Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for Me?
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
This method of questioning the person to be instructed is known to teachers as the Socratic method. Socrates was wont, not so much to state a fact, as to ask a question and draw out thoughts from those whom he taught. His method had long before been used by a far greater teacher. Putting questions is Jehovah’s frequent method of instruction. Questions from the Lord are very often the strongest affirmations. He would have us perceive their absolute certainty. They are put in this particular form because He would have us think over His great thought, and confirm it by our own reflections. The Lord shines upon us in the question, and our answer to it is the reflection of His light.
I. Consider the wonderful question of our text which the Lord put to the prophet, viewing it as necessary.
1. It was needful to tell the prophet this, though he knew it. He never doubted that the Lord is almighty, and yet it was needful for Jehovah Himself to speak home this truth to his mind and heart. It is often necessary for the Lord Himself to drive home a truth into the mind of His most faithful servant. We learn much in many ways, but we learn nothing vitally and practically till the Spirit of God becomes our schoolmaster. The God of truth must teach us the truth of God or we shall never learn it.
2. It is necessary for us to be thus specially instructed, even though we know a truth well enough to plead it in prayer, as Jeremiah did when he cried, “There is nothing too hard for Thee.” That man is no mean scholar in the classes of Christ who has learned to handle scriptural truths when pleading with the Lord. Oh, that we used more argument in prayer! Prayers are weak when they lack pleadings.
3. It is necessary for God thus to reveal truth individually to each of our hearts even though we may have acted on it. Jeremiah had acted on the fact that nothing was too hard for God. After his obedience, he began to look back on what he had done, and to be considerably bewildered, while trying to make out how God would justify what he had done. The best of men are men at the best. If the Lord lifts you up into the purity and dignity of a childlike faith, yet you will have your moments when you will cry, Lord, speak to me Thyself again, even though it be out of the whirlwind; and let me know that I have done all these things according to Thy Word, and not after my own fancy.” Even the practice of truth does not raise us above the need of having it again and again laid home to the soul.
4. Another necessity for this arises out of further manifestations with which we are to be favoured. God had caused Jeremiah to know His omnipotence so far, but he was to see still more of it. Faith has led you into marvellous places; but there are greater things before you, and the Lord presses truth upon you that you may receive more of it.
II. Look at the text regarding it as decisive.
1. For the argument is fetched from the Lord Himself. When we look to God alone, and think, by the help of His Spirit, of who He is and what He must be, then we realise that nothing can be too hard for Him. Meditate much upon the Divine Father, Creator and Preserver; upon the Divine Son, the risen Redeemer, who hath all power in heaven and in earth; upon the sacred Spirit, of whom the rushing mighty mind in the tornado is but a faint symbol, and you will feel that here is the source of all might.
2. But He means us also to see the argument as founded on His name, “I am Jehovah.” The name brings out the personality of God. It also signifies self-existence. God does not exist because of His surroundings: He draws nothing from without, His life is in Himself. All things were made by Him, and He sustaineth all things by the Word of His power. The name of Jehovah reminds us that He has within Himself sufficiency for all His will; He hath adequate power of performance for all His purposes and decrees; Jehovah wills, and it is done. Moreover, the name sets forth the truth that He is immutable: He is “I am that I am.” Time does not affect Him, nor change come near Him. He is never less than Jehovah; He cannot be more.
3. The argument is also founded on the Lord’s relation to man. “I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.” How is the worm linked to the immortal! Happy men who have such a God! Not that flesh and blood, as they are, can inherit the kingdom of God, nor that corruption can dwell with incorruption; but for believers in the Lord Jesus there is a resurrection which shall lift us into a body of a nobler sort. The argument is that, since Jehovah is the God of all flesh, He can effect His purposes by men, and work among them things which seem impossible.
4. The argument is so great that it puts all other arguments out of court. Is anything too hard for Jehovah? Come, Jeremiah, rake up your difficulties; set in order the discouraging circumstances; call in your friends, who all shako their heads at you, and point their fingers to their brows, as much as to insinuate that you are a little gone from your senses; and then, answer them all with this, “Nothing is too hard for Jehovah.” This clears the deck of every doubt that would board your vessel. Blessed argument which answers every difficulty, and sets faith upon a rock from which it cannot be removed! “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him.”
