Dr. Jacob Chamberlain was a Christian missionary in India for over forty years, from 1860 to the early 1900s. He was about to have breakfast one morning when a staff member rushed in with an urgent message: “Doctor, I just saw a cobra chasing a frog across the veranda! The frog got away, and the snake disappeared!”
Cobras are deadly snakes, and the doctor knew he had to get rid of the snake before it hurt someone. He called for his pistol, which he kept for traveling through the jungle. With his pistol in hand, he went looking for any holes where the snake might be hiding. Sure enough, he had never noticed it before. There was a hole with an opening the size of his wrist in between two pots of flowers that his wife watered daily.
Holding a mirror to direct the sun’s rays into the hole, Dr. Chamberlain could see a snake coiled up at the bottom. He held a piece of a broken wagon tire over the hole, and moving it a little, he fired the pistol several times into the hole. As he waited, the still-alive cobra soon stuck its head out, and Dr. Chamberlain finished killing the poisonous creature and flung it out into the yard.
Holding the mirror to direct the sun’s rays again, Dr. Chamberlain saw another snake coiled at the bottom of the hole. Using his pistol, he repeated how he had killed the first cobra and finished off the second one too. They had likely been living among the people on the missionary compound for weeks or months, and nobody had seen them. Everyone living on the compound was in danger of his or her life, but God had mercifully protected each one.
The Bible tells the true story of how God mercifully protected Daniel and all the wise men of Babylon whom King Nebuchadnezzar had threatened with death. The king ordered that someone tell him what he had dreamed and the meaning of his dream. If nobody could tell him, Daniel, his three friends and all the wise men of Babylon would all be killed.
Is that fair? Can anyone know what another person has dreamed? But it didn’t matter whether or not it was fair. The king was the supreme ruler, and he demanded that his wise men, including Daniel and his three friends, tell him his dream, which he had forgotten. Not only that, but they also had to tell him what the dream meant!
Daniel had such faith in God that he asked the king for a little time, and then he would tell the king his dream and what it meant. Daniel called for his three friends, and they called on God for mercy.
God answered their prayers. That night God showed Daniel the secret in a vision. How thrilled Daniel was! He said, “I thank Thee, and praise Thee, O Thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of Thee: for Thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter” (Daniel 2:2323I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter. (Daniel 2:23)). Then he went into the king and told him his dream and its meaning. God’s answer to the prayers of Daniel and his three friends saved their lives and the lives of the king’s wise men.
We can always count on God. He promises, “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:2424And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. (Isaiah 65:24)). This was not only true for Daniel and his three friends, but it was also true for Dr. Chamberlain on the missionary compound.
Later that week, Dr. Chamberlain had some snake charmers come out to the compound. Using their weird music, five more deadly cobras were discovered and killed. There were seven snakes in all, and yet no one had been bitten or harmed. Dr. Chamberlain was greatly encouraged that God had kept everyone safe, with danger so very close.
How blessed are we who know God! Besides having forgiveness of our sins and eternal life, we can know God’s mercies and help in this life. We are happy and thankful to see His answers to our prayers.
Can you remember an answer to one of your prayers?
ML-07/07/2013