2 Kings 8:1-5: in context

Elisha had told the Shunammite woman, whose son he once raised from death, to leave the land because a seven-year famine was coming; she obeyed and settled abroad. When she returns after seven years, she goes to petition the king for her lost house and land. And at that very moment, the king happens to be asking Elisha's servant Gehazi to tell him about the great things Elisha had done. Just as Gehazi is recounting how Elisha restored the woman's dead son to life, the woman herself walks in. The king, struck by the timing, grants her petition at once.

The timing of this scene is too precise to be mere chance. The woman arrives to petition the king at the exact moment her own story is being told, just as Gehazi is describing the very miracle that involved her and her son. Had she come a little earlier or later, the king would not have been primed to receive her; but she arrives precisely as her story reaches the king's ears, and her petition is granted. What looks like coincidence is the quiet ordering of God's providence, arranging events down to the moment for the good of his servant. This reveals how God works in the ordinary flow of events. He does not always act through obvious miracles; often he works through what looks like coincidence, arranging circumstances, timing, and encounters so that they turn to the good of his people. The woman did not engineer her arrival to coincide with Gehazi's story; it was arranged by a providence beyond her, ordering the moment for her benefit. A man's heart plans his course, the proverb says, but the LORD directs his steps. The timing that seems like luck is often God's quiet hand, ordering events on behalf of his own. This gives us confidence in God's providence over the details of our lives. We tend to see the significant timings and encounters of our lives as chance, coincidence, luck; and Scripture invites us to see behind them the ordering hand of God, who arranges circumstances for the good of his people. All things work together for good, Paul says, for those who love God. The God who timed the Shunammite woman's arrival to the very moment her story was being told is the God who orders the timings and encounters of our lives, often invisibly, for our good. This does not mean we can always trace his hand, or that every hardship is explained; but it assures us that behind what looks like coincidence is a God who orders the details of our lives with care. The woman arrived at just the right moment, and her need was met; and we too are held within a providence that orders circumstances, often quietly and unseen, for the good of those who are God's. What looks like coincidence is often God's provision; and we may trust the ordering hand of God even in the ordinary timings and encounters of our days.

Do I see the significant timings and encounters of my life as mere chance or luck, or can the Shunammite woman, who arrived before the king at the exact moment her story was being told and had her need met, help me trust that behind what looks like coincidence is God's providence, quietly ordering the details and circumstances of my life for good, so that I rest in the care of the God who directs my steps even when I cannot trace his hand?