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7/19/2023     Yesterday     Tomorrow


Proverbs 19 - 21




Proverbs 19

Proverbs 19:1     Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity
than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.
2  Desire without knowledge is not good,
and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.
3  When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin,
his heart rages against the LORD.
4  Wealth brings many new friends,
but a poor man is deserted by his friend.
5  A false witness will not go unpunished,
and he who breathes out lies will not escape.
6  Many seek the favor of a generous man,
and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts.
7  All a poor man’s brothers hate him;
how much more do his friends go far from him!
He pursues them with words, but does not have them.
8  Whoever gets sense loves his own soul;
he who keeps understanding will discover good.
9  A false witness will not go unpunished,
and he who breathes out lies will perish.
10  It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury,
much less for a slave to rule over princes.
11  Good sense makes one slow to anger,
and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
12  A king’s wrath is like the growling of a lion,
but his favor is like dew on the grass.
13  A foolish son is ruin to his father,
and a wife’s quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.
14  House and wealth are inherited from fathers,
but a prudent wife is from the LORD.
15  Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep,
and an idle person will suffer hunger.
16  Whoever keeps the commandment keeps his life;
he who despises his ways will die.
17  Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD,
and he will repay him for his deed.
18  Discipline your son, for there is hope;
do not set your heart on putting him to death.
19  A man of great wrath will pay the penalty,
for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again.
20  Listen to advice and accept instruction,
that you may gain wisdom in the future.
21  Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
22  What is desired in a man is steadfast love,
and a poor man is better than a liar.
23  The fear of the LORD leads to life,
and whoever has it rests satisfied;
he will not be visited by harm.
24  The sluggard buries his hand in the dish
and will not even bring it back to his mouth.
25  Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence;
reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.
26  He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother
is a son who brings shame and reproach.
27  Cease to hear instruction, my son,
and you will stray from the words of knowledge.
28  A worthless witness mocks at justice,
and the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity.
29  Condemnation is ready for scoffers,
and beating for the backs of fools.


Proverbs 20

Proverbs 20:1     Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,
and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.
2  The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion;
whoever provokes him to anger forfeits his life.
3  It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife,
but every fool will be quarreling.
4  The sluggard does not plow in the autumn;
he will seek at harvest and have nothing.
5  The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water,
but a man of understanding will draw it out.
6  Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love,
but a faithful man who can find?
7  The righteous who walks in his integrity—
blessed are his children after him!
8  A king who sits on the throne of judgment
winnows all evil with his eyes.
9  Who can say, “I have made my heart pure;
I am clean from my sin”?
10  Unequal weights and unequal measures
are both alike an abomination to the LORD.
11  Even a child makes himself known by his acts,
by whether his conduct is pure and upright.
12  The hearing ear and the seeing eye,
the LORD has made them both.
13  Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty;
open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.
14  “Bad, bad,” says the buyer,
but when he goes away, then he boasts.
15  There is gold and abundance of costly stones,
but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
16  Take a man’s garment when he has put up security for a stranger,
and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for foreigners.
17  Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man,
but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.
18  Plans are established by counsel;
by wise guidance wage war.
19  Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets;
therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.
20  If one curses his father or his mother,
his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.
21  An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning
will not be blessed in the end.
22  Do not say, “I will repay evil”;
wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.
23  Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD,
and false scales are not good.
24  A man’s steps are from the LORD;
how then can man understand his way?
25  It is a snare to say rashly, “It is holy,”
and to reflect only after making vows.
26  A wise king winnows the wicked
and drives the wheel over them.
27  The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD,
searching all his innermost parts.
28  Steadfast love and faithfulness preserve the king,
and by steadfast love his throne is upheld.
29  The glory of young men is their strength,
but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.
30  Blows that wound cleanse away evil;
strokes make clean the innermost parts.


Proverbs 21

Proverbs 21:1     The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
he turns it wherever he will.
2  Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
but the LORD weighs the heart.
3  To do righteousness and justice
is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
4  Haughty eyes and a proud heart,
the lamp of the wicked, are sin.
5  The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,
but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
6  The getting of treasures by a lying tongue
is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.
7  The violence of the wicked will sweep them away,
because they refuse to do what is just.
8  The way of the guilty is crooked,
but the conduct of the pure is upright.
9  It is better to live in a corner of the housetop
than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
10  The soul of the wicked desires evil;
his neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes.
11  When a scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise;
when a wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge.
12  The Righteous One observes the house of the wicked;
he throws the wicked down to ruin.
13  Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor
will himself call out and not be answered.
14  A gift in secret averts anger,
and a concealed bribe, strong wrath.
15  When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous
but terror to evildoers.
16  One who wanders from the way of good sense
will rest in the assembly of the dead.
17  Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man;
he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.
18  The wicked is a ransom for the righteous,
and the traitor for the upright.
19  It is better to live in a desert land
than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman.
20  Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling,
but a foolish man devours it.
21  Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness
will find life, righteousness, and honor.
22  A wise man scales the city of the mighty
and brings down the stronghold in which they trust.
23  Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue
keeps himself out of trouble.
24  “Scoffer” is the name of the arrogant, haughty man
who acts with arrogant pride.
25  The desire of the sluggard kills him,
for his hands refuse to labor.
26  All day long he craves and craves,
but the righteous gives and does not hold back.
27  The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination;
how much more when he brings it with evil intent.
28  A false witness will perish,
but the word of a man who hears will endure.
29  A wicked man puts on a bold face,
but the upright gives thought to his ways.
30  No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel
can avail against the LORD.
31  The horse is made ready for the day of battle,
but the victory belongs to the LORD.

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Appreciating the Holy Spirit’s Work

By Robert Jeffress 2023

Appreciating the Holy Spirit’s Work

     The personal work of the Holy Spirit not only impacts virtually every area of our daily lives but also shapes our identity as believers. Let’s look at just a few of the things the Holy Spirit accomplishes in the world today.

The Holy Spirit Dwells in Every Believer

     Think about the power of God that flung billions of galaxies into existence with a single word, that changed five loaves and two fish into enough food to feed more than five thousand people, and that lifted Jesus Christ out of His grave. Did you know that same power is in you and me right now, if we trust in Christ as our Savior?

     What an amazing, exhilarating realization! After all, we all feel the need for more power in our lives, don’t we? We need more power in our prayers. We need more power in saying no to sin. We need more power to be courageous. We need more power to find peace when our world is collapsing around us. And, as Christians, we have it. The power we possess is not a special force but a person: the Holy Spirit.

     Unfortunately, far too many Christians go through life unaware of the great, supernatural power of the Holy Spirit within them. But the Holy Spirit is there, whether we choose to access His power or not. The Holy Spirit takes up residence within every person who accepts Christ as Savior. He is not optional equipment; He is the basic package for every believer.

