“The battle is not to the strong… But time and chance happen to all” (Ecc 9:11) “And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and struck it so that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay flat. And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else except the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand has God delivered Midian, and all the host” (Judges 7:13 - 14)

So, you’ve heard the story by now… Gideon has an encounter with the Angel of the Lord and is instructed to take on the Midianites and deliver Israel. After testing and retesting the word of the Lord, he gets up an army of 32,000 men. Not nearly enough to defeat the Midianites it would seem, but God thought there were too many.

Gideon is instructed to send all the fearful ones home. That cleared out more than two thirds leaving only 10,000. If you weren’t afraid before, you just might have been when you saw how many of your buddies packed up and headed home. Then God has another filter process to take them through to reduce their army to 300.

God is about to prove in no uncertain terms that the battle is not to the strong. Clearly Gideon’s men were outnumbered hundreds to one, maybe more. But God had an “eth” in store and when you are in God’s “eth” you don’t need numbers or strength or skill. You just need to get in on the “eth”. It’s a timing thing.

Just before battle, Gideon sneaks over to the enemy’s camp and overhears some talking in their tent about a dream one of them had about a barley loaf which represented Gideon that rolled into their camp, overturning and flattening a tent. The men knew what it meant and were very afraid. Now Gideon knew what it meant and was greatly encouraged. He knew that he knew that he knew he was in the “eth” of God and confidently put his 300 men around the camp with a trumpet in one hand and a pitcher with a lamp in it in the other hand. Not exactly battle gear. But this was the “eth” of God and Gideon was triumphant.

When you are in the “eth” of God, you have more than enough for the task at hand. It is the safest, most exciting place to be. Are you in an “eth” right now? Do you sense His leading right now into what appears to be impossible odds? If it is the “eth” of God, nothing can stop you.

“The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell from where it came, and where it goes: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

Continuing on from where we left off, I was sharing that I believe we have had many “eth’s” (divinely arranged timings) that we simply didn’t recognize or we did see them but either didn’t know what to do or felt it would appear silly or unwise to follow that. Don’t think it didn’t seem a little strange when I told folks we were going to Panama and they would ask “Where in Panama” and I had no idea. Then they would ask, “Why” and I really didn’t have a solid answer… just something to do with the financial realm and impacting the world.

I know you have missed a lot of “eths” and so have I. They have been laden with incredible opportunity and favor and we simply missed them because we didn’t recognize the “eth” of God. It seemed too strange to us so we let it float by. HOWEVER… I do have some good news here. We were on the beach recently. There was a strong breeze blowing and a family had one of those giant bubble makers. You dip this thing in a special bubble solution and hold it up to the air. The wind would blow through the instrument producing bubbles about eight inches across. Lots of bubbles.

Those bubbles were just floating by people one after the other. It seemed that few people even noticed them, but I guess I’m a kid at heart so I was fascinated the whole time. But here’s the deal… The “eths” of God are like those bubbles. There are no two alike and when they are gone, they are gone, but the good news is that God has lots of bubbles for us. So if you missed a bubble, fear not, God has another bubble for you. He’s not short of bubble making solution or of wind to blow the bubbles.

Don’t live in regret for missing the diving bubbles God sent your way. They are gone. Be like the child on the beach who upon missing the first few bubbles because she didn’t know what they were or what to do, eventually caught on and spent the rest of her time, trying to catch the bubbles. God doesn’t want you to waste time or allow corrosion on your soul by soaking in the regrets of missed opportunities. There are plenty more bubbles where they came from. Get up from your slumber. Leave your regrets behind and go catch some diving bubbles (”eth”) today.

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.” Ecc 9:11

In the spring of 2005, as I was spending time with the Lord, I felt like He impressed upon to me to go to Panama. It seemed a little strange to me as that thought had never occurred to me before and we knew of no one or no church in Panama to even connect with. I asked Him what the purpose of the trip was and wrote down the answer. It had to do with the financial realm. I asked Him when and He said to “make haste”.

