September 9

Trusting Our Towers

It is one thing to say the Lord is our strong tower so that we can run to him and be safe and quite another to trust Him.


Proverbs 18
10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower;

the righteous run to it and are safe.

It was the morning of April 28, 1758 and the fog settled on the low ground in the valley below Ft. Seybert, (West) Virginia. Though it was reported that the Shawnee was on the prowl in regions nearby Sarah Dyer Hawes cautiously set out from the small Fort to find a missing Ewe. In her hand she carried a set of sheep shears to cut the creature from the brush should she need to. However, that fateful morning she was interrupted in her errand by a Shawnee brave who accosted her as she made her way down a slight slope to a crude log bridge across a creek. She was taken prisoner but managed to push the brave down a bank and flee to the fort where she took refuge with other settlers who had seen her plight and begun to shut the gates after welcoming her to safety.

That fateful day 40 persons were in the Fort. They had come from their neighboring cabins precisely because they were alarmed. The Fort was their community refuge and though it was not a huge safety net it provided adequate protection against such attacks as they were now facing.

As the morning advanced, the settlers gathered on the ramparts. Most of the able bodied men were off on a trip to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Gathered here were a few older men, the women and children all of whom could fire a rifle. They were safe and the fact that the Indians crouched behind rocks attested to that fact. Yet, the ever cautious and aging Captain Dyer was fearful. As a result, he believed the Indians who approached under truce and promised they would let the settlers go unharmed if they were given some provisions for the trail. As a result of believing Indian Chief Kilbuck, Captain Dyer opened the gates, was overwhelmed by the small Shawnee force and was slaughtered with several other persons. The Fort was burned and my wife’s great-great-great-great grandmother, Sarah Dyer Hawes, was one of several taken prison and trekked off to the Pittsburgh, PA area where she later escaped.

The moral of this story is simple. You can have a tower of refuge but if you do not put your trust in that refuge you will find no safety. Many died that day because of the naïveté and fear of one man who allowed the enemy to entice him to submit his strength to weaker forces. Why? Who knows?! We can be sure he meant well but it cost him everything to relinquish all. If he had taken a stand he would have been rescued hours later by the returning militia who, instead, found only bodies and a ruined settlement.

No student of this even is in a place to really pass judgment on Captain Dyer. Yet, we cannot help but wonder if things would have been better if he had not opened the gates to the Shawnee. Better still, what would have happened if he had relied upon his God?

It is one thing to say the Lord is our strong tower so that we can run to him and be safe and quite another to trust Him. The Lord is your strong tower if you put your faith in Him. He is your safety when you bring him the issues that test your resolve.