Reading 1 – Gen 44; 45

“The record of Joseph provides wonderful portrayals of the work of our Master. In Gen 44 and 45 he adopts further methods for the reconciliation of his brethren: in this he is a type of the ultimate redemption of natural Israel, at the return of the Lord.

“The drama of the situation is the way in which Joseph acts with superb understanding and careful examination. He sought to discover whether Benjamin would be delivered because of the envy of the brethren, as he himself had been — or had they redeemed their consciences? Joseph’s test determines the answer! The brethren failed to recognize their brother in the imperious ruler of Egypt (as do Jewry of the Lord Jesus), dressed in his resplendent robes of authority (as the Lord Jesus is in immortality). Ultimately Joseph manifested himself plainly to his family — as the Lord Jesus will reveal the signs in his hands (Zec 13:6). When he declared: ‘Come near to me’ (Gen 45:4), he anticipates the message of Christ (Mat 11:28; Eph 2:13) which will be offered to Israel in the future” (GEM).

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mat 11:28).

Reading 2 – Psa 49:20

“A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish” (Psa 49:20).

Ignorance is an obvious characteristic of beasts (Psa 73:22), as is sensuality (Tit 1:12; 2Pe 2:12). Those believers who turned away from Christ and back to the Law of Moses are called “dogs” by Paul (Phi 3:2)!

And like the beasts they perish! This verse recalls Nebuchadnezzar, and his behavior and his judgment from God — to be made like the beasts of the field for seven years (Dan 4). This verse and the Nebuchadnezzar incident provide the scriptural rationale for various and sundry of the kingdoms of men being signified by beasts, as in Daniel and Revelation and elsewhere.

The leaders of the nations may be ever so wise, in the wisdom of the world, in political expertise, and economics, and other disciplines besides — but if they do not understand the gospel of the kingdom of God… then they are — in divine terms — beasts! They may walk upright; they may wear expensive business suits; they may be driven about in fine limousines and fly around the world in luxurious jets; they may have monumental wealth and state-of-the-art arsenals at their disposal… but for all that, they are beasts nonetheless.

And when and if they defy the plans of Almighty God, they will perish like the beasts. Sobering thoughts.

Reading 3 – Rom 1:20

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Rom 1:20).

“A simple consideration of the activities in which the power of the universe is engaged provides satisfactory witness of the working of God; for we are led to contemplate the wide range of ordered operations, each directed to its own end, and duly controlled within that end. We observe, in spite of human ignorance in so many details, how operations coordinate, and represent one magnificent harmony of purpose for beneficient ends. Every example of design would be pertinent. We shall content ourselves with citing just one obvious case which all can observe and admire. We refer to a common flowering plant. It usually begins from a seed planted in the ground. This sends out roots growing downwards and a shoot growing upwards into the air. From the shoot come leaves and flowers, and these flowers comprise a fascinating combination of contrivances for the production of fertile seeds, with which not only the earth with its supply of nourishment through the roots is associated, but also the sun and rain and air and insects play their part in so marvellous and admirable a manner as to compel an acknowledgment of the working of God. Wisdom must recognise in these ordained processes which produce and preserve each species the compelling evidence of eternal power infallibly guided by God Himself. Eternal power and Godhead are thus seen from things that are made” (Will Watkins, “The Christadelphian” 113: 424,425).

“Tell a man that man’s most intricate computer ‘just happened’ by a heap of nuts and bolts falling into a pile yesterday, and he’ll say you are mad; and he will be right. Tell a man that a worm’s brain (which is infinitely more intricate and wonderful than man’s most advanced computer) ‘just happened’ by a few bits of nothing falling together one hundred billion years or so ago, and he’ll say you are an educated modern scientist; and he will be right again. Tell him that, if he can believe that, he is ‘safely’ over the hump out of rationality and reality into evolutionary fantasy and superstition… ‘His eternal power and divinity are clearly seen from the Creation of the world, by the things that are made, so that they are WITHOUT EXCUSE.’ That’s God’s viewpoint, and it’s preeminently reasonable” (GVG).

Reading 1 – Gen 17; 18

“The work of the Elohim in the life of Abram draws him nearer to the great moment of his life: the expression of the covenant, and to see the goodness of Yahweh in the provision of a son as the medium of the divine promises. Gen 17 provides the background to the covenant, and Gen 18 to the preparation for a son.

“In view of the threatened and impending destruction of Sodom, Abraham pleaded for the righteous as his seed proclaims the Gospel today. Even as he laboured in pleading, the Destroying Angels were approaching the doomed city. The Sodomites were oblivious to the impending destruction; so also was Lot. Abraham alone knew the fate of the city, as we do the state of the world today. Thus Abraham’s eloquent and urgent appeal (cp Luk 17:28-30). But when it came to ten only in Sodom (Gen 18:32), Abraham concluded his appeal, as he knew that there were at least ten in Lot’s immediate family. What a sad state concludes the chapter” (GE Mansfield).

Reading 2 – Psa 21:13

“Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength; we will sing and praise your might” (Psa 21:13).

“It is the mission of Christ, through the Gospel, to teach men to rejoice in God. And an unfailing source of joy is God, when once the mind opens to the great fact of His existence, excellence and power, for is not He beyond all minor causes of joy? Those minor causes fail; He, never. He is from everlasting. With Him is strength; not the strength that belongs to man: man owes his strength to the bread he eats; and the bread he eats with man himself is a perishable thing. Man dieth and wasteth away. But when we turn our eyes to God, we see the full meaning of the words: ‘Be thou exalted in Thine own strength: so we will sing and praise Thy power’ ” (Robert Roberts, “Seasons of Comfort” 90).

Reading 3 – Mat 11:11,12

“I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Mat 11:11).

In this verse, Jesus points out the great demarcation between the time of “the prophets and the law”, on one hand, and the time of “the Messiah” on the other. So, to paraphrase: “The least of the disciples — who preach the kingdom of God NOW — are greater (more able) than was John the Baptist — the greatest of the prophets — because, while he brought Israel up to the brink of the new ‘age’, they have actually entered it: they NOW know Jesus as the Messiah!” (This distinction is borne out by v 13 here as well: “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.”)

*****

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (v 12).

In this verse, Jesus has in mind the same line of demarcation: before John came, all men (even “prophets”) were looking forward — tentatively — to the coming of the Messiah. But now — after he HAS come — all men who preach him (even the least of the disciples: v 11) can be bold, because they have seen and heard of him!

Reading 1 – Gen 50:26

“So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt” (Gen 50:26).

