It was a Mission Impossible kind of a heist. They scaled the building in a predawn rainstorm a few weeks ago on Sunday morning March 14th. After cutting a hole in the roof, they repelled down into the unmarked warehouse. Immediately the security system was disabled. The thieves netted prescription drugs manufactured by Eli Lily worth $75 million dollars. They were mostly Eli Lilly's staples of Prozac (it's first billion dollar drug) and Cymbalta and Zyprexa. There were no narcotics or other painkillers involved. It went down in Enfield, Connecticut. Some observers suggest that this biggest heist in pharmaceutical history will go down in folklore for the growing trend of warehoused pharmaceuticals in America being taken down. Enfield got famous again, if just for a moment. There has not been a story out of Enfield that big since 1741. That is a long hiatus. Enfield took a 269 years break between big stories. But in an odd way, the two stories may relate.

As the Great Awakening was catching fire sent from heaven up the Connecticut River valley in the early 1740's, a 38 year old preacher at the epicenter of its outbreak from Northampton, Massachusetts was invited as a guest preacher to go down to Enfield and preach. For reasons that please God He chose to use guest preachers as catalysts for reviving sparks in those days. It was no different on the night of July 8th in 1741 in Enfield when Jonathan Edwards began to preach. He had actually preached the message once before at Northampton with no affecting upon his people. This second rendering in Enfield would be remembered forever.

He preached on the threat of the wrath of God justly poured out on sinners who found themselves in the hands of a God who was angry at them and the evil that was being wrought in their lives. His language was characteristically Edwardsean. He smithed word pictures that gripped the crowd. "The unseen, unthought of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they won't bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noonday; the sharpest sight can't discern them." He appealed to the crowd to throw themselves onto the mercy of God. He offered Jesus as the remedy to our dilemma. The crowd was moved...

...so moved that he finished his message early. He stopped his message altogether and dealt with the crowd who by the time he started through the second half was involved in a frenzied group-convulsion of concern for their souls. Wailing and calling out was heard throughout the auditorium. People literally clung to the pews afraid they would slip into eternity, the text of course, "Their foot shall slide in due time," Deuteronomy 32:35.

The people saw God for His holy self. An old fashion dose of the fear of God overwhelmed them. But many of them found rest for their fear of God in the gracious offering of His own Son in mercy to atone for our sins which put us in such peril. Edwards never preached the message again. As sport to mock the Puritans the message makes its way into many High School Literature anthologies, sometimes in an edited version which leaves off the offer of God's mercies in Christ. Good Friday, indeed.

The Psalmist speaks of the godless as having no fear of God before their eyes.(Psalm 36:1). No one left Enfield that night without a healthy dose of the fear of God and some left joyfully meditating (for the rest of their lives) on the mercy this offended God offered in Jesus Christ. Calvary covers it all, a gospel writer would say over a century later.

What happened in Enfield recently is an emblem of this cultural moment in America. The daring of the incident is now famous. A culture that would become dependent upon pharmaceutical help that is needed in such volume that private warehouses are needed to stage for their dispersement says something about us, but I fear not very much. I thank God for His kindness in the development of needed drugs that help sustain us in our broken maladies. But others have observed that we have developed too much hope in the Walgren's pharmacy. Lilly was never intended to save us. Jesus does not need any help with that at all.

When there is no fear of God before a culture, civility begins to break up. Thievery continues to develop. Frequently abused prescription drugs raise in value on the street and secret warehouses are found out and big hits go down...among other negative trends. But when we see ourselves for who we really are, apart from Christ (sinners in the hands of a God who is angry...who poured out His anger at us on Christ) sinners in need of Christ, we are moved to reshape how live through repentance and faith. We experience awakening. People are not seeing themselves in such light these days, much to our and Lilly's chagrin. We are the worse for it as a culture.

Maybe God will be pleased to bring yet another awakening afresh to a healthy fear of God...the beginning of wisdom. Edwards helped people understand their plight and God's heart for them.

We are yet sinners in the hands of an angry God, who vented his anger on Good Friday on our behalf. Now, the door of grace and peace and pardon is wide open. As a culture and individuals, we would do well to run in and find "rest for our souls."