Sermon:  The Miracle at Noble Knob

by Chris Cumming                                                                                                   play        download     MP3       printer-friendly

I want to begin by having you turn to the twenty-third Psalm:

Psalm 23
1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

This one small psalm is a short but effective description of the entire life of a firstfruit Christian in the Salvation Process.  Notice verse 4 once again.

4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.

All of us at one time or another and possibly multiple times are going to find ourselves in the valley of the shadow of death.  It might be a severe health problem, a marriage situation or the fact you are going through a painful divorce.  Maybe it is a relationship problem.  One of you could be suffering a long bout of loneliness or in the constant battle of overcoming sin or a bad habit of some kind.  God will allow many trials and tribulations in our lives to establish the character He wants there to be in us.

Acts 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

In my particular case, I was about to literally enter the valley of the shadow of death where my life would be in jeopardy throughout the process.  What I would come to know and understand is the purpose of this sermon today...God is there!!

No matter what situation you find yourself in or what your trial and tribulation is, God is there with you.
 

Let us begin by looking at the scripture sheet I have provided for you.  The scripture sheet is here.

The Situation
The year was 1976.  It was summer.
I was in the Worldwide church of God.  I was 28 years old.  I had been baptized in January of 1971.
I was still a babe in Christ at the time.

I had just signed divorce papers from the marriage of my first wife.  She had left the church and ran away with my best friend.  You can imagine the stress I was under.  I was attending college at the time.  When all this came down I was like a zombie.  I was barely functioning.  Nothing so severe had ever beset me.

I was reading in the Bible of instances when Jesus or David would retreat into the mountains to pray, fast and meditate.  It came to my mind that maybe this would be a good thing for me to do.  The question I had is, "Where should I go to do this?"  I then remembered a hike I had taken with the Boy Scout troop the Seattle Church of God sponsored at the time.  I had been in scouting for about 10 years earlier in my life so jumped at the opportunity to be a part of this hike.  It had taken place in the west Cascade Mountains south east of Seattle Washington.  We had gone to what was called the Greenwater area in the Cascade foothills and hiked into a place called Lost Lake.  We camped there for a day or two and then proceeded way up hill to a place called Nobel Knob.  From there we went out to another trailhead where we met a number of church members with their vehicles for the ride home.

This is where I would go. 

The Setting
It was the month of August.  This is probably the most beautiful time to be hiking in the Cascade Mountains.  I loaded up my pack and pack board with the few things I thought I would need.  I would be essentially fasting most of the time.  I was planning on being in those mountains for about 4 or 5 days.

I went out to the sporting goods store and bought a brand new blue tube tent.  It had a sewn in floor and was completely waterproof.  In addition, I packed the following items:

--a couple changes of clothes
--my Boy Scout poncho
--a large D-cell flashlight.  The kind where the whole base was the battery and had a huge swivel head that shot a powerful beam and could light up the entire side of a car at a quarter of a mile.
---three oranges...just in case.
---a bow and several arrows.
---a hunting knife and hatchet for chopping wood.
---waterproof matches and a lighter
---a canteen of water...just in case.
---I wore a watch with a button to light up the dial in the dark.

Many of the items were placed in large plastic food bags.

After getting everything ready, I had my friend from college, John Harlow, drive me up to the Corral Pass trailhead.  We proceeded from my home in Seattle some 42 miles south and east to the little town of Enumclaw which is nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.  From Enumclaw we took Highway 410 into the mountains and along a river some 31 and a half miles to the Corral Pass road.  This road was all uphill.  It was both crush rock and hard clay and had been graded in such a way that it was crowned in the middle and sloped right and left into natural gutters or depressions for the water to run off.

We took the windy road up 7 miles to the Corral Pass.  We were at an elevation of 5700 feet.  The skies were clear and it was rather warm.

I said good-bye to John and as he drove out of sight I headed out on trail #1184 or the Noble Knob Trail.  I marched in some three miles along the mountain ridge to where it narrowed down to an area just 40 or so feet across before becoming the Lost Lake trail that drops some 2,000 feet down to the lake.  This narrow piece of land in the tall pine trees was to be my campsite and where my adventure would begin.

