Why Didn’t God Protect Seat 9F?

Job lost seven sons and three daughters in tragic accidents caused by the devil. God restored unto Job double for his faithfulness, in spite of the temptations to renounce his faith.  God gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters.

Why did God not protect the first seven sons and the first three daughters? While it is true that He restored double all that Job had lost materially, how can you replace sons and daughters with completely different sons and daughters?

Commentators say he now has 14 sons and 6 daughters in heaven with him, so God did double his children. All of them are without pain and in perfect health, with their father Job and with their Lord.

Jesus said in Luke 13:5-6, “And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, I tell you again unless you repent, you will perish, too.”

David asks God to, “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is.” Psalm 39:4

David says in Psalm 139:16, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Job 14:5-7 says, “Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.”

How many days to you have left? No one knows, except God. He knows the exact number of days, down to the very minute and second.

This is scary as well as comforting. Scary that any moment can be our last one on planet earth; comforting knowing that God has our lives so ordered that we cannot die one second before He has planned for us.

This means that your life is very important to God. You are of more value than the sparrow; your very hairs are numbered.

February 23, 1989, Shari Peterson boarded flight 811 from Honolulu for Sydney, Australia. She was assigned to seat 9F. When she got to her seat, a man was already sitting there. He made it very clear that he was not going to move. The flight attendant asked her to take seat 13F since the plane was ready to take off.

Shari was weary and ready for a long nap. She had planned to take some sleeping pills, but as she had them in her palm, she heard a voice:

“Don’t do that. You might need your wits about you in case of emergency.”

Shari put the pills away, knowing she never told herself that sort of thing. She tried to settle in for sleep, when she heard:

“Tighten you seat belt. You’re in for the ride of your life.”

She thought it was a young male flight attendant. But, when she turned around to look, there was no one there.

A few minutes after takeoff, she heard an explosion, as she saw the whole side of the plane in front of her, disappear. The engines were on fire.

Seats 9 through 12 with eight occupants were thrown out of the plane instantly. One passenger across the aisle was also thrown out of the plane. It was the man seated in 9F. The seat that Shari was originally assigned.

Shari reached out to those around her, grabbing their arms, assuring them that she was trying to help them stay inside the plane. As she prayed, she felt a giant hand come down out of the sky under the plane.

She said she felt such peace and assurance that she was not alone and that everything was going to be all right.

The pilot, a military veteran, was able to turn the airplane and land just 14 minutes after the explosion. All remaining passengers were safely evacuated. Subsequent computer simulations could not reproduce a successful landing.

Before her flight, Shari had seen herself as worthless, with life having no meaning. She had been married to an abusive husband who constantly told her that she was worthless. She believed that she deserved no better, so she stayed in the abusive relationship. She started using pills and booze to numb the pain, even if it was just for a short period of time.

She has asked herself many times why she was allowed to live, and why it wasn’t her in seat 9F, that was propelled out the side of the plane.

She doesn’t have an answer to that. Neither do I. Neither do theologians. Even Jesus said that it had nothing to do with sin or lack thereof. Sins have to be repented of. Jesus has to be acknowledged as your Lord. But, it also has to do with your appointed time to die.

Shari now believes that miracles happen today, just like they did in the Bible.

She has learned to be more real in her approach to life, relationships, and faith; knowing that when you wake up in the morning, you never know where you might end up; maybe even in heaven, standing before God.

Job suffered a lot more than most of us ever will, yet he was able to keep his faith in God, knowing that God was in control of each day of his life; and that only He had access to the book recording the number of his days.

Jesus demonstrated to us how not to be concerned about what others say about us, or what they think of us, and to be very concerned about what the Father is directing us to do each moment of each day of our lives; knowing that we are not alone, and the next moment may have us standing before our Creator; just as it is written in His book.

  1. Shari doesn’t know why God spoke to her and provided His angels to protect her, while allowing the eight passengers, and especially the man in seat 9F, to die.
  2. Shari does know that she is of great worth to her God, so does Job, and David, and so should you.

“A time to be born, a time to die….” Ecclesiastes 3:2

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