can and will work through it all in order that he will get the glory and people will know his name and know of his power and might and goodness to his people.

Has God ever called you to something that made no sense?

Has God ever given you a dream, a passion, a goal that was so far from human comprehension and so nonsensical that you despaired of it working?

It was once said, “God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called.”

There is a lot of truth in that statement.

We come to him with empty hands. Fearful. Timid. Lacking talent and ability, and yet, he puts in our hands just what we need to fulfil the task and the ability to accomplish it.

If God has called you to it, he will equip you for it.

It doesn’t need to make sense.

It just needs faith. It needs trust. It needs the right motives. A humble attitude. A heart that wants God’s glory to shine above all else.  

What is it that God has put on your heart that you are hesitant about, because with your human reasoning, you can’t see the sense of it?

Are you standing there with empty hands, a calling on your life and doubt in your heart?

Is what God is asking you to do not making any sense?

Sometimes all it takes is the courage to take that first step, just as the priests had to do in the crossing of the Jordan river.

Joshua 3:15-16 KJV - And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.

They had to have the courage to take that first step. That first faltering step into the swollen, intimidating, rushing river.

It didn’t make sense to simply march into a river. Men, women, children, animals all marching into a river, seemingly a death march, but no! A victory march! God controlled the water, and he made a way where there was no way.

Sometimes we can go for months or even years with things not making sense. We look around and we don’t see the point. We are unable to see the big picture. We can’t see the shoreline for the waves. We can’t see the sun for the clouds. We can’t see the lighthouse for the storm.

But God, in all his wisdom, calls us to trust him. He doesn’t ask us to try and make sense of it. He doesn’t ask us to understand his mysterious ways. He doesn’t need us to work it all out before we step out. He calls us to trust. He calls us to rest in him.

Psalm 37:5 KJV - Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV - Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV - (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

God can do great things with very little.

God can work miracles through impossible situations.

We don’t need to see his hand moving, we only need to sit still and trust his heart.

Isaiah 26:3-4 KJV - Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

 

 

We climbed the height by the zigzag path

 And wondered why—until

 We understood it was made zigzag

 To break the force of the hill.

A road straight up would prove too steep

 For the traveller’s feet to tread;

 The thought was kind in its wise design

Of a zigzag path instead.

It is often so in our daily life;

 We fail to understand

 That the twisting way our feet must tread

By love alone was planned.

Then murmur not at the winding way,

 It is our Father’s will

To lead us Home by the zigzag path

To break the force of the hill.

ANON.