Bible Commentaries

‘LIMITING THE HOLY ONE’

‘They said, Can God?’

Psalms 78:19

Can a man limit God? At first sight it seems impossible, and yet it is done by multitudes every hour of every day. Even Jesus Christ was limited as to His miraculous power by the unbelief of the Nazarenes. To doubt God is to limit Him, and to make Him look smaller than He actually is. Why the Infinite should permit the finite to contract His dimensions and operations is a great mystery.

I. Men too often limit the majesty of God.—He is the King of all kings, and all earthly kings are His vassals, but men are bold enough to rob His crown of its gems and His breastplate of its splendours. There is only room for one God in this universe, and yet men are multiplying gods on every side. In their endeavours to define God they make Him appear less than He actually is. The term ‘Nature’ takes the place of the term ‘God’; the term ‘laws of Nature’ takes the place of the term ‘Divine attributes’; and the term ‘Course of the world’ takes the place of the term ‘Divine Providence.’

II. Men too often limit the power of God.—They cynically ask, ‘Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?’ They limit His omnipotence and thus provoke Him to anger. They had heard of the marvels of His power in Egypt and by the Red Sea; they had heard of Him who had spoken to their leader in the bush burning with fire; they beheld His pillar of fire by night, and yet they had the audacity to doubt His ability to lay a simple table in the wilderness! In a fit of arrant blasphemy they tried to circumscribe His infinite powers, and the people of Nazareth treated Christ in the same way, for their unbelief practically limited His power for a time. ‘The word preached did not profit because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it.’

III. Men too often limit the Holy Will of God.—This will is the fundamental law of the universe, and yet many men dictate to God as if He were only an equal. Instead of our will being ours to make it God’s, we make God’s will His to make it ours. We murmur against Him day and night, and show Him what He is to do, and how, and when! It is rank arrogance to say to the Almighty, ‘Thus far shalt Thou go and no further.’ We have no right to prescribe God’s pathway in providence and to set up our feeble will as standards for Him. ‘Thy will—not ours—be done.’

IV. Men too often limit the wisdom of God.—In a sense they ‘chalk out’ the path for Him, and they say in effect, ‘This is the way, walk thou in it.’ What lessons we are ready to teach the All-wise in the management of the universe! God works at opposite poles from man, and in due time Joseph is installed as Prime Minister of Egypt. Let us not insult the Divine omniscience by doubting God’s wisdom.

V. Men too often limit the love of God.—Love is the grandest thing in God, and yet some men seek to rob it of its glory. They are doing their best to reduce the Divine ocean into a tiny lakelet and to keep it under their own control.

But we make His love too narrow

By false limits of our own,

And we magnify His strictness

With a zeal He will not own.

In the words of another, ‘Holiness is central in God, but love is central in holiness.’ His holiness always includes love, and His love always expresses holiness. Never let us exalt one attribute at the expense of the other.

Illustration

‘This ancient and Israelitish unbelief finds continual modern and Gentile illustration. We are ever limiting the Holy One Whom we profess to serve. Amid our wilderness of emergency, temptation, trial, our faithless hearts are asking the same question, “Who is the Lord that we should serve Him?” How can He deliver us? God stands there, over against each one of us, with an infinity of blessing in His hands—of deliverance, of present and abiding peace, of the promise of the land beyond; but unbelief is a staggering and blear-eyed creature, who often cannot see what God proffers, and even when she does, reaches forth such palsied hands they cannot reach and hold the blessing.’