The Unseen Life: Part 15

​There are occasions when apparent coincidences occur in our life or events just appear to fall into place at appropriate junctures in time. But we know that nothing happens out of the ordinary with Yahweh; there are no coincidences with God. Paul’s theology on God’s purposes for believers, in the Epistles to Romans and the Ephesians, may elucidate for us these apparently coincidental human conundrums: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son… and these… He also called… and justified… (Rom 8:29-30) and “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph 1:4). These verses imply profound implications for Christians, even before they became believers. If God is truly exercising His elective grace through His characteristic omniscience, then the determinant outcome within space and time concerning believers is foreknown only to Himself! This may explain His actions and communications with Abraham apparently long before the latter came to faith in Him (Gen 15; Gen 15: 6 “Then he believed in the Lord…). The process of Yahweh’s purposeful familiarisation with Abraham was ongoing, whether he consciously knew of God’s intervention was immaterial (e.g., in Egypt and Philistine). These interactions with different personalities were repeated throughout the Old and New Testaments. The significance is that God appears to be inextricably involved in the lives of those who belong to Him long before they had put their faith in Him and knew Him as their Saviour and Lord.
 
At 5.30pm, I was walking towards the bus stop, less than ten minutes away, after a late afternoon swim at a swimming club. Along the way, as I passed a Malay village, I was suddenly confronted by a group of about 15 adults, on the opposite side of the street, waving their machetes, choppers and poles, and spouting racial invectives.
 
I was totally oblivious to the fact then that that afternoon was the commencement of nearly two months of communal bloodletting island-wide between the Malays and the Chinese, triggered by an altercation during an earlier Islamic religious event. It eventually took the lives of 36 innocent people and injured over 500. According to Police reports, there were 220 incidents, with around 20 shophouses, owned by the Chinese, burnt down. These riots were seen as pivotal in leading to the independence of Singapore in 1965, from Malaysia, with its entrenched policies of multiracialism and multiculturalism. It also led to the promulgation of the draconian Internal Security Act, which has not been expunged from the legal system to this day.
 
Not completely sure how I should have reacted to such a predicament, I looked around me, thinking that perhaps there was probably someone else whom these Malay villagers were angry with, than a young teenager. But I was the only one around. As they began to approach me, I quickened my pace and was getting ready to do a sprint for my life towards the bus stop. Then a voice gently said, “Don’t run. Look away, and slow down your pace.” Again, I looked around to see who was speaking to me. I was alone! Calmly and deliberately, my pace slowed. Out of the corner of my eyes, the threatening group stopped momentarily in their tracks. 
 
When I got to the bus stop, there were about ten others waiting for their respective buses. All of us looked rather apprehensively at the growing rowdy group across the road that had followed me earlier. I climbed into the first bus that came along. Eventually, I got home safely to my parents’ trepidation. 
 
I wasn’t a Christian then and had been flummoxed for many years about the invisible One who spoke and saved my life that day. Now, I know a little more about Him and His familiar Voice!