III. Applying it in detail.
1. Apply this question to the justification of your obedience. If you do what God bids you, the responsibility of your conduct lies with Him, and He will bear you through. He will bring forth our judgment as the light, and our righteousness as the noonday.
2. Apply this glorious truth to the sure fulfilment of all the Divine promises. Consider a great one to begin with. This chapter evidently shows that the Jews are one day to be converted and restored. They that crucified the Lord of Glory shall look on Him whom they pierced, and shall mourn for Him. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
3. Apply this to any case of great sin. Select any one whom you know to be especially hard-hearted, and pray for him earnestly and hopefully.
4. Apply this to difficult truths. I will put before you a problem. If man acts freely in his sinful actions how can predestination be a fact? If every man acts after his own will, how, then, does God foreordain all things? I answer, “Is anything too hard for Jehovah?” The solving of this great problem constrains me to worship the Lord; for He does solve it in actual history. Consider another hard case--the hardest of all: human salvation. How can it be possible for God to exercise the fulness of His mercy, and yet discharge the necessities of His justice? All men and all angels put together would have made but one fool in trying to solve that difficulty. The Lord has answered it. He gave His Son to bear our sin. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
5. Bring hither your own little problems. You are always getting into tangles and snarls. Prudent friends try to help you, but the tangle grows worse. Bring your hard cases to one who is wiser than Solomon, and He will draw out a clear thread for you.
IV. Treat the text as using it with delight.
1. Use the text as a preventive of unbelieving sin. Do God’s work thoroughly, heartily, intensely, and God will reward you in His grace.
2. Use it next for consolation in the time of trouble. Jehovah hath delivered those who trust in Him, and He will yet deliver us.
3. Next, use the text as a window through which you look with expectation. The Lard’s blessing is coming upon the Churches: look for it!
4. Let this text be a stimulus to you to engage in great enterprises. Launch out into the deep. Fall back upon omnipotence, and then go forward in the strength of it.
5. Let the text be a reason for adoration. O Thou to whom nothing is hard, we adore Thee! We worship Thee with all our hearts, and this day we believingly link our weakness with Thine omnipotence. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God above us all
In one of his letters to John Sterling from Scotsbrig, Thomas Carlyle says, “One night, late, I rode through the village where I was born. The old kirkyard tree, a huge old gnarled ash, was nestling itself softly against the great twilight in the north. A star or two looked out, and the old graves were all there, and my father and my sister; and God was above us all.” What comfort in this for the soul bewildered by life’s sudden changes! He is watching: He knows: He will not fail us. Above the graves where His saints are sleeping, above the homesteads where His children are weeping, God is above us all. (Quiver.)
Faith’s work
There are three particulars connected with the wording of the text, to which it is desirable to direct attention. You observe the notice of time, “Then came the Word of the Lord unto Jeremiah.” The context shows you that this was in answer to Jeremiah’s prayer. In the next place, we notice that Jehovah claims to be the “God of all flesh”; an expression which evidently answers the question, whether the Scriptures of the Old Testament, such as this with which we have to do, are confined to the Jewish people? Then, thirdly, we observe the question, “Is there anything too hard for Me?” We have before us, then, Jeremiah as an example of faith--as one who possessed and exercised that faith for which Abraham was so remarkable. Let us consider how faith deals with mysteries. Jeremiah’s faith was tried by what was a great mystery to him upon this occasion, in connection with God’s providential dealings. What use was there in purchasing land which was in possession of the enemy? And yet God told him to do it. Then, if God told him to do it, why give the whole of the land into the possession of the enemy? Here was a mystery. Jeremiah’s faith had to grapple with that mystery, and to persevere, as he did, in that holy consistency by which he had an opportunity of testifying both to Israel and to Israel s foes concerning the honour and the truth of the God of Israel. Now, we too have, in the course of our lives, to meet with mysterious dispensations in God’s providence. There are difficulties before us. There are two clear convictions in our minds; first of all, we can have no doubt, as believers, that God directed us to pray, and heard our prayers; but then, on the other hand, we can have no doubt that God is permitting, in His providence, these difficulties that now perplex us. And these two plain facts coming together at the same point of time do not harmonise with each other; but they come, as it were, into collision, and they clash; and we say, “How can this be? How mysterious this is, that it should be God’s will that I should seek Him in prayer, and yet God’s will that, notwithstanding my prayer, there should be