I really like finding golf balls; ever since I was a child living on a golf course in Palm Springs, finding a golf ball was always like finding a little treasure. Even now, it’s the same. We live next to a golf course with a hedge of laurel between us and the fairway. I’ll often walk along the hedge and find anywhere from 5 to 15 golf balls, and here, they’re almost always bright new shiny ones because this is an exclusive, private course where the members can afford to always use brand new balls.
If I wanted to bother, I could easily find 100-150 balls each month, but I’ve already got so many hundreds of golf balls in my basement stacked in egg cartons that we give them away as gifts to other golfers. I do golf occasionally with my friend Tom on a public course, but even then, I end up finding 5 to 10 more balls than I lost… and I do lose many… but I’ve gotten to the place where I don’t even bother to look for them anymore because I know that I’ll probably find that very ball next time we golf.
Now, back to that laurel hedge. Inside the hedge is where I find most of the balls. Many balls end up out in the open on our side of the hedge, but one of our neighbors also hunts the balls, so I try to beat him to them. But even if I don’t, I’ll still find plenty inside the hedge because, if you’ve ever tried to pass through a laurel hedge without a gap in it, you know that it’s close to impossible. Laurel grows thick and heavy; thankfully, laurel doesn’t have thorns, but there are blackberry vines growing throughout the hedge, which makes it very difficult to enter into the interior of the hedge. But… none of that can stop me in my quest for the next golf ball… especially if it is one of the fluorescent-colored ones… just like finding Easter eggs… I can’t help myself.
‘Why should any of this interest you,’ you ask?… It’s about the hedge.
We are God’s Easter eggs, His offspring, born of Easter or, rather, born of the Crucifixion and Resurrection. We are His treasure, and He is not about to allow any interloper, like my neighbor absconding with my golf balls… He is not about to allow us to be snatched away from His care. He has placed a hedge of protection around us that cannot be moved.
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one” (John 10:27-30).
Many false teachers tell us that we are to be about the business of looking for demons with whom to do battle, that they have the power to unleash all manner of evil upon us and our loved ones. None of that is borne out by God’s Word. Demons have no power over us but to whisper lies in our ears… that’s it!
When God instructs us concerning the Armor of God, every piece represents simply the things that we are to set our minds on when an attack comes so that we will be able to stand still and stand firm in the Lord; in so doing, we are resisting the devil, and he must flee. We are to remember and think upon: Truth, Righteousness, the truth of the Gospel, Faith, our Salvation, and the Word of God.
Speaking of Job, Satan said, “Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land” (Job 1:10). Apart from God’s will and His plan, Satan could not touch Job in any way, nor can he touch us.
The Psalmist wrote, “Those who trust in the Lord Are like Mount Zion, Which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever” (Psa 125:1-2).
“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them” (Psa 34:7).
“But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them that those who love your name may rejoice in you” (Psa 5:11).
“You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance” (Psa. 32:7).
“You are my hiding place and my shield; I wait for Your word” (Psa. 119:114).
“Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Your wings” (Psa. 17:8).
“For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock” (Psa. 27:5).
“You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues” (Psa. 31:20).
”Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst'” (Zech 2:4-5).
We are God’s treasure, far more valuable than even solid gold golf balls; He will never leave us or forsake us; He will be with us always, even to the end of the age.
The end of this age, the age of Grace, the time of the Church, will end, suddenly, one day soon. Then, soon after that, the times of the Gentiles will end, and we will rule and reign with the Lord Jesus Christ for 1,000 years and then forever… over this Earth, over a new Earth and throughout all the far-flung Universe. Never doubt, never lose heart… He is coming for us soon!
By the way: as of this writing, May 14, 2021… It is exactly 73 years since the miracle of the rebirth of Israel. Jesus said that the generation that saw that would not pass away until everything was fulfilled, until His return with us at Armageddon. If the Rapture happens today, the additional 7 years of the Tribulation would cause this generation to have lasted for 80 years.
Never in Scripture is a generation longer than 80 years.
Tom Tillman