Who was the strongest person who ever lived? Surely there is no difficulty in answering that question; surely there has never been anyone to compare with Samson in wonderful feats of strength! Did he not alone and unaided tear a young lion in two, as easily as if it had been a kid? Did he not lift the massive iron gates of Gaza from their hinges, carry them on his back for forty miles, and climb with them to the top of a high hill? Did he not overthrow an enormous building by simply leaning on the huge stone pillars that held it up?
We see trials of strength today. We may have seen a man who could cut a sheep in two with one blow of a sword. We may have seen another who, by the mere power of his fist, could snap an iron chain. Yet what modern Samson, strong and powerful and mighty above his fellows though he may be, can equal or rival the old Samson of the Bible.
Yet are we right in calling Samson the strongest man? It all depends upon the kind of strength of which we are speaking. If we mean bodily strength, mere physical force, then undoubtedly Samson was the strongest man. But is bodily strength the only kind of force or power a man can possess? Is it the most important kind of strength?
What is one name that we give to physical power? Do we not call it brute force? Why do we call it this? Because it is force which we have in common with the brutes (animals). In fact, it is strength in which the brutes can surpass us. Take the strongest man who ever lived; give him the most powerful limbs, the strongest back, the greatest strength of muscle. What is that man compared with an elephant? The mighty elephant has more power in one limb than the man has in his whole body. Bodily strength is then, after all, a kind of strength that is worth comparatively little, and of which we have small cause to boast, for even an animal can easily surpass us in it.
Where shall we find a stronger man than Samson? Come to the University in Cambridge and look at that man hard at work on the examination papers. Look at him well, for you will see that man’s name at the head of the list when the results of the examination are published. Look at his quick, eager eyes, his earnest face. That man is the strongest man in England. He is not strong in bodily strength; he could do little on the football field, nor could he win a single prize in athletic sports. He is a thin, slight, fragile man, but he is strong in mind, powerful and mighty in brain. That man’s memory is amazing; his powers of reasoning are unequaled; his grasp of a subject is enormous; he is a giant in intellect.
Here then we have another kind of strength: mental strength. And inasmuch as the mind is vastly superior to the body, and inasmuch as power of mind is a power which the animals, so far from rivaling man, possess only in a very limited degree (if at all), we shall be ready to admit that the student is stronger than Samson, because he is strong in a superior kind of strength.
But there is a stronger than he, and it is a woman. She is weak and delicate, and has certainly no bodily strength; she knows very little, for she is a poor, simple country girl; she has little mental strength, but she is stronger than Samson, stronger than the Cambridge student, because she is endued with a strength far superior to bodily or mental strength—she is strong in soul.
A great crowd of people was gathered on the shore one day in the county of Wigton in Scotland. There lay the wooded, hills and the heathery moors, and the quiet sea dividing them like a peaceful lake. Two prisoners, carefully guarded, were brought down to the shore. One was an old woman with white hair; the other was a young and beautiful girl. Two stakes were driven into the sand: one close to the approaching sea, the other much nearer to the shore. The old woman was tied to the stake nearest to the sea, and the young girl to the other. The tide was out when they were taken there, but they were told that, unless they would deny the Lord Jesus Christ whom they loved, unless they would renounce the truth of God, there they must remain, until the high tide had covered them, and they were drowned.
The old woman was questioned by her murderers. Would she renounce her Lord? Never; she could not deny the faith of Christ. So they left her to her fate, and the sea rose. Silently, quietly, stealthily it crept on, till her arms, her shoulders, her neck were covered, and then soon after the wave came which carried her into the presence of her Lord. Then they pleaded with the girl. They tried to make her change; they used every argument likely to move her, but all in vain. She was strong in soul, strong and mighty, so strong that death itself could not make her flinch. Still the sea crept on; still the water rose, and still they tried to make her deny her Lord. But, strong in spirit, the girl bravely stayed firm. Higher and higher came that ever-encroaching water, and soon her head was covered, and she thought her sorrows were ended, but her tormentors brought her out of the water, rubbed and warmed her, and finally revived her, only to put the question to her once more. Would she deny her Lord? No; again she refused to do so, and was dragged back, wet and dripping as she was, once more to be chained to the stake, and to prepare again to lay down her life. But the Lord was with her, and she was faithful to the end.
