A MONTHLY READING OF
INSIGHTS FROM RENOWNED CHRISTIANS
JULY
Day 1
DIRECTIONS FOR A PEACEFUL DEATH
RICHARD BAXTER
Comfort is not desirable only as it pleases us, but also as it strengthens us and helps us in our greatest duties. And when is it more needful than in sickness and the approach of death? I shall, therefore, add such directions as are necessary to make our departure comfortable, or peaceful at the least, as well as safe.
Do not misunderstand sickness, as if it were a greater evil than it is. Rather observe how great a mercy it is that death has so suitable a harbinger or forerunner; that God should do so much to wean us from the world and make us willing to be gone, that the unwilling flesh has the help of pain, and that the senses and appetite languish and decay, and that we have so loud a call and so great a help to true repentance and serious preparation! Remember whose messenger sickness is, and who it is that calls you to die. It is he, that is, the Lord of all the world, who gave us the lives which he takes from us. And it is he who must dispose of angels and men, of princes and kingdoms, of heaven and earth. You cannot deny him to be the disposer of all things without denying him to be God.
Look by faith to your dying, buried, risen, ascended, glorified Lord. Nothing will more powerfully overcome both the poison and the fears of death than thinking of him who has triumphed over it. He was buried to teach us not to overmuch fear the grave. He rose again to conquer death for us, and to assure those who rise to newness of life that they shall be raised at last by his power unto glory. Being made partakers of the first resurrection, the second death shall have no power over them.
Choose out some promises most suitable to your condition, and roll them over and over in your mind and feed and live on them by faith. A sick man is not (usually) fit to think of very many things. Therefore, two or three comfortable promises may be the most profitable matter of his thoughts.
Look up to God who is the glory of heaven and the light, life, and joy of souls. Believe that you are going to see his face and are going to live among the glorified. If it be delectable here to know his works, what will it be to see the cause of all?
Look up to the blessed society of angels and saints with Christ, and remember their blessedness and joy, and that you also belong to the same society and are going to be numbered with them. It will greatly overcome the fears of death to see by faith the joys of them that have gone before us. Those angels that now see the face of God are our special friends and guardians, and entirely love us better than any of our friends on earth do! They rejoiced at our conversion and will rejoice at our glorification.
Look also to the testimony of a holy life, since grace has employed you in seeking after the heavenly inheritance. It is unlawful and perilous to look after any works or righteousness of your own, or to ascribe to them any honor that is proper to him.
Look back upon all the mercies of your lives, and think from where they came and what they signify. If God has been so good to you on earth, what will he be in glory! If he so blessed you in this wilderness, what will he do in the land of promise! It greatly emboldens my soul to go to that God who has so tenderly loved me, and so graciously preserved me, and so much abounded in all sorts of mercies to me through all my life. Surely he is good that so delights to do good! And his presence must be sweet when his distant mercies have been so sweet! What love shall I enjoy when perfection has fitted me for his love.
Settle your estates early so that worldly matters may not distract or discompose you. And if God has endowed you with riches, dispose of a due proportion to such pious or charitable uses in which they may be most serviceable to him that gave them to you. Though we should give what we can in the time of life and health, yet many that have but so much as will serve to their necessary maintenance, may well part with that to good uses at their death, especially they that have no children, or such wicked children as are likely to do hurt with all that is given them above their daily bread.
Be fortified against all the temptations of Satan which he uses to assault men in their extremity. Stand it out in the last conflict, and the crown is yours.
ondoctrine.com/2bax0001.htm
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Day 2
SLEEPY SAINTS
ARTHUR W. PINK
"Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter,
'What? Could you not watch with me one hour?'"
(Matthew 26:40)What an anomaly! Drowsing on the verge of eternity! A Christian is one who has been awakened from the sleep of death in trespasses and sins, made to realize the unspeakable awfulness of endless misery in hell and the ineffable joy of everlasting bliss in heaven, and thereby brought to recognize the seriousness and solemnity of life. A Christian is one who has been taught experientially the worthlessness of all mundane things and the preciousness of Divine things. He has turned his back on Vanity Fair and has started out on his journey to the Celestial City. He has been quickened into newness of life and supplied with the most powerful incentives to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Nevertheless, it is sadly possible for him to suffer a relapse, for his zeal to abate, his graces to languish, to leave his first love and become weary of well-doing. Unless he be very much on his guard, drowsiness will steal over him and he will fall asleep. Corruptions still indwell in him, and sin has a stupefying effect. He is yet in this evil world, and it exerts an enervating influence.
Slumbering saints! What an incongruity! Taking their ease while threatened by danger. Lazing about instead of fighting the good fight of faith. Trifling away opportunities to glorify their Saviour instead of redeeming the time. Rusting instead of wearing out in His service. We speak with wonderment and horror of Nero fiddling while Rome was burning, but far more startling and reprehensible is a careless Christian who has departed from God, bewitched by a world which is doomed to eternal destruction. Such a travesty and tragedy is far from being exceptional. Both observation and the teaching of Scripture prove it to be a common occurrence. Such passages as the following make it only too evident that the people of God are thus overcome. "It is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed" (Rom. 13:11). "Awake to righteousness, and sin not" (1 Cor. 15:34). "Awake you that sleeps" (Eph. 5:14). Each of those calls is made to the saints.
Let us now point out some of the correctives. (1) Being engaged with the person and perfections of Christ. It is not monastic retirement nor the relinquishment of our lawful connection with the world, but the fixing of our minds and affections upon the transcendent excellency of the Saviour, which will most effectually preserve us from being hypnotized by the baits of Satan. (2) Keeping fresh in our hearts the unspeakable sufferings of the Saviour. "For the love of Christ [particularly His dying love] constrains us" (2 Cor. 5:14). (3) Praying daily for God to quicken and revive us. (4) Being doubly on our guard when things are going smoothly and easily. (5) Maintaining a lively expectation of Christ’s appearing. (6) Allowing no abatement of our vigor. (7) Putting on the whole armor of God.
pbministries.org/books/pink/Practical/prac_05.htm
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Day 3
A SAVIOR TO THE UTTERMOST
T. AUSTIN SPARKS
"Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." Hebrews 7:25
This is a favorite text for evangelistic sermons. It is indeed "good news" for the sinner. No one, however sunken in sin, is beyond the reach of His saving power. He is able to save all who come, and to save them to the uttermost. Let the message go out to the furthest bounds of human sin and need, and be sounded in the ears of the most hardened and degraded of the sons of men. No case is too hard for Him. Hallelujah!
But this is written as a message to the Lord's people. It is a glorious declaration of His saving power in relation to those who draw near to God, and is based, not only upon His death on Calvary, but upon His present life and ministry as the High Priest of His people. It is because "He ever lives" that "He is able to save to the uttermost." This is the gospel for the saints. What a joy to declare it! The more dire the need, the greater the comfort of the declaration. When we are involved in some situation of acute, and humanly hopeless difficulty, what a consolation to the heart it is to remember that interceding for us, at the right hand of Divine power, is One Who is able to exercise saving power to the full range and depth of our uttermost need.
"To the uttermost." This is a translation of a very rich original word. Like many of the words God employs in Holy Scripture, it is a word with a big content. This word combines two separate ideas: that of quality and that of reach. It speaks of His ability to save completely in the present, and also to go on saving thus forever. It speaks of fullness of resource for present need, however dire, and also for every future need, to the end of our earthly history. It may be expressed thus: Whatever the depth and complexity of present need, and in whatsoever realm that need may be (whether in spirit, soul, or body), in Him who is exalted at God's right hand there is complete ability to meet it. Further, by no possibility can there arise a situation to the farthest reach of time where that ability will be diminished, or His saving power be other than an abiding reality.
We are living in days when the outlook for this world is gloomy indeed, and when fear might well grip the heart, even of the believer. No man knows what is going to happen today, or tomorrow, still less the day after. Fear is gripping the hearts of men everywhere. Many of the Lord's people are afraid that they will become involved in some situation beyond the power of human endurance. Many in war-torn lands are going through trials and sufferings which strain endurance to the breaking point. Not a few, even in peaceful lands like our own, are tried in circumstance or physical suffering which seem to be beyond measure. How shall such endure to the end and be joyful in the midst of their tribulations? Only by an experience of His saving power, entered into on the basis of faith in His ever-present and never-diminishing ability to make His salvation a glorious reality. Faith asserts, in the face of the most extreme difficulty and of human impossibility, "He ever lives! He is able to save to the uttermost!" This is true in every realm of human need. Whether the problem be related to sin, self, the world, the Devil, or to death and him who wields it as a potent weapon, the power of an uttermost salvation resides in our Priestly Intercessor on the Father's throne. Fearful heart, take comfort. He ever lives!
theoldtimegospel.org/sermons/collect_as08.html
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Day 4
THE LORD'S SUPPER,
SIMPLE BUT SUBLIME CHARLES SPURGEON
"This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." 1 Corinthians 11:25-26
It would be a waste of time, and would tend to mar our fellowship with Christ, were I to attempt an enumeration of the errors and misapprehensions into which men have fallen concerning the object of the Lord's supper. There are some communities of men among us--and they seem to be multiplying--who turn the communion table into an altar and convert the bread and wine, which are but a memorial, into the semblance of a sacrifice. I will only say, into their secret may we never enter and with their confederacy may we never be united; for their table is the table of idolatry,and their altar is little better than a sacrifice unto devils. Such offerings cannot be acceptable unto God, for those who observe them turn aside altogether from the simplicity of the truth.
This simple feast of the Lord's supper, consisting of the breaking and eating of bread and the pouring forth and drinking of wine, has two objects upon its very surface. It is intended as a memorial of Christ, and it is intended as a showing or a manifestation of our faith in Christ, and of Christ's death, to others. These are the two objects: "This do ye in remembrance of me:" and "Thus ye do show the Lord's death till he come."
First, then, we view the supper of our Lord as being a memorial of Him, and as such, it is simple, and very significant. How plainly it sets forth Christ's incarnation. We take the bread. That bread, upon which we feed and which becomes assimilated with our flesh, is the type of the incarnation of the Savior, who veiled his glory in our human clay. The same bread broken becomes the type of that body of the Savior rent and torn with anguish. We have there the nails, the scourge, the cross, all set forth by that simple act of breaking the bread. And when the wine is poured out, there is no mystification but rather the disclosure of a mystery. It represents the blood of him who took blood in order that he might become one blood with us, his incarnate people, and who, "being found in a fashion as a man," "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." So that, just as the wine is pressed from the cluster and is poured forth into the cup, so was his blood pressed from him in the wine press of divine wrath and poured forth, that he might make atonement for the sin of men. A child, standing by the communion table and asking the question of his father, "What do you mean by this ordinance?" might very soon be told, "My child, we break this bread to show how Jesus Christ's body suffered, and we pour out this wine in token that Jesus Christ poured forth his heart's blood for the sins of men." It is marvelous how men have added so many things of their own invention to screen and veil this very simple, and, therefore, sublime ordinance. Brethren, let us come to those two symbols and here discern Christ's body broken for our sin, and view his blood streaming forth for our redemption.
The type, however, is suggestive because it not only sets forth the suffering of Christ, but also the results of that suffering. It pictures the end as well as the means; that is to say, when I take that bread and eat it, and take that cup and drink from it, I bring to remembrance--to my own remembrance and to the remembrance of those round about me--not merely the fact that Christ suffered, but that he suffered for me, and that I had an interest in him. Believe me, beloved, this truth is so simple, that, while I speak, I can half fancy some of you saying, "Why does he not tell us something new?" But let me say to you, it is always a new truth, and there is no truth which the Christian heart more readily forgets. Oh, that I could always feel that he loved me and gave himself for me! I know he did. It is long since I had a doubt about it, but I do not always remember it. Going abroad into the world, how apt we are to let the remembrance of the Savior's love slip! The love of wife and husband follows us like our own shadow; the love of our dear child seems to encompass us like the atmosphere in which we live; but Jesus Christ is not visibly here, and, therefore, the remembrance of him requires spirituality of mind. But we are carnal, too often babes in grace, and so we forget His sufferings. And worse still, we forget our interest in them. Oh, that I could have the cross painted on my eyeballs, that I could not see anything except through the medium of my Savior's passion! O Jesus, set thyself as a seal upon my hand and a signet on my arm, and let me wear the pledge forever where it is conspicuous before my soul's eye! Happy is that Christian who can say, "I scarcely need that memorial." But I am not such a one. And I fear, my brethren, that most of us need to be reminded by that bread and wine that Jesus died, and need to be reminded by the eating and drinking of the same, that he died for us.
The second object of this supper of communion is the showing of Christ's death "till he come." I must not say anything about that except that he will come, and I think that ought to be enough for Christians. Watch for Christ's coming, whether it shall be today or tomorrow, and set no limits and no dates and no times. Let us notice how we show it forth.
