A Hand of Protection

 

The Lord takes care of His people. His methods of providing, delivering and revealing the truths that we need to see are both terrifying and wonderful.

As our own culture seems to be working hard to ostracize His people and to intimidate us (and anyone who supports us in any way), the Lord gives more strength. As the world is growing bolder in our faces, we are seeing Christians stand up bolder for the Lord and His Word.

As I follow what people are doing to try to stop things like a lecture about God’s law in government or a conference for Christians, I can see that we are up against an ever-increasing pressure from our culture to abandon our faith. This is clearly a time to stand firm rather than run.

Reading about how God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and the fear that they were living in as they left, one verse stands out: Exodus 14:14. Moses has been listening to the people complain about coming out of Egypt. They wanted to stay where they knew the hardships rather than face the fear of death.

He said to them, “The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

And He did! He proceeded to take them through the Red Sea on dry ground and let the sea close back up over the Egyptians who were pursuing them in chariots. The Egyptians were evil people who had enslaved God’s children and treated them poorly for 400 years. They had opportunity after each one of the 10 plagues to repent and free them but they refused.

Even as Egypt was going through the plagues, God kept a hand of protection on His own people. As the way to the Promised Land gets tough, God repeatedly reminds the Israelites to remember that He delivered them out of slavery in Egypt to bring them to this Land, a land flowing with milk and honey (Leviticus 20:24).

As we look back at God’s faithfulness to our own nation we can see that there is plenty for us to regret as we watched the number of abortions climb and marriage be undermined to the point that suggesting it be between a man and a woman is offensive to many. Yet, God was faithful to us.

We can also see that God has had a hand of protection on His people here and now, true believers who keep His law. Sadly, many professing Christians have gotten too comfortable with the ways of the world. We have become content to go to church, do a little evangelism, and send money to the poor while the culture around us forgets all about God and no longer knows His law, no less tries to keep it (John 14:15). We‘ve turned Christianity into a “personal faith” rather than a way of life that can build up a nation (Psalm 127:1).

Sadly, many Christians today are wondering, “Where is God in all this?”  instead of asking, “Where am I in all this?”

• Am I willing to speak the truth in love to my neighbor?
• Am I willing to point to the truth of what is being taught to our children in government schools? And what is not?
• Am I willing to point to the truth of the mess we are making of children’s lives because they are so confused about who the authorities are in their lives?
• Am I obeying God or am I obeying man?

God would not have parted the Red Sea if Israel had not, in faith, walked toward it. He healed Naaman only after he was willing to go and dip himself in the Jordan River. Are we expecting Him to fight for us when we are being faithless and not stepping into the world and proclaiming the truth of God’s Word for every area of life?

It looks like Moses was telling Israel to stop complaining (“hold your peace”) and get moving. Our interactions with churches, schools, local, state and national governments, business and our relationships with our next door neighbors should all reflect our faith in the Living God.

Do we want to stay in Egypt or love and obey the Lord’s ways that lead to His protection now and deliverance to the Promised Land?