My family and I love to watch Disney documentaries together and marvel at how Imagineers piece together the designscapes of their parks. In particular, I’m always fascinated by their landscaping designs. As an avid plant lover (and killer), I am in awe of how they have acres of greenhouses filled with plants grown solely to turn them into towering Mickey & Minnie topiaries. So, when I think of the phrase we will discuss today, “hedge of protection,” I have laughed about this one more than others because I mentally picture God scaping a wall of boxwood hedges shaped like Mickey around Job to protect him from Satan’s attack. I know it’s silly, but I think one of the more challenging components of the Christian “insider” language that we have lovingly termed Christianese is that some of the language stems from old English (which is already confusing enough), so we expect there to be a double layer of understanding: religious and lingual.
It might not be a literal hedge, but this statement and the concept of God acting as a safeguard is Biblically founded! God as a shield, a defense, a refuge, a wall, or a fence (hedge), are all themes woven throughout the Old and New Testaments. We read it in Job 1:10 when Satan accuses God of being Job’s protection, blessing the work of his hands and allowing it to increase in the land. It is found in Genesis 15 when God tells Abram not to fear because He would be a shield all around him. David wrote in Psalm 34 that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him. Paul tells us that God’s peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus in Philippians 4 and that He is faithful to establish us, guarding us against the evil one in 2 Thessalonians 3:33.
These promises still apply to those who fear the Lord and follow in His ways. He is a shield and a defender of those whom He loves (that’s you). This is wonderful news for us, but can also be challenging to believe when it seems like He is not doing a very good job of guarding us against the enemy. Why, then, do we suffer so greatly when God’s word says He surrounds us? Suffering is also a narrative woven throughout Scripture and one that all would benefit from noticing, as suffering is often intertwined with an attribute of God at work. With Job, it was His sovereignty. With the Israelites, it was His justice. With Jesus, it was His love. Sometimes suffering is not an act of punishment but an act of God’s goodness. Though we do not see it at the moment of our pain, He is still a shield and a refuge in our heartache and suffering because He never leaves us nor abandons us. “Therefore,” the writer of Hebrews reminds us, “We may boldly say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” (Heb. 13:5-6).
When our adoption fell through and my husband was unexpectedly fired from his full-time job all on the same day, my initial reaction was to blame God for “allowing” it to happen. It did not feel as though He was any kind of shield or defender by any means. Hindsight shows a completely different picture, though. This experience made me who I am today, and I am stronger for it. I made it through because God was a shield and a refuge for my spirit, mind, and heart, even if my physical circumstances were not ideal. So, do not be dismayed if you pray for the Lord’s protection and see something different in the natural. We cannot always see how He is working, but we can always trust that He is.
