"Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah." (Genesis 7:6-9) Noah and his family didn't have to go out looking for these animals to herd them onto the ark. The Lord spoke to the animals and they obeyed. Out of everything the Lord created, only man has ever chosen to be rebellious. Everything else in creation does exactly what God tells it to do.
"And after seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month---on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights." (Genesis 7:10-12) In Genesis 1 the earth was covered with water and God created large areas of dry land by drawing some of the water up into the atmosphere and by using the water left on earth to create oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams. Here in Genesis 7 the Lord allows the water in the atmosphere to fall like rain and He allows underground streams to burst forth and geysers to shoot water out of the ground. The Bible doesn't tell us exactly what caused the underground waters to come rushing to the surface but it may have been due to seismic upheavals.
"On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in." (Genesis 7:13-16) One commentary I consulted points out that in the original language, "Then the Lord shut him in," is literally, "The Lord encompassed him round about." This is divine protection. All Noah had to do was get on board the ark; the Lord Himself shut the door and sealed it against the waters.
I think when we reach heaven we are going to be astonished to learn just how many times in our lives the Lord encompassed us round about. Sometimes it's evident to us when He diverts harm from us, like when we narrowly miss being in a bad traffic accident or when we are expecting bad news from a medical report and get good news instead. But I think the Lord actively protects us every day from things we don't even know are a threat to us. I think He lines up events all around us so as to give us those few extra seconds we need to completely avoid a catastrophe. I think He corrects cellular mutations in our bodies that threaten to turn into diseases. If it's not our time to go, God isn't going to allow our bodies to break down on us. In the unseen world, spiritual warfare goes on all the time because Satan hates the children of God and he would love to attack us in any way he can, but unless allowing a particular trial into our lives is going to accomplish something worthwhile for us, God shuts down the schemes of our enemy. I believe that when we fully realize, in the presence of our God, how many thousands or even millions of times He's provided divine protection for us, we are going to fall to our knees in awe and thanks.
I'm reminded right now of a time when the Lord encompassed me round about and kept me safe. Some years ago I used to drive an older model Honda. I couldn't park it in the garage because right then it was still packed with things my mother-in-law hadn't yet taken with her when she moved out of state. I went out to my car one clear morning after there had been some sleet followed by light snow the night before. My doors were all frozen shut. It was a four-door car but none of them would open. I went round and round it for some time trying to figure out what to do. It isn't until about midday when the sun hits my driveway and I knew I couldn't wait for that to happen or else I'd miss the whole morning of work. As it was, I was a little late already. Finally, while standing there in exasperation, the front passenger side door suddenly made a loud popping sound and visibly opened outward by just a fraction of an inch. I climbed in from the passenger side, started the car, and headed down the steep road out of my neighborhood. When I got near the last section of the road, I hit a patch of ice. Everything on the car locked up. I was unable to steer it or brake it or stop it, so the car slid straight on through the stop sign at the bottom of the hill and all the way to the middle lane of the four-lane highway. I think I was screaming the whole time. Usually when I leave for work the highway is covered with traffic. But remember, I was late for work because all my doors had been frozen shut. There was not a single vehicle on the highway when I made my terrifying journey across it. Do I believe the Lord shut the doors of my car because He knew there was a slick spot at the bottom of the hill and because He knew my aging car would careen out of control? Do I believe the Lord popped one of my car doors open at the precise second in time that would allow me to arrive at the bottom of my hill at the very moment when the highway would be empty? You bet I do! He shut me safely out of that car just as surely as He shut Noah safely into the ark.
If you are a child of God then He encompasses you round about. He isn't going to allow anything into your life that doesn't fit within His will for your life. Yes, it's possible for us (because we have free will) to make wrong decisions that get us into trouble, but in those cases we are bringing the harm onto ourselves. But every day the Lord is surrounding us with divine protection. He's diverting disasters we didn't even know were coming for us. He's fixing things in our bodies we didn't even know were going wrong. He's fighting spiritual battles on our behalf. King David, who was the victim of a number of evil schemes and plots during his lifetime, realized that we don't always know when we are in danger. Some frightful situations are obvious; some are not. So he wrote Psalm 140 asking the Lord to protect him from wicked plans and thanking the Lord for all the times He had already protected him, saying, "Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, You shield my head in the day of battle." (Psalm 140:7)
No comments:
Post a Comment