How Art Thou Cut Off?

It is tragic to be a victim of robbery. I was once been a victim of this crime myself. The thief or thieves had me under surveillance for sometime; and they could not have chosen a better time to strike than when I just bought a number of goods and expensive tools and kept them in my garage. The garage had been empty until then. At night, the enemy struck and took everything that was valuable. I was completely wiped out. This was a calamity! The Bible says, “if the thieves come at night and rob you, what a disaster awaits you. How art thou cut off?” The scriptures below show how dangerous the enemy can be. The enemy wants it all!

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

John 10:10

“If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?”

Obadiah 1:5

The agenda of the destiny pickpocket is simple; it is to steal the one thing that is most valuable; one’s own destiny. This is the divine or predestination of what has been ordained to take place in one’s life. It is an appointed or ordained future. Destiny is what God has predetermined you to be and to become, in His divine will. In other words, it is God’s providential power to guide our path to walk in the ways He has instructed before we were even born. However, we have the free will of either surrendering all to God for His guidance, or we go about life on our own, thereby making ourselves susceptible to the destiny pickpockets that surround our divine destiny.

In my primary school days one of our literature books contained a story that I still vividly remember. It was about traders in a particular village that had a challenging time dealing with robbers that were constantly ambushing them on their way home at the end of the market days.

The gang of thieves would suddenly spring out from the thick forest by the sides of the only route back to the village from the market, which was a narrow footpath. Brandishing different weapons like clubs and machetes, these bandits were formidable. They had caused so much fear in the hearts of the merchants that nobody dared to oppose these plunderers. Any trader that happened to be unfortunate to be a victim of these rouges always lost the whole day’s sale.

One particular day, a man was returning home from the market with his wife; having had a particularly good day at the market. With a lot of money concealed in a cloth pouch inside the man’s clothes the last thing they needed was a surprise attack by armed robbers.

Unfortunately, they could see a bunch of men dashing out of the forest and blocking the only footpath. These thieves had in their hands different kinds of weapons and were waving them menacingly with all aggression as they waited for this trader and his wife.

The merchant was gripped with a fear of these men and he began to shake aggressively. He was sweating as he trembled. His feet became jelly and began to give way underneath him. He held onto his wife as if expecting help from her.

The woman surprisingly responded in a thunderous voice that even the robbers who were waiting afar could hear distinctly.

With absolute boldness and wisdom she cried, “My husband, continue to shake. My husband, continue to tremble. When you shake you kill a thousand and when you tremble you kill ten thousands. My husband, continue to shake and continue to tremble.”

The husband indeed was stricken with fear and could not stop trembling as the wife practically dragged him along. She kept on repeating her words loud and clear.

“My husband, continue to shake. My husband, continue to tremble. When you shake you kill a thousand and when you tremble you kill ten thousands. My husband, continue to shake and continue to tremble.”

This was a very strange battle cry! The bandits were puzzled by the weird combat shivering stance of the man as well as the woman’s odd warfare utterances. They were quick to conclude that it was a mystic opposition, as they thought he only possible explanation to this daring challenge must be that of supernatural powers. How can a man be trembling and yet be killing thousands?

The only option available to this gang of robbers was to flee. They were not prepared to die. They had until then, been having their way without opposition. More peculiar was that, it was not a challenge from able body men, but from a seeming weakling of a man and yet a destroyer warlock.