He will protect His servants. (2 Kings 19:1-37) Satan whispers in my ears constantly, “See how wonderful life is when you do what ever you want to do? Oh, I know He calls it sin and is not pleased, but is He doing anything about it? No. Not one blessed thing.” He shouts his victory yell when I give in. But when I refuse to give demons the time of day by fleeing to God, (James 5), when I refuse to give satan any room by staying in His Word and loving His son, satan weeps and moans and the fires that were licking at his heels threaten to consume him, giving him a taste of what it will be like when my Almighty God ends this universe and banishes him forever to the pool of never ending heat and sorrow.
God Himself is burdened to protect me, especially when I am struggling against those that would see me fall. In Zechariah 9:1-17, God tells me what His burden is. “The burden of the Word of the LORD in the land of Hadrach and Damascus shall be the rest thereof: when the eyes of man, as the eyes of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD. And Hamath also shall border thereby: Tyrus and Zidon, though it be very wise. And Tyrus did build herself a stronghold and heaped up silver as the dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Behold the LORD will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea: and she shall be devoured with fire. Ashkelon shall see it and fear; Gaza also shall see it and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed: and the king shall perish from Gaza and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. And a evildoer shall dwell in Ashdod and I shall cut off the pride of the Philistines. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: but he that remaineth even he shall be for our God and he shall be the governor of Judah. And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now I have seen with mine eyes. Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion; shout O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy KING cometh onto thee: he is just and having salvation: lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt and a foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea and from river even to the ends of the earth. And as for thee, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein there is no water. Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee; When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. The LORD of hosts shall defend them: and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls and as the corners of an altar. And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of His people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. For how great is His goodness and how great is His beauty! Corn shall make the young men cheerful and new wine the maids.” His burden is me, to protect me, when I declare His Name as the one true Name and that He is the one true God. His burden is also to bring justice to those that have destroyed His temple, enslaved His people and desecrated His holy Word. He demonstrates His will through supernatural occurrences in natural events. This will produce a remnant, much as when He instructed Gideon to hone down His army to those who would really obey and be loyal to him and God. This is also the case with Nehemiah, as only those who were brave enough to continue to build the walls and the Temple and still defend Jerusalem were worthy of being part of God’s house. And further back, those who followed Joshua, when he reported good tidings from the desert and that God’s people were strong enough to subdue their enemies because God was with them. It is this remnant that will abide in the peace of God, and live in unity to gather more so that they too could live in God’s Kingdom. (Zechariah 14:8-21) But this doesn’t occur without pruning so branches that seemingly look good, much as gardeners truly hate to prune branches that appear to be producing good fruit or roses or whatever. If the branch deviates from it’s path, it must be cut off, and God does that. And while He is the Great Mercy Giver, if I need to be pruned He will do it in a heartbeat, not because He is mean, not because “He said so” like so many parents do (although He being the Creator has that right to say so) but because He knows if he doesn’t do it now, if He doesn’t cut off that which while growing needs cutting, then the road I travel will only end in death. There are two ways to follow God, 1) riding the fence, of which He will ultimately not approve but He hopes I come to that conclusion, 2) wholeheartedly, which He absolutely and without question approves. If I need pruning along the way, He will do it. I should say when because I will not be perfect until I come to Him. This church His Son has set up was God’s design that I might learn His ways and live in peace with others that He has also called. How do I live in peace, how do I let God be God? By tending to my own life. By pulling the log from my own eye before asking someone to pull the splinter out of that person’s eye.
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