THE SECURITY GOD PROVIDES

THE SECURITY GOD PROVIDES

Things unfold so fast that maybe for the first time some begin to realize there is nothing in this world that could give them security. Health, wealth, possessions, achievements and life itself could be lost in a seemingly random way. No one expected that the ordinary flu could mutate into a far more deadly disease (COVID 19) causing massive death in its wake.  The scourge of plagues though not a new experience, for mankind, has almost been entirely forgotten with the advances of medical science, not until today. We thought we are invulnerable. Then the seemingly secure bubble burst.  The things we struggle to achieve had lost their meaning, importance and significance. We are after all such fragile creatures living on borrowed time. 

I remember an old time preacher I knew who in his zealousness would exclaim, ”There is no security in this world, no one is secure, even your security guards or your insurance policies are not secure,” saying this with a bit of humor.

God’s Word the Bible reveals that God is our only security. God is the believer’s security. The unknown psalmist who wrote the marvelous Psalm 91, describes God, as the Most High (Sovereign Ruler) and the Almighty (One having all power). He describes God as a shelter, a cool refreshing place beneath the shadow of strong tree, a place of security, a refuge where we can run for safety in times of danger and a fortress that will provide defense against enemies.

Psalm 91 is a wisdom psalm which gives us the idea of our security in God. It is a psalm for situations involving danger, exposure, or vulnerability. Consequently the believer can be at peace and not fear the deadly diseases or the mighty pestilence. Pestilence in the Bible refers to a deadly and overwhelming disease that affects entire community. Pestilence is also one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse mentioned in the Book of Revelations.

The believer is secure until his or her time is up.

The other day I received a call from a Church Leader in our congregation telling me she was besieged by a group of elders who insisted that they should meet and gather in our regular Prayer meetings in spite of the community quarantine. They made comments like we are afraid, we lack faith, they are not afraid to die, and they have full confidence in God’s protection, and all the high sounding pieties. Another Pastor probably fed up by the same comments posted in the Social Media that he is not afraid to die in this pandemonium, but he does not want others to go down with him.

May I again address this line of thinking.

In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:16 in the wilderness, in response to one of Satan’s temptations. “The devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down. For it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test”’” (Matthew 4:7–10).

Essentially, the devil was telling Jesus to “prove” God’s Word was true by forcing God’s hand—if Jesus was in peril, God would have to save Him. Jesus refused to test God in such a way. We are to accept God’s Word by faith, without requiring a sign (see Luke 11:29). 

God’s promises are there for us when we need them; to manipulate situations in an attempt to coerce God into fulfilling His promises is evil. And to willfully and stubbornly place ourselves in harm’s way and demand of our God to prove His promises is testing Him the wrong way.

This is an unacceptable kind of testing to demand something of God to prove Himself to us.

Some friends would ask the question: “How do you explain the fact that God has apparently not honored these promises consistently? Some good and godly people have died in natural calamities, airplane crashes, vehicular collisions. Some die young, others are at the peak of their careers, others have perished at the hands of their persecutors or enemies, as was and is true of some Christian martyrs. Others die victims of crimes and evil deeds. Others die of diseases, while others are not spared of the plague. Does this indicate that God is unfaithful and His promises are unreliable?

“There are five primary causes of suffering:

1. We are mortal and live in a disease and death environment. (A Fallen World)

Nature does not discriminate between good and bad, atheist and believer. The sun and rain—including droughts and storms—fall on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45).

The Christian worldview does not require a spiritual explanation for every life experience. Suffering can be without any moral cause. Jesus raised the question of “those eighteen” upon whom a tower fell: “Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay” (Luke 13:4–5). They were not being punished.

God set up His world with natural laws regulating such things as gravity, matter in motion, weather patterns, the water cycle, ocean tides, and geological/meteorological conditions.

Those laws were implemented for man’s good, but if violated, they bring consequences. One can cook with fire or be consumed in it. Gravity keeps us attached to the planet, but it also crashes us to the ground if a plane engine fails. Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time, so one hit by a car will be injured or killed.

Why didn’t God create a world free from natural disasters? He did. 

On the sixth day everything God made was pronounced ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31). The Garden of Eden was an incomparable paradise of physical beauty and tranquil peace. It had no sickness, disease, pathogens, genetic flaws, harmful mutations, viruses, or other threats to man’s mental peace or physical well-being.

