Can You Sleep at Night?

A Christian's best defense is none of these things. It's a child-like trust in a Father-like God. "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God" (Psalm 20:7; cf. Isaiah 31:1). "And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee" (2 Chronicles 14:11). "With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles" (2 Chronicles 32:8a). "And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" (1 Peter 3:13).

God's protection is like . . . a hedge of thorns. Those who lived in Bible lands were familiar with thorns. Celius, for instance, describes sixteen varieties of thorny plants. Large thorn bushes--called nabk, from which tradition says the crown of thorns was woven--sprang up like fruit trees all over. In the Plain of Gennesaret, thistles grew so tall and thick a horse could not push through them. (McGarvey, Commentary on Matthew.) Palestinian farmers used thorn hedges to divide fields and discourage intruders (cf. Matthew 13; Mark 4; Luke 8). From the Garden of Eden to the cross of Calvary, thorns played a part in God's plan for man. Interestingly, when Satan accused God of putting a hedge around Job, God didn't deny it (Job 1:10). (He denied that the hedge was the reason Job served Him.) Isaiah pictured God's people as a vineyard that received God's attention. When they failed to remain faithful, he threatened to "take away the hedge thereof" (Isaiah 5:5). God hedges us in with His love and powerful care.

. . . A shield. The Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Fear not, Abram: I am they shield, and thy exceeding great reward" (Genesis 15:1). The Psalmist rejoiced to know that the ". . . Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield" (5:12). The Christian's armor includes the "shield of faith" by which we quench the fiery darts of the wicked (Ephesians 6:16). This "shield" (thureos) was large, oblong, made of wood, and covered with hides. (It comes from a root word, thura, meaning, "door.") Roman soldiers lined up in formation with these shields in front as a literal wooden wall against the initial onslaught of enemy arrows. Listening to a student read Psalm 23 in chapel, Joseph Sittler, blind with advancing age, heard something he'd never heard before. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me . . ." "The text does not speak," said Sittler, "of the valley of death but the valley of the shadow of death. There is a difference. . . . The wonderful truth . . . is that God is with us now. It is not simply that God will be with us in the experience of death itself; it is that God will walk with us through all of life, a life over which death sometimes casts its shadow." (Quoted by Martin Marty in "Context," August 1 and 15, 1984. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, No. 2.)

. . . A wall of fire. Campers in the extreme north U.S. and Canadian wildernesses have been known to build several campfires in a circle around their sleeping bags to put a "wall of fire" between them and timberwolves. Compare Zechariah's record: "For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her" (2:5). As late as the nineteenth century, a superstition existed about fire among European peasants. Fire started by the primitive method of friction was regarded as having supernatural protective properties. Cattle driven through this fire would come to no harm, provided all nearby fires were put out when it was kindled. Such superstition points to man's desire; Scripture points to God's meeting that desire for his people. Just as David's men served as a "wall of protection" around Nabal's shepherds in the field (1 Samuel 25:16), so "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them" (Psalm 34:7).

. . . A mother hen. If you've been on a farm, you've probably watched a hen's chicks scatter looking for insects and worms. As they peck here and there, some distance may come to separate them. But let a cat or hound come in their direction, and the hen's excited clucking brings the chicks under her with startling rapidity. As they hide, she puts herself between them and the perceived danger. This is how Jesus pictured his care for Jerusalem. He wanted to call them to him and shield them from harm, but they would not (Matthew 23:37). God's arms are even pictured as "underneath" us (Deuteronomy 33:27). To use Whittier's words

I know not where His islands life
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care
(John Greenleaf Whittier,
The Eternal Gardens)