“Is Thy God Able?” -- By: Rudolph M. Piepgrass
Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 106:424 (Oct 1949)
Article: “Is Thy God Able?”
Author: Rudolph M. Piepgrass
BSac 106:424 (Oct 49) p. 493
“Is Thy God Able?”
“O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions” (Dan 6:20)? Such was the cry of Darius as, after a sleepless night, he hastened to the lions’ den. “Is thy God…able?” How much depended upon the answer to this question!—not only Daniel’s safety, but the king’s faith, the faith of many of his subjects, and our faith also!
“Is thy God…able?” Such a question requires more than a verbal answer; it demands a demonstration. The situation called for more than the affirmation of a creed; it required such confirmation as only divine power could afford. To have affirmed that God was able, and not to have been able to produce the evidence in Daniel, alive and unhurt, would have been most disappointing to Darius’ budding faith. It is not difficult to imagine what would have happened to his faith if he had found only the remains of Daniel in the lions’ den. Certainly this chapter would not have ended, as it does, with the royal decree “that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God…he delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions” (Dan 6:26–27).
Darius, however, was not disappointed. The proof that God was able to deliver His servant was there in the lions’ den. God had shut the lions’ mouths, and Daniel was alive and unhurt.
Above the turmoil and strife of a world being driven, as it were, like a ship toward the rocks, the cry may be heard in our day, “Is thy God…able to deliver?” It is not
BSac 106:424 (Oct 49) p. 494
by any means a universal cry. Many are either blind or indifferent to the danger, but here and there at home and abroad hearts are crying, “Is there no one to help? Is thy God able?”
What is our answer to this cry? Persuasive words of man’s wisdom cannot satisfy this heart-cry. Our preaching must be in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that our hearers’ faith may not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God (1 Cor 2:4, 5); otherwise we will have professions of faith without reality.
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