This question appeared in a Mensa puzzle book: When Puck (in Midsummer Night’s Dream) says: “I’ll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes,” why would this be impossible? Answer: because he would reach escape velocity, that is, he would go into outer space.
Yes, I can see that that is a problem. Especially if Puck proposes to use science rather than magic.
Some Bible scholars bark up a similar tree. I was reading the other day about Moses’ census (Numbers 1). In 400 years a family group of 70 had become a nation with 600,000 men of fighting age (so, a total population over 2 million). Remarkable? Impossible, say the clever scholars. There must be another way to read the Hebrew figures: because that’s an unsustainable number of people to take through a desert.
Yes, I suppose it is. Especially if God isn’t going to send manna and quail.
The implied idea – that God can rescue his people from slavery, can afflict their oppressors with plagues, can part the Red Sea, can lead his people with cloud and fire, can bring them to a plentiful land, but can’t look after them during the journey – is absurd.
Of course, the idea had currency even in Moses’ lifetime. The people kept saying to Moses: “Why did you bring us into the desert to die?” (Exodus 14:11; 15:24; 16:3; 17:3.) They knew the whole project was impossible. But they daily saw God do the impossible, daily saw his guidance and his provision, and steadfastly refused to believe in his power.
And what of us? What plans has God declared for us? A new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36.26). Forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28). An end to mourning, crying and pain (Revelation 21:4). Eternal life (John 6:47-50). Hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
Impossible. Especially if it depends not on Jesus’ blood but on our own sweat; not on God’s power, mercy and wisdom, but on our own graft, goodness and IQ.
