Seeing the Divine Hand

Do you think the Israelites saw what they saw? When they daily strapped on their sandals, do you think they were astonished with wonder?

Deuteronomy 29:5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet.

I have never experienced a pair of shoes lasting forty years. I recently threw away a pair of snow boots I have used for about thirty years, which was an amazing feat for my feet, but after thirty years they were shot – cracked, torn, leaking. I had already replaced the liners once. No way would they last a span of forty years. I was very grateful for thirty.

Here is what I am asking: did they notice? Every day they walked about in divinely preserved sandals. Did they take them for granted? Or did they behold with wonder and gratefulness what was happening right under their noses?  I have not had sandals last forty years, but I have had kidneys that lasted sixty-six. Amazing. Every day the Israelites watched a miracle under their feet, but did they see it? Did they see ordinary sandals or and Extraordinary Divine Hand?

Perhaps the main thing we do at Bethlehem College & Seminary is look into the Bible. But do we merely see ordinary prepositions and propositions, or do we see a Divine Hand that had preserved those words for a hundred times longer than forty years?

Last week the Board of Trustees met to undertake the “ordinary” business of addressing the potential for a new two-year Master of Arts degree; reviewing a three-year picture of God’s grace in school revenue and progress against the current year budget; a review of core strategic indicators regarding enrollment, retention, cost of tuition, core financial ratios, and more. We received a letter from the Association of Biblical Higher Education Commission on Accreditation, awarding us the highest vote of confidence. We concluded a months-long written evaluation of the president, and enthusiastically affirmed his work, with thanks to God. We heard a preliminary report about the successful conference for pastors and leaders (it requires over $300K to run a conference like that, a risky endeavor for a small school, so we are grateful to God that high attendance put the event in the black), and after four hours of meeting we joined hundreds of others to hear Dr. Jason Derouchie, upon conferral of the status of “full” professor (our first), deliver a lecture entitled, “Is EVERY Promise Yes?”

When we report such things, do we see only ordinary events, or do we see a divine sustaining hand? And then marvel?

Sam Crabtree

Board Chairman

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