A Daily Devotional

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The Great Divider


“Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division” (Luke 12:51).

From the very beginning, God has been a great divider. On the first day of creation, “God divided the light from the darkness,” and on the second day, He “divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament” (Genesis 1:4,7). When God first created man, they walked together in sweet fellowship, but then sin came in and made a great division between man and God. Nevertheless, “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10).

The price has been paid for full reconciliation with our Creator, but “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19), so Christ, Himself, is now the one who divides. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

Jesus Christ divides all history and all chronology. Things either happened “Before Christ” (B.C.) or “in the Year of our Lord” (A.D.). Men are either under the Old Covenant or the New Covenant. Most of all, He divides humanity. “There was a division among the people because of Him” (John 7:43; see also John 9:16; 10:19). These divisions, because of Him, can cut very deep. “The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother” (Luke 12:53).

Finally, when He comes to judge all nations, “He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: . . . and these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matthew 25:32,46). The division is life or death, light or darkness, heaven or hell, Christ or anti-Christ—and the choice is ours!

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To End All Wars


“And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4).

It has been almost seventy years since “The War to End All Wars” ended in victory for those who had “fought to make the world safe for democracy.” A celebration of thanksgiving followed, and a holiday was established to commemorate that great Armistice Day (now Veteran’s Day).

However, an even greater war soon followed, only to be repeated by innumerable local wars and revolutions. Instead of a world of liberty and democracy, most of the world’s nations are now under the brutal heel of totalitarian dictatorships. With the threat of potential nuclear obliteration hanging over the world, the prophecy of Christ is being literally fulfilled: “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” (Luke 21:26).

In the twenty-five centuries since our text was first uttered, there has been a war going on somewhere in the world at least eleven out of every twelve years, and it certainly seems unlikely that such a promise will ever be fulfilled.

Yet it is God who has promised, and only He can accomplish it. “He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people.” “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, . . . The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:7). When the Lord Jesus Christ comes again, “He shall speak peace unto the (nations): and His dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth” (Zechariah 9:10). Finally, world peace will come, and Christ “shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

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The Wolf And Lamb Together


“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6).

This scene seems impossible; could it be merely an allegory? But that isn’t all. “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the L SIZE="-1">ORD” (Isaiah 65:25).

Whether this will all come to pass literally (and there is nothing in the context to cause us to question it), it definitely describes what God considers the ideal state of nature. In fact, in the original creation, all animals were herbivorous. “And God said, Behold, . . . to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so” (Genesis 1:29,30).

With man’s fall into sin and God’s resulting curse on the earth, this ideal state deteriorated. Teeth and claws, originally designed for digging roots and branches, began to be used for tearing and eating flesh. Even man was authorized by God to eat meat after the Flood (Genesis 9:3). It is still true, however, that both men and animals still can survive on a non-carnivorous diet when necessary, for this was designed initially as the best way, all of which leads to the certain conclusion that God did not allow any such reign of tooth and claw on the earth before man sinned. The contention of those who promote the idea of long geological ages, with billions of animals suffering and dying during those ages, charges our God of wisdom and mercy with gratuitous cruelty. In a world made by a loving God, there could have been no death in the world until man brought sin into the world (Romans 5:12).

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Spiking Your Behavior


“And the people said unto Joshua, The L SIZE="-1">ORD our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey” (Joshua 24:24).

Shortly before his death, Joshua called all the tribes to Shechem, where he challenged them to choose between their God and the gods which their fathers had served in Egypt and Mesopotamia (v.14). It was a scene of great moment, for the era of conquest was closing and the period of settlement was beginning. It was an important time in the history of Israel, when goals and priorities were being set. Joshua knew that he soon would be gone, and he could see problems ahead.

Joshua developed the basis for why the people should serve the Lord God. He reminded them of God’s provision and faithfulness through the recent exodus and their wilderness experience and conquest, as well as the establishment of their nation, but he also knew that the people were fickle and easily led astray. However, three times they vowed: “God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods” (v.16), and “Nay; but we will serve the LORD” (v.21), and as above in our text.

Upon this profession of commitment to the L SIZE="-1">ORD Joshua made a covenant, set them a statute, and made an ordinance. Then he wrote the agreement in the Book of the Law, set up a stone as a witness to the agreement, and rehearsed that to which they had agreed—“lest (they) deny (their) God” (v.27).

