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daily devotional
Evening ...
Nehemiah 3:8
And they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall.
Cities well fortified have broad walls, and so had Jerusalem in her glory.
The New Jerusalem must, in like manner, be surrounded and preserved by a broad
wall of nonconformity to the world, and separation from its customs and spirit.
The tendency of these days break down the holy barrier, and make the
distinction between the church and the world merely nominal. Professors are no
longer strict and Puritanical, questionable literature is read on all hands,
frivolous pastimes are currently indulged, and a general laxity threatens to
deprive the Lord's peculiar people of those sacred singularities which separate
them from sinners. It will be an ill day for the church and the world when the
proposed amalgamation shall be complete, and the sons of God and the daughters
of men shall be as one: then shall another deluge of wrath be ushered in.
Beloved reader, be it your aim in heart, in word, in dress, in action to
maintain the broad wall, remembering that the friendship of this world is
enmity against God. The broad wall afforded a pleasant place of resort for the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, from which they could command prospects of the
surrounding country. This reminds us of the Lord's exceeding broad
commandments, in which we walk at liberty in communion with Jesus, overlooking
the scenes of earth, and looking out towards the glories of heaven. Separated
from the world, and denying ourselves all ungodliness and fleshly lusts, we are
nevertheless not in prison, nor restricted within narrow bounds; nay, we walk
at liberty, because we keep His precepts. Come, reader, this evening walk with
God in His statutes. As friend met friend upon the city wall, so meet thou thy
God in the way of holy prayer and meditation. The bulwarks of salvation thou
hast a right to traverse, for thou art a freeman of the royal burgh, a citizen
of the metropolis of the universe.
1 John 5:11-13
(11) And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and
this life is in his Son. (12) He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life. (13) These things have I written unto you
that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have
eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Eternal life is more than endless living. It includes fellowship with
God and at least beginning to live life as God lives.
When God gave us eternal life, He gave us something unique, a life
different from the one we were living before our calling. At that time, we were
"dead" in trespasses and sins because we were living a life that produced
death. Those still in the world continue to live this kind of life by nature.
Do they have fellowship with God? Do they walk with Him as friends because they
agree with Him about how to live and to remain at His side endlessly?
Understanding this fellowship aspect is important to understanding
eternal life. "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?" ( Amos 3:3). God
created humanity for fellowship, and by nature, we seek it out on many levels.
Many find it through hobbies, the arts, politics, intellectual pursuits, social
organizations, and sports. The greatest and highest form of fellowship, though,
is with God and others who share the common desire to live like God always and
whom He is transforming to that end. This fellowship is reserved for those whom
God summons.
This means an independent Christian is a contradiction in terms. The
Christian church is a community fellowship comparable to a body of which Christ
is the Head ( I Corinthians 12:12-31). Hebrews 10:25 commands us not to forsake
the assembling of ourselves together. Fellowship is not just friendly
conversation and geniality. The Bible's writers show plainly it is a tightly
knit relationship marked by self-sacrificial love manifested in mutual service,
concern, prayer, labor, and helpfulness.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Elements of Motivation (Part Six): Eternal Life
Evening ...
Isaiah 45:19
I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain.
We may gain much solace by considering what God has not said. What He
has said is inexpressibly full of comfort and delight; what He has not said is
scarcely less rich in consolation. It was one of these "said nots" which
preserved the kingdom of Israel in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, for
"the Lord said not that He would blot out the name of Israel from under
heaven." 2 Kings 14:27. In our text we have an assurance that God will answer
prayer, because He hath "not said unto the seed of Israel, Seek ye Me in vain."
You who write bitter things against yourselves should remember that, let your
doubts and fears say what they will, if God has not cut you off from mercy,
there is no room for despair: even the voice of conscience is of little weight
if it be not seconded by the voice of God. What God has said, tremble at! But
suffer not your vain imaginings to overwhelm you with despondency and sinful
despair. Many timid persons have been vexed by the suspicion that there may be
something in God's decree which shuts them out from hope, but here is a
complete refutation to that troublesome fear, for no true seeker can be decreed
to wrath. "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I have
not said," even in the secret of my unsearchable decree, "Seek ye Me in vain."
God has clearly revealed that He will hear the prayer of those who call upon
Him, and that declaration cannot be contravened. He has so firmly, so
truthfully, so righteously spoken, that there can be no room for doubt. He does
not reveal His mind in unintelligible words, but He speaks plainly and
positively, "Ask, and ye shall receive." Believe, O trembler, this sure
truth-that prayer must and shall be heard, and that never, even in the secrets
of eternity, has the Lord said unto any living soul, "Seek ye Me in vain."
Matthew 12:5-6
(5) Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days
the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? (6) But I say
unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
This stems from the instructions given in Leviticus 24:5-9:
And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it.
Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. [This is the showbread (I Samuel
21), the subject under discussion in Matthew 12.] You shall set them in two
rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD. And you shall put
pure frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, an
offering made by fire to the LORD. Every Sabbath he shall set it in order
before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an
everlasting covenant. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall
eat it in the holy place; for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the
LORD made by fire, by a perpetual statute.
These five verses together with I Samuel 21 explain that, not
only did the priests put the bread in the sanctuary, but they also baked it on
the Sabbath. Thus, it was hot when they put it in the Holy Place on the
Sabbath-right out of the oven. Was it lawful for a woman, in the ordinary
course of her household responsibilities, to bake twelve loaves of bread on the
Sabbath? It was not. This is the illustration that Jesus utilizes in Matthew 12.
"The priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are
blameless." They not only did these things, they were also made sacrifices on
that day, which consisted of a great deal of labor. "Why, then, were they
blameless?" For the same reason that Jesus justified healing on the Sabbath (in
John 5) and the same reason that the priests were blameless for circumcising on
the Sabbath: They were doing the work of God, the work of salvation. They were
fulfilling a purpose on the Sabbath that somebody had to do. This is the issue
throughout John 5, 7, and 9.
Christ is greater than the Temple. He is the Head of God's
spiritual Temple. He is its High Priest, and the disciples are His priests in
training, His agents! Thus, their Sabbath ministry intensifies, even as Jesus'
does. Were they justified, then, in eating on the Sabbath? Absolutely! They
were justified because of the circumstances and the offices they were now
holding in God's spiritual Temple!
So, the circumstances dictated a "profaning of the Sabbath"
because of their involvement in the work of God. Loving service is greater than
ritual fulfillment. What loving services were Jesus and His disciples
performing on the Sabbath? They were teaching God's way. They were healing
people. Now, what is mercy? Mercy is doing helpful acts: acts of love, aid,
comfort, pity, and sympathy for other's distress. All these works help relieve
a person of a burden.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Fourth Commandment (Part 3
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