Is There Chance? Not in Salvation!

And take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you return to Him as a guilt offering in a box by its side. Then send it away that it may go. And watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, the He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we shall know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance."
1 Samuel 6:8-9


Does anything happen outside of sheer chance or coincidence? Is there a divine force behind anything? Both of these positions surely have their supporters in our day. In Samuel's day, the diviners of Philistine tested this concerning getting rid of the captured Israelite ark of the covenant and its subsequent rash of tragic events, i.e. the shattering of their god Dagon and the tumors which occurred with wherever the ark was placed. So they devised this test to determine if these results were from Israel's God Yahweh (the LORD) or just by chance. Take some cows never yoked before and yoke them to wagon holding the ark and let them take whatever path they choose. If they go back to Israel via Beth-shemesh, then we will know that this God Yahweh is behind everything. If not, then it is sheer chance. The cows went straight to Israel territory.

Whether chance is an active agent in the world can remain an open discussion but not where salvation is concerned. God doesn't leave this to chance! He is always active in the world to confront, convict and convert humans of their idolatry to trust and believe in His plan of salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord. This story from 1 Samuel demonstrates that God is serious about God's holy things, in this case the ark of the covenant. In our time, holy baptism and the Lord's Supper might be examples of where individuals do not give them their proper reverence as the holy things of God by which He saves people and keeps them saved. God took no chances in sending Jesus to be the ransom for our sins and paying the complete price for them. He also takes no chances in sending preachers to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of these sins in Jesus' name!