Shut-In. And Yet...
… “then the Lord shut him in.”
The one who was obeying.
The one who did not fit-in with anyone else in the world.
The one who did all that the Lord commanded.
The one who was doing something no one else had ever done or would ever do again.
The one who had no mentor, no encourager, no board, no coach.
The one who was already old.
The one who had watched loved ones die.
It is this one the Lord — shut-in.
It’s from the Holy Pages. Can you predict who those words are describing?
This will help. He is also the one who had never seen rain fall from the sky.
Now you’ve got it. Noah.
Who else might you have guessed?
You might have thought, — it’s Jesus she’s writing of (except for the “old” part). For indeed, He was shut-up in the tomb. He was obeying the Father. He did not fit in with anyone else, He followed all the Lord’s commands, he did something no one else had done before or since.
Or perhaps Moses came to mind. But Moses was not “shut-in”, instead, he was “shut-out” of the Promised land because of his disobedience at the rock of Meribah. But both before and after that event, Moses faithfully obeyed the Lord. He did not fit in with anyone, He followed all the Lord’s commands and he did something no one had ever done or would do again.
How about Ruth or Esther? How about young David or brave Samuel or weary Elijah? Elijah had to have felt “shut-in” as he waited by the Kerith Ravine being fed by ravens.
Oh dear one. What of others that have breathed earth’s air a bit closer to the time of our own living? Do you know someone who could wrap those sentences around them, but then they’ve found themselves sitting in a place of being “shut-in” or shut-out or isolated and alone?
I do. So many names roll through my mind as I type out these words. I think of the ladies, whom I’ve never met and will not meet this side of Heaven, but with whom I would most want to have a long visit with beside a mountain top view. Corrie Ten Boom — obeying but closed into a concentration camp, then after her release, obeying again with so much beauty and fervor until strokes rendered her “shut-in”, mute and paralyzed. Ruth Bell Graham — obeying beautifully and being such a powerful support to her husband in ministry, then shut-in after a back injury and arthritis limited her ability to move without pain. There’s Amy Carmichael who fell and injured her ankle so badly she remained bedridden for the rest of her life. Shut-in yes, but her writing and prayer-life was more fervent than ever. Elisabeth Elliot found her winter years being shut-in with the debilitating illness of dementia, oh but what an obedient daughter of God she had been prior to those shut-in years. An entire tribe in South America knows what the name of Jesus sounded like on her lips.
What of the many amazing men who have lived a life of obedience to God, following His commands, giving their all and living in such a way that their legacy has impacted more lives after their death than it did while they lived. Oswald Chambers, Charles Spurgeon, Samuel Morris, George Mueller, Watchman Nee, Zachary Taylor… on and on we could go. So many of them, dare I say ALL of them, at some point in their lives found themselves “shut-in”.
Physically, emotionally, or even relationally closed off.
God is not punishing us when He takes us to a place where He and only He is able to carry us through. He is showing us that He will remain closer than any other and He will use our shut-in place for the benefit of either ourselves or others. For the one not yet “shut-in” can grow stronger when their time comes, because they hold in their heart the remembrance of one who tread the path well.
When God moved Steve and I to Kenya, I entered into a season of feeling profoundly “shut-in”. In time, I formed life-long friendships and enjoyed beautiful relationships there, but in the beginning, I had never felt more shut-in and closed off from life than I felt during the first year of our life on the missions field. And I knew that I had also never been more obedient to God. Our faith was being grown, our obedience was being pressed, our emotions were being stretched and our physical bodies were being taxed. All this happened as we lived more fastened-down under so many locks and bolts, alarms and precautionary measures than ever before in our lives. Obedience was met with “shut-in”. Steve and I saw the worst in ourselves; our God plowed us up. He turned the soil of us over and busted up all our dirt-clods. He churned us up, removed our rocks, spread us smooth… and then… He sewed His seeds in the readied soil of us. There is not one drop of dramatization in that string of sentences. We were obedient, tilled, surrendered, and then HE began growing us in ways that suited His great heart.
I remember it well every time I sit with a dear soul who is beautifully obedient and yet wondering why life has gotten harder.
After the obedience — it usually gets harder — just as it did for Noah.
He obeyed and built that massive ark.
He was alone, other than his wife and sons. He had no friendly comrades coming to help built his boat.
He followed all that God had told him to do.
Then — the Lord brought the animals to his door, the rain clouds to the horizon, and the flood waters up out of the ground. When all this happened, the Lord shut Noah in to the boat.
Was Noah finished with his work?
No. It’s only that the work shifted from building to feeding. From gathering timbers to gathering dung. From listening to jeering voices to hungry animal calls. From sunrises and sunsets to rain clouds blocking out the light. Obedience. Shut in. And then…
A rainbow.
An empty tomb.
The Promised Land.
A baby in her arms.
A race of people saved.
A giant defeated.
A king corrected.
False prophets defeated.
A legacy of forgiveness standing.
A sanctuary for children remaining.
A voice of truth echoing.
A prayer warrior’s requests still being answered.
Each of us is only a passing vapor, a flower that will bloom and then wither, little more than a cloud drifting across a blue sky or a leaf that will show-its-color and then let loose and fall to the ground. Obedience, beautiful heart-felt, surrendered obedience in this life, will most often find us in places that do not reflect a reward for our efforts — not YET. For Heaven holds God’s response to surrendered obedience.
Oh but God wastes nothing, remembers our bent knees, uses what we give up, and uses piles of ashes to birth beauty.
Genesis 6:22, “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”
Genesis 7:5, “And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.”
Genesis 7:11b-12, “…all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.”
Genesis 7:16b, “Then the Lord shut Noah in.”
Oh dear one reaching for more of God and less of this world — never, ever “grow weary in doing good” — for the rainbow’s shine, the giant defeated, the forgiveness given and the echo inside the empty tomb — remains stronger than ever.
