From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening...
Isaiah 54:11
And lay thy foundations with sapphires.
Not only that which is seen of the church of God, but that which is unseen,
is fair and precious. Foundations are out of sight, and so long as they are
firm it is not expected that they should be valuable; but in Jehovah's work
everything is of a piece, nothing slurred, nothing mean. The deep foundations
of the work of grace are as sapphires for preciousness, no human mind is able
to measure their glory. We build upon the covenant of grace, which is firmer
than adamant, and as enduring as jewels upon which age spends itself in vain.
Sapphire foundations are eternal, and the covenant abides throughout the
lifetime of the Almighty. Another foundation is the person of the Lord Jesus,
which is clear and spotless, everlasting and beautiful as the sapphire;
blending in one the deep blue of earth's ever rolling ocean and the azure of
its all embracing sky. Once might our Lord have been likened to the ruby as He
stood covered with His own blood, but now we! see Him radiant with the soft
blue of love, love abounding, deep, eternal. Our eternal hopes are built upon
the justice and the faithfulness of God, which are clear and cloudless as the
sapphire. We are not saved by a compromise, by mercy defeating justice, or law
suspending its operations; no, we defy the eagle's eye to detect a flaw in the
groundwork of our confidence-our foundation is of sapphire, and will endure the
fire. The Lord Himself has laid the foundation of His people's hopes. It is
matter for grave enquiry whether our hopes are built upon such a basis. Good
works and ceremonies are not a foundation of sapphires, but of wood, hay, and
stubble; neither are they laid by God, but by our own conceit. Foundations will
all be tried ere long: woe unto him whose lofty tower shall come down with a
crash, because based on a quicksand. He who is built on sapphires may await
storm or fire with equanimity, for he shall abide the test.
Matthew 5:38-39
(38) Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth: (39) But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Some may have taken the Old Testament guideline (see Exodus 21:23-25) in
a literal fashion. At first glance, it seems that, if a person's tooth or eye
were lost in a scuffle or accident, the one who caused the loss to happen would
be required to forfeit his own tooth or eye. Though some may have demanded this
in times past, it is clearly not God's intent for the law. Instead, it is a
principle, given in concrete, understandable terms, that damage is to be justly
compensated.
According to commentator Adam Clarke, the Jews of Christ's day abused
this law to extract every last penny from another, and in the majority of
cases, there was no mercy shown. Human nature being what it was then, and still
is now, they insisted that the one who caused the problem receive every bit of
punishment coming to him. In short, they wanted and exacted revenge! Jesus
wants us to understand that His disciples are not to act this way.
In countering the faulty understanding of this Old Testament law, Jesus
teaches, "But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on
your right cheek, turn the other to him also" ( Matthew 5:39). He begins by
instructing us not to escalate the situation by stubborn resistance or, worse
still, by perpetrating an additional offense. Elsewhere, Paul writes, "Repay no
one evil for evil" ( Romans 12:17). If offended, do not offend in return. If
injured, do not inflict an injury in payment. In other words, retaliation is
not the answer.
Note that Jesus is not speaking of dangerous situations, like facing a
robber with murderous intent or a rapist on a dark street. On His mind are
circumstances of daily life that are insulting, bothersome, or even mildly
injurious, but not life-threatening. The Interpreter's Bible comments on the
latter half of the verse: "A blow with the back of the hand to the right cheek
was an insult, thus the palm of the hand was now poised to bring a blow to the
left cheek." The blow is struck contemptuously rather than homicidally.
In a situation like this, the first thing that comes to most minds is
revenge. Jesus desires that, rather than avenging oneself and acting with the
same attitude of hatred as the aggressor, we reflect our calling and suppress
the urge to seek vengeance. We should even be willing to take a second slap,
this one from the other's open hand, without retaliation. Such pacifism usually
pours cold water on the situation, avoiding further tit-for-tat retribution.
John O. Reid
From Go the Extra Mile
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daily devotional
Evening...
Isaiah 48:8
Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine
ear was not opened.
It is painful to remember that, in a certain degree, this accusation may be
laid at the door of believers, who too often are in a measure spiritually
insensible. We may well bewail ourselves that we do not hear the voice of God
as we ought, "Yea, thou heardest not." There are gentle motions of the Holy
Spirit in the soul which are unheeded by us: there are whisperings of divine
command and of heavenly love which are alike unobserved by our leaden
intellects. Alas! we have been carelessly ignorant-"Yea, thou knewest not."
There are matters within which we ought to have seen, corruptions which have
made headway unnoticed; sweet affections which are being blighted like flowers
in the frost, untended by us; glimpses of the divine face which might be
perceived if we did not wall up the windows of our soul. But we "have not
known." As we think of it we are humbled in the deepest self-abasement. How
must we adore the grace of God as we learn from the context that all this folly
and ignorance, on our part, was foreknown by God, and, notwithstanding that
foreknowledge, He yet has been pleased to deal with us in a way of mercy!
Admire the marvellous sovereign grace which could have chosen us in the sight
of all this! Wonder at the price that was paid for us when Christ knew what we
should be! He who hung upon the cross foresaw us as unbelieving, backsliding,
cold of heart, indifferent, careless, lax in prayer, and yet He said, "I am the
Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour . . . Since thou wast
precious in My sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee:
therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life"! O redemption, how
wondrously resplendent dost thou shine when we think how black we are! O Holy
Spirit, give us henceforth the hearing ear, the understanding heart!
Jeremiah 17:9
(9) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who
can know it?
Human nature will try to reassert its dominance in a converted person's
life. The word that is translated from Hebrew into the English word "deceitful"
means "tortuous, twisted, convoluted." That is the way human nature
is—tortuous, twisted, and convoluted in its thinking and reasoning. He is
referring to the kind of justifications or rationalizations that it will make
to convince a person that it is okay to sin, not to pay attention to the law of
God, to say to the self, "It really does not matter. I am only one person."
Note this frank quote from Aldus Huxley, which appears in his book Ends
And Means (p. 270):
I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently
assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find
gratifying reasons for this assumption.
Convoluted, tortuous, twisted. Looking for rationalizations and
justifications. Continuing on page 273:
Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't
want to know. It is our will that decides how and upon what subjects we shall
use our intelligence. . . . Those who detect no meaning in the world generally
do so because for one reason or another it suits their books that the world
should be meaningless. . . . We objected to the morality because it interfered
with our sexual freedom.
This is how human nature works—the heart twists the truth of God and
deceives itself into thinking that, "Well, let us make the assumption that the
world and life have no meaning, therefore we can do what we want to do." This
is from a highly intelligent human being.
We know that for us to acknowledge and yield to truth will be personally
costly, and we often do not want to pay the price, so we allow ourselves to be
deceived into thinking it really does not matter if we yield to the wrong thing
this time. We will fight the battle the next time it comes up.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Sin of Self-Deception
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