June 30, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Ah Lord God, behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee." — Jeremiah 32:17 · KJV

At the very moment when the invading army had surrounded Jerusalem, and the land had been laid waste by sword, famine, and disease, God commanded Jeremiah to buy a field and have the deed of transfer properly sealed and witnessed. It was a strange purchase for any sensible man to make. Common sense could not defend it, since he was buying with hardly a chance that he would ever live to enjoy what he bought. But it was enough for Jeremiah that his God had told him to do it, for he knew well that God is proved right by all His children in the end. His reasoning ran like this: Ah, Lord God, You can make this plot of ground useful to me; You can rid this land of its oppressors; You can yet set me under my own vine and fig tree on the property I have purchased, for You made the heavens and the earth, and there is nothing too hard for You. This is what gave the early saints their greatness: at God's command they dared to do the very things that human reason condemned. Whether it is a Noah building a ship on dry land, an Abraham ready to offer up his only son, a Moses turning his back on the treasures of Egypt, or a Joshua marching around Jericho for seven days with nothing but the blast of rams' horns for weapons, they all act on God's word against everything reason advises, and the Lord gives them a rich reward for their obedient faith. How I wish the religion of our own times had a stronger dose of this heroic faith in God. If we would venture more on the bare promise of God, we would step into a world of wonders that is still strange to us. Let Jeremiah's ground of confidence be ours: nothing is too hard for the God who created the heavens and the earth.