     In 2 Peter 1:3–4, Peter said, “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”

2 Peter 1:3–4 (NASB95) 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.


     Pay particular attention to the phrase “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.” If we are Christians, God has not shortchanged us. God isn’t reserving something extra that we need to beg Him for or ask Him to do in our lives. He has given you and me everything we need to lead a supernaturally fulfilling existence. He has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. And everything He has given us is wrapped up in the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit Makes Us Aware of Sin

     The Holy Spirit’s work goes hand in hand with His dwelling in us. Because of His nearness, He feels our sin deeply. In fact, when we sin, we take the Holy Spirit along for the ride. Remember, He’s in us; He isn’t going anywhere. He has an uncomfortably close perspective on our wrongdoing. That’s why Paul said in Ephesians 4:30, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Ephesians 4:30 (NASB95) 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

     The Holy Spirit acts as our spiritual conscience, letting us know when we sin and urging us to repent (John 16:8). Anytime we feel pangs of guilt or regret — anytime we sin and feel the need to ask God for forgiveness — we know that the Holy Spirit is at work.

John 16:8 (NASB95) 8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;

     Without the Spirit’s insistent prompting, we would be in trouble. Our own moral compass is faulty. Our ability to rationalize, justify, and downplay our wrongdoings makes us incapable of accurately gauging our spiritual condition. We can walk around blissfully unaware of the damage that our sin is doing to us, to others, and especially to our relationship with God.

     The result of the Holy Spirit’s convicting work in our lives is a closer relationship to the Lord. Sin interferes with our relationship with God. So by keeping us informed of our sin and prompting us to confess it, the Holy Spirit works to ensure that we don’t drift away from God and His plan for our lives.

The Holy Spirit Amplifies Our Prayers

     The Holy Spirit makes prayer possible — life-transforming, God-honoring, world-altering prayer. He does it by translating our human utterances into the adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication that please God and draw His blessing.

     Paul gave us some hints as to how this work takes place in Romans 8:26–27: “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” In other words, the Holy Spirit “fills in” our prayers, taking needs before the Lord that we’re unable to express — or that we may not even be aware of.

Romans 8:26–27 (NASB95) 26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

The Holy Spirit Distributes Spiritual Gifts

     When we were born into this world physically, we were born with certain natural abilities. Some people have the ability to play an instrument. Others have the ability to sing. Some have the ability to work with their hands. Some have leadership abilities. These are all natural gifts.

     When we were born again into the family of God, the Holy Spirit brought into each of our lives a spiritual gift, which is both a desire and a unique power to be a part of God’s ministry. In 1 Corinthians 12:4–11, the apostle Paul described the source and purpose of our spiritual gifts. He explained, “One and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills” (v. 11). The Holy Spirit decides what gift we receive, and we are to use our spiritual gifts “for the common good” (v. 7).

1 Corinthians 12:4–11 (NASB95) 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.
6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.
7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit;
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.
11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.


     To some Christians, the Holy Spirit gives the gift of prophecy — not in the sense of foretelling the future but the ability to speak God’s Word with conviction. He gives some people the gift of mercy, the ability to empathize with the sorrows of others. He gives some people the gift of giving, the unique ability to multiply financial assets and use them for God’s kingdom purposes. He gives some people the gift of spiritual leadership. (For more spiritual gifts, see Romans 12:6–8 and Ephesians 4:11–12.)

Romans 12:6–8 (NASB95) 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;
7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;
8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Ephesians 4:11–12 (NASB95) 11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;


     Every Christian has a spiritual gift. It’s no accident that the Greek word translated as “gift” has at its root a word that means “joy.” Nothing gives Christians more joy than discovering and using their spiritual gifts — realizing that God has empowered them in a unique way to be a part of His kingdom purpose. The Holy Spirit connects us to God’s eternal purpose by imparting to us a unique spiritual gift when we’re saved.

The Holy Spirit Reveals the Deep Things of God

     The Holy Spirit can understand what we never can: the thoughts of God Himself. “Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11).

1 Corinthians 2:11 (NASB95) 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

     Without the Holy Spirit, we would have no hope of comprehending the way God works. Our finite minds are insufficient tools for grasping infinite concepts. The Holy Spirit reveals God’s thoughts to us because He loves us and wants what’s best for us.

     The Holy Spirit also reveals God’s Word to us. But He does it in conjunction with our study of the Bible. He doesn’t just download the wisdom of the ages into our brains the moment we give our lives to Christ.  Instead, He rewards our efforts to understand God’s Word.  When we dig into Scripture, He guides us to treasure.

Robert Jeffress, What Every Christian Should Know: 10 Core Beliefs for Standing Strong in a Shifting World (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2023)

Right Now Counts Forever

By R.C. Sproul Jr. 7/1/2010

     It was Augustine who argued that every sin is a failure to love ordinately. Sin is the result of either loving something more than we ought or the result of loving something less than we ought. We are to love, in order. Eve, for instance, found the fruit pleasing to the eye and desirable to make one wise. Nothing wrong there. She would have had to be blind to miss it. But she loved that fruit more than she should have, and she loved the law of God less than she should have. Our temptation, because we are the children of our parents who fell into sin, is often to defend our sin on the basis that it is grounded in love. That we steal our neighbor’s reputation because we “love truth” is one form of love justifying a multitude of sins. That we steal our neighbor’s wife because we “love her” is another attempt to defend sin. To love ordinately is to love as God loves, in due measure. It is to love what we love as we ought to love it.

     This sin operates in both directions. All of us fail to love the Lord as we ought. We are commanded to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We are commanded to have no other gods before Him. He is to be our singular holy passion, and every other passion ought only to serve this one passion. We fail, however, not only in loving too little, but in loving too much. The love of money, for instance, is the root of all kinds of evil. We should not be surprised to discover that these two kinds of failure to love ordinately, sins of omission and commission, are often tightly related. That is, we love one thing too lightly because we love the other thing too heavily, and vice versa.

     Jesus makes much the same point when He commands us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33). He gives us this command right after encouraging us to cease from our worries over things of little import. He reminds us that we ought not to be anxious about what we will eat, what we will drink, or what we will wear. Then He commands that we focus our minds on that which truly matters.

     This does not mean, of course, that food, drink, or clothing is sinful. Jesus is no gnostic, suggesting that salvation means escaping the dirty, grubby, earthly things for the ethereal, spiritual, heavenly things. In the same chapter, after all, He commanded that we should pray to our Father in heaven for the provision of our daily bread. Our food is, in itself, adiaphora. Our drink is adiaphora. This is why Paul later commands us not to judge one another on these matters (Rom. 14:13). We fall into sin, however, when our love for these things, which are in themselves adiaphora, becomes misguided.

     Jesus’ wisdom here in the Sermon on the Mount, however, isn’t to unduly separate food or drink from the kingdom. Having told us not to worry about these things — having warned us against the folly of the Gentiles who lust after these things, as He prepares to give us a more kingdomminded perspective, calling us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness — He reminds us that our Father knows that we need these things. And He promises in the end that as we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, all these things will be added unto us.

     Our calling, then, is neither to obsess about these things nor to look down our noses at them. Instead, we are called to give thanks to our Father in heaven for every good gift. We must never allow our passion for the gift to obscure our view of the Giver. Instead, we should look through every good gift to see and to praise the Giver.

     This is our Father’s world. While His law may give us liberty, we are never free not to give thanks. While God does not see vanilla ice cream as sin and strawberry as righteousness, He does require that we thank Him, that we remember with joy that He is our Father who gives us these things. Indeed, both the kingdom we are called to seek and the righteousness we are called to seek are built from our gratitude. Remember, again, that He rules over all things. His kingdom is not only forever, it is everywhere. What distinguishes us from the world isn’t that He reigns over us but not them. Instead, it is that we are grateful for His reign while they bristle under it.