What a solid way of settling an issue; and we can profit from this model: Make sure you understand why you should serve God on any matter of importance that has been wavering; Write the decision down—date it and sign it; Put up a mark of remembrance somewhere in your daily path (a stake, or spike, or something visible); Rehearse, verbally and frequently, what you agreed to “lest ye deny your God.”

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To The Looking Glass


“For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:23–25).

The Word of God is not a magic mirror, but if we seek real truths concerning ourselves, the Biblical looking glass can bring great blessing. He who reads or hears the Word, but does not believe or obey it, is “a forgetful hearer” (James 1:25) who is deceiving himself. It is these who merely “behold” themselves in the Word. The Greek word used here for “beholding” and “beholdeth” means “looking from a distance”—standing erect, as it were, while posing before the mirror. The man who “looketh into” the Word, on the other hand, “and continueth therein,” being an obedient doer of its work, is the one who receives eternal blessing. The Greek word here for “looketh” conveys the idea of intense scrutiny, requiring the one who is looking actually to stoop down in order to see. In fact, it is often translated “stoop down.”

As we allow the mirror of God’s Word to evaluate and correct our lives, “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Corinthians 3:18).

Yet this is only a token of what we can experience in the future. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (I Corinthians 13:12). Now we can see ourselves in the written Word. When we see the living Word, “we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3:2).

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Recycled Dust


“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:29,30).

All who have ever lived, and whose bodies now are in graves, will one day hear the voice of the Son of man and they “shall come forth.”

Many have visited museums and have seen mummified remains of once living bodies, and can hardly imagine such remains coming to life. Others contemplate cremation, and wonder how burned and dispersed dust particles could ever be resurrected. Jesus, however, is no ordinary person. He spoke before a tomb, and Lazarus came forth (John 11:39–43). He told Peter to let down his nets, and fish gathered into them (Luke 5:4–6). Jesus “laid the foundations of the earth; and the heavens are the works of (His) hands” (Hebrews 1:10).

He, the “shepherd” of Isaiah 40:11, is also the one in the next verse who “hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.” “The nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance” to him.

Recycling human dust, therefore, is easily accomplished by Jesus. The greater work was hanging on a cross for sinners and making reconciliation with God possible. It somehow involved the temporary severing of Trinitarian bonds (Matthew 27:46)—something of cosmic significance, but also a mystery beyond our weak comprehension.

We do not have to fully understand it, however, to entrust our beings to the saving care of his shepherding arms (Isaiah 40:11).

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Milk Or Meat


“For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the Word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:13,14).

The Scriptures are compared in these verses to our daily food—milk and meat. Milk is the necessary food for babies (I Peter 2:2), but it becomes grotesque when a baby continues year after year as a baby, still incapable of partaking of anything but milk. This was the case with the Corinthian Christians, who were, according to Paul, “babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it” (I Corinthians 3:1,2). It was also true for these Hebrew Christians: “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again . . . the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat” (Hebrews 5:12).

Sad to say, this is still the situation with most Christian people today, even in Bible-believing churches. This is indicated not only by the many carnal divisions between them (I Corinthians 3:3), but even more by the frothy nature of the Christian materials they read, almost always centered on introspective personal relationships rather than on the person of Christ, the deeper truths of Scripture, and the great purposes of God. The time spent in personal Bible study is minimal, and even most sermons repeatedly serve up milk for Christian babes rather than strong meat for spiritually healthy Christians “of full age” whose “senses” have already been strengthened by use to recognize the true and the false, the good and the evil. How urgently we need to heed the last words of the Apostle Peter, just before his martyrdom: “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18).

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More And More

“Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more” (I Thessalonians 4:1).

Exhortation to walk with God is a constant reminder of Paul to his disciples. Evidently Adam and Eve had the distinct pleasure of “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3: with God before they rebelled. On this side of the curse our walk with God starts with newness of life, as it says in Romans 6:4: “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” That walk is sustained by the Spirit. “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). It is ever alert to the pitfalls of life. “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise” (Ephesians 5:15).

Pleasing God is a blessing given us by God. “But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts” (I Thessalonians 2:4). Our focus of service is easily led to please men, whom we see; not God, whom we don’t see. The act of pleasing God has had fantastic results in the past, for recall that “by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5). Pleasing God can be as simple as doing good. “But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:16).

“But the path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18).

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Songs In The Night

“Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the L SIZE="-1">ORD will command His loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life” (Psalm 42:7,8).

