Along Came A Spider

 

Let me expand the information from that graphic. A friend posted on X that she had taken the time to rescue a wolf spider inside her house. She had cleaner in her hand, sprayed the spider, caught it in a paper cup, rinsed it off, and placed it safely outside. Another poster write the above and I did a screen capture on this particular sermon.

Indeed - looking through the Bible there are a virtual mountain of examples where God took someone from a place theiy shouldn't be, put them in the place they should be, and proceeded with His eternal plan that we continue to wonder whether or not it exists - and if it does, why doesn't He share it with us now? Don't tell me that question hasn't run through your mind. Surely you know it ran through the minds of people who dealt directly with God.

First, of course, would be Adam and Eve. The first three chapters has that story pretty well covered. Knowing exactly what they would do with Eden, God moved them into the real world to get on with the rest of the story.

Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. (Genesis 3:23)

Then there was Abraham, who pretty much did what God told him to do - leave home and settle in a new place. It took some wandering around, the loss of his nephew's wife, but he was promised land for his descendants:

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: (Genesis 12:1-2)

Isaac wasn't Abraham's first born son - and that particular battle is being fought after a multitude of millennia! Isaac had to accept the wife his father had brought to him, put up with battles between his two sons, and one had to go to an uncle. This uncle foisted off one daughter after seven years service, then another seven for the second daughter, before Jacob could return to his family.

I'm certain both Isaac and Jacob would understand the wolf spider's confusion at his move.

Joseph - Jacob's beloved son - right? He had literal dreams of sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him. He was his father's favorite son and ten of his brothers had a problem with that. By this time Jacob's name had been changed to Israel, and he was the leader of several tribes - within a couple of generations, they were all in Egypt, bound as slaves - and we are only in the first book of the Bible.

Every one of the above people were placed where they needed to be by following God's instructions. Note that there was some deviation on the part of each person. None of us are perfect. God uses the people who respond to Him. That particular choice is explained in Esther - about half way between Moses and Jesus' times:

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Esther 4:14)

Simple. All Esther had to do was go to a place where people had been killed for sitting foot. It depended completely on the whim of a man who had complete control over her life and had been known to send people to their death for approaching him. What would you have done?

Oddly enough, God's name, titles, nor Judaism in any form other than birth is mentioned in Esther. Yet everyone knows the fate of the tribes of Israel were decided in the actions described in this book, and are celebrated among the Israelite people even today. 

I could go into detail about where we live today, but it would take a couple of chapters to explain how God brought it to specifically the right place to watch the conversion experience that convinced us we were moved here at the right time. Instead, let me turn again to the Bible to show how well God plans:

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:18-21)