     The ordinary things of this world — the mundane — are not mere artifacts of culture. They are not merely the tools of the natural realm. They are instead precious gifts from our heavenly Father. They are given to us for His glory. And our gratitude will redound for eternity. Everything, adiaphora or not, connects with our Father above. Nothing is merely human. How we handle His gifts therefore matters. That is why we would be wise to remember that right now counts forever.

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     R.C. Sproul Jr. has served previously as a pastor, professor, and teacher. He is author of numerous books. Some are listed below.

     R.C. Sproul Jr. Books |  Go to Books Page

Tevje Needed to Know

By Joel Belz 7/1/2010

     An eery discomfort links the two famous questions.

     Tevje, in Fiddler on the Roof, bluntly asks his wife: “Do you love me?”

     How can it not remind you of Jesus, in John 21, using the very same words to put Peter on the spot: “Do you love me?”

     It’s easy to identify with both Tevje’s wife Golde and with Peter. Golde memorably — and self-righteously — responds: “For twentyfive years I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow. After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?”

     Peter also wants to dodge what seems to be an overly intrusive question. He stalls and bounces the ball back to Jesus. “Lord, you know I do,” he says, joining Golde in clever avoidance mode.

     What links the two contexts is the call to go beyond the external structure of things and to probe deeply, getting intensely personal. Apart from all appearances, both Tevje and Jesus are asking, what’s going on in your heart? Jesus, we should note for the record, had considerably more standing to ask such a question than Tevje did.

     All of us need to keep hearing Jesus asking His penetrating question. Especially those of us who have been blessed to grow up and spend most of our lives in a secure setting of sound theology, sound doctrine, sound preaching, sound teaching, and sound worldview need to hear Jesus asking us: “Apart from all that, do you love Me?”

     I’ve spent my whole life in publishing and educational enterprises committed to developing and propagating the truth that, as Abraham Kuyper observed, every square inch of reality belongs to the Lord our God. For almost seventy years now, that has been a robust and invigorating basis for living life to the fullest.

     But it also has the potential to prompt me to avoid Jesus’s great question. For I must report to you that it is altogether possible to be consumed with such “truthfulness” for a lifetime and still walk on the margins of that more personal love for Jesus that He intends His children to have. It is not just possible, but common, to have a God-centered worldview and still not be personally absorbed with the God who is at the focus of that view.

     Too easily, we can substitute an idea for a person. Too easily, we can get more excited about a systematic theology than we do about the God at the core of that theology. Too easily, we can spend more time articulating the logic of our biblical worldview than we do talking to and adoring the person at the core of that worldview. Too easily, we can come to identify all those things — and they’re all very good things — with the essence of our relationship to our Lord. But it does not overstate the case to say that when we’re more consumed with ideas about God than we are with God Himself, we’ve headed down a dangerous path toward idolatry. We’ve started worshiping a false God.

     This is precisely where the picture of marriage — and the hints from Fiddler — are so apt. Just as the answer for Golde wasn’t to quit milking the cows and doing the laundry, the answer for us is never in forfeiting the externals or in discarding all those true abstractions we’ve been blessed to know about our great God. The answer is not in becoming pietists who disdain God’s creation and know-nothings who scorn sound thinking.

     The answer instead is the perpetual reminder that any successful relationship between a man and a woman depends on that mystical balance between romance on the one hand and mundane action on the other. The man is a dolt who supposes he need do nothing more than bring home a paycheck and faithfully take out the garbage on Wednesday mornings. And the woman who never kisses her husband unexpectedly behind the ear should fully expect that he is muttering under his breath, “Do you love me?”

     All this is not a forced illustration. It was God Himself who invented the idea that marriage is a picture of His own relationship to us. And it’s a two-way picture; what we learn on either side helps us understand the other that much better.

     Do you love me? Tevje needed to know. I have a hunch that Golde, after those twenty-five years, must have had the same question. Almost all of us can identify with both of them.

     Jesus already knew the answer that was in Peter’s heart. But even Jesus wanted to hear Peter say it. And no matter how busy we’ve been in His kingdom, or how consumed we’ve been with knowing or teaching His truth, He wants to hear us say it as well.

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     Joel Belz is founder of World magazine and God’s World News children’s magazines. He writes a bi-weekly column for World and is co-author of Whirled Views with Marvin Olasky. Joel Belz Books:

Mere Coincidence?

By Keith Mathison 7/1/2010

     One of the most interesting stories ever published was a novella called The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility, or Futility by Morgan Robertson. Robertson tells the story of the sinking of a large luxury liner named the Titan. The Titan in Robertson’s book was the largest ship in existence at the time: over eight hundred feet in length with a passenger and crew capacity of three thousand. It had numerous watertight bulkheads and was considered unsinkable. It carried the minimum number of lifeboats required by law, but far short of the number needed for three thousand people. While carrying many wealthy passengers across the North Atlantic on a cold April night, the Titan struck an iceberg at 24 knots just before midnight about ninety-five miles south of Greenland. The iceberg tore a gash in the ship’s starboard side, which flooded the watertight compartments. The unsinkable ship sank. Because the Titan did not have enough lifeboats, more than half of her passengers died in the icy waters.

     We’ve all read books or watched films that claim to be “based on actual events.” Those who are familiar with the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912, would naturally assume that Robertson’s book was a fictional account based on these actual events. The numerous similarities are just too striking. The problem is that Robertson’s book was published in 1898, fourteen years before the “unsinkable” Titanic sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic with too few lifeboats.

     I’ve been interested in so-called coincidences since I was a child. In fact, my first research paper of any substance during high school was on the subject of coincidences. I recently ran across this old paper, which I wrote before I was a Christian. After giving examples of some of the more remarkable coincidences to be found in the annals of history and looking at some of the different theories that have been suggested as explanations for these phenomena, I concluded that perhaps coincidences were somebody’s way of trying to tell us something. I also added at the time that if this someone or something were trying to tell us something, there were probably better ways to do so. It wasn’t too long after writing those words that I read the Bible for the first time.

     Some of the events that skeptics would attribute to chance or coincidence are examples of God answering our prayers. I have experienced these in my own life. As an example, the week I began seminary studies, I did not have enough money to take a full course load, which meant that my new wife and I could not stay in the seminary housing. The only person I had talked to about this was the housing director. I stayed up all night praying. The following day I went to buy a loaf of bread (I didn’t know what else to do, but I knew we had to eat). When I returned, the phone rang the very moment I opened the door. I picked it up and discovered that a fellow first-year seminary student was on the line, a student I did not even know. He had heard of my situation and had paid the remainder of my tuition, enabling my wife and me to stay in the student housing and begin seminary studies. A skeptic would say the timing of the phone call was a mere coincidence, pure chance, nothing more, nothing less. No, in reality, it was God’s dramatic answer to my prayer.

     Even Tabletalk has been involved in “coincidences.” Our daily Bible study for September 11, 2001, covered the text of Judges 9:42–49. This text tells the story of the deaths of a thousand people who perished in the tower of Shechem when it was burned by Abimelech. The study was written months before the events of September 11, 2001, but it had particular resonance to those who read it on that tragic day. Such stories could be multiplied hundreds of times over. Most people can share similar stories of coincidence. Atheists and other skeptics relegate these kinds of events to pure chance, but Christians do not believe in chance. We believe in a sovereign God who providentially controls all things. So what’s going on?

