“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe.”

How many times do people need to be saved?  That’s a loaded and deliberately provocative question.  Responding with another question, “Saved from what?” will guide us to the best answer.  Saved from hell?  Once.  Saved from temptation?  A great many times.  Saved from ourselves?  How about every day?  It’s this last question and answer that brings us to our description of the Lord: a strong tower.

Like the parables that Jesus spoke to the Jews of his day, Old Testament writers used real objects — vines, fig trees, cities, towers, invading armies, kings, to name a few — to use as illustrations of spiritual parallels.  One of those writers, Solomon, like others, compared a strong tower to the Lord’s name (Proverbs 18:10).  Let’s first look at the physical reality and then check out the spiritual counterpart.

There are a number of Hebrew words that are translated into a small variety of English words: defense, stronghold, fortress, strong tower, etc.  All of them convey the same idea of protection from one’s enemies, a safe place, deliverance from one’s troubles.

We find strong tower or its equivalent in many texts.  These structures were often used in the corner of city walls.  King Saul had one in his hometown before he moved to Jerusalem to rule.  Frequently they were built two or three times the normal thickness of city walls for extra protection and security.  They were meant to be impregnable, impossible for the enemy to reach you. 2 Kings 17:9 says the Israelites dotted their landscape with them.  I find it fascinating that this is mentioned in a context about idolatry and rebellion against God, possibly suggesting that they knew God would nail them for their disobedience.  It may have been a kind of preemptive defensive attempt to protect themselves from God’s punishment.

Of course, we who live in hurricane-happy Florida — 12 hurricanes and tropical storms hitting us in the last 2 years — know what a strong tower is.  But we don’t call it that here; we call it a “safe room”: a windowless room you can go to when your roof peels off and your ceiling starts to drop in on your head.  That’s the progression.  The wind lifts up your roofing surface, exposing whatever attic — called “crawl space” here due to it’s very low height — and ceiling to the weather.  Naturally, interiors, by definition, can’t (and don’t) hold up to the elements.  Gravity takes over from there.  But I digress.  The safe rooms are the smallest, most central rooms in the house that have more supporting walls per square foot of room.  In our house that would our bathroom or walk-in closet, or maybe our kitchen.  Just so you’ll know, after 45 years of living in Florida, we’ve never gone through the loss-of-roof experience.  But there’s always next year, which is predicted to be much worse than the last two years!

These are the physical realities.  So what do they picture in the spiritual realm?  “The name of the Lord” (Proverbs 18:10).  This speaks of the qualities of God’s character that we find so wanting in our own lives, things like power, stability, holiness, understanding, security, mercy, wisdom and faithfulness, to get us started.  We run and flee, or sometimes crawl or fall into our God, who is our strong tower.  When do we go there?  For most of us, it’s probably when the realization of our bankruptcy — moral, mental, emotional, etc. — hits us like a wrecking ball in full swing, knocking us off our feet and leaving us a crumpled mess.

Here’s one time I fled into my strong tower.  My mother spends the summers in North Carolina, and my father commutes back and forth when she’s there.  We got a phone call one day saying she was going into the hospital with a gastro-intestinal block of unknown origin.  She would need immediate surgery or she would die within 24 hours.  My father, after working all day, grabbed his toothbrush, jumped in his car and began the 14 hour trip by himself, leaving me all alone.  I tried to convince him to stay for the surgery results and then take the first plane in the morning.  No chance.  I was fearful of becoming an orphan, even at the age of 23.  I ran to my strong tower and confessed my fear and anxiety.  I pondered God’s grace and his will.  After 45 minutes of seeking “his Name,” I prayed an unusual prayer about her condition and recovery.  I also prayed for my dad.  I stayed in my tower until the fear amazingly vanished.  Afterwards, the surgeon said her condition and repair was just as I had prayed!  And my dad was safe too.

God was my strong tower that day!  What story about our strong tower can you share with others?