NOVEMBER 9, 2023

 “…break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” (Hosea 10:12)

“Break up your fallow ground.” Our nature, at most, is but a small farm, and we need to get a full harvest out of every acre of it. Have we left any part of our small allotment uncultivated? Solomon condemned the sluggard who allowed his vineyard to go unattended (Prov. 24:30-32). What would he think of a farmer who allowed his richest field to lie untilled and fallow year after year? The Prophet urges us, if we have been thus irresponsible, and have neglected the best part of our estate; it is time to attend to the matter.

An occasional fallow has its benefits in the world of nature, but if the proprietor of a rich and fruitful land allowed the soil to continue fallow year after year, we should judge him to be out of his mind. The wasted acreage should be taken from him and given to another who would disallow the waste and encourage the rich fields to yield their full harvest.

Foolish is the sluggard who neglects to cultivate his farm, but what shall be said of the man who fails to cultivate himself? If it be wrong to leave unattended a part of our estate, how much worse it must be to disregard a portion of ourselves!

The neglect is all the more inexcusable when we consider that the “fallow ground” of which the Prophet speaks involves the soul. It is not often that men neglect their outward frame of clay. They dress that field which is called the body with sufficient care. This is right and proper for it is worthy to be duly kept; it would be wrong not to keep it in order. However, the fact that this very secondary part of our nature is interwoven with the higher part is the chief reason that the body should not be neglected. Therefore, let us keep this field by temperance, cleanliness, and obedience to the rules of health and culture. Though it be but dust akin to the common earth around us, the body is honorable and when grace has sanctified the soul, the body becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost. (I Cor. 6:19)

Few need to be exhorted to attend to their bodies. “What shall we eat?” “What shall we drink?” “Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” is a trinity of questions which the majority of mankind spend all their lives answering. The fault is not that they care for the body, but that it takes an undue share of consideration and is given precedence over the soul. The eternal part suffers neglect and lies fallow, while the temporal part is given priority as though it were eternal.

We are not as the brute beasts which perish, which know nothing beyond their daily wants. We who are made living souls must distinguish ourselves from other living creatures by seeking to know, learn, and understand. The field of the mind, however, is not the most neglected field with men. In fact, many professors of religion become puffed up with knowledge.

The field that lies fallow, that with which the Prophet is concerned, is not the physical, but rather it is the spiritual – the highest nature of all – that which speaks to God. It is suffered to lie entirely fallow! The soil where true religion should flourish is left by many to produce poisonous weeds of superstition, and thorns and thistles of error and doubt.

We all know what happens to a fallow field. Not only does it become caked and hard, but it will produce weeds and briars in increasing abundance. If one will not break up the ground and sow good seed, his field will still produce, but the fruit will be damning. Therefore, the exhortation of the text must be heeded: “Break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

“Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” (Psalm 17:13-15)

This psalm is entitled “A Prayer of David.” Although whoever came up with this title is unknown, it is a good one because here we see a heartfelt, earnest, believing example of a prayer. It was spoken in the view of some danger. A danger which arose from the number of enemies, but we cannot determine the specific occasion.

There were too many occasions in the life of David where this prayer would make sense, but there can be no doubt that in the various dangers David faced, he often poured out such warm and earnest appeals to God for help.

In today’s verses, we see David pleading with God to act on his behalf. His expression of a confident hope of deliverance from all enemies, a looking forward to a world where he would be rescued from all troubles, and where, in the presence of God and entering on a new life, he would awake in the likeness of God and be satisfied. The psalm terminates, as the anticipations of all good men do, amid the troubles of this life, in the hope of that world where there will be no trouble and where they will be permitted to dwell forever with God. David longs for the satisfaction he will feel when he finally will be with God and can behold His righteousness.

“Arise, O Lord,” asks David, and, “disappoint him.” His prayer here is that God would come before his enemies and cast Himself in their way before they should reach him. The enemy is represented as marching upon him with their face intently fixed, seeking David’s destruction, and he prays that God would come to his aid. He pleads to be spared from the designs of the wicked and that God would interfere by His own hand, saving him from danger from men that had risen against him. He desires to be rescued from worldly plans and devices – from men among whom nothing but material principles prevail. These men, unlike David, have their portion in this life alone. That is to say, their portion or lot is exclusively among the living, having nothing to look forward to or to hope for in the world to come. They are governed wholly by worldly principles. They have no fear of God; they have no regard for the rights of others further than will be under their material interest. Those who wholly have their portion in this life try to subordinate everything to worldly interests.

Verse 15 begins with “As for me…” David writes this to illustrate that believers cherish no such desires in strong contrast with the aims, desires, and conditions of worldly men who seek their portion in this life. We look to another world as our home and shall be satisfied only in God’s everlasting favor and friendship. We will behold the face of our Lord. This is the highest object before the mind of a genuinely religious person. The bliss of heaven consists mainly in the privilege of seeing God our Savior, and the hope of being permitted to do this is of more value to us than would be all the wealth of this world.

