‘Sometimes, life throws us curveballs’… Chances are you’ve heard or used that phrase, or some other iteration of it, to describe something unanticipated or disruptive that may have happened in your life. Perhaps an occurrence which presented you with an unexpected challenge and in some cases, completely threw you off balance.

Recently, while listening to a sermon on Romans 8:28 (NKJV), “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose”, where this phrase was used, something else occurred to me. Listening to how God can use the negative curveballs life (or in some cases the devil, as 2 Corinthains 2:11 reminds us) throws at us for His good, it struck me that life (or the devil) is not the only one who can throw curveballs.

As I reflected on this, even for days after, I began to think of various times when God threw a curveball, an unexpected spanner in the works, right at the devil’s plans. Times when all hope seemed lost, when final arrangements were being made, when the devil thought he had secured the victory… and then BAM! God swung a surprise curveball, leaving the devil scratching his head and seeing red, as his seeming victory smashed to smithereens.

In this blogpost, I will share five instances of these in scripture. There are many more, but to limit the length of this post, I will restrain myself.

Curveball 1 – The Case of Joseph (Genesis 39-41). Joseph’s story is a very popular one. A dreamer who woke up to a reality of family betrayal, false accusations, imprisonment. Forgotten even by those he helped, it looked like he was destined to spend the rest of his life in an Egyptian prison. Then BAM!…. Curveball. Pharoah had a dream and the forgotten one became the remembered one. “Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once, and he was quickly brought from the prison. After he shaved and changed his clothes, he went in and stood before Pharaoh”… “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, clearly no one else is as intelligent or wise as you are. You will be in charge of my court, and all my people will take orders from you. Only I, sitting on my throne, will have a rank higher than yours.” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the entire land of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand and placed it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in fine linen clothing and hung a gold chain around his neck. Then he had Joseph ride in the chariot reserved for his second-in-command. And wherever Joseph went, the command was shouted, “Kneel down!” So Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of all Egypt. And Pharaoh said to him, “I am Pharaoh, but no one will lift a hand or foot in the entire land of Egypt without your approval.” (Genesis 41:14,39-44, NLT). What a transformation… how does one go from Prisoner to Prime Minister in one day? God barely even gave him a moment to catch his breath and take it all in. What a God! Elevator extraordinaire.

Curveball 2 – The story of the Widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:7-16). In this story, this widow, living in Zarephath and suffering the effects of a severe drought, was preparing for death when God sent Elijah to her. This story is so moving and striking for several reasons. This widow does not seem to be anyone important in her day, given that she is not even named. BUT, she is important to God. God sees her, knows her, cares for her. And He demonstrates it by sending Elijah to go from the Kerith Brook, East of the Jordan, where he was in hiding, to Zarephath near Sidon. Bear in mind that Zarephath was not just down the road, it would have been a full day’s journey, if not more, especially for a hungry and thirsty man. And yet God sends Elijah to go and meet her. He does not send her to Elijah, he sends Elijah to her! Even Naaman, a Syrian commander and a powerful, influential figure, could not summon the Prophet Elisha and had to go to him instead. (Mind you, given that Elijah was the one who ordered the drought, I wonder if there was something God was trying to teach Elijah here). Not only that, she wasn’t even a Jew, and this was Gentile territory. Jesus himself confirms this in Luke 4:25-26. We don’t even know if she prayed or not, but either way, God’s heart for the marginalised is truly evident in this story.

When Elijah meets her, he asks her for water. Despite the drought, she goes to get him some water. But then he adds another request… ‘a bite of bread to go with it’. And then she makes this heartbreaking statement in verse 12: “I swear by the Lord your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.”

Ah! Clearly she had lost all hope, and was gearing up to enter a season of preparation for death by starvation. What a painful, slow death to look forward to.

Until… BAM! Curveball. Elijah gives her a personal Word from God. “For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!” So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah.” (Verses 14-16).

Just like that, she went from awaiting starvation to assured sufficiency, having encountered Jehovah Jireh. What a God! Provider extraordinaire.

Curveball 3 – The case of Peter (Acts 12). Peter, a victim of religious persecution from an evil king, was imprisoned and placed “under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each.” Imagine guarding one prisoner with sixteen soldiers. Sixteen! Bear in mind that, for these soldiers, failure at their job meant immediate death (see Acts 12:19), so it was not a job any of them would have taken lightly. His remaining a prisoner was literally a matter of life and death for them. As if that wasn’t enough, he was chained to two of them. And this prison had two guard posts and an iron gate! Even Houdini would have been stumped.

