Nothing Too Hard for the Lord

Jesus said a camel could go through the eye of a needle more easily than a rich man could enter God's kingdom. The people listening asked, “Who then can be saved?” (Luke 18:26). It was a good question, and the answer begins with what we cannot do.

Astonished. Mark says the disciples “were greatly astonished” (Mark 10:26). Jesus had just told them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:24). The problem was not money itself. It was trusting something other than God.

Every heart has the same problem. Rich people can trust their money. Other people trust being smart, strong, popular or good. Anything we trust instead of God keeps us out just as surely.

A leopard's spots. The prophet Jeremiah asked if a leopard could change its spots. Of course it cannot. In the same way, he said, people who are used to doing wrong cannot make themselves do good (Jeremiah 13:23).

A heart we cannot fix. Jeremiah also wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). We cannot even see our own hearts clearly, so we cannot repair them.

We cannot come on our own. Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). Coming to Jesus begins with God drawing us to Him in love.

Impossible with men. So Jesus' answer was honest. Saving ourselves is not just hard. It is impossible, like a camel going through a needle.

Good news. But Jesus did not stop there. He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27). The God who made the camel and the needle can bring anyone into His kingdom.

How God does it. God sent His Son. Jesus died for our sins and rose again, and the good news about Him “is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

What to do. Stop trying to squeeze into God's kingdom by your own strength. Tell God you cannot save yourself, and trust Jesus to do it.

Long before Jesus spoke about the camel and the needle, God taught the prophet Jeremiah that nothing is too hard for Him. It happened while an enemy army surrounded Jerusalem.

A city surrounded. The army came from Babylon. The king of Judah had locked Jeremiah in the courtyard of the guard, because Jeremiah kept warning that the city would fall (Jeremiah 32:1-5).

A strange command. Then the Lord told Jeremiah that his cousin Hanamel would come and ask him to buy a family field in the town of Anathoth. Hanamel came, just as God had said (Jeremiah 32:6-8).

Buying a field. Who buys land when an enemy army is about to take it? Jeremiah did. He paid in silver, signed and sealed the deed in front of witnesses and gave it to his helper Baruch. The deed went into a clay jar to keep it safe for a long time (Jeremiah 32:9-14).

A promise in a jar. God explained why: one day houses, fields and vineyards would be bought again in that land (Jeremiah 32:15). The field was God's promise that His people had a future.

Jeremiah's prayer. In his prayer, Jeremiah said that the Lord had made the heavens and the earth by His great power, and that nothing is too hard for Him (Jeremiah 32:17). Then he told the Lord that the siege ramps had reached the city, and yet God had told him to buy the field (32:24-25).

God's answer. The Lord answered with a question. He said that He is the Lord, the God of all people, and He asked whether anything is too hard for Him (Jeremiah 32:27).

New hearts. Then God promised something even greater than bringing people home. He would give His people one heart to fear Him forever, and He would put His fear in their hearts so that they would not turn away from Him (Jeremiah 32:39-40). Only God can change a heart.

The greatest work of all. God kept His promises. He brought His people home, and later He sent Jesus. Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead, something no one else could ever do. Because of Him, God makes hearts new today, and Paul wrote that the One who begins a good work in us will finish it (Philippians 1:6).

What to do. Is there a heart you think could never change, maybe even your own? Pray for it. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.