Before We Even Call, He Answers

The God Who Sees Ahead

“Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear.”— Isaiah 65:24

There are moments in life when we suddenly realize that God was already preparing the answer long before we even knew there would be a problem.

Recently, I was writing in my journal, “Lord, You know what I need.” Honestly, I can ask for many things, but in the end, only God truly knows what I need — and what is best for me.

Right after writing those words, I opened my devotional for the day, and the title was: “God Knows What You Need.” I just smiled. Yes, He does.

For months, I had complained — probably far too much — about the inner room in my apartment having no window. It felt dark and closed in. I decorated the walls with large banners and learned to tolerate it, but I still preferred working outside in the garden whenever possible.

What I did not know when I moved into this apartment was that Israel would soon be at war with Iran.

Suddenly, that little windowless room became something entirely different.

It became a safe room.

While sirens sounded across the country and missiles threatened the skies, I realized that what I once viewed as a frustration was actually God’s provision and protection prepared ahead of time.

Instead of running outside in my pyjamas to a public bomb shelter during every siren, I had a protected room right inside my apartment.

God knew what was coming before I did. He sees the end from the beginning.

How often we complain about things we do not yet understand. How often we resist the very thing God has lovingly arranged for our protection.

But the story did not end there.

One Shabbat at kehilla (congregation), right in the middle of the service, a siren went off again. We all hurried into the building’s bomb shelter to pray and wait for Home Front's 'all clear' notification.

While we were there, the leader of the congregation came over and asked how I was doing and whether I had a shelter in my apartment. I told him about my little inner room with no windows.

“Do you sleep there?” he asked.

“No,” I answered. “I don’t have a mattress for the bed in that room.”

“No mattress?” he said in surprise. “We have so many mattresses here — take whichever one you want!”

He explained that during the previous war (last June), people had brought extra mattresses to the bomb shelter. After the war ended, many never returned to collect them.

So there they sat.... Waiting....

I climbed up to measure the top mattress on the pile — yes, I carry a tape measure in my purse! — and I was absolutely shocked.

It was exactly the size I needed.

Not approximately.

Exactly.

The bedframe in that room requires a precise fit down to the centimeter. I had already searched IKEA and discovered that this was not even a standard mattress size. They simply did not make one that fit.

But God had already prepared one.

Before I knew there would be another war.

Before I knew I would need to sleep in that room.

Before I even knew there was a problem.

Now tell me that isn’t amazing!

Immediately my thoughts went to Abraham on Mount Moriah in Book of Genesis. AS a test of Abraham's obedience, God asked him to offer up his beloved son of promise, Isaac, as a sacrifice to the Lord. As Abraham and Isaac journeyed up the mountain, Isaac remarked, "Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?'"

And Abraham answered, with incredible faith, "God will provide the Lamb."

And He did!

“Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love… and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Gensis 22:2)

At the very last moment, the Angel of the LORD stopped Abraham. Then Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns — the provision God had already prepared ahead of time.

“And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.”—Genesis 22:13

In this account, God provided a ram, which in Hebrew is ayil (אַיִל). Yet earlier, Abraham had spoken prophetically to Isaac when he said:

“God will provide Himself the lamb…”— Genesis 22:8

The Hebrew word for lamb is seh (שֶּׂה).

At that moment on Mount Moriah, God provided the ram for the sacrifice. But Abraham’s words pointed to something even greater still to come. God would one day provide the true Lamb — Yeshua, the Lamb of God — who gave His life as the final sacrifice to atone for our sins.

Halleluyah! God has provided the Lamb.

"Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." (John 1:29)

Abraham called that place: Yehovah Yireh — יהוה יראה (Genesis 22:13-14)

Many people mispronounce this name of God as “Jehovah Jireh” and understand it to mean “God my Provider,” which is certainly true. But the Hebrew word yireh comes from the root ra’ah (ראה) - “to see.”

God sees.

He sees ahead.

He sees the need before we even know it exists.

And because He sees, He provides.

Just as the ram was already waiting on the mountain before Abraham arrived, God had already prepared that mattress before I ever realized I would need it.

Nothing catches Him by surprise.

Not wars.

Not delays.

Not disappointments.

Not our future needs.

Sometimes the very thing we resist today may become the evidence tomorrow that God was caring for us all along.

What if the closed door is protection?

What if the delay is mercy?

What if the uncomfortable situation is actually preparation?

Yeshua reminds us:

“God your Father already knows what you need. He knows this even before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:8)

What peace there is in knowing that God is already ahead of us.

He is already in our tomorrow.

Already preparing.

Already seeing.

Already providing.

Perhaps today you are confused by something in your life that does not make sense. Maybe you are frustrated with a situation you wish were different.

Take heart.

The God who sees ahead may already be preparing the answer — before you even know the question.