The Accident Of God

Numbers 1:17-19 (KJV) 17 And Moses and Aaron took these men which are expressed by their names: 18 And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls. 19 As the LORD commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.

Numbers 1:13 (KJV) 13 Of Asher; Pagiel the son of Ocran.

Numbers 2:27 (KJV) 27 And those that encamp by him shall be the tribe of Asher: and the captain of the children of Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ocran.

There are three names given in our text, in chronological order they are Asher, Ocran and Pagiel.

I. Asher

Before I deal with the meaning of his name it is important for you to get some background. His daddy was Jacob which means supplanter or heal grabber, his mom was Zilpah, a concubine of Leah whose name means dripping with myrrh. It is important to note that while this relationship should never have happened, still God can bring good out of a bad situation. From this relationship came a child whose name means “happy”. He is proof that happiness can come from bad situations.

Joseph told his brothers, what you intended for evil, God has meant for good. It took 39 years for the good to be seen but still God turned it around.

We need some Asher’s in our generation. We need some folks that won’t allow the situation they were born into to determine who they are. Too many in our society want to blame everyone in their lives for what is going on in their life. If they are an alcoholic, they want to blame their daddy. If they are depressed they want to blame their momma but I serve a God who makes all things new.

He didn’t come to help you cope with the failures of your ancestor’s, he came to make all things new.

He didn’t come to justify your excuses, Paul declares, ”Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).

Somebody needs to shout “ALL THINGS!”

I refuse to live my life whining and crying over the situation that I was born into. Someone once said concerning their parents, “I didn’t choose to be born to you” but I want to remind you, God used your parents as a tool to get you into this world. Stop cursing the tools that God used and get to the place that you where you come to realize it’s not about the means and method that brought you in to existence, it is that God wants to turn your past into something beautiful.

What you were born in to does not have to be how you live.

History is replete with testimonies that support this statement:

Frederick Douglass-Born into slavery, violence, and separation from his parents; taught himself to read and became leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing. He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders’ arguments that slaves did not have the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Many Northerners also found it hard to believe that such a great orator had been a slave.

Failure is a blessing when it pushes us out of a cushioned seat of self-satisfaction and forces us to do something useful.— Napoleon Hill

Abraham Lincoln lost his job, failed in business, had his sweetheart die, had a nervous breakdown, and lost almost every political office he ever ran for before becoming elected the 16th President of the United States. With each set back, he also rebounded to greater success.

Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was three years old and failed to impress his teachers all the way through college. His instructors thought Einstein was lazy, sloppy, insubordinate, and that he would never amount to anything.

Elvis Presley was fired by the manager of the Grand Ole Opry, after his first performance, with Jimmy Denny telling him “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.”

Lucille Ball began studying to be actress in 1927; she was told by the head of the John Murray Anderson Drama School, “Try any other profession” and yet she still went on to be one of Hollywood’s most talented comedic actresses.

Vincent VanGogh sold only one painting in his life time and yet completed over 800 known works, not becoming famous until after his death.

The fact that you were born poor does not mean you have to stay poor.