There are times in the life of a believer when he seems about to sink under great avalanches of trouble and sorrow. But then “I call to remembrance my song in the night” (Psalm 77:6), and God answers once again. In the book of Psalms, the theme of conflict and suffering is prominent, but there is always also the note of hope and ultimate triumph.

The very first psalm, for example, notes the conflict of the righteous with the ungodly, but promises that “the way of the ungodly shall perish” (v.6). The second psalm foretells the final rebellion of the heathen against God and His anointed, but assures us that God will “vex them in His sore displeasure” (vs.2,5). In Psalm 3, the believer says: “Many are they that rise up against me.” But then he remembers that “salvation belongeth unto the LORD” (vs.1,8). He cries in the 4th psalm: “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer” (v.1).

In Psalm 5, immediately after the first imprecation in the psalms (“Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions”), occurs the first specific mention of singing in the book of psalms: “Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice; let them ever shout (literally ‘sing’) for joy, because thou defendest them” (vs.10,11).

The Lord Jesus and His disciples sang a psalm, even as they went out into the night of His betrayal and condemnation (Mark 14:26). This is His gracious promise: “Ye shall have a song, as in the night. . . . And the LORD shall cause His glorious voice to be heard” (Isaiah 30:29,30).

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Meditation

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:.

This well-known verse contains the first use of the Hebrew verb for “meditate” (hagah) in the Bible and, significantly, it is a command to meditate on the Scriptures. Such meditation is not mere quietness or daydreaming, but is thoughtfulness with a purpose—to obey “all that is written therein.”

Meditation for its own sake, without being centered on God’s Word, is often useless or even harmful. Witness the Western proliferation of Eastern “meditation cults” (T.M., etc.) in recent years, which lead their devotees into pantheism and occultism. Isaiah 8:19 warns against “wizards that peep, and that mutter [same word as ‘meditate’].” “Why do . . . the people imagine [same word] a vain thing?” (Psalm 2:1).

The blessed man is the one whose “delight is in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2). That is, only if we are continually guided by the Holy Scriptures will we be happy and successful.

In the New Testament, the Greek word for “meditate” (melatao) is used only twice. Once, it is translated “imagine” (Acts 4:25) and is in a quotation of Psalm 2:1, as above. The last time it is used, however, its emphasis reverts back to the context of its first usage, as in our text above. Paul commands us: “Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. . . . Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all” (I Timothy 4:13,15). Modern meditationists say that the goal of meditation is to clear our minds of “things,” but God wants us to meditate on “these things”—the life-giving, life-directing doctrines of His Word.

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The Remarkable Burial Of Jesus

“Joseph of Arimathaea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus” (Mark 15:43).

The account of the burial of Jesus by two members of the Sanhedrin, Joseph and Nicodemus, is one of the most mysteriously fascinating records in the Bible. Joseph was “a rich man of Arimathaea” (not Jerusalem), so how did he happen to have available “his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock” (Matthew 27:57,60) to receive the body of Jesus? Why would he labor so to prepare his own tomb within sight and sound of Calvary, where the ugly crucifixion of criminals was such a frequent occurrence? He had even planted a garden there! And how could the elderly Nicodemus immediately carry “a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight” (John 19:39) to meet Joseph who had also bought fine linen with which to bury Him? Joseph had gone to Pilate so soon after his death that “Pilate marvelled if he were already dead” (Mark 15:44).

It seems the only plausible answer to such questions is to assume that these two secret disciples of the Lord had planned far ahead of time to perform this special ministry. Somehow, they knew He must be crucified, so they prepared the tomb and the burial materials in advance. When He was arrested and condemned, they waited in the tomb until He died, then immediately went into action. Once He died, unbelieving eyes never saw Him again, nor did unbelieving hands ever touch Him. The two friends gave Him an honorable burial, and then are never mentioned again.

Somehow they must have known they were ordained by God to fulfill the 700-year-old prophecy of Isaiah 53:9. “And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death.” They did what they could for their Savior.

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Looking Or Looked At?

“Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).

The “hypocrites” of Matthew 6, although they had set themselves up as the religious leaders of the Jews, were motivated solely by a desire to appear religious before others. Jesus repeatedly condemned them in passages such as “all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries . . . and love the uppermost rooms at feasts . . . and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi” (Matthew 23:5–7). “They love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men” (Matthew 6:5). John the Baptist called the Pharisees and the Sadducees a “generation of vipers” (Matthew 3:7) and Jesus said they appeared “beautiful outward,” but were “within full of dead men’s bones” (Matthew 23:27). In their prideful concern to appear righteous, they neglected to look to the Righteous One in their midst whom the God they claimed to represent had provided that they “might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).