From this vantage point the land both to my right and left slopped down severely into two deep valleys.  At the very end of this ridge was a rather large rock outcropping.  If you have been to my photo album of the Nobel Knob area, it is the last photo.  It was on this rock outcropping that I would sit and pray and meditate and try to reason my way through this severe trial I was under.

I set up my tent in an open, flat area and built a nice, rock-lined fire pit just under the protection of a number of pine trees about twelve feet from the tent.

I spent the first two nights in quiet contemplation.  The weather was perfect.  During the day I could hear the buzz of chain saws and often a hawk would fly over my position.  At one point I saw an eagle in the distance, perched on a cliff across one of the valleys.  The nights were peaceful and not too cold.

As the third day was entering the evening, I was sitting on the rock outcropping and praying quite hard to God.  I then uttered something in my prayer to God that I would now, looking back, admonish everyone of you to never do without much forethought and the counting of the possible cost.

I prayed to God asking for a test.  "Please God, give me a test, such that, if I can succeed this test I will know that I am going to make it through this terrible emotional, mental and physical anguish this trial has given me."

After the prayer I walked back to the fire pit and placed several pieces of wood into the fire I had going there most of the late afternoon.

It was at that point that the test began.  A test that would send me directly into the valley of the shadow of death and where my life hung in the balance for the next ten hours or so.

An old proverb says, “Be careful what you wish for”? A rock band put the saying into a song:

So be careful what you wish for
‘Cause you just might get it
And if you get it then you just might not know
What to do wit’ it, ’cause it might just
Come back on you ten-fold.

I was about to experience this very thing.

The fact and photo page for Nobel Knob is here

The Miracle at Nobel Knob
As I stood by the fire, I noticed dark clouds sweeping in across the sky.  I was glad my tent was waterproof I thought to myself.

Next, I notice something out of the corner of my eye.  As if someone were unrolling a huge carpet, huge fog banks were coming up from both valleys to surround my camp in a thick, pea soup fog.  I had never experienced anything like that before.  I threw another log unto the fire.  I could not see more than about two feet in any direction.  It then began to rain.

This was no rain that I had ever seen before.  I was a soaking, sopping kind of rain that immediately drenched the entire landscape.  I quickly retrieved my poncho and placed it over my head.  I was glad I was under the protection of all those trees.

I then decided that this was getting too weird and I had better get into the protection of my tent.

As I unzipped the front door of the tent and began to crawl in, I was shocked to find the entire floor of the tent covered in about an inch of water.  I then said to myself, "I have to get out of here."

By this time the rain was soaking everything in site.  It had also become rather cold.  I grabbed the flashlight and placed it inside a large, clear plastic bag and sealed the opening.  I then walked over to the edge of the camp and readied my bow and placing a mental prayer on each arrow, I shot them off into the blackness of the sky.  On one, I sent away all my troubles from the trial.  The last one I dedicated to God and prayed that He would get me off this mountain alive.

I quickly consumed the oranges, now breaking my fast, put on the pack, turned on the flashlight, leaving the tent as is and heading down the trail back to the Corral Pass trail head.  I knew I had more than ten miles to walk---3 on the trail and 7 on the road.

The flashlight was barely effective.  The fog was so thick that the light was just being reflected back.  It was about 9:30 or 10:00 o'clock when I set out from the camp site.  The only noise I could hear was the constant pelting of rain upon my poncho.

After walking a little over a mile, I came to a trail marker I had not noticed all that much coming in.  It pointed to the Deep Creek Trail, downhill and to my right.  The sign indicated that Highway 410 was just five miles away.  I thought about it for a moment and figured that 5 miles on this trail was better than the almost 9 miles the other way to the trailhead and down the Corral Pass road.  I took it.  I took it even knowing I was totally unfamiliar with this trail.

It was a much less traveled path.  It was not much more that a small rut in the dirt between the trees.  It was a series of constant switchbacks.  At one point I must have left the trail and was just walking off among the trees.  The beam of the light was straight out from my body.  What I was about to experience was probably the first time I ever experienced unction of the Holy Spirit.  As if a loud voice going off in my head [nothing audible of course] I got the distinct message to STOP!  I froze in my tracks.  I then pointed the beam of the flashlight downward and found myself on the edge of a huge cliff.  The chasm before me was far beyond the end of the beam of the flashlight.  I surely would have fallen to my death.

