Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 363
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord’s hand waxed short? You shall now see whether My Word shall come to pass unto you or not.” Numbers 11:23.
GOD had made a positive promise to Moses that for the space of a whole month he would feed the vast host in the wilderness with flesh. Moses, being overtaken by a fit of unbelief, looks to the outward means—calculates his commissariat—and is at a loss to know how the promise can be fulfilled. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain? How, then, should they have cattle wherewith to stock the land upon which they hoped soon to enter? And if they should slaughter all their beasts, there would not be food enough for ravenous people for a month. Shall all the fish of the sea leave their watery element, and come to the tables of these clamorous hungry men? Even then, Moses thought there would be scarcely enough food to feed so vast a host for a month! You will see, my Brothers and Sisters, right readily the mistake which Moses made. He looked to the creature instead of the Creator. Does the Creator expect the creature to fulfill his promise? No; only He who makes, fulfills. If He speaks, it is done—done by Himself—His promises do not depend for their fulfillment upon the cooperation of the puny strength of man! God as a Sovereign gives an absolute promise; and He can do it without fear of mistake, because He has Omnipotence wherewith to fulfill His greatest word. It were an error, indeed, to look to the sea for fish, instead of waiting upon Heaven for the promise; to look to the flocks for food, instead of believing on Him to whom belongs the cattle on a thousand hills! Suppose, my Friends, this country should be threatened by an invasion of some foreign power, and you, in your wisdom and full of trembling, should say to those whose province it is to guard our happy island—“I fear this land can never be protected, for the Emperor of China has but very little power; the Presidents of the Republics of South America have but little influence”? You would be stared at! Men would ask, what has that to do with the question? The troops of Britain are to defend the land, not the troops of China, or Bolivia. What matters the weakness of those republics or kingdoms? They are not expected to defend our land! You would be absurd in looking for help where help was neither expected nor promised.
And yet how commonly we do the same! Godhas promised to supply our needs, and we look to the creature to do what God has promised to do! And then, because we perceive the creature to be weak and feeble, we indulge in unbelief! Why do we look to that quarter at all? Will you look to the top of the Alps for summer heat? Will you journey to the north pole to gather fruits ripened in the sun? Or will you take your journey towards the equator, so that your body may be braced by cool invigorating breezes? Verily you would act no more foolishly if you did this than when you look to the weak for strength, or the creature to do the Creator’s work! The great folly of Moses is the folly of most Believers. Let us, then, put the question aright. The ground of faith is not the sufficiency of the visible means for the performance of the promise, but the All-Sufficiency of the invisible God most surely to do as He has saidl And then, if after that we dare to indulge in mistrusts, the question of God comes home mightily to us—“Has the Lord’s hand waxed short?” And may it happen, too, in His mercy, that with the question, there may come also that blessed promise, “You shall now see whether My Word shall come to pass unto you or not.”
It is an amazing thing that such a question as this should ever be asked at all—“Has the Lord’s hand waxed short?” If we look anywhere and everywhere, apart from the conduct of man, there is nothing to suggest the suspicion. Look to God’s Creation! Is there anything there which would make you say, “Is the Lord’s hand waxed short?” What pillar of the heavens has begun to reel? What curtain of the sky has been torn or moth-eaten? Have the foundations of the Earth begun to start? Do they not abide as the Lord has settled them? Has the sun grown dim with age? Have the starry lamps flickered or gone out in darkness? Are there signs of decay, today, upon the face of God’s Creation? Have not howling tempests, the yawning ocean, and death-bearing hurricanes asserted but yesterday their undiminished might? Say, is not the green earth as full of vitality, as ready to yield us harvests, now, as it ever has been? Do the showers fall less frequently? Has the sun ceased to warm? Are there any signs and tokens that God’s Creation is tottering to its decay? No! Journey where you will, you will see God as potent upon the face of the earth, and in the very bowels of the globe, as He was when He first said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. There is nothing which would tempt us to surmise or suspect that the Lord’s hand has waxed short. And look you, too, in Providence—is there anything there that would suggest the question? Are not His prophecies still fulfilled? Does He not cause all things to work together for good? Do the cattle on a thousand hills low out to Him for hunger? Do you meet with the skeletons of birds that have fallen to the ground from famine? Does He neglect to give to the fish their food, or do the sea-monsters die? Does not God still open His hands and supply the needs of every living thing? Is He less bounteous, today, than He was in the time of Adam? Is not the cornucopia still as full? Does He not still scatter mercies with both His hands right lavishly? Are there any tokens in Providence, any more than in Nature, that God’s arm has waxed short? And look, too, in the matter of Divine Grace—is there any token in the work of Grace that God’s power is failing? Are not sinners still saved? Are not profligates still reclaimed? Are not drunks still uplifted from their sties to sit upon the Throne of God with princes? Are not harlots as truly reclaimed as were those in the days of Christ? Is not the Word of God still quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword? Which of His arrows has been blunted? Where have you seen the sword of the Lord snapped in two? When has God assayed to melt a heart and failed in the attempt? Which of His people has found the riches of His Grace drained dry? Which of His children has had to mourn that the unsearchable riches of Christ had failed to supply his need?