SO JOSEPH DIED…: “Hidden away from human knowledge, in far-off Shechem, still rest the remains of a great man of God. He lived, as few others have ever lived, a God-centred life. Humbly he acquiesced in many an undeserved hardship. His faith in the ways of God’s providence never faltered. In everything his unfailing philosophy was: ‘God knows best!’ Was there ever a servant of God with a more forgiving nature? You who read of all the good and ill that befell him, and of the noble spirit with which he met every testing situation, spare a minute to ponder his fine example and to thank God for the inspiration he imparts to your own life. Especially learn from him faith in God’s Promises concerning the Land — ‘Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel’ [Heb 11:22]. Learn also faith in the eternal Purpose in Christ which will one day bring saints of God forth from the grave to the Life Everlasting — ‘he gave commandment concerning his bones’. Here was the Christian faith long before Christ, exhibited in the Jesus of Genesis, and written for your learning” (Harry Whittaker, Joseph 89).

*****

Genesis outlines man’s fall from grace: It begins with God, and ends with a “coffin in Egypt”.

But… the “coffin” is also an “ark” of safety (it is the same word!) Joseph “the Savior of the world” was at the last put into the “ark” of God!

“Under God’s guiding hand, and with tremendous effort, this spectacular character, Joseph, son of Jacob, had set the stage, for the great and long trek out of Egypt. He did not wish for an Egyptian monument, or pyramid, which would have been considered appropriate for a man of his position. So his death state, and the manner of his burial, in its impermanence, reminded the Israelites of their impermanence, and honored his God, to the Egyptians. Although dead, his mute witness to the Israelites stood through the testing times, and gave the Israelites courage, until they took him with them under Moses, all those years later, back to Shechem (Josh 24:32) after the 40 years in the wilderness” (Bev Russell, “Kith and Kin”).

Reading 2 – Psa 51

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psa 51:10).

“It is the great lesson of the Law of Moses — over and over and over. Natural man is filthy. God is absolutely pure and holy. Outer cleanness is important: inner cleanness is vital and essential. Cleansing can come only from God, but He requires a mighty effort on man’s part — as man’s part. He will clean some; He will not clean others. The difference lies wholly in what they do, and how they submit, and — above all — in how clearly they perceive their natural filthiness, and how strongly they desire to be clean. Cleanness of heart, cleanness of thought, cleanness of motive, cleanness of life — how beautiful and desirable they are! How unclean is the flesh and all its ways! We are washed in the Word (Eph 5:26), and in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14). Let us ever strive for absolute cleanness — holiness, spiritual purity and beauty — and never be satisfied with anything less” (GVG).

*****

“Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness” (v 14).

“Do not give fair names to foul sins; call them what you will, they will smell no sweeter. What God sees them to be, that you should labour to feel them to be; and with all openness of heart acknowledge their real character. Observe, that David was evidently oppressed with the heinousness of his sin. It is easy to use words, but it is difficult to feel their meaning. This psalm is the photograph of a contrite spirit. Let us seek after the like brokenness of heart; for however excellent our words may be, if our heart is not conscious of the death-deservingness of sin, we cannot expect to find forgiveness” (CHS).

*****

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (v 17).

“Every natural disappointment can and should be a thankful stepping-stone to greater peace with God, for by contrast to all things and persons human it emphasizes the unassailable dependability of that peace. What we grieve over as a loss, or disappointment, or deprivation, may be a great emancipation and deliverance and opportunity, a fresh turn of our lives in a higher and more satisfying direction. God’s ways of teaching and correcting us are strange and wise and beautiful. The sweetest, deepest scent is from the crushed flower. Natural disappointment and sorrow can be the golden portal to spiritual joy. Joy that is born of sorrow is a far fuller and stronger-rooted joy. Above all things, never let yourself be sorry for yourself. This is sick, fatal, dead-end folly. That is a reproach on God’s love” (GVG).

Reading 3 – Rom 6:17,18

“But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (Rom 6:17,18).

Here is the “marketplace” or “agora” metaphor of Paul. Here “sin” is personified: “Sin” becomes the great ruler to whom all the world gives allegiance — a slave-owner who owns all men. “I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (Rom 7:14). In this metaphor Paul is recalling the words of Jesus: “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (Joh 8:34).

The figure of speech may be heightened as we imagine an eastern “agora” or bazaar — this marketplace was the meeting place of the ancient world; it was the center of commerce, entertainment, and social intercourse; it was the source of news and opinions. And always there was the slave-market, with its auction block. Approach that site in our minds, and the brutality, the callousness, and the fear wash over us. We imagine the smells and the sounds with revulsion — and our memories are stirred in like manner as when we see the old newsreels of Auschwitz… for our modern times have also seen their own particularly ugly forms of slavery.

Here, at the auction block, we see women destined to be slaves to the basest passions of men. And men, doomed to lifelong drudgery to satisfy the greed of their fellow men. Here are wasted, broken lives, dashed hopes, families soon to be torn apart forever.

The slave-market: parable of our world; fleshly, carnal, unspiritual — and sold as slaves to sin. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. I sin; therefore I am a slave!

Into this scene comes a man who is obviously apart from others. Striding up to me, he speaks forcefully: “I have bought you; come, follow me.” There are no chains, no threats, no blows — just a simple command. And I follow him.

Right behind him, I walk through the milling and clamorous crowds, and then through the winding streets of the city, until we come to a beautiful house. “Here is where I live,” my new master tells me. “And here is your room.” It is lovely and wonderfully furnished. Never have I seen such a luxurious dwelling, and this will be my home!

The master excuses himself, but soon he is back. He has brought water, and he kneels to wash MY feet! I should be washing his feet! And he has brought me a new expensive garment. I can throw away my slave’s rags; I won’t need them any more. With healing oil he soothes the cruel wounds inflicted by my previous owner; and I know that they will never hurt again.

“Now you are as I am,” he says; “you are no longer a slave. This is my Father’s house, and you are one of His sons!”

A lifetime of fear and hate is washed away, miraculously, and in its place is the cry of a heart set free: “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir” (Gal 4:6,7).

Redemption from the slave-market was a concept that would particularly appeal to Paul’s converts, so many of whom were themselves slaves (Tit 2:9,10). They might not be able to hope for redemption from their mortal bondage, but they could rejoice in being redeemed from sin: “He who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman” (1Co 7:22). And they could live accordingly. In their hearts and minds they were already free from the worst slave-master. And soon their bodies would follow, and they would be truly and absolutely free!

Reading 1 – Gen 22

“Some time later God tested Abraham” (Gen 22:1).

“Tested” is “tempted” in AV, and “try” in RV and Heb 11:8,17. See Jam 1:12,13; 1Pe 1:6,7. God must have considered Abraham very righteous to put such a severe test on him.