     Scripture explicitly teaches us that things we might attribute to mere chance are actually controlled by our sovereign God. The entire book of Esther is an example of God’s providence working through seeming coincidences. Proverbs informs us that “the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (16:33). God, then, is in control even of things as simple as the “roll of the dice.” As the Westminster Confession explains: “God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least” (5.1).

     So-called coincidences appear to be striking glimpses of God’s providence in our day-to-day world. We know and confess that all of life is under God’s providential control, but we tend to forget this in the humdrum regularity of our lives. So-called coincidences are a splash of water in the face, as it were, to us and to others who can tend to forget that our world is not simply matter in motion. God is always trying to tell us something. We just don’t listen very well.

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Per Amazon, Keith A. Mathison (MA, Reformed Theological Seminary; PhD, Whitefield Theological Seminary) is dean of the Ligonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies and an associate editor of Tabletalk magazine at Ligonier Ministries. He is editor of When Shall These Things Be: A Reformed Response to Hyper-Preterism and associate editor of The Reformation Study Bible. He lives in Lake Mary, Florida, with his wife and children.

Keith Mathison Books:

The Fine Line

By Nicholas Batzig 7/1/2010

     Every Christian is to have a conscience singularly informed by the Word of God, but it is utterly indispensable for the minister of the gospel. Ministers are called to take a stand for truth before those who oppose the Word of God in the world; but they also face the unique challenge of taking a stand for truth before those who oppose biblical teaching within the church. In a day of widespread individualism, heightened biblical illiteracy, and diminishing respect for gospel ministry, ministers are faced with the daunting task of taking a firm but loving stand in matters of faith and practice.

     The fiercest opposition in the church frequently arises from those whose consciences have been least informed by the Word of God. Often well meaning in their sentiments, such individuals unintentionally cause much harm to the work of the church. Such opposition is amplified in an atmosphere where the Word of God is taught with authority and precision. While similar challenges surface in all genuine gospel ministries, they are more likely to arise in new or smaller churches. In a small church, there is more opportunity to express opinions. In a church plant, opinions are more regularly asked for and welcomed. Individuals who are hesitant to voice discontentment in larger and more established churches sometimes assume that their voices will be heard in smaller settings. What are ministers to do when confronted with such challenges? How are they to deal with complaints that stem from the weak consciences of parishioners in matters of faith and life? What steps can be taken to protect a new church from suffering the irreparable damage of being ruled by the consciences of weaker parishioners?

     Ministers first must have their own consciences deeply informed by the Word of God. The word conscience means “with knowledge.” It is crucial for gospel ministers to know and be convinced of what the Scriptures teach. God has revealed in Scripture everything He wants the church to believe and practice. Ministers must search the Scriptures carefully to know what doctrines and practices are taught therein (see 2 Tim. 3:16).

     Prayer is equally important when the doctrines and worship of the church are at stake. Being convinced of what God requires in His Word will enable the minister to pray more effectively (for example, see 2 Kings 19:14—19). The Lord has promised to hear His people and to answer them when they pray according to His will.

     In addition to searching the Scriptures and bringing difficulties to God in prayer, ministers should be familiar with the doctrines and practices that have been taught throughout church history. Historic creeds and confessions are invaluable resources for discovering the formulations of any given doctrine. The old Reformed confessions are especially useful. They contain the fullest expression of doctrinal truths the Protestant churches have articulated. These resources, while not infallible, are nevertheless beneficial to the degree that they inform us of what our forefathers believed the Scriptures taught in matters of faith and worship.

     One of the greatest privileges a minister has is to be part of a session. God has provided a plurality of elders for the oversight of the body of Christ. In this way, the Lord ensures that the pastor is not alone. When confronted with opposition to a particular doctrine or practice, the minister has the benefit of bringing the matter before the session of the church. The wisdom of Proverbs 11:14 is shown in the session: “In an abundance of counselors there is safety.” At times, a minister may need to seek counsel outside of the session. He will find that surrounding himself with wise and godly counsel is an enormous benefit for determining the right course of action.

     Finally, officers of the church must carry out their oversight in love. It is far too easy for men to take a firm stand in an insensitive manner. Remember the words of the apostle Paul, “Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?” (1 Cor. 4:21). Paul dealt with every conceivable challenge a minister may face today; in fact, it is safe to say that he had them to a greater extent. While he was unmovable in his resolve and firm in his teaching, he was loving and gentle in his response. Every biblical teaching and practice must be firmly enforced, but it must be done in love for the wellbeing of the people of God.

     There is a fine line between God-given authority and authoritarianism. The former is absolutely necessary for the growth and development of the people of God. The latter is destructive to the same. As is true of the husband’s role in marriage, ministers can abuse their God-given authority by lording it over those He has entrusted to their care.

     There is no more pressing need for the church at present than for her ministers to take a firm but loving stand in matters of faith and worship. The Lord Jesus Christ will help His servants as they resolve to faithfully minister the whole counsel God.

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     Rev. Nick Batzig is pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Richmond Hill, Ga. He is editor of The Christward Collective.

That Your Prayers May Not Be Hindered

By John Piper 1/2/1994

     In Peter’s first letter Peter mentions prayer three times. What is remarkable about these three instances is that there is something common to each of them. Let me read them to you and see if you can detect the common thread running through each.

     First, Peter has a word for husbands about prayer and their relationship with their wives:

1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.   ESV

     Second, in the very next paragraph he speaks to all believers (verse 8) about being brotherly and kindhearted and humble and (verse 9) not returning evil for evil but instead giving a blessing. Then to support these admonitions he quotes Psalm 34:

1 Peter 3:8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For

“Whoever desires to love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
11  let him turn away from evil and do good;
let him seek peace and pursue it.
12  For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
  ESV

     Third, in 1 Peter 4:7, he says,

1 Peter 4:7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.   ESV

     Now, what is the unusual common thread running through those three references to prayer? What struck me is that all three teach us not that praying helps us live right, but that living right helps us pray. Now it’s true that praying is one of the ways God has appointed to help us live the way we should (see Colossians 1:9–10). But Peter’s point in every one of these texts is that it’s true the other way around: God has appointed a way for us to live which will help us pray. There are ways to live that hinder prayer and there is a way to live that helps prayer.

Right Living Helps Our Praying

     Let’s look at these similarities again and you ask this time: what is Peter telling us about how living helps praying?

How Husbands Live with Their Wives

     The first one in 1 Peter 3:7 tells us husbands that there is a way to live with our wives that can clog our prayers, and a way to live with our wives that will help our prayers.

1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.   ESV

     If you want your prayers to be helped and not hindered you have to live with your wife in a certain way. There has to be an effort to understand her so as to know her needs. There has to be a special solicitousness of her weaknesses and what she especially needs from you. There has to be a recognition that she is a fellow heir of the grace of life and an accompanying bestowal of honor rather than any belittling or demeaning. When we husbands live like this (with understanding, tender care, and honor), our prayers will not be hindered. If we do not live like this, our prayers will be hindered. Here’s the way one good commentary put it:

So concerned is God that Christian husbands live in an understanding and loving way with their wives, that he “interrupts” his relationship with them when they are not doing so. No Christian husband should presume to think that any spiritual good will be accomplished by his life without an effective ministry of prayer. And no husband may expect an effective prayer life unless he lives with his wife “in an understanding way, bestowing honor” on her. To take the time to develop and maintain a good marriage is God’s will; it is serving God; it is a spiritual activity pleasing in his sight. (Wayne Grudem, 1 Peter, 146)
     There is a way to live with our wives that clogs our prayers and ruins our spiritual impact. And there is a way to live with our wives that frees our prayers and helps empower our spiritual impact.

