God on Every Side

“He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye.” Deuteronomy 32:10

God on Every Side

Encircled – What good is a fence in the wilderness if it isn’t closed around the camp!  If God doesn’t surround every part of your life, then you are still vulnerable.  The beasts still get in.  So God finds us, frightened and defenseless, and He surrounds us with His care.  But that’s only the beginning.

Sabab, a Hebrew verb that means “to go around” has another interesting nuance.  It is also used to describe the act of changing your mind (Ecclesiastes 7:25) and of transforming one thing into another (2 Samuel 14:20).  If you want God’s encircling protection, you need to let Him change your direction.  That’s what repentance is:  turning around and going another way.  God invites us to come inside camp and find safety and in the process change who we are.

The Eagles got it right.  “Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?  Come down from your fences, open the gate.  It may be rainin’, but there’s a rainbow above you.
You better let somebody love you, before it’s too late.”

And if you don’t like the Eagles, then you can have Jethro Tull:  “He hears the silence howling —  Catches angels as they fall. . . . The train won’t stop going —
No way to slow down.”

We are a strange breed.  God looks for us in our waste places while we run screaming to the city.  God offers us protection and care while we fight to stay on the range.  God loves us while we hate Him.  Yes, the world is backwards.  God’s heaven on earth looks nothing like our earthly havens.  We need to change direction.

Where are you out riding fences?  Where are you on the train that won’t slow down?  It’s not heaven on earth, is it?

“Better let somebody love you, before it’s too late”