After looking at nine saints so far, including MOSES, JOSHUA, DAVID, ELIJAH, ELISHA and more recently JONAH and GIDEON, let’s shift the lens to one of my favourite prophets, as we continue to study the ‘hiddenness of God.’
It’s a question we will all come to ask at some point in our lives.
The great men and women of old asked it. And millions more are asking it today.
Is the arm of Yahweh too short? Is there anything too difficult for God?
Whether you’re in a season of pondering these existential questions now or not, you may find comfort in this if you are: you are in good company.
Isaiah wondered prophetically about the length of Yahweh’s spiritual arm. Jeremiah, the prophet in Israel after him was under house arrest at the time he declared in response prophetically,
“I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”
Jeremiah 32:28
I am amazed by God’s kindness when we have questions. It’s absolutely normal (and even right) to have questions. We were designed with an unction for curiosity. We’ve been wired to ask, learn, discover, and gain wisdom.
But the heart of the questioner is revealed by their response. And our Father in Heaven’s chief concern is the position of our hearts.
“For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Matthew 12:34
Isaiah was a prophetic voice for his entire nation when he wondered aloud, “Is the arm of Yahweh too short?”
Jeremiah, likewise, was a prophetic voice for his entire nation when he revealed God’s answer, quite ironically, as a rhetorical question to Himself: “Is anything too hard for me?”
The answer so obvious it’s almost laughable. Since God is Sovereign, Almighty, and All-knowing, it’s not as if anything past, present or future has, or can, or will surprise Him.
Which is why each question we ask rebounds to a more important area than our mouth: our still beating heart.
Jeremiah has become one of my favourite Biblical heroes over the last year. After years of not really ‘getting’ him, I thank God for the recent ways in which I’ve connected with this man of God, while discovering intricate ways in which his story is weaved along with Daniel’s during the Babylonian captivity.
Jeremiah was a heavy-hitter. If you take the time to study the Book of Jeremiah this year, take note of the kind of places the man found himself on account of Yahweh’s strong arm and powerful hand.
He yoked himself like an oxen or beast of burden to deliver scathing prophecies to King Jehoikim.
He was thrown into and left for dead inside a dried-out well for days and nearly starved to death because of his unrelenting inclination to declare the Word of Yahweh without any sugarcoating.
He lived for years in prison, house arrest, on the run, and under threat of death from more than one King in Israel.
How did the heart of this saint remain steadfast through all these trials? I believe there’s one prophecy that may reveal the hidden treasure Jeremiah saw more than any other. This and other meditations like it, from the mouth of Yahweh directly to Jeremiah, are the reason his hope never faded, even though for seasons of his life, it surely grew dim.
Jeremiah 32: 36-42
Now, therefore, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning this city, which you say is being handed over to the king of Babylon by means of the sword, starvation, and disease: See, I am gathering them from all the lands to which I drove them in my rising fury and great anger; I will bring them back to this place and settle them here in safety. They shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me always, for their own good and the good of their children after them. With them I will make an everlasting covenant, never to cease doing good to them; I will put fear of me in their hearts so that they never turn away from me. I will take delight in doing good to them: I will plant them firmly in this land, with all my heart and soul.
For thus says Yahweh: Just as I have brought upon this people all this great evil, so I will bring upon them all the good I have promised them.
Moses was intimate - face to face - with God Almighty.
Joshua never left the tent of God’s Presence.
David was a student of the Word and meditated deep in the wilderness, years before his calling as king.
Elijah prayed until something happened.
Elisha had the audacity to ask for double.
Jonah repented.
Gideon encountered Christ.
Isaiah said, “Here I am.”
And Jeremiah wept.
But as he trembled for long and faithful decades, he saw the earliest glimpses of a New Covenant. He saw a time coming when mercy would triumph over judgment. He saw the wounds of his people ultimately washed away, and a new day that was brighter than any he would know on this Earth.
The new covenant of our Heavenly Father had been hidden. But in Christ’s unfolding revelations to His prophets, Jeremiah continued where Isaiah left off, and declared an everlasting Truth, that good news and a New Covenant were imminent, and the Messiah was coming soon.
To imagine the flashes and visions Jeremiah had, we would do well to remember when they came to him. In the darkest cavern of the driest well. In the empty rubble of a looted temple. In the coldest nights of winter.
But even then, Yahweh’s Sovereign arm was not too short. For reaching down into the well of his weeping chamber, God Almighty spoke. And the mouth of Jeremiah responded.
What pit, cavern, cave or darkness have you encountered? You are in good company. What questions are you asking The Great I Am today? You are in good company.
But you’ll find yourself in better company still if your heart, tested though it is, can utter the responses of our patriarchs and heroes of old. Ask it with rhetorical certainty like Isaiah did, “Is the arm of the Lord too short?”
Respond by faith like Jeremiah did, “Ah Sovereign Yahweh, there is nothing too difficult for you!” You’ll find your heart welling up with joy, your mouth speaking out with grace, and your hope bubbling up to make even the emptiest well overflow.
Keep Breathing,
Daniel Kooman
Paid subscribers fund this newsletter and help bring its message to thousands of weekly readers. If you chip in $7/month or $70/year, or get on board as a founding member, it means a lot to me. You’ll also get some really cool stuff and gain membership to our streaming platform UnveilTV to Watch What Inspires You.