GOD WILL GUARD YOU JEALOUSLY

He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of his eye – Deuteronomy 32:10

God discovered Jacob (Israel) in a wasteland, a wide tract of arid, barren, uncultivable land, where everything was parched up by the scorching sun; where not only grew neither plant nor flower, but neither could be made to grow. That’s the apt picture of the hopeless and withered nature of fallen humanity. Man was not always a “desert.” It was Sin that ruined and laid him waste, wild, weeded and desolate. Praise God, He did not abandon Jacob in the howling wilderness. Rather, He who discovered Jacob also directed him, defended him, and ultimately developed him into a soaring eagle. And that’s His Heart for every single one of us His children. Why? Because God delights in guiding and guarding “the apple of His eye.”

The “howling wilderness” describes a treeless, utterly bare land, where devastating desert winds sweep through unchecked, with their mournful howl of sadness and death; where wild beasts of prey continually prowl, and restless wandering spirits roam with foul, infernal glee over the sin-blighted ruins of a once glorious estate. Do these not portray the dark recesses of the human heart, raided by wild beasts of pride, perversions, passions-gone-wild, lusts, envy, wrath, hatred, and murder?

It was here in the ‘Pit’ that God found Israel; not Israel, God. Israel would never have found God. It was God that found him in this wretched, utterly desolate state, and began His divine dealings – His Works of Grace – with him. The LORD who found Israel and did not give up on him will never give up on you. God will lead you about and encircle you. Every of your steps will be under His direction, right up to your “desired haven,” your “wealthy place” and your “city of habitation”!

The Instructor of Jacob will instruct you. The Director of Israel will direct you. The Defender of Zion will defend you as “the apple of His eye” so that nothing can really and finally harm you! The apple of the eye is the tenderest spot of the whole body so far as it is accessible to external violence. As you would above all things guard that significant and sensitive organ, so God keeps, guards, defends, and preserves His people from the least taint of evil, the fiery arrows and violent assaults of Satan and his hellish hordes, and all soul-destroying agencies.

Because Jesus lives, you can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because you know He holds your future; life is worth the living, just because He lives.