I think we show it to ourselves. We see as before our eyes, when we eat and drink, our interest in the sacrifice offered upon Calvary. But next, we show it to God. We do, in effect, say before the all-witnessing Jehovah, "Great God, we break this bread in thine august presence in token that we believe in thy dear Son; and we drink this wine here before thee, thou Savior of hearts, solemnly to say unto thee again, "We are thine, bought with Jesus' blood, and washed clean in it." Moreover, it is a showing of it to our fellow-Christians. Together we clasp hands and renew our Christian fellowship with one another through renewing our fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ. We do, as it were, teach one another, admonish one another, and comfort one another when we thus show forth the Lord's death. But besides showing forth Christ's death to ourselves, to our God, and to our fellow-Christians, we also show it to the world. We do, in effect, say to the world, "Here we show that we believe in him whom you crucified. As we eat this bread and drink of this cup, Christ Jesus is set forth to you as being All-in-all to us." And then, in addition to saying this to the world, we also say it to sinners who may happen to be present and to whom it may be blessed. How often within these walls has God blessed the breaking of bread to the conversion of souls!
Only by his Spirit can we remember Christ and show his death. Let us, with bowed head, ask for that Spirit. Let us seek that we may worship Christ in spirit and in truth while we receive the outward symbols of his suffering.
ondoctrine.com/2spu0105.htm
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Day 5
MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE
MATTHEW HENRY
"Look, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. When he works on the left hand, I cannot behold him; when he turns to the right hand, I cannot see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold." Job 23:8-10
Job here complains that he cannot understand the meaning of God's providences concerning him and is quite at a loss about them. Eliphaz had bid him acquaint himself with God. "So I would with all my heart," says Job, "if I knew how to get acquainted with him." He had himself a great desire to appear before God and get a hearing of his case, but the Judge was not to be found. Look which way he would, he could see no sign of God's appearing for him to clear up his innocence. Job, no doubt, believed that God is present everywhere, but he seems to complain of three things. (1) That he could not fix his thoughts nor form any clear judgment of things in his own mind. His mind was so hurried and discomposed with his troubles that he was like a man at his wits' end, who runs this way and that but brings nothing to a head. It is the common complaint of those who are sick or melancholy, that when they would think of that which is good, they can make nothing of it. (2) That he could not find out the cause of his troubles nor the sin which provoked God to contend with him. He could not perceive wherein he had sinned more than others, for which he should thus be punished more than others, nor could he discern what other end God should aim at in afflicting him thus. (3) That he could not foresee what would would be the end, whether God would deliver him at all. He was quite at a loss to know what God designed to do with him.
Job satisfies himself with this: That God himself was a witness to his integrity and, therefore, did not doubt but the issue would be good. After Job had almost lost himself in the labyrinth of the divine counsels, how contentedly does he sit down, at length, with this thought: "Though I know not the way that he takes (for his way is in the sea and his path in the great waters, his thoughts and ways are infinitely above ours and it would be presumption in us to pretend to judge of them), yet he knows the way that I take. His friends judged of that which they did not know and therefore charged him with that of which he was never guilty. But God, who knew every step he had taken, would not do so. It is a great comfort to those who mean honestly that God understands their meaning, though men do not, cannot, or will not. God approves of it. He knows that, however I may sometimes have taken a false step, yet I have still taken a good way, have chosen the way of truth, and he is well pleased with it.
Those that are in affliction may comfort themselves with these three things: (1) That they are but tried. It is not intended for their hurt, but for their honor and benefit; it is the trial of their faith. (2) That when they are sufficiently tried, they shall come forth out of the furnace and not left to be consumed as dross or reprobate silver. (3) That they shall come forth as gold, pure in itself and precious to the refiner. They shall come forth as gold approved and improved, found to be good and made to be better.
Now that which encouraged Job to hope that his present troubles would thus end well was the testimony of his conscience for him, that he had lived a good life in the fear of God. God's way was the way in which he walked: "My foot has held his steps," vs. 11. His holding God's steps and keeping his way intimate that the tempter had used all his arts by fraud and force to draw him aside, but with care and resolution, Job had by the grace of God persevered. God's word was the rule by which he walked. Whatever difficulties we may meet with in the way of God's commandments, though they lead us through a wilderness, yet we must never think of going back, but must press on towards the mark. The word of God is to our souls what our necessary food is to our bodies. It sustains the spiritual life and strengthens us for the actions of life. It is that which we cannot subsist without and which nothing else can make up the lack of. We ought, therefore, so to esteem it, to take pains for it, hunger after it, feed upon it with delight, and nourish our souls with it. This will be our rejoicing in the day of evil, as it was Job's.
Matthew Henry's Commentary
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Day 6
AWAKE, MY SOUL
CHARLES WESLEY
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." Rom. 12:1
Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run.
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise
To pay thy morning sacrifice.
Redeem thy misspent moments past
And live this day, as if thy last.
Thy talents to improve, take care;
For the great day thyself prepare.
Let all thy converse be sincere,
Thy conscience as the noon-day clear.
For God's all-seeing eye surveys
Thy secret thoughts, thy words and ways.
Wake and lift up thyself, my heart,
And with the angels take thy part,
Who all night long unwearied sing
High praise to the eternal King.
All praise to thee, who safe has kept
And has refreshed me while I slept.
Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,
I may of endless light partake!
Lord, I my vows to thee renew,
Disperse my sins as morning dew.
Guard my first springs of thought and will,
And with thyself my spirit fill.
Direct, control, suggest this day
All I design, or do, or say;
That all my powers with all their might
In thy sole glory may unite.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!
Praise him, all creatures here below.
Praise him above, ye heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
ccel.org/w/wesley/hymn/jwg09/jwg0964.html
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Day 7
SOLOMON'S SPIRITUAL DECLINE
ALFRED EDERSHEIM
A greater contrast could scarcely be imagined than that between the state of Solomon's court, and of the country generally, and the directions and restrictions laid down in Deuteronomy 17:16 for the regulation of the Jewish monarchy. The first and most prominent circumstance, which here presents itself to the mind, is the direct contravention of the Divine command as regarded the number of "princesses" and concubines which formed the harem of Solomon. The sacred narrative expressly states that the polygamy of Solomon--and especially his alliances with nations excluded from intermarriage with Israel--was the occasion, if not the cause, of his later sins and
But the elements which caused the fall of Solomon lay deeper than polygamy. First among these elements was the growing luxury of the court. The whole atmosphere around was different from what it had been in the primitive times which preceded the reign of Solomon, and still more from the ideal of monarchy as sketched in the Book of Deuteronomy. Everything had become un-Jewish, foreign, purely Asiatic. Closely connected with this was the evident desire to emulate and even outdo neighboring nations. Such wisdom, such splendor, such riches, and finally, such luxury and such a court were not to be found elsewhere as in the kingdom of which Jerusalem was the capital. This was an ominous beginning to that long course of Jewish pride and self-exultation which led to such fearful consequences. It is to this desire of surpassing other Eastern courts that the size of Solomon's harem must be attributed. Had it been coarse sensuality which influenced him, the earlier and not the later years of his reign would have witnessed the introduction of so many strange wives. Moreover, it deserves special notice that the 700 wives of Solomon are designated as "princesses." Without pressing this word in its most literal meaning, we may at least infer that Solomon courted influential connections with the reigning and other leading families of the clans around, and that the chief object of his great harem was, in a worldly sense, to strengthen his position and give evidence of his wealth and power as an Eastern monarch, and also to form promising alliances, no matter what spiritual elements were thus introduced into the country.
Closely connected with all this was the rapidly growing intercourse between Israel and foreign nations. For one reason or another, strangers, whom Israel hitherto had only considered as heathens, crowded to Jerusalem. By their presence, king and people would not only become familiar with foreign ideas, but this so-called toleration would result in extending to these strangers the right of public worship, or rather, of public idolatry. And so strong was this feeling that although Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, and Hezekiah put an end to all idolatry, yet the high places which Solomon had built on the southern acclivity of the Mount of Olives remained in use until the time of Josiah, avowedly for the worship of those foreigners who came to or were resident in Jerusalem.
All this may help us to form a more correct conception of the causes which led to the terrible decline in the spiritual history of Solomon, without either extenuating his guilt or, as is more commonly the case, exaggerating his sin. As Holy Scripture puts it, when Solomon was old and less able to resist influences around, he so far yielded to his foreign wives as to build altars for their worship. But the sacred text does not state that Solomon personally served them, nor is there any reason for supposing that he either relinquished the service of Jehovah or personally took part in heathen rites. But to have built altars to "the abominations of the Gentiles," and to have tolerated, if not encouraged, the idolatrous rites openly enacted there by his wives, implied great public guilt. His sin was the more inexcusable in that he had, in this respect, the irreproachable example of David. Besides, even closer allegiance to the Lord might have been expected from Solomon than from David, since Solomon had been privileged to build the Temple and had on two occasions received personal communication from the Lord, whereas God had never appeared to David but only employed prophets as intermediaries to make known his good pleasure.
Bible History Old Testament
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Day 8
SPIRITUAL GLEANING
(PART ONE) CHARLES SPURGEON
"Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not." Ruth 2:15 Country friends need no explanation of what is meant by gleaning. I hope the custom will never be banished from the land, but that the poor will always be allowed their little share of the harvest. I am afraid that many who see gleaning every year in the fields of their own parish are not yet wise enough to understand the heavenly art of spiritual gleaning. That is the subject which I have chosen on this occasion, and my text is taken from the charming story of Ruth, which is known to every one of you. I shall use the story as setting forth our own case in a homely, but instructive, way. In the first place, we shall observe that there is a great Husbandman: it was Boaz in Ruth's case, it is our heavenly Father who is the Husbandman in our case. Secondly, we shall notice a humble gleaner: the gleaner was Ruth in this instance, but she may be looked upon as the representative of every believer. And, in the third place, there is a gracious permission given to Ruth: "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not." The same permission is spiritually given to us.
In the first place, the God of the whole earth is A GREAT HUSBANDMAN. This is true in natural things. As a matter of fact, all farm operations are carried on by his power and prudence. Man may plow the soil and sow the seed, but as Jesus said, "My Father is the husbandman." He appoints the clouds and allots the sunshine; he directs the winds and distributes the dew and the rain; he also gives the frost and the heat, and so by various processes of nature he brings forth food for man and beast. All the farming, however, which God does is for the benefit of others and never for himself.
In spiritual matters God is a great husbandman, and there, too, all his works are done for his children that they may be fed upon the finest of the wheat. Permit me to speak of the wide gospel fields which our heavenly Father farms for the good of his children. There is a great variety of these fields, and they are all fruitful. One part of his farm is called Doctrine field. What full sheaves of finest wheat are to be found there! He who is permitted to glean in it will gather bread enough and to spare, for the land brings forth by handfuls. Look at that goodly sheaf of election, full, indeed, of heavy ears of corn. There is the great sheaf of final perseverance, where each ear is a promise that the work which God has begun he will assuredly complete. If we have not faith enough to partake of either of these sheaves, we may glean around the choice sheaves of redemption by the blood of Christ. Many a poor soul who could not feed on electing love nor realize his perseverance in Christ, can yet feed on the atonement and rejoice in the sublime doctrine of substitution. Many and rich are the sheaves which stand thick together in Doctrine field. These, when threshed by meditation and ground in the mill of thought, furnish royal food for the Lord's family.
I wonder why it is that some of our Master's stewards are so prone to lock the gate of this field, as if they thought it dangerous ground. For my part, I wish my people not only to glean here but to carry home the sheaves by the wagon load, for they cannot be too well fed when truth is the food. If we have a love to the precepts and warnings of the word, we need not be afraid of the doctrines. On the contrary, we should search them out and feed upon them with joy. The doctrines of distinguishing grace are to be set forth in due proportion to the rest of the word, and those are poor pulpits from which these grand truths are excluded. We must not keep the Lord's people out of this field. I say, swing the gate open and come in, all of you who are children of God!
The great Husbandman has another field called Promise field. Of that I shall not need to speak, for I hope you often enter it and glean from it. Just let us take an ear or two out of one of the sheaves and show them to you, that you may be induced to stay there the live-long day and carry home a rich load at night. Here is an ear: "The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed." Here is another: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
Then there is Ordinance field. A great deal of good wheat grows in this field. The field of Baptism has been exceedingly fruitful to some of us, for it has set forth to us our death, burial, and resurrection in Christ, and thus we have been cheered and instructed. It has been good for us to declare ourselves on the Lord's side, and we have found that in keeping our Lord's commandments there is great reward. We will pass on to the field of the Supper where grows the very best of our Lord's corn. What rich things have we fed upon in this choice spot! Have we not there tasted the sweetest and most sustaining of all spiritual food? In all the estate no field is to be found to rival this center and crown of all the domain: this is the King's Acre.
