An Arms Deal

“Is the Lord’s arm too short?”  Sounds like a silly question at first…but it’s one God asked Moses. The multitudes of Israelites were desert-hot, road weary, and hangry for meat. For reasons we don’t know, the livestock they took with them was off limits, so there was no optional food source in sight!  If you think it’s difficult to come up with a satisfactory menu for a family of four, just think about the seemingly impossible task Moses was faced with.  God, merciful God, met him in his despair.  “Is the Lord’s arm too short?” You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.” (Numbers 11:23)  Then God reached down and saved them once again.
     The Lord’s arms aren’t too short but mine sometimes are. It’s not uncommon for me to be standing in a grocery store aisle waiting for a tall person to come along and retrieve the last box of granola on a tall shelf just out of my reach.
   Pap used to tell a story about a dinner guest who rudely stretched his long arm across the table to get the butter. The man of the house asked, “Son, don’t you have a tongue?” To which the ill-mannered fellow replied, “Yes, but it wouldn’t reach that far.” 
     When I taught school, it was among my duties to chaperone the 7th/8th grade trip to Washington, DC.  I was in charge of the girl bus and as you would expect, there was an incident. Quite a commotion erupted when one crying girl got her arm caught in the reclining seats…and we weren’t even out of the parking lot yet! Kids aren’t as tough as they used to be. I remember when arm wrestling was a thing. And we suffered through violent games without complaint like Red Rover in which kids formed two human chains, and then dared one person to run as fast as they could and attempt to break through.  My scrawny arms suffered the most because the runner headed for the weakest link in the chain, which usually included me. 
   Arms are always flailing on the farm; swinging weed-eaters, swatting bees, slinging hay bales, or multi-tasking chores.  Imagine carrying rocks with one arm and carrying a sword in the other! This never happened at Red Gate Farm (as far as I know) but it did happen in Nehemiah 4:17. People who were building the Jerusalem wall did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other because they were getting death threats.  Figuratively, the sword is part of the Armor of God we put on to fight evil.  It represents God’s word (the Bible).  Good idea would be to stay “read up” and ready for any surprise attacks. One arm should always carry a “sword”.
      A few years ago, a woman who runs a raptor rescue longed to acquire an ambassador eagle to use in her programs. But first she had to prove herself by holding the 6-10 lb eagle on her outstretched arm for two hours. I imagine her arm sure was tired, but God’s never is.  Psalm 136:12 “with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; His love endures forever.”   
   Sometimes our arms are raised in praise or surrender, or both simultaneously.  Sometimes they go up if we have a question or an answer.  My arm is in the air, excitedly waving around because I know the answer to “Where do we run when we’re faced with the impossible or the tiresome?  Jesus. He’s waiting with open arms. “Let the one the Lord loves rest safely in Him. The Lord guards him all day long.  The one the Lord loves rests in His arms.” (Deuteronomy 33:12)
     Here’s the deal-- nobody and nothing is out of God’s reach.  “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save…” (Isaiah 59:1) And that’s an arms deal you don’t have to wrestle with.

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