Bulletproof Washington
“A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.” [Psalm 91:7]
On July 9, 1755, during the French and Indian War, a force of 1,500 British soldiers was ambushed in the open by a small force of French and American Indian fighters shooting from the woods. The British soldiers – trained for European war – made easy targets standing shoulder to shoulder in their bright red uniforms. And their officers were even more exposed on horseback, high above the men on the ground, making perfect targets. The slaughter continued for two hours as nearly 70 percent of the British soldiers were cut down.
One by one, the chief’s marksmen shot the British officers from their horses until only one remained. Amazingly, round after round was aimed at this one man. Twice the young lieutenant’s horse was shot out from under him. Twice he grabbed another horse. Ten, fifteen, twenty rounds were fired by the sharpshooters. Still, the officer remained unhurt. The native warriors stared in disbelief. Their rifles seldom missed. The chief realized that a mighty power must be shielding this man and commanded, “Stop firing! This one is under the special protection of the Great Spirit.”
Eventually the lieutenant colonel gathered the remaining British troops and led them to safety. That evening, as the last of the wounded were being cared for, the officer noticed an odd tear in his coat. It was a bullet hole! He rolled up his sleeve and looked at his arm directly under the hole. There was no mark on his skin. Amazed, he took off his coat and found three more holes where bullets had passed through his coat but stopped before they reached his body. Nine days after the battle, the young lieutenant colonel wrote his brother: “By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side!”
The 23-year-old officer went on to become the commander in chief of the Continental Army and the first president of the United States. During the years that followed in his long career, this man, George Washington, was never once wounded in battle. Washington also escaped flying bullets on four other occasions and survived contracting diphtheria, malaria, smallpox, and tuberculosis.
What a powerful example of our Bible text for today!