The heavenly Husbandman has one field upon a hill which equals the best of the others, even if it does not excel them. You cannot really and truly go into any of the other fields unless you pass into this, for the road to the other fields lies through this hill farm: it is called Fellowship and Communion with Christ. This is the field for the Lord's choicest ones to glean in. Some of you have only run through it. You have not stopped long enough in it, but he who knows how to stay here, yea, to live here, shall spend his hours most profitably and pleasantly. It is only in proportion as we hold fellowship with Christ and communion with him that ordinances, doctrines or promises can profit us. All other things are dry and barren unless we are enjoying the love of Christ, unless we bear his likeness, unless we dwell continually with him and rejoice in his love. I am sorry to say that few Christians think much of this field. It is enough for them to be sound in doctrine and tolerably correct in practice. They care far less than they should about intimate intercourse with Christ Jesus their Lord by the Holy Ghost. I am sure that if we gleaned in this field, we should not have half so many nasty tempers nor a tenth as much pride nor a hundredth part so much sloth. This is a field hedged and sheltered, and in it you will find better food than that which angels feed upon. Yea, you will find Jesus himself as the bread which came down from heaven. Blessed, blessed field, may we visit it every day. The Master leaves the gate wide open for every believer. Let us enter in and gather the golden ears till we can carry no more.
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Day 9
SPIRITUAL GLEANING
(PART TWO) CHARLES SPURGEON
"Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not." Ruth 2:15 In the second place, we have a HUMBLE GLEANER. Ruth was a gleaner and may serve as an illustration of what every believer should be in the fields of God. The believer is a favored gleaner, for he may take home a whole sheaf if he likes. He may bear away all that he can possibly carry, for all things are freely given him of the Lord. If your faith is like a great wagon and you can carry the whole field of corn, you have full permission to take it. Alas, our faith is so little that we would rather glean than reap.
We may remark that the gleaner in her business has to endure much toil and fatigue. She rises early in the morning, and she trudges off to a field. If that be closed, she hastens to another, and if that be shut up or gleaned already, she hurries further still. All day long, while the sun is shining upon her, she goes on; stoop, stoop, stoop, gathering the ears one by one. She returns not to her home till nightfall for she desires, if the field is good, to do much business that day, and she will not go home until she is loaded down. Let us do the same when we seek spiritual food. Let us not be afraid of a little fatigue in the Master's fields. If the gleaning is good, we must not soon weary in gathering the precious spoil, for the gains will richly reward our pains. A gleaner does not expect that the ears will come to her of themselves. She knows that gleaning is hard work. We must not expect to find the best field next to our own house.
We remark, next, that every ear the gleaner gets she has to stoop for. Why is it that proud people seldom profit under the word? Why is it that certain "intellectual" folk cannot get any good out of our soundest ministers? Why? Because they must needs have the corn lifted up for them, and if the wheat is held so high over their heads that they can hardly see it, they are pleased and cry, "Here is something wonderful!" They admire the extraordinary ability of the man who can hold up the truth so high that nobody can reach it. But truly that is a sorry feat. The preacher's business is to place truth within the reach of all, children as well as adults. He is to let fall handfuls on purpose for poor gleaners, and these will never mind stooping to collect the ears. If we preach to the educated people only, the wise ones can understand but the illiterate cannot. But when we preach in all simplicity to the poor, other classes can understand it if they like, and if they do not like, they had better go somewhere else. Those who cannot stoop to pick up plain truth had better give up gleaning. We will go down on our knees in prayer and stoop by self-humiliation and confession of ignorance, and so gather with the hand of faith the daily bread of our hungering souls.
Note, in the next place, that what a gleaner gets she wins ear by ear. Occasionally she picks up a handful at once, but as a rule it is straw by straw. In the case of Ruth, handfuls were let fall on purpose for her, but she was highly favored. The gleaner stoops and gets one ear, and then she stoops again for another. Now, beloved, where there are handfuls to be got at once, that is the place to go and glean. But if you cannot meet with such abundance, be glad to gather ear by ear.
Note next that what the gleaner picks up she keeps in her hand. She does not drop the corn as fast as she gathers it. There is a good thought at the beginning of the sermon, but the hearers are so eager to hear another that the first one slips away. Toward the end of the sermon a large handful falls in their way, and they forget all that went before in their eagerness to retain this last and richest portion. The sermon is over, and, alas, it is nearly all gone from the memory, for many are about as wise as a gleaner would be if she should pick up one ear and drop it, pick up another and drop it, and so on all day. Be attentive, but be retentive too. Gather the grain and tie it up in bundles for carrying away with you, and mind you do not lose it on the road home. Many a person, when he has got a fair hold of the sermon, loses it on the way to his house by idle talk with vain companions. After a good sermon, go home with your ears and your mouth shut. Act like the miser who not only gets all he can, but keeps all he can. Do not lose, by trifling talk, that which may make you rich to all eternity.
The gleaner takes the wheat home and threshes it. It is a wise thing to thresh a sermon, whoever may have been the preacher, for it is certain that there is a portion of straw and chaff about it. Many thresh the preacher by finding needless fault, but that is not half so good as threshing the sermon to get out of it the pure truth. Take a sermon, beloved, when you get one which is worth having, and lay it down on the floor of meditation and beat it out with the flail of prayer, and you will get bread-corn from it. This threshing by prayer and meditation must never be neglected. He who knows how to flail a sermon well, so as to clear out all the wheat from the straw, he it is who makes a good hearer and feeds his soul on what he hears.
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Day 10
SPIRITUAL GLEANING
(CONCLUSION) CHARLES SPURGEON
"Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not." Ruth 2:15 And now, in the last place, here is A GRACIOUS PERMISSION GIVEN: "Let her glean among the sheaves, and reproach her not." Ruth had no right to go among the sheaves till Boaz gave her permission by saying, "Let her do it." For her to be allowed to go among the sheaves, in that part of the field where the wheat was newly cut and none of it carted off, was a great favor. But Boaz whispered that handfuls were to be dropped on purpose for her, and that was a greater favor still. Boaz had a secret love for the maiden and even so, beloved, it is because of our Lord's eternal love to us that he allows us to enter his best fields and glean among the sheaves. His grace permits us to lay hold upon doctrinal blessings, promise blessings, and experience blessings. The Lord has a favor toward us and hence these singular kindnesses. We have no right to any heavenly blessings of ourselves; our portion is due to free and sovereign grace.
I tell you the reasons that moved the heart of Boaz to let Ruth go among the sheaves. The master motive was because he loved her. He would have her go there because he had conceived an affection for her, which he afterwards displayed in grander ways. So the Lord lets his people come and glean among the sheaves because he loves them. Did you have a soul-enriching season among the sheaves the other Sabbath? Did you carry home your sack filled like those of Joseph's brothers when they returned from Egypt? Did you have an abundance? Were you satisfied? That was your Master's goodness. It was because he loved you. Look on all your spiritual enjoyments as proof of his eternal love. Look on all heavenly blessings as being tokens of heavenly grace.
There was another reason why Boaz allowed Ruth to glean among the sheaves--it was because he was her relative. This is why our Lord gives us choice favors at times and takes us into his banqueting house in so gracious a manner. He is our next of kin, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Our Redeemer, our kinsman is the Lord Jesus, and he will never be strange to his own flesh. It is a high and charming mystery that our Lord Jesus is the Husband of his church, and sure he may well let his spouse glean among the sheaves, for all that he possesses is hers already. Enrich yourselves out of that which is your Lord's. Never lose an opportunity of picking up a golden blessing. Glean at the mercy-seat, glean in private meditation, glean in reading pious books, glean in associating with godly men, glean everywhere, and if you can get only a little handful, it will be better than none.
Just one other remark. Never be afraid to glean. Have faith in God and take the promises home to yourself. Jesus will rejoice to see you making free with his good things. His voice is, "Eat abundantly. Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved." You cannot believe too much concerning your Lord. Let not Satan cheat you into contentment with a meager portion of grace when all the granaries of heaven are open to you. Glean on with humble industry and hopeful confidence, and know that he who owns both fields and sheaves is looking upon you with eyes of love and will one day espouse you to himself in glory everlasting.
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Day 11
THE HUMBLE SOUL
EBENEZER ERSKINE
"When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person." Job 22:29
The first thing proposed is to give some account of this lowliness and humility, that you may know in what it consists. With respect to ourselves, it implies low and under-rating thoughts of ourselves. The humble soul has low thoughts of his own person, as David did. "I am a worm, and no man." "I am less than the least of thy mercies," says Jacob. He has low thoughts of his pedigree and is not like the princes of Zoan, who valued themselves that they were the offspring of ancient kings. Some think there is none like them because they are of such a clan and such a family, that they have lords and lairds for their relations. But the humble soul makes little account of all these: "Who am I," says David, "and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto?" This man also has low thoughts of his own abilities for any work or service he is called to perform. O, says the lowly soul, I see I am nothing, I can do nothing; I cannot of myself think a good thought. I see such sin and imperfection attending every duty I set about as may justly provoke a holy God to cast it back like dung upon my face. I cannot subdue one corruption or resist the least temptation when left to myself. This lowliness and humility with respect to ourselves has in it a self-abhorrence. The man sees so much sin and guilt, so much emptiness, poverty, and vileness about himself that, with holy Job, he cries out, "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." It has in it a singleness of heart in the discharge of duty, without vain-glory or Pharisaical ostentation. The humble and lowly Christian will make conscience of duty, although none in the world should see him. Yea, the more retired he is, the better he loves it.
With respect to others, lowliness and humility is a preferring of others above or before ourselves. "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves." Not that a child of God should think a profane reprobate in a better state than himself, but every true child of God will see so much in himself as will make him ready to think the worst reprobate as good, or rather better, than he is by nature. And he will see that the least of saints have something in which they excel him. This was the disposition of the great apostle. He looked on himself as the chief of sinners and the least of the saints. A humble man looks upon the gifts and graces of others without a grudge. He rejoices to see the gifts and graces of God's Spirit abounding towards others, and will shun all vain comparison with himself. Lowliness and humility has in it an affable, courteous carriage toward all.
With respect to God, humility embraces high and admiring thoughts of the majesty of God. When God reveals himself, the man sinks into nothing in his own esteem. "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" A holy fear and dread of God is always on his spirit, especially in his immediate approaches into the presence of God and in the duties of his worship. The very angels cover their faces with their wings before him, crying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts." Humility has in it an admiring of every expression of the divine bounty and goodness toward men in general, and toward himself in particular. "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" A silent admiration of the grace and condescension of the great Jehovah is the highest degree of praise we can aim for in this life, while our harps are so mistuned by sin. Humility gives God the glory of all that we are helped to do in his service. When the man succeeds in discharging his duty in any measure comfortably, he will give all the glory to God.
Humility embraces a silent resignation to the will of God and an acquiescence in the disposals of his providence, let them be ever so cross to the inclinations of flesh and blood. "Here am I," will the poor soul say with David, "let him do to me as seems good unto him." He sees that his furnace is not by the ten-thousandth part so hot as his sins deserve, and therefore silences his soul. "Wherefore does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Thou has punished us less than our iniquities deserve."
Although these things be the ingredients and concomitants of true humility, yet I think the very soul and essence of gospel-humiliation lies in the soul's renunciation of itself and accepting of the Lord Jesus Christ as its everlasting all. A man never passes the verge of moral humility until self righteousness be dethroned. In a word, the humble and lowly believer is content to be nothing in order that Christ may be all in all to him; content to be a fool that Christ may be his only wisdom; content to be, as he really is in himself, a guilty condemned criminal, that Christ may he his only righteousness.
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Day 12
THE HUMBLE SOUL THE PARTICULAR FAVORITE OF HEAVEN
EBENEZER ERSKINE
"When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person." Job 22:29
The second thing proposed is to show that the lowly and humble soul is the particular favorite of Heaven. This will be abundantly evident if we consider that when the Son of God was here in our nature, he showed a particular regard to such. You have a clear instance of this in the narrative of the centurion recorded in Matthew chapter 8. The centurion there addresses Christ in behalf of his servant who was grievously tormented of the palsy. Christ, in the 7th verse, promises to come to his house and heal him. See the lowliness of the man's spirit: "Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof." And what a large commendation Christ gives to the man: "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." And he grants him all that he asked. "Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee."
When God gives the grace of humiliation, it is a sign that he intends more grace for that soul. God lays up the richest treasures of his grace in the heart of the humble and lowly. And hence it is that the humble Christian is ordinarily the most thriving and growing Christian. Honor, exaltation, and preferment is intended for him. "Before honor is humility," says Solomon.
God's eyes are upon the humble. Indeed, he beholds all the children of men, but his countenance beholds the humble and upright soul: "Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things my hand has made, and all those things exist. But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word."
Not only God's eye, but his ear is toward the lowly soul: "Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble; you will prepare their hearts; you will cause your ear to hear." Would you have preparation for a communion-table? Would you be brought to God's seat and have a hearing there? Then come with lowliness and humility of soul.
The great Jehovah, the infinite God, dwells in and with the humble: "For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.'" God has a two-fold palace where he dwells: the one is in heaven, the other is in the heart of the humble Christian.
As God dwells with the humble, so the humble shall dwell with God in glory forever: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." They shall be admitted to sit down at the high table of glory and to eat and drink with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yea, with the King of glory himself. They will take off their crowns and cast them down before the Lamb, saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power." Thus, you see that the humble soul is the particular favorite of the most high God.
