The Protection of God

"Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler." - Psa_91:3

It is no surprise to some that the hand of God is working in their lives to prevent them from entering into traps. Others, too often, find themselves in the traps, and see God's mighty working to deliver them out of them.

One trap is backsliding. The rod is sent as a deliverer from the certain destruction that comes from backsliding. First there is the gentle, but firm voice of the Spirit wooing him back, and then there are harsher forms of discipline that would deliver us from greater sorrow, ruin, and evil. This delivers the backslider and the onlooker - who, like a bird frightened away, would escape the net just in time by watching it trap his brethren. So deliverance comes to several all at once.

Another deliverance is the amazing spiritual strength the Lord gives to people when tempted - that they might say, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

Both are a repentance of sorts, and that is needed to see this promise of deliverance brought to fruition. The backslider needs to repent of his backsliding ways, and the hand of God shall lift him up out of the net and place him on high ground. The onlooker and tempted need to repent of their sin nature by abiding in the vine that the fruit of the Spirit might grow as a delight to the Lord, and a poison to the poacher of souls. Regardless, those who look to the Lord for deliverance from the snare of the fowler will find it, for it is the Lord's promise.

No bird of paradise shall die in the fowler's net. - Spurgeon