87. GOD HAD A PLAN!
In reflecting on my own life experiences today and all that God has done for me, to date, my mind ran on three (3) main characters in the Bible and I wrote:
People may have thought in observing 𝓜𝓞𝓢𝓔𝓢 out in Midian for so many years attending to his father-in-law’s sheep, that he was off-course. He had started great when as a child, he was put in Pharaoh’s Palace where he had received his upbringing but alas, as a man, it seemed that he had come to nothing!
He was now far away in a place called Midian, married to some Priest’s daughter and keeping his sheep. It seemed that Moses would never amount to anything greater ever again, although he had once believed as he observed God’s hand on his life, that he would be used by him one day to deliver his people from Egypt’s oppression and bondage (Acts 7:25).
Perhaps that had been wishful thinking, Moses may have reasoned, as he seemingly resigned himself to life as a practical nobody, in the land he had sought refuge in, in Midian. But had Moses and anyone else who knew of his circumstance reasoned in this way, they would have been wrong. For, GOD HAD A PLAN!
Moses, who spent forty (40) years in Midian doing nothing remarkable in the estimation of men was eventually CALLED OUT by God and SUDDENLY, sent by him to approach Pharaoh in Egypt, to speak to him and ultimately, to bring his people the Hebrews out of that land of bondage.
Similarly, when 𝓙𝓞𝓢𝓔𝓟𝓗 ended up as a slave in Egypt and then even lower as a jailed prisoner, if people had had the opportunity to look on, they would have no doubt labelled him a failure in life, a has-been and think that that was the end of his story. After all, he was a Hebrew in a strange land, among people who did not regard him or have any esteem for him. He was dismissed and forgotten, locked up in a prison, where there was no guarantee that he would ever be released. But GOD HAD A PLAN!
Joseph, after spending a good number of years in prison seemingly doing nothing significant and no one paying any mind to who he was as a lowly Hebrew, was eventually CALLED OUT by God and SUDDENLY, from that prison.
His garments were changed and he found himself suddenly placed before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt! Using the gift that God had placed in him, God then granted him favour in Pharaoh’s sight, elevated him to the second in command in all that land and gave him riches, honour and great power. He also used him while serving in his high office, to provide for his father and his father’s entire household, during a severe famine.
Then there was 𝓓𝓐𝓥𝓘𝓓, a boy who didn’t even get an invite to the meeting being held with his father, all his brothers and Samuel the prophet. He was labelled a keeper of the sheep by his father in 1 Samuel 16:11, seemingly as the reason why he had been excluded from the meeting. After all, he had nothing much to contribute and there was no need for him to attend, his father seemed to reason. Whatever business Samuel wanted with all his sons and him, it could not possibly have anything to do with David, the youngest of them all.
David’s eldest brother Eliab, even used the lowly role in which he served, to insult him condescendingly at one point, asking him who he had left those “few sheep in the wilderness” with, when he arrived on the scene of a battle between the Israelites and the Philistines (1 Samuel 17:28). The intention was to remind David of his place, that he was nothing much, insignificant and that he would never amount to anything great. YET, GOD HAD A PLAN!
David, that lowly keeper of the sheep, who had not even been called to the meeting, was shockingly anointed by Samuel the prophet at God’s instructions and in the presence of all his brothers, after God rejected them all and Samuel sent for him. For, God knowing his heart, had CALLED HIM OUT and SUDDENLY, choosing him to sit on the throne of Israel as king.
The moral of the story is that we should never in pride, assume that any of God’s children are finished, done with and will never amount to anything great. None of his children are insignificant and no matter where they may be today or how low, there is no telling by the grace of almighty God, where he may CALL THEM OUT and SUDDENLY place them tomorrow.
God still has the power to exalt and promote whoever he pleases and as one CALLED OUT from a lowly place and lifted up like the Psalmist in Psalm 9:13 from what felt like “the gates of death”, I can personally attest that God is still in the promotion and exaltation business. He still CALLS OUT his children unto divine purpose and the good works he has ordained in advance for them to do (Ephesians 2:10).
(Written on 25th April, 2026)
