From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening ...
John 11:4 This sickness is not unto death.
From our Lord's words we learn that there is a limit to sickness. Here is an
"unto" within which its ultimate end is restrained, and beyond which it cannot
go. Lazarus might pass through death, but death was not to be the ultimatum of
his sickness. In all sickness, the Lord saith to the waves of pain, "Hitherto
shall ye go, but no further." His fixed purpose is not the destruction, but the
instruction of His people. Wisdom hangs up the thermometer at the furnace
mouth, and regulates the heat. 1. The limit is encouragingly comprehensive. The
God of providence has limited the time, manner, intensity, repetition, and
effects of all our sicknesses; each throb is decreed, each sleepless hour
predestinated, each relapse ordained, each depression of spirit foreknown, and
each sanctifying result eternally purposed. Nothing great or small escapes the
ordaining hand of Him who numbers the hairs of our head. 2. This limit is
wisely adjusted to our strength, to the end designed, and to the grace
apportioned. Affliction comes not at haphazard-the weight of every stroke of
the rod is accurately measured. He who made no mistakes in balancing the clouds
and meting out the heavens, commits no errors in measuring out the ingredients
which compose the medicine of souls. We cannot suffer too much nor be relieved
too late. 3. The limit is tenderly appointed. The knife of the heavenly Surgeon
never cuts deeper than is absolutely necessary. "He doth not afflict willingly,
nor grieve the children of men." A mother's heart cries, "Spare my child"; but
no mother is more compassionate than our gracious God. When we consider how
hard-mouthed we are, it is a wonder that we are not driven with a sharper bit.
The thought is full of consolation, that He who has fixed the bounds of our
habitation, has also fixed the bounds of our tribulation.
Morning ...
Jeremiah 51:51 Strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house.
In this account the faces of the Lord's people were covered with shame, for
it was a terrible thing that men should intrude into the Holy Place reserved
for the priests alone. Everywhere about us we see like cause for sorrow. How
many ungodly men are now educating with the view of entering into the ministry!
What a crying sin is that solemn lie by which our whole population is nominally
comprehended in a National Church! How fearful it is that ordinances should be
pressed upon the unconverted, and that among the more enlightened churches of
our land there should be such laxity of discipline. If the thousands who will
read this portion shall all take this matter before the Lord Jesus this day, He
will interfere and avert the evil which else will come upon His Church. To
adulterate the Church is to pollute a well, to pour water upon fire, to sow a
fertile field with stones. May we all have grace to maintain in our own proper
way the purity of the Church, as being an assembly of believers, and not a
nation, an unsaved community of unconverted men. Our zeal must, however, begin
at home. Let us examine ourselves as to our right to eat at the Lord's table.
Let us see to it that we have on our wedding garment, lest we ourselves be
intruders in the Lord's sanctuaries. Many are called, but few are chosen; the
way is narrow, and the gate is strait. O for grace to come to Jesus aright,
with the faith of God's elect. He who smote Uzzah for touching the ark is very
jealous of His two ordinances; as a true believer I may approach them freely,
as an alien I must not touch them lest I die. Heartsearching is the duty of all
who are baptized or come to the Lord's table. "Search me, O God, and know my
way, try me and know my heart."
Exodus 21:15-17
(15) And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be
surely put to death. (16) And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he
be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. (17) And he that curseth
his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
Maltreatment of a parent through striking or cursing is placed on
a par with murder and kidnapping and is punished in the same way—death.
The word curse simply means "to belittle," "to make light of,"
"to be contemptuous of."
In the book of Matthew, as Jesus was giving the Sermon on the
Mount, He says:
You have heard that it was said by them of old time, You shall
not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I
say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be
in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall
be in danger of the council. (Matthew 5:21-22)
Raca means empty-headed; moron. It is a form of cursing,
belittling, or speaking contemptuously of. The person who says this shall be in
danger of the council.
But whosoever shall say, You fool, shall be in danger of hell
fire. (Matthew 5:22)
Jesus is saying that He agrees with Exodus 21:15-17. For a child
to speak contemptuously of or to consider his parents to be foolish puts him in
danger of the death penalty. This is God's law, and here, Jesus Christ, our
Savior, says that He agrees with it. He will be the God who judges. Cursing is
placed on a par with murder, and there is a reason why: because it proceeds
from this same attitude of heart. Thus, it is punishable by death.
The majesty and office of God is violated in the person of the
parent because God regards the parent as His representative and as a type of
Him. So, the fifth commandment is broken, and the wages of sin is death (Romans
6:23). It is that simple. In terms of the penalty, it is just as wrong to curse
parents as it is to curse God.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From Sanctification and the Teens
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daily devotional
Evening ...
Romans 8:23 Ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit.
Present possession is declared. At this present moment we have the first
fruits of the Spirit. We have repentance, that gem of the first water; faith,
that priceless pearl; hope, the heavenly emerald; and love, the glorious ruby.
