Is God’s Arm Too Short?

Is God’s Arm Too Short?

Numbers 11:23

And the Lord said to Moses, “Has the Lord’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not.”

   Moses cried out, "Why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me?" (Numbers 11:11).  Moses was exhausted with the ceaseless grumbling and complaining of the Israelite people.  They came to him all day long every day with their endless complaints.  Finally he lost his temper and cried out to God, "I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me" (Numbers 11:14).  Complaining about the complainers made Moses a complainer.  He was complaining about people always complaining. 

   But the Lord had an answer for him.  What he asked Moses was, “Has the LORD’S arm been shortened?”  The answer, of course, is “No.”  The LORD’s arm is not too short to reach us and not too limited to answer our needs and bring us blessings. 

   The facts were that the people were being taken care of; they just weren’t living in the lap of luxury.  They had food, the manna from heaven, and they had water.  God even saw to it that their shoes didn’t wear out.  They had been brought out of slavery and were on their way to a better land with plenty of water and good soil to grow crops in.  But they still complained.  And now Moses was overwhelmed with those complaints and was suffering from a form of depression. 

   Your faith has enemies, and one of the powerful enemies of faith is depression.  Depression and self-pity can create a condition inside you that leads to spiritual blindness.  When Moses allowed himself to be overcome by the pressures and stresses of his responsibilities, he slipped into depression and temporarily went spiritually blind.  He seems to have momentarily forgotten who God was and what God had done for him and for his people. 

   The people wanted meat to go with their manna and God had told Moses it would happen.  And more than that, there would be so much meat they would become sick of it.  And Moses, in his depressed state of mind, asked God how this could be?  There were 600,000 men, not counting women and children, and how could enough meat be found to feed them all?  This seems strange for Moses to say because God was supplying them with food every day, so why was it so hard to believe that He could give them meat as well?  If God chose to feed them meat instead of manna every morning, would that be too hard for God?  So God asked a question back to Moses, “Has the Lord’s arm been shortened?”  Had Moses forgotten that God already had done so much for them?  The ten plagues, split the sea and left dry land for them to walk on, fed them with manna and brought water from the rock?

   The next time you find yourself doubting God, ask yourself, "Has the arm of the LORD become shorter?"  The next time you find yourself despondent and depressed, remind yourself of what God had already done for you in the past.  Remember that old hymn, “count your blessings, name them one by one.”  I live by that because I can so easily forget what He has done for me and begin to doubt Him.  Again.  And again. 

   But when I begin to remind myself of all that God has blessed me with over the years, my spiritual blindness lifts and I can trust him for the answer.  My faith is never so great as when I am praising Him for what He has already done for me. 

   How about you?  Feeling a bit overwhelmed?  Are you feeling “down?”  You should try counting your blessings, naming them one by one.  And it WILL surprise you what the Lord has done.    

Asaph wrote in Psalm 77:11-12 NKJV

11 I will remember the works of the Lord;
Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
12 I will also meditate on all Your work,
And talk of Your deeds.

Stephen Cram                                                                            November 3, 2013                      

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.  Colossians 2:8

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