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Day 13
INTRODUCTION TO ROMANS
ROBERT HALDANE
The Epistle to the Romans was written by the Apostle Paul from Corinth, the capital of Achaia, after his second journey to that celebrated city for the purpose of collecting the pecuniary aid destined for the church at Jerusalem. This appears from the fifteenth chapter, where he says that he was going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. "For," he adds, "it has pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem."
The Epistle appears to have been carried to Rome by Phebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchrea, which was the port of Corinth. We learn from the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of the Acts, and from different parts of the two Epistles to the Corinthians, that after having remained about three years at Ephesus, Paul purposed to pass through Macedonia and Achaia to receive the contributions of the Corinthians and afterwards proceed to Jerusalem.
As to the period when this Epistle was written, it is certain that it was at a time previous to Paul’s arrival at Rome. On this account, he begins by declaring to the disciples there that he had a great desire to see them and to preach the Gospel to them; that he had often purposed this but had hitherto always been prevented. The Epistle appears to be earlier in date than the Epistles to the Ephesians and Philippians, and those to the Hebrews and Philemon, and the Second to Timothy (for all of these were written during the Apostle’s first or second imprisonment at Rome), and later than the two Epistles to the Corinthians. It is generally supposed that Romans was written in the year 57 of the Christian era, about twenty-four years after the resurrection of our Lord.
Notwithstanding that this Epistle was written after some of the others, it has been placed first in order among them on account of its excellence and the abundance and sublimity of its contents. It contains, indeed, an abridgment of all that is taught in the Christian religion. It treats of the revelation of God in the works of nature and in the heart of man, and it exhibits the necessity and the strictness of the last judgment. It teaches the doctrine of the fall and corruption of the whole human race, of which it discovers the source and its greatness. It points out the true and right use of the law and why God gave it to the Israelites, and also shows the variety of the temporal advantages over other men, which that law conferred on them and which they so criminally abused. It treats of the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ, of justification, sanctification, free will and grace, of salvation and condemnation, election and reprobation, of the perseverance and assurance of the salvation of believers in the midst of their severest temptations, of the necessity of afflictions and the admirable consolations which God gives His people under them--, of the calling of the Gentiles, and of the rejection of the Jews and their final restoration to the communion of God. Paul afterwards lays down the principal rules of Christian morality, containing all that we owe to God, to ourselves, to our neighbors, and to our brethren in Christ, and declares the manner in which we should act in our particular employments, uniformly accompanying his precepts with just and reasonable motives to enforce their practice.
The form of this Epistle is not less admirable than its matter. Its reasoning is powerful and conclusive; the style condensed, lively, and energetic; the arrangement orderly and clear, strikingly exhibiting the leading doctrines as the main branches from which depend all the graces and virtues of the Christian life. The whole is pervaded by a strain of the most exalted piety, true holiness, ardent zeal, and fervent charity.
This Epistle, like the greater part of those written by Paul, is divided into two general parts: the first contains doctrine and extends to the beginning of the twelfth chapter; the second, which relates to practice, goes on to the conclusion. The first is to instruct the spirit and the other to direct the heart; the one teaches what we are to believe and the other what we are to practice. In the first part he discusses chiefly the two great questions which at the beginning of the Gospel were agitated between the Jews and the Christians, namely, that of justification before God and that of the calling of the Gentiles. For as, on the one hand, the Gospel held forth a method of justification very different from that of the law, the Jews could not relish a doctrine which appeared to them novel and was contrary to their prejudices; and as, on the other hand, they found themselves in possession of the covenant of God to the exclusion of other nations, they could not endure that the Apostles should call the Gentiles to the knowledge of the true God and to the hope of His salvation, nor that it should be supposed that the Jews had lost their exclusive preeminence over the nations.
The principal object, then, of the Apostle was to combat these two prejudices. He directs his attention to the former in the first nine chapters and treats of the other in the tenth and eleventh. As to what regards the second portion of the Epistle, Paul first enjoins general precepts for the conduct of believers, afterwards in regard to civil life, and finally with regard to church communion. In the first five chapters the great doctrine of justification by faith, of which they exclusively treat, is more fully discussed than in any other part of Scripture. The design of the Apostle is to establish two things: First, that there are only two ways of justification before God, namely, that of works which the law proposes, and that of grace by Jesus Christ which the Gospel reveals; the first is entirely shut against men in order to their being saved, so there remains only the last. Second, that justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ respects indifferently all men, both Jews and Gentiles, and that it abolishes the distinction which the law had made between them.
To arrive at this, he first proves that the Gentiles as well as the Jews are subject to the judgment of God; but that, being all sinners and guilty, neither the one nor the other can escape condemnation by their works. He humbles them both. He sets before the Gentiles the blind ignorance and unrighteousness both of themselves and of their philosophers, of whom they boasted, and he teaches humility to the Jews by showing that they were chargeable with similar vices. He undermines in both the pride of self-merit and teaches all to build their hopes on Jesus Christ alone, proving that their salvation can neither emanate from their philosophy nor from their law, but from the grace of Christ Jesus.
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Day 14
A WORD TO THOSE WHO ARE GROWING OLD
SAMUEL LOGAN BRENGLE
"Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, 'I have no pleasure in them.'" (Ecclesiastes 12:1)
In one of my recent meetings, a dear sister who has been serving the Lord and walking in the light for many years confessed with tears that her joy was not what it used to be. In her youth joys were rapturous, leaping up like springing fountains and singing birds. A verse of Scripture would suddenly stand out with its assuring message and fill her with gladness, and songs in the night welled up from her glad heart. But now she says she often has heaviness of spirit, and the way seems to get harder. And while she feels sure that she is accepted of God, yet she is not enjoying what she once enjoyed.
God forbid that I should offer any false comfort or, through lack of faith, limit His power to fill us with the rapturous joys of youth as we grow older. But is it reasonable for us to suppose that this should be so? In youth, as we waited upon the Lord, we found our spiritual strength renewed and we "mounted up as with wings of eagles." In middle age, as we wait upon the Lord, we find our strength renewed and we "run and are not weary." In old age, as we wait upon the Lord, our strength is renewed but we must now "walk and not faint."
None of the natural senses are as keen in old age as in youth. The appetite for food, the joy in society, the rapturous friendships of youth do not continue quite the same through the years, and may it not be so spiritually? It is true the Apostle says that while the outward man perishes the inward man is renewed day by day. But is not the joy in some measure, at least, modified by the sobering experiences of the years? The river that started as a bubbling, leaping, laughing brook in the mountains, often rushing in torrents through narrow and precipitous ways, gradually widens and deepens and flows peacefully and without noise as it nears the sea. May it not be so in our spiritual life? Is not the river of God's peace, flowing through the hearts of the aged, a deeper and richer experience than the exuberant joys at the beginning of the spiritual life? The pressing infirmities of the flesh and the gradual decay of memory and other powers may account for some of the apparent loss of joy in those who are growing old. The enlarged knowledge of the malignant, massive, stubborn powers of evil may have a sobering effect upon the mind which, if not watchfully guarded against and met with quiet, steadfast faith, may tend to lessen joy. If our children do not serve God with the ardor we wish, or souls for whom we pray do not at once get saved, or the work of God which is dear to our hearts languishes, the Devil may tempt us to doubt or repine, and so our joy is quenched. What steps can be taken to prevent or arrest the failure of joy?
Aged people should still stir up the gift of God that is in them as we stir up a fire that is burning low. Frequent seasons of prayer and singing through old songs, with an active exercise of faith, will help to keep the joy-bells ringing. I am a rather poor sleeper, and only recently in the small hours of the night, before the birds were singing, I found myself wide awake. To bless my own soul and control and guide my thoughts without disturbing others, I softly sang, in almost a whisper, "I need Thee, Oh, I need Thee," and my heart was strangely warmed and blessed as I sang.
Again, old people are not wise to spend too much time considering the joys of long ago and comparing them with present emotions. They should live in anticipation of joys yet to come rather than dwell upon joys that are past. God's storehouse is not exhausted. For those who love and follow Jesus, the best is yet to be. Paul said that he forgot the things behind and, looking forward, he pressed like an eager racer toward the things that are before. Those who keep looking backward instead of forward are likely to stumble and miss the joys that spring up round about them. It is not well to be comparing the present with the past, but we should each moment seek to exercise full and glad faith in our Lord for the present and the future. He has a portion of joy for us now. But the ineffable glory and blessing and joy are yet to come, when we see Him face to face and hear Him say, "Well done, come!"
We must keep our eyes on Jesus, looking unto Him, the Author and the Finisher of our faith. We must look away from the seen things to unseen eternal things; to the purpose and covenant of God in Christ, steadfast and sure; to His promises, great and precious, shining like stars forever and assuring us of God's interest in us. We should carefully count up our present mercies and blessings and give thanks for them. It may be better with us than we think. John Fletcher said that he at one time became so eager for what he had not yet received that he failed to rejoice and enjoy the things God had already given him. That is an almost certain way to lose what we have. It is well, it is indeed a duty, to stretch out for the things before, but we must not forget to give God thanks and enjoy the things He now gives us.
In feeble health we may not be able at all times to realize all we have to be glad about. There may be deep, and at times, prolonged depression of spirit arising from physical causes. "The body and soul are near neighbors," said the Founder, "and they greatly influence each other." Elijah was physically exhausted when he got under that juniper tree and wanted to die. God let him sleep, awoke him, and gave him a simple meal of bread and water. He let him sleep again then again woke him up, fed him and let him live in the open--in sunshine and fresh air--and so revived him. He gave him a man's work to do, and took him to Heaven in a chariot of fire. All God's resources were not exhausted because Elijah was depressed and exhausted. The best was yet to be with Elijah! Simple food, fresh air and sunshine, labor and rest are still important for old people if they wish to keep a happy experience.
Finally, old people should still go to the house of God and mingle with God's people. It was in the temple that aged Simeon and Anna the prophetess found the little Lord Jesus. And the Psalmist sang, if not from his own experience, then from observation of others and in assured faith, "Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing: to show that the Lord is upright" (Psalm 92:13-15). Hallelujah!
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.theoldtimegospel.org/master/master_56.html
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Day 15
THE PENTATEUCH
WILLIAM SMITH
The Pentateuch, the name by which the first five books of the Bible are designated, is derived from two Greek words, pente, five, and teuchos, a volume, thus signifying the five-fold volume. Originally these books formed one continuous work, just as in the Hebrew manuscripts they are all connected in one unbroken roll. At what time they were divided into five portions, each having a separate title, is not known, but it is certain that the distinction dates at or before the time of the Septuagint translation. In the later Scriptures, they are frequently comprehended under the general designation, The Law, The Book of the Law, since to give a detailed account of the preparations for and the delivery of the Divine code with all the civil and sacred institutions that were peculiar to the ancient economy is the object to which they are exclusively devoted. They have been always placed at the beginning of the Bible, not only on account of their priority in point of time, but as forming an appropriate and indispensable introduction to the rest of the sacred books. The numerous and oft-recurring references made in the later Scriptures to the events, the ritual, and the doctrines of the ancient church would have not only lost much of their point and significance, but have been absolutely unintelligible without the information which these five books contain. They constitute the groundwork or basis on which the whole fabric of revelation rests, and a knowledge of the authority and importance that is thus attached to them will sufficiently account for the determined assaults that infidels have made on these books, as well as for the zeal and earnestness which the friends of the truth have displayed in their defense.
The books of the Pentateuch, of which Moses was the author, contain the history of the creation of the world and its inhabitants, the fall and curse of man, the destruction of all the human race save one family of eight souls, the dispersion of the nations, the deliverance of the chosen people of God from oppression, and the introduction of that wonderful dispensation of which the Divine Being Himself was the author and executor, and under which the civil and ecclesiastical government of these nations was administered for so many ages.
And whence did Moses receive the knowledge which philosophy has been so long in reaching through the paths of geology? Was the generation in which he lived more learned than any which succeeded for thousands of years? There is not the slightest shadow of evidence to sustain so incredible a position. It could not be through the slow processes of geological investigation, either of himself or his contemporaries, that Moses learned the sublime truths which were hidden from Aristotle and Pythagoras. The superior wisdom which distinguishes the Hebrew prophet from all his contemporaries, and renders his simple narrative a standard of truth in all ages, was from above. It was from Him who made the world that Moses learned the history of its creation; and in no other way could his successors on the inspired page be possessed of the truth and wisdom which shines as brightly in their pages as in his.
The inspiration of the author of the Pentateuch is one of "the things most surely believed among us." Messiah Himself was a prophet like unto Moses. The Pentateuch is the foundation of Scripture; all the subsequent books of revelation are full of allusions to these early documents. The books themselves claim Moses for their author, and there is no reason to doubt their statement. Their style and composition show them to have been written "at sundry times;" narrative and legislation are naturally interspersed. Laws are given in various forms; for, according to the growing exigencies of the time, earlier statutes required modification. Had these books been a modern compilation, the laws would have been classified and arranged under separate heads; but they are given by Moses in the simple form in which they were originally enacted. The Hebrew nation has always received these treatises as the books of Moses, and they were read to the assembled tribes at stated periods. It is impossible that the nation could have received such publications at any period later than Moses. And so we find from the time of Moses downward, uninterrupted witness to the existence and genuineness of the Pentateuch.
