Forgotten Books of the Bible - Ezra 8 - Vaccination vs No Vaccination

 

'And there by the Ahava Canal, I gave orders

for all of us to fast and humble ourselves before

our God. We prayed that he would give us a safe

journey and protect us, our children, and our goods

as we traveled. For I was ashamed to ask the king

for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and

protect us from enemies along the way. After all,

we had told the king, “Our God’s hand of protection

is on all who worship him, but his fierce anger

rages against those who abandon him.” So we

fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would

take care of us, and he heard our prayer. '

Ezra 8:21-23 https://my.bible.com/bible/116/EZR.8.21-23

It is fun to think about how often God has protected us in our lifetime and we have no idea! Stephanie and I spend a lot of time praying and definitely pray for God to protect us when we travel. I love this short message in Ezra. 

The fleshly part of Ezra wanted to guarantee his protection by asking the King for soldiers and horsemen. Yet, he knew to make the request would appear to be a lack of faith. So, he prayed and he had his people fast and humble themselves before the Lord instead. 

Do you REALLY believe God will protect you?  How do you demonstrate to the world that you REALLY trust in the Lord? 

It is so important to show the world you completely trust in the Lord. We live in a world that is a dangerous place. There is so much out there to harm us. 

God will protect us. 

I still have a hard time deciding if God wants me to take extra precautions or if he wants me to depend on him. This has been very real over the past two years with COVID. My debate was whether to take a vaccine or not. Am I being diligent to protect myself or do I leave it up to the Lord?  I have debated this in my heart quite often. But, my decision to get vaccinated was simple. I was not going to be able to serve the Lord like I wanted, traveling to Greece on a short-term mission trip and exploring Israel, if I was not vaccinated. So, my thought was  YES the Lord could protect me from COVID, but he could also protect me from the VACCINE. 

Ezra had great motives. He wanted to make sure Persia and the King knew that God would protect them as they traveled. It might have been smart to ask the King for help, but the example he set by relying upon the Lord was more important. 

We should all be more concerned about the way our faith is portrayed to others. Instead of making decisions like vaccination or no vaccination for political reasons, make the decisions based on your faith! I know some people made their decisions for the right reason. Others, I am not sure about! But there are other decisions. Do you carry a handgun for protection or not?  Do you install security systems at home or not? I am sure there are others. 

Take all your decisions to the Lord, ask his guidance, and consider what those decisions will say to those that DON'T know the Lord.