God knows you by name

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"God knows you by name" By Diane Webb

Nahum 1: 7 "The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him."

Nahum writes about the destruction of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital at the time, and the deliverance of Israel from its oppression. The name Nahum means comforter. His prophesy is meant to comfort Israelites caught in the cross-fire as Nineveh suffers from a series of invasions which destroy it. Imagine you are in a town and that place is being attacked from all sides—day after day, month after month until it is completely erased from the map. You have nowhere to go as the very walls around you are falling. This is the situation the Israelites found themselves. Among the Assyrians of Nineveh lived Israelites who were subservient to the Assyrians. Just as they were in Egypt, the Israelites were being subjugated in Nineveh. Nahum is telling the Israelites that God is a good God and he is where they go to for safety during the time of destruction. Nahum assures them God knows the difference between the Israelites and the Assyrians even if they do live side by side in Nineveh. When the dust settles, Nineveh is gone yet the Israelites survive. In the book, EVA, by Meyer Levin, the protagonist describes a scene during the bombing of a section of Auschwitz which contained buildings for German soldiers to work and live. Eva stayed In the middle of all the German-occupied buildings. Her structure contained several floors of prisoners. Eva and her friends were terrified the bombers would mistakenly bomb the prisoner barracks not realizing they were housed in the center of all the other buildings. Secondly, she was concerned for a particular German officer who had risked death by providing assistance to the prisoners--sneaking them food to eat and materials to knit scarves and gloves (it was very cold and the prisoners had inadequate clothing to survive the cold). After the bombing, the prisoners stand looking out the window at the rubble of the other buildings—glad the enemy was crippled yet sad because the good man obviously had perished along with them. Much to their surprise, out of the rubble emerged the one man—he had survived. God had, indeed, protected those who trusted him in spite of the bombing all around. This must be what it was like for the Israelites caught up in the invasion of Nineveh. Nahum's words were meant to comfort the Israelites then and his words give us comfort today. No matter where we are and what we are surrounded by, we can seek God for safety and protection. We can relax because God knows when we trust him. He promises to look out for us. We do not need to fear whatever is going on around us. We can trust God for his will in the outcome. Many people say "well I know good Christians who have been killed". Of course Christians die. However, we are promised eternal life regardless of physical death. When we trust in God, we know when we die it is because God, in his infinite wisdom, knows it is best for us at that specific time. There are many things worse than death on earth and sometimes God protects us from these things by taking us home with him. Our life on earth is just a temporary assignment. Our real life begins in death. This scripture is to comfort you as you face peril al around you--so you will believe God knows you by name and he will keep you safe. Nothing will happen to you if he has not given the go-ahead. He knows you by name.

Dear Lord, I do trust you. I believe anything within your will is what's best for me and my life. I believe you know what you are doing and I put my life completely in your hands. Please, Lord, remind me when I become fearful that you are my strong hold. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.