I had grown up in Newcastle where there were many collieries and I was fortunate enough to be able to often go deep into the earth and view the underground forests embedded in the coal (and collect as many fossils as I could carry). (I owe a lot to a certain mine geologist for taking me under his wing and fuelling that interest for life).
Behind the heavy hessian curtains that divided each underground section, was a little caged budgerigar beside a dim light. The budgerigar was an early warning system for toxic gases like carbon monoxide - if the bird looked ill or had died, it meant that the air was unsafe and we had to quickly get away.
My mind went on to Hezekiah trapped in Jerusalem by Sennacherib and his ruthless, cruel, battle-tested soldiers. Sennacherib boasted about his planned imminent destruction of Jerusalem on a six-sided clay tablet (known as the “Taylor Cylinder” which I’ve seen in the British Museum). He wrote on it that “Hezekiah (is) like a caged bird within Jerusalem”.
The Bible record has it that when God was appealed to for deliverance (Isa. 37:20-21) that an angel came and slew 185,000 Assyrian men overnight (2 Kings 19:35). In the morning Sennacherib viewed the wreckage and hurriedly fled back to Nineveh, went into his temple to worship, and was ignominiously murdered there by his 2 sons.
Here you are, powerlessly and helplessly hooked up to your chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs like that little caged bird. Like that little budgerigar, you’re in an unpredictable environment and you’re feeling sick - but you are not going to die! No! Like Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem, we are all calling out to God for your deliverance.
Now, LORD our God, deliver our friend from the hand of cancer, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are the only God. (Isa.37:20).
Today you may feel like a caged bird, but hear what Jesus says to you:
“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.(Mark 5:34 NIV).
Your freedom from that cage is coming and we’ve got that hessian curtain parted for you to fly out with gusto!
“Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them; He rescued them from the grave. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind.” ( Psalms 107:19-21).
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