Moments in History When God Intervened: When God Shows Up

0:00:01 - Speaker 1
Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture.

0:00:09 - Speaker 2
Here everybody in this episode. I think you'll be encouraged. God provided for our nation. When our soldiers were starving, washington went to his knee, and also when George Mueller was raising up a bunch of orphans, they had ran out of all supply. What would God do? Stay tuned.

0:00:36 - Speaker 1
You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com Today. if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us that's like saying amen or yes. then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.

0:01:04 - Speaker 2
Hey guys, we're going to be bringing to you I hope to be a four part podcast, little mini series right now, kind of like the maybe it's going to be the first of its kind for us in an ongoing series as we see fit, and that is. I want to combat the wokeism and the revisionism in light of God in American history, the reason why Americans and the world has heard the term American exceptionalism. Most people today, young people, certainly, do not know the meaning of that term. It doesn't mean that we're better than anybody else. It means that God has done things in our country that he has not done with other nations, and that list is almost infinite If you take the time to study from the times of going back even as far as 1605, in my recollection with Pastor Hunt in what would later become Virginia. That said, i want to just bring you some, just drop into no particular order. I want to just drop you into scenes in American history. These will obviously not be exhaustive There. Hopefully will get you to go and research And we just checked a moment ago.

Be aware of Wikipedia, please Be aware of even some of the US history sites that will question or cast doubt regarding things that, remarkably, are enshrined and granite or marble in our country that you can go. These monuments have been there for decades, some over a century or more, where these great events have happened. Eyewitness accounts, and then you know, you click on because you want a 15 second answer and it tells you well, it may or may not be true that George Washington fought this battle here or said this there, and it just is demonic, hath God said. Well, it's certainly true when it comes to American history. And I just want to bring to your attention one of those things, and I'm going to paraphrase and draw up a recollection. But if you want to know more, i encourage you to go. I encourage you to go to books like this Miracles in American History by Susie Federer. I encourage you to go to anything by William Federer, her husband William Federer. Look at American Minute with William Federer. American Minute Great history lessons, all documented.

But one thing I want to just bring to your attention is something that is so inspiring And I see it every day in my office. In my office, behind me, is a replica of the oil painting which was given to me. I originally purchased it at Mount Vernon And then I wound up actually exchanging that one out, because a great Great grandson I believe Feinberg is the original painter of that. The great-great grandson gave me a very rare collector's item of that painting. That's in my office, so I know a lot of people have the painting. I've been blessed to have an actual Feinberg give me that.

And so what is that? It's that famous posture of George Washington kneeling beside his horse in prayer in the snow. The first thing that a critic is going to ask is well, how do we know? There is no selfie taken, there was no pictures and photography. How do we know that they really happened? And then the prayer is recorded. Did you know that In history the prayer of Washington is recorded? When I say recorded, i mean written down. How do we know that? Well, because there were several, certainly one guy for sure could have been up to three guys who, for either mischief we're not sure exactly where Isaac Putz stood on, was he a spy by the British infiltrating our camp at Valley Forge Pennsylvania, or was it that Peter Gabriel Mullenberg, the awesome soldier, commander and pastor, overheard this? Or was it another individual whose name I forget right now? Anyway, by either one or three witnesses, this is what happened.

Valley Forge, pennsylvania where I encourage you to go visit because it's epic, it's just preserved perfectly is where the US troops had been. I want to say bed down for the winter, which is what you had to do in those days, but they had no beds, they were gathered together. We had listen. Our troops had no shoes. They were worn out. Because of that, feet of the soldiers were being frozen, turning black. Many of them were amputated. We were losing in Valley Forge in the middle of winter, with no war. We're just waiting for spring to come. We were losing 12 guys a day. 12 soldiers were dying per day at Valley Forge because of being frozen to death or starvation.

Valley Forge is where they began also to add to their own problem and desperation. They began to boil the leather of some of their gunpowder packs, their soles of their shoes. They began to boil leather and drink the broth and chew on the leather. Have you ever tried to chew on leather? But when you're starving to death, that's what you do. Then they wound up taking their knives and they went and they carved bark off of trees to eat the bark.

And Washington was so concerned and so daily in prayer that at a time of profound grief. He rode a little distance away from this horrible sight and Washington prayed this epic prayer asking God to perform a miracle. And it is understood and it's recorded that it was the spirit of liberty that kept those alive, who were alive. It was the love of liberty that kept them going. And as Washington, by the way, went around the camp, he would encourage them about freedom, about liberty. Listen to this. We in America know nothing about this level of depth of commitment, integrity and of endurance.