this difficulty connected with this matter, or these circumstances should arise!” It is a blessing when, under such circumstances, you are enabled still to hold fast to the confidence of faith. Some persons may say, “Why does God permit mystery?” An answer may be easily given. Bring common sense to bear upon this question. How is it that a father deals with the children of the family of which he is the head? There are many things which the father must necessarily say and do, that must occasion perplexity to the children who listen to what he says and observe what he does. Those children will have recourse to their father again and again, to ask for an explanation of what they cannot understand. Sometimes the parent will give the explanation, but at other times the parent declines to explain; he knows that the subject is beyond the present capacity and intelligence which his children possess; and, therefore, he points them into the way of duty, but tells them to wait until they can more fully understand before they ask anxiously for reasons to account for things that now are difficult and perplexing to them; and their confidence in their father, their faith in their father s word, promotes the proper discipline of such a well-regulated family. Now, we are all of us children with reference to our Heavenly Father’s dealings with us. “Why do you say so much of faith?” some people ask. The simple answer is, that the creature that is happy must be dependent upon the Creator, and that dependence can only be felt or maintained by the exercise of faith. God in Christ has manifested Himself in such a way that we, His poor sinful creatures, may approach Him; and if we are enabled to rest upon that Saviour who is almighty, whatever mysteries there be around us, or connected with our own experience, faith in the Lord Jesus--that feeling of the soul which leads us to rest upon Him as our Saviour and Friend, though it cannot solve the mysteries, will be contented to wait until time shall so bring things to light, and eternity shall so manifest the purposes and counsels of God, that the Saviour’s assurance shall be fulfilled. “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.” But now take the ease of impossibilities, and see how faith deals with them. Jeremiah might have argued, “Why should I go and purchase this piece of land? it can never be mine; it is impossible.” Now, how did Jeremiah’s faith deal with this? He simply did what God told him; and he left the solution of the difficulty with God. Now, this obedience of faith is that to which we need give attention. There can be no difficulty about duty, though there may be difficulty about the reasons why God calls us to that particular duty. We may have this plainly before us by an illustration. I may say to my child, “Go and fetch me that book”; the child may not know my reasons for asking him to fetch that book; it might be possible that I could not explain my reasons to the child, or if I did explain them, that the child would only be puzzled, and his difficulty increased. It might be utterly impossible for the child to understand why I asked him to do this particular act of obedience; but there is no difficulty at all in the child going and fetching the book. The path of duty is quite plain, but the reasons in the parent’s mind for commanding the duty at a particular time might be unintelligible and inexplicable. And so with reference to our position with God; the path of duty which He calls us to tread is always plain to him that seeks understanding and wisdom from Him. It is only when we begin to ask the why and wherefore that difficulties spring up; when we ask, “Lord, why art Thou doing this?” then we come into the presence of impossibilities. But when we ask, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” then the path of duty lies before us, and with our hearts set at liberty we run in the way of God’s commandments. But now we have to consider the promise of faith in connection with the difficulties of our daily experience; and here, too, the example of Jeremiah is instructive. We have seen that he maintained the exercise of faith and resisted temptations, notwithstanding mysteries; that he went forward in the path of simple obedience, notwithstanding seeming impossibilities; but was he not severely exercised and tried with all this mystery, and difficulty, and seeming impossibility? Certainly he was. But faith led him to prayer. And this is the way in which faith deals with difficulty--it takes men to God. (W. Cadman, M. A.)
The infinite capability of God
It is the glory of God, that there is nothing “too hard” for Him but wrong. The fact of God’s infinite capability should lead us--
I. To render Him supreme homage. Surely, before Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His will, all should bow with profoundest reverence and awe.
II. To place in Him unbounded confidence. Confide in Him--
1. To supply all wants. He can do “exceeding abundantly,” &c.
2. To fulfil all promises. There are wonderful promises--the conversion of the whole world, the resurrection of the mighty dead. He is able to fulfil them all; and He is” faithful that hath promised.”
III. To expect from Him wonderful manifestations. He is always at work. He has done wonders, is doing wonders, and will continue to do wonders through all ages. He “fainteth not, neither is weary.” With such a God, what wonderful things await us! (Homilist.)