“When a man contemplates buying a car he takes it out on the road to see how it behaves under normal conditions. He does not try driving it across a rough mountain side, nor does he deliberately crash it into a stone wall. By contrast, when an engineer wishes to know the quality of some metal, he subjects samples of it to various extreme tests, twisting or loading them to the point of destruction. It was the first kind of ‘temptation’ [‘testing’: NIV] which God now brought to bear on Abraham. But ‘Lead us not into temptation’ [Mat 6:13] means the second kind of experience: ‘Lord, do not bring us into such temptations as may prove too much for us.’ And James’s emphatic ‘neither tempteth he any man’ [Jam 1:13] clearly means: ‘God never tempts any man with the intention of working his downfall.’ ‘He will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape (as for Israel at the Red Sea), that ye may be able to bear it’ [1Co 10:13]” (HAW, Abraham 95).

*****

” ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son’ ” (v 12).

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). We see here that Abraham, by his willingness to devote his well-beloved son in a supreme act of love, actually typified God Himself!

“Now I know that you fear God”: The doubt expressed here may be in remembrance of the incident in Gen 20 where Abraham for the second time said that Sarah was his sister, because he was afraid of what would happen to him. Or the angel might have meant simply, ‘You (Abraham) passed the test! I wasn’t sure whether or not you would, but you did!’ A number of verses indicate that even the angels had incomplete knowledge of future events (examples: Mar 13:32; 1Pe 1:12; etc).

“Because you have not withheld from me your son”: “Me” = God, although it is an angel who is speaking (vv 11,15). Cp Gen 32:24-30.

*****

“Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son” (v 13).

The ram entangled (Aramaic “sabachtani”) in the thicket (Hebrew “sebach”) may be the basis for the words of Jesus when citing Psa 22:1: “My God… why have You forsaken (azavtani) — or entangled (sabachtani) me?” In quoting Psa 22, Jesus seems to have switched from the Hebrew azavtani (which means “forsaken me”) to the Aramaic sabachtani (which may mean “entangled me”: the same word occurs in Gen 22:13 for the “thicket” (“sebach”) in which the sacrificial ram was found). So perhaps this should be read: ‘My God, my God, thou hast [an assertion, not a question!] ensnared and provided ME as the sacrificial victim!’

*****

“So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided’ ” (v 14).

THE LORD WILL PROVIDE: In AV, this is “Yahweh-jireh”. That is, “God will provide a sacrifice — ie Jesus”. Or, “in the mountain Yahweh will be seen”, as a Redeemer, in Christ, the perfect sacrifice — God manifest in the flesh (2Co 5:19-21; Joh 1:14; Heb 8:3; Gal 4:4) for the redemption of mankind.

“Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of SEEING my day; he saw it and was glad” (Joh 8:56). Cp also Jam 2:22: “You SEE that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.”

*****

“And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (v 17).

In the East, even great cities had only one large gate; to possess this gate was to possess full power over the city. Christ was dead, now lives, and has power — the “keys” — of hell (the grave) and death (Rev 1:18; cp Rev 20:6; 1Co 15:26,55,56).

In Bible times cities were surrounded by walls with, of course, a gate to enter. Whoever conquered a city would have control over the gate and would therefore have the authority to let in or keep out whomever he wanted. Jesus, the seed of Abraham (Gal 3:16), through his death and resurrection gained the authority to possess the gate of his enemies — hell (the grave) and death (Rev 1:18). Therefore he alone can say who will stay in the grave for eternity or who will come forth to eternal life (Joh 5:22, 28,29; Act 17:31). Also, in the process of establishing the kingdom, Jesus will rule in the midst of his enemies (Psa 110:2). The seat of judgment also was in the city gate (Gen 19:1,9; Rth 4:1; etc).

*****

What follows is an extended commentary by the Christian (non-Christadelphian) writer, AW Tozer, on the spiritual meaning of Abraham’s offering of his son Isaac. It is reproduced here because, in my opinion, he has some powerful points to make, and he makes them very eloquently….

As is frequently true, this NT principle of spiritual life [Mat 16:24,25] finds its best illustration in the OT. In the story of Abraham and Isaac [Gen 22] we have a dramatic picture of the surrendered life as well as an excellent commentary on the first Beatitude [Mat 5:3].

Abraham was old when Isaac was born, old enough indeed to have been his grandfather, and the child became at once the delight and idol of his heart. From that moment when he first stooped to take the tiny form awkwardly in his arms he was an eager love slave of his son. God went out of His way to comment on the strength of this affection. And it is not hard to understand. The baby represented everything sacred to his father’s heart: the promises of God, the covenants, the hopes of the years and the long messianic dream. As he watched him grow from babyhood to young manhood the heart of the old man was knit closer and closer with the life of his son, till at last the relationship bordered upon the perilous. It was then that God stepped in to save both father and son from the consequences of an uncleansed love.

‘Take now thy son,’ said God to Abraham, ‘thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of’ (Gen 22:2). The sacred writer spares us a close-up of the agony that night on the slopes near Beersheba when the aged man had it out with his God, but respectful imagination may view in awe the bent form and convulsive wrestling alone under the stars. Possibly not again until a Greater than Abraham wrestled in the Garden of Gethsemane did such mortal pain visit a human soul. If only the man himself might have been allowed to die. That would have been easier a thousand times, for he was old now, and to die would have been no great ordeal for one who had walked so long with God. Besides, it would have been a last sweet pleasure to let his dimming vision rest upon the figure of his stalwart son who would live to carry on the Abrahamic line and fulfill in himself the promises of God made long before in Ur of the Chaldees.

How should he slay the lad! Even if he could get the consent of his wounded and protesting heart, how could he reconcile the act with the promise, ‘In Isaac shall thy seed be called’? This was Abraham’s trial by fire, and he did not fail in the crucible. While the stars still shone like sharp white points above the tent where the sleeping Isaac lay, and long before the gray dawn had begun to lighten the east, the old saint had made up his mind. He would offer his son as God had directed him to do, and then trust God to raise him from the dead [Heb 11:19]. This, says the writer to the Hebrews, was the solution his aching heart found sometime in the dark night, and he rose ‘early in the morning’ to carry out the plan. It is beautiful to see that, while he erred as to God’s method, he had correctly sensed the secret of His great heart. And the solution accords well with the NT Scripture, ‘Whosoever will lose… for my sake shall find…’

God let the suffering old man go through with it up to the point where He knew there would be no retreat, and then forbade him to lay a hand upon the boy. To the wondering patriarch He now says in effect, ‘It’s all right, Abraham. I never intended that you should actually slay the lad. I only wanted to remove him from the temple of your heart that I might reign unchallenged there. I wanted to correct the perversion that existed in your love. Now you may have the boy, sound and well. Take him and go back to your tent. Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me’ [cp Rom 8:32].