That girl was strong in soul, strong in the highest, noblest form of strength. She could say no when tempted to do wrong; she was faithful when sorely tried. But a woman’s pretty face, a woman’s coaxing word, was quite sufficient to overthrow all the strength of soul Samson possessed. He could resist no temptation that came across his path; he was an easy prey to the tempter.
It would be wonderful if we were all strong: strong in this highest, grandest form of strength, mighty giants in spirit!
But do you say, How can I obtain this strength? By what means can I acquire it? I feel I need it. I am often led astray; I listen to the voice of the tempter. I give way to my besetting sin. I want to break off from it, but I cannot. I want to leave the companions who are leading me astray, but I have not the strength to do it. How can I become strong?
Here, in the story of Nehemiah, we find the answer. Let us come again to the water gate, at the southeast corner of the city. There was the huge pulpit of wood; there was Ezra the scribe with the roll in his hand; there were the people, sobbing as if their hearts would break.
But “blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” It was because of sin that their hearts were broken; they felt they had left undone so much that ought to have been done. They had done so much that they ought not to have done, that they were crushed with sorrow, and the tears came.
But who were those passing among the weeping crowd? There was Nehemiah the Tirshatha, or governor; there was Ezra the scribe, and they were followed by a company of Levites. They called to the people to stop crying and to rejoice. Is not our God a God of mercy? Is there not forgiveness with Him? If sin is confessed and forsaken, will He not pardon it? Dry your tears then, and instead of crying, rejoice. Be merry and glad that God is willing to forgive. “God for Christ’s sake HATH forgiven you.”
Cheer up, for this day is holy unto the Lord; it is a feast day, the joyous Feast of Trumpets. Do not mourn or weep. Do not imagine that God likes you to be miserable; He wants you to be happy. You have owned your sins and have repented of them. Now let your hearts be filled with the peace that comes from a sense that your sins are forgiven.
Go home now, and keep the feast. Eat and drink of the best you have; eat the fat and drink the sweet, the new sweet wine made from this year’s grapes. Go home and enjoy yourselves to the full, but do not forget those who are worse off than yourselves. Remember those poor people who have suffered so much from the late famine, who have paid their last penny to the tax collector, who have lost their all in these hard times. Let them enjoy themselves too today. Eat the fat and drink the sweet, but do not forget to send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared. Remember the empty cupboards, the bare tables, and the houses where the fat and the sweet are nowhere to be seen.
What an important word for us! God wants us to be happy. He likes us to rejoice. He does not want us to go about with sad faces and melancholy looks. A sad-faced, gloomy Christian is a Christian who brings dishonor on his Master.
Then as we sit down to our dinner, let us remember that God loves us to be happy, but let us also remember that in the midst of all our joy He would have us be unselfish. He would have us send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared. Is there no one whom we can cheer? Is there no desolate home into which we can bring a ray of light? Is there no sorrowful heart to which we can bring comfort? And what about the portions? Is there no poor relative or neighbor or friend with whom we can share the good things that have fallen to our lot?
Our own dinner will taste all the better if we, for the Lord’s sake, have helped someone else to happiness or comfort. Our own rejoicing will be tenfold more full of merriment and real joy, if we have helped to spread joy into dark and gloomy places. “Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Yes, there we have the secret of the highest kind of strength: strength of soul. There is a joy, our joy, which comes from knowing our sin is pardoned.
Can I say,
O happy day, O happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away?
But, there is a joy, a greater joy than our joy; it is the joy of the Lord. The Lord finds his joy in His people and His joy is their strength.
