Who said, “Your arm is too short to box with God?”

Podcast: Embed

Subscribe: RSS

James Weldon Johnson, the African American wrote a book entitled God’s Trombones. He began one poem about the Prodigal Son with these words, “Young Man, Young man–your arm is too short to box with God.” The prophet Isaiah helps us to know emphatically that we are too puny to box with God. We are too small to grasp fully God’s greatness. In Isaiah 45, God speaks to us through his prophet this way: “I am the LORD and there is no other. I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the LORD, am the one who does these things. What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator! Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong?’ “Do you question what I do for my children? Do you give me orders about the work of my hands? I am the one who made the earth and created people to live on it. With my hands, I stretched out the heavens. All the stars are at my command. . . .The LORD is God, and he created the heavens and earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, and not to be a place of empty chaos. I am the LORD, God says, and there is no other.” WOW! Since God is all wise, all-powerful, and loves us so dearly, we can only bow in heartfelt reverence and obedience.