by: Travis Bennett
"The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord"
Proverbs 16:33
The day was August 19th, 2018. It was like any other day working patrol as a law enforcement officer. I was running between various calls for service while trying to chug my morning cup of coffee down. I was helping another deputy work a hit and run investigation where a teenage boy got hit by a car while skateboarding (the young man was ok). I went to the hospital to take photographs of the young man for Deputy Zirbel. After channeling my inner photographer, Deputy Zirbel and I got to talking about his new BMW motorcycle that the agency had just issued him. "I will be riding this baby for the next ten years!" Zirbel exclaimed. I still remember that conversation vividly.
A little bit later in the day, I was working another traffic crash further north on Blanding Boulevard when the dispatcher interrupted the airways by diverting me to another call for service. The call sounded pretty intense. It was a domestic disturbance between a husband and wife, and the wife was currently running around the street hysterical. So, I jumped in my cruiser and popped my emergency lights and sirens on and began tracking south down Blanding Boulevard. Every time I turned on my emergency lights, the adrenaline would start flowing like a raging river heading downstream. It was about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, so I was passing cars like it was the Daytona 500. A thousand different questions about the call for service came knocking on my brain's door, which needed to be answered immediately. Therefore, I picked up my radio to ask one of them, but I was unable to get on the airways because another deputy was already on it. All I remember hearing was an eerie static.
The dispatcher came back over the radio and began to inquire, saying, "Unit 621, is everything under control?" Unit 621 did not answer. I did not have enough time to formulate my take on the matter before I saw it. Right in the middle of the intersection, I observed a familiar BMW motorcycle lying on the ground dismantled. There was a mountain of paperwork and documents which littered the hot pavement as if a suitcase had exploded. Next to the scattered pieces of paper and smashed motorcycle lay, Deputy Benjamin Zirbel.
I panicked. I kept reminding myself to remember my training and practice my breathing. I parked my car and sprinted over to the unresponsive brother in blue. I will spare the details of the incident, but it was terrible. I applied as much aid to him as I could, but there was nothing I could do. I laid my hands on the man that I was holding a conversation with only a few hours earlier and began to pray over him. I begged the Lord of all glory to help. I waited there until the ambulance arrived, and I rode with Ben to the hospital. I was with Ben up to the cold operating table. I was then ushered out of the emergency room.
Ben's brain had been severed from his spinal cord upon impact with the ground. They call it an internal decapitation. Ben was placed on life support, where he would lay in an unresponsive state until his death two days later. The day after the initial incident, I went to his bedside and read the Bible to him. I shared the gospel and prayed the Lord would do the work only He could do. I have peace that the Lord is good when it comes to His sovereign work of salvation and election despite my limited knowledge. Please understand that I do not tell you this story to bring any elusion of glory to myself. I was unable to extend even one second of life to Ben. The Psalmist’s sobering verse of Psalm 31:15 echoed in my ear as real as ever: “My times are in Your Hands…”
At this point, you may be asking yourself how this incident has anything to do with the above-quoted verse. Well, I would submit it has everything to do with it. You see, a "lot" in biblical days was similar to dice. People would cast lots on the ground in games of chance. Roman soldiers actually cast lots with each other to see who would get to keep Jesus' clothes during His crucifixion. So, imagine casting lots to be like a game of random chance.
The truth is, there is no such thing as random chance. There are no coincidences, and there is no luck. The point of this proverb is to remind us that God is in supreme control of even the most granular of situations. Even the results of something as small as a simple game of lots are in the mighty hands of a sovereign God.
What is the point of all of this? If the God of Hosts is in control of something as seemingly meaningless as a game of lots, He too was in complete control of the life and death of Ben Zirbel. God sovereignly rules from each side of the extreme: from the minuscule life events to the massive ones. From the tiny details of everyday life to the tempestuous waves that crash against our lives and shake the very ground we stand on. God is not only in control of it, but every decision comes from Him.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, please listen to me during this trying time. Many of us have lost our jobs or sources of income due to the Coronavirus. Some of us may have even been impacted personally from the Coronavirus or has had a family member impacted by it. We cannot forget that the same God who placed the stars in the sky and knows them all by name is the same God who is in control of this virus. Yes, the infection cannot spread to even one person unless the great I AM allows it to do so. God is still on His throne and is reigning as Supreme King of all.
What are we to do then? Let us look back to history when pestilence, wars, and famines have struck our world. God has used no few amounts of measures (fiery serpents), agents (Babylonians), or means (10 Plagues) to conduct His business or pour out His perfectly righteous wrath. In every instance, the people were called to repent and turn from their wicked ways. Likewise, let this virus that is uncontained by the power of man but contained in the Hands of God almighty lead us to repentance. Instead of sitting in our fear and doubts, which drives us to disobedience and sin, let us place our faith onto the sovereign shoulders of the God who demands it.
We will conclude with glorious truth. The same God, who controls every decision from even seemingly random events, commanded the most crucial moment in all of history. Yes, God ordained and predetermined the death of His own Son on the cross by the hands of sinners like us. Why? Because the only way God could reconcile to Himself such worthless sinners deserving of Hell was by the substitutionary death of His own Son on the cross. You see, the blood of Christ has purchased us because of His providential decree. We have been transformed from worthless sinners to beloved saints. We are the children of the Most High King of Kings. We can trust our King and heavenly Father. Please, trust Him today. He will listen to you. That is good news.
