"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass...and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit." (Genesis 1:11-12) "He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man; that he may bring forth food out of the earth." (Psalm 104:14) "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field: The grass withers, the flower fades; because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of our God shall stand for ever." (Isaiah 40:6-8) "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters, but God that gives the increase." (1 Corinthians 3:6) "Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. ... God has spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongs unto God." (Psalm 62:9,11) "He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increases strength." (Isaiah 40:29) "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:23-24) "In your hand is power and might; and in your hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all." (1 Chronicles 29:12) "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:29-30) "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." (Lamentations 3:27) "And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for you; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) "There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." (1 Corinthians 10:13) "Verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." (Matthew 17:20) "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." (Luke 18:27) "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 3:18) "You shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses." (Acts 1:8)
Remember that God's message of comfort includes the special cry, "All flesh is grass" ... "but the Word of our God shall stand for ever." (Isaiah 40:6,8)
There is nothing that grows that is weaker than the tender grass; it is a synonym for weakness and instability. Just as there is nothing weaker than the grass, so there is nothing stronger than the Word of God. In this lies the comfort.
It is not an uncommon thing for people to acknowledge that they are weak. Even the strongest physically have times when they feel weak. Especially among professed Christians is a confession of weakness a common thing. Nevertheless they do not get comfort out of the confession. On the contrary, the fact that they are obliged to confess that they are weak, is a source of great sorrow to them. They are continually mourning their weakness: "I am so weak!" is the sorrowful cry. "Oh, if I only had more strength!" is their often expressed wish. What is the trouble? Simply this, that their confession does not go far enough. They say that they are so weak, and wish that they had more strength, thereby showing that they flatter themselves that they have some strength.
But the facts are that all men together are lighter than vanity, (Psalm 62:9) and that God alone has power. (Romans 13:1; Psalm 62:11) He is the Almighty. That is, He has all might, so that there is no might outside of Him. Strength is an attribute of Divinity. If man had strength in himself he would be God. So just to the extent that men imagine that they have strength, do they imagine themselves to be God. As long as men think themselves to be gods, with strength in themselves, so long will they trust in themselves instead of in God. But, "He that trusts in his own heart is a fool." (Proverbs 28:26)
As long as a man thinks that he has the slightest particle of strength, there is continual failure and discouragement before him. What is the remedy? Simply this, to acknowledge the fact that there is absolutely no strength in him, but "In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." (Isaiah 26:5)
And then to say, "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup." (Psalm 16:5)
Then he has the benefit of everlasting power and Divinity, although he himself is but helpless grass.
Walk through a cornfield in the spring time. Everywhere you will see little rifts in the ground, showing where the tender blades are pushing their way up to the light. All over the earth there is a general upheaval, more in the aggregate than any earthquake ever known, yet there is not the slightest sound or commotion. Men go about entirely unconscious of what is taking place. What causes it? It is the power of God's Word, which in the beginning and ever since said, "Let the earth bring forth grass." (Genesis 1:11)
The word "dynamo" is simply the Greek word for power. We have another form of the same word in the familiar word "dynamite." All know what dynamite is used for, and what terrible explosions it causes. Well, this rifting of the earth by the growing grass is but an example of the working of God's dynamite. God's dynamite, contrary to that perverted form which man makes use of, works silently, and to upbuild, instead of, with deafening noise, to destroy.
When the poor woman who was dying from loss of blood came behind Jesus and touched the hem of His garment, and was instantly made whole, the Lord said, "Somebody touched me; for I perceive that power has gone forth from me." (Luke 8:46,RV)
This is the word just referred to. The power that went from Him can be conceived only by thinking of the force which men call dynamite; but, as already stated, it works quietly and to restore, instead of to destroy. It is what He gives to everyone who believes on Him, and the illustration of the same thing is constantly before us in the power that is manifested in the growing grass.
Just as power--the power of the life of Christ--came into the poor woman; just as the power of the ever-living Word animates the grass of the field; even so does the Spirit of life in Christ come into us, and manifest itself as righteousness, when we believe in truth.
Look a little closer at that growing corn. Here we see not only a little crack in the earth, but a portion of it is raised up a heavy clod is tilted to one side, and stands on edge. What causes it? Look down, and you will see a tiny, white, tender blade of corn underneath it. That little spire of grass, that if removed from its bed has not strength enough to stand alone, is now not only standing bolt upright, but is bearing a load many thousand times its own weight.
Is grass then such powerful matter? No; it has no strength at all. At any rate, anybody can see that there is a power manifested here that is no part of the grass itself. What is it? The nearest that anybody can come to an answer without the Bible is that it is "vital force." That is all right; it is the strength of life, for that is what vital force means. But the Word of God tells us that Christ is "the life." (John 14:6) The force therefore that is manifest in the growing grass is nothing other than the power of the life of Christ.
Now we may form some idea of the statement, "His Divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." (2 Peter 1:3)
If a man could lift as much in proportion to his size and weight as the tiny blade of grass does in pushing the clod of earth away from before it, it would not be so difficult a thing for him actually to remove a mountain, would it? But the mountains of earth are where the Lord has placed them, and do not need moving. The mountains that man needs for the most part to remove are the mountains of sin. This earth, and earth life, are upon him, holding him down.
The power which God gives him is first of all to be directed to the removing of this load. Let him now receive that word which said, "Let the earth bring forth grass," (Genesis 1:11) and in obedience to which the tiny blade comes forth, even though it must raise what to it is a mountain, and the world and all the lust thereof cannot any longer hold him down. Let a man consciously and voluntarily submit himself to the Word of the Lord as completely as the grass of the field does unconsciously and involuntarily, and the same power that brings it to perfection as grass, will bring him to perfection as man, even "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians 4:13)
The only thing that hinders is man's pride, which makes him unwilling to acknowledge that he has no more power than the grass of the field. But that is the fact, and it is far better to acknowledge it and so be filled with Divine, everlasting power, than to deny it, and have no power at all.--Present Truth, October 13, 1898.