I shared all this with my wife and asked her input. The Holy Spirit seemed to move on her and she was in tears, sensing His leading as well. We were both perplexed, but immediately after that I booked our tickets. Before leaving for Panama, I happened to be meeting with a client, who upon discovering we were heading for Panama, offered to underwrite the trip if we would look for some beach front property for him to develop. I’ve heard that God pays for what He orders, but this was beyond my expectation. Talk about good “eth” (timing)!

While in Panama, we headed to the mountain town of Boquette for some rest. It was at our destination that I overheard a conversation between two women at the next table. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time and heard them discussing their experience that day inside the rainforest. They were speaking in reverential tones with such awe that I knew for the first time, I had to discover the rainforest myself. Something was awakened within when I just happened to overhear their conversation at the next table. I was experiencing the “eth” of God and didn’t know it.

Overhearing that one conversation sensitized me to my environment and it was the next morning that the Lord spoke clearly to me saying, “Son, everything you need to learn about business, you can learn in the rainforest.”  What I now realize, in retrospect, is that I would have missed over hearing that conversation had I delayed in going to Panama. God had an “eth” for me and the reward for that is still unfolding. I am in Panama this week and next filming 21 high growth factors that make the rainforest so incredibly productive as a result of that exchange over four years ago.

I suspect that you, like me, have had many, many “eth’s” in your life and I suspect we have let them float by because we dismissed them as just our own thoughts. On occasion, we have recognized that we were in a special moment and hopefully took advantage of that, but I believe that we have missed far too many and I for one want to change that.  In my next blog, I will carry this thought a little further.

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“But they presumed to go up unto the mountaintop: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who dwelt in that hill country, and struck them, and routed them, even unto Hormah.” Numbers 14:44 - 45

Here is an “eth” for you. You can read about it in Numbers 14. Joshua and Caleb returned from spying out the land with a great report. However, there compatriots held a different, fear based view and convinced the children of Israel that despite the fact that the land was indeed good, it was not the “eth” of God. They were after all outnumbered, outgunned and out-trained in matters of war. But you see, as Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 9:11, the battle is not to the strong.

There’s a game changer called “time and chance”, referring to the “eth” of God. That carries more weight than all the skill, all the strength and all the smarts. Just getting in on the “eth” of God, (the timing) will make all the difference. When would you want to go to war? When God was leading the charge or when He was someplace else?

So here’s what happened… the children of Israel decided to pass. They turned down the “eth” of God. Most likely they didn’t see it or just wouldn’t believe it, but they turned it down. They let it pass. So Moses informs them that because of their decision, the men who brought the bad report would die on the spot of a plague and those who believed their report would be denied entrance into the Promised Land and would die in the desert. Pretty sobering words.

And those words had great effect. The children of Israel who refused to enter the land, repented. They had a change of heart and they decided to go ahead and attack the Canaanites and Amelekites who were in the land. After all, it was only a delay of a day. What could have changed? Wouldn’t God be merciful and forgive?

Well, God does forgive when we repent, but that didn’t change the fact that the “eth” had come and gone. They would enter the land in their own strength, without the aid of God. And they got whooped! It wasn’t that God was mean. The “eth” had passed and in their case, there would never be another one for them to enter the Promised Land.

Does this mean that when we miss the “eth” of God, that that’s it? That we’ll never get another chance? Well, as much as I’d like to tell you that there will always be a second chance because God is a God of the second chance, the truth is that some things only come around once. God is gracious and full of mercy and will make a way for you, but it won’t be the same. It could still be something marvelous and better than you could have imagined, but I think it would benefit us all if we took the “eth” of God more seriously. I say that not as a word of judgment, but for our encouragement. We are missing way too many opportunities because we can’t discern the “eth” of God, nor recognize its signs.

“The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and testing him desired that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and overcast. O you hypocrites, you can discern the appearance of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times?” Matthew 16:1 - 4

Here’s a very important clue today my friends in discerning the “eth” of God.  Jesus just finished feeding 4000 men plus women and children using a sack lunch that a boy had brought to the meeting. You would think that might be pretty impressive but the next thing you read is that the Pharisees, are asking for a sign from heaven. I guess they thought the loaves and fishes thing was slight of hand and wanted to see something up in the sky!

