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daily devotional
Evening...
Hebrews 9:20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined
unto you.
There is a strange power about the very name of blood, and the sight of it is
always affecting. A kind heart cannot bear to see a sparrow bleed, and unless
familiarized by use, turns away with horror at the slaughter of a beast. As to
the blood of men, it is a consecrated thing: it is murder to shed it in wrath,
it is a dreadful crime to squander it in war. Is this solemnity occasioned by
the fact that the blood is the life, and the pouring of it forth the token of
death? We think so. When we rise to contemplate the blood of the Son of God,
our awe is yet more increased, and we shudder as we think of the guilt of sin,
and the terrible penalty which the Sin-bearer endured. Blood, always precious,
is priceless when it streams from Immanuel's side. The blood of Jesus seals the
covenant of grace, and makes it for ever sure. Covenants of old were made by
sacrifice, and the everlasting covenant was ratified in the same manner. Oh,
the delight of being saved upon the sure foundation of divine engagements which
cannot be dishonoured! Salvation by the works of the law is a frail and broken
vessel whose shipwreck is sure; but the covenant vessel fears no storms, for
the blood ensures the whole. The blood of Jesus made His testament valid. Wills
are of no power unless the testators die. In this light the soldier's spear is
a blessed aid to faith, since it proved our Lord to be really dead. Doubts upon
that matter there can be none, and we may boldly appropriate the legacies which
He has left for His people. Happy they who see their title to heavenly
blessings assured to them by a dying Saviour. But has this blood no voice to
us? Does it not bid us sanctify ourselves unto Him by whom we have been
redeemed? Does it not call us to newness of life, and incite us to entire
consecration to the Lord? O that the power of the blood might be known, and
felt in us this night!
Morning...
Isaiah 49:16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.
No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word "Behold," is
excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence. Zion said,
"The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me." How amazed the
divine mind seems to be at this wicked unbelief! What can be more astounding
than the unfounded doubts and fears of God's favoured people? The Lord's loving
word of rebuke should make us blush; He cries, "How can I have forgotten thee,
when I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands? How darest thou doubt my
constant remembrance, when the memorial is set upon my very flesh?" O unbelief,
how strange a marvel thou art! We know not which most to wonder at, the
faithfulness of God or the unbelief of His people. He keeps His promise a
thousand times, and yet the next trial makes us doubt Him. He never faileth; He
is never a dry well; He is never as a setting sun, a passing meteor, or a
melting vapour; and yet we are as continually vexed with anxieties, molested
with suspicions, and distu rbed with fears, as if our God were the mirage of
the desert. "Behold," is a word intended to excite admiration. Here, indeed, we
have a theme for marvelling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished that
rebels should obtain so great a nearness to the heart of infinite love as to be
written upon the palms of His hands. "I have graven thee. "It does not say,
"Thy name." The name is there, but that is not all: "I have graven thee." See
the fulness of this! I have graven thy person, thine image, thy case, thy
circumstances, thy sins, thy temptations, thy weaknesses, thy wants, thy works;
I have graven thee, everything about thee, all that concerns thee; I have put
thee altogether there. Wilt thou ever say again that thy God hath forsaken thee
when He has graven thee upon His own palms?
Matthew 12:1-4
(New King James Version)
(1) At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the
Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and
to eat. (2) And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your
disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” (3) But He said
to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who
were with him: (4) how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which
was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for
the priests?
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
According to the Pharisees, the disciples reaped a crop. They
threshed it by rubbing the berries in their hands and breaking the hulls off.
Then they winnowed it by blowing the hulls away. By doing so, they were guilty
of preparing a meal. This was actually a high holy day, very likely one of the
holy days of the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Consider the disciples' motivation for what they did. First, they
were hungry. Second, they were itinerate, using "shoe leather express,"
traveling with Jesus as a part of His entourage. He instructed them, giving
them examples of His way of life, all along the way. He Himself said that He
had no place to lay His head. They had, therefore, no place to prepare a meal.
They did not have homes that they could readily return to.
These were strong, young men, probably in their twenties or early
thirties (about the same age as Jesus), so they could have fasted without
damage. But, because it was the Sabbath, Jesus deliberately drew attention to
one of the Sabbath's main purposes: It is a day of mercy and not a day of
sacrifice.
Christ's justification comes from I Samuel 21:1-6. He reasoned
that, if it was all right for David to allay his hunger under an unusual
circumstance by eating bread that had been consecrated for holy use, His
disciples could provide for their needs in this manner. (The showbread was put
into the Tabernacle on the table, and it sat there during the entire week.
Then, every Sabbath it was exchanged for new bread. David ate the week-old
bread that had just been exchanged for the new.)
So what is He saying? The Sabbath is a day of mercy. And if one
can rightly, lawfully use "holy bread" to do something that, according to the
letter of the law, was illegal, then it was also legitimate for the disciples
to provide for their needs also in an usual circumstance.
The emphasis here is on the word unusual. How frequently was
David fleeing for his life and finding himself hungry? It did happen, at least
this one time, but it did not happen every Sabbath. Maybe in David's lifetime
something like this occurred a few times, but even for a man of war like David,
it did not happen all that frequently.
The overall lesson, however, is that it is not the intention of
God's law to deprive anybody of good things. The intent of God's law is to
ensure life. If the need arises, one should not feel conscience-stricken to use
the Sabbath in a way that would not "normally" be lawful. Christ admitted that
what David did was not "normally" lawful. Neither was what the disciples were
doing "normally lawful," except for the extenuating circumstance.