Let not the evidence adduced be deemed defective because we cannot produce testimonies that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch from contemporary writers. If there were any at that remote period, their works and their memory have perished. "The Jews, as a nation," says Sumner in his Treatise on the Records of Creation, "were always in obscurity, the certain consequence, not only of their situation, but of the peculiar constitution and jealous nature of their government." Can it, then, reasonably be expected that we should obtain positive testimony concerning this small and insulated nation from foreign historians when the most ancient of these, whose works remain, lived more than 1000 years posterior to Moses? Can we look for it from the Greeks, when Thucydides has declared that even respecting his own countrymen he could procure no authentic record prior to the Trojan war, or from the Romans who had scarcely begun to be a people when the empire of Jerusalem was destroyed and the whole nation reduced to captivity? Such profane testimony as can be produced serves only to show what was the prevailing opinion among heathens, and when we find them not only recording many of the facts in the narrative of Moses but speaking of him by name and referring to his law, we conclude that no doubt was entertained that he was the lawgiver of the Jews, or that his writings were genuine. Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Tacitus, Juvenal and Longinus make mention of him and his writings in the same manner as we appeal to Cicero and his works. The truth is, no ancient book is surrounded with such evidence of its genuineness, authenticity, and inspiration as the Pentateuch. Venerable in their age, sublime in their natural simplicity, overpowering in their evidence, and mighty in their results are the five books of Moses.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
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Day 16
CONCERNING FASTING
MATTHEW HENRY
"Then the disciples of John came to him saying, 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?" Matthew 9:14
The objections which were made against Christ and his disciples gave occasion for some of the most profitable of his discourses. This is the third instance of it in this chapter. His discourses on his power to forgive sin and his readiness to receive sinners were occasioned by the cavils [trivial objections] of the scribes and Pharisees. So here, from a reflection upon the conduct of his family, arose a discourse concerning his tenderness for it.
It appears from the other evangelists that the disciples of the Pharisees joined with John's disciples. We have reason to suspect that these disciples of the Pharisees made use of John's disciples as their spokesmen because they, being more in favor with Christ and his disciples, could do it more plausibly. Thus we should note, that if the people of God differ in their sentiments, designing men will take that occasion to sow discord and to incense and alienate them one from another. If the disciples of John and of Jesus clash, we have reason to suspect the Pharisees have been at work blowing the coals.
Note how they boasted of their own fasting: "We and the Pharisees fast often." Fasting has in all ages of the church been consecrated upon special occasions to the service of religion. The Pharisees were much in it, many of them kept two fast days in a week. Yet, the generality of them were hypocrites. False and formal professors often excel others in outward acts of devotion. The disciples of John fasted often, partly in compliance with their master's practice, for John came neither eating nor drinking. There is a proneness in professors to brag of their own performances in religion, especially if there be anything extraordinary in them: "Most men will proclaim each his own goodness." Prov. 20:6.
"Your disciples do not fast." John's disciples could not but know that Christ had instructed his disciples to keep their fasts private, and to manage themselves so as they might not appear unto men to fast. Therefore, it was very uncharitable in them to conclude that they did not fast. We must not judge people's religion by that which falls under the eye and observation of the world. But suppose it was so that Christ's disciples did not fast so often or so long as they did? Why, truly, they would have thought that they had more religion than Christ's disciples had. It is common for vain professors to make themselves a standard by which to try and measure persons and things, as if all who differed from them were in the wrong: if all did less than they, then they did too little; and if all did more than they, then they did too much.
Christ might have upbraided John's disciples, but he only vindicates the practice of his own disciples. When they had nothing to say for themselves, he had something ready to say for them. What we do according to the precept and pattern of Christ, he will be sure to bear us out in, and we may with confidence leave it to him to clear up our integrity. Christ pleads two things in defense of their not fasting. First, that it was not a proper season for that duty: "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?" Observe that Christ's answer is so framed that it might sufficiently justify the practice of his own disciples, and yet not condemn the institution of John or the practice of his disciples. When the Pharisees fomented this dispute, they hoped that Christ would cast blame either on his own disciples or on John's, but he did neither. When we are at any time unjustly censured, our care must be only to clear ourselves and not to recriminate or throw dirt upon others. There may be such a variety of circumstances as may justify us in our practice without condemning those that practice otherwise.
Second, Christ's disciples had not sufficient strength for that duty. This is set forth in two similitudes, one of putting new cloth into an old garment (which does not but pull the old to pieces), and of putting new wine into old bottles (which does but burst the bottles). Christ's disciples were not able to bear these severe exercises so well as those of John and of the Pharisees. There were among the Jews not only sects of Pharisees and Essenes (those who led an austere life), but also schools of the prophets, who frequently lived in mountains and deserts. Many of these were Nazarites. They had also private academies to train men up in a strict discipline, and possibly it was from these that many of John's disciples came, as well as many of the Pharisees. Christ's disciples had not been used to such religious austerities and were unfit for them, being taken immediately from their callings. The best of Christ's disciples pass through a state of infancy. All the trees in Christ's garden are not of the same growth--there are babes in Christ and grown men. In religious exercises, the weakness and infirmity of young Christians ought to be considered. Christ would not speak to his disciples that which they could not then bear.
Matthew Henry's Commentary
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Day 17
A PRAYER OF REPENTANCE
CHARLES WESLEY
"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin." Psalm 51:1-2
Show pity, Lord, O Lord, forgive. Let a repenting rebel live.
Are not thy mercies large and free? May not a sinner trust in thee?
My lips with shame my sins confess against thy law, against thy grace!
Lord, should thy judgment be severe, I am condemned, but thou art clear.
Lord, I am vile, conceived in sin and born unholy and unclean.
Sprung from the man whose guilty fall corrupts the race and taints us all.
Behold, I fall before thy face, my only refuge is thy grace.
No outward form can make me clean, the leprosy lies deep within.
Yet save a trembling sinner, Lord, whose hope still hovering round thy word
Would light on some sweet promise there, some sure support against despair.
A broken heart, my God, my King, is all the sacrifice I bring.
The God of grace will ne'er despise a broken heart for sacrifice.
O, thou that hears when sinners cry, though all my crimes before thee lie,
Behold me not with angry look but blot their memory from thy book!
Create my nature pure within and form my soul averse from sin.
Let thy good Spirit ne'er depart nor hide thy presence from my heart.
I cannot live without thy light, cast out and banished from thy sight.
Thy saving strength, O Lord, restore and guard me that I fall no more.
Though I have grieved thy Spirit, Lord, His help and comfort still afford.
And let a wretch come near thy throne to plead the merits of thy Son.
My soul lies humbled in the dust and owns thy dreadful sentence just.
Look down, O Lord, with pitying eye and save the soul condemned to die.
Then will I teach the world thy ways, sinners shall learn thy sovereign grace.
I'll lead them to my Saviour's blood, and they shall praise a pardoning God.
O may thy love inspire my tongue! Salvation shall be all my song,
And all my powers shall join to bless the Lord, my strength and righteousness.ccel.org/w/wesley/hymn/jwg05/jwg0574.html
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Day 18
PERSECUTION: EVERY CHRISTIAN'S LOT
GEORGE WHITEFIELD
"Yes, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Timothy 3:12
When our Lord was pleased to take upon himself the form of a servant and go about preaching the kingdom of God, he took all opportunities to caution his disciples against seeking great things for themselves, and to forewarn them of the many distresses, afflictions and persecutions which they must expect to endure for his name's sake. The great apostle Paul, following the steps of his blessed Master, takes particular care to warn young Timothy of the difficulties he must expect to meet with in the course of his ministry: "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. From such people turn away!"
To encourage Timothy, Paul propounds his own example: "But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra--what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." These words contain an important truth: Persecution is the common lot of every godly man. This is a hard saying, and how few can bear it. I trust God will enable me to make it good by showing, (1) What it is to live godly in Christ Jesus, (2) The different kinds of persecution to which they, who live godly, are exposed, and (3) Why it is, that godly men must expect to suffer persecution.
First, let us consider what it is to live godly in Christ Jesus. This supposes that we are born again and are one with Christ by a living faith and a vital union, even as Jesus Christ and the Father are One. Unless we are thus converted and transformed by the renewing of our minds, we cannot properly be said to be in Christ, much less to live godly in him. To be in Christ merely by baptism and an outward profession is not to be in Him in the strict sense of the word. No, "They that are in Christ are new creatures; old things are passed away, and all things are become new" in their hearts.
To live godly in Christ is to make the divine will, and not our own, the sole principle of all our thoughts, words, and actions: "Whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we do all to the glory of God." Those who live godly in Christ have their affections set on things above; their hopes are full of immortality; their citizenship is in heaven. Being born again of God, they habitually live to, and daily walk with, God. They are pure in heart, and from a principle of faith in Christ, are holy in all manner of conversation and godliness. We may easily learn why so few suffer persecution--because so few live godly in Christ Jesus.
Second, I come now to consider the word persecution and the kinds of persecution that exist. The word is derived from a Greek word signifying to pursue, and generally implies pursuing a person because of his goodness or God's good-will to him. The first kind of persecution is that of the heart. We have an early example of this in the wicked Cain. Because the Lord had respect to Abel and his offering and not to him and his offering, he was very angry, and at length cruelly slew his envied brother. The Pharisees hated and persecuted our Lord long before they laid hold on him, and our Lord mentions being inwardly hated of men as one kind of persecution his disciples were to undergo. This heart-enmity is the root of all other kinds of persecution and is, in some degree or other, to be found in the soul of every unregenerated man. Numbers are guilty of this persecution who never have it in their power to persecute any other way.
A second kind of persecution is that of the tongue. Many, I suppose, think it no harm to shoot out arrows, even bitter words, against the disciples of the Lord. They scatter their firebrands, arrows and death, saying, "Are we not in sport?" But however they may esteem it, in God's account evil-speaking is a high degree of persecution. Thus Ishmael's mocking Isaac is termed persecuting him. "Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake."
The third and last kind of persecution is that which expresses itself in actions, as when wicked men separate the children of God from their company or expose them to church censures, or when they fine, imprison, or punish them by confiscation of goods, cruel scourging, and, lastly, death itself.
It would be impossible to enumerate in what various shapes persecution has appeared. It is a many-headed monster, cruel as the grave, insatiable as hell. And what is worse, it generally appears under the cloak of religion. But cruel, insatiable, and horrid as it is, they that live godly in Christ Jesus must expect to suffer and encounter it in all its forms.
Third, why is it that godly men must expect to suffer persecution? Our Lord informs us that he came upon the earth, "not to send peace, but a sword;" and that the father-in-law should be against the mother-in-law, and a man's foes should be those of his own household. It would be endless to recount all the places wherein our Lord forewarns his disciples that they should be called before rulers and thrust out of synagogues, nay, that the time would come wherein men should think they did God a service if they killed them. For this reason, he frequently declared that unless a man forsake all that he had and even hated life itself, he could not be his disciple. It is worthy to note in the remarkable passage where our Lord makes such an extensive promise to those who left all for him, that he cautiously inserts persecution. "And Jesus answered and said, Truly I say unto you, there is no man that has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundred-fold now in this time; houses and brothers, and sisters and mothers, and children and lands, with persecutions; (the word is in the plural number, including all kinds of persecution) and in the world to come eternal life." He that has ears to hear, let him hear what Christ says in all these passages and then confess that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
As this is proved from our Lord's doctrine, so it is no less evident from his life. Follow him from the manger to the cross and see whether any persecution was like that which the Son of God, the Lord of glory, underwent while here on earth. What contradiction of sinners did he endure against himself! How men separated from his company and were ashamed to walk with him openly, so that he once said to his own disciples, "Will you also go away?"
The servant is not above his Master nor the disciple above his Lord: "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you," says the blessed Jesus.
theoldtimegospel.org/sermons/collect_gw04.html
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Day 19
THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD
CHARLES SPURGEON
"I am the Lord, I change not."
Malachi 3:6I shall offer some exposition of my text by first saying that God is Jehovah, and he changes not in his essence. We cannot tell you what the Godhead is. We do not know what substance that is which we call God. It is an existence, it is a being; but what that is, we know not. However, whatever it is, we call it his essence, and that essence never changes. The substance of mortal things is ever changing. The mountains with their snow-white crowns doff their old diadems in summer, in rivers trickling down their sides, until the storm cloud gives them another coronation. All creatures change. Man, especially as to his body, is always undergoing revolution. Very probably there is not a single particle in my body which was in it a few years ago. This frame has been worn away by activity, its atoms have been removed by friction, fresh particles of matter have in the mean time constantly accrued to my body, and so it has been replenished, its substance altered. But God is perpetually the same. He is not composed of any substance or material but is spirit--pure, essential, and ethereal spirit--and therefore he is immutable. He remains everlastingly the same. There are no furrows on his eternal brow. No age has passed him, no years have marked him with the mementos of their flight. He sees ages pass, but with him it is ever now. He is the great I AM--the Great Unchangeable.