Then heaven opened and a voice was heard saying to him, ‘By myself I have sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.’

The old man of God lifted his head to respond to the Voice, and stood there on the mount strong and pure and grand, a man marked out by the Lord for special treatment, a friend and favorite of the Most High. Now he was a man wholly surrendered, a man utterly obedient, a man who possessed nothing. He had concentrated his all in the person of his dear son, and God had taken it from him. God could have begun out on the margin of Abraham’s life and worked inward to the center; He chose rather to cut quickly to the heart and have it over in one sharp act of separation. In dealing thus He practiced an economy of means and time. It hurt cruelly, but it was effective.

I have said that Abraham possessed nothing. Yet was not this poor man rich? Everything he had owned before was still his to enjoy: sheep, camels, herds, and goods of every sort. He had also his wife and his friends, and best of all he had his son Isaac safe by his side. He had everything, but he POSSESSED nothing. There is the spiritual secret. There is the sweet theology of the heart which can be learned only in the school of renunciation. The books on systematic theology overlook this, but the wise will understand.

After that bitter and blessed experience I think the words ‘my and ‘mine’ never had again the same meaning for Abraham. The sense of possession which they connote was gone from his heart. Things had been cast out forever. They had now become external to the man. His inner heart was free from them. The world said, ‘Abraham is rich,’ but the aged patriarch only smiled. He could not explain it to them, but he knew that he owned nothing, that his real treasures were inward and eternal…

The Christian who is alive enough to know himself even slightly will recognize the symptoms of this possession malady, and will grieve to find them in his own heart. If the longing after God is strong enough within him he will want to do something about the matter. Now, what should he do?

First of all he should put away all defense and make no attempt to excuse himself either in his own eyes or before the Lord. Whoever defends himself will have himself for his defense, and he will have no other; but let him come defenseless before the Lord and he will have for his defender no less than God Himself. Let the inquiring Christian trample under foot every slippery trick of his deceitful heart and insist upon frank and open relations with the Lord.

Then he should remember that this is holy business. No careless or casual dealings will suffice. Let him come to God in full determination to be heard. Let him insist that God accept his all, that He take things out of his heart and Himself reign there in power. It may be he will need to become specific, to name things and people by their names one by one. If he will become drastic enough he can shorten the time of his travail from years to minutes and enter the good land long before his slower brethren who coddle their feelings and insist upon caution in their dealings with God.

Let us never forget that such a truth as this cannot be learned by rote as one would learn the facts of physical science. They must be experienced before we can really know them. We must in our hearts live through Abraham’s harsh and bitter experiences if we would know the blessedness which follows them. The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser within us will not lie down and die obedient to our command. He must be torn out of our heart like a plant from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw. He must be expelled from our soul by violence as Christ expelled the money changers from the temple. And we shall need to steel ourselves against his piteous begging, and to recognize it as springing out of self-pity, one of the most reprehensible sins of the human heart.

If we would indeed know God in growing intimacy we must go this way of renunciation. And if we are set upon the pursuit of God He will sooner or later bring us to this test. Abraham’s testing was, at the time, not known to him as such, yet if he had taken some course other than the one he did, the whole history of the Old Testament would have been different. God would have found His man, no doubt, but the loss to Abraham would have been tragic beyond the telling. So we will be brought one by one to the testing place, and we may never know when we are there. At that testing place there will be no dozen possible choices for us; just one and an alternative, but our whole future will be conditioned by the choice we make. (AWT)

Reading 2 – Psa 27:5

“For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock” (Psa 27:5).

And when he faced his greatest trouble, and the waves of death overflowed and engulfed him, then his prayer was truly answered. The Son of God was hidden in the special “shelter” hewn out of a rock (Mar 16:4,6), wherein man had never been laid (Joh 19:41). That special resting place became the secret “tabernacle” of God Himself, where His Son reclined upon a bed of rock (Song 2:14). And there he rested “until the day break, and the shadows flee away” (Song 2:17). “There is a place by me,” God told Moses, where “I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand” (Exo 33:21,22). Now a greater than Moses rested in the crevice of a rock, until the glory of his Father would pass before him.

Reading 3 – Mat 14:23,24,29

“After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it… Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus” (Mat 14:23,24,29).

“Life can present a picture of a dark and turbulent sea with Jesus afar off. It is the slow triumph of faith to see him on the heights above in communion and intercession with his Father. Sometimes he comes to us in the midst of the storms and darkness, in unfamiliar form which we must learn to recognize. We are quick to appreciate, if we are slow to learn, that when we walk over the waters to meet him, we must not be dismayed by the darkness, the wind or the waves; we must believe that his power is greater far; that he can save even unto the uttermost: that faith can only be sustained by keeping our eyes fixed lovingly and obediently upon him” (Melva Purkis, Life of Jesus 193).

Reading 1 – Gen 3:8,10

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Gen 3:8).

Attempts to hide sin from God will always be unsuccessful: Jer 23:24; Heb 4:13; Amo 9:2,3.

“[In sin] we resort to the trees of the garden — the affairs or amusements of the world, the forms and ceremonies of religion, or its wordy technicalities, or its fervors and passions, or its busy activities… whatever, in short, may serve to fill a certain space, and bulk to a certain size, as a barrier between God and the heart that shrinks from too direct an approach to him. And we soothe ourselves with the notion that this hedge… serves the same purpose on God’s side as on ours…” (Candlish).

*****

“He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid’ ” (v 10).

The legacy of Adam’s sin for all mankind was fear, more urgent, insidious, worse than death (which does not bother us for most of our lives). Fear fills our lives, our minds, warps our thoughts, weakens resolve, poisons relationships with others and with God, and hides us from the love and grace of our Lord. Fear aggravates disease and hastens death. Our habits, even our characters, are largely formed through fear. Some are aggressive, intolerant, talkative, arrogant, contemptuous of others, boastful, angry (as, for example, a mother’s angry welcome to a child she feared was lost). Some are reserved, shy, silent, polite out of fear. Religion is distorted by fear: of upsetting God or the sect, fear of divine disapproval and punishment in this life or the next, or of sectarian displeasure or excommunication. Some hate, some love from fear. We fear losing things — money, jobs, position, security, men’s goodwill or respect, friends, loved ones. Do we fear losing our place in the kingdom? Do we fear not being “good enough” for our Saviour? Are we afraid our treasures of good works are not yet sufficient to protect us from condemnation, as we are afraid we have not sufficient earthly treasure to protect us from want? Fear fills hospitals, mental homes, refugee camps. Fear is at the root of divisions, wars, oppression, terrorism. Either to bring relief from fear, or to instill fear in others.

