Protection

Many of us can think of times where God has protected us from danger. We had one recently that wasn’t of us but one of God’s little creatures. My husband and I had just pulled into the driveway from a 20-mile trip, it was hot, and we were tired. I walked past the hood of the truck, and I heard a “meow”. I walked around the truck and heard it again. I panicked, knowing what I heard and afraid of what we might see.  It took a lot of coaxing, two days, and a trap, but eventually we have a kitten that’s 5 weeks old, in good shape according to the vet, it wasn’t burned or hurt. Even the vet was amazed that it wasn’t injured. I thought of how God protects people even in the hazards or have hazard come upon them. I thought of this verse many times and still do whenever I see the little kitten sleeping soundly in the house or on me. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 10:29-32.” It’s hard to believe that God looks after the small things when there are so many big things are happening that we feel need His attention more, from wars, famines, and more…our little trivial selves may seem insignificant and inferior. Yet God wants us to come to Him with our needs/wants and our feelings as well. He isn’t so big that He can’t deal with our issues. We praise Him, we should give Him our troubles too. We worship Him, we should give Him our feelings. We revere Him, we should give Him our love too.

We know of Job who lost everything and even his health, but God protected him because he had faith in God. Having faith in God can be hazardous for our physical heath even though our spiritual health is strengthened. These guys had a physical hazard but sought God’s protection. They had orders that at the sound of music to bow down to a gold statue. They had a decision, serve God and get the consequences or disobey God and serve man and mock their God and their faith.

 The king said, “Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” They knew the risk. Their life was at stake, but they had faith in God that he would deliver them! It’s hot right now, I can’t imagine how hot that would be and it was going to change soon! “Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.” King Neb got mad, he was disrespected and felt like a fool. So, he in his jealous rage said, “And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flames of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.” It was so hot that the soldiers that threw the three guys into the fire killed them! They were thrown in the furnace bound with their hats, coats, what they had on. King Neb didn’t hear any screaming or any pleading or begging, so he got up to check his handiwork. “Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” He thought he was seeing things, I’m sure. “They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.” No one wants to tell the king what he’s seeing. Please read this next passage slow and look at the contrast of what happened before to what happened here; “He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” First off, they were bound, they were immobile. No one could help the other one out. Yet they were walking around the fire. They are not hurt and the guys that threw them in there died from the heat. On top of that there’s a fourth form in the fire that looks like the Son of God. How King Neb knew that the fourth person was the Son of God is beyond me, but he knew something was up if this fourth person was walking around with no hurt as well. King Neb had a decision to make. “Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.” Couldn’t you hear the collective hush as they crawled out of the fiery furnace with no hurt, no clothes burned and no smoky smell? Then everyone looked at King Neb with probably wide eyes. Surely, they would be put to death now! This was astonishing and outrageous! The king’s decision was made. It was final and unquestioned. “Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon. Daniel 3:15-30.” King Neb had a change of heart! He saw God’s protection upon His own firsthand. Hopefully we have seen God’s protection in our own life and declared it as such, whether it’s a near miss of a wreck, or a disaster that you were spared from. While we know of many people in the Bible that were saved by God’s intervening, there have been many elsewhere as well, too many to count.

We value protection so much that we put insurance on our lives, our health, our houses, our cars. We’re willing to pay for it, handsomely I might add. While we pay with our hard-earned money to protect these things, what about our soul? Can we insure it? Well, yes but not the traditional way. Our soul was created by God Almighty, meaning that there truly is a God-shaped hole in all of us, waiting for that missing piece.

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Mark 16:24-26.”