DECEMBER 28, 2023

“If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall intreat for him? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the LORD would slay them.” (I Samuel 2:25)

I Samuel 2:22-26 describes Eli’s rebuke of his sons Hophni and Phinehas for the abuse of their power as priests over Israel. The news of their corruption is spreading everywhere. Eli asks who will intercede for them when they sin directly against the Lord. Still, they refuse to repent because the Lord has already marked them for death. Meanwhile, Samuel continues to grow in favor with the Lord and others.

Eli is hoping his sons will understand the seriousness of their sinful actions. He hopes to see sorrow and a change of heart in his boys. He wants them to understand they could be facing dire consequences from the Lord for abusing their role as priests of Israel.

He reiterates to Hophni and Phinehas what they should know better than anyone: if someone sins against another person, the Lord will step in and mediate between them. The Law of Moses included provisions from God meant to protect those who had harmed another and wanted to make it right. In that way, the Lord became the third party between two people to resolve conflict. As priests, Eli and his sons were meant to help enforce and carry out those provisions between people in conflict.

Yet, if someone sins directly against God, the old covenant provides no designated mediator between the sinner and the Lord. Those who sin directly to God’s face, so to speak, can communicate via priests but cannot appeal to a third party to protect them from the Lord’s judgment. The priests served directly before the Lord, in His presence, as mediators between the Lord and the people. When the priests sinned in their work, they did so directly against the Lord’s purpose to be connected to His people. The priests had nowhere to hide from God.

That’s the immediate sense of Eli’s message to his sons. In a larger sense, though, everyone who sins does so against the Lord. David recognized that in confessing his sin (Ps. 51:4). The lack of a direct, absolute mediator between sinful humans and God was the seemingly hopeless problem for which a solution had to be offered. God sent His son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to serve as the intercessor on our behalf. In the Bible, we are told that Christ is “…at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Rom. 8:34). He is our advocate, constantly intervening on our behalf. This is a fantastic reality. Jesus is ultimately able to save those who come to God through Him. Jesus is our great High Priest who has paid the price for our sins, and He can save us ultimately from our sins. Jesus lives to make intercession for you and me. He is dispensing the blessings of God in our lives. He almost serves as our attorney – making our appeal before The Great Judge. We should always revel in His intercession!

DECEMBER 26, 2023

 “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

It is noteworthy that the clearest promises of the Messiah’s coming have been given in the darkest hours of history. Immanuel is the light of life. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” (Isa. 9:2) When Judah was in great distress in the days of Ahaz; when she was over-matched by her two powerful enemies, and no other ray of comfort could be found, light came through the promise of the wondrous birth of Him whose name is “God with us.” God alone would be the Deliverer of Judah! God would dwell among men: He would wear their nature in the person of The Virgin Born.

Had prophets been otherwise silent about the Coming One, they found their voice in the dark days. At such times the Spirit made them know that the coming of God in human flesh is the lone star of the world’s dark night. It was so in the beginning, when our first parents had sinned and plunged the race into darkness and were doomed to leave the Paradise of delight. Before they went out, there fell upon their ears the prophecy of the Deliverer who would be born of woman. “The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” How bright did that promise shine amid the surrounding darkness and gloom. Truly, those who walked in darkness saw a great light in the original promise. One would, “in the fullness of the time,” be born of the virgin, whose name is Immanuel – God with us!

As we once again celebrate Immanuel’s birth, may our great joy be that He is the true light that is come to illuminate this world of darkness. Behold the Incarnate Son of God born of Mary at Bethlehem! What can this intend for us but grace? If the Lord had meant to destroy us, He would not have assumed our nature. If He had not been moved by mighty love to a guilty race, He would never have taken upon Himself their flesh and blood. It is a miracle of miracles that the Infinite should become an infant; that He who is pure spirit, and fills all things, should be wrapped in swaddling clothes, and cradled in a manger. He took not on Him the nature of angels, though that would have been a tremendous descent from Deity, but He descended lower still, for He took on Him the seed of Abraham. “He was made in all things like unto His brethren;” though “He counted it not robbery to be equal with God.” This one miracle speaks greater comfort to our souls than all tongues of men and angels combined could ever express. The birth of Jesus proves the goodwill of God toward men. Of this, the great heavenly host sang to poor shepherds, as “the glory of the Lord shown round about them.”

We have comfort in the fact our Lord was truly man. He was born as other children are born, save that His mother was a virgin. He was fed as other children were fed upon curds and honey, the food of a pastoral country. He had to be developed physically, like all children. He grew from childhood to youth and from youth to manhood, passing through phases of human weakness, even as we have done. He was obedient to His parents as all children should be. He is really and truly a man; and this fact is a bright and shining star for the eyes of sinners.

We must all tremble with dread before the Majesty of Deity; but in Christ, we see how compassionate He is, and how sympathetic, in that, He has become of near kin with us. This wonderful truth is especially comforting to us, when we remember that, unlike us, He, though “in all points tempted like as we are,” was “yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15) He came “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” except for the sin. He is God; but He is God with us. He is bone of our bones, and flesh of our flesh, a brother born of adversity. Even the most trembling soul may be at rest. God in our nature is the grand prophecy of salvation for sinners. Why has He come down to us, but that He might bring us up to Him?

