In the Everlasting Arms
Deuteronomy 33:26/7 “..“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, Who rides the heavens to help you, And in His excellency on the clouds. The eternal God is your refuge, And underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you..”
I know that those among you will question His ‘Everlasting arms’, because you’ll have neither seen let alone felt that peace or protection. If so answer me this easy problem then … 'If when watering your garden, suddenly the water stops flowing, what can cause this'? .. 'Could it be because there is a knot in the hose somewhere'?
This is what happens to so many Christians today, because drop-by-drop we let our old lives, ways, sins come back into our ‘NEW’ lives in Christ. Thus over time Gods graces & love dry’s up and start to a wall of sin around again, stopping His ‘Everlasting arms’ to shield us and protect us.
There are two sides, to a Christian life …
1: The Active Side ...We are urged to a faithfulness in our daily lives, to activity, in all service, to victorious in all struggles, to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
2: We are to simply trust ...We are to have trust & quietness & confidence, to repose God. It is well that we sometimes think of the latter aspect of our Christian faith. This is well presented to us in the Bible’s word, which says .. “underneath are the everlasting arms”
The illustration I’m trying to project here, is that of a little child resting in His, the strong arms of the Father, who is able to with stand all storms and dangers. I also am reminded of John (the Apostle) laying across Christ Jesus’ bosom. At the 2 extremes of life, from a young child to an old person up in years, the promise then comes with a special assurance. IS 40:11 “..He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom.” .. is a word for the children .. IS 46:4 Even to your old age, I am He, And even to gray hairs I will carry you..” .. brings it blessed comfort to to the aged. Although we don’t recognise this, God first comes to us in our infancy in our Mothers womb, who bore us into her arms. Yet they only dim revealing of God for a time. They leave us after teaching us a little of God’s tenderness, but God Himself remains when they are gone, but His arms never release us.
After the death of a Dr Bushnell’s, a sheet with faded writing was found and it said …
My mothers loving instinct was from God,
and God was in her love to me first,
therefore, which love was deeper than hers,
and more protracted. She passed long
ago now, but God stays with me still,
and bracing me in my grey hairs as tenderly
and carefully as did in my infancy,
and giving me joy and the principal
glory of my life, that he lets me know
Him, and helps me, with real confidence
to call Him Father.
… this letter just out lines some what god does for His people. He tries to explain, by human acts, which are familiar to us. His wonderful care and kindness. One meaning is of protection, just as a Father put his arms about his child when ever there is danger.
Psalm 77:15 “..You have with Your arm redeemed Your people..”
It is continually told in the scriptures that will always behave this way. When in fact the tell us of His eyes looking down to behold His people, that He never slumbers, nor takes his eye of the ball, (so’s to speak). Also hearing all of the suffering in the World. So many ask, “if this is so, why does God let it carry on”? I have a theory that might go to answer this question, just given to me from God …
… in that God asks us to have faith in Him, which we never fully do, because our society demands everything NOW. We don’t want to wait so we go about getting/sorting out our problems ourself, not letting God help us. Just like a car that we have faith in to deliver us from A to B. Even having reliable car, we would not push it everywhere, telling others that while it works fine, and is a reliable make, you don’t really have faith in it …
… the Bible tells us that God hears the groaning of the prisoner, wrongly jailed. God does comfort His people in their sorrows. God holds us in His arms just as a Father would a child, meaning that His guidance is personal and strong.
For us to understand God’s will and actions from a human stand point, here are 5 actions that might, are called ‘Divine care’ …
- Protection
- Affection
- Strength
- Endurance
- Underneath
Psalm 77:15 “..You have with Your arm redeemed Your people..”
Isaiah 59:16 “..Therefore His own arm brought salvation..”
Isaiah 33:2 “..Be their arm every morning..”
# Life is full of peril #
With the temptations of today they are at every turn. Enemies lurk in every shadow, ready to strike with strength and swiftness. When ever we think of death it is with sadness and fear and dread. Even with all the odds about -’life assurance funeral cover’. It has more perils than death.
It is easy and safe to die when one has lived well,
although it is hard to live with
We always forget, to be assured that life cannot
separate us from the love of God
As God embraces His children He does so with His arms, showing His love for them. His love is tender, close and intimate. He holds them in a place of affection. Just as our Earthly father does, where we feel safest all while we are hearing his heart beating.
Our Mother would embrace her children, scooping them up to protect the, at any signs of danger, even covering them, putting her own body between them, so that she gets hurt and not them. Of cause a mother with holds back some for those times when her children need a special love for times of pain and suffering.
As a side thought, the ‘ARM’ is seen as a symbol of strength. A mothers arm may look frail physically, but her love is what gives her arm it’s strength. Once her arms are folded about her weak and feeble child she is able to draw upon the power of the Universe, and nothing , and I mean NOTHING will be able to tear her child away from her.
Isaiah 40:29 “..He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength..”
# This is an Arm that can never be broken #
A suggestion in the word ‘underneath’. Not only do the arms of God embrace the child, but they are ‘underneath ever underneath’. This means that we can’t sink, for these arms will ever be beneath us where ever we may be, we cannot sink below them or even fall out of His grasp.
When death comes, and every Earthly thing has gone from beneath us, and we sink away into what seems darkness and the shadow of death, out of all human love, out of wrath and gladness, and sweet life into the gloom and strange mystery of death, still it will be only into “..the everlasting arms..” When Jesus said with His dying breath..
Luke 23:46 “..And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last..”
… He found the everlasting arms underneath Him when Jesus spirit left the torn body. When Stephen died he prayed “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”.
Dying for us Christians, is merely breathing the lifetime
into the embrace of God. We shall find the divinely arms
underneath us. Not even death can separate us from the
wonderfully everlasting love of God
NO power in the Universe can snatch us out of His hands.
Nether death or life , or things present to come, can ever separate
us from His love, Praise to the Almighty God.