We are already made "new creatures in Christ Jesus," by the effectual working
of God the Holy Ghost. This is called the firstfruit because it comes first. As
the wave-sheaf was the first of the harvest, so the spiritual life, and all the
graces which adorn that life, are the first operations of the Spirit of God in
our souls. The firstfruits were the pledge of the harvest. As soon as the
Israelite had plucked the first handful of ripe ears, he looked forward with
glad anticipation to the time when the wain should creak beneath the sheaves.
So, brethren, when God gives us things which are pure, lovely, and of good
report, as the work of the Holy Spirit, these are to us the prognostics of the
coming glory. The firstfruits were always holy to the Lord, and our new nature,
with all its powers, is a consecrated thing. The new life is not ours that we
should ascribe its excellence to our own merit; it is Christ's image and
creation, and is ordained for His glory. But the firstfruits were not the
harvest, and the works of the Spirit in us at this moment are not the
consummation-the perfection is yet to come. We must not boast that we have
attained, and so reckon the wave-sheaf to be all the produce of the year: we
must hunger and thirst after righteousness, and pant for the day of full
redemption. Dear reader, this evening open your mouth wide, and God will fill
it. Let the boon in present possession excite in you a sacred avarice for more
grace. Groan within yourself for higher degrees of consecration, and your Lord
will grant them to you, for He is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we
ask or even think.
Morning ...
Psalm 52:8 The mercy of God.
Meditate a little on this mercy of the Lord. It is tender mercy. With gentle,
loving touch, He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He
is as gracious in the manner of His mercy as in the matter of it. It is great
mercy. There is nothing little in God; His mercy is like Himself-it is
infinite. You cannot measure it. His mercy is so great that it forgives great
sins to great sinners, after great lengths of time, and then gives great
favours and great privileges, and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great
heaven of the great God. It is undeserved mercy, as indeed all true mercy must
be, for deserved mercy is only a misnomer for justice. There was no right on
the sinner's part to the kind consideration of the Most High; had the rebel
been doomed at once to eternal fire he would have richly merited the doom, and
if delivered from wrath, sovereign love alone has found a cause, for there was
none in the sinner himself. It is rich mercy. Some things are great, but have
little efficacy in them, but this mercy is a cordial to your drooping spirits;
a golden ointment to your bleeding wounds; a heavenly bandage to your broken
bones; a royal chariot for your weary feet; a bosom of love for your trembling
heart. It is manifold mercy. As Bunyan says, "All the flowers in God's garden
are double." There is no single mercy. You may think you have but one mercy,
but you shall find it to be a whole cluster of mercies. It is abounding mercy.
Millions have received it, yet far from its being exhausted; it is as fresh, as
full, and as free as ever. It is unfailing mercy. It will never leave thee. If
mercy be thy friend, mercy will be with thee in temptation to keep thee from
yielding; with thee in trouble to prevent thee from sinking; with thee living
to be the light and life of thy countenance; and with thee dying to be the joy
of thy soul when earthly comfort is ebbing fast.
Deuteronomy 33:16
(16) And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof,
and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon
the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from
his brethren.
Why did God choose to bestow the birthright blessing to Joseph?
Deuteronomy 33:16 provides the key to the answer. Moses writes, "Let the
blessing come on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who
was separate from his brothers."
God honored Joseph because he "was separate from his brothers."
He was separate in that he alone remained faithful to his God. Conspicuous by
their absence are the names of Joseph's brothers from the Faith Chapter.
Hebrews 11 does not mention Reuben, Judah, Dan, Gad, or any other of Jacob's
sons. Verse 22 emphasizes Joseph's faithfulness: "By faith Joseph, when he was
dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave
instructions concerning his bones" (Genesis 50:22-26)
Allaying his brothers' fears of retribution and revenge, Joseph
explained his understanding that God had placed him in power in Egypt "to
preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great
deliverance" (Genesis 45:7). To his dying day, he never broke faith with his
brothers: As recorded in Genesis 50:20-21, he reassures them of their
well-being after their father's death:
But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for
good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.
Nor did he ever break faith with his God. Dying, he reminded his
brothers that God would bring their posterity out of Egypt, restoring them "to
the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (Genesis 50:24).
The two sons of Joseph received the birthright blessings because
their father was separate, ethically and morally, from his perfidious, scheming
brothers. His brothers exhibited few scruples concerning killing Joseph,
forswearing murder only when they saw the opportunity to profit from selling
him into slavery. Compounding their despicable and abject turpitude, they
darkened their father's days by sustaining the ruse of Joseph's death for more
than a decade. See Genesis 34 for a fine example of cunning deception, ruthless
murder, and rapacious greed on the part of Simeon and Levi in the affair of
their sister Dinah with Hamor, a Hivite prince living in Canaan at that time.
What a paradox! Today, Ephraim and Manasseh have used the wealth
and influence God gave them because of Joseph's faithfulness to push on Gentile
nations a way of life totally contrary to God's way. Rather than separating
from the ways of this world, as their father Joseph did, modern-day Ephraim and
Manasseh push globalism, another term for the Babylonian system of "get," on
the whole world. Sifted among the nations, Joseph subverts those around him
rather than serving as an example of godliness to the Gentiles.
Charles Whitaker
From Searching for Israel (Part Eleven): Manasseh Found
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