Driving in Texas with a British friend, Richard, I stopped at an intersection, and he looked at me and said, “Why did you stop?” I answered, “There’s a stop sign.” “But, there are no other cars coming from either direction,” he answered. “Oh! You stop just in case, don’t you?” “Yes”, I said, “ just in case.” I didn’t mention that it’s the law of the land, or that some drivers do ignore the stop sign.

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and full of violence. . . So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people. . . so make yourself an ark of cypress wood’. . . Noah did everything just as God had commanded him.” (Genesis 6:11-22)

Noah went about building a boat in a dry place with no means to launch it, “just in case” that the voice he heard was indeed the voice of God, and “just in case” the least likely event would in fact occur. The more Noah worked, the more convinced he became of the veracity the voice and his “just in case” was his life saving covenant with God.

“’As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army’ So David did as the Lord commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines from Gibeon to Gezer.” (2 Samuel 5:24)

David was a seasoned warrior who , with God’s help , had just defeated the Philistines at an earlier battle. Instead of assuming that God would help him in the second battle, David prayed for direction and help, just in case. The help came abundantly and David never forgot that each of his many exploits was facilitated by the hand of God Himself. It was just part of being a man after God’s own heart: “I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.”(Acts 13:22)

Both Noah and David were “favorites” of God. Their carefulness in doing exactly God’s will “just in case”, enlarged their faith, and thus their closeness to God. Each of them was rewarded by a clearer and closer fellowship with their holy God. Their faith was remarkable, but God favors that quality in each of us, especially when we act simply “just in case” it may be pleasing to Him.

Love in Him,

Prue