Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord?

Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord?

Sunday, February 6, 2022

This is the question, verbatim, from Genesis 18:14 - “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” The story occurs long after the promise to Abraham had been given that he and Sarah would have a son. But years have passed, and they have gotten old. The couple, ten years apart, are now 99 and 89. The Lord appears and promises at this time next year, they would have a son. Sarah laughed out loud.

The truth is, nothing is hard at all for the Lord. We think of things being hard when it requires great might. But God is - wait for it - the Almighty. Things are hard when they require great coordination of many moving parts. But God has in mind at once all coordinates and permutations. We find things to be next to impossible when we are opposed by powerful figures or forces who are set against us. But God has no true rivals. He is un-rivaled. When the doctors say it can’t happen, well then, who in their right mind would argue? But God isn’t limited by medical experience.

God promised a son. God does not lie. And He promised. Abraham and Sarah wondered. No, they doubted. And then God said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

The Hebrew word for “hard” can also be translated “wonderful.” What are the limits on the wonders (hard things) that God can perform? The hymn, written by early American pastor Samuel Davies, goes “Great God of wonders! All Thy ways are matchless, godlike and divine.” It is put to a tune by John Newton called “Wonders (Sovereignty).” And then Davies takes this wonderful matchlessness of God and applies it to grace and forgiveness: “Who is a pardoning God like Thee? Or who has grace so rich and free?” 

We don’t often think of God stooping in tenderness and compassion down to the level of self-willed, rebellious sinners as a “too hard” thing. But if God is holy, the easiest thing for Him to do would have been to mete out the punishment that we deserve. Instead, He did the hard thing and the holy thing. That is, He sent His Son to bear our sin (a hard thing) so that we could be holy (a wonderful thing).

Once again, an angel appeared to a man, Zecharias, and said that his old, barren wife, Elizabeth, would have a child. When the New Testament angel quotes the Old Testament angel to Mary, he says, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Elizabeth’s baby, John the Baptist, says of Mary’s baby, Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”