Notice how Jesus chides them for being able to discern the appearance of the sky, a naturally observable phenomenon but not being able to discern the signs of the times. Guess what? The times or the “eth’s” of God have signs! And the Pharisees should have been able to read or discern the “eth’s” but they could not. For me, just knowing that the “eth’s” of God have accompanying signs is very helpful. I can begin to trace this thing out. Figuring out this “eth” mystery is sort of like placing a coin under a piece of paper and then taking a pencil and rubbing over the coin to reveal the design on the coin.

Notice that the sons of Issachar were able to understand the times but the Pharisees could not? Jesus was talking about the same thing but gives us a clue. There are signs to every “eth”. The “eth” can refer to the time a woman gives birth or to the regulating of the tide. So what are the signs that a woman is going to give birth? If you know them, you know what’s coming and hopefully you know what to do. What are the signs of the incoming tide? If you know them, you can take advantage of the high water. If you don’t recognize the signs, you might get trapped far from shore and drown.

What I want you to do now is to begin matching up known signs with known “eth’s” and let’s look for patterns. The examples I gave of the tide and a woman giving birth are just two. We need more. We need to find the pattern on the coin. I solicit your viewpoint.

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.” Ecc 9:11

OK. So we established in the previous blog that the sons of Issachar were prosperous. This was due to a number of factors, but chief among them was their ability to discern the “eth” of God, the season or time of a thing and then know what to do.

You’ve heard it said that this one or that one was in the right place at the right time. Usually they didn’t even know it. They just happened to be the beneficiary of it. Even being in the right time at the right place requires action or the “eth” of God will pass you by.  A dear friend of mine moved to a State he had always wanted to live. Talk about timing… He was able to rent a dream home on an idyllic waterway for less than the owner was paying for tax or insurance. Apparently the owner just wanted someone living in it.

But the timing gets better. Turns out that the Super Bowl was coming to town about 90 days after he moved there and there was a shortage of luxury accommodations available in that city. He was able to sublet the house he had just rented, for a period of ten days and was paid more than his first year’s rental payments in return! Right time. Right place. Right action!

It was an “eth” of God. He didn’t see it coming, but he sure knew it when he saw it and he knew what to do. He acted like a son of Issachar. Or you might say, he had an Issacharian anointing. I share this story with you and I will be sharing some Scripture examples as well. Here’s why… They train bank tellers to recognize counterfeit money by handling lots and lots of genuine currency. I want you and me to observe many examples of the “eth” of God so we will recognize the real thing when it comes and also be able to discern the counterfeit.

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.” Ecc 9:11

Well, thank you all for your strong encouragement to proceed with my study on the “eth” of God. Because I am on the journey with you, I am not able to construct this teaching from the vantage point of knowing where it ends. In addition, I expect to learn a lot on the way. Today, I’m going to lay some foundational thoughts and I expect the next several postings will bear out the “eth’s” of God as we see them in Scripture.

But first of all, do you remember what was said about the sons of Issachar? Here it is… “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do;” Now, let’s think about that for a moment… What the children of Issachar knew, was how to discern or understand the “eth” of God. They could recognize seasons of time besides the four we all know and anticipate quarterly.

Not only could they recognize whether it was the right season to invest or to go to war or to plant a crop, but they also apparently knew what to do with that knowledge. To give you some perspective, what if you knew back in 1975 that Microsoft was heading into its season in the sun? What if you knew that it was the season for that kind of technology? Do you think you might have invested? The sons of Issachar would have.

So what did Jacob prophesy over Issachar upon his death bed? Genesis 49:15 is poorly translated in the King James. The Chaldee paraphrase gives this a widely different turn to that given it by most commentators: “He saw his portion that it was good, and the land that it was fruitful; and he shall subdue the provinces of the people, and drive out their inhabitants, and those who are left shall be his servants, and his tributaries.” It appears they were a laborious, hardy, valiant tribe, patient in labor and invincible in war; bearing both these burdens with great constancy whenever it was necessary.

