The Righteous Pass by in Safety

Psalm 91:3: “For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence.”

The trapper here speaks of getting entangled with wickedness as if someone set a trap and tried to tempt you into it. Deadly pestilence of course is a plague. This is speaking of evil causing us harm. Here David proclaims that the Lord will deliver you and then goes on to say that He will shield you and hide you in His protection. When you look to Him, you are safe.

Often, especially coming from the West, we do not like to hear about evil or wickedness being out there or potentially causing us harm. At work, one of our Chaplains shared an experience where his Christian family adopted some children from another country that did not have parents and the grandmother, who was a witchdoctor, unleashed demonic forces on them. Ultimately, it caused immense pain and anguish to their family. It was a heartbreaking story.

I once had an experience of being attacked by evil forces. I had spoken up to a young lady who was a self-proclaimed witch that I was praying for her and fighting for her. Shortly after, I seemed to have chaos coming at me in every direction for a week. I prayed and navigated through and continued to pray for her.

Shortly after, she lost her marriage, her job, her place she was living, and financial means. My sense of it was that what she had unleashed on me had come back and boomeranged. God must have done some things in her heart with it as shortly after, she asked about coming to church with me. I would have loved to take her but every time we would schedule, she would cancel last minute.

I was so grateful to be so protected by the Lord and at the same time, sad and concerned for her. I hope she does come to know Christ and comes under His protection.

Ever think about how this verse of being rescued from evil forces really looks in our lives? And why, even as Christians, sometimes we are not spared difficulty or attacks?

When we are saved, we are delivered from a ticket to hell. For me at least, it felt a little like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We are poor and in need. Then one day, we win this incredible golden ticket to something amazing and indescribable. And if we are fortunate and wise, we tote a loved one along with us.

As we accept the invitation and come to the party, it is a whole new world for us. So many things to see and experience that are amazing and indescribable. But not all those with a golden ticket have the right heart. And along the journey, the ones who do not have a right heart are sifted out like goats separated from sheep by the choices they make. The poor one with the golden ticket who keeps their heart right is a genuine winner and inherits the entire land.

When we are saved, we have won this incredible golden ticket that gives us access to a whole new unseen world. And as we journey out into it, when we keep our hearts right toward the Lord, we are blessed. While others around us may fall and be sifted out when their hearts are not right, the Lord keeps us steadfast in His arms and under the shelter of His wings.

So are people really spared evil? Sometimes it seems they are while other times it seems they are not. I think about during 9/11 when there was an attack on the twin towers. There were some people who felt prompted by the Lord to just get out of the building. They did and their lives were spared. They listened, believed, and were protected, escaping death. While others remained in the building and it was the end for them.

There is this interesting story in 1 Kings 13 that wraps in witchcraft, manipulation, listening to God and having the right heart. In this story, there is a prophet who hears incredibly well from the Lord. He has this powerful moment where he prophesies against the altar with amazing detail and accuracy, sees it break as he spoke and then he heals the hand of the king.

We can actually see this prophesy come true in 2 Kings 23:16. And while the King had no idea of this, what he could see is that this young prophet operates in the power of God as the altar splits and the prophet heals the hand of the king.

Being grateful to have his hand back perhaps even beginning to see the error of his ways, the king then invites the prophet to come home for a meal and a gift. The young prophet refuses. He tells the king that the Lord told him not to eat or drink or return the way he came so he heads off in obedience. Shortly after, an old prophet hears about it from his sons and ran out to track him down.

When he found him, he invited the young prophet for a meal. And when the young man refused, he lied and manipulated him, telling him that the Lord spoke to him that he must come back and eat and drink with him; so the young prophet obliged. Then as he was eating and drinking, the older prophet gave the younger prophet a word about his body not being buried in the tomb of his ancestors as a result of his disobedience to the word he was given.

The young prophet then lets this man (older prophet) who manipulated him and prophesied over him for his disobedience, saddle his donkey for him. Then, as the young prophet went on his way, he met a lion in the road that killed only him. The lion did not eat him or harm the donkey, and just stood watch over the body until the old prophet came to take it. The old prophet then buried this young prophet in his own tomb and mourned him. He then asked his sons, when he died, to bury his own body besides the bones of the young prophet as his words will certainly come true.