Nehemiah let the people know that the Lord’s joy was the secret of their strength. He would not fail them. Because He loved them he would not cease to care for them even when they failed to follow and obey Him. Had He not brought them back to Jerusalem and His land even after they had so miserably failed Him and gone after other gods and had to be punished by being carried away captives by the Gentile kings?
They were not to depend upon their own joy or their own strength. They were to depend upon the Lord—on His joy to be their strength. Our joy may come and go; His joy remains, for it never changes.
Here then is the highest kind of strength, and it is a strength within the reach of all. Bodily strength some of us can never attain. We are born with weak bodies; we have grown up delicate and frail. We could no more transform ourselves into strong, powerful men, then we could make ourselves into elephants. But all of us may put aside our own weaknesses and even our strengths, which in time will fail us, so that we may depend upon the unfailing strength of our Lord.
There was a man who lived in Greece long before Hezekiah, who was determined to make his nation the strongest nation on earth. He was resolved that it should consist of mighty giants in strength, and that not one delicate or weak man should be found among them. But what did Lycurgus find himself obliged to do in order to achieve this?
He was compelled to have every infant carefully examined as soon as it was born, and if a child had the least appearance of delicacy, he took it from the mother, and sent it to some lonely cave on the hillside, where it was left to die of cold and hunger. He found that it was not possible to turn a puny, delicate child into a strong man.
Bodily strength then is beyond the reach of many men. They were born weak, and nothing can make them outstandingly strong and powerful.
Nor can strength of mind be attained by many. They were born with no special power of memory, no great aptitude for learning. You may teach them, and labor with them, and they may work hard themselves, but no application can instill into them what was not born in them.
But, thank God, the highest form of strength, strength of soul is, in this respect, not like strength of body or strength of mind. No one is born with it. We are all by nature weak as water, an easy prey for Satan, but there is not one of us who may not be strong in the Lord. If we will take the lost sinner’s place, and claim the lost sinner’s Saviour, we shall be filled by that Saviour with joy because our sins are forgiven, and with the certain knowledge that He will never leave us nor forsake us.
In Greece, in that city in which all the weak babies were murdered, those children who were spared and who were pronounced to be strong, were looked upon from that time as belonging, not to their parents, but to the state. They were trained and brought up with this one object in view: to make them strong and powerful men. They were taught to bear cold, wearing the same clothing in winter as in summer; they were trained to bear fatigue, being accustomed to walk barefoot for miles. They were practiced in wrestling, in racing, in throwing heavy weights, in carrying burdens, in anything and everything which was calculated to make the strength that was in them grow and increase. And it was wonderful how, by means of practice, the strength did grow.
We are told of one man, who, in the public games, carried a full-grown ox for a mile, and we are told that he accomplished this by gradually accustoming himself to the weight. He began, when the ox was a tiny calf, to carry it a mile every day, and the increase of weight was so gradual that he did not feel it; his arms became used to the weight, and as the ox grew bigger he at the same time grew stronger. Strength of body then grows and increases in proportion to our use of it.
So, too, does strength of mind. Here is a boy, born with good abilities and with an intelligent mind. Take that child, and shut him off from every possibility of using his mind; never teach him anything, never allow him to look at a book or a picture, keep him shut off from everything that might tend to open his mind, tell him nothing, bring him up as a mere animal, and he will lose all his sharpness of mind and become dull. But, on the other hand, teach him, train him, educate him, let his mind have full scope and exercise, and his mental powers will grow and increase, for strength of mind, like strength of body, grows with the using.
The Apostle Paul had learned the secret of strength. He had learned not to trust in himself but to trust in another, His Lord. In the power of Christ he was strong, and he knew it. He said: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:1313I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:13)). He also knew that God by the indwelling Spirit was the true source of strength, for he said: “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:1313For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)).
So let us press forward, counting upon the joy of the Lord to be our strength, “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man [full-grown man], unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”