The Prophetic Telegraph - No.47
"TOO
HARD"
"My
heart is bubbling over with a goodly theme - - My tongue is like the pen of a
ready writer - -." (Psalm 45:1)
Yes, we truly have a goodly
theme, and desire to share what we have learned, for by sharing we believe that
we shall give glory to the Lord, who so greatly deserves our praise! Our title
"Too Hard" may seem a little enigmatic, but let us unveil the reason
straight away by considering the conversation the Angel of the Lord had with
Abraham, about the prospect of his having a son through Sarah. "Is
anything TOO HARD for the Lord. At the time appointed I will return unto you
according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."
(Gen.18:14) Is ANYTHING too hard for the Lord? How drastically feeble is the
human mind. Most of us, perhaps all of us as believers, are placing false
limits on the majesty of God. Maybe we need to step aside a while and
reconsider just Who it is we believe in, trust in, and from Whom we receive our
daily bread. Let us stop and think for a moment. Where does our boundary lie?
At what point do we begin to suspect that God is unable? Could it be that we
haven't had to think that way before? Perhaps it's high time to ask ourselves a
few questions.
Now, when the Angel spoke
to Abraham it was over the matter of two rather elderly bodies that were,
humanly speaking, past the capability of conception and birth. They laughed
about the prospect, and when the child was born, they called him
"Laughter", the meaning of the name Isaac.
But many years later
another birth was under consideration, and an Angel was sent to bring the
glad-tidings, because it was to be the most important birth this world has ever
known - the arrival of the Messiah! The Angel explained what would happen, and
then he said, "With God NOTHING shall be impossible!"
Mary's simple answer shows the quality of her faith. "Be it
unto me according to your word." Is ANYTHING too hard for the
Lord? asked the first Angel, but the second declared that there is literally
NOTHING too hard for God. He is supreme above all things, so great, so
wonderful, so able, that nothing we can conceive would be impossible for Him to
manage. This is the message we want to share, and it is indeed a goodly theme.
How does this fact emerge
from other pages of Holy Writ? In Numbers 11 we read about an incident that
arose during the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites. They were getting
"fed up" with just a daily fare of Manna, and the Lord promised them
some meat. Meat? thought Moses. "Lord, these people number
600,000 footmen, let alone all the women and children! Shall all the fish of
the sea be gathered together to suffice?" And with such words
he showed how "flabbergasted" he was at the thought of a whole
month's supply being promised. But what did the Lord say? "Is
the Lord's hand waxed short? You shall now see whether my word shall come to
pass or not." And of course it came to pass exactly as the
Lord said it would, and they ate the quails "until it came out
of their nostrils." What butcher today would be able to
satisfy an order of that size? Our God is ABLE. NOTHING is too hard for Him.
Do you believe in a
"too small" God? Jeremiah had a problem and he presented his case to
the Lord. But he prefaced it with the following words. "Ah Lord
God! behold, You have made heaven and earth by Your great power and stretched
out arm, and there is nothing too hard for You." (32:17) So
it might seem that the problem he had was about to dissolve into nothingness.
But no. At the end of his discourse he brought up the matter about which the
Lord had spoken. "And yet O Lord God, You have told me to go
and buy that field for money, and take witnesses, (even though You have told me
that) the city is about to be given into the hands of the Chaldeans."
It didn't add up for Jeremiah, and he was perplexed. But I'm sure the Lord was
smiling. He said, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh:
is there anything too hard for Me?" And He followed on by
explaining very fully why that field had to be bought as a sign that in days to
come the sons of
The disciples were seated
about their Master, who was sorrowful at that moment. A certain rich young man
whom He loved had just gone away, unable to yield to the Lord's request. "How
difficult it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom," He said. "It
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle." I
assume the disciples screwed up their faces as they looked at each other. One
of them, shaking his head, said "How then can anyone be
saved?" The Master's answer needs our deepest contemplation. "Things
which are impossible with men are possible with God." (Luke
18:27, Mark
But if we stop there, we
shall only be getting half the story. Jesus WAS sad. But He also had an
understanding from His Father which He passed on. "That which
is humanly impossible is divinely easy." The disciples might
have asked the Lord about the future of the rich young man, but they didn't. We
might ask about the destiny of all those who leave the evangelistic rally, and
perhaps we should, because it is a burning question. What about all those who
die without knowing Christ? What happens to them? Where do they go? What future
do they have? Are they lost for ever? Many of us have questions like these, and
the usual answer is full of sadness and misery, because it is related to verses
of the Bible which speak of an everlasting hell-fire and torment. So the
sadness remains instead of being dissipated.