We are even afraid openly to acknowledge fear. Stress, anxiety, worry, shyness, reserve, inferiority complex, lack of self-confidence, depression: all these may be manifestations of fear. A score of euphemisms for “I was afraid and I hid myself”… in addictions to drink or drugs or self-pity?… taken for temporary but useless relief.

The remedy? “Fear not!” A true and sincere and full faith in God and His promises is the only real antidote to fear. This comes from reading the Bible, and believing it.

Reading 2 – Psa 3; 4

“I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me” (Psa 3:5).

“Be not anxious for the morrow… your heavenly father knows that you have need” (Mat 6:32,34).

“He who did keep me waking

Has kept me still

Through the dark, silent night;

And now I thrill

To greet once more the light.

His power unseen, from sleep

Unlocked my eyes,

With strength afresh renewed;

And I arise

With song of gratitude.

Thus, if death’s night at length

Should darkly close,

And in my earthly bed, confined and deep,

I take repose,

Stiller, profounder sleep,

To know a yet more marvelous waking,

A fairer morn…

May I with gladness say

‘I slept, but wake new-born

To brighter day.’ “

(NP Holt)

******

“How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame [or ‘dishonor my Glorious One’]? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods [or ‘seek lies’]?” (Psa 4:2).

The glory of David’s selection as king led to the downfall of Saul and his house, for which David was unjustly blamed (2Sa 16:7,8). Also, in becoming king, David was put in the way of receiving closer scrutiny and thus greater chastisement for his own sins. His sins regarding Bathsheba and Uriah brought shame on him, and led directly to the revolt of Absalom. Israel is condemned for changing the “glory” of God into the shame of idolatry (Psa 106:20; Rom 1:23).

Likewise, Christ’s glory was turned to shame:

a procession of honor, in which Roman legionaries, Jewish priests, men and women, took a part, he himself bearing His cross; derisive shouts were his only acclamations, and cruel taunts His only hymns of praise; they presented him with the wine of honor — the criminal’s stupefying death-drink; a guard of honor, who showed their esteem for him by gambling over His garments; a “throne” of honor was provided for him upon the cross; and the title of honor was nominally “King of the Jews,” but this title was distinctly repudiated, and they really called him “King of thieves,” by freeing Barabbas, and by placing Jesus in the place of highest shame between two thieves.

His glory was thus in all things turned into shame by the sons of men, but such “shame” would yet be his true “glory”!

******

“Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself” (Psa 4:3).

“We shall never attain salvation without developing a godly mind. A godly mind does not come naturally. It comes only by great effort and dedication and desire. We could be ‘in the Truth’ one hundred years, and still not have a godly mind. A godly mind is full of God, all the time. And it is not just sentiment, though that is vitally important. It is godly knowledge, deep knowledge from His Word reverently studied and pondered, which is equally important. A godly mind lives in the atmosphere of God. It sees God everywhere. Every creature has its natural habitat — the surroundings where it is comfortable, and healthy, and happy. The natural habitat of the godly mind is God Himself: here only it is at home and at peace” (GV Growcott).

******

“You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound” (Psa 4:7).

The assurance of God’s protection brings greater joy to the righteous man than all manner of material bounty brings to the secular man! “It is better to feel God’s favor one hour in our repenting souls, than to sit whole ages under the warmest sunshine than this world affords.”

Reading 3 – Mat 3

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ Jesus replied, ‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then John consented” (Mat 3:13-15).

Why was Jesus baptized? The most obvious answer is the Scriptural one: in the words of Jesus himself, “to fulfill all righteousness”. This calls to mind Mat 5:17: “I am not come to destroy [the law], but to fulfill.” The work of Jesus, in all its aspects, was to fulfill, or complete, the righteousness of the law of Moses. The law of Moses was a “shadow” (Heb 10:1), pointing forward to the substance, the reality, which was Jesus. As Moses washed Aaron (Exo 30:20,21; 40:12), to sanctify and cleanse him for his work as a mediator, so John washed Jesus. If Aaron had entered the Most Holy without washing, he would have failed; if Jesus had offered himself as a sacrifice with no public baptism (signifying the denial of the flesh), he would likewise have failed. Although Jesus possessed the same nature as ours, he was absolutely without personal sin. The necessity of his baptism shows how far even sinful flesh alone separates man from God.

“He had no life of sin to leave behind in the waters of Jordan, but there he did bring to an end the home life of Nazareth, the quiet, peaceful years of preparation, and did accept as the ‘righteous will of God’ the storm and strain and sacrifice of the work which he had come to do” (Erdman).

Reading 1 – Exo 1; 2

“Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son” (Exo 2:1,2).

“Exo 1 had portrayed in graphic detail the suffering which Pharaoh had inflicted upon the Israelites. What would God do about it? Would He have mercy on the Hebrews and deliver them from their shame? And if so, how?

“Exo 2 begins to answer these questions, but apparently in a tangential manner. For God’s solution consists not in some phenomenal miracle or in the promotion of a mighty israelite leader who was already alive (either of which we might have expected, had we not already known the story). God’s solution consists instead in the birth of a son.

“This provides both a pattern for the future and a salutary lesson. One day God would again send a son — this time HIS OWN — to deliver a people from slavery. Again He would prepare the child from birth, bringing it safely from the womb and nourishing and developing it for the immense task that lay ahead. How does one begin to create a people, as God begins to do in the book of Exodus? One does it, so Exo informs us, by means of a son. How remarkably history repeats itself!” (Mark Vincent, Testimony 71:108,109).

*****

So now… almost 80 years later….

“During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them” (Exo 2:23-25).

“It is because the cry of the Israelites is so intense that the story continues to unfold in the way it does… they cry, and consequently (and immediately) God responds. It is a pattern which is repeated time after time in the Scriptures. The cry of Israel initiates history; God is galvanized into action. His people cry; God is mobilized into activity on their behalf. Not that He has not been working quietly in the background all along — far from it, for the instant they cry Moses is ready to be sent, yet this was a process that was set in motion many years before! But whereas God had been preparing behind the scenes so that everything would be ready once His people cried to Him, now that pivot point has been reached God springs into action. For He is a responsive God; what He does is determined to some extent by the actions of His people. If they cry to Him then He will listen, and potentially intervene on their behalf” (Mark Vincent, Testimony 71:239).

