God can give you precise protection in a situation where people around you are vulnerable.
Psalm 91:7–8 (ESV)
“A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.”
God is able to judge the wicked while protecting the righteous with surgical precision. In even the most dangerous and deadly situations, God can make his people invincible.
Precise protection for two spies
For example, as Israel prepared to invade the Promised Land, Moses sent 12 leaders of the tribes of Israel into Canaan to spy out the land. When they returned, 10 of the leaders gave a negative report, saying the residents of the land were invincible, doubting God’s promise, and advising rebellion against his command. On the other hand, two of the leaders—Joshua and Caleb—confidently testified to their belief that God would give them victory, and they should obey and trust him.
What followed were surgically precise acts of both judgment and protection. Numbers 14:36–38 says:
“The men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land—the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the LORD. Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.” (ESV)
Precise protection for two from a million, for 40 years
God’s selective protection of Joshua and Caleb did not end there. Because of Israel’s rebellious response of believing the 10 spies instead of the Lord and refusing to enter the Promised Land, God pronounced judgment on that generation of men and sent Israel back into the desert to wander for 40 years. Numbers 14:28–30 says,
“As I live, declares the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.”
With surgical precision, over the next 40 years God would protect two faithful men—Joshua and Caleb—while ending the lives of an entire generation of unbelievers.
Precise protection during the Passover
The Old Testament tells another story of God’s pinpoint control of both judgment and protection. When the plagues on Egypt were nearing their end, God announced one final terrifying judgment on the idol-worshiping, occult-practicing Egyptians: the destruction of the firstborn in every household.
God would send a death angel throughout the land, and on one night death would sadly fall on all the firstborn. But God had a different plan for the firstborn of Israel. He instructed Moses to tell the Israelites to smear the blood of a lamb on the lintel and doorposts of their homes on that fearsome night, and death would not enter their homes.
Exodus 12:12–13 says, “I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”
Passover night was another example of God’s pinpoint control of both judgment and protection.
Pinpoint protection in Goshen
God showed similar selectivity in some of the earlier plagues on Egypt.
During their time in Egypt, Israel lived in the region of Goshen. When God announced to Pharaoh the plague of flies, he said, “On that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth. Thus I will put a division between my people and your people.” (Exodus 8:22–23)
The same thing happened when God sent the plague of hail. Exodus 9:26 says, “Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.”
More examples of precise protection
Likewise when God sent a flood to destroy all the wicked people on earth, he carefully protected Noah and the seven members of his family in the ark.
Likewise when God sent a plague on the Israelites at a moment of national rebellion led by Korah, Aaron stood at a line between the living and the dead.
Numbers 16:44–48 says, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.’ And they fell on their faces. And Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the LORD; the plague has begun.’
“So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.”
Walking into the face of deadly plague, Aaron with his censor, for that circumstance, was invincible—because he was obeying a specific, personal command from God. We will talk more about that shortly.
God’s protection is normal
So God can give selective protection, selective invincibility.
He does this constantly. The protection is normally invisible to us. We have experienced it every day when we pass through a day free from all harm, for the world is filled with invisible dangers: pestilences, viruses, germs, and bacteria. Yet we pass through our days rarely if ever falling sick. Similarly, evil people who want to harm others normally pass by us. Natural calamities and accidents normally pass by us.
Protection is your normal destiny. It is not extraordinary. Every day you experience the surgically precise, pinpoint protection promised in Psalm 91.
Still, we should protect ourselves
Does this mean we do not need to take normal precautions such as looking both ways before we cross the street, avoiding unleashed, aggressive dogs, locking our front doors, or eating healthful food and getting adequate sleep to have a healthy immune system? Should a soldier in a battle keep his head down? Or for an extreme, contemporary example, if a family member or spouse comes down with covid-19, do we kiss them on the lips?
No, that would be testing the Lord and ignoring wisdom. It would be presumption. The Lord promises to protect us but also tells us to protect ourselves and use ordinary wisdom to avoid unnecessary dangers. Proverbs 14:16 says, “A fool is reckless and careless.”
For example, Paul warned his ministry partner Timothy, “Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.” (2 Timothy 4:14–15)
Proverbs 22:3 says, “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”
In John 8:59, when the religious leaders did not like what Jesus was saying, they “picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”
John 7:1 says, “After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.”
There is a fine line between fearless faith and testing the Lord, between confidence and foolishness. So we are to be confident but not careless, fearless but not foolish, full of faith but not presumptuous (Numbers 14:39–45).
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)