“IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD?” – Charles Spurgeon
IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD?
“Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for Me?” Jeremiah 32:26, 27.
This method of questioning the person to be instructed is known to teachers as the Socratic method. Socrates was likely 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. When the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, it was with a series of questions. “Know you the ordinances of Heaven? Can you set the dominion thereof in the earth? Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you? Can you send lightning, that they may go and say unto you, Here we are?” and so forth. 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. The Infallible One challenges a contradiction, or even a doubt. “Is anything too hard for Me?” is the strongest way of saying that nothing can be too hard for Him, for it proclaims defiance to Heaven and earth and Hell, to produce a difficulty which can perplex the Lord.
I invite you, therefore, dear friends, to turn the question over in your minds till the omnipotence of Jehovah shall be your one all-absorbing thought. You cannot think of anything which renders it necessary to put a footnote to the text. Search well and see if it needs qualification. See whether there is an exception to the rule of absolute omnipotence. Revolve the Divine question long and well—“Is anything too hard for Me?” May your thoughts be awake at this time! May the truth of the text take possession of your minds and fill them with its fragrance, even as the woman’s box of ointment filled the room with its perfume!
I. VIEWING IT AS NECESSARY
The utterance of these words was no superfluity; there was need for them to be spoken. Flesh is frail, and mortal minds are forgetful. And Jeremiah, great as he was, was but a man. 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. None can teach as the Lord teaches. Truth is never fully known by the sons of Zion until the Lord teaches it to them. Hence it is written, “All your children shall be taught of the Lord.” 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.
Jeremiah knew this truth in his inmost soul—see the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of this chapter—“I prayed unto the Lord, saying, Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the Heaven and the earth by Your great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for You.” He expressed the truth admirably, and yet the Lord saw it needful to give him a special Divine revelation to impress it more fully upon his heart. Brethren, it is one thing to know that such a doctrine is true, and quite another thing to know the truth itself. We need to be persuaded of it so as to embrace it. It is a glorious thing to see truth blaze out as if written in letters of fire.
We are far too apt to put truth down in our creed and, after that, shut it away from practical everyday use. We believe it, and we should be indignant if anybody disputed it. And yet we ignore it. The truth of God laid upon the shelf is as good as unknown. Doctrines which are disputed often have the most influence upon the community because they are brought clearly before men’s minds. And, being threshed out, they yield seed for the sower and bread for the eater. We read in one of the Epistles, “I put you in remembrance of these things, though you know them and are established in the present truth.”
There is a proverb which says, “Truth is mighty and will prevail.” That is true, as far as it goes. But the truth of God may be formally admitted and then it may be laid aside and so may never prevail. It is ill to treat a truth like some great Egyptian king who is swathed in fine linen, embalmed with precious spices, and pompously placed in the tomb with other honorable mummies. The Lord would not have the truth of His own omnipotence thus dealt with, and therefore He comes forth from His secret place and speaks personally to His servant, saying, “Is anything too hard for Me?” May the Lord do the same with us in reference to the precious truths of His gospel! May the Holy Spirit Himself take of the things of Christ and show them to us. Then shall we see them in their own light and know them as Divine realities!
But I go a step further and say that 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 You.” 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. “Bring forth your strong reasons,” says the Lord. The sinews of prayer are the holy arguments which we urge with the Lord, such as His own promises and our great needs—His own glory, His covenant, the malice of the enemy, and so forth.
We know great truths of God well when we see their bearing towards God in supplication. And yet, though we may be able to plead it in supplication, we may not even then know the truth to the full. O men of God, you that are fathers in Israel, may the Holy Spirit still teach you, till you know all the power and fullness of His truth. In lowliness of spirit, I doubt not that you still cry— “I find myself a learner yet, unstable, weak, and apt to slide.” May the Comforter continually bring to your remembrance the things which Jesus has told you till you know the heart and soul of them.
