June 30

Will he plead against me with his great power? - Job 23:6.

HE might righteously do it. We deserve it. From hence we learn, First, That the power of God is great, a truth of which we need not to be informed, for who is there that cannot say, with David, “Once have I heard this, yea twice, that power belongeth unto God?” The Apostles’ Creed begins with this: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” This is much easier said than realised. And he not only displayed his almightiness in making heaven and earth, but in the manner in which he did it. With what infinite ease! without any exertion! with his word! “He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.”

And how are all things upholden? He “hangs the earth upon nothing.” It performs its annual and diurnal course. Why? “He upholds all things by the word of his power. He made iron to swim, the flames to refuse to scorch or even to produce the smell of fire on the hair of the three Hebrew children. “Why, then, should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead?” He can raise the dead with infinitely greater ease than we can awake the most lively creature. What, then, must it be to plead against a man with his great power?

Secondly, While the greatness of Jehovah’s power is a tremendous thought if we view it abstractedly, it suggests that the power of God is engaged in behalf of his people. We may view it as belonging to our Friend and Father, and as under the direction of his mercy and grace. Will he employ his great power against us? No! Oh, the blessedness of having this power employed for us. It is our most delightful resource to know that “nothing is too hard for the Lord,” and that he will do all things for us. Oh, it is indeed delightful to hold communion with the attributes of God; when I am in perplexity, to think of his wisdom and guidance; when I feel my unworthiness, to think of his mercy and grace to pardon and renew me; when I feel my weakness, to think of his all-sufficiency, and to know that “in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” That, instead of his pleading against me with his great power, he is saying to me, “Let him take hold of my strength,”-let the ivy cling to the tree and ascend.

Thirdly, Let us consider how dreadful it must be for God to plead against a man with his great power. He pleaded with his great power against the mighty angels who sinned, the least of whom could wield those elements and lay creation, if allowed, waste in a moment. He pleaded against “the old world” with “his great power,” and drowned it with a flood. He “pleaded against” Pharaoh with “his great power,” and he sank with his hosts like lead in the mighty waters. “And,” says Job, “thine eyes are upon me, and I am not”-a look annihilates; one glance by and bye, and “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up.”