How All Believers Live

     2 Peter goes on in verses 8 and 9 to call all of us, not just husbands, to be sympathetic, and brotherly and kindhearted and humble, and not to return evil for evil but to bless those who are unkind to us. Then he gives a reason for why we should live like this. It’s a quote from Psalm 34 and in verse 12 the reason comes to a climax with the same kind of argument as in 1 Peter 3:7, namely, prayers are hindered if you don’t live this way. God has a special openness to the prayers of those who pursue peace and whose lips are pure and who don’t use guile (deceit). Verse 12: “For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”


1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
  ESV

     God listens to the prayers of those who live like this: keep the tongue from evil, refrain from guile, seek peace, do righteousness. So here again Peter is telling us how to keep our prayers from being hindered. It’s the same thing Jesus was teaching in the Lord’s Prayer when he told us to pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” (Matthew 6:12). Not forgiving those who repent will clog our prayers. That’s Peter’s point too. There is a way to live that hinders our prayers and a way to live that helps our prayers.

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10  Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11  Give us this day our daily bread,
12  and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13  And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.   ESV

Special Endeavors We Can Make

     Third, in 1 Peter 4:7 he says,

1 Peter 4:7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.   ESV

     Two things: first, be of sound judgment for the sake of your prayers; second, be sober for the sake of your prayers. In other words, there is a way to think and live that will hinder your prayers and there is a way to think and live that will help your prayers.

The Truth from These Texts

     So there is a doctrine — a biblical truth — that we can now state with great confidence from these texts: Christians must endeavor to live in a way that does not hinder their prayers. It has three parts:

     It implies that prayers can be hindered. Our prayer life can be clogged, blocked.

     What blocks prayer is often our lives — the way we live, the way we relate to wives or husbands or kids or parents or colleagues or neighbors.

     Opening the way of prayer to God involves a conscious endeavor. In each of these texts Peter is telling us to resolve to do something so that our prayers will not be hindered.

     In other words, a free, open, real, satisfying life of prayer is not automatic. It doesn’t just happen to you while you are passive. If it did, these three texts would be pointless. Your prayer life in 1994 depends in part — under God and his enabling grace (1 Corinthians 15:10) — on how you choose to live at home and at work and in your private life of solitude.

     So another way to state the doctrine we’ve seen in these verses would be: do whatever you must do so that your prayers are not hindered. Form the resolution right now in your heart while I am preaching that you will not be passive about your prayer life this year; that you will take some active steps to make it good.

Why Does It Matter?

     Let me ask a question that might increase your incentive to do that. Why does it matter that your prayer life not be hindered? There are a lot of tremendously important answers to that question.

     You don’t want your prayers to be hindered because when your prayers are hindered, it means you are not connecting with God, and that God himself starts to seem distant and unreal.

     Now for an unbeliever who has never known a peaceful, personal walk with God, that would not be so unusual. Unless the Holy Spirit is at work in their lives, they have deadened themselves to it. But for a person who has known God and loved him, and tasted the sweetness of peace and fellowship, and a sense of being right with God, nothing is more terrifying than the growing feeling that God does not seem to be there anymore.

     To wake up in the morning or to go to bed at night and to lie there and stare at the ceiling and feel, “It’s not real. He’s not listening.”

     To feel like all the bolts in your mind are coming loose and it won’t hold still long enough to focus on anything, let alone God. There’s just an uneasy rattling and slipping of instability.

     To try to formulate a prayer and feel utterly phony because your mind is so full of worldly stuff and earthly feelings and fleshly desires that a sweet, peaceful, confident communion with God in prayer seems about as possible as flying to the moon.

     These are terrifying experiences for a Christian who has known peace with God, and unhindered communion with him. And so I am saying that Peter wants to spare you that. I want to spare you that. I want to avoid it myself at any price.

Resolve to Take Peter’s Teaching Seriously

     So Peter tells us: endeavor to live in a way that does not hinder your prayers. (Note: it almost goes without saying that this endeavor is not an effort to earn wages from God but is an effort to follow our Good Physician’s loving prescription because we trust him.) Resolve this morning that during Prayer Week, you will take his teaching seriously and seek to do whatever you need to do to unclog your prayers and set them free.

     It may be that changes need to be made at home. Nothing is more important than unclogging the streams of prayer and power that are clogged at home.

     It may be that changes need to be made in the wider circle of relationships where there is bitterness or guile.

     Or it may be that there are simple awakenings that need to happen concerning the pattern of prayer in your life. When Peter says

1 Peter 4:7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.   ESV

     This I think, is what God wants you to especially hear from this message this morning: Awaken sound judgment regarding what hinders prayer in your life. Be sober of spirit regarding prayer. Sound mind. Sober spirit.

Jesus Does Not Kiss a Drunk Wife

     Jesus does not kiss a drunk wife. He may carry her off the street and back to bed. He may be utterly patient with her, and set before her hot coffee and fresh starts. But he will not kiss a drunk wife.

     What do I mean? I mean that when the bride of Christ, the church, is drunk with the world, she may turn to him for a brief kiss of prayer, but her breath reeks so bad of worldliness that he turns his face away.

Nobody Coasts into Sobriety

     “Be sober for the sake of your prayers,” Peter says. But whoever sobered up by coasting? Nobody coasts into sobriety. Not physical sobriety, and not spiritual sobriety. Sobriety happens when we begin to use sound judgment about our lives. Sound judgment about how we spend our time. Sound judgment about the spiritual climate of our homes. Sound judgment about the worldliness of our leisure. Sound judgment about the music we listen to, the movies we attend, the TV we watch.

     Nobody sobers up without intentional steps to get the bottles of worldliness off the shelves, out of the cabinet, and out of the house. When that happens, then the spiritual breath begins to clear up and the kiss of prayer is not hindered.

Helping Each Other to This End

     There are so many ways we can be helpful to each other at this point. I want us to teach and exhort and encourage and if necessary rebuke each other. I invite you to pray about what God might be wanting you to say to one another.


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      (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Read The Psalms In "1" Year

Psalm 77

In the Day of Trouble I Seek the Lord
77 To The Choirmaster: According To Jeduthun. A Psalm Of Asaph.

