Article August 23, 1999 Issue

GOD AS FORTRESS

Lois Rae Carlson

Understanding God as a fortress means that He protects from harm, disease, or death.

Medieval castles have thick walls, an assured water supply, and a place for storing food as well as for normal family life. In the middle of illness or pain, however, sometimes nothing feels normal; life's routine is disrupted. But the feeling of God's enveloping you in His love is like being secured in a fortress with all the resources needed for safety and progress at hand.

God as fortress is not a static thing; His law of protection operates in a very practical way for the need at hand. The Bible's book of Revelation (see chapter 12) has a metaphor of a woman who, during childbirth, had a close encounter with a dragon. The woman flees into a place prepared in the wilderness where she is fed and cared for three-and-a-half years. The woman doesn't fight the dragon; the angel Michael does. Even after the dragon is defeated, he tries to persecute the woman, but she is given the wings of an eagle. He sends forth a flood to drown the woman, but the earth swallows up the flood.

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