In this case then, they were blameless because a larger
obligation overruled the letter of the law. The larger obligation was to be
merciful. The letter of the law said that they could not have that bread. The
larger obligation said that it was more important to eat than it was to fast
(to sacrifice eating). Holy bread, or holy time (the Sabbath), can be used
exceptionally in order to sustain life.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Fourth Commandment (Part 3)
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daily devotional
Evening...
Mark 14:14 The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the
passover with My disciples?
Jerusalem at the time of the passover was one great inn; each householder had
invited his own friends, but no one had invited the Saviour, and He had no
dwelling of His own. It was by His own supernatural power that He found Himself
an upper room in which to keep the feast. It is so even to this day-Jesus is
not received among the sons of men save only where by His supernatural power
and grace He makes the heart anew. All doors are open enough to the prince of
darkness, but Jesus must clear a way for Himself or lodge in the streets. It
was through the mysterious power exerted by our Lord that the householder
raised no question, but at once cheerfully and joyfully opened his
guestchamber. Who he was, and what he was, we do not know, but he readily
accepted the honour which the Redeemer proposed to confer upon him. In like
manner it is still discovered who are the Lord's chosen, and who are not; for
when the gospel comes to some, they fight against it, and will not have it, but
where men receive it, welcoming it, this is a sure indication that there is a
secret work going on in the soul, and that God has chosen them unto eternal
life. Are you willing, dear reader, to receive Christ? then there is no
difficulty in the way; Christ will be your guest; His own power is working with
you, making you willing. What an honour to entertain the Son of God! The heaven
of heavens cannot contain Him, and yet He condescends to find a house within
our hearts! We are not worthy that He should come under our roof, but what an
unutterable privilege when He condescends to enter! for then He makes a feast,
and causes us to feast with Him upon royal dainties, we sit at a banquet where
the viands are immortal, and give immortality to those who feed thereon.
Blessed among the sons of Adam is he who entertains the angels' Lord.
Morning...
Colossians 2:6 So walk ye in Him.
If we have received Christ Himself in our inmost hearts, our new life will
manifest its intimate acquaintance with Him by a walk of faith in Him. Walking
implies action. Our religion is not to be confined to our closet; we must carry
out into practical effect that which we believe. If a man walks in Christ, then
he so acts as Christ would act; for Christ being in him, his hope, his love,
his joy, his life, he is the reflex of the image of Jesus; and men say of that
man, "He is like his Master; he lives like Jesus Christ." Walking signifies
progress. "So walk ye in Him"; proceed from grace to grace, run forward until
you reach the uttermost degree of knowledge that a man can attain concerning
our Beloved. Walking implies continuance. There must be a perpetual abiding in
Christ. How many Christians think that in the morning and evening they ought to
come into the company of Jesus, and may then give their hearts to the world all
the day: but this is poor living; we should always be with Him, treading in His
steps and doing His will. Walking also implies habit. When we speak of a man's
walk and conversation, we mean his habits, the constant tenour of his life.
Now, if we sometimes enjoy Christ, and then forget Him; sometimes call Him
ours, and anon lose our hold, that is not a habit; we do not walk in Him. We
must keep to Him, cling to Him, never let Him go, but live and have our being
in Him. "As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him";
persevere in the same way in which ye have begun, and, as at the first Christ
Jesus was the trust of your faith, the source of your life, the principle of
your action, and the joy of your spirit, so let Him be the same till life's
end; the same when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and
enter into the joy and the rest which remain for the people of God. O Holy
Spirit, enable us to obey this heavenly precept.
Deuteronomy 13:1-5
(New King James Version)
(1) “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams,
and he gives you a sign or a wonder, (2) and the sign or the wonder comes to
pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you
have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ (3) you shall not listen to the words
of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you
to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all
your soul. (4) You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep
His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.
(5) But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because
he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you
out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice
you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall
put away the evil from your midst.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
It is a prophetic voice that speaks for God, and His prophets will
always have as the basis of their prophecy the commandments of God as evidence.
The message they give (predictive or not) will always be in harmony with
previously revealed truth, even though the prophet may be breaking new
doctrinal ground, which happens now and then.
We can see another difference between a prophet and a priest or
minister. The priest or minister conserves old truth and implements new truth
given by the prophet. Most of the time new truth will come through a prophet.
Under the New Covenant, of course, new truth came through apostles who were
about as close to prophets as one can get without being prophets. Paul makes
that clear when he lists the offices in the church, listing apostles first and
prophets second (Ephesians 4:11). Once we leave the Old Covenant for the New,
God uses apostles to announce new truth, and the prophet is moved into a
secondary position. However, throughout the Old Testament, new truth or new
doctrines came through prophets.
A minister's job is to conserve what has already been given, to
hold fast to what was given in the past, and to recognize that new truth comes
through an apostle. There is no apostle now, so we should not expect that there
will be any new truth. However, if God raises up a prophet, then we also have
to recognize that new truth can come through him. He will not break God's
pattern. New truth will either come through an apostle or a prophet. The
prophet breaks new ground, yet he also conserves the old.
There is a difference between a minister and a prophet. A
minister does not give new truth but conserves old truth. The prophet or the
apostle will conserve the old and also proclaim the new.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From Prophets and Prophecy (Part 1)
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