Hidden in Plain Sight
Written by Christopher Cheng
Recently in my devotions, I was in Exodus, covering the 10 plagues in Egypt, where I discovered something interesting I’d never seen before hidden in the pages. In chapter 8, God sends frogs against Egypt from the river and the lakes, ponds, and streams. As I was reading this I thought to myself, “but where did the frogs come from?” This question might seem obvious at first, but consider the chapter just before, where God turned the Nile River, and the lakes, ponds, and streams to blood and “everything that was therein died” for a week, only to then just a few days later, bring enough frog out of them to “cover the land of Egypt”. So where did the frogs come from? The answer is still obvious, but it is a part of the miracle I had never taken the time to appreciate, because it is seemingly dwarfed by the significance of the rest of the miracle.
Another passage that’s been on my mind is 2 Samuel 17, where the famous David and Goliath account is found. This is a well-known story about the “underdog” being triumphant in the face of overwhelming adversity. This story is also commonly under-appreciated though for it’s true message about the importance of the hidden details. For instance, in the time of David, the three types of soldiers were infantry, artillery, and cavalry, much like today. Back then however, warfare was like a game of rock paper scissors. Infantry could defeat cavalry with relative ease in a head on fight, artillery could outrange infantry, and cavalry was too fast for artillery. In addition, if you look at the artillery of the day, it’s not actually as primitive as it seems at first glance (Malcom Gladwell has a very detailed explanation in his book, “David and Goliath” if you’re interested). A sling could throw projectiles at upwards of 90 m/s (150% the average velocity of arrows from a longbow), and according to the book of judges, experienced sling throwers could hit within the breadth of a hair from their target at incredibly long distances. There’s more to the equation than just that, but along with David’s previous combat experience (taking on a bear and a lion with his bare hands), these data points already paint quite the picture of what was really going on. David was a marksman, incredibly strong, fighting as artillery against a large, slow-moving opponent. He was set up to win because of the training God had granted him through the path of his life. He had a desire to learn, grow, and serve, and God blessed it.
When I look at these accounts, one thing stands out: the little details. In The Compound Effect (Darren Hardy) the monumental consequences of little decisions is clearly shown, and I believe the same principle is on display in both stories here. In Egypt, the little things that God does behind the scenes like repopulating the rivers after turning them back to water isn’t explicitly recorded, but it makes his miracles possible. In the story of David, the little decisions he made beforehand led to a massive victory. Things like watching his father’s sheep, playing music for Saul, and carrying the cheese into the Israelite war camp snowball into putting him in the perfect position to fight successfully for God. Oftentimes people (myself included) ignore the little things in favor of looking at big results, while in reality it is the day-to-day tasks so often dreaded and ignored that put people in a place to find success.
