The cry for Israel’s help echoes through the Scriptures, for the Lord has not chosen that nation because of its own might or righteousness, but according to the sovereignty of His own will. There is no attribute more comforting than this, that He who scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts looked upon a lowly people and set His love upon them. You plead for their protection, and rightly so, for the Divine Presence alone is the glory and safety of Israel. When the mountains of adversity towered against them, His coming made the kingdoms dissolve, and the high trees of human power were laid low. He who dried up the Red Sea can still make a highway for His people through the deep waters of hatred. Yet mark this well, the safety of Israel, as of any soul, lies not in treaties or armies, but in the Lord Himself, who is able to keep from falling and to present faultless before His presence with exceeding joy.
But let your prayer stretch beyond the earthly preservation of the Jewish nation, for their truest need, and yours, is the help that comes from the pierced hands of the Divine Physician. He bore their griefs and carried their sorrows, and in Him is the blotting out of transgression for all who will look upon Him whom they have pierced. You ask if any can help you or them if the Lord does not help, and I answer, none. Not the strength of the arm, not the wisdom of princes, not the shadows of outward ordinances. The green tree that boasts in its own luxuriance shall wither; the dry tree, watered by His grace, shall flourish. Pray, therefore, that Israel may behold their King, that the veil may be taken away, and that they with us may find safety only in Him who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. For when the Spirit stoops in gentleness to reveal the suffering Savior, the proud heart is humbled, and the soul cries out, “He was wounded for my transgressions.”
You end with a question upon which eternity hangs, whether to keep praying until the Father answers. Oh, take this lesson from the eagle stirring her nest: the Divine Instructor often delays that faith may spread its wings. The Lord who led Israel alone with a high hand did not at once bring them into Canaan; they walked through the wilderness in the pillar of fire, and that journey was itself a training for glory. Come, then, with holy importunity. If the Lord seems not to help, it is that you may learn to trust His arm when all props are removed. Keep praying, but let your prayer be steeped in this, that whether He scatters the visible armies or grants an invisible deliverance, He is able to keep from falling, and to bring you at last with exceeding joy before His throne. His help is Providence, His gentleness is your making great, and His sovereign choice is the guarantee that He will finish what He has begun. So wrestle on, and take comfort: the throne of grace may sooner fail than one of His little ones perish.