Isn’t this an interesting story that makes you scratch your head a little? As I was meditating on it, I felt the Lord speak that the older prophet was like Balaam who had muddied waters. Hmm... What got Balaam off course was money, status and recognition. What got this old prophet off course was eternal life. Living forever was an idol in itself that he was willing to kill, steal, and destroy to obtain.

My sense in praying and meditating on it while talking to the Holy Spirit was that this old prophet had seen into the unseen realm by divination of the man who was thrown in Elijah’s grave in 2 Kings 13:21. When his carcass touched the bones of Elijah the prophet, he came back to life. When this old prophet saw it, he became ensnared by it as his heart was not right towards God.

If this was the case, then when this old prophet heard from his son about this young prophet who was so right on mark prophetically, the altar splitting and the King’s hand being healed, he is thinking it is this powerful prophet he saw through divination. He then goes out and tracks him down, not to help him but to cause him harm by witchcraft. He manipulates and lies to him to ensnare him because he wants his dead body.

Who meets a lion in the road right off their path that kills them, not to eat them or attack anyone else, but to stand and watch guard over their body until someone specific shows up to take and bury their body? This was clearly witchcraft at work. Notice how easy it is to gloss over it and just shrug your shoulders? Yet this old prophet used it blatantly. He held onto the body of the young prophet and didn’t send it back to his ancestors. He kept it in his own tomb so his carcass could be thrown in with the bones in hopes he would spring back to life.

What causes this young prophet to take the bait and become ensnared in this demonic scheme of witchcraft? The prophet refuses sitting at the king’s table so he was not tempted by money, power and status. Yet, he just goes along with this older prophet who lies to him.

I have so many more questions than answers, such as why did God not intervene and protect him? Why did the young prophet just go along and defer in this evil scheme?

What strikes me is that this prophet who hears so clearly, assumes this old prophet sees more, hears better and must be right so he defers to him like a mentor. He probably had a few incredible mentors in his life and listened closely to them and followed them. He doesn’t use discernment on the older prophet or listen to any check in his spirit.

He was probably following others too much as he became off guard and felt safe with an older prophet that looked like a mentor. There is something that is called “transference.” This occurs when someone looks like, smells like and/or acts like someone we have positive or negative emotions around. We have a natural tendency to transfer our emotions and trust from the person we know to the other person we do not know.

This young prophet also knew what the Lord said, but he disregarded it like he must be wrong. The Lord tells him and warns him well in advance so there didn’t need to be discernment in the moment. There seems to be a struggle that this younger man has with feelings of inadequacy. He defers to this older prophet he sees as being in a position of authority and assumes he is right. He chooses to listen to the voice of the older prophet over the voice of the Lord because of it.

In feeling inadequate, he also accepts the rebuke from the older prophet and fully takes the blame to himself for being wrong and not listening to God. If he had blamed the older prophet or held him to any accountability, he would never have let the older prophet saddle his donkey for him. He would have turned and ran. More than likely, this young prophet had been missing a father figure in his life and longed deeply for it. But in letting others fill this spot that was only meant for God, like the prophet that sought his own resurrection, he let it take him off course.

Such brokenness. What causes you to disregard the voice of the Lord? Fear of man? Feelings of inadequacy? A desire to be fathered or mentored by someone from the older generation? Power, status and recognition? What takes your heart off track and puts you in a danger zone?

We forget that in Psalm 91, before it speaks of being protected from deadly wickedness, it says it applies to those who are trusting in the Lord and taking refuge in Him (Psalm 91:1-2). When we are putting our trust in other things, it causes us harm. Our hearts are the compass that keep our lives on course. Like those who had the golden ticket in the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, went on the adventure, but then got taken out, it was that their hearts were not right. They had to have a right heart to make it all the way through on the adventure they were invited into.

Recently, I am going through a process of documenting what I am thinking at different times during the day. As I go back to look at this and for patterns in thought, what I find is a common theme: Not enough, don’t measure up, inadequate.

I am much like this young prophet who often doesn’t feel adequate and defers to others. I easily step into the role of learning from others rather than stepping out in what I believe and know to be true. I know I hear from the Lord, but often think that others must hear better and know better than me so I defer to them. While it is good to stay humble, when I just follow along with what others think, it may not lead to good results for me and can take me off course.