1 I cry aloud to God,
aloud to God, and he will hear me.
2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
my soul refuses to be comforted.
3 When I remember God, I moan;
when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah

4 You hold my eyelids open;
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5 I consider the days of old,
the years long ago.
6 I said, “Let me remember my song in the night;
let me meditate in my heart.”
Then my spirit made a diligent search:
7 “Will the Lord spurn forever,
and never again be favorable?
8 Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
Are his promises at an end for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah

ESV Study Bible

By John Walvoord

The Coming Day of Judgment and Redemption

     Isaiah 63:1–64:12. The Lord will come as a victorious conqueror, coming from Edom with garments stained with crimson. This predicted a coming day of judgment on Edom ( 63:1 ), a nation that often opposed Israel and was located to the southeast of Israel. The passage describes Christ as treading a winepress of the judgment of God with blood spattering His garments (vv.  2–3 ). It will be “the day of vengeance” (v.  4 ). Christ’s coming will be at a time of deliverance of Israel and her restoration, but it will be a time of judgment on those who are not right with God (vv.  3–6 ). Israel’s many past blessings were contrasted to her future glory. Israel will recall then how God had blessed her in the days of Moses (vv.  7–14 ), even though Israel rebelled against God (v.  10).

     Israel petitioned God to judge the wicked who opposed her even though she was conscious of her own sins ( 64:1–7 ). Israel deplored her destruction by her enemies, the desolation of Jerusalem, and the destruction of her temple by fire (vv.  8–11 ).

Blessing for the Righteous Contrasted to Destruction of the Wicked

     Isaiah 65:1–16. After Israel’s sins were enumerated (vv.  1–7 ), God predicted her future blessings (v.  10 ). By contrast, the wicked will be judged (vv.  11–12 ). In God’s future dealings with Israel, He will supply all the needs of His servants, but will judge those who reject Him (vv.  13–16 ).

     Isaiah 65:17–25. A glorious picture was presented of the ultimate new heavens and new earth (vv.  17–19 ). The prophet then returned to the theme of Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom, in which there will be longevity but also death. One who dies at one hundred years will be considered still a youth. The millennial earth will provide Israel with security. “They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit” (v.  21 ). By contrast, the wicked will not take possessions away from the people of Israel: “My chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands” (v.  22 ). Israel’s children will not be “doomed to misfortune” (v.  23 ). Tranquility in nature will also occur: “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain” (v.  25; cf.  11:6–7 ). These prophecies do not fit the eternal New Jerusalem but relate to the millennium.

     In expressing Israel’s future hope, the Old Testament often mingled prophecies of the millennial kingdom with that of the New Jerusalem in eternity. The distinctions are made clear when the details are observed. Here, obviously, the millennial kingdom was being described because in the New Jerusalem there will be no death, no sin, and no judgment. The millennial kingdom will be a time of great joy and rejoicing and deliverance for the people of God, but death and sin will still be present.

Judgment on the Wicked Contrasted to the Eternal Hope of the Righteous

     Isaiah 66:1–24. This chapter describes the millennial kingdom following the second coming of Christ. Because heaven is God’s throne, it follows that earth is “my footstool” (v.  1 ). Accordingly, no temple can really contain God. God declared that Israel’s sacrifices would be of no use unless her heart was with Him. God promised to judge with justice those who were not living in right relationship with Him (vv.  4–6 ).

     Israel’s restoration will be like a child born before its time. Israel will be delivered and restored quickly (vv.  8–9 ). God commanded her to rejoice (v.  10 ). In the future millennium, God also promised to care for His people like a mother caring for a baby (vv.  11–13 ). Israel “will flourish like grass” (v.  14 ). But the wicked will see God descending on them in judgment (vv.  15–17 ). Even the nations will come to see the glory of God, and those not of the nation of Israel will be brought to Jerusalem to worship God (vv.  19–21 ).

     The closing verses of  Isaiah repeat the promise that God will care for His own forever, in contrast to those who experience eternal punishment (vv.  22–24 . The close of the book of  Isaiah is a stern warning to those who reject God and a word of assurance to those who put their trust in Him. These prophecies will be fulfilled in the millennium.

Prophecy In Jeremiah Concerning Judah

     Jeremiah, though the son of a Levitical priest, Hilkiah, ministered as a prophet from approximately 625 to 582 BC. His prophecies were delivered in a time of great distress and apostasy for the people of Israel.  His prophecies concerning Judah and the nations revealed more detail and concerned more peoples than any other book of Scripture.  Jeremiah lived to see many of his prophecies literally fulfilled, but some stretched to the end of the age. His prophecies concerning Judah were revealed from  Jeremiah chapter 1 through  chapter 45.

General Prophecies of Divine Judgment on Judah

     Jeremiah 1:13–19. Jeremiah reported this prophecy of the Lord: “‘What do you see?’ ‘I see a boiling pot, tilting away from the north,’ I answered. The LORD said to me, ‘From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms,’ declares the LORD” (vv.  13–14 ).

     In the verses that follow, God declared that the kings who would conquer Jerusalem would set up their thrones in the gate of Jerusalem. God pronounced judgments on the people because of their wickedness (vv.  15–16 ).

     God further instructed Jeremiah not to be terrified but to take his stand against the enemies of God. Jeremiah was informed, “‘They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the LORD” (v.  19 ). These prophecies were fulfilled in the Babylonian captivity.

     Jeremiah 2:35–37. After a stinging indictment declaring that Israel was guilty of spiritual harlotry, God declared His purpose to judge her: “But I will pass judgment on you because you say, ‘I have not sinned’” (v.  35 ). God informed her that though she would turn away from Egypt as well as from Assyria, “you will also leave that place with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those you trust; you will not be helped by them” (v.  37 ). The reference of this prophecy is that though Israel declared her independence of Assyria as well as Egypt, she would be carried off as prisoners under the Babylonian captivity that would follow the Assyrian period ( 2 Chron. 36:15–21 ).

Blessings to Follow Judgment

     Jeremiah 3:11–18. Declaring that Judah had been unfaithful to the Lord, the Lord urged her to return. He promised that she would be received in mercy (v.  12 ). God will “give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding” (v.  15 ). God pictured Jerusalem at the time of her restoration in the millennium: “At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. In those days the house of Judah will join the house of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your forefathers as an inheritance” (vv.  17–18 ).

Disaster to Come on Israel

     Jeremiah 4:1–31. The Lord beseeched Israel to put away her idols (v.  1 ) and to “circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done — burn with no one to quench it” (v.  4 ). Instead of being blessed (v.  2 ), she would be punished by the Lord.

     God declared that she would be invaded from the north (vv.  5–9 ). Judah was challenged to flee to her fortified cities (v.  5 ) because God was “bringing disaster from the north, even terrible destruction” (v.  6 ). The verses that follow picture the cities lying in ruins and the people in sackcloth (vv.  7–9 ). Jeremiah was distressed with this revelation, telling the Lord that He had spoken of peace when actually “the sword is at our throats” (v.  10 ). In dramatic fashion God predicted how the enemy would advance (vv.  11–17 ). The verses that follow (vv.  18–20 ) declare that this was brought on Judah by her conduct, which resulted in “the whole land” lying “in ruins” (v.  20 ). The destruction of Judah was also predicted (vv.  21–31 ). This was fulfilled in the Babylonian captivity.

Divine Reasons for Judging Israel

     Jeremiah 5:1–19. Because of her sins, Judah would be attacked by the lion, the wolf, and the leopard (v.  6 ). God described the devastation of Judah’s vineyards because “they have lied about the LORD; they said, ‘He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine’” (v.  12 ). Because Judah’s “prophets are but wind” (v.  13 ), God will do precisely to her what she said would not be done.

     God would come on the nation of Israel and bring “a distant nation against” them (v.  15 ). They would devour everything before them, but God promised, “‘I will not destroy you completely.’ And when the people ask, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own’” (vv.  18–19 ). This was fulfilled in the Babylonian captivity.