He changes not in his attributes. Whatever the attributes of God were of old, that they are now, and of each of them we may sing, "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen." Was he powerful? Was he the mighty God when he spake the world out of the womb of nonexistence? Was he the Omnipotent when he piled the mountains and scooped out the hollow places for the rolling deep? Yes, he was powerful then, and his arm is unpalsied now. Had he wisdom when he planned the way of our salvation and when from all eternity he marked out his awful plans? Yes, and he is wise now. He is unchanged in his wisdom. He knows as much now as ever, neither more nor less.
God changes not in his plans. Man began to build but was not able to finish, and therefore he changed his plan--as every wise man would do in such a case. He built upon a smaller foundation and commenced again. But has it ever been said that God began to build but was not able to finish? No. When he has boundless stores at his command, and when his own right hand would create worlds as numerous as drops of morning dew, shall he ever stop because he has not power, and reverse or alter or disarrange his plan because he cannot carry it out? "But," say some, "perhaps God never had a plan." Do you think, then, that God is more foolish than yourself? Do you go to work without a plan? "No, I have always a scheme." So has God. Every man has his plan, and God has a plan too. God is a mastermind. He arranged everything in his gigantic intellect long before he did it, and once having settled it, mark you, he never alters it. "This is my purpose," and it stands, nor can earth or hell alter it. He is the All-wise and therefore cannot have planned wrongly.
God is unchanging in his promises. We love to speak about the sweet promises of God, but if we could ever suppose that one of them could be changed, we would not talk anything more about them. If I thought that the notes of the bank of England could not be cashed next week, I should decline to take them. Believer, there was a delightful promise which you had yesterday, and this morning when you turned to the Bible the promise was not sweet. Do you know why? Do you think the promise had changed? Ah, no! You changed; that is where the matter lies. You had been eating some of the grapes of Sodom, and your mouth was thereby put out of taste and you could not detect the sweetness. But the same honey was there, depend upon it. "Oh!" says one child of God, "I had built my house firmly once upon some stable promises; there came a wind, and I said, O Lord, I am cast down and I shall be lost." But the promises were not cast down, the foundations were not removed. It was your little "wood, hay, stubble" hut that you had been building. It was that which fell down.
But now comes one jarring note to spoil the theme: God is unchanging in his threatenings. If every promise stands fast and every oath of the covenant is fulfilled, then every threatening of God shall be fulfilled as well. I will tell you of a decree: "He that believes not shall be damned." That is a decree and a statute that can never change. Be as good as you please, be as moral as you can, be as honest as you will, walk as uprightly as you may, there stands the unchangeable threatening: "He that believes not shall be damned." What do you say to that, moralist? Oh, you wish you could alter it and say, "He that does not live a holy life shall be damned." Yes, that will be true, but that is not what it says. It says, "He that believes not." Here is the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense, but you cannot alter it. You must believe or be damned, says the Bible. That threat of God is as unchangeable as God himself. And when a thousand years of hell's torments shall have passed away, you shall look on high and see written in burning letters of fire, "He that believes not shall be damned." How dare I utter it? But I must. You must be warned "lest you also come into this place of torment."
ondoctrine.com/2spu0107.htm
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Day 20
PATIENCE
JOHN CALVIN
"See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thess. 5:15-18
"See that no one renders evil for evil." As it is difficult to observe this precept, in consequence of the strong bent of our nature to revenge, Paul on this account bids us take care to be on our guard. The word see denotes anxious care. Now, although he simply forbids us to strive with each other in the way of inflicting injuries, there can, nevertheless, be no doubt that he meant to condemn at the same time every disposition to do injury. If it is unlawful to render evil for evil, every disposition to injure is culpable. This doctrine--not to retaliate injuries but to endure them patiently--is peculiar to Christians. Lest the Thessalonians should think that revenge was prohibited only toward their brethren, Paul expressly declares that they are to do evil to no one. As vengeance is forbidden us in every case without exception, however wicked the man that has injured us may be, we must refrain from inflicting injury.
"But always pursue what is good." By this last clause Paul teaches that we must not merely refrain from inflicting vengeance when anyone has injured us, but we must cultivate beneficence toward all. Although he means, in the first instance, that it be exercised among believers mutually, he afterward extends it to all, however undeserving of it. The first step, therefore, in the exercise of patience is not to revenge injuries; the second is to bestow favors even upon our enemies.
"Rejoice always." I refer this to moderation of spirit, when the mind keeps itself in calmness under adversity and does not give indulgence to grief. Accordingly, I connect together these three things: to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, and to give thanks to God in all things. For when he recommends constant praying, he points out the way of rejoicing perpetually, for by this means we ask from God alleviation in connection with all our distresses. But lest we should be borne down by grief, sorrow, anxiety, and fear, he bids us repose in the providence of God.
Every day there are many things that may disturb our peace and mar our joy. For this reason, Paul bids us to pray without ceasing. Thanksgiving is added as a limitation, for many pray in such a manner as at the same time to murmur against God and fret themselves if he does not immediately gratify their wishes. On the contrary, it is befitting that our desires should be restrained in such a manner that, contented with what is given us, we always mingle thanksgiving with our desires. We may lawfully, it is true, ask, sigh and lament, but it must be in such a way that the will of God is more acceptable to us than our own.
"For this is the will of God." God has such a disposition toward us in Christ that even in our afflictions we have large occasion of thanksgiving. For what is fitter or more suitable for pacifying us than when we learn that God embraces us in Christ so tenderly, that he turns to our advantage and welfare everything that befalls us? Let us, therefore, bear in mind that this is a special remedy for correcting our impatience--to turn away from beholding present evils that torment us, and to direct our view to a consideration of a different kind, namely, how God stands affected toward us in Christ.
Calvin's Commentary
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Day 21
ACQUIRING PEACE AND ZEAL FOR PERFECTION
THOMAS Á KEMPIS
"Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace;
and the God of love and peace will be with you."
(2 Corinthians 13:11)We should enjoy much peace if we did not concern ourselves with what others say and do, for these are no concern of ours. How can a man who meddles in affairs not his own, who seeks strange distractions and who is little or seldom inwardly recollected, live long in peace?
Blessed are the simple of heart, for they shall enjoy peace in abundance. Why were some of the saints so perfect and so given to contemplation? Because they tried to mortify entirely in themselves all earthly desires, and thus they were able to attach themselves to God with all their heart and freely to concentrate their innermost thoughts.
We are too occupied with our own whims and fancies, too taken up with passing things. Rarely do we completely conquer even one vice. We are not inflamed with the desire to improve ourselves day by day. Hence, we remain cold and indifferent. If we mortified our bodies perfectly and allowed no distractions to enter our minds, we could appreciate divine things and experience something of heavenly contemplation.
The greatest obstacle, indeed, the only obstacle, is that we are not free from passions and lusts; we do not try to follow the perfect way of the saints. Thus, when we encounter some slight difficulty, we are too easily dejected and turn to human consolations. If we tried, however, to stand as brave men in battle, the help of the Lord from heaven would surely sustain us. For He Who gives us the opportunity of fighting for victory is ready to help those who carry on and trust in His grace.
If we let our progress in religious life depend on the observance of its externals alone, our devotion will quickly come to an end. Let us, then, lay the axe to the root that we may be freed from our passions and thus have peace of mind. If we were to uproot only one vice each year, we should soon become perfect. The contrary, however, is often the case. We feel that we were better and purer in the first fervor of our conversion than we are after many years in the practice of our faith. Our fervor and progress ought to increase day by day, yet it is now considered noteworthy if a man can retain even a part of his first fervor. If we did a little violence to ourselves at the start, we should afterwards be able to do all things with ease and joy. It is hard to break old habits, but harder still to go against our will.
If you do not overcome small trifling things, how will you overcome the more difficult? Resist temptations in the beginning and unlearn the evil habit lest perhaps, little by little, it lead to a more evil one.
If you but consider what peace a good life will bring to yourself and what joy it will give to others, I think you will be more concerned about your spiritual progress.
theoldtimegospel.org/book/imitate1_11.html
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Day 22
ELISHA'S MINISTRY CONFIRMED
ALFRED EDERSHEIM
With the removal of Elijah, Elisha had begun his ministry--the test of its reality having been the parting of the waters of Jordan. The next three incidents must be considered as preparatory to his prophetic activity. The first is in regard to his public acknowledgment by the sons of the prophets, and both the second and third are in regard to his public acknowledgment by the people.
"Then they said to him, 'Look now, there are fifty strong men with your servants. Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.'" Elisha occupied precisely the same position of superiority as Elijah over the ordinary "sons of the prophets," but here we see the folly of their attempted interference in his work. Their proposal marked an entire lack of spiritual understanding and sympathy. There were fifty strong men among them, capable of enduring any fatigue and equal to any work or burden. Might these not go to search whether peradventure the Spirit of Jehovah had not uplifted and then cast Elijah into some remote corner of that desolate and rocky region near Jericho? To men who entertained such notions, it would have been impossible to communicate even what Elisha had witnessed, still less its predicted import to himself. Accordingly, he contented himself with a simple negative to their request. And this should have taught them what was the first duty, as well as qualification alike, of a prophet and of the sons of the prophet: simple, unquestioning obedience. But like many of us in the process of our personal sanctification, they had to learn it by painful experience. Their insistence at last made Elisha "ashamed," since it might seem as if he felt less concern for his master than they, and he yielded to their importunity. When after three days' unavailing search they returned to Jericho, he reminded them of his first refusal. Ever afterwards a spirit of willing submission to Elisha prevailed among the sons of the prophets.
The next requisite seemed to be that Elisha should make such public manifestation of his prophetic authority as would secure the faith and submission of the people. Besides, this was necessary in the contest with Baal whose worship, if it had been finally established, would, so to speak, have denationalized Israel. It was of absolute importance that the presence of Jehovah should appear in a concrete form through a living representative, who should be quick to bring blessing or judgment and so demonstrate what he proclaimed.
"And he said, 'Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it.' So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the source of the water and cast in the salt there and said, 'Thus says the Lord: I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.'" The inhabitants had ascribed to this spring, and it appears not without reason, the frequent miscarriages which alike diminished the population and flocks. The healing of the waters, although performed through the prophet, was the direct act of Jehovah. Accordingly, the cruse to be used must be "new," and the direct means of the "healing" was salt. Salt was added to everything offered as being the emblem of incorruption and hence of purification. The spring of water was "healed" completely.
Another attestation of Elisha's prophetic authority was needed. This time not in blessing, but in judgment--stern, quick, and unrelenting. Those who despised his commission, or rather defied the power that was behind it, must learn by terrible experience its reality. And that this judgment at the beginning of Elisha's ministry was so understood, appears from the circumstance that his ministry never afterward seems to have encountered active opposition.
Once more Elisha was pursuing his lonely way where last he had walked in company with his master. Slowly he ascended those 3000 feet which led up from the low plain of Jericho to the highlands where Bethel lies. He was climbing the last height when he encountered a band of "young men," who, as the text seems to imply, had gone forth to meet him. They were not "little children," but young men. And their presence there meant a deliberate purpose. We have no means of ascertaining how they may have learned of the approach of Elisha, or how they came to know that the great prophet Elijah had "gone up," (to which they may have attached only the vaguest notions). But as the taunt, "Baldhead," was undoubtedly a term of reproach, so the cry, "Go up, go up!" seems to us a mocking allusion to the ascent of Elijah.
"So he turned around and looked at them and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths." This doom overtook them in a manner so strange that it seems to have been specially intended to attract public attention. For although the exceeding danger from bears, especially when irritated, is frequently referred to in Scripture, the large number slain and yet not eaten indicates how unusual such a calamity was. It must have spread such wide mourning as to draw universal attention to the ministry of Elisha.
Bible History Old Testament
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Day 23
A GLORIOUS REVELATION
CHARLES WESLEY
"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge." Psalm 19:1-2
The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.
The unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator's power display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an almighty hand.
Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth,
While all the stars that round her burn
And all the planets in their turn
Confirm the tidings, as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
What though in solemn silence all
Move round this dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice or sound
Amidst their radiant orbs be found?
In reason's ear they all rejoice
And utter forth a glorious voice.
Forever singing as they shine,
"The hand that made us is divine!"ccel.org/w/wesley/hymn/jwg05/jwg0552.html
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Day 24
"BUT HE KNOWS THE WAY THAT I TAKE"
Job 23:10 ARTHUR W. PINK
The omniscience of God is one of the wondrous attributes of Deity. "For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he sees all his goings" (Job 34:21). "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Prov. 15:3). Here is real comfort. How cheering to remember that my Father knows all about my trials, my difficulties, my sorrows, my efforts to glorify Him. It is a precious truth for those in Christ--but a harrowing thought for all out of Christ--that the way I am taking is fully known to and observed by God.
Men did not know the way that Job took. He was grievously misunderstood, and for one with a sensitive temperament to be misunderstood is a sore trial. His very friends thought he was a hypocrite. They believed he was a great sinner and being punished by God. Job knew that he was an unworthy saint, but not a hypocrite. He appealed against their censorious verdict. "He knows the way that I take: when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Fellow believer, here is instruction for you when under like circumstances: Your fellow men and, yes, your fellow Christians, may misunderstand you and misinterpret God’s dealings with you. But console yourself with the blessed fact that the omniscient One knows.
