Isaiah 41:10

Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

There are many amazing critters running around Africa. We typically think of elephants, lions, giraffes, and hippos. Hippos, highly territorial animals cause more loss of human life than any other creature in the area. I thought that these large animals did not have any natural predators but that is not the case. Take the giraffe which can be easily killed at an exposed moment by a lion.

The giraffe is fast and is able to deliver strong kicks, even out to the side, that will kill an attacker. But the lion knows the weakness in the giraffe. When the giraffe drinks, it must spread its front legs and lower its head to water. When this happens, valves within the giraffe's circulatory system shut down the flow of blood to the brain. This is fine for the amount of time it takes to get a drink but if the lion crouches nearby and grabs onto the giraffe's neck while the head is down, the lion can keep the head down and the giraffe will die fairly quickly creating quite the feast for the whole pride.

Satan is like this. He crouches in hiding waiting for our weak times and then he attacks. When we rely on our own strength we are vulnerable but when we do as Isaiah says, God will strengthen and uphold us. And that is very comforting.

I can't resist this useless piece of African trivia. The first naval battle of WWI actually took place on Lake Malawi with a British gun boat attacking and sinking a German fishing trawler. Of course, the Germans did not know that war had been declared so the battle was over quickly.

Blessings

Mark