Ordinary Days
There is still the youngest, Jesse replied.
But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats.
(1 Samuel 16:11 NLT)
Ordinary days. They can also be called the “blah” days. I’m talking about the days when nothing bad is happening, but nothing exciting is happening either. It’s just business as usual. Same old, same old. On those days, we can be tempted to ask God, “Is this all there is, Lord?”
But it was on an ordinary day, when people were minding their own business and going about their daily work, that God suddenly moved. Unexpectedly, and with no warning, an ordinary day turned into an extraordinary one.
It was an ordinary day for David, who was tending his father’s flocks, when Samuel, the prophet, arrived. He announced David was called to be anointed as the future king of Israel, much to the astonishment of all. And David was not just to be the future king of Israel. He was going to be the ancestor of the King of Kings, who would be known as the “Son of David.”
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian (Exodus 3:1 NKJV).
It was an ordinary day for Moses, who was taking care of his sheep in the wilderness, when the Lord called to him from the burning bush. Little did Moses know the years of taking care of a bunch of stubborn, recalcitrant sheep would be excellent training for what was coming—taking care of a bunch of stubborn, recalcitrant Hebrews and guiding them to the Promised Land.
Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there… So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.” But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went (Joshua 2:1-5 NIV).
It was an ordinary day for Rahab when the spies suddenly knocked on her door. She hid the spies, they reported back to Joshua, the walls of Jericho fell, and she became part of the genealogy of the Lord Jesus.
In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king (Nehemiah 2:1 NKJV).
It was an ordinary day for Nehemiah, who was working in the king’s palace, when the Lord laid the plight of the sad state of the city of Jerusalem on his heart. Nehemiah had to ask the king to allow him to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls.
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” (Judges 6:11-12) NIV.
It was an ordinary day for Gideon, who was threshing his crop in the winepress, hiding out from the Midianites, when the Angel of the Lord appeared to him to tell him he was going to be a judge and a deliverer of his people. Gideon was not thrilled at the prospect. When the Angel of the Lord referred to him as “mighty hero” he looked around to see who else the Angel could be talking to.
And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14 NKJV).
It was an ordinary day for Esther when Mordecai told her she needed to take her life in her hands and go to the king to save the Jews from the murderous plans of Haman.
Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense…Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense (Luke 1:8-9; 11 NIV).
It was an ordinary day when Zechariah took his turn in the temple and an angel appeared to tell him John the Baptist would be his son and serve as the modern-day Elijah who would announce the coming of Jesus.
And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen (Matthew 4:18 NKJV).
It was an ordinary day for Peter, Andrew, James, and John, mending their nets after a night’s fishing, when the Lord called them to follow Him. That ordinary day started them on the path to the glory of our Lord’s resurrection.
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:1-4 NIV).
It was an ordinary day for Saul when the Lord stopped him dead in his tracks on the road to Damascus. He was reborn as the apostle Paul.
Ordinary people doing ordinary things on ordinary days. The common thread is do not scorn ordinary days. They are often a precursor to God moving.