We have been delivered from the power, the pollution, and the dominion of sin. This makes heaven so desirable; without this, in the apprehension of a truly good man, no place would be heaven. While others are satisfied with this world, we, like the psalmist, will be satisfied only when we awake in the likeness of God. Nothing can meet our wants or fully help our souls until that occurs.

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:8-9)

We return to analyzing one of the most loved passages in the Bible, this time focusing primarily on Verse 9. To recap what was talked about last week. Paul points out that we can hope in God because He loves us and that we can easily find evidence of that love, which is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ took the judgment for our sin on Himself on the cross. He suffered and died in our place. Paul insists that we should take that act as evidence of God’s great love for us, in that, those who have been saved were sinners and thus enemies with God. It is only through Jesus that we have a way to have salvation. In this, God proved His love for us.

Verse 9 begins by saying that Christ’s blood has justified us. To be “justified” in God’s eyes means to be “declared righteous” or to be made right with God. This is important since earlier verses have made it clear that we are not, actually, “righteous people.” Based on our actions and attitudes, we are not “good.” To be reconciled to God, we need to be forgiven and “declared” as righteous; this means being justified.

The way that we were justified is by Christ’s blood, by His death for our sins on the cross. In fact, Paul has shown that there is no other way to become right with God than by Christ’s death for us. Since that is true, Paul writes that it is even more true that Christ will save us from the wrath of God.

We need to be careful how we read this. Paul is not implying that there is a question about whether those in Christ will experience God’s wrathful, angry judgment on sin. Those who have expressed saving faith – true believers – absolutely will not. Instead, Paul argues that the second idea is evident once the first is accepted. Writing today, Paul might have said, “Since A is true, then B is true.” Both ideas are connected, and both are true.

In other words, those who are justified in God’s eyes, through faith in what Christ has done, will certainly never suffer God’s wrath for their sin. This is the context of Paul’s use of the word “we” in this passage: those saved by grace through faith.

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OCTOBER 31, 2023

 “But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night; Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?” (Job 35:10, 11)

The complaint of the speaker here is that the tyrants and oppressors of the earth seem never to consider or consult God their Maker, or to enquire, “Where is God my Maker?” Worse still, is the speaker’s lament that even among the oppressed there was the same neglect. They cried out by reason of the oppression, but sadly they did not cry out to God their Maker, though He gives songs in the night, and teaches wisdom to His persecuted people. There is one common fault in our nature, which the Apostle describes in Romans: “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” Unless grace moves us, we are prone in our times of trouble not to say, “Where is God my Maker, Who giveth songs in the night?”

There are four questions that are here compressed into one. First, “Where is God?” Above all things in the world our thoughts ought to be of Him. In everything, whether joy or sorrow, the Omniscient God of Providence should immediately come to mind. It is totally unacceptable that God is all in all, that we owe everything to Him, that we are under allegiance to Him, and yet, “God is not in all our thoughts.” (Psa. 10:4)

The second question is, “Where is God my Maker?” “The ox knoweth his owner…but my people doth not consider.” God made us; He fashioned our frame; by His hand we are curiously and wonderfully made. He has made these “instruments of ten thousand strings.” Wonderful, it is that they are kept in tune so long. He is our Maker! How shall we not think of Him without Whom we could not think at all? How is it that we do not seek and call upon Him Who is God our Maker?

There is great force in the third question: “Where is God who giveth songs in the night?” God is our Comforter. All the saints can testify that God is most precious in times of severe trials. He comes near the sick bed when one of His own is perhaps at the point of death. We have known His tender touch, and the song that He brings in the night when the sorrows of death compass us about. He can put a song in your heart when the blackest of darkness comes over your dwelling. There is nothing to fear even in death when God is there. Two little boys were talking about Elijah riding to heaven in a chariot of fire. One of them said, “He must have been very courageous. I think I would have been very frightened to ride in such a carriage.” “Oh no,” said the other, “I would not be afraid at all so long as God drove the chariot.” It will be very sad and inexcusable if we poor sufferers forget God, and forfeit the consolation of our Divine Comforter; if we refuse the soothing music of the Song-giver by not looking for Him or asking after Him in our hour of need. David said, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.”

And then there is a fourth question: “Where is God my Maker…Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?” Here, we are reminded that God has given us intelligence. We are distinguished from all other living creatures of the earth. If animals and birds do not turn to God, we do not wonder at it, but shall men and women forget God? With many who are created in God’s image and likeness, it had been better for them if they were a beast or a bird, for then they would not be held accountable for their neglect. But every human soul shall surely answer to the God Whom they have forgotten.

Let us live out our lives in constant awareness of God’s presence. Let us be continually asking after Him Who is our Maker, our Comforter, our Instructor; Who is our Help whatever the circumstance, and whatever the need.

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