Like a locomotive going in reverse, I backed up and somehow, in the fog, was able to find the rut of the trail and proceed.

I became so tired and just had to rest at some point but there was absolutely no way to sit down without volumes of water soaking into my jeans under the poncho.  At one point I was standing there, the beam of the flashlight giving the scene some illumination with all of a sudden I saw nothing but fur directly in front of my face.  The scream the emanated from throat could surely be heard a mile away if anyone was around to hear it.  Was it a bear?  The fur was at eye level so it had to be something large I thought.  To this day, I have no idea what it was but I knew my life was in peril and I had to move on.

Switchback after switchback; would my test never end.  Finally in the night I heard the sound of babbling water coming to my ears over the drone of the constantly pelting rain on my head and body.  I was coming to a creek of some kind.  It became louder and louder and finally I was on a small wooden bridge made of logs.  I crossed it and then my journey came to an abrupt stop.  THE LIGHT WENT OUT!!

I was now surrounded in total blackness, in a thick fog, in a soaking rain.  Because I was not walking, it was becoming terribly cold and I would surely die of hypothermia if I did not take some kind of action.  I decided to move my body quickly up and down on the balls of my feet hoping to keep warm.  I remember looking up and opening my eyes as wide as I could, hoping to see some lightness in the sky but I saw only total blackness.

I was moving up and down for what I thought was hours.  It was like being in a trance or the mind totally shutting down.  At one moment I stopped jumping up and down thinking that surely morning was coming soon.  I remembered the lighted dial on my watch.  I put the dial up to my eye and pressed the button. It was only 2 AM.  I knew then that I would be dead By morning.  There was no way to continue.  Then a profound and very clear thought came to my mind, "TURN ON THE FLASHLIGHT!  Yeah right.  I reached down and clicked the switch.  THE LIGHT WAS ON!!

I heading out with all haste and came to a unmarked fork in the trail.  One went uphill and one went downhill.  Which would you have taken?  I, of course, hurried unto the downhill path.  It went off into the pine trees and seemed to be bearing to the right.  As I hurried, wondering how long God would make this miracle of light last, I began to hear a babbling creek again.  Oh no!!  What have I done.  I came back to the very same bridge I had crossed earlier in the night.  I HAD TAKEN THE WRONG PATH!!  I ran back as fast as I could to that unmarked fork on the trail and this time went uphill.  It took me up to the Corral Pass Road.  Just as I took the first step unto the road the flashlight went out for good and I was once again in total blackness, the fog still as thick as ever and the rain still coming down upon my head.  What would I do now?

I then remembered the design of the Corral Pass road.  It was crowned and had definite depressions with ridges that made for the gutters.  I would just march off into the night and if I felt my feet going slightly down to the gutter, I would make a small correction and begin again.  This is extremely difficult to do in total blackness and I spent hours making small progress.

All through this journey I was praying to God for each step of the way.  I was crying out to God and clearly He was with me all the way and performing all the miracles that got me through this terrible test.

After some hours of taking all these baby steps and unknowingly passing a number of mountain cabins [I would discover later on return visits to the mountain] I felt something hard under my feet.  It was asphalt.  I HAD MADE IT TO HIGHWAY 410. 

Far in the distance I saw a faint light.  It was about a quarter mile away.  It was a mountain gas station and combination cafe.  It had a covered area over the gasoline pumps and in front of the door to the cafe.  I, for the first time since the test began was out of the rain.  I peered into the glass and could see cherry pie sitting on the counter in one of those glass pie holders you see in those old-type cafes.
 

There was also a phone booth.  In my pocket I had two quarters.  I quickly made a phone call to my best friend in the church, Richard Mills and he and his wife made the journey by car to finally rescue me from a trial and test that I will never forget.

God had allowed me to enter into the valley of the shadow of death.  At most any time I would have surely died.  He took me to the very edge of death a number of times but then interceded to save me and in the process give me a lifelong lesson that if I keep my faith in Him, I will make it through any trial.

As it says in Psalm 23 and verse 4, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and staff they comfort me.
 

God was there with me every minute.  Remember this as you go through all your valleys of the shadow of death.  God will perform miracles for you too.  It is His promise to us.