But not God. God sends a swift curveball down Herod’s direction, and to cut the long story short, the night before Peter’s trial, Peter walks out of the prison cell, past the first and second guard posts, past the iron gates and into the city, with angelic bodyguards by his side. Wow! Peter himself thought it was a vision, which demonstrates just how incredible this rescue was. Even the church that was praying for him did not believe it when Peter rocked up to the door of their prayer gathering. “You’re out of your mind!” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.” (Verse 15). But it was indeed Peter, divinely rescued from the prison. Given that Herod had just killed James, there is a strong chance that the trial would have led to Peter being condemned to die. Thankfully God had other plans for Peter, and He was not going to let the devil truncate them. What a God. Rescuer extraordinaire.

Curveball 4 – The Case of Lazarus (John 11). I have written about Lazarus twice recently (here and here) so I will try to keep this section brief. Lazarus fell ill and his sisters swiftly sent for Jesus. By the time Jesus arrives though, Lazarus is dead. As I wrote here, “By the time Jesus does show up, Lazarus has been dead for four days. I should add that the number of days Lazarus had been dead for is quite significant here. Apparently Jewish people considered the fourth day to be the point at which the soul was considered truly gone, as they believed the soul lingers around the body for three days, hoping to return, but then gives up on the fourth day.”

‘The soul’ may have ‘given up on the fourth day’, but not Jesus. He instructs them to roll away the tombstone. Then “Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.” (John 11:39, KJV). This phrase, “by this time he stinketh” illustrates just how hopeless the case was. Literally dead on arrival.

Then BAM! Curveball. Jesus lifts up His eyes to His Heavenly Father, thanks God for hearing Him, and cries out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”. “The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (Verse 44, ESV). I once heard a pastor speaking on this say that Jesus words are so powerful, that if Jesus had not specifically mentioned Lazarus, all the other bodies buried in the tombs there would have started coming out! What a God! Resurrector extraordinaire.

Curveball 5 – Saving the best for last, is the story of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus (Matthew 27-28, Mark 15-16, Luke 23-24, John 19-20). Where do I even start from? Whipped to within an inch of His life, pierced with nails on His hands and feet, a spear at His side, and a crown of thorns on His head, hung on a cross to die, He cries out with a loud voice. “It is finished!” He breaths his last and yields up His Spirit. Jesus was dead. (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19).

The end, right? Wrong. God had already set in motion the ultimate curveball, one which the devil certainly did not see coming. “None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:8, NLT).

There was pain, sorrow, weeping, heartbreak, shock. But just when those around thought the story was over, BAM!!! CURVEBALL… Jesus rises from the dead! But not before disarming the spiritual rulers and authorities, and shaming them publicly by His victory over them on the cross (Colossians 2:15, NLT). I love how the MSG translates this verse: “He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.” The image this verse conjures makes me laugh. Imagine the evil one thinking he had finally secured victory, only to be blindsided by Jesus’ glorious resurrection (both literally and figuratively (see Matthew 28)) and ending up being stripped and shamed.

What a transformation. Jesus is alive! He is not lying in a tomb somewhere anymore. He is alive, risen, just as He said (Matthew 28:5-6). And thanks to His death and resurrection, He has secured a great future and hope for us. As 1 Peter 1:3 (ESV) says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” As believers, we indeed have a living hope. The good news is that even death is not the end. Humans may consider death as final, but we know that God’s power is not limited by death. Jesus displayed His power and victory over death on the cross. As such, nothing, absolutely nothing is impossible for our God (Luke 1:37). No situation is too late, too far gone, too hopeless, too irredeemable or irreparable for God to transform. He is indeed All-Powerful.

I was trying to limit the length of this post, but there are so many others. From the story of Abraham and Sarah, to Job, to Zechariah and Elizabeth, to Paul on the road to Damascus, the Bible is full of them. Even today, people have experienced God stepping in and throwing curveballs in the evil one’s plans for their lives. In all these, the path which these stories were travelling on veered off course so swiftly, the devil must have suffered some serious whiplash. God’s intervention must have really felt like a dream. Sleeping in a prison and waking up in a palace; planning for death to planning for life; dead one day, alive the next; passionate persecutor to passionate defender. No wonder Psalm 126:1-2 (ESV) says “When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them”.”

Does it seem like the light at the end of the tunnel of your situation has been switched off? Or that what you thought was a silver lining in your cloud was actually just another arrow being fired at you? Does it feel like you finally hit rock bottom and thought, ‘surely the only way from here on must be up’, only to discover that your rock bottom had a hidden basement no one told you about? If the wind is blowing so fiercely around your candle of hope, and you are struggling to keep it lit, beloved, God sees you. I hope that this blogpost encourages you, and that you experience God’s miraculous curveballs in His perfect timing.

Until then, I think it is fitting to end this blogpost with Romans 15:13 (NLT). “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” And one glorious day, may you experience that curveball of a transformation that will seem like a dream, filling your mouth with laughter and your tongue with shouts of joy. Amen and Amen!

‘He turned it’ by Tye Tribbett is the perfect accompaniment to this post. You can listen to it here.

Image Source Here.