Reading 2 – Psa 55:22

“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall” (Psa 55:22).

Jesus himself did this: John 17:11; Psa 22:10; 37:5. 1Pe 5:7 quotes the LXX, as a sequel to “Humble yourself under God’s mighty hand.” Read with the emphasis: And he shall sustain YOU, as well as your burden.

CARES: “Burden” (AV). Notice that “burden” here (yahab) is “gift” in the margin: The “gift” of God to us is a life of cares and burdens, so that we might learn to trust in Him alone (v 23)! “Come unto me, all ye who (are)… heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat 11:28,29).

“Care, even though exercised upon legitimate objects, if carried to excess, has in it the nature of sin. The precept to avoid anxious care is earnestly inculcated by our Saviour, again and again; it is reiterated by the apostles; and it is one which cannot be neglected without involving transgression: for the very essence of anxious care is the imagining that we are wiser than God, and the thrusting ourselves into His place to do for Him that which He has undertaken to do for us. We attempt to think of that which we fancy He will forget; we labour to take upon ourselves our weary burden, as if He were unable or unwilling to take it for us. Now this disobedience to His plain precept, this unbelief in His Word, this presumption in intruding upon His province, is all sinful. Yet more than this, anxious care often leads to acts of sin. He who cannot calmly leave his affairs in God’s hand, but will carry his own burden, is very likely to be tempted to use wrong means to help himself. This sin leads to a forsaking of God as our counsellor, and resorting instead to human wisdom. This is going to the ‘broken cistern’ instead of to the ‘fountain;’ a sin which was laid against Israel of old (Jer 2:32). Anxiety makes us doubt God’s lovingkindness, and thus our love to Him grows cold; we feel mistrust, and thus grieve the Spirit of God, so that our prayers become hindered, our consistent example marred, and our life one of self-seeking. Thus want of confidence in God leads us to wander far from Him; but if through simple faith in His promise, we cast each burden as it comes upon Him, and are ‘careful for nothing’ because He undertakes to care for us, it will keep us close to Him, and strengthen us against much temptation. ‘Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee’ ” (GVG).

Reading 3 – Rom 8:29

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom 8:29).

We probably all have a pretty good idea what “predestination” is NOT. It is NOT “eternal security”; it is NOT “once saved, always saved”. But… the question here is: What DOES it mean? Consider the following:

FOREKNEW: From Greek “proginosko” = to know in advance. Cp 1Pe 1:18-20: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen (the same word: proginosko) before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” Note the Passover connection.

PREDESTINED: From Greek “proorizo” = to mark out, or set a limit (ie, horizon, where the sky stops) in advance. This is the blood of the Passover lamb, which marked out, or put a limit upon, the work of the Destroying Angel. Those who had faith sprinkled the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. In doing so they were marked out ahead of time (Exo 12), and were saved out of Egypt, while all around them others — the other “firstborns” (see this very verse for a “firstborn” connection!) perished (including the firstborn of Pharaoh: Rom 9:17)! There are other Passover connections with the immediate context here: Rom 8:32 (Gen 22: ram, offering), Rom 8:36 (Psa 44:22: sheep to be slaughtered).

The same word (proorizo) occurs in Eph 1:5,11 — where the righteous are “sealed” (separated for special use, marked out) in Eph 1:13. Also, the same word occurs in Acts 4:28 and 1Co 2:7.

Of course, the “proorizo” is the really interesting Greek word here. “Pro” = before, ahead of time. And “horizo” (like the English “horizon”) marks the point, or line, beyond which the sun cannot go, that is, the line of demarcation between earth and sky.

So, in Old Testament times, how did God “mark out”, ahead of time, an absolute line of differentiation between one group of people and another? One answer (maybe the best answer?) is at the first Passover in Egypt, when the blood of the Passover lamb — painted on the door posts and lintels of the houses of (some) Jews in Egypt — saved them from death when God sent His destroying angels out to kill all the firstborns.

Was this “predestination” done by God solely? Of course not. The Jews had to CHOOSE whether they would put the blood on their houses, AND whether they would remain in the house during the night. They had to act in faith upon the principles, and promises, which God had given them. If they did, then they were “predestined” (marked out beforehand) to be spared, to be saved, while all around them were perishing.

And, of course, they had to continue to remember God and His promises, and continue to keep the Passover, as a reminder of what God had done for them, and — presumably — as an act of faith in the greater “Passover lamb” to come, who would truly take away the sin of the world.

But it was still God’s “predestination” in the first place. ‘I have marked out a place where you will be safe from the death that will be visited upon the world. That place is one of absolute security. But… you need to go there, do what I say, and — above all — remain there! Otherwise, you will not be “marked out” for My Glory!’

Reading 1 – Gen 41

“Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah” (Gen 41:45), which signifies in Egyptian “supporter of life”, or “savior of the world”.

“When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph and do what he tells you’ ” (v 55).

The “king of this world” (Pharaoh) is approached by the poor and needy and hungry of this world, but he can do nothing to alleviate their suffering. So he sends them with a beseeching message to the “savior of the world” (Joseph). Only in him could man find deliverance.

Reading 2 – Psa 45:1

“My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer” (Psa 45:1).

Psalm 45 is a “miniature Song of Songs”. Both Scriptures describe the marriage of a great “king” to a special “bride”. The righteous King (vv 2,7), taken from among his fellows (v 7), but now elevated above all them to sit on God’s throne (v 6), celebrates a great marriage (vv 9-11). This is none other than “the marriage of the Lamb” (Rev 19:7-9), with his “Bride” who has been taken out of the Gentiles (vv 11,12)! This King is also a great High Priest (cp Isa 61:1,2,10: a “bridegroom who decketh himself as a priest”), for (as in the Song of Songs) he is described in imagery reminiscent of the temple and its services. It is because of the surpassing sacrifice which the great King-Priest has offered that his prospective Bride has been cleansed, and prepared for him (Eph 5:25-27, citing Song 4:7; cp Song 6:8,9).

MY HEART IS STIRRED BY A NOBLE THEME: “Stirred” is the Hebrew “rachash” = “to boil or bubble up” (AV mg), overflowing like a perennial, inexhaustible spring. This conveys an eager enthusiasm that cannot be restrained. “My heart overflows with a goodly theme” (RSV). “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Mat 12:34,35). The common Hebrew word for prophet (nabi) is from another root which also signifies “to bubble forth”. Surely here is a holy man of God speaking as he is moved by the Holy Spirit (2Pe 1:21).

