A CHICKEN LAID OUR BIBLE

        

Max from Vietnam writes this amazing story ‘My grandfather had an amazing memory. Whenever we came to join him in rural Gansu, he taught us about Christ from fragments of verses he had learned from a pastor. In 1995 my grandfather gathered us all together. He said “I have taught you about Christ for over fifteen years from the memory of a pastor who died so that I might have faith. But I have no more to teach you. I committed about five hundred verses of Scripture to memory from that pastor, and I have expounded each of them to you a hundred ways since then. It’s time for us to find the rest of the sacred texts.”

We all looked at each other. This sounded impossible; we asked him who would find for us these texts. He replied “God will; we must pray”. We prayed…and prayed …and prayed. For two years we prayed, nothing happened. But for the faith of my grandfather, some of us would have moved to another faith. He was firm: “God is testing us to see if we are really His. We must keep trusting and keep faithful”.

One Sunday a chicken came into our house. She made a great noise and then laid an egg. We did not know where she had come from, so my grandfather tied some money (payment for the egg) to her and she strutted off. We knew she would return to her owner. Less than an hour later, someone was yelling on the street “who tied money to my chicken?  The voice sounded angry but my grandfather replied without hesitation “it was me”.

A well dressed man came into our house. He said in a cultured voice” I am a high ranking member of the communist party in Beijing; I have come to visit my brother after being betrayed and deceived. I have lost a lot of money”. Our hearts sank. He said that he had never heard of such honesty in all his life. ”My government desperately needs your spirit of scrupulous honesty. If only there were more like you in China.

Tell me, what makes you so honest?” My grandfather answered him in two words “Jesus Christ” .The communist official seemed to smile to himself and then asked, “Can I do anything for you?” My grandfather with the boldness of a long life, said, we would like to find the sacred texts of Jesus Christ. The official looked puzzled. ”What do you mean by sacred texts, don’t you mean a Bible?”

Again the boldness of my grandfather staggered me. He asked the official “can you help us get a copy?” The official smiled openly now. He made no promise but merely said “I will see what I can do?” then he went away. Months went by and nothing happened. We continued to pray. Then one day a young man appeared in the village, asking for us. He pulled out from his bag seven brand new Bibles.

We asked him how he came to seek us. He said that he was part of a network of house churches and one of their leaders was arrested in Beijing. While he was in jail , he was visited by a high ranking  official , who said “if I let you go, will you promise to deliver a Bible to an old man and his family in Gansu?” the church leader said he would do it. The next day he was released, given the Bibles and grandfather’s address.’

When             Abram was 75 years old God promised to make him a great nation (Gen 12:1-4). In Genesis 13:16 the promise was repeated; God said “I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth”. In Genesis 15:1-6 the promise was again repeated; God said “count the stars if you are able to number them…so shall your descendants be”.

Abram had waited for 24 years for the fulfillment of this promise. It had been some 13 years since his last recorded word from God (Gen. 16:15-16). Possibly at times during those 13 years Abram felt that God forgot His promise but God had not forgotten. Then one day when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before me and be blameless. And I will …multiply you exceedingly” (Gen.17:1-2).

Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, “shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? (Gen.17: 17). In Romans 4:17-21, Paul wonderfully described Abraham’s faith in this promise.  Abram “believed God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed

So that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead… and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

Finally it was time, the Lord visited him and said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year and Sarah your wife will have a son". Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him. She was too old ans past the age of child bearing ; therefore she laughed within herself (Gen. 18:1-12). And the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh …is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son”(vv.13-14).

Abraham, almost one hundred years old, was “as good as dead” (Heb 11:12). Sarah was not only barren (Gen. 11:30) but she had also passed the age of childbearing. Sarah doubted God’s promise; to her the fulfillment of this promise was impossible, so she laughed in unbelief. God countered Sarah’s rhetorical question “shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?” with one of His own: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” 

Sarah did not know it was the Lord. The Lord sought to reveal Himself to her in order to trigger her faith in the promise. He did this by telling her that she laughed, which she did, but inaudibly. Only she and the Lord would have known that she laughed. Thus, by revealing to Sarah that it was indeed the Lord Himself making this promise to Abraham, the Lord caused her to exercise faith in His promise.

Eventually, Sarah believed God and she bore a son at the very time God had promised (Gen. 21:1-2). Hebrew 11:11-12 says “by faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore”. God fulfilled his promise to Abraham.

God framed the question rhetorically “is anything too hard for the Lord?”, but the Bible answers categorically, “No, nothing is too hard for the Lord!” The prophet Jeremiah observed, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you” (Jer.32:17). God acknowledged and said “behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?” (Jer.32:27)

God is Almighty, that word describes his power. He has the power to do all things; No problem intimidates him. Jesus said “what is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). He told his disciples “with man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with  God " (Mark 10:27). Since God is Almighty then in prayer we can venture in the realm of the impossible.

Many people have a very small concept of God. They have a God of their own making-but it is not the biblical God.  The God of the Bible is Almighty. He wants us to have a faith that is expectant; a faith that knows his power and believes that he able to accomplish the impossible! He will do for us and for others what is humanly impossible if we ask Him. How often do we use this immense privilege!

God’s wisdom is profound; his power is vast (Job 9:4).  In Job 11:7 Zophar gives a beautiful picture of the limitlessness of God; he asks “can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?” The answer is no; there are no limits to God and his wisdom doesn’t run out. Our confidence is grounded in the fact that there are things that are deeper in God than we can see, know or understand.

When Sarah doubted the Lord, she was questioning both His truthfulness and His ability. We sometimes doubt that God will keep His promises. We disbelieve the Lord’s power to do what He says He will do in His Word. And God asks us the same question,” is anything too difficult for me? No word from God will ever fail (Luke 1:37). All his promises are Yes and Amen (2 Cor. 1:20).

We rarely pray for the extraordinary things and yet we believe in an infinite Father. How can we expect God to answer big prayers when we never ask him to? He has given us ample evidence of His infinite power. If we truly believe that God is who He says He is, nothing will shake our confidence in Him. When God asks, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” our answer will be a resounding, “No! God can do anything!”

When God makes a promise, we can be sure He has the power to fulfill it. He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think (Eph. 3:20). When we ask for what is in accordance to his will and what is good for us, he will certainly give it to us (Ps. 84:11). We do not prove the resources of God until we trust Him for the impossible. Nothing is too big for my God to accomplish and nothing is too little for Him to use in accomplishing it! 

When in the wilderness, the Israelites craved for meat. God sent a strong wind from the sea, and it blew quail into the area all around their camp (Num. 11:31-32).  He used a whale to transport Jonah to Nineveh (Jonah 1:17). He used ravens to feed Elijah (1 Kings 17:3-4). He used a small fish to deliver a coin to pay Jesus temple tax (Matt. 17:24-27). He made a donkey speak in order to warn Balaam (numbers 22:28).