'Act, O Lord'

I was thinking about the Lord intervening in the lives of men, and then it dawned on me that I could not think of a single place in the Bible where I have come across the word "intervene." On the other hand, in the places in Scripture where one might expect to read the word "intervene," I have instead seen the word "act":

"Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for your name's sake" (Jeremiah 14:7).

"It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name …" (Ezekiel 36:22).

"O Lord hear; O Lord forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act" (Daniel 9:19).

We have Phinehas "intervening" (Psalm 106:30) in the case of the Moabite immorality scandal in the wilderness during Moses' time (Numbers 25). But we never read that God "intervened" in events of history or people.

The more I considered it, the better I liked the thought: For God to "intervene" would imply that He is that Watchmaker of Deist invention who merely wound up the world at the beginning of time and then walked away and let it run on its own. And then, at certain specific points of His choosing, He would "intervene" in the progress of the impersonal forces He had set in place, to tinker with and suspend its natural workings. That is, every "intervention" of God would be an anomaly, an occasional departure from the usual course of human affairs.

But this is not the kind of God we have. We have a God so intimately and inextricably involved in your life that not a hair of your head may fall without His permission:

"But even the hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:30).

So be of good cheer whenever you ask your God for help. He will answer you in the way best for your ultimate good. And when He answers you, it will not be the "intervention" of a God who is sometimes on holiday and sometimes intervening. He will "act" for you-because He is always acting for you, day and night.