When God Shakes Up the Itinerary: Lessons from Acts 17
Paul didn’t arrive in Athens with a speaking engagement at Mars’ Hill penciled into his itinerary.
In fact, Acts 17 shows him getting pushed from one place to another. When troublemakers drove him out of Thessalonica, he escaped to Berea. But the rabble-rousers followed him there and caused such grief that he was quickly sent away. He landed in Athens and waited for Silas and Timothy to join him.
While looking around his new surroundings, his spirit was stirred when he saw Athens wholly given to idolatry. (Acts 17:16) So what did he do? He went where he usually did to preach. He went to the Jewish synagogue and began reasoning with the Jews and devout persons. Then he took the gospel into the marketplace and talked with whoever would listen.
Nothing very complicated about that. Paul simply went. But then something remarkable happened.
Certain Epicurean and Stoick philosophers heard him. They became curious about this new doctrine and took him, and brought him unto Areopagus. (Acts 17:19) Areopagus, also known as Mars’ Hill, was the kind of place where philosophers, thinkers and other influential Athenians gathered. And just like that, Paul found himself with an audience far beyond the one he had started with in the marketplace. And catch this: other people ushered him there.
Paul didn’t rent the venue. He didn’t work his way into the right social circle. He didn’t devise a strategy to get the attention of some of Athens’ most influential minds. He simply preached where he was, and God took it from there. At least two people of standing came to Christ as a result (Acts 17:34).
This was clearly a divine appointment, and it’s exactly how God works. What seems serendipitous is often God working behind the scenes.
Planning Versus Providence
We, on the other hand, like an itinerary. We want to know where we are going, how we will get there, who will be there when we arrive and what will happen next. There is nothing wrong with planning. Prudence is biblical. But our plans are never the thing carrying the work forward.
Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way? (Prov. 20:24)
Sometimes you understand the next step only after you have taken the present one. Abraham knew something about that. Hebrews 11:8 says that when God called him, he went out, not knowing whither he went. God did not show Abraham the whole route before asking him to obey. Abraham received enough light to move, and then he moved.
Abraham’s servant experienced the same thing while searching for a bride for Isaac. Looking back on how it all unfolded, the servant said, I being in the way, the LORD led me. (Gen. 24:27) I love that wording. I being in the way. The servant was moving. He was carrying out the mission his master had given him. And while he was in the way, God led him straight into an appointment he could never have orchestrated.
Why does God so often work this way? Because it keeps the glory where it belongs: on the all-knowing Master of split-second timing—and not on our brilliant strategy.
Faith has to move without seeing the entire road. God often gives enough direction for the next step while withholding the rest. Paul went to Athens. He went to the synagogue. He went to the marketplace. Then the unexpected. Somebody else took him to Areopagus.
Don’t be afraid to take steps forward in a direction you think God is leading. When we made the big move from the middle of the U.S. (Kansas) to the middle of the Pacific Ocean (Kauai) a number of years ago, the standout passage that helped steady my heart was Psalm 139:9-10: If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
Don’t be afraid to take the bold step forward for the Lord. Be in the way—and let Him lead you from there.
Jody