It is far more necessary to look “unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2) than to worry about being looked at by others. This is not to say we do not care about others. The Christian’s outward, selfless look at the needs of others includes the “look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal” (John 4:35,36).

The scribes and Pharisees had their reward, for they were seen of men, but the reward of the laborer in the soul harvest awaits him in eternity, when the One he has looked to says, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

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The God Who Provides

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:13).

God’s provisions for the believer include far more than physical necessities. These are indicated by seven beautiful titles ascribed to Him in the New Testament: The God of love: First of all, we need love, and “God is love” (I John 4:. Then “the fruit of the Spirit is love” in our lives (Galatians 5:22) because He Himself is “the God of love and peace” (II Corinthians 13:11). The God of all grace: God saves us by His grace, and then we need to “grow in grace” (II Peter 3:18). This we can do because “the God of all grace . . . hath called us unto His eternal glory” (I Peter 5:10). The God of peace: He satisfies the need for peace of soul in the believer’s life and He is called “the God of peace” five times in the New Testament (Romans 15:33; 16:20; Philippians 4:9; I Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 13:20). The God of all comfort: Our God is called “the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort,” because He “comforteth us in all our tribulation,” thus enabling us also to provide comfort to others “by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (II Corinthians 1:3,4). The God of patience: We do “have need of patience” (Hebrews 10:36), and this need also is supplied by “the God of patience and consolation” (Romans 15:5). The God of glory: It was “the God of glory” who first called Abraham (Acts 7:2), and through the Word, we also “are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Corinthians 3:18). The God of hope: By His Spirit, He fills us with joy and peace, with power, and abundant hope—blessing us “with all spiritual blessings . . . in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).

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The Day Of Visitation

“Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” (I Peter 2:12).

This unique expression, “in the day of visitation,” based on a surprising use of the Greek word episkope, occurs one other time in such a way, when Christ wept over Jerusalem, and pronounced its coming judgment. “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. . . . Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:42,44).

Now this word, episkope, and its derivatives, are usually translated as “bishop,” “office of a bishop,” or “bishopric,” and it seems strange at first that it could also mean “visitation.” However, its basic meaning is “overseer,” or “oversight,” and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is really the “Shepherd and Bishop of (our) souls” (I Peter 2:25), as well as that of nations and, indeed, every aspect of every life.

As a bishop or pastor (“shepherd”) is responsible for the “oversight” of his local church, or flock, so Christ is “that great shepherd of the sheep,” the true “bishop of our souls,” the overseer of all people in every age and nation. In His great plan of the ages, the Jews, and then the Gentiles, each have been entrusted with a time of “visitation,” or “oversight,” of God’s witness to the world. Sadly, the Jews “knew not the time of (their) visitation” (Luke 19:44) and, as for Judas, the Lord had to say “(their) bishopric let another take” (Acts 1:20).

Now, in God’s providence, it is the time of Gentile oversight, and it is eternally important that we who know His salvation today glorify God by our good works, with our “conversation (i.e., lifestyle), honest among the Gentiles,” in our own “day of visitation.”

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The Everlasting Covenant

“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Hebrews 13:20).

This is the only verse in the book of Hebrews that refers specifically to Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It occurs at the climactic conclusion of the book, which had previously referred at least 17 times to the atoning death of Christ, and is associated with God’s everlasting covenant with His people.

The covenant theme is strong in the book of Hebrews. The Greek word (diatheke), which is also frequently translated “testament,” occurs more in Hebrews than in all the rest of the New Testament (or “New Covenant”) put together. The word basically means a contract, especially one for disposition of an inheritance.

A number of God’s divine covenants are mentioned in Scripture, but the writer of Hebrews is especially concerned with God’s new covenant (or “new testament”). It is surely the most significant of all covenants.

This new covenant is also called “a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22; 8:6). It is best defined in Hebrews 8:10,12, quoting Jeremiah 31:33: “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: . . . and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Christ is “the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15).

The inheritance is eternal because the covenant is everlasting. The blood of the covenant is the infinitely precious blood of Christ, whom God has raised from the dead, and now “He ever liveth to make intercession” for all those who “come unto God by Him” (Hebrews 7:25).