Nothing Is Impossible With God!

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.’ (Psalm 84:11)

Psalm 84 is a ‘Royal/Messianic’ psalm, or one that calls out for a Godly king or leader. It is usually, but not always, a call for the Messiah to come (as the Psalms were all written roughly between 600 and 800 years before the birth of Jesus).

It’s authorship is attributed to the ‘sons of Korah’, who also wrote several other Psalms, likely second only to David. Korah, the patriarch, was a Levite mentioned in Numbers 16 who led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, with 250 other men. Moses, with God’s approval, thus made a challenge to see who was truly on God’s side; the priests were to fire up their censers with incense and report to the front of the Tent of Meeting.

Then, the Lord had the Israelites and the priests aligned with Moses and Aaron to move away from Korah and his faction (as well as Korah’s family). God then opened a chasm that swallowed Korah and those around him, as well as their families and possessions. The remaining 250 not swallowed up were then consumed by a fire from God.

The next day, there were still Israelites that were opposed to Moses and Aaron, and a mob formed, and began complaining they killed ‘the Lord’s people’. When the mob started to march toward the Tent of Meeting (or Tabernacle), God came as a cloud and surrounded it, and told Moses and those aligned with him to step away from the mob, and God provided a deadly plague to go among the people.

Moses then instructed Aaron to burn incense in his censer with fire from the altar, and then go into the mob as atonement to save them. The plague then stopped, but not before 14,700 Israelites died from the plague.

However, we find that, perhaps because they were very young and innocent, the sons of Korah did not die with their father or the mob. In Numbers 26:9-11, during the 2nd census, we find that in the Tribe of Reuben the ‘lineage of Korah’, his sons, did not perish but were part of the count, seeming an impossibility due to the sin of their father.

The lineage of Korah, the Kohathites or Korahites (depending on translation), plays a significant role in Biblical characters with Samuel (1 Chronicles 6:27), Joel, Zephaniah, and several others from this lineage (1 Chronicles 6:31-38). The Korahites served King David as ‘special ops’ warriors (1 Chronicles 12:6), as well as guards for the Tabernacle (1 Chronicles 9:19-21).

Heman, who wrote at least one Psalm, was also a court musician for David (1 Chronicles 6:33). It is not known which ‘sons (or perhaps ‘grandsons’) of Korah’ wrote many Psalms, including Psalm 84, but we do know they were Godly and Righteous, fortunately unlike their patriarch Korah himself. An impossible future became possible through God’s Grace given the sons of Korah.

Psalm 84:11 follows the more well-known verse of Psalm 84:10, ‘Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.’ Certainly it is better to be with the Lord, walking in His presence and serving His needs than being elsewhere serving someone else’s needs outside of the Lord’s desires.  If you walk in the Lord’s footsteps, God will bless you, even in impossible accomplishments and situations.

There are times when things seem impossible or extremely challenging to overcome or to achieve.  Back in 2006, I had tried and stopped several times, going back into 1983 when I was in the Army, to go to college to earn a degree.  I’d take a couple of classes, but it seemed everything – career, moves, kids, etc. was always in the way. 

I was resigned to the fact I was likely never going to earn a degree and to be honest I had no idea what I wanted in a degree – I was a ‘non-degreed electronic engineer’ designing and maintaining telemetry systems and equipment for one government contractor, and later managing major programs and projects as well as a large group of people for another government contractor, with US Central Command at the height of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) by 2006.

My regional manager, in my yearly evaluation, stated I was doing an excellent job, but that if I wanted to continue as a manager, or have a major role as a project/program manager, in my career future, I would need to have a degree (or at least be working on one).  So, with great doubt, I went into looking at the various institutions. 

None seemed to be what I was looking for, and the last one I considered was Saint Leo University, a “Catholic University in the Benedictine tradition”.  After all, I was a Baptist, how would this look, how would I fit in?  I was thinking that I wasn’t going back to school.

But I went and sat with the Saint Leo counselor.  I started giving reasons on why I thought I was wasting my time looking, and that I was too old to start – I was 43 at the time, after all.  She (a Dr. of Education filling in as counselor that day) looked at me and gave the answer that must have come from the Lord; “If you don’t start now, you’ll never finish.  You’re never too old to learn and it’s never too late to finish.  Have Faith in God and in yourself.” 

I knew right away she spoke the Truth, and was sold on the spot, so I signed up to take courses.  I submitted all my previous transcripts and life experiences and initially started taking one class per 8-week period (six sessions per year).  After year one, I doubled down to taking two classes, tested out of Science and English, and earned my Bachelors of Business Administration & Management in 2010.  I then signed up and was accepted for my MBA program, doubled those classes and completed it in one year, in 2011, at age 48. 

Both degrees are from Saint Leo, so I’m a proud Lion alumni (although I still haven’t completely figured out what the Benedictine sect in Catholicism stands for, and Saint Leo has no football team to root for).   This cemented me into senior program positions in GDIT and is why was blessed in the last ten years of my career working on proposals and as a program support manager as a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ (meaning I know a lot about practically nothing in particular).   

The Lord is Faithful; he was Faithful in giving me the courage and strength to work, learn, and also teach His word during those times.  He did not withhold His favor as I took on His challenge – seemingly impossible to me at the time.  I think of Caleb in Joshua 14:6-14, who requested/demanded at 85 years of age that he be allotted the mountains of Hebron to settle his people in, as promised by Moses and which Joshua obliged. 

You are never too old to accomplish what God wills for you, nothing is ever impossible or too challenging when you apply God-math: You + God = All Things are Possible!