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DECEMBER 21, 2023

“So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.” (Judges 7:5-6)

At this point in the book of Judges, Israel was being oppressed by the people of the land of Midian. Gideon, Israel’s current judge and military general, gathered a host of 32,000 men and camped near a river where they waited to attack Midian. This number might seem significant but it is a relatively small army compared to what Israel might have raised. Gideon believes it is too small but God says the number is too large. He trimmed the host down because He knew the people who would boast in themselves and not in Him. Often, God achieves excellent things by few hands in order to bring glory to His name. So, 22,000 of the already small army are turned away.

God then says that the new amount is still too many. He and Gideon quell this in two ways:

First, all the men are encouraged to examine themselves, and if they count themselves as nervous or fainthearted, they should be dismissed from service. They were now encamped on an over-looking mountain where they could see many enemies, making it easy for the men to become fearful. Without God’s direction, Gideon probably wouldn’t be on board to diminish his already small army. Still, He knew that cowards would be as likely as any to take the honor of the victory from God, and therefore, God wouldn’t give them the opportunity. Sin stared these men in the face, and because of this, they could not face death. We should note that fearful people are not fit to be employed for God because they may come face to face with their fear while working for the Lord.

Secondly, God determines again that there are too many. Gideon is ordered to bring his soldiers to the nearby stream and observe how the men drink. Most would kneel on their knees to drink and put their mouths to the water like animals would. Others would not make such a formal business of it, choosing to cup a handful, lap it with their tongue, and continue walking. Just 300 men drank in haste like this, and God tells Gideon that by these men alone, He would destroy the Midianites. None were retained but hearty men – men resolved to do their best for Israel; men who were hardy and could endure prolonged fatigue. Hasty men, who didn’t think it would be long until they were engaged with the enemy but, instead preferred the service of God and their country before their own refreshment.

Gideon likely thought the remaining men too few, but God is taking a course to lessen them so that He may be exalted in His strength; showing that God’s thoughts and actions are so far above men’s. The people God chooses to employ are zealous for the work. When living for the Lord, we must be like those who lap the water. We must not put everything else on hold while we indulge ourselves. Like these men, we should quickly drink and continue on our way, not worrying about the amount we consume.

DECEMBER 19, 2023

 “Then Jesus answered…bring him hither to me.” (Matthew 17:17)

When our Lord Jesus was on earth, his ministry was so extensive that it touched the realms of both heaven and hell. We see him at one moment up on the mount discoursing with Moses and Elijah, both of whom had long been in the glory world, and then, in a few hours, we see him confronting an evil spirit from the regions of the damned.

It was a long journey from the top of the “high mountain” where He was transfigured, down; down to the place where the multitude was waiting. Spiritually, it was a long descent from conversing with glorified patriarchs and prophets, to commanding demons and devils of the infernal pit. Yet mercy prompts Him and power supports Him so that He is equally glorious in either place. How glorious He was in His awful humiliation! How glorious He is now! How far His goodness reaches! Truly, He has dominion that reaches the extremes of human condition. Our Lord and Savior hears with joy the victorious shouts of a believer when he has vanquished his enemy; and at the same time, He inclines His ear to the despairing wail of a soul who has given up all hope except in His mercy.

Our Lord’s transfiguration did not render Him either unwilling or unable or too sublime or spiritual to grapple with human ills, and cast out demons from torn and miserable souls. Therefore, even now, as He is in heaven at the right hand of the Father, the glories of heaven do not turn His attention from the miseries of earth. From there, our blessed Lord hears the cries and sees the tears of desperate souls who cry out to Him in this valley of tears.

The case of the deaf and mute demoniac, which is the context for the Lord’s statement in our text, is a remarkable one. All sin is the evidence that the soul is under the influence of Satan. All who are unconverted are really possessed of the devil in a certain sense. He has established his throne within their hearts, and he reigns and rules the members of their bodies. “…the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2) is the same that Paul identifies as the Prince of Darkness. But, as seen in the case here, satanic possessions are not all the same. Jesus acknowledged to His disciples that this was a particularly hard case. As Mark puts it, the spirit “taketh him.” (Mark 9:18) As one captured and carried off by Giant Despair (The Pilgrim’s Progress).

This extreme case has a loving father at his wit’s end. “…there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire and oft into the water, And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.” (Verses 14-16) Thank God, the failure of the disciples did not render the case impossible! “Jesus answered and said…bring him hither to me.” Even the devil must obey the Word of the Son of God.“Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.”

Perhaps even now someone reading this is experiencing great anguish of soul. All looks hopeless! You feel desperate, even as Job, when he cried in his agony, “I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.” Jesus can say to you exactly what He said to the anxious father of this possessed boy: “Bring him hither to me.” He can always calm our fears with the very words of assurance that He spoke to His disciples when they were disturbed over “hopeless cases,” “With men this is impossible; but with God, all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26) You can be very sure that He Who has the ability to change the hearts of men like the Rich Young Ruler, is able to handle your case, no matter how seemingly hopeless. Whatever your particular burden, Jesus can say to you, “Bring (it) hither to Me.”