Washington encouraged the troops that their cause, that they were fighting for and dying for, was worthy, that it was a noble cause to bring and to fight for liberty and for the birth of a nation. You think about that. You don't have Christ in your life. What do you have worth living for? And there are those good people who know history. They understand this stuff really well. They understand that America is worth dying for. I would hope that a Canadian thinks and believes that Canada's worth dying for. I certainly know for a fact that the Israelis know and believe that Israel's worth fighting for and dying for.

But the remarkable thing is that Washington went around and one of the things that he said is what I'm quoting to you here now is he told the soldiers fear God and trust in the Lord. Our cause is great. And so he kept drilling that into their hearts, into their minds. And so I wanna encourage you that we're talking about a group of fighters, soldiers, citizen soldiers. Mind you, this is not a standing army, these are farmers. If you read about our American history and the American continental army, you know that they were farmers. And did you know that they would come and fight for a few months and then go back to their home and harvest the fields and plant seed and then leave and go back to the battle? And Washington had the juggle. He and his brigadier generals were the full-time guys. The other guys fighting the battles were citizen soldiers, minute men, and so They weren't even professionals or like the British called their own regulars. The British had literal, full-time, paid warriors. Well, we had nothing but farmers. And but the amazing thing is is that those farmers, those farmers, had to hunt for their food. They shot rabbit, they shot pheasant, they had to shoot. So the age now, this is the, this is the age of, of those guys at Valley Forge, but it really it does speak regarding almost all of our battles.

The ages of our soldiers were somewhere between 20 and 60. That was the bulk, but there are some outliers. In the book of 1776 written by David McCullough He points out that some of the soldiers were 14 years old. 14 years old and yet it was observed by the British command that these kids Were better marksmen than his regulars. And The answer for that was because the American citizen had to hunt for his food. He had to use his gun daily To sustain and to provide meat for his family.

Thus, with a very, very difficult instrument to use, that is, the flintlock or pan fired Musket, a huge long barrel rifle. I say rifle, that's not, that's not exactly true. At that moment The barrel was not yet rifled. They it was just purebore Musket ball where they would shoot this ball out of a long musket and the aim was horrible. It wasn't until later that they started rifling the barrel, so that would cause the the bullet to to spiral and be more accurate. These kids, all the way up to men of 60 years of age. They were able to pick off British soldiers at a huge, alarming rate to the British regulars, because one American citizen soldier was extremely skilled, because he knew his rifle, or he knew his musket and he knew how to use it. And So, in light of all this stuff, we were outnumbered, we were outarmed, but God gave, like David, lord, david prayed give me skill, give me skill in battle. and God did that to our founding soldiers for our founding nation, and As they were starving to death in Valley Forge, it seemed like it was completely over At that time.

By the way, keep this in mind, washington, with the troops at Valley Forge Valley Forge, they're about 25 ish miles away From Philadelphia, which is now under British control. In fact, the Liberty Bell that is now on display in Philadelphia At the Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, was taken down from From the hall and it was carted away almost a hundred miles 80 miles away, i believe it is to Allentown, pennsylvania. To hide the Liberty Bell Isn't that awesome. And they hold it, they, they held it, uh, hid it in the basement of the first Zion Church in Allentown, pennsylvania. They love. Think about that. Who's gonna go through the effort to save a big bronze bell? Well, this, it's not that, it's a bell. You know what was written on the bell? Leviticus 25, verse 10 Proclaim Liberty throughout all of the land unto all the inhabitants thereof, and that bell was our symbol of freedom. But we were dying and What happened was this is awesome.

Look this up The troops were starving to death and it is most certain that we are going to now lose any hope of freedom and liberty. And I believe it's two or even two and a half months ahead of the spawning season, And I'm trying to remember the name of the fish. The water was shallow, the spawning season. Of these fish that would move in from the Shoals of the Atlantic, up river to spawn, i want to say shad. I'm not a fisherman, so I don't know, doesn't matter, look it up. Shockingly, a miracle happened. The fish began to show up in advance and they swam. Oh my gosh, one of our Shad. I was correct, i'm 65 and a half years old and I haven't totally lost my mind yet. These Shad showed up and it was written by eyewitness accounts that they were so numerous, a number, that you could walk, you could use, you could walk across the fish on the on the river, because the river was so shallow. And what happened? I think, i believe I know God sent them two months ahead of schedule because those soldiers that were dying began to feast on Shad and they were strengthened and re strengthened for the battle. and the rest is history, as the saying goes.

