Intervention

“The king caved in and ordered Daniel brought and thrown into the lions' den. But he said to Daniel, "Your God, to whom you are so loyal, is going to get you out of this."

 A stone slab was placed over the opening of the den.  The king sealed the cover with his signet ring and the signet rings of all his nobles, fixing Daniel's fate.

 The king then went back to his palace. He refused supper.  He couldn't sleep. He spent the night fasting.

 At daybreak the king got up and hurried to the lions' den.  As he approached the den, he called out anxiously, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve so loyally, saved you from the lions?"

 "O king, live forever!" said Daniel.  "My God sent his angel, who closed the mouths of the lions so that they would not hurt me….”   Daniel 6:16-22  Message Bible

How often we are reminded of that awesome thing God did for His people when the Egyptians pursued them.   He placed His defending angel between the pursuer and the pursued.  (Ex. 14:19-20)

“Thank you, Jesus, for the many, many times Your angel has stood between me and a grievous heart, a painful wound and an otherwise crushing blow.

God will not give us more than we can handle.  He trusts our spiritual strength to deal with the pain up to a certain point.

But when He sees that the load is greater than our ability to endure, He personally intervenes and takes the pain upon Himself.

God is the great absorber of our excess suffering; that is why we are “able to bear it”.    We can better understand what Isaiah meant when he said, “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them.”  (Isa. 63:9)

How often we rejoice that God saves us from our sins!  But it is just as true that He saves us from our suffering by placing Himself between us and our pain.

We worship a scarred God.   But may we never forget that the scars were inflicted because He loves us enough to step in between, to become our “buffer”; and to take upon Himself that which was rightly ours.

“Lord, Your love overwhelms me!  No wonder Paul said it “surpasses knowledge”.  (Eph. 3:19)

“Be confident, my heart,
because the Lord has been good to me.

 The Lord saved me from death;
he stopped my tears
and kept me from defeat.
 And so I walk in the presence of the Lord
in the world of the living”.      Psalm 116:7-9  GNT