“... Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. ...” Isaiah 43:4

Beloved ones,

I wish to share with you one of your privileges for you are precious in the eyes of God. Privilege is a faculty you are given by God to perform something or enjoy any advantage that wouldn’t be yours under normal circumstances. This neither depend on your riches nor on your intellectual skills, your political or social capacities. You are precious in the eyes of God who loves you and you, in turn, shows him gratitude in a spirit of humility, love and obedience.

Here is the privilege I want to talk to you about. God gives men in return for you and peoples in exchange for your life. You will not die, someone else will die in your place, “a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.”

God pledges to deliver you by sacrificing others in your place.

1. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the furnace for having refused to worship the statue King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. They were tied up, fully dressed in their pants, turbans, robes and other garments and thrown into the furnace that was extraordinarily heated. So hot was the flame that it claimed lives of the very men who threw the young men in it while the young men, unbound, were walking around in the fire unharmed with a fourth person looking like the son of a god.

2. Daniel was thrown in the den of lions: God sent his angel who shut the mouth of lions so that they would not hurt him. There was no wound on Daniel when he exited from the den, but when the King ordered that those who maliciously accused him be thrown into the den with their children and wives, the lions leaped on them and tore them apart before they even hit the floor of the den.

3. God enabled Israel children to go through the red sea on dry ground. For the Egyptians, the water flowed back and covered their chariots and horsemen, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived

Fear nothing, God has full control over your life