Scripture

1 Kings 22:34 (NIV)

But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.”

Observation

There is no such thing as luck. There is no force, outside of the will of God that directs things to happen, for good or ill. The word, “luck,” though, has seeped into our vocabulary. What is luck, though? How do we define it?

Merriam-Webster defines luck as

1 a: a force that brings good fortune or adversity.
b: the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual.
2: favoring chance.

Just as there’s no such thing as luck, there’s no coincidence, happenstance, or anything else that happens that doesn’t happen outside the will of God. When we, as Believers, think that an event is by chance then we are denying the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God. In this passage of 1 Kings, we see a disguised King Ahab hit by a “random” arrow. Let’s back up a moment though and look at the two types of will that belong to God.

There is an active will of God that involves God causing something to happen. In King Ahab’s case, the nation of Israel and Aram had been at peace for three years. A spirit from God goes to the prophets of Ahab to incite Ahab to attack Aram (1 Kings 22:19-23). This is to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken against the house of Ahab by the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 21:17-24). Thus, God causes Ahab to be in the position to be struck by the arrow that “randomly” kills him.

There is the passive will of God that allows things to happen. This can appear to happen by chance, such as the passage here where King Ahab is hit by a “random” arrow.

When someone comes to mind that you haven’t thought of in a long time, ask God why. When you just happen to “bump” into someone thousands of miles from home, there is a reason. Ask God. When our minds become trained to recognize God’s hand in all things then we can be better stewards of all that He brings into our lives.

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