A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked. (Psalm 91:7-8)
The Bible says that, on the night after they had eaten the Passover, Israel boldly left Egypt in rank and file, marching out as if they were an army. As for the Egyptians, the once great and wealthy country lay in ruins. As a result of the tenth plague — the death of the firstborn — the Bible says that, “there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead” (Exodus 12:30). If Moses did, in fact, pen this psalm it might be this is the event that inspired him to write the words above. Throughout the weeks and months that led up to this climactic event, Israel had witnessed the suffering of their Egyptian masters while, in Goshen, they lived unscathed by the plagues.
The Bible states that the Lord had set a division between His people and the Egyptians to the degree that not even “a dog shall move its tongue against the children of Israel, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel” (Exodus 11:7). If God was willing and able to do such then, obviously He is willing and able to perform such a great miracle again. That, in fact, is the point of the verses above — to remind those who seek to dwell under the shadow of His wings, that they need not fear the terror of the night “nor the destruction that lays waste at noonday.”
In my opinion, the emphasis of Moses’ words shouldn’t be so much on the reward of the wicked but the deliverance of the righteous when terror and destruction sweeps through the land. And by the way, whether it is in our lifetime or not, there will come a day when total destruction will envelope the entire planet and the wicked will not be sheltered from its effects. Only those who have placed their trust in God will see deliverance and, with their eyes, will look and see how God places a distinction between His servants and the disobedient. In short, dwelling under the shelter of His wings will, in time, prove to be the difference between life and death. So, today let us pursue the Lord and draw closer to Him than ever before; no one knows how close we are to that ominous day.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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