     Jeremiah 6:1–30. After a graphic description of Israel’s judgment because of her sins, God declared, “Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law” (v.  19 ). He declared her offerings were not acceptable (v.  20 ). A great army would come from the north (v.  22 ), which would show no mercy to Judah. She was exhorted to put on sackcloth and roll in ashes (v.  26 ). This was fulfilled in the Babylonian captivity.

          __________________________________________________________________

Every Prophecy of the Bible: Clear Explanations for Uncertain Times

The Continual Burnt Offering (Luke 7:9)

By H.A. Ironside - 1941

July 19
Luke 7:9  When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”   ESV

     It has pleased God to honor our faith because faith is that which honors Him. Faith takes Him at His word and counts the things which do not exist as though they did (Romans 4:17). But it is not faith that does the work. It is but the means which God uses to unloose His unlimited power. Faith is the hand which lays hold of omnipotence. As man on earth, our Lord was the pattern man of faith and He taught faith to others. He chose, in this scene of His humiliation, to live in daily dependence upon the living Father (John 6:57). Thus the works of power He wrought were those which the Father gave Him to do (John 14:10). In rebuking disease and death, and in saving from sin those who sought His grace, He was presenting the heart of God toward a needy world. His concern for the life and health of mankind was but the expressed desire of God the Father, that all men who believe in Him might be at last delivered from the effects of sin. It is not always His will to grant perfect health now, but faith can firmly trust Him in every circumstance.

Romans 4:17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

John 6:57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

John 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
  ESV


More lonely grows the journey as it nears the end,
Yet with me walks the one Unchanging Friend.
Though all should leave, yet He will still abide
Till death, and up through death will safely guide;
And well I know, He ne’er will loose His hold
Till He has led me safe within His fold,
Where loved ones long in glory, watch and wait,
And lengthening shadows lift at Heaven’s Gate.
--- M. E. Logie-Pirie


The Continual Burnt Offering: Daily Meditations on the Word of God

The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Translated by Henry Beveridge

     CHAPTER 19.

OF THE FIVE SACRAMENTS, FALSELY SO CALLED. THEIR SPURIOUSNESS PROVED, AND THEIR TRUE CHARACTER EXPLAINED.

There are two divisions of this chapter,--I. A general discussion of these five sacraments, sec. 1-3. II. A special consideration of each. 1. Of Confirmation, sec. 4-13. 2. Of Penance, sec. 14-17. 3. Of Extreme Unction, sec. 18-21. 4. Of Order, in which the seven so-called sacraments have originated, sec. 22-23. 5. Of Marriage, sec. 34-37.

Sections.

1. Connection of the present discussion with that concerning Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Impiety of the popish teachers in attributing more to human rites than to the ordinances of God.

2. Men cannot institute sacraments. Necessary to keep up a distinction between sacraments and other ceremonies.

3. Seven sacraments not to be found in ecclesiastical writers. Augustine, who may represent all the others, acknowledged two sacraments only.

4. Nature of confirmation in ancient times. The laying on of hands.

5. This kind of confirmation afterwards introduced. It is falsely called a sacrament.

6. Popish argument for confirmation answered.

7. Argument confirmed by the example of Christ. Absurdity and impiety of Papists in calling their oil the oil of salvation.

8. Papistical argument, that Baptism cannot be complete without Confirmation. Answered.

9. Argument, that without confirmation we cannot be fully Christians. Answer.

10. Argument, that the Unction in confirmation is more excellent than Baptism. Answer.

11. Answer continued. Argument, that confirmation has greater virtue.

12. Argument from the practice of antiquity. Augustine's view of confirmation.

13. The ancient confirmation very praiseworthy. Should be restored in churches in the present day.

14. Of Penitence. Confused and absurd language of the Popish doctors. Imposition of hands in ancient times. This made by the Papists a kind of foundation of the sacrament of Penance.

15. Disagreement among Papists themselves, as to the grounds on which penance is regarded as a sacrament.

16. More plausibility in calling the absolution of the priest, than in calling penance a sacrament.

17. Penance not truly a sacrament. Baptism the sacrament of penitence.

18. Extreme Unction described. No foundation for it in the words of James.

19. No better ground for making this unction a sacrament, than any of the other symbols mentioned in Scripture.

20. Insult offered by this unction to the Holy Spirit. It cannot be a sacrament, as it was not instituted by Christ, and has no promise annexed to it.

21. No correspondence between the unction enjoined by James and the anointing of the Papists.

22. Of ecclesiastical orders. Two points for discussion. Absurdities here introduced. Whether ecclesiastical order is a sacrament. Papists not agreed as to holy orders.

23. Insult to Christ in attempting to make him their colleague.

24. The greater part of these orders empty names implying no certain office. Popish exorcists.

25. Absurdity of the tonsure.

26. The Judaizing nature of the tonsure. Why Paul shaved his head in consequence of a vow.

27. Origin of this clerical tonsure as given by Augustine. Absurd ceremonies in consecrating Doorkeepers, Readers, Exorcists, and Acolytes.

28. Of the higher class of orders called Holy Orders. Insult offered to Christ when ministers are regarded as priests. Holy orders have nothing of the nature of a sacrament.

29. Absurd imitation of our Saviour in breathing on his apostles.

30. Absurdity of the anointing employed.

31. Imposition of hands. Absurdity of, in Papistical ordination.

32. Ordination of deacons. Absurd forms of Papists.

33. Of sub-deacons.

34. Marriage not a sacrament.

35. Nothing in Scripture to countenance the idea that marriage is a sacrament.

36. Origin of the notion that marriage is a sacrament.

37. Practical abuses from this erroneous idea of marriage. Conclusion.

1. The above discourse concerning the sacraments might have the effect, among the docile and sober-minded, of preventing them from indulging their curiosity, or from embracing, without authority from the word, any other sacraments than those two, which they know to have been instituted by the Lord. But since the idea of seven sacraments, almost common in the mouths of all, and circulated in all schools and sermons, by mere antiquity, has struck its roots. and is even now seated in the minds of men, I thought it might be worth while to give a separate and closer consideration of the other five, which are vulgarly classed with the true and genuine sacraments of the Lord, and, after wiping away every gloss, to hold them up to the view of the simple, that they may see what their true nature is, and how falsely they have hitherto been regarded as sacraments. Here, at the outset, I would declare to all the pious, that I engage not in this dispute about a word for love of wrangling, but am induced, by weighty causes, to impugn the abuse of it. I am not unaware that Christians are the masters of words, as they are of all things, and that, therefore, they may at pleasure adapt words to things, provided a pious meaning is retained, though there should be some impropriety in the mode of expression. All this I concede, though it were better to make words subordinate to things than things to words. But in the name of sacrament, the case is different. For those who set down seven sacraments, at the same time give this definition to all--viz. that they are visible forms of invisible grace; and at the same time, make them all vehicles of the Holy Spirit, instruments for conferring righteousness, causes of procuring grace. Accordingly, the Master of Sentences himself denies that the sacraments of the Mosaic Law are properly called by this name, because they exhibited not what they figured. Is it tolerable, I ask, that the symbols which the Lord has consecrated with his own lips, which he has distinguished by excellent promises, should be regarded as no sacraments, and that, meanwhile, this honour should be transferred to those rites which men have either devised of themselves, or at least observe without any express command from God? Therefore, let them either change the definition, or refrain from this use of the word, which may afterwards give rise to false and absurd opinions. Extreme unction, they say, is a figure and cause of invisible grace, because it is a sacrament. If we cannot possibly admit the inference, we must certainly meet them on the subject of the name, that we may not receive it on terms which may furnish occasion for such an error. On the other hand, when they prove it to be a sacrament, they add the reason, because it consists of the external sign and the word. If we find neither command nor promise, what else can we do than protest against it?