MY VERSES: The AV translates “the things which I have made”, or “framed”, a word, and phrase, used frequently about the tapestry and other handiwork of the Tabernacle and the Temple. Our words and thoughts are veritable “temples” in which God is most truly enshrined and worshipped! The “temple” motif is very evident in this psalm, as in the holy anointing oil of the priests (v 8) and the needlework and wrought gold (vv 13,14). (Compare the almost inexhaustible Temple imagery of the Song of Songs — where both King and Bride are rapturously described in terms of temple worship.)

If our heart is stirred by these themes, then our “verses”, our words and actions, will be — like the curtains of the Temple — a beautiful piece of handiwork that speaks of the Glory of our God.

We should remember that, every day, we are “building” and “furnishing” and “decorating” a “temple” which brings praise to our Heavenly Father:

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1Co 6:19,20).

Reading 3 – Mat 27:29

“[They] twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ they said” (Mat 27:29).

“In making fun of the king of the Jews, they were [unknowingly] mocking, not Christ, but their own Caesar, and every Caesar, king or ruler than ever had been, or will be. They were making human power itself a subject of scorn. Thenceforth, for all to see, thorns sprouted under every golden crown, and underneath every royal robe there was stricken and smitten flesh” (M Muggeridge).

“The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes [worldly] success for its standard” (D Bonhoeffer).

From that time forward, every power and every pretension of foolish mankind would be ludicrous alongside the one true crown, the crown of thorns worn by Jesus. From that time forward, the only meaningful power would be that which originated in his suffering.

“Let the crown of thorns make those Christians blush who throw away so much time, pains, and money, in beautifying and adorning a sinful head. Let the world do what it will to render the royalty and mysteries of Christ contemptible, it is my glory to serve a King thus debased; my salvation, to adore that which the world despises; and my redemption, to go unto God through the merits of him who was crowned with thorns. Let us pay our adoration and humble ourselves in silence at the sight of a spectacle which faith alone renders credible, and which our senses would hardly endure. Jesus Christ, in this condition, preaches to the kings of the earth this truth — that their sceptres are but reeds, with which themselves shall be smitten, bruised, and crushed at his tribunal, if they do not use them here to the advancement of his kingdom” (Quesnel, cited by Adam Clarke).

Reading 1 – Gen 47:8-10

Genesis 47 brings into close proximity two figures, each striking in himself, but extraordinary when viewed alongside one another. There is the old man Jacob, burdened down by a lifetime of privations and sufferings and sorrows. And there is the young and eminently powerful “god-man” Pharaoh, lord of the earth. How will these two men — who have lived in totally different worlds — behave when they come face to face?

“Pharaoh asked him, ‘How old are you?’ And Jacob said to Pharaoh, ‘The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers’ ” (Gen 47:8,9).

“Spiritual riches, which can be ours even now, bring no conclusions of disgust or sadness, nor any fear of being robbed. They will not save us from the sorrows of human life, but they will help us to bear the pain. They do not arrest the process of decay in the dark streets of a Gentile city, but they give us hope of a better city to come. The patriarch Jacob illustrated the truth of the matter in the ‘few and evil days’ of his pilgrimage, He was not cast in heroic mould as a warrior or a king to be admired of men. He was ‘a plain man dwelling in tents’, without much animal courage or worldly skill. His virtue was the only one that will count in final issues. He had faith in God and tried to serve Him. All temporal blessings brought him sorrow. The good parents from whom he had to part, the riches which aroused jealousy of kinsmen, the wife who was taken from him, the daughter who brought shame, the wicked sons who caused him such grief, and the virtuous one who unwittingly brought the most pain of all. When he saw Joseph again, now honoured and powerful, his eyes were growing dim with age — and the time for another parting was near. It seemed almost that with the end of bitter trials came the end of life.

“Yet although Jacob perhaps had to endure more pain than ever came to his worldly brother, he was upheld by a spiritual blessing which brought no reaction of evil. He was sustained through all his life by the consciousness of divine control. Even in the time of final parting there was hope, well grounded and sure. He is among the few who are mentioned by name as certain to be in the Kingdom of God.

“Such spiritual blessing may be ours, bringing no addition of sorrow (Pro 10:22), but helping us to bear the evils which are our natural inheritance. It is a comfort to know that God has matters in hand, and the contemplation of the coming Kingdom would be some consolation even apart from the hope of personal participation. Some permanent good will come out of temporary evil, some of our fellow creatures will be chosen and redeemed from among men, and the purpose of God will be accomplished. This thought is a consolation” (Islip Collyer, Principles and Proverbs 192,193).

*****

“Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence” (v 10).

The elder patriarch blessed the younger ruler, not the other way around: “Without contradiction the lesser is blessed by the greater” (Heb 7:7). With the gravity of old age, the quiet faith of a true believer, and the authority of a patriarch and a prophet, Jacob besought the Lord to bestow a blessing upon Pharaoh. He acted as a man not ashamed of his faith; and one who would express gratitude to the benefactor of himself and his family.

Reading 2 – Psa 50:8-15

“I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me” (Psa 50:8-15).

In these verses, God is not rejecting sacrifices as such. What is being rejected is the way in which Israel in its self-appointed sanctuaries went on blithely offering sacrifices (“Your burnt offerings are continually before me”: v 8, RSV), while being in spirit completely estranged from the God of Zion. None of these sacrifices were worth anything in terms of real devotion; did not all these animals belong to Yahweh in the first place? (See the related exhortations in Psa 51:16,17; Pro 21:3; Mic 6:6-8; Isa 1:11-13; Jer 6:20; 7:22,23; 1Sa 15:22.)

God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (Joh 4:24). Services of a mechanical sort, as to outward form (whether it be Mosaic ritual and offering — or Sunday School, memorial meeting, and daily readings) will avail nothing, and are in fact abominations, if not accompanied by sincere devotion of the heart.

Reading 3 – Rom 3:9,10

“What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’ ” (Rom 3:9,10).

“Our guilt is great because our sins are exceedingly numerous. It is not merely outward acts of unkindness and dishonesty with which we are chargeable. Our habitual and characteristic state of mind is evil in the sight of God.

“Our pride and indifference to His will and to the welfare of others and our loving the creature more than the Creator are continuous violations of His holy law. We have never been or done what that law requires us to be and to do. We have never had delight in that fixed purpose to do the will and promote the glory of God. We are always sinners; we are at all times and under all circumstances in opposition to God.

“If we have never loved Him supremely, if we have never made it our purpose to do His will, if we have never made His glory the end of our actions, then our lives have been an unbroken series of transgressions. Our sins are not to be numbered by the conscious violations of duty; they are as numerous as the moments of our existence” (Charles Hodge).

