He That Keepeth Israel ...

Like most humans on planet Earth, Dennis and I generally do not enjoy commercials—but rules are made to be broken, right? And it so happens that there is one commercial that I actually love. CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) shows a commercial containing a clip in which a young man proclaims with great emphasis (dramatic voice, emphatic arm movements), "He that watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps!"

Even now, just thinking about that clip sends the most delicious thrill of joy coursing through my being. I just can't get enough of it and can only wish that all commercials were like that, beautifully expounding on a verse or promise in Scripture. If only!

Be that as it may, as I prayed for a loved one recently, the most wonderful peace enveloped me. The assurance that "God's got this!" simply overwhelmed me—and that commercial I love popped into my mind. I may not see the answer yet, but I know as sure as the sun rises in the east that it's coming. Why? Because just as God sees, just as God hears, God answers.

So many times unexpected circumstances take us by surprise, and often not in a good way. But guess what! The difficulty at hand did not take God by surprise! He knew it was going to happen way before we even had the slightest inkling about it.

Many years ago Dennis pointed out a verse to me that I had read but never meditated on, Isaiah 46:10. It reads, "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." Isaiah is telling us here that God declares what is going to happen before it happens. Just as He is omnipresent, He is omniscient. He has 100% foreknowledge. He is, plain and simple, and most powerfully, God. And because of Who He Is, His nature, we can rest in this truth, that just as He sees the problem He will unfailingly, graciously, provide the solution. The words, "He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps" do not only mean that God is ever watchful. That telling word "keepeth" implies the promise of His absolute protection.

When we are faced with an unexpected difficulty, we don't have to jump through hoops á la Baal's priests in 1 Kings 18, who desperately screamed and danced and cut themselves, begging their god to manifest. Elijah egged them on to greater efforts with tongue in cheek sarcasm. Maybe their god was napping. Maybe he couldn't hear them. But no matter what they did, no matter their energy, no matter their heightened frenzy, absolutely nothing happened.

But Elijah? Just a simple prayer and whoosh! A miracle of fire! Why? Because our God LIVES! And like Psalm 121 assures us, our God doesn't sleep! He is always watching over us, His people, His spiritual Israel! He is here! And He always, always, absolutely hears us!

God heard the prayer of Elijah—and God answered. Now, centuries down the line from that glorious story, He hears and answers us.

May the Lord, this very minute, endue you with His peace, with the absolute certainty that just as He watches over you, you are heard—and His answer is on the way!

"For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee" (Psalm 31:22) .

"Even before they call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hear" (Isaiah 65:24).

"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him" (1 John 5:14).