Man was designed to live forever in Eden, but he sinned (Genesis 3:6), and everything changed. God warned that the forbidden fruit would cause them to ‘surely die’ (Gen-esis 2:17). Thus sin introduced death—spiritual and physical. Post-sin Adam was subject to the sweat of toil and the pain of thorns ‘till thou return unto the ground”’(Genesis 3:17–19). With no access to the tree of life (Genesis 2:9; 3:22–24), those perfect bodies that God had whipped up from divine breath and earth dust began to decay.  Since all men sin, mortality is universal: ‘So death passed upon all men’ (Romans 5:12). Man had an expiration date. “Death” entered our vocabulary.

2. We are foolish and make bad decisions.

Suffering can be—and often is—self-inflicted. Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis estimated that eighty percent of human suffering stems from human choice.

The most dangerous gift that God gave man was volition—the ability to choose. God did not create evil, but He did create the possibility of evil. Adam and Eve were told what they could and could not do (Genesis 2:17). They introduced suffering into the world by choosing to disobey God. They soon learned of punishments involving sweat, subservience, pain, and toil (Genesis 3:17–19). They were driven from the paradise (3:24).

Every human is born with the ability to choose (Joshua 24:15). We suffer if we use the gift foolishly. A frugal person has a surplus; a spendthrift can’t pay the bills. Hate leads to violence, and violence to pain. Greed leads to stealing and abuse. A violent temper leads to fights, injury, property damage, murder, and arrest. Drunkenness causes hangovers, wrecks, cirrhosis, poverty, and spouse abuse (Proverbs 23:29–35). A busybody who sticks his nose where it should not be will soon have few friends (I Peter 4:15). Sexual promiscuity leads to unwanted children, disease, abortion, and divorce (Hebrews 13:4).

Paul wrote, ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting’ (Galatians 6:7–8).

3. We are connected and injured by other’s decisions.

Much of the pain in this world is collateral. Jonah’s rebellion caused a ship’s crew to be caught in a fearful storm (Jonah 1:14). David had Uriah killed, but others died with him (2 Samuel 11:17). Herod left a whole village to grieve (Matthew 2:16–18). Innocents have always suffered because others choose greed, lust, hate, addiction, and selfishness. Radical adherents to a violent religion killed 2,998 in the Twin Towers and left a nation hurting. Families go without food because a parent is addicted to gambling, drugs, sex, or alcohol. Good spouses are divorced and left to rear children alone because the other found someone else (cf. Matthew 19:9). People are killed on highways every day by drinking drivers.

4. We are vulnerable and suffer from man’s inhumanity to man.

The might-makes-right crowd takes advantage of society’s powerless. Robbers steal. Murderers kill. Identity thieves prey upon citizens, ruining credit and causing chaos. The unscrupulous lie to the old and steal their retirement savings. A ruffian finds a woman in the wrong place and forces her—or lures her on a date, then drugs and rapes her. Terrorists plot, plant, murder, and maim. Criminal cowards shoot innocent children in schools and target moviegoers catching a Batman flick. Greedy businessmen take advantage of the unsuspecting and leave them high and dry.

Why doesn’t God step in? He allows the freedom to choose evil. 

When trouble brewed in the first family (Genesis 4:5–8), God did not step in and stop the fatal blow. He did not supernaturally heal Abel’s wound and bring him back to life. He allowed Cain the freedom to choose love or hate, and everybody had to live with the consequences. God will eventually right the scales of justice at the final tribunal (Matthew 25:31–33; Hebrews 10:31).

5. We are righteous, and darkness hates light.

‘Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution’ (2 Timothy 3:12). Jesus was executed on a cross even though He lived a sinless life (Matthew 27:35). He explained that His followers will also have tribulation in this world (John 16:33).

When God’s children suffer, we can trust that God will always do what is right (Genesis 18:25) and that He will always work things out for the best (Romans 8:28). Corrie Ten Boom, Holocaust survivor, wrote, ‘When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.’

‘Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding’ (Proverbs 3:5).” * (Why Do Bad Things Happen? By Allen Webster)

If we view life as extending beyond the grave, which it does, we should have no trouble with these promises. God will grant ultimate deliverance to His own, even if He allows them to suffer and die under any circumstances.

We draw encouragement from one Christian writer who said, "In life the LORD MAY PERMIT MANY TERRIBLE THINGS TO HAPPEN TO HIS CHILDREN AS HE DID TO HIS OWN SON, OUR LORD. But his children know that no power is out of God’s control."