From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening ...
Genesis 9:14
The bow shall be seen in the cloud.
The rainbow, the symbol of the covenant with Noah, is typical of our Lord
Jesus, who is the Lord's witness to the people. When may we expect to see the
token of the covenant? The rainbow is only to be seen painted upon a cloud.
When the sinner's conscience is dark with clouds, when he remembers his past
sin, and mourneth and lamenteth before God, Jesus Christ is revealed to him as
the covenant Rainbow, displaying all the glorious hues of the divine character
and betokening peace. To the believer, when his trials and temptations surround
him, it is sweet to behold the person of our Lord Jesus Christ-to see Him
bleeding, living, rising, and pleading for us. God's rainbow is hung over the
cloud of our sins, our sorrows, and our woes, to prophesy deliverance. Nor does
a cloud alone give a rainbow, there must be the crystal drops to reflect the
light of the sun. So, our sorrows must not only threaten, but they must really
fall upon us. There had been no Christ for us if the vengeance of God had been
merely a threatening cloud: punishment must fall in terrible drops upon the
Surety. Until there is a real anguish in the sinner's conscience, there is no
Christ for him; until the chastisement which he feels becomes grievous, he
cannot see Jesus. But there must also be a sun; for clouds and drops of rain
make not rainbows unless the sun shineth. Beloved, our God, who is as the sun
to us, always shines, but we do not always see Him-clouds hide His face; but no
matter what drops may be falling, or what clouds may be threatening, if He does
but shine there will be a rainbow at once. It is said that when we see the
rainbow the shower is over. Certain it is, that when Christ comes, our troubles
remove; when we behold Jesus, our sins vanish, and our doubts and fears
subside. When Jesus walks the waters of the sea, how profound the calm!
Morning ...
Psalm 104:16
The cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted.
Lebanon's cedars are emblematic of the Christian, in that they owe their
planting entirely to the Lord. This is quite true of every child of God. He is
not man-planted, nor self-planted, but God-planted. The mysterious hand of the
divine Spirit dropped the living seed into a heart which He had Himself
prepared for its reception. Every true heir of heaven owns the great Husbandman
as his planter. Moreover, the cedars of Lebanon are not dependent upon man for
their watering; they stand on the lofty rock, unmoistened by human irrigation;
and yet our heavenly Father supplieth them. Thus it is with the Christian who
has learned to live by faith. He is independent of man, even in temporal
things; for his continued maintenance he looks to the Lord his God, and to Him
alone. The dew of heaven is his portion, and the God of heaven is his fountain.
Again, the cedars of Lebanon are not protected by any mortal power. They owe
nothing to man for their preservation from stormy wind and tempest. They are
God's trees, kept and preserved by Him, and by Him alone. It is precisely the
same with the Christian. He is not a hot-house plant, sheltered from
temptation; he stands in the most exposed position; he has no shelter, no
protection, except this, that the broad wings of the eternal God always cover
the cedars which He Himself has planted. Like cedars, believers are full of sap
having vitality enough to be ever green, even amid winter's snows. Lastly, the
flourishing and majestic condition of the cedar is to the praise of God only.
The Lord, even the Lord alone hath been everything unto the cedars, and,
therefore David very sweetly puts it in one of the psalms, "Praise ye the Lord,
fruitful trees and all cedars." In the believer there is nothing that can
magnify man; he is planted, nourished, and protected by the Lord's own hand,
and to Him let all the glory be ascribed.
Genesis 3:17-19
(17) And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto
the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow
shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; (18) Thorns also and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; (19) In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground;
for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return.
Go to this verse on Bible Tools
Some commentators make a great deal out of the fact that God
addresses this curse to adam rather than to "the man" (ish in Hebrew), seeing
this as proof that this curse was to fall on all mankind. This semantic
argument means very little in the end, since both ish, the man named Adam, and
adam, mankind, received the effects of the curse, just as both Eve and all
other women have suffered from her curse.
English-speaking peoples have a saying that "the way to a
man's heart is through his stomach." God, of course, understood this, and thus
His curse on Adam centers on eating. In fact, eating is a major theme of the
first three chapters of Genesis (see 1:29-30; 2:9, 15-17; 3:1-6, 11-13).
Eating, however, stands for more than simply nourishing the
body; it is one small part of mankind's daily struggle to survive his hostile
environment, planet earth. The Garden of Eden was a place where man's work "to
tend and keep" what God had made was pleasurable, fulfilling, and probably not
overly strenuous. The earth worked with the man to produce his needs for food,
clothing, shelter, and whatever other need he might have.
Once God pronounced his curse, though, the ground—from
which comes all material wealth and produce—turned uncooperative. Instead of
man and nature united in productive labor, the situation became man versus
nature, a competition for dominance. Now, man would have to use all his
physical and mental powers to subdue the earth.
The earth would yield its fruit only after a man forced it
through hard labor in plowing, planting, watering, cultivating, and reaping.
Animals from insects to deer to wolves, fearful of man, would become pests and
destroy his crops, herds, possessions and even his life on occasion. Materials
for building homes, crafting tools, making clothing, and manufacturing items
would be gathered only by raping the land of minerals, metals, wood, and stone.
The earth would protest through natural processes like
earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, wildfires, erosion, and infertility.