Furthermore, Moses prophesies in Deut 33:19 that the sons of Issachar would partake of the treasures hid in the sand. Treasures. My point? The sons of Issachar had treasure. They looked at their portion given them through Moses and knew just what to do. The sons of Issachar, being experts at understanding the “eth” of God, always seemed to know just what to do and when. The result was prosperity, but not without battle. Selah.

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.” Ecc 9:11

There is something very significant in this verse which is lost to the modern, Greek oriented mind. It is the concept and meaning of time. What Solomon meant and what we understand may not be intersecting. In order for us to begin to understand what Solomon meant, we have to understand how he used that word and how it would have been understood at that time.

I have found no less than four Hebrew words translated into English as “time”. We use that “time” word differently “time” and “time” again, as in, What “time” is it? Or, It’s about that “time” again. Or, This is the third “time” I’ve told you. Or, Do you think we will arrive on “time”? We mean different things but use the same word, hoping that the context will explain what we really mean.

The Hebrew word Solomon used here is “eth”. The same word he used in Ecclesiastes 3, when he uses that word 28 times (7 X 4) in his famous discourse… “To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.” To me his usage suggests a play on the fact that there are four seasons and by showing seven (God’s divine number) sets of four, he is showing that there are patterns of seasons in God that mimic natural seasons like springtime and fall. They may not come on June 21, but they do come with some predictability.

When the tide comes in and out, it is according to the “eth” and we can predict the rise and fall of the tide. When a woman is about ready to give birth, it is according to the “eth” and we can predict within reasonable accuracy the time for her to give birth. The “eth” is not tied to a clock. It is tied to something more mysterious yet still predictable. Predictable that is, if you know how to discern or understand the times (the “eth”)

Remember what they said about the sons of Issachar? Scripture says that they had understanding of the times (”eth”) and because they understood the “eth”, they knew what to do. The word “eth” is translated often as “seasons”. Solomon is teaching us that everything has its “eth”, its “season”, its proper time, including good and bad.

The sons of Issachar were able to discern or understand what “eth” it was and could therefore make wise decisions. They had a way of knowing whether it was a time to pluck or a time to plant, a time to get or a time to lose, etc. We have lost that ability, but Christ has restored it to us. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, dwells in us and we now have the mind of Christ. We can discover the “eth” that we are in and know what to do.

Solomon is telling us that the “eth’s” of life come to ALL OF US and those “eth” events are game changers. Our problem is that we don’t recognize the “eth” we are in and we therefore miss our opportunity. It is sort of like being a farmer, when the last frost has lifted in the Spring and it’s time to plant, but we don’t recognize that it is Spring. We just think it is a pretty day. Come autumn when others are harvesting, we think they were pretty clever to plant crops so we try to do what they did and our seed dies in the ground because we missed the season. Knowing the time (”eth”) can significantly impact your bottom line.

I will continue to develop this line of thought for you if you all find this of value. Otherwise, I will study it for my own benefit because I know it is a game changer and will make a huge difference in my life. Let me know my dear brothers and sisters.

Your faithful servant, Michael

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.” Ecc 9:11

Bob Johnson is a nature photographer of unnatural ability. His works have been featured on Magazine covers and are in wide commercial use. At his website, I found a couple of pictures which exemplify what Solomon wrote about in Ecclesiastes. In one of them you’ll see that Bob was composing a shot of a magnificent sunrise, when on to the stage came this buck that apparently was equally captivated by the glory of the rising sun.

Bob was in the right place at the right time and was prepared to take advantage of his good fortune. Being in the right place at the right time can make a big difference in the outcome of any venture. No amount of planning, strength, skill, etc on his part could have arranged the moment. But Bob was prepared for the moment that only God could arrange.

That’s the way it is in life… Good luck favors the prepared. Or so it seems… I’m not a believer in luck, but I do know that when “time and chance” happen, it favors the prepared. Who are the prepared? Read the first part of the verse. The prepared are those who have trained to be swift and strong. Those who have grown in skill (knowledge), understanding and wisdom (applied knowledge).

My advice today is to get prepared and when the opportunity (chance) comes (timing) you will be in a position to take advantage of it. This theme to be continued…