2. It now appears that we are not quarreling about a word, but raising a not unnecessary discussion as to the reality. Accordingly, we most strenuously maintain what we formerly confirmed by invincible argument, that the power of instituting a sacrament belongs to God alone, since a sacrament ought, by the sure promise of God, to raise up and comfort the consciences of believers, which could never receive this assurance from men. A sacrament ought to be a testimony of the good-will of God toward us. Of this no man or angel can be witness, since God has no counsellor (Isa. 40:13; Rom. 11:34). He himself alone, with legitimate authority, testifies of himself to us by his word. A sacrament is a seal of attestation or promise of God. Now, it could not be sealed by corporeal things, or the elements of this world, unless they were confirmed and set apart for this purpose by the will of God. Man, therefore, cannot institute a sacrament, because it is not in the power of man to make such divine mysteries lurk under things so abject. The word of God must precede to make a sacrament to be a sacrament, as Augustine most admirably shows (Hom. in Joann. 80). Moreover, it is useful to keep up some distinction between sacraments and other ceremonies, if we would not fall into many absurdities. The apostles prayed on their bended knees; therefore our knees may not be bent without a sacrament (Acts 9:20; 20:36). The disciples are said to have prayed toward the east; thus looking at the east is a sacrament. Paul would have men in every place to lift up pure hands (1 Tim. 2:8); and it is repeatedly stated that the saints prayed with uplifted hands, let the outstretching, therefore, of hands also become a sacrament; in short, let all the gestures of saints pass into sacraments, though I should not greatly object to this, provided it was not connected with those greater inconveniences.

3. If they would press us with the authority of the ancient Church, I say that they are using a gloss. This number seven is nowhere found in the ecclesiastical writers, nor is it well ascertained at what time it crept in. I confess, indeed, that they sometimes use freedom with the term sacrament, but what do they mean by it? all ceremonies, external writs, and exercises of piety. But when they speak of those signs which ought to be testimonies of the divine favour toward us, they are contented with those two, Baptism and the Eucharist. Lest any one suppose that this is falsely alleged by me, I will here give a few passages from Augustine. "First, I wish you to hold that the principle point in this discussion is, that our Lord Jesus Christ (as he himself says in the gospel) has placed us under a yoke which is easy, and a burden which is light. Hence he has knit together the society of his new people by sacraments, very few in number, most easy of observance, and most excellent in meaning; such is baptism consecrated by the name of the Trinity: such is the communion of the body and blood of the Lord, and any other, if recommended in the canonical Scriptures" (August. ad. Januar. Ep. 118). Again, "After the resurrection of our Lord, our Lord himself, and apostolic discipline, appointed, instead of many, a few signs, and these most easy of performance, most august in meaning, most chaste in practice; such is baptism and the celebration of the body and blood of the Lord" (August. De. Doct. Christ. Lib. 3 cap. 9). Why does he here make no mention of the sacred number, I mean seven? Is it probable that he would have omitted it if it had then been established in the Church, especially seeing he is otherwise more curious in observing numbers than might be necessary? Nay, when he makes mention of Baptism and the Supper, and is silent as to others, [664] does he not sufficiently intimate that these two ordinances excel in special dignity, and that other ceremonies sink down to an inferior place? Wherefore, I say, that those sacramentary doctors are not only unsupported by the word of God, but also by the consent of the early Church, however much they may plume themselves on the pretence that they have this consent. But let us now come to particulars.

OF CONFIRMATION. [665]

4. It was anciently customary for the children of Christians, after they had grown up, to appear before the bishop to fulfil that duty which was required of such adults as presented themselves for baptism. These sat among the catechumens until they were duly instructed in the mysteries of the faith, and could make a confession of it before bishop and people. The infants, therefore, who had been initiated by baptism, not having then given a confession of faith to the Church, were again, toward the end of their boyhood, or on adolescence, brought forward by their parents, and were examined by the bishop in terms of the Catechism which was then in common use. In order that this act, which otherwise justly required to be grave and holy, might have more reverence and dignity, the ceremony of laying on of hands was also used. Thus the boy, on his faith being approved, was dismissed with a solemn blessing. Ancient writers often make mention of this custom. Pope Leo says (Ep. 39), "If any one returns from heretics, let him not be baptised again, but let that which was there wanting to him--viz. the virtue of the Spirit, be conferred by the laying on of the hands of the bishop." Our opponents will here exclaim, that the name of sacrament is justly given to that by which the Holy Spirit is conferred. But Leo elsewhere explains what he means by these words (Ep. 77); "Let not him who was baptised by heretics be rebaptised, but be confirmed by the laying on of hands with the invocation of the Holy Spirit, because he received only the form of baptism without sanctification." Jerome also mentions it (Contra Luciferian). Now though I deny not that Jerome is somewhat under delusion when he says that the observance is apostolical, he is, however, very far from the follies of these men. And he softens the expression when he adds, that this benediction is given to bishops only, more in honour of the priesthood than from any necessity of law. This laying on of hands, which is done simply by way of benediction, I commend, and would like to see restored to its pure use in the present day.

5. A later age having almost obliterated the reality, introduced a kind of fictitious confirmation as a divine sacrament. They feigned that the virtue of confirmation consisted in conferring the Holy Spirit, for increase of grace, on him who had been prepared in baptism for righteousness, and in confirming for contest those who in baptism were regenerated to life. This confirmation is performed by unction, and the following form of words: "I sign thee with the sign of the holy cross, and confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." All fair and venerable. But where is the word of God which promises the presence of the Holy Spirit here? Not one iota can they allege. How will they assure us that their chrism is a vehicle of the Holy Spirit? We see oil, that is, a thick and greasy liquid, but nothing more. "Let the word be added to the element," says Augustine, "and it will become a sacrament." Let them, I say, produce this word if they would have us to see anything more in the oil than oil. But if they would show themselves to be ministers of the sacraments as they ought, there would be no room for further dispute. The first duty of a minister is not to do anything without a command. Come, then, and let them produce some command for this ministry, and I will not add a word. If they have no command they cannot excuse their sacrilegious audacity. For this reason our Saviour interogated the Pharisees as to the baptism of John, "Was it from heaven, or of men?" (Mt. 21:25). If they had answered, Of men, he held them confessed that it was frivolous and vain; if Of heaven, they were forced to acknowledge the doctrine of John. Accordingly, not to be too contumelious to John, they did not venture to say that it was of men. Therefore, if confirmation is of men, it is proved to be frivolous and vain; if they would persuade us that it is of heaven, let them prove it.

6. They indeed defend themselves by the example of the apostles, who, they presume, did nothing rashly. In this they are right, nor would they be blamed by us if they showed themselves to be imitators of