You gracious mothers in Israel, may God reveal Himself to you more and more, and even those truths which you already plead in your closet may He yet cause you to realize more vividly still. May you weave songs as well as prayers out of the truth of God. This truth of His omnipotence may He come and speak to our hearts as He did to the heart of Jeremiah— “Behold, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh—Is there anything too hard for Me?”
II. REGARDING IT AS DECISIVE
“Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for Me?” This argument is decisive. For the argument is fetched from the Lord Himself. Note this—in his prayer, Jeremiah drew his encouragement from what the Lord had done. Observe, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for You.” Creation is a fine argument. The God that made the heavens and the earth without help from any can surely do anything He pleases. He who made the mountains and the sea and the isles thereof can do anything. He who created the skies and made the stars also in the far-off space—those great and mighty orbs—what is there that He cannot do?
This was good argument for Jeremiah. But Jehovah does not point to His works, nor quote creation nor providence—He speaks of Himself—the source of all, from where a thousand earths and heavens might flow like streams from a fountain. There it stands in its majestic simplicity—“I am Jehovah.” 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 realize that nothing can be too hard for Him. Alas, what feeble notions we have of God! I dare say we think that we magnify Him, but in reality we belittle Him with our highest thoughts.
When we go down to the sea of trial and do business on the great waters of trouble, we find that we know little enough of God. When we see His wonders on the deep, we are astonished and overwhelmed, and if one of His storms should arise, our faith is staggered. If we did but rise to an idea of God—if we could but form a fair idea of the immeasurable greatness of His power—doubt and mistrust would become impossible. “Is anything too hard for Me?” says Jehovah. Meditate much upon the Divine Father, Creator, and Preserver. Meditate upon the Divine Son, the risen Redeemer, who has all power in Heaven and in earth. Meditate upon the sacred Spirit, of whom the rushing mighty wind in the tornado is but a faint symbol, and you will feel that here is the source of all might. “I am Jehovah.” The argument takes you to Himself, and coming to you from His own mouth, the reason is a decisive one.
But He means us also to see the argument as founded on His name, “I am Jehovah.” I am always sorry that our revisers had not the courage of their knowledge and had left the Divine name as it is in the original Hebrew and given us the word “Jehovah” where they usually put LORD. It is a name of awe and glory, and the Christian Church must get back to it and return more distinctly to the worship of Jehovah. The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob—this God is our God forever and ever.
And we might more clearly have recognized this if the incommunicable name had been preserved to us in our version of the sacred Scriptures. The name brings out the personality of God. Those who say that there is no God, are, some of them, forced to admit that there is a central force—a power which makes for righteousness. They talk of an impersonal something, but we believe in a personal God, and he who has no personal God has, in truth, no God at all.
III. APPLYING IT IN DETAIL
The text says, “Is anything too hard for Me?” Apply this question to the justification of your obedience. When you know what is right, it will happen more often than not that to do right will be costly or at least risky—and if you judge after the manner of worldly-wise men, you will consider yourselves likely to be losers by obeying God. You may lose friends, reputation, assistance, and peace. This question of loss is answered at once by this fact—if you do what God bids you, the responsibility of your conduct lies with Him, and He will bear you through. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
As He justified the action of His servant Elijah at Carmel and justified the purchase made by Jeremiah, so will He justify all the obedient actions of His people. He will bring forth our judgment as the light and our righteousness as the noonday. Apply this glorious truth of God to the sure fulfillment 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. Do you believe it? “Oh,” says one, “that would be a wonder”! It will be a wonder, and the text may be read, “Is anything too wonderful for Me?”
He can call them off from money-hunting—can take away their unbelief concerning the Lord Jesus. He can cause the lips which now revile the name of the Crucified to sing praises to the Nazarene. Glory be to His name, He can cause the waters of Siloa, which flow softly, again to flow with blessing and make the desolate land again to blossom as the rose. 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?”
