What does it mean that God our heavenly Father protects us, since he also allows the evils that occur in our world?
When our sons were young, we went several times for family outings to Starved Rock State Park in Central Illinois. It’s a beautiful, rocky area with many cliffs and gorges. It’s also a dangerous area if you don’t follow the rules. Every year, people fall and die. So, it’s not only a fun place for a family trip but also a nervous place for parents. You want boys to explore and be adventurous, and you don’t want to hold their hand or warn them continually against doing this or that, but the reality is you want to protect them from the real possibility of harm and death.
As a loving Father, our God in heaven has a similar desire to protect his children. King David took comfort from knowing that God resembled a good shepherd who had a rod and staff always ready at his side to fight off hungry wolves and bears (Psalm 23:4). God promises, “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name” (Psalm 91:14, ESV). “The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3, NIV).
Our favorite Bible stories often are about God’s ability to protect his people. Daniel in the lion’s den. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. The apostle Peter delivered from a dungeon by an angel.
God is constantly protecting us from a thousand potential harms of which we are not aware. If he withdrew his protection, we would succumb to untold numbers of germs, demons, and accidents. Never does a moment pass that God has not protected you from harm.
Anomalies
However, both the Bible and human experience attest that protection is not the whole story. There are exceptions to the rule. Evil things happen even to God’s people. Job lost everything for a time. Joseph was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt. Cain murdered Abel. John the Baptist was beheaded. The apostle Paul was beaten, stoned, and jailed many times. Stephen was stoned to death. Harmful things have happened to you and those you love.
What makes that especially difficult for believers in the God of the Bible is, we understand that he is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is not in a dualistic battle with evil he cannot contain. Satan and his demons are not all-powerful. They were created by God and have continuing existence only by God’s will. Our Father in heaven must ultimately allow what happens because he foreknows all and enables everything to exist. He is sovereign, never doing evil, but allowing it.
So, God is our Father in the sense that he wants to protect his children from harm but also that he allows them to go through hard, painful things so that they will grow mature, strong, and capable. He occasionally allows harm for the sake of a higher good (Romans 8:28). It’s not ordinary. It’s temporary. But it’s no accident or oversight, for the arm of the Almighty is not too short to protect us.
For example, when my sons came to the age when they would begin middle school and high school, I hated the thought of it. I knew how cruel kids can be to each other. But I also knew my sons had to keep growing and face the world as it is. Although I wanted to shelter them completely from harm, I knew it would be better for them to grow stronger and wiser through the challenges ahead of them.
Can we expect to be protected?
So, where does that leave us in our desire for God’s protection?
1. We should pray for our Father’s protection and expect it.
Our loving heavenly Father delights in protecting us, and as a result his protection is normal and continuous for us in countless unseen ways. So we should never—never—fear.
Psalm 91 describes the normal experience and expectation of God’s people:
“1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge— 10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. 14 ‘Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.’” (Psalm 91:1–16)
2. In those exceptional times when God chooses for us the alternative good that will come through suffering, we should trust him and still pray and believe for deliverance.
Paul wrote: “We felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” (2 Corinthians 1:9–10).
3. If we believe and trust him, our Father always delivers us from evil, either now or in heaven.
When Paul was in prison, he wrote:
“The Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:17–18).
4. If we believe and trust him, our Father always gives us the strength, courage, and comfort to overcome pain and hardship.
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4)
5. If we believe and trust him, God always protects us from the ultimate evil, which is harm coming to one’s soul.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35–39 ESV).
Therefore, beloved child of a protective Father, never fear.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: We fear the many evils this world can bring.
God’s way: He protects us from all evil except what brings our highest good and his greatest glory and gives us grace to overcome.
Life principle: Never fear. Always trust God’s perfect wisdom in ordering your life.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)