God’s Short Arm – Dr. Hona Amer

Scripture:

“Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!’ Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt’?’” But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?” The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.” Numbers 11:18-23 (NIV)

Perspective:

When we face a challenge, it is easy to want to give up. Maybe we have exhausted all of our resources and still can’t find an answer. There seem to be no more solutions, no more answers, and no more hope. What do we do when we face the end of ourselves?

The Israelites wanted meat. It was all they could think, dream, and wail about. Moses knew that they were in the middle of the desert, and he could not find meat to feed all of the people. And, he was pretty sure that God couldn’t find meat either. Early in the chapter, Moses asks God to kill him if he was going to have to bear the burden alone. God had been providing manna for the Israelites, but Moses thought that providing meat was just too hard for God. He didn’t expect that God could do it. What are you expecting God to do in your life this year? No one who walks with God goes around actually saying that God is not powerful, mighty, or strong. But, many times the unspoken message of our lives is a lack of faith. We pray, but we don’t actually have faith that God can do it. We believe God can do many things for other people, but His arm is too short to help our situation. We don’t want to have to justify to our friends why God did not come through for us. So, we live life serving God, who we have come to believe has a short arm. Like Moses, we calculate the impossibility of our situation. Our faith is based on what seems most logical. Today, God is coming to you saying, “Is the Lord’s arm too short?” Is your situation too big or hard that you have finally stumped God? Absolutely not. God came through for the Israelites, and He will come through for you. Believe God and trust Him for the solution.