The Arm Of The Lord~The Vindication Of A Course Taken

Now, I find that the first thing that is meant by the Arm of the Lord on behalf of His people is this...

It means the vindication of the course that they have taken.

If you turn to your Bible with that in mind, you will find how much there is that gathers around it.

You will agree that it is a very important matter, that the course that we have taken should be proved at the end to have been the right one.

There could be nothing more terrible and tragic than that having taken a course...

And given ourselves and all that we have to it...

Poured out our lives in it and for it...

We should find at the end that we have been wrong...

And that the Lord is not able to vindicate the course that we have taken. 

It is plainly of the utmost importance that the course that we have taken should, in the end, receive the Divine approval...

That over against everything, in spite of everything, from men and from demons, God should be able to say: 'That man was right!'

That, after all, was the vindication of Job, was it not? How much that man met of misconstruction and misrepresentation! 

But in the end God said, 'My servant Job is right'; and it is no small thing to have God say that. 

In Isaiah 53 it is that: the vindication of a course taken, in spite of everything. 

And that 'in spite of everything' amounts to a good deal in that chapter, does it not?

An overwhelming weight of contradiction and misunderstanding;

But, in the end, the Servant is vindicated; 

God says He was right. 

To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

To that One - to that One!

That thought runs everywhere through the Bible, in relation to all the great men of faith, as they walked with God. 

What a difficult way they went! 

But in the end, God said, not in word only, but in very, very practical vindication, 'He was right, he was right.'

That is the meaning of the Arm of the Lord.

That is what I want when I ask for the Arm of the Lord:

O Lord, that I may take such a way with You that, in the end, You may be able to stand by that way and say: He was right.' 

Do you want that?

There is no value in anything that does not work out like that. 

~T. Austin Sparks~