Paul was speaking about
resurrection to the Philippians (
And if Jesus died for the
WHOLE WORLD it means that their sins have been paid for, whether they believe
it or not. This fact is latent within the statement concerning the
"great and mighty power" which was exerted in raising
Christ from the dead. When He was raised, the whole world, in essence, was
raised, and in due course we know this will happen, because the Book of
Revelation declares it to be so. All the trouble concerning "the
rest of the dead" is focussed on one factor. The church
believes that ONLY IN THIS LIFE does one have a chance of believing. Afterwards
there is no hope. As yet no one has been able to convince me of the truth of
this argument. I cannot find it declared in the Bible, and am at a loss to know
how the doctrine began. Personally I declare it a false doctrine, a demonic
doctrine, and one which is continually causing many sensitive souls much
heartache.
When people read in Peter's
1st letter that Jesus, in the spirit, went and preached to the spirits in
prison, (defined by Peter as those who were disobedient in Noah's day) they
tend to gloss over it as "a difficult passage," and "one not
admitting to a simple answer." Of course not! Their theology won't allow
the answer to be simple! But in the next chapter Peter goes on to say "For
this cause was the gospel preached also to those who are dead, that they might
be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the
spirit." (
Let us go back to the
Apostle Paul again, and see what he had to say about spiritual warfare in 2
Cor.10:3-6. "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after
the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every
high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having in readiness to
revenge all disobedience, once your obedience is fulfilled."
These words put us to shame. We have not seen them operate, and the Lord will
one day ask us why we didn't just simply believe them and put them into
practice. Some of us have had a taste of it, but haven't pursued it to its
logical conclusion.
Now, the point of bringing
this up at all is as follows. If the Lord offers us, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, a means of casting down imaginations and all the high and mighty
arguments that set people up in opposition to God, are we to imagine that the
Lord is Himself unable to do the same? What is more, we should believe
that for every little task of overcoming that is achieved by His elect, God is
able to do exceeding abundantly more! Jesus spoke about binding the strong man,
whereby we might plunder his goods (Matt.
John tells us (1 Jn.5:19)
that "the whole world lies in (the arms of) the wicked
one." Are not these people to be delivered? Didn't Jesus come
to set the prisoners free? How come then that Christians believe they will
forever be Satan's captives, only to find themselves overcome by a fiery future
that never ends? Where is the logic? What is not accomplished here on earth
will be accomplished at another time and in another place. It may even be left
until such people are raised to live ordinary human lives here on the earth.
Not everyone who is raised will receive a glorified body. Take Lazarus as an
example, and the widow of Nain's son, and the lad that Elijah raised from the
dead. Why did these resurrections occur? Was it not to show us that one day ALL
those who are in the grave will hear the voice of the Son of God and come
forth? Jesus went on to say that of that great company, there would be a time
of sorting out. The job was not yet finished. When Paul declared that Jesus had
"put all things under His feet", he went on
to say that "we do not yet see" this
accomplished. But it will happen, and it will be seen. Elsewhere he said that "every
knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."
Such language is very easy to accept at its face value by those who BELIEVE in
the ability of God, that there is nothing too hard for Him. How can anyone
contemplate the Lord having to admit failure at the end of His work?
Even if ONE soul is lost,
and forever destroyed, God would have to declare "This one I could
not persuade. He would not bow his knee." The thing is
unthinkable! I feel defiled even having to write such things of the Lord. If we
are told to be ministers of reconciliation (2 Cor.5) and we are asked to reason
with mankind, as Paul did, to persuade them of the great victory accomplished
at Calvary, and to beseech them to be reconciled to God, to be thankful, and to
look henceforth away from self, and into the face of the Saviour; if we are
commissioned to do that, then will not the Lord Himself plead with His own
creation when men's ways and men's powers reach their limit? What does the word
of God say? "Look unto Me all the ends of the earth and be
saved, for I am God and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself, the word is
gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me shall
every knee bow, every tongue shall swear." (Isaiah
45:21-23)Here is the Lord pleading with all the nations of mankind. And He
declares emphatically that His word shall not return unto Him void. It will
accomplish all that He intends. God's will is for men to be saved, not
destroyed, and if men refuse to allow His grace to enter their lives in this
scene, they will be faced with other opportunities elsewhere. We have shown
many times before that all those who DO believe in their lifetime are lifted
into a higher dimension of service for the Lord, but this must be looked upon
in terms of being helpers of the Lord in coming Kingdom days, helpers in
bringing in the greater harvest of souls, rather than just to enjoy privileges.
When it comes down to it, none of us has any right to eternal life. It is all
by God's grace. And that grace will reach out evermore until God has fully
recovered His creation, a creation that is already fully redeemed, but not yet
fully gathered back into the safety of God's fold. Finally, a real gem of truth
emerges from Isaiah 9:6. "His name shall be called Wonderful -
-." And
the Hebrew word for "wonderful" is the same word as that translated
"too hard" in the other O.T. references! And that takes a bit of
thinking about!!