Doing surprising things in the strength of God.
Compare with the very striking figure of this text, 2 Corinthians 10:4, 2 Corinthians 10:5, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God." While there may be designed prophetical allusion to the mastery of Babylonian evils, to the triumphs of the Maccabean era, and to the spiritual victories of Messiah, the general meaning of the figure is that Israel, in the strength of Jehovah, shall overcome all the obstacles to the fulfilment of his destiny. Porter describes the "threshing-instruments" as "flat, heavy, wooden slabs, some five feet long by three wide, slightly turned up in front. The under surface is thickly studded with hobs of hard stone or iron. A massive prison door, with its rows of projecting nail-heads, will give the best idea of a mowrej, as the instrument is now called. Each is drawn by a 'yoke of oxen.' The driver stands on the mowrej, urging the oxen on with his formidable ox-goad. The oxen advance in front, 'treading out the grain,' and the mowrej follows, crushing and cutting the straw with its 'teeth,' till it is reduced almost to dust." With this instrument the Roman tribulum, from which we get our suggestive word "tribulation," should be compared. There is a marked poetical exaggeration in the association of a threshing-instrument with hills and mountains, designed to impress on us that "nothing is too hard for the Lord," or for his people when they are strengthened by him. Making application of the text to our own circumstances, we note—
I. LIFE AS A WHOLE OFTEN SEEMS BEYOND US; out Of our control; we fear to enter on it—we fed we cannot make the best of it. It is so with only such expectations as we can form, on the basis of what is known or other men's lives. It would indeed be so, if God were to show us beforehand the scenes through which we were to be led. Yet let us but lay hold of the strength of God, and our whole life shall be a mountain which we shall thresh and beat small. It shall not master us; we will master it, and make it yield its best.
II. THE SPECIAL DEMANDS OF LIFE OFTEN SEEM BEYOND US. Face to face with duty, we anxiously say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" For us to undertake these duties seems as absurd as for a mowrej to think of threshing a mountain. And yet experience abundantly confirms the fact that, when a man is called of God to do anything, God surely gives him strength for the doing, What is "impossible with men is possible with God," and with all those whom God aids. For things that are right there is no such word as "impossible" in a Christian's vocabulary. Compare Jonathan defeating the Philistines, David overcoming Goliath, and the Apostle Paul saying, "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me." We have often seen the marvel of God's overcomings when the pressure of circumstances was extreme, and the thwarting of enemies painful. "Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel [the God-helped man] thou shalt become a plain."—R.T.