Apply this to any case of great sin. Select anyone whom you knew to be especially hard-hearted and pray for him earnestly and hopefully. Choose out some glaring sinner, or special heretic, or fierce hater of religion and pray for him. You say to yourself, “I will choose an easier case.” Do not. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Will you, in your judgment, set anyone beyond the reach of mercy and out of the bounds of grace? Make an application of our text to the most desperate and loathsome sinner and believe that nothing is too hard for the Lord.
O chief of sinners, if you are here this morning—blasphemer, swearer, thief, drunkard, whoremonger, harlot, take home this question to yourself—Thus says the Lord, “Is anything too hard for Me?” If you believe in the Lord Jesus, God has saved you, saved you now. He can and will wash every believing sinner from all his sins through the blood of Jesus, and He will graciously blot out all his iniquities.
Remember how He forgave David and Manasseh and the dying thief and Saul of Tarsus and the woman that was a sinner? May the Holy Spirit make a personal application of omnipotent love to each of you who now feel your sins! Salvation is not too hard a thing for the Lord.
IV. USING IT WITH DELIGHT
Time allows but a few words. Use the text as a preventive of unbelieving sin. You say you are in a nasty hobble. I know you are. And therefore the devil says, “Put forth your hand unto iniquity.” An evil transaction seems the sure way to get you out of your difficulty. What? Do you wish to help the Lord? Do you dream that He needs your sin to aid Him in delivering you? Flee from the rash action. Let not your hand reproach you, as Crammer’s did. When at the stake, he held it in the fire and cried, “That unworthy right hand,” because it had once signed a recantation.
Do not sin. Be poor, but be holy. Be straightforward and honest, come what may. God does not need the help of your sin in order that He may give you your daily bread. When I think of a man supposing that sin is necessary to help God’s Providence, I am ashamed. Even in what is right, our aid to God is like an ant lending help to an elephant. But to do wrong to help the Lord to provide for us is a sort of acted blasphemy. And such a poor creature as you are, do you think that your foul finger is needed for God’s Divine work? Away with the idea of its ever being needful to do wrong. Let all sins of haste, all tricks of policy, all compromises with error, all silence through the fear of consequences, all doings or not doings which would involve a blot on your conscience, be put away forever. That filthy thing—temporizing and parleying with evil, which men call prudence—let it be hanged upon the gallows of scorn. Do God’s work thoroughly, heartily, intensely—and God will reward you in His grace.
Use it next for consolation in the time of trouble. You are now in a pit wherein there is no water—how can you ever get out? Listen—“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” It is worse than a pit, you say —it seems like a living Hell. The Lord can deliver you. Remember Jonah in the belly of the great fish which went down deeper and deeper till it seemed to dive below the bottoms of the mountains? It seemed all over with Jonah. But it was not so. “is anything too hard for the Lord?” Jonah owned that “salvation is of the Lord,” and the fish was not able to imprison him any longer. Forth came Jonah to life and liberty. Jehovah has delivered those who trust in Him, and He will yet deliver us.
Next, use the text as a window through which you look with expectation. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Expect the unexpected to happen to you. He who whispers to himself—“God is going to do something for me that I have never looked for” is the brave man. “A storm is brewing,” cries one. Is it? My way of putting it is—rain is being prepared for the earth. Brethren, the Lord’s blessing is coming upon the Churches—look for it! Let this text be a stimulus to you to engage in great enterprises. Launch out into the deep. Do not always keep on fishing for shrimp along the shore. Attempt great things for God. Attempt something which as yet you cannot do. Any fool can do what he can do. It is only the Believer who does what he cannot do. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Fall back upon omnipotence and then go forward in the strength of it.
Let the text be a reason for adoration. O You to whom nothing is hard, we adore You! We worship You with all our hearts and this day we believingly link our weakness with Your omnipotence. We trust You for life, for death, for eternity. Dear Savior, we trust You now with all our sins and sorrows. Nothing is too hard for You, therefore save Your poor servants according to the riches of Your grace— “A guilty, weak and helpless worm, On Your kind arms I fall; Be You my strength and righteousness, My Jesus and my All.”