From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening...
Joel 2:11
His camp is very great.
Consider, my soul, the mightiness of the Lord who is thy glory and defence.
He is a man of war, Jehovah is His name. All the forces of heaven are at His
beck, legions wait at His door, cherubim and seraphim;, watchers and holy ones,
principalities and powers, are all attentive to His will. If our eyes were not
blinded by the ophthalmia of the flesh, we should see horses of fire and
chariots of fire round about the Lord's beloved. The powers of nature are all
subject to the absolute control of the Creator: stormy wind and tempest,
lightning and rain, and snow, and hail, and the soft dews and cheering
sunshine, come and go at His decree. The bands of Orion He looseth, and bindeth
the sweet influences of the Pleiades. Earth, sea, and air, and the places under
the earth, are the barracks for Jehovah's great armies; space is His camping
ground, light is His banner, and flame is His sword. When He goeth forth to
war, famine ravages the land, pestilence smites the nations, hurricane sweeps
the sea, tornado shakes the mountains, and earthquake makes the solid world to
tremble. As for animate creatures, they all own His dominion, and from the
great fish which swallowed the prophet, down to "all manner of flies," which
plagued the field of Zoan, all are His servants, and like the palmer-worm, the
caterpillar, and the cankerworm, are squadrons of His great army, for His camp
is very great. My soul, see to it that thou be at peace with this mighty King,
yea, more, be sure to enlist under His banner, for to war against Him is
madness, and to serve Him is glory. Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, is ready to
receive recruits for the army of the Lord: if I am not already enlisted let me
go to Him ere I sleep, and beg to be accepted through His merits; and if I be
already, as I hope I am, a soldier of the cross, let me be of good courage; for
the enemy is powerless compared with my Lord, whose camp is very great.
Exodus 31:17
(17) It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in
six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and
was refreshed.
This special covenant-strategically placed by Moses between information
on the building of the Tabernacle (a type of the church) and the Golden Calf
incident (brazen idolatry)-creates a special sign of the Sabbath between God
and His people. Generally, a sign identifies. It communicates the purpose of or
gives directions to a person or place. Signs bring people together with shared
interests and common goals. A sign can function as a pledge of mutual fidelity
and commitment. Organizations use signs to designate membership, allowing
members to recognize each other.
The Sabbath serves as an external and visible bond that unites God's
people, and at the same time it sanctifies them from almost everyone else.
Almost everyone in the Western world keeps Sunday or nothing. By the Sabbath,
the true covenant-keeper knows that God is sanctifying him. Anybody who has
kept both Sunday and Sabbath knows this: Sunday sets no one apart from this
world.
If He created the Sabbath only because we need to rest physically, any
old time would do, but ultimately, how and why we keep the Sabbath is what
becomes the real sign. God is working out a purpose. He has invested a
tremendous amount in us in the creation and in the death of His Son. The
Sabbath serves as a major means by which He protects that investment. He made a
specific period of time special so He can meet with His people and take major
steps to make them different-holy.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Fourth Commandment (Part One)
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
daily devotional
Evening ...
Hosea 5:15
In their affliction they will seek Me early.
Losses and adversities are frequently the means which the great Shepherd uses
to fetch home His wandering sheep; like fierce dogs they worry the wanderers
back to the fold. There is no making lions tame if they are too well fed; they
must be brought down from their great strength, and their stomachs must be
lowered, and then they will submit to the tamer's hand; and often have we seen
the Christian rendered obedient to the Lord's will by straitness of bread and
hard labour. When rich and increased in goods many professors carry their heads
much too loftily, and speak exceeding boastfully. Like David, they flatter
themselves, "My mountain standeth fast; I shall never be moved." When the
Christian groweth wealthy, is in good repute, hath good health, and a happy
family, he too often admits Mr. Carnal Security to feast at his table, and then
if he be a true child of God there is a rod preparing for him. Wait awhile, and
it may be you will see his subs! tance melt away as a dream. There goes a
portion of his estate-how soon the acres change hands. That debt, that
dishonoured bill-how fast his losses roll in, where will they end? It is a
blessed sign of divine life if when these embarrassments occur one after
another he begins to be distressed about his backslidings, and betakes himself
to his God. Blessed are the waves that wash the mariner upon the rock of
salvation! Losses in business are often sanctified to our soul's enriching. If
the chosen soul will not come to the Lord full-handed, it shall come empty. If
God, in His grace, findeth no other means of making us honour Him among men, He
will cast us into the deep; if we fail to honour Him on the pinnacle of riches,
He will bring us into the valley of poverty. Yet faint not, heir of sorrow,
when thou art thus rebuked, rather recognize the loving hand which chastens,
and say, "I will arise, and go unto my Father."
Exodus 2:9-10
(9) And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse
it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the women took the child, and
nursed it. (10) And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's
daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said,
Because I drew him out of the water.
In this long process of faith- and conviction-building in Moses, God was
laying a foundation in him, in that people of faith parented him during his
most formative years. One should never conclude that the first several years of
a child's life are unimportant; in fact, it is in those first couple of years
that he is started down the path of the rest of his life. What path will it be?
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will
not depart from it" ( Proverbs 22:6).
Train means "to hedge in," "to put walls around," "to narrow the way."
God was doing this through Amram and Jochebed: They were starting Moses down
the right path.
We do not know for sure how long Moses was with his real parents. It was
at least until he was weaned. In those days, it seems to have been customary
for a child to be on the breast for about two years before he was weaned. It is
possible, some commentators say, understanding the culture of Egypt, it is
likely that Moses was with Amram and Jochebed until he was about six years old.
The reason, they say, was to get the child through those "bad years," for
instance, "the terrible twos," because they had them too. By the time he was
turned over to Pharaoh's daughter, he was over the hump, and she would not have
such a hard time taking care of him. So, he may actually have lived with Amram
and Jochebed through what we could call the pre-school years.
In verses 9-10, there is an ironic twist. God worked it out that the
child who, by order of Pharaoh, should have been killed at birth is now under
the secure protection of the powerful family that ordered his death. God has a
sense of humor, does He not?
Not only that, the family of Moses not only received their precious baby
back, but they were paid wages for doing something that they would gladly have
done for free had the situation been different. It is examples like this that
caused later writers to comment that God knows how to deliver the godly out of
their temptations and trials. For instance, in Ephesians 3:20, Paul says that
God can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to
the power that works in us, the Holy Spirit.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From Conviction and Moses
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