As an example, I really looked up to a prior boss of mine that was like a father figure to me. Anything he said, I just followed along. Even after we both left the organization, he stayed mentoring me and we met on a regular basis. I was so grateful for his wisdom and thankful for his mentorship.

But then I had this stirring in me to apply for a CFO role that opened up in my organization. When I asked for his advice about it, he didn’t believe that women should play that role so he told me I was better suited where I was. I passed up the role but felt the Lord pressing me over and over to step into more and ignored it for a time due to feelings of inadequacy and believing him over the Lord.

Eventually, I had to come into terms that I needed to follow the Lord’s voice and not my mentor's voice. A similar position opened up at another organization where I was even more connected to the mission God had put in my heart. The Lord opened the door wide so I leaped and took it. And God has blessed me in it and I love it. I would never want to go back to any lesser role or position.

While we have people who are there for us, love us and care about us, they are not to be the source of God’s voice for us. We need to listen to God for ourselves and keep Him first. We need to be willing to speak up, even if it creates some discussion or conflict. In all things, we need to keep the Lord first and directing us.

The other thing I notice is the poor boundaries this young prophet had with the older Prophet. Feeling inadequate can lead to poor boundaries. We may take in what others say and allow them to be judge. When something goes wrong, if we struggle with inadequacy and boundaries, we can’t discern rightly our responsibility from theirs; we just take it all to ourselves and assume we must have been wrong.

I used to struggle with this immensely in always thinking I was wrong and the other person is right. But, as I did workbooks and studied this area, I felt like I have grown to better discern more what is mine to own and what is other’s to own and setting better boundaries. I stopped accepting other people’s stuff to own as it just enabled them to make poor decisions.

God would put me in situations where I was clearly right and the other person was strong willed about being right themselves. I hated it as I hate conflict as it causes me feelings of inadequacy. It has been a struggle for me in this area but the confrontation of it has helped strengthen my ability to speak the truth in love.

I know I still struggle with feelings and thoughts of inadequacy which lead to being defensive as it came up recently. I find I like to be right and do things well. My boss pointed it out and has been helping me and mentoring me in this area to not be defensive, even if something is said untrue about me or my team. Putting energy into being right and getting it right says that looking good is an idol for me that is tied to feeling adequate and leads me off course.

I want to be seen by others as competent and I can see now how it is an idol of mine. Because of feelings of inadequacy, I put more value on myself when I get it right than when I get things wrong. This leads to always wanting to feel competent and of value by being right. When I choose being right and getting it right over leading in love, I am not right and off course.

It was the dysfunction in the life of the young prophet that got him off course. He put this older prophet that he believed was a mentor, probably by transference, on the throne of his heart. He had an idol that the enemy slickly used to deceive and eliminate him. His inadequacy and longings for a father figure was probably due to neglect or abuse in his own life. The enemy does not play fair.

Coming back to the verse, we have an enemy that is deadly. The word says that he wants to kill, steal and destroy us. Standing in this place of protection has to first with keeping our hearts right towards God. The most important thing we can do in any spiritual warfare is to have our hearts rightly set. When we do, we will follow in obedience and be in a place of divine protection. If we listen well, He will lead us into a long, rich and fulfilling life.

What I can't fully reconcile through this story, is that at the same time, even when we make mistakes and get off course, the Lord did not leave us to be taken out by the enemy. While in this world we have troubles, we can take heart that Jesus has overcome them all. In this broken world, we are not left without protection. The Lord protects us, guides us and even gets us back on track. The wicked are ensnared by their own nets while the righteous (that is us), pass by in safety. And even when we are taken home early, we have eternal life and a heavenly home.

Micah 7:8, NLT: "For though I fall, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light."

Proverbs 24:16, NIV: "For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes."

Psalm 37:23-24, NLT: "The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand."

Psalm 37:24, NIV: "though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand."

Lord, help us to get our hearts right and keep them right towards you. Guide us to healing, deliverance and freedom wherever we need it. Eliminate any idols in our lives that would lead us off course. Thank You that You always provide for us and that we are safe in Your hands.