Divine Rescue

Galatians 1:3-5 (NKJV)

3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

This passage reveals the reality of God’s ability to save or deliver us from the dangers of our evil age. This text reminds us that God is able and active in our lives. We have seen His capability throughout the scriptures and in the lives of modern man. Just pick an era, and you will see His hand in the lives of men. Look at the story of Daniel and his friends in Babylonian Captivity. They refused to compromise with evil, and God rewarded them in the fiery furnace and the lions’ den.

We tend to think of these events as though they were fiction, something to tell children so they will behave or go to sleep, but they are truthful and depict the realities of serving the living God. If God worked in the times revealed in scripture, He is certainly capable of doing similar things today. Let’s notice two issues from this text and an account of American history.

First, this is a current spiritual issue of good vs. evil. In our text, Paul wrote, “that He might deliver us from this present evil age. . .” Paul knew about past generations and the evil they endured, but this was his era and challenge.

We live in one of the worst times in human history in which evil abounds in corrupt governments, out-of-control health care, and the general depravity of the day. We are not unlike Sodom and Gomorrah or the Nazi regime, the present darkness is massive.

The fact that evil is so prevalent reminds us of our utter helplessness. Virtually nothing we have done apart from God has relieved the corruption of our day. We cannot even vote out bad political leaders or vote in good ones, and we are virtually defenseless against the onslaught of sin. We need God to intervene, as did our spiritual and physical ancestors.

That brings us to the fact that this is a providential issue. God has always worked in human history, even when we are unaware of His activity. The presumably untouchable have been brought low by the providential hand of God. He even used those outside His covenant to work His providence, as in the case of Cyrus fulfilling prophecy by sending the Jews home from Babylon after seventy years. He worked through the Allied armies to bring justice to the holocaust instigators of World War II, turning victims into victors.

We have read and heard the stories of God working in the establishment of America as Columbus and the Pilgrims came to the New World to fulfill the Great Commission. We have further seen His hand in the lives of our Founders and Framers as they broke with England with a "firm reliance on Providence." Those men had faith in God, and He rewarded them with liberty. If He worked then, why not now?

Let me tell you a story of divine rescue I found in the Founders’ Bible entitled, “The Feather of Peace.”

The story begins in the summer of 1777 in the Hudson River valley north of Albany, New York. British and Continental armies pillaged the settlers' supplies, and the Indians were angry that the white pioneers decimated their hunting grounds as they moved westward.

Most of the frontiersmen returned to the east at the government's encouragement. Several Quaker families (also referred to as “Friends”), who had experienced a good relationship with the Indians, decided to stay. As was their custom, the pacifist Quakers did not carry weapons to their Easton meeting house.

In September 1777, a traveling Quaker minister named Robert Nisbet awoke fifty miles away in East Hoosack, Massachusetts, with a strong urge to visit the next Easton meeting. Despite the dangers, he arrived and sat next to the patriarch of the meeting, Zebulon Hoxsie, and the society sat in silence and worshiped in God's presence.

After a prolonged period of silence, Nisbet rose and announced:

“You did well, Friends, to stay valiantly in your homes when all your neighbors have fled. The report of your courage has reached us in East Hoosack, and God charged me to come all these miles to bring you these two messages: The Beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety, and He shall cover you with His feathers all the day long. You shall not be afraid for the terror by night nor for the arrow that flies by day.”

As the group pondered Nisbet’s words from Psalm 91, an Indian Chief suddenly appeared in the doorway and surveyed the room as other Indians joined him. No one spoke until Hoxsie greeted the Chief in his language and extended his hand. After a few minutes, the Chief motioned for his braves to set aside their weapons and sit silently with the Quakers. The Quakers greeted their visitors at the end of their service.