What God can do following disaster - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my mind and heart in Judges 21:23b,

"Then they [the remnant of Benjamin] returned to their inheritance and
rebuilt the towns and settled in them."

Following the debacle that resulted from their own depravity that
brought the tribe of Benjamin to the brink of annihilation, and
following some hair-brained scheming and action on the part of the
rest of Israel, Benjamin "returned to their inheritance and rebuilt
the towns and settled in them." These towns had to be rebuilt as the
other Israelites had razed them.

The tribe of Benjamin survived and would later provide Israel with her
first king, Saul. However, my favorite Benjamite was the apostle Paul.
As I consider the vast impact in the world the Lord has made through
Paul's ministry as the apostle to the Gentiles, I am reminded of how
God can take that which appears at its end and do stunning things.
Inspired and equipped by the Holy Spirit, Paul, "a blasphemer and a
persecutor and a violent man", his own words, 1 Timothy 1:14, was used
mightily by the Lord to establish an aggressive evangelistic thrust
into the Gentile world, a thrust that is still felt today. Again,
inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul wrote thirteen of our New Testament
books providing the world with apostolic insight and direction that
has shaped western civilization over the past two millenniums. Paul,
from the tribe of Benjamin, a tribe that was devastated.

The apostle Peter recognized Paul's writings as those from a shelf in
the library of works known to be inspired by God himself. Only
forty-some authors have been used by God for this purpose and Paul is
prominent among this exclusive group. Of Paul's writings Peter says,
"Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our
dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He
writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these
matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand,
which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other
Scriptures, to their own destruction." 2 Peter 3:15-16. Of Paul's
writings and "the other Scriptures" Peter says, "Above all, you must
understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's
own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of
man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit." 2 Peter 1:20-21.

As those 600 Benjamite men scattered into the desert while the rest of
the men, women and children of the tribe slaughtered, Benjamin looked
to be barren, dead and done. Just look what God can do with that! In
speaking of Abraham's faith, Paul observed Abraham's faith was in
"...the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not
as though they were." Romans 4:17b.

You and I might be in the midst of disaster - what might he do through
you and me in the aftermath?

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com