But, my friends, listen, that's what makes America exceptional, it's not us, it's what God does. And what's amazing is that how in the world does a citizen army defeat the greatest power on earth? Okay, that would be like, that would be like Cuba destroying the United States, defeating the US entire military forces. Our citizen soldiers defeated the biggest war machine on earth. You gotta remember, at the time of 1775, 1775, london was considered to be the largest city in the world, of a population of one million people, and it was also understood to be the capital of the earth, london. Did you know that at the time of our independence, britain, britannia, ruled the waves. They ruled the oceans, from the, from the, from the Bay of Bengal to Canada, to North America, india. The Sun listen, the Sun never set on the British Empire. That's how big it was. And the United States colonial forces lost more battles to the British than we won. So how do we win Makes no sense. The victory at Yorktown was an absolute, miraculous victory.

By the way, these are places that are national parks today. You can go to visit those spots. You should take your kids on a field trip and go and play. You can actually go there and the readouts are still there. They've never changed. They didn't remake them The readouts where they set up their cannon fire and all of that. You can still go there. In fact, just down the street in Yorktown is Thomas Nelson's house. You know Thomas Nelson Publishing, thomas Nelson, his house. Many of their homes still stand In his house. There's cannonballs still stuck in the walls. In Yorktown We lose more battles, but we win the war.

Does that sound familiar, christian? How many battles do you and I lose? You and I lose battles all the time, but the Bible says that the war has already been determined. We fight our battles as believers every day. It could be depression, it could be finances, it could be relational challenges, it could be the drama and the terror that divorce brings to a family. It could be life and death situations. It could be just you standing for righteousness and being hated by your community, including your own family. You've been isolated and cut off. Whatever it might be, if you notice the battles that we have, so many times we fail at them And yet, according to the Bible, it says that the war has already been determined.

Washington, unless God, told him something that we didn't know. Washington never flinched, he never gave up, he never quit. He felt like it, and you can read his own writings, by the way. I've read them many times. He was so severely depressed that he wrote his family members Lund, lund, washington and others about how he had never been more depressed and despairing of his life than at this moment. He said And if I would have known our plight and dilemma, that when Congress commissioned me, i would have denied the challenge. He said, if I had to do it all over again at that moment of depression, i never would have said yes to being general. You ever feel like that. Of course we do, but Washington hung in there because listen, you know, 5 am every morning, washington read his scriptures and prayed according to Washington, and then, when time allowed it, if they were not engaged in battle, he did it again at 10 am.

George Washington, incredible man of God, a man of destiny. That's why he's called the father of our nation. There's nobody like him ever, and if we were writing the Bible today, washington would no doubt be included. But what I want to leave you guys with is the fact that you may be in your valley fort situation where it's just hopeless. I don't even know how we're going to eat tonight. I want to remind you that all of these moments of God's divine intervention in our lives were to read them, friend, student, mom, dad. We're to read this stuff to give us courage, because I'm reminded right now of another group of people who were starving.

In Germany. There was an orphanage and that orphanage was dependent upon the donations of people in that town And without the donations of the people in that town these orphans would have nothing. And George Mueller you ever heard of George Mueller? George Mueller was the overseer of that orphanage And they had run out of milk, they had run out of bread And Mueller didn't know what to do except to ask God for help. And all the boys sat down at the table thinking the faith this takes. Mühlenberg didn't say a word to the guys, to the kids, that there was no food or milk.

And Mühlenberg a famous painting, by the way, some of you have this in like the Daily Bread devotions There's a picture of a man praying like this, sideways, like this It's George Mueller And he's praying and he's thanking God for the food and there's no food. The little boys are there praying and they don't know nothing. And why would he burden them when they can't do a thing about it anyway? but pray. And Mühlenberg said God, we thank you for this food today, in Jesus' name, amen. And if I do remember the story correctly If not, i stand corrected While he was praying or shortly after he prayed, there's a knock at the door and there was a wagon driver And he said the wheel of my wagon has broken off And I'm in route to deliver this morning's bread to market.

If I don't unload this bread, it's going to rot. Can you use it? They brought it in. The guy left. They're eating bread. Mullenburg goes to the door I'm sorry.

Mueller goes to the door, opens it up and there's a driver of a cart and it was a milk cart And it had broken down. And he said Mr Mueller, this milk's going to spoil if I can't unload it now and have it be used. And they had milk. God's intervention. God will intervene in our lives.

Listen, almost always not according to our timing, almost always not when we expect. In fact, almost always when we have lost heart or almost, we will come to the end of it all and we say things like I have no reason to live anymore. The cart arrives, the milk comes, the bread is on the plate, the fish swim And you're saved. Look to God to provide for all of your needs. And I'm coming back with more of these really moments in American history that we can bring to your attention. But by all means, study them yourself And so listen, please, please. You can thank us Really listen, keep your money. You can thank us by subscribing. You can thank us by sharing this with others. Hit subscribe, share with others and by all means remember this. We believe strongly here that it's time for you and I to live out what we believe in, because it's time for real life, it's time for authenticity. God is waiting to move in your life. God bless you.