Reading 1 – Gen 37

“Joseph was innocent and excellent, but Joseph was young and untried, and God had a great purpose with him that required that he should be matured and perfected in character as men only can be perfected — in the school of adversity. Joseph had to be fitted for exaltation and the exercise of power, and therefore Joseph had to suffer for Joseph’s own good and for the bringing about of a great result to the whole house of Israel. Joseph was allowed to become the object of his brethren’s successful hatred. Therefore, if sympathy sheds a tear, the understanding admires, while Joseph is bound by unfeeling brethren, and in spite of his frantic entreaties, lowered into a pit where death appears inevitable, both in his own estimation and that of his brothers. No greater evil short of death could befall a human being than that which thus came to Joseph. A spectator on the spot would have said it was evil in which it was not possible to imagine any good purpose. There was no explanation of it. Joseph was not permitted the know the meaning. He could not have understood if told. It would have frustrated the object for him to know. Let us recollect this when in any matter similarly situated. Circumstances may be dark; calamity unmixed; the situation such that enemies may say, ‘There is no help for him in God’; yet God may be at the bottom of all the trouble for purposes of goodness which the future alone will reveal. The only policy is, in all circumstances, to commit ourselves to the keeping of our Creator in faith and well-doing: ‘Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday’ ” (Robert Roberts, “Ways of Providence” 87).

Reading 2 – Psa 40:8

“I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” (Psa 40:8).

This psalm is quoted in Heb 10 about the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who did the will of God… perfectly — and thus essentially fulfilled all the shadows and prophecies and sacrifices and expectations of the Old Testament.

The very words of Psa 40:8 are quoted by Paul in Rom 7:22, and echoed in idea by Jesus himself in Joh 4:34: “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”

YOUR LAW IS WITHIN MY HEART: The Hebrew is “my bowels”, emphasizing either that the law of God has been eagerly devoured (Eze 3:3; Rev 10:9; cp Joh 4:34), or else that the teaching of God’s law has captured his emotions. The Septuagint reads “heart” (ie, mind, of course), as in v 10. This prepares the way for Heb 10:16: In the New Covenant, men are made like Jesus, the one who makes the New Covenant possible, by having his law put into their hearts (Jer 31:33).

To what extent was this really true of Jesus, that God’s law was within his heart? In him was certainly the true and perfect realization of the law of Deu 17:18-20, commanding the king of Israel to write his own copy of the law. The ones who observed this law could probably be counted on the fingers of one hand (perhaps David, Hezekiah, Josiah?), but no doubt Jesus fulfilled this law in the best possible way. It is reasonable to infer that at some time during the days of his flesh (perhaps in the hidden years, from twelve to thirty: Luk 2:47) Jesus wrote out his own copy of the law, and probably memorized it as well! Everything about the spontaneous suitability of all he had to say in his handling of the Word of God suggests this. And so for Jesus the law was written not upon cold tables of stone or upon perishable parchments, but in the warm and living table of the human heart (Deu 6:6; Pro 3:3; 7:3; 2Co 3:3). Written there, it colored and affected every aspect of his life, and — through him — that same law touches the hearts of all of us!

Reading 3 – Mat 24:7

“There will be… earthquakes in various places” (Mat 24:7).

The May 1984 National Geographic shows through color photos and drawings the swift and terrible destruction that wiped out the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in AD 79. The explosion of Mount Vesuvius was so sudden, the residents were killed while in their routine: men and women were at the market, the rich in their luxurious baths, slaves at toil. They died amid volcanic ash and superheated gases. Even family pets suffered the same quick and final fate. It takes little imagination to picture the panic of that terrible day. The saddest part is that these people did not have to die.

Scientists confirm what ancient Roman writers record — weeks of rumblings and shakings preceded the actual explosion. Even an ominous plume of smoke was clearly visible from the mountain days before the eruption. If only they had been able to read and respond to Vesuvius’s warning!

There are similar “rumblings” in our world: warfare, earthquakes, the nuclear threat, economic woes, breakdown of the family and moral standards. While not exactly new, these things do point to a coming Day of Judgment. People need not be caught unprepared. God warns and provides an escape to those who will heed the rumblings.

Reading 1 – Gen 31

“Jacob found himself being treated with the duplicity that he manifested in the matter of the family blessing granted by Isaac (Gen 27). A family council was held in the home of Laban, Jacob’s father in law. There had come a change in the heart of Laban towards Jacob, and jealousy in his sons brought about a crisis in the life of Jacob. There was a rising hostility toward him, and Jacob realised that as he had fled from the home of his family in Canaan, now he would have to flee from the home of his wives in Haran.

“As father, Laban had ignored his true responsibilities to his daughters. They gave expression to the mercenary meanness of their father (v 15), which rankled long in their minds, and had destroyed any love they once had for him. Family life is best when based upon the Word and Purpose of Yahweh. Yahweh presided over the whole scene between Laban (the man of sin) and Jacob (the man of faith), and ultimately delivered the man of faith, so that Jacob and his family could leave to journey home to the Land of Promise” (GE Mansfield).

Reading 2 – Psa 35:9

“Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD and delight in his salvation” (Psa 35:9).

“Let it not be thought that the course of wisdom is a joyless burden. Rather, it is the course of the only true joy and freedom from burden. We have seen full-grown, mentally-retarded adults sitting on the floor grinning and slobbering and playing with baby toys. It is a terribly sad and saddening spectacle: a potentially noble and intelligent creature, created in God’s image, never developing beyond uncomprehending infancy. Compared to the beauty that might be, this is the spiritual state that might be of all of natural mankind. And merely passing an elementary examination and being baptized does not automatically change it, though such can and should be a tremendous first step in the direction of growth and maturity and nobility and beauty. But it is only a first step. Continuous development must follow” (GV Growcott).

Reading 3 – Mat 20:16

“So the last will be first, and the first last” (Mat 20:16),

“Do not take your salvation for granted… At our baptism, we do not step onto a smooth, effortless moving sidewalk that will automatically carry us comfortably into the Kingdom, though many act as though they assume this is so. Rather we stand at the foot of a steep and rugged hill, and there is no ski-lift. That hill is our probation: the ‘working out of our salvation with fear and trembling.’ God knows the height and degree of difficulty of our hill, and He knows the lifespan before us that He has given us to climb it. We shall need ALL that time, and all the available help He has provided and promised in so many ways. How long is it since your baptism? How far up the hill of God have you faithfully climbed? There are tempting but fatal relaxing places along the way, among them that deceptive worldly conceit called ‘retirement.’ Are you in one of them? The day draws on, and the top is still above you” (GV Growcott).