In the fullest sense of the word, Job himself did not know the way that he took, nor do any of us. Life is profoundly mysterious, and the passing of the years offer no solution. Nor does philosophizing help us. Human volition is a strange enigma. Consciousness bears witness that we are more than automatons. The power of choice is exercised by us in every move we make. And yet it is plain that our freedom is not absolute. There are forces brought to bear upon us, both good and evil, which are beyond our power to resist. Both heredity and environment exercise powerful influences upon us. Our surroundings and circumstances are factors which cannot be ignored. And what of providence which shapes our destinies? Ah, how little do we know the way which we take. Said the prophet, "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps" (Jer. 10:23). Here we enter the realm of mystery, and it is idle to deny it. Better far to acknowledge with the wise man, "Man’s goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?" (Prov. 20:24).
In the narrower sense of the term, Job did know the way which he took. What that way was he tells us in the next two verses. "My foot has held his steps. His way have I kept and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food" (Job 23:11, 12). The way Job chose was the best way, the scriptural way, God’s way. What do you think of that way, dear reader? Was it not a grand selection? Ah, not only "patient," but wise Job! Have you made a similar choice? Can you say, "My foot has held his steps. His way have I kept and not declined"? If you can, praise Him for His enabling grace. If you cannot, confess with shame your failure to appropriate His all-sufficient grace. Get down on your knees at once and unburden yourself to God. Hide and keep back nothing. Remember, it is written, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
pbministries.org/books/pink/Comfort/com_06.htm
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Day 25
"WHEN HE HAS TRIED ME"
Job 23:10 ARTHUR W. PINK
"The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord tries the hearts" (Prov. 17:3). This was God’s way with Israel of old, and it is His way with Christians now. Just before Israel entered Canaan, Moses reviewed their history since leaving Egypt: "And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not." In the same way God tries, tests, proves, humbles us.
If we realized this more, we should bear up better in the hour of affliction and be more patient under suffering. The daily irritations of life and the things which annoy so much, what is their meaning? Why are they permitted? Here is the answer: God is "trying" you! That is the explanation, in part at least, of that disappointment, that crushing of your earthly hopes, that great loss. God was, is, testing you. God is trying your temper, your courage, your faith, your patience, your love, your fidelity. How frequently God’s saints see only Satan as the cause of their troubles. They regard the great enemy as responsible for much of their sufferings. But there is no comfort for the heart in this. We do not deny that the Devil does bring about much that harasses us, but above Satan is the Lord Almighty! The Devil cannot touch a hair of our heads without God’s permission, and when he is allowed to disturb and distract us, even then it is only God using him to "try" us. Let us learn then, to look beyond all secondary causes and instruments to that One who works all things after the counsel of His own will.
In the opening chapter of the book of Job, we find Satan obtaining permission to afflict God’s servant. He used the Sabeans to destroy Job‘s herds, sent the Chaldeans to slay his servants, caused a great wind to kill his children. And what was Job’s response? "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Job looked beyond the human agents, beyond Satan who employed them, to the Lord who controls all. He realized that it was the Lord trying him. How much we lose by forgetting this! What a stay for the trouble-tossed heart to know that no matter what form the testing may take, no matter what the agent which annoys, it is God who is "trying" His children. What a perfect example is the Saviour himself. When He was approached in the garden and Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of Malchus, the Saviour said, "The cup which My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" Men were about to vent their awful rage upon Him, the Serpent would bruise His heel, but He looks above and beyond them. Dear reader, no matter how bitter its contents, let us accept the cup as from the Father’s hand.
In some moods, we are apt to question the wisdom and right of God to try us. So often we murmur at His dispensations. Why should God lay such an intolerable burden upon me? Why should others be spared their loved ones and mine taken? Why should health and strength, perhaps the gift of sight, be denied me? The first answer to all such questions is, "O man, who are you that replies against God?"! It is wicked insubordination for any creature to call into question the dealings of the great Creator. "Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?" How earnestly each of us need to cry unto God that His grace may silence our rebellious lips and still the tempest within our wicked hearts!
To the humble soul which bows in submission before the sovereign dispensations of the all-wise God, Scripture affords some light on the problem. This light may not satisfy reason, but it will bring comfort and strength when received in child-like faith and simplicity. In I Pet. 1:6 we read, "In this (God’s salvation) you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Note three things here. First, there is a "needs be" for the trial of faith. Since God says it, let us accept it. Second, this trying of faith is precious, far more so than gold. It is precious to God and will yet be so to us. Third, the present trial has in view the future. Where the trial has been meekly endured and bravely borne, there will be a grand reward at the appearing of our Redeemer.
Again, in 1 Peter 4:12, 13 we are told: "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy." The same thoughts are expressed here as in the previous passage. There is a "needs be" for our trials, and therefore we are to think them not strange. We should expect them. And, too, there is again the blessed outlook of being richly recompensed at Christ’s return. Then there is the added word that not only should we meet these trials with faith’s fortitude, but we should rejoice in them, inasmuch as we are permitted to have fellowship in "the sufferings of Christ." He, too, suffered. Sufficient then, for the disciple to be as his Master.
"When he has tried me." Dear Christian reader, there are no exceptions. God had only one Son without sin, but never one without sorrow. Sooner or later, in one form or another, trial-sore and heavy will be our lot. "When we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this." Again it is written, "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." It has been so in every age.
pbministries.org/books/pink/Comfort/com_06.htm
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Day 26
"BUT HE KNOWS THE WAY THAT I TAKE;
WHEN HE HAS TRIED ME, I SHALL COME FORTH AS GOLD"Job 23:10 ARTHUR W. PINK
"I shall come forth as gold." Observe the tense here. Job did not imagine that he was pure gold already. "I shall come forth as gold," he declared. He knew full well that there was yet much dross in him. He did not boast that he was already perfect. Far from it. In the final chapter of his book we find him saying, "I abhor myself." And well he might, and well may we. As we discover that in our flesh there dwells "no good thing," as we examine ourselves and our ways in the light of God’s Word and behold our innumerable failures, as we think of our countless sins, both of omission and commission, good reason have we for abhorring ourselves. Ah, Christian reader, there is much dross about us. But it will not ever be thus.
"I shall come forth as gold." Job did not say, "When he hath tried me I may come forth as gold," or "I hope to come forth as gold," but with full confidence and positive assurance he declared, "I shall come forth as gold." But how did he know this? How can we be sure of the happy issue? Because the Divine purpose cannot fail; he which hath begun a good work in us will finish it. How can we be sure of the happy issue? Because the Divine promise is sure: "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me" (Ps. 138:8). Then be of good cheer, tried and troubled one. The process may be unpleasant and painful, but the issue is charming and sure.
"I shall come forth as gold." This was said by one who knew affliction and sorrow as few among the sons of men have known them. Yet despite his fiery trials, he was optimistic. Let, then, this triumphant language be ours. "I shall come forth as gold" is not the language of carnal boasting, but the confidence of one whose mind is stayed upon God. There will be no credit to our account--the glory will all belong to the Divine Refiner.
For the present, there remains two things. First, love is the divine thermometer while we are in the crucible of testing: "And he shall sit (the patience of Divine grace) as a Refiner and Purifier of silver" (Mal. 3:3). Second, the Lord Himself is with us in the fiery furnace as He was with the three young Hebrews.
For the future, this is sure: the most wonderful thing in heaven will not be the golden streets or the golden harps, but golden souls on which is stamped the image of God--"predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son!" Praise God for such a glorious prospect, such a victorious issue, such a marvelous goal.
pbministries.sorg/books/pink/Comfort/com_06.htm
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Day 27
JUDGMENT AND THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN
THOMAS À KEMPIS
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." (2 Corinthians 5:10)
In all things consider the end--how you shall stand before the strict Judge from whom nothing is hidden and who will pronounce judgment in all justice, accepting neither bribes nor excuses. And you, miserable and wretched sinner, who fear even the countenance of an angry man, what answer will you make to the God who knows all your sins? Why do you not provide for yourself against the day of judgment, when no man can be excused or defended by another because each will have enough to do to answer for himself? In this life your work is profitable, your tears acceptable, your sighs audible, your sorrow satisfying and purifying.
The patient man goes through a great and salutary purgatory when he grieves more over the malice of one who harms him than for his own injury; when he prays readily for his enemies and forgives offenses from his heart; when he does not hesitate to ask pardon of others; when he is more easily moved to pity than to anger; when he does frequent violence to himself and tries to bring the body into complete subjection to the spirit. It is better to atone for sin now and to cut away vices. In truth, we deceive ourselves by our ill-advised love of the flesh. What will that fire feed upon but our sins? The more we spare ourselves now and the more we satisfy the flesh, the harder will the reckoning be, and the more we keep for the burning. For a man will be more grievously punished in the things in which he has sinned. There the lazy will be driven with burning goads, and gluttons tormented with unspeakable hunger and thirst. The wanton and lust-loving will be bathed in burning pitch and foul brimstone. The envious will howl in their grief like mad dogs.
Every vice will have its own proper punishment. The proud will be faced with every confusion, and the avaricious pinched with the most abject want. One hour of suffering there will be more bitter than a hundred years of the most severe penance here. In this life men sometimes rest from work and enjoy the comfort of friends, but the damned have no rest or consolation. You must, therefore, take care and repent of your sins now so that on the day of judgment you may rest secure with the blessed. For on that day the just will stand firm against those who tortured and oppressed them, and he who now submits humbly to the judgment of men will arise to pass judgment upon them. The poor and humble will have great confidence, while the proud will be struck with fear. He who learned to be a fool in this world and to be scorned for Christ will then appear to have been wise. In that day every trial borne in patience will be pleasing, and the voice of iniquity will be stilled. The devout will be glad, the irreligious will mourn. The mortified body will rejoice far more than if it had been pampered with every pleasure. Then the cheap garment will shine with splendor and the rich one become faded and worn. The poor cottage will be more praised than the gilded palace. In that day persevering patience will count more than all the power in this world. Simple obedience will be exalted above all worldly cleverness. A good and clean conscience will gladden the heart of man far more than the philosophy of the learned, and contempt for riches will be of more weight than every treasure on earth. Then you will find more consolation in having prayed devoutly than in having fared daintily. You will be happy that you preferred silence to prolonged gossip. Then holy works will be of greater value than many fair words. Strictness of life and hard penances will be more pleasing than all earthly delights.
Learn, then, to suffer little things now that you may not have to suffer greater ones in eternity. Prove here what you can bear hereafter. If you can suffer only a little now, how will you be able to endure eternal torment? If a little suffering makes you impatient now, what will hell fire do? In truth, you cannot have two joys; you cannot taste the pleasures of this world and afterward reign with Christ. If your life to this moment had been full of honors and pleasures, what good would it do if at this instant you should die? All is vanity, therefore, except to love God and to serve Him alone.
He who loves God with all his heart does not fear death or punishment or judgment or hell, because perfect love assures access to God. It is no wonder that he who still delights in sin fears death and judgment. It is good, however, that even if love does not as yet restrain you from evil, at least the fear of hell does. The man who casts aside the fear of God cannot continue long in goodness but will quickly fall into the snares of the devil.
theoldtimegospel.org/book/imitate1_24.html
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Day 28
AN EXHORTATION TO WATCHFULNESS
JOHN CALVIN
"And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all." Luke 17:26,27
Although Christ lately expressed his desire to keep the minds of his followers in suspense, that they might not inquire too anxiously about the last day, yet, lest the indifference arising out of the world should lull them to sleep, he now exhorts them to solicitude. He wished them to be uncertain as to his coming, but yet to be prepared to expect him every moment. To shake off their sloth and to excite them more powerfully to be on their guard, he foretells that the end will come while the world is sunk in brutal indifference, just as in the days of Noah when all the nations were swallowed up by the deluge. Then they had no expectation of it, but rioted in gluttony and voluptuousness.
We have now ascertained the design of Christ: to inform believers that, in order to prevent themselves from being suddenly overtaken, they ought always to keep watch, because the day of the last judgment will come when it is not expected. When he says that men were giving their whole attention to eating, drinking, marriage and other worldly employments at the time God destroyed the world, he means that they were as fully occupied with the conveniences and enjoyments of the present life as if there had been no reason to dread any change. And though we shall immediately find him commanding the disciples to guard against surfeiting and earthly cares, yet in this passage he does not directly condemn the intemperance, but rather the obstinacy, of those times, in consequence of which they despised the threatenings of God and awaited with indifference their awful destruction. They promised to themselves that their condition would remain unchanged; they followed their ordinary pursuits without concern. In itself, it would not have been improper or worthy of condemnation to make provision for their needs if they had not, with gross stupidity, opposed the judgment of God; if they had not rushed with closed eyes to unbridled iniquity as if there had been no Judge in heaven. So now Christ declares that the last age of the world will be in a state of stupid indifference, so that men will think of nothing but the present life. The comparisons are highly appropriate. If we consider what happened then, we shall no longer be deceived that the uniform order of events which we see in the world will always continue. For when every man was conducting his affairs in the utmost tranquility, the world was swallowed up by a deluge.
"Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming." He who has his senses overloaded with food and wine, and living in intemperance, will never elevate his mind to meditation on the heavenly life. As there is no desire of the flesh that does not intoxicate a man, we ought to take care in all these respects not to satiate ourselves with the world if we wish to advance with speed to the kingdom of Christ. The uncertainty as to the time of Christ's coming--which almost all treat as an encouragement to sloth--ought to excite us to attention and watchfulness. God intended that the hour of Christ's coming should be hidden from us for the express purpose that we may keep diligent watch without the relaxation of a single hour.
Calvin's Commentary
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Day 29
JOSEPH, A TYPE OF CHRIST
H. C. LEUPOLD
This portion of the book of Genesis [chapters 37-50] is, without doubt, the most interesting and dramatic of the entire book. The author’s skill as a narrator is throughout displayed to excellent advantage. A part of the interest of the narrative lies in the greater wealth of detail. If the author employed available sources, as it seems most likely that he did, his source material, apparently, was more copious the farther he advanced in these early histories. But on the other hand, it seems equally true that the nearer he gets to the events of his own day, the more would his readers desire full information. Moses is now writing history that involves the fathers of the twelve tribes. There is much in this history that the tribes themselves should be acquainted with for their comfort and their admonition.
But when we say that the dramatic element begins to predominate more in the narrative, we do not imply that the author injected it. Truth still is stranger than fiction. It was not the author’s skill that rendered these tales dramatic. These things actually transpired as they were narrated. The drama involved is practically nothing other than the unusual display of divine providence, which shines forth more brilliantly here than perhaps anywhere else in sacred history. Step for step God’s providence watched over the chosen race as it was about to go into the depths of national enslavement. One element of encouragement for these trying days was to be the remembrance of the signal tokens of divine grace experienced shortly before.
One very noticeable feature of this "history (toledôth) of Jacob" is the predominance of Joseph practically throughout the entire section. Yet for all that, though he is the mainspring of the movement of the history, Jacob is still the dominant character. We remind of this, for though Joseph is prominent, he is not to be estimated too highly. God never appeared to him as he did to his father Jacob, or to Isaac and to Abraham. Joseph dare not be ranked higher on the level of faith than his forefathers. It is a case of misplaced emphasis to say that "the hero himself is idealized as no other patriarchal personality is--(Joseph) is the ideal son, the ideal brother, the ideal servant, the ideal administrator." In contact with non-Israelites, Joseph surely achieved remarkable prominence, but for the inner, spiritual history of the kingdom of God, he does not come up to the level of his fathers.
There is another feature of his life which is rather striking and demands closer attention. In a more distinct way than in the lives of his fathers, Joseph stands out as a type of Christ. Abraham exemplifies the Father’s love who gave up His only-begotten Son. Isaac passively typifies the Son who suffers Himself to be offered up. But in Joseph’s case, a wealth of suggestive parallels come to the surface upon closer study. Though these parallels are not stamped as typical by the New Testament, there can hardly be any doubt as to their validity. For as Joseph is a righteous man, and in this capacity is strongly antagonized and made to suffer for righteousness’ sake but finally triumphs over all iniquity, so the truly Righteous One, the Saviour of men, experiences the same things in an intensified degree. Lange lists the details of this type in a very excellent summary. He mentions as prefiguring what transpired in the life of the great Antitype, Jesus Christ, the following: "the envy and hatred of the brethren against Joseph and the fact that he is sold; the realization of Joseph’s prophetic dreams by the very fact that his brethren seek to prevent his exaltation by destroying him; the fact that the malicious plot of the brethren results in the salvation of many, however, in a very particular sense for the brethren and for Jacob’s house; the judgment of the Spirit upon the treachery of the brethren and the victory of forgiving love; Judah’s surety for Benjamin and his rivalry with Joseph in the spirit of self-sacrifice; the revival of Jacob in his joy over the fact that the son long deemed dead was alive and eminently successful."
This angle of the case is beautifully supplemented by Pascal (Pensées, quoted by Delitzsch): "Jesus Christ is prefigured by Joseph: the beloved of his father, sent by the father to his brethren, the innocent one sold by his brethren for twenty pieces of silver and so made their lord, their saviour and the saviour of strangers and the saviour of the world; all of which would not have happened if they had not had the purpose to destroy him, if they had not sold and rejected him. In prison, Joseph the innocent one between two malefactors--Jesus on the cross between two evildoers; Joseph predicts good fortune to the one and death to the other, though both appear alike--Jesus saves the one and leaves the other in his just condemnation, though both stood charged with the same crime; Joseph begs of the one who is to be delivered, to remember him when he is restored to honour--he whom Jesus saves asks to be remembered when He comes in His kingdom." The ways of divine providence could hardly be stranger, and God’s guiding hand in history is marvelously displayed to the eyes of faith.
ccel.org/ccel/leupold/genesis.xxxviii.html
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Day 30
PSALM 15
CHARLES SPURGEON
"Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill?" A sense of the glory of the Lord and of the holiness which becomes his house, his service, and his attendants excites the humble mind to ask the solemn question before us. Where angels bow with veiled faces, how shall man be able to worship at all? The unthinking may imagine it to be a very easy matter to approach the Most High, and when professedly engaged in his worship, they have no questionings of heart as to their fitness for it. But truly humbled souls often shrink under a sense of utter unworthiness and would not dare to approach the throne of the God of holiness if it were not for him, our Lord, our Advocate, who can abide in the heavenly temple, because his righteousness endures forever.
The questions in the text are asked of the Lord, as if none but the Infinite Mind could answer them so as to satisfy the unquiet conscience. We must know from the Lord of the tabernacle what are the qualifications for his service, and when we have been taught of him, we shall clearly see that only our spotless Lord Jesus, and those who are conformed unto his image, can ever stand with acceptance before the Majesty on high.
The Lord informs us by his Holy Spirit of the character of the man who alone can dwell in his holy hill. In perfection this holiness is found only in the Man of Sorrows, but in a measure it is wrought in all his people by the Holy Ghost. Faith and the graces of the Spirit are not mentioned, because this is a description of outward character, and where fruits are found, the root may not be seen but it is surely there. Observe the accepted man's walk, work, and word.
"He that walks uprightly." He keeps himself erect as those do who traverse high ropes; if they lean on one side, over they must go. Or as those who carry precious but fragile ware in baskets on their heads, who lose all if they lose their perpendicular. Walking is of far more importance than talking. He only is right who is upright in walk and downright in honesty.
"And works righteousness." His faith shows itself by good works and therefore is no dead faith. God's house is a hive for workers, not a nest for drones. If we are not positively serving the Lord and doing his holy will to the best of our power, we may seriously debate our interest in divine things, for trees which bear no fruit must be cut down and cast into the fire.
"And speaks the truth in his heart." The fool in the last psalm spoke falsely in his heart; observe both here and elsewhere in the two psalms the striking contrast. Saints not only desire to love and speak truth with their lips, but they seek to be true within. They will not lie even in the closet of their hearts, for God is there to listen. They scorn double meanings, evasions, equivocations, white lies, flatteries, and deceptions. Though truths, like roses, have thorns about them, good men wear them in their bosoms. Our heart must be the sanctuary and refuge of truth. We must be careful that the heart is really fixed and settled in principle, for tenderness of conscience toward truthfulness, like the bloom on a peach, needs gentle handling, and once lost is hard to regain. Jesus was the mirror of sincerity and holiness. Oh, to be more and more fashioned after his similitude!
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Day 31
NAAMAN'S LEPROSY
ALFRED EDERSHEIM
"Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper. And the Syrians had gone out on raids and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman's wife." II Kings 5:1-2
It must have been a crushing sorrow that came upon that Israelitish household when the Syrian bands carried from it the little maiden whom we find afterward waiting on Naaman's wife. Yet this was the first link in the chain of events which brought healing of body and soul to the Syrian captain. It also proved anew to Jew and Gentile alike that there was a living God in Israel who had placed his accredited representative there.
Assuredly the most devoted affection could not have desired for a child a place of greater honor or usefulness than that which this Jewish maiden occupied in the household of the Syrian captain. What follows is told with utmost simplicity and bears the impress of truth, for it was only natural that this child should tell her mistress of the prophet in Samaria and express the full confidence in his ability to recover her master of his leprosy. Similarly, it was only what we should have expected when her mistress repeated to her husband what the child had said, and perhaps equally natural on the part of Naaman to repeat this to his king in order to obtain his leave to go to Samaria, and in such a manner as to secure the desired result.
As heathens, and especially as Syrians, neither Naaman nor Ben-hadad would see anything strange in the possession of such magical powers by a prophet of Israel. It was quite in accordance with heathen notions to expect that the king of Israel could obtain from his own prophet any result which he might desire. A heathen king was always the religious, as well as the political, chief of his people, and to command the services and obedience of his own prophet would seem almost a matter of course. It was for this reason that Ben-hadad furnished Naaman with a letter to the king of Israel: "Now be advised, when this letter comes to you, that I have sent Naaman my servant to you that you may heal him of his leprosy." Imperious as the tone of the letter seems, it scarcely warranted the interpretation which the king of Israel--probably Joram--put upon it: "Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy? Therefore please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me."
What is reported in the sacred text must of necessity be regarded as only a part of the letter, that of stating its main object. But from the Jewish point of view, we can quite understand how Joram would speak of what he regarded as a demand (that he himself should heal Naaman of his leprosy), as equivalent to requiring of him what God alone could do. It was not unnatural that Joram should regard it as a desire [on Ben-hadad's part] to find occasion for quarrel, and the craven king of Israel rent his clothes in token of deepest mourning, as if he had already seen his own and his people's destruction.
Some of the lessons suggested by the conduct of Joram may be of practical use. We mark the cowardice of the man who gives way to despair before any danger has actually arisen. There are many who tremble before fears, which prove wholly groundless, who do not tremble before that which is real. It need scarcely be said how much good work, whether on the part of individuals or the Church, has been hindered by apprehensions of this kind. Joram knew, as the Syrian did not, that God alone could give help. He had religion, but it stood him in no good stead; it was laid aside precisely when it was needed. He did not call to mind that there was a prophet in Israel but in helpless terror rent his clothes. So we also, instead of immediately and almost instinctively resorting to God, too often forget him until every other means has been exhausted. We apply to him from despair rather than from faith.
Reverently speaking, it would have been impossible for Elisha as "the man of God" to be silent on this occasion. His message of reproof to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel," is not one of self-assertion but of assertion of God. It was a testimony and a test, alike for Israel and for the heathen world, of the presence of the living and true God. While viewing it in this grander application, we ought not to forget what confirmation it gave to the simple faith of that "little one" in the service of Naaman's wife.
In accordance with the direction of the king, Naaman now betook himself with his horses and his chariot to the humble dwelling of Elisha in Samaria. Greater or more instructive contrast could scarcely be imagined. We know that Naaman had come to Samaria not only armed with a royal letter and at the head of a great retinue, but bringing with him princely gifts for his expected healing. The contrast was unspeakably intensified when the prophet, without even seeing the Syrian captain, sent him this message: "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean." We cannot doubt that the bearing of Elisha was divinely directed. Elisha would thus teach Naaman that neither his pomp nor his wealth was the cause of his healing, and also that help did not come from the prophet, as if such power were inherent in him.
We can readily perceive how the manner and direction of Elisha would stir the indignation of Naaman. As Syria's captain he would naturally expect a different reception, and as a heathen he would have expected Elisha to use some magical means. And Naaman spoke both as a heathen and a Syrian when he contemptuously compared the turbid flood of Jordan with the limpid waters of Abana and Pharpar, which transformed the wilderness around Damascus into a very paradise of beauty and riches. "So he turned and went away in a rage."
The reasoning by which Naaman had so nearly deprived himself of a benefit that would be to him as life from the dead, is substantially the same as that which leads many to turn from the one remedy to which God directs them. The simple command of the Gospel--to "wash and be clean,"--is still to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. The difficulty felt by Naaman is the same as that of so many in our days: the need of humiliation and of faith in a remedy which seems so inadequate to the end. If washing be required, let it be in the Abana and Pharpar of our own waters, not in the turbid stream of Israel! But it is ever this humiliation of heart and simple faith in God's provision which are required for our healing. "Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." Naaman had to learn it.
So it came to pass that instead of returning to Damascus a leper, Naaman went down to Jordan. Obedient to the saying of the man of God, he dipped himself seven times in Jordan. We can scarcely be mistaken in regarding the number seven as symbolic of the covenant, and as also implying a trial of faith, since presumably the healing did not come until after the seventh washing. It now appeared by the effect produced that Elisha had throughout sought not only the restoration of bodily health, but also the spiritual recovery of Naaman. Although not bidden so by the prophet, yet following the promptings of a renewed heart, Naaman returned to Elisha and made such full acknowledgment of God that it might have been said, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."
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