The Devourer Was Rebuked for Our Sakes

Do you remember "Show and Tell" in elementary school, when someone gets to bring something they think is really cool to class and they show it to classmates and tell everyone about why this thing is cool? Well I have a "Show and Tell" moment for you.

For as long as I can recall living in our house here on Timrod St., the bathtub faucet has leaked. We've probably wasted hundreds of gallons of water with its dripping. Well, a couple Saturdays ago, I decided to fix it. So I went to Home Depot and got the needed parts (handle, spigot, mixer valve springs/washers, etc). I shut off the water to the house and started removing the mixer valve cap, but it was stubborn, so I had to apply some extra force to get the cap to loosen. Well the cap didn't loosen, the whole valve rotated... NOT good. This means I bent the copper lines coming into the valve! Great... what do I do now? I looked into the hole in the wall to see what kind of damage I'd done and noticed that water is now rapidly dripping out of one of the junction points. The bad part is that now the water is dripping INSIDE the wall! When I looked closely, I could see the crack in the junction point. It was obvious that the whole valve would need to be replaced.

I sat down on the side of the tub to think about what to do and I offered up a silent prayer that could be summarized as, "Heavenly Father, please help me know what to do now."

So I took a couple pictures of the mixer valve and how it was fed by the now bent copper lines to aid me in my next trip to Home Depot. I then left for Home Depot. After spending what I thought was too much money on replacement parts, I returned home. Then I examined the hole to see if I would be able to replace the valve assembly without ripping a huge hole in the wall. I was able to make the hole in the wall slightly larger, so I figured that it was worth an attempt to try and replace valve by unsoldering the existing connections and removing the old cracked valve assembly. After a few fruitless attempts, I turned the water to the house back on as I realized I was going to have to rip apart the wall for access to the valve assembly.

Before ripping the wall apart, I decided to look inside the wall to make sure I wasn't going to create another huge problem by ripping apart the shower wall. What did I notice? THE VALVE ASSEMBLY WAS NO LONGER LEAKING! What?!? I decided to look again. Nothing... no drips at all at any kind!

I was perplexed to say the least. So I went an made sure the water pressure to the house was still on/high. It was. To this day, I can accredit this miracle to one thing only: tithing. I immediately dropped to my knees there next to the bathtub to express thanks for the blessing of paying tithing.

Towards the end of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi records: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts." (Malachi 3: 10-11). Now I don't have vines that produce fruit (at least not right now), so what could possibly be considered the equivalent "fruits" or "vines" in my days/life? For one, a shower/bath-tub faucet mixer valve.

The destroyer of bathroom faucets was rebuked for our sakes. He couldn't destroy the fruits of my bathroom plumbing before its time in the wall. I know God lives and keeps His promises. Why? Because He did for me with the bathtub faucet mixer valve, and I'm nothing special that I should warrant special attention. I can't and won't dispute the miracle here. It's plain as day to me.