An arm that can never be broken
by J.R. Miller. The Eternal God is your
refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Deuteronomy
33, 27. The picture suggested is that
of a little child lying in the strong arms of a father who is
able to withstand all storms and dangers, At the two extremes
of life, childhood and old age, this promise comes with special
assurance. He shall gather the lambs in
his arms and gather them in his bosom, by Isaiah 40.11, is a
word for the children. Even to your old age and grey
hairs I am he. I am He who will sustain you,
I have made you, and I will carry you, I will sustain you, and
I will rescue you, by Isaiah 46.4 brings its blessed comfort
to the aged. The thought of God's embracing
arms is very suggestive. What does an arm represent? What
is the thought suggested by the arm of God enfolded around His
child? One suggestion is protection. As a father puts his arm about
his child when it is in danger, so God protects His children. Life is full of peril. There
are temptations on every hand. Enemies lurk in every shadow,
enemies strong and swift. Yet we are assured that nothing
can separate us from the love of God. Underneath are the everlasting
arms. Another thought is affection.
The father's arm drawn around the child is a token of love. The child is held in the father's
bosom near his heart. The shepherd carries the lambs
in his bosom. John lay on Jesus' bosom. The
mother holds the child in her bosom because she loves it. This
picture of God embracing his children in his arms tells of
his love for them. His love is tender, close, intimate. Another thought suggested by
an arm is strength. The arm is a symbol of strength. His arm is omnipotent. In the
Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength by Isaiah 26 4. His is an arm
that can never be broken. Out of this clasp we can never
be taken. I give them eternal life and
they will never perish ever. No one will snatch them out of
my hand by John 10 28. Another suggestion is endurance. The arms of God are everlasting. Human arms grow weary even in
love's embrace. They cannot forever press the
child to the bosom. Soon they lie folded in death. A husband stood by the coffin
of his beloved wife after only one short year of wedded happiness. The clasp of that love was very
sweet, but how brief a time it lasted, and how desolate was
the life that had lost the precious companionship! A little baby,
two weeks old, was left motherless. The mother clasped the child
to her bosom and drew her feeble arms about it in one loving embrace. The little one will never more
have a mother's arm around it. So pathetic is human life with
its broken affections, its little moments of love, its embraces
that are torn away in one hour. But these arms of God are everlasting
arms they shall never unclasp. There is another important suggestion
in the word underneath. Not only do the arms of God embrace
His child, but they are underneath, always underneath. That means
that we can never sink, for these arms will ever be beneath us.
Sometimes we say the waters of trouble are very deep, like great
floods they roll over us, but still and forever underneath
the deepest floods are these everlasting arms. We cannot sink
below them or out of their clasps. And when death comes, and every
earthly thing is gone from beneath us, and we sink away into what
seems darkness, out of all human love, out of warmth and gladness
and life, into the gloom and strange mystery of death, still
it will only be into the everlasting arms. This view of God's divine
care is full of inspiration and comfort. We are not saving ourselves. A strong one, the mighty God,
holds us in His omnipotent clasp. We are not tossed like a leaf
on life's wild sea, driven at the mercy of wind and wave. We are in divine keeping. Our
security does not depend upon our own feeble, wavering faith,
but upon the omnipotence, the love, and the faithfulness of
the unchanging, the eternal God. No power in the universe can
snatch us out of His hands. Neither death, nor life, nor
things present, nor things to come, can separate us from His
everlasting arms.