You know when people say God is a mysterious God … they are right.

Psychologists have tried to study man and group his behaviour into different personality types.

But even they can admit there is still a lot of work needed to be done in predicting the actions of man. Man is amazingly unpredictable.

Now, imagine us trying to put the God who actually created the unpredictable man in a box.

Isn’t that laughable? I find it hilarious.

We need to understand that why we can figure out that God is love and He relates with us with love, we also have to understand that we cannot say of God, this is how He would bring certain situations to pass.

The same God who told Moses to strike the rock was the same one that told him to speak to the rock later in the journey of the Israelites through the wilderness.

Recently, I was studying the story II Kings and I came across the story of the Shunemite woman in II Kings 8:1-6.

In that story, the Shunemite woman had been told by Elisha to leave Israel for the land of the Philistines because there would be a famine in Israel.

When I read that, a thought came to my mind.

It had to do with Naomi’s story (Ruth 1).

Just recently as well, someone had been talking about her story and mentioned how her family left Israel for Moab because of a famine and at the end of the day, all died except her and her daughters-in-law whereas the people that were in famine, she met alive, hale and hearty.

If that was the intention of God … to stay with His people in Israel even during famine, then why did he ask the woman from Shunem to go to the land of the heathens to avoid famine?

It occurred to me that the difference between both cases is simply God’s instruction.

In one case, there was no instruction; there was simply fear and lack of faith and man’s way of figuring things out.

In the second instance, there was a clear-cut instruction to go.

For us, the lesson is if God is not speaking, then there should be no movement.

The same one who faulted going to the land of the heathen is the one who instructed another to go.

If for any reason, we start to think that we know what God would want at a particular situation, we better think again.

The fact that He did it this way before doesn’t mean He would not change His ways.

It calls on us to follow God’s instructions per situation, and not carry over a certain instruction over to another situation.

His ways really are not our ways nor His thoughts our thoughts (Is. 59:8-9).

GOD'S INSTRUCTION