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daily devotional
Evening ...
Numbers 6:4 All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of
the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.
Nazarites had taken, among other vows, one which debarred them from the use
of wine. In order that they might not violate the obligation, they were
forbidden to drink the vinegar of wine or strong liquors, and to make the rule
still more clear, they were not to touch the unfermented juice of grapes, nor
even to eat the fruit either fresh or dried. In order, altogether, to secure
the integrity of the vow, they were not even allowed anything that had to do
with the vine; they were, in fact, to avoid the appearance of evil. Surely this
is a lesson to the Lord's separated ones, teaching them to come away from sin
in every form, to avoid not merely its grosser shapes, but even its spirit and
similitude. Strict walking is much despised in these days, but rest assured,
dear reader, it is both the safest and the happiest. He who yields a point or
two to the world is in fearful peril; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon
drink the wine of Gomorrah. A little crevice in the sea-bank in Holland lets in
the sea, and the gap speedily swells till a province is drowned. Worldly
conformity, in any degree, is a snare to the soul, and makes it more and more
liable to presumptuous sins. Moreover, as the Nazarite who drank grape juice
could not be quite sure whether it might not have endured a degree of
fermentation, and consequently could not be clear in heart that his vow was
intact, so the yielding, temporizing Christian cannot wear a conscience void of
offence, but must feel that the inward monitor is in doubt of him. Things
doubtful we need not doubt about; they are wrong to us. Things tempting we must
not dally with, but flee from them with speed. Better be sneered at as a
Puritan than be despised as a hypocrite. Careful walking may involve much
self-denial, but it has pleasures of its own which are more than a sufficient
recompense.
Amos 3:1-7
(1) Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of
Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt,
saying, (2) You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I
will punish you for all your iniquities. (3) Can two walk together, except they
be agreed? (4) Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a
young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? (5) Can a bird fall in
a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from
the earth, and have taken nothing at all? (6) Shall a trumpet be blown in the
city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD
hath not done it? (7) Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his
secret unto his servants the prophets.
Prophecy is both practical and positive, not all gloom and doom. Most of
prophecy begins negatively but ends positively because God is confident that
what He prophesied will accomplish His end, which is always good! Much of the
thrust of Amos is an education for catastrophe. Amos followed Elijah about
90-100 years later. During that period, Israel's sins continued to mount
horribly. Despite this, they became very wealthy and self-indulgent, even
oppressively so.
Religiously, they were trying to walk a tightrope between God and Baal.
They were behaving and worshipping like Baal worshippers but doing it in the
name of the Lord. Does that not sound familiar to an informed observer of our
modern, American scene? People in high places are claiming we all worship the
same God; they say the God of Islam and the God of Christianity are the same!
Amos, a Jew from the southern kingdom, was sent by God to preach against
the sins of the northern ten tribes. In those from the north, there would be a
natural resistance to such an arrangement. The first thing Amos needed to do,
then, was establish his authority to preach against them.
The prophet begins in the first two verses with a "thus saith the LORD,"
providing the foundation for all that follows. He sets out two things that
construct a basis for what he says. First, God and Israel have a special
relationship: "You only have I known." This phrase indicates a very close bond,
as in a marriage, from which ensues the sharing of life's experiences. This
ties what Amos would say to correct them to their responsibilities within that
close relationship.
Second, he makes a veiled warning, contained within the next five verses:
Amos' words carry authority. Israel had better heed because his words are not
idle. He establishes this through a series of illustrations posed as
challenging questions that can logically be answered only one way. His aim is
to awaken them from their spiritual lethargy. It is as if he is saying, "Think
about the practical ramifications of this." What follows is a general pattern
of God's operation in His people's behalf.
First: People traveling in the same direction toward exactly the same
destination would hardly meet except by appointment. It is no accident that God
and Israel have this relationship. This also applies on a smaller but more
immediate scale: Amos has been sent by appointment, and he does not speak
promiscuously. He is there by no accident. His utterances are not his own
words; they began with God, who sent them because the close relationship is
seriously threatened.
Second: Lions do not roar unless they have taken their prey because they
do not want to scare their intended prey away. Israel is God's prey, as it
were, and He is not roaring yet. This means, "Take heed! He is stalking you,
and you are in mortal danger. Punishment is imminent, at the very door. Beware,
for the margin of safety is very slim."
Third: One cannot snare a bird unless a trap is set, and then
something—in this case a bird—has to cause the trap to spring shut. This
illustration is declaring a cause-and-effect relationship, meaning, "Israel,
you are already in the trap, and you, through your conduct, are just about to
spring it shut on yourself. Your sins brought this warning, and punishment will
follow if you continue sinning."
Fourth: All too often, the alarms go off, and then people take notice.
"Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore
the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Ecclesiastes
8:11). Amos is declaring that God is involved in His creation; He has not gone
way off. The Israelites must not allow themselves to be self-deceived. God is
managing it, governing it. His warning of impending calamity would not come if
they were not deserving of it. They have been flippantly careless and have no
one to blame but themselves.
Fifth: It is illogical to think that God would punish without first
warning His people. It is an aspect of His mercy. We can infer that Amos did
not choose to be there before them. God appointed him to this task and "caused"
him to speak. It is from God that the authority for the prophet's message
emanates.
An important overall warning from Amos for those of us who have made the
New Covenant with God is that great privileges must not be abused, or they will
bring great penalties. To whom much is given much is required (Luke 12:48). Our
great privilege is to have access to Him and His Spirit, and therefore have a
far closer relationship with Him than Israel ever had under the Old Covenant.
