There was terror on Interstate 70. A panic-stricken woman, driving at speeds up to 100 miles an hour, was being pursued by two police cars trying to bring her under control. They radioed for help: "She's crossed the median strip—airborne—she's headed east in the westbound lane."
Eastbound—in the westbound lane—on the interstate!
Sergeant Kenneth Pollock was not with the traffic division. He had had years as a trooper on the road, and had seen more than enough of traffic accidents. At the last, his son had died in his arms, a victim of a motorcycle accident. Shaken and grief-stricken, Pollock transferred to the narcotics division and became an undercover agent. Now, in an unmarked police car in the westbound lane of 1-70, he heard his radio crackling with the officers' frantic call.
Breaking his cover as an agent, he jumped from his car and held up his badge as he waved cars to a stop. Running between the cars, he shouted to people to get out and get away—get away from the road as far as possible.
One couple did not understand, or, with their newborn baby girl in their van, may have been too unfamiliar with the infant's safety seat to get her out quickly. Pollock could see them still in their van at the very head of the line of parked cars.
Only seconds to go! Pollock ran to his car and raced to the front of the line. He looked ahead and "there she was!" The runaway car was heading straight for the van. Gunning his motor, he came up on the van's left, swerved sharply to the right and stopped directly in front of the speeding car.
Just in time! His car was hit instantly, ("It sounded like a cannon going off!") followed by a second crash as the maverick car plowed into a parked Cadillac and stopped.
Eager hands helped a dazed Pollock from his smashed car, injured but alive. Three cars were totaled, several people were injured, but no one was killed, not even the woman whose deep depression had sent her racing down the road at suicidal speed.
Kenneth Pollock, no longer a trooper, did not have to risk his life. He did not have to "blow his cover," to sacrifice years of experience in the narcotics division. The man whose life and family were saved by Pollock's heroism saw the hand of God in the sergeant's action: "God knew exactly where to put him," he said.
And we could say that God knew "exactly where to put" the Lord Jesus to stand between us and destruction. We have an appointment to keep, an appointment inexorably drawing nearer—how fast we do not know. We are "appointed... once to die, but after this the judgment." But— "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many."
Yes, the Lord Jesus came between us and the judgment, came willingly. There was "no cause of death in Him," but "Christ suffered for us... Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth... but His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree."
The sergeant survived, but his injuries were such that he will probably have to take early retirement. In spite of that, he says, "I'm just so pleased that these people didn't have to suffer the horror that I went through by losing a child."
The Lord Jesus was "wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes were are healed." Isa. 53:55But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5). Still, it says of Him, "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied."
He was wounded, He was bruised for us—for you—for me. Have you ever realized that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gave His life to save your soul? Believe it! Receive it! And thank God that He "knew exactly where to put Him" between you and destruction.