Denuded of trees, the land would become a desert. The weather would turn foul,
sending too much or too little rain. Windstorms like hurricanes and tornadoes
would devastate vast stretches of territory. The sun would beat down
mercilessly or withhold its heat for long stretches.
Such was the situation Adam and Eve faced after God drove
them from the Garden of Eden. For six thousand years all their descendants have
struggled to survive the harsh conditions of life separated from God and in
competition with nature. Surely it has affected their eating, but it has also
had an impact on every other endeavor of mankind—from breaking horses for
riding to blasting satellites into orbit. Men accomplish nothing except by the
toil of hard work and overcoming the obstacles the environment places in their
way.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
From The First Prophecy (Part Three)
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daily devotional
Evening ...
2 Thessalonians 2:16
Everlasting consolation.
"Consolation." There is music in the word: like David's harp, it charms away
the evil spirit of melancholy. It was a distinguished I honour to Barnabas to
be called "the son of consolation"; nay, it is one of the illustrious names of
a greater than Barnabas, for the Lord Jesus is "the consolation of Israel."
"Everlasting consolation"-here is the cream of all, for the eternity of comfort
is the crown and glory of it. What is this "everlasting consolation"? It
includes a sense of pardoned sin. A Christian man has received in his heart the
witness of the Spirit that his iniquities are put away like a cloud, and his
transgressions like a thick cloud. If sin be pardoned, is not that an
everlasting consolation? Next, the Lord gives His people an abiding sense of
acceptance in Christ. The Christian knows that God looks upon him as standing
in union with Jesus. Union to the risen Lord is a consolation of the most
abiding order; it is, in fact, everlasting. Let sickness prostrate us, have we
not seen hundreds of believers as happy in the weakness of disease as they
would have been in the strength of hale and blooming health? Let death's arrows
pierce us to the heart, our comfort dies not, for have not our ears full often
heard the songs of saints as they have rejoiced because the living love of God
was shed abroad in their hearts in dying moments? Yes, a sense of acceptance in
the Beloved is an everlasting consolation. Moreover, the Christian has a
conviction of his security. God has promised to save those who trust in Christ:
the Christian does trust in Christ, and he believes that God will be as good as
His word, and will save him. He feels that he is safe by virtue of his being
bound up with the person and work of Jesus.
Morning ...
Psalm 97:1
The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice.
Causes for disquietude there are none so long as this blessed sentence is
true. On earth the Lord's power as readily controls the rage of the wicked as
the rage of the sea; His love as easily refreshes the poor with mercy as the
earth with showers. Majesty gleams in flashes of fire amid the tempest's
horrors, and the glory of the Lord is seen in its grandeur in the fall of
empires, and the crash of thrones. In all our conflicts and tribulations, we
may behold the hand of the divine King.
"God is God; He sees and hears All our troubles, all our tears. Soul,
forget not, 'mid thy pains, God o'er all for ever reigns."
In hell, evil spirits own, with misery, His undoubted supremacy. When
permitted to roam abroad, it is with a chain at their heel; the bit is in the
mouth of behemoth, and the hook in the jaws of leviathan. Death's darts are
under the Lord's lock, and the grave's prisons have divine power as their
warder. The terrible vengeance of the Judge of all the earth makes fiends cower
down and tremble, even as dogs in the kennel fear the hunter's whip.
"Fear not death, nor Satan's thrusts, God defends who in Him trusts; Soul,
remember, in thy pains, God o'er all for ever reigns."
In heaven none doubt the sovereignty of the King Eternal, but all fall on
their faces to do Him homage. Angels are His courtiers, the redeemed His
favourites, and all delight to serve Him day and night. May we soon reach the
city of the great King!
"For this life's long night of sadness He will give us peace and gladness.
Soul, remember, in thy pains, God o'er all for ever reigns."
Hebrews 2:1-3
(1) Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which
we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. (2) For if the word
spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompence of reward; (3) How shall we escape, if we neglect so
great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was
confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
Because God has spoken to us by His Son, and because His Son is so great
and so glorious, and because the subject which is addressed is of such infinite
importance to us and to our welfare, He says we ought to give the more earnest
heed to it.
Earnest is an important word. It means "abundantly," "more exceedingly,"
"much more frequently," or "more super-abundant" heed. Paul is saying to pay
attention intensely to what God is doing in our lives!
We should pray and study with great care and concern lest we should let
God's Word slip, which means to "let it [God's Word] run out"—to leak out like
a barrel with a cracked plug. The barrel is full, and it very slowly starts to
leak.
Another analogy would be to "drift away." Envision a rowboat tied to a
pier, but the rope loosens and falls into the water. Someone on hand could
reach down, grab the rope, and retie it. But if this simple task is neglected,
then the boat, which had been floating right next to the piling, slowly drifts
away. Soon it will be ten feet away, then fifty feet, and in time it is on the
horizon where the water is rough. Paul instructs us not to let that happen. Do
not let it drift away! Pay attention! If we become superficial in our prayer
and study, then our once keen vision of God will begin to blur.
If those without God's Spirit who heard God's Word died in the wilderness
as punishment for disobeying God, how much greater will be our punishment for
drifting away? To us, God says, "Pay attention!" Our chance for salvation is
now! If we are not successful, then our hope is lost! Paul advises us to see
the scope of what God is doing in our lives. We must constantly remind
ourselves of His purpose for our calling. We must pray and study with that
purpose at the forefront of our minds.
John O. Reid
From Don't Take God for Granted
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