Israel's sin was first neglecting and then departing from God and the
relationship. This in turn produced great moral corruption through self-serving
idolatry, illustrated as and called "fornication" in other books.
The overall effect of these sins produced a careless disregard for the
simple duties people owe their neighbors, as well as oppression of the weak.
Amos speaks strongly against public and private indifference toward the keeping
of the second of the two great commandments (Matthew 22:37-40). When these are
considered, we see that he is truly a prophet for our time, when public
morality has fallen so low. We need to heed His words seriously because our
cultural circumstances parallel what Amos confronted in his day.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From Prophecy and the Sixth-Century Axial Period
.
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daily devotional
Evening...
Psalm 32:5 I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.
I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the
iniquity of my sin.
David's grief for sin was bitter. Its effects were visible upon his outward
frame: "his bones waxed old"; "his moisture was turned into the drought of
summer." No remedy could he find, until he made a full confession before the
throne of the heavenly grace. He tells us that for a time he kept silence, and
his heart became more and more filled with grief: like a mountain tarn whose
outlet is blocked up, his soul was swollen with torrents of sorrow. He
fashioned excuses; he endeavoured to divert his thoughts, but it was all to no
purpose; like a festering sore his anguish gathered, and as he would not use
the lancet of confession, his spirit was full of torment, and knew no rest. At
last it came to this, that he must return unto his God in humble penitence, or
die outright; so he hastened to the mercy-seat, and there unrolled the volume
of his iniquities before the all-seeing One, acknowledging all the evil of his
ways in language such as you read in the fifty-first and other penitential
Psalms. Having done this, a work so simple and yet so difficult to pride, he
received at once the token of divine forgiveness; the bones which had been
broken were made to rejoice, and he came forth from his closet to sing the
blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven. See the value of a
grace-wrought confession of sin! It is to be prized above all price, for in
every case where there is a genuine, gracious confession, mercy is freely
given, not because the repentance and confession deserve mercy, but for
Christ's sake. Blessed be God, there is always healing for the broken heart;
the fountain is ever flowing to cleanse us from our sins. Truly, O Lord, Thou
art a God "ready to pardon!" Therefore will we acknowledge our iniquities.
Morning...
Psalm 112:7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.
Christian, you ought not to dread the arrival of evil tidings; because if you
are distressed by them, what do you more than other men? Other men have not
your God to fly to; they have never proved His faithfulness as you have done,
and it is no wonder if they are bowed down with alarm and cowed with fear: but
you profess to be of another spirit; you have been begotten again unto a lively
hope, and your heart lives in heaven and not on earthly things; now, if you are
seen to be distracted as other men, what is the value of that grace which you
profess to have received? Where is the dignity of that new nature which you
claim to possess? Again, if you should be filled with alarm, as others are, you
would, doubtless, be led into the sins so common to others under trying
circumstances. The ungodly, when they are overtaken by evil tidings, rebel
against God; they murmur, and think that God deals hardly with them. Will you
fall into that same sin? Will you provoke the Lord as they do? Moreover,
unconverted men often run to wrong means in order to escape from difficulties,
and you will be sure to do the same if your mind yields to the present
pressure. Trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Your wisest course is
to do as Moses did at the Red Sea, "Stand still and see the salvation of God."
For if you give way to fear when you hear of evil tidings, you will be unable
to meet the trouble with that calm composure which nerves for duty, and
sustains under adversity. How can you glorify God if you play the coward?
Saints have often sung God's high praises in the fires, but will your doubting
and desponding, as if you had none to help you, magnify the Most High? Then
take courage, and relying in sure confidence upon the faithfulness of your
covenant God, "let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
3 John 1:9-11
(9) I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have
the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. (10) Wherefore, if I come, I will
remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and
not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and
forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. (11) Beloved,
follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of
God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
Who is this Diotrephes? Perhaps a better question is, "Who does
this Diotrephes think he is?" Was he an apostle? Was he an evangelist? Was he a
pastor? Was he a leading man in the congregation? Was he an "ordinary" member?
John does not say, but it is interesting that John mentions that Diotrephes
just loved to have the preeminence among them. It almost sounds as if he was
only a member of the church or perhaps an elder. We do not know.
One of his most marked characteristics is he liked to be "Number
One." He had to be the important guy, the one everybody came to for answers to
their questions, the one to make the big decisions. He even went so far as to
say malicious things against John—one of the original twelve apostles. He
prated against him with malicious words. He spoke down on him.
John was the disciple that Jesus loved, and here some little man,
probably in the church at Ephesus, was talking against the apostle who had put
his life on the line for the church many times, who had spent years in exile on
the Isle of Patmos, who (tradition says) was put in a vat of boiling oil and
was not harmed a bit, a man whom God was obviously with—and this Diotrephes
thought he was so important that he could point out John's flaws to the rest of
the congregation.
Then he started disfellowshipping people because they did not
agree with him. He kicked people out of the church who wanted to fellowship
with their brethren whom he had put out. John promised, "When I get there, I'm
going to take care of this. I will call to mind all these things and make what
this man is apparent."
Given the way he treated the congregation, Diotrephes was a
"Satan in the flesh." What he did was evil, which is what John writes in verse
11: "Beloved, do not imitate what is evil." He is warning, "Do not imitate the
actions of this man, Diotrephes. He is doing exactly what Satan did."
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
From Countering Presumptuousness
.
