Do You See God's Hand in Your Life?

They Failed to See God's Hand

In Israel's early history, people had the opportunity to see and hear about how God acted in Israel's behalf. Jehovah miraculously delivered his people out of Egypt, and then king after king fell before them.  (Joshua 9:3, 9, 10) Despite what almost all the kings on the west side of Jordan heard and saw, "they formed an alliance to fight against Joshua and Israel." (Joshua 9:1, 2) Even after those kings started to fight, they had every reason to see God's hand. At Jehovah's direction, "the sun stood still and the moon did not move until the nation could take vengeance on its enemies."  (Joshua 10:13) But Jehovah"allowed their [the opponents'] hearts to become stubborn so that they waged war against Israel." (Joshua 11:20) Israels' opponents refused to acknowledge that God was fighting for Israel, and that led to their defeat. 

Later, wicked King Ahab had every opportunity to see God's hand in events. Elijah told him:  "There will be no dew or rain except by my word!" (1 Kings 17:1) Jehovah was obviously behind those words, but Ahab refused to accept the evidence.  Later, Ahab saw fire come down from heaven when Elijah prayed for his offering to be consumed.  Elijah then indicated that Jehovah would bring the drought  to an end, telling Ahab:  "God down so that the downpour may not detain you!" (1 Kings 18:22-25) Ahab saw all this happen but still refused  to acknowledge that it was a mighty display of God's power.  This and the preceding examples must teach us an important lesson-we must recognize Jehovah's hand when it is in action. 

Next time: Do You See God's Hand in Your Life? -  They Saw Jehovah's Hand

From The Watchtower magazine