Shelter in Place

Be still, and know that I am God.  Psalm 46:10

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, we are all asked to “shelter-in-place.”  While writing this, I just received an emergency alert on my phone from the governor:  “Go home.  Stay home.  Except for work and essential services.  The coronavirus is spreading in all counties.” 

As people, we naturally want to socialize and be out and about.  It is very difficult for us to  stay home after many days and several weeks of being contained.  We get bored with sheltering in place and begin to lose our discipline to stay in place.

But maybe God is asking us through this pandemic to shelter-in-place and draw near to Him.  The Psalmist said to “Be still, and know that I am God”.  Another translation says to “cease striving”.  It is like the Lord is saying to rest-in-place – to rest in Him. 

In the Old Testament, there was a year of Jubilee every 50 years.  Although the most recent year of Jubilee was 2017, it might be helpful to remember that the Jubilee was a year of rest for people and the land.  Let this time of sheltering-in be a time of rest for us and our land.  

And let this time of sheltering-in-place be a time for “the hearts of the fathers to turn to their children, and the hearts of the children be to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6).

We are not the first saints who were asked to shelter-in-place for a period of time.  Each occasion caused a shift and realignment in people toward the plan of God.

The First Passover

At the launching of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, the Israelites were commanded to shelter-in-place on the evening of the first Passover so their household would be spared.  It was only for one evening.

The account is found in Exodus 12 where the Lord commanded Moses to tell the people to take some of the blood of the Passover lamb and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they would eat the Lord’s Passover.  The blood was a sign to the homes where they lived; and when the Lord saw the blood He would pass over them.  He did not allow the destroyer to come in to their house to smite the first born.  And no plague befell them to destroy them when the Lord struck the land of Egypt.  This represented a covenant that God made with the Israelites.

In the same way, we are being directed to shelter-in-place to protect our family and our community.  Be still, and spend time with the Lord.  Rest in Him.  Cherish His presence and listen to His voice. Sheltering in place is for our protection and welfare.

Noah’s Family in the Ark

There was another family that God asked to shelter-in-place but it was for a much longer period of time – about 9 months.  In Genesis 6, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that his thoughts were only on evil continually.  The Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever. . . nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.  Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time as he walked with God.  Noah and his sons were directed by God to build a large boat – an ark – to house Noah and his family during the time of the Great Flood.  Noah did according to all that God had commanded him.

Noah and his household entered the ark because they alone had been righteous before the Lord over the 120 years.  The floodgates of rain came along with the fountains of the deep opening up and continued for forty days and nights.  And Noah and his family waited until the rain stopped and the flood subsided – about nine months total!  You talk about sheltering-in for the long haul! 

I’m sure that Noah and his family became bored with the long wait until the flood subsided.  There was no place to go except the other end of the ark or go to another floor of the ark.  Again, it was for their protection and provision that they obey and shelter-in-place. 

The Upper Room

A final story which I will share here is the account of Jesus’s disciples being commanded to wait in the Upper Room.  The disciples had seen Jesus alive for 40 days after the Crucifixion, and Jesus said to them in Luke 24:49, “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of the Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” 

Then in Acts 1, Jesus gathered the disciples together and commanded them to wait for what the Father had promised.  Jesus said that the disciples would be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days thereafter.  He told them that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit would come upon them to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the remotest parts of the earth.

The disciples went to the upper room devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus and His brothers.  They sheltered-in-place for ten days until the day of Pentecost had fully come to launch the Church.   The death, burial, and resurrection heralded in another covenant – the Covenant of Grace.

Whether we are asked to shelter for one night, or nine months, or ten days, let us recognize that the Lord is our ultimate Shelter. 

• Psalm 61:3 says “For You have been a shelter for me, A strong tower from my enemy.”

• Psalm 143:9 says “Deliver me, O Lord, . . . in You I take shelter.”

Psalm 91 says that if you dwell in the shelter of the Most High, you are abiding in the shadow of the Almighty.  You will not be afraid of the pestilence that stalks in darkness.  And no evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your home.  For the Almighty will give His angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways.

Let us shelter-in-place – in Him.

Let’s ponder: 

There is a shift coming.  As you shelter-in-place, what shift or realignment is God working in you? 

Does God have your attention to the new thing He wants to do in you and through you?  Do you have “ears to hear?”

Activating Prayer

Lord, I believe and declare that this season of sheltering-in-place is a time to draw closer to You and to our family.  I declare that You are my shelter and hiding place.  I choose to not be in fear but in faith. Give me ears to hear what the Spirit of God is saying in this day.  Lord, I believe that You are giving rest to our land and its people.  There is a rest for the people of God and I choose to, by faith, enter into Your rest.  Turn the hearts of the fathers (and mothers) to their children, and likewise, turn the hearts of our children to their father and mother.  No matter how long this season of sheltering-in, I believe and declare that You are using it in my life in my relationship with You and my family.  Draw us close to you and each other and do Your realignment in me.  Finally, I believe and declare that You are doing a re-alignment in our nation and in the nations of the world.  May our nation realign to You.  In Jesus Name, Amen!