Isaiah 30:1 – 5

“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;
who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation. For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes,
everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.”

Psalms 91:1 – 4, 14 – 16

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

When I worked in the oil and gas industry, one of the most common activities was called “hydraulic fracturing”. It was a process where water was pumped into an oil or gas well at such a high pressure that it created cracks in the rock at the bottom of the well. These cracks were called “fractures”. The fractures allowed the oil and gas trapped deep in the rock to flow to the well and up to the surface.

To keep the well from exploding and spewing produced fluids all over the area, we used a device called a “blowout preventor” or “BOP”. Essentially it was a large, thick-walled valve that could be closed quickly to protect the equipment, the environment and the people from the force of the reservoir.

Today our society is experiencing a “blowout” of problems it has not seen in decades. Its like we drilled into a “high pressure reservoir of evil” and we can’t control the flow. We are experiencing:

• Fractured family relationships
• Fractured government
• Fractured political system
• Fractured morals and standards of integrity
• Fractured economy
• Fractured educational systems
• Fractured relationships between various social, economic and racial groups
• Fractured emotional and mental well-being (we experience fear, anxiety, anger, and discontent continuously)

The entire country from top to bottom is just…fractured.

The Christian church should be society’s “blowout preventer”. We should be strong and sturdy enough to guide and, in some instances, protect society from internal self-destructive forces. But even the Church is fractured. We look to and depend on the same faulty resources that the rest of society depends on. We depend on “Egypt”, i.e., worldly provisions, systems, and mindset to solve our nation’s problems…even our personal problems. We are society’s BOP, but we’re wide opened and cracked. In many respects society sees no difference in our presence; we’re just an extension of an open wellbore.

Could it be that we (the Church) are looking for help in all the wrong places? Could it be that we have taken on a “go to Egypt” mindset, like the rest of society, instead of being renewed in our minds? (Romans 12:1 – 2) Could it be that we have cracked open the reservoir of self-righteousness allowing pride to seep up and pollute our stance? Essentially, thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think (Romans 12:3), thus forsaking humility before Christ and polluting our message?

Look, God has given us the Answer; being one mind and one body in Christ. He has given us a diversity of gifts, skills and talents that can affect every part of society for good. (Romans 12:4 – 8) But before we can control society’s “high pressure reservoir of evil”, we need to first fix the fractures in us.

When we sit down and settle, in humility, in the covering of God, and seek His wisdom and solutions for our personal lives and the Church as a whole, then we can be the “wisdom and solution” for society representing Christ, and not just another “idol of Egypt”.

God has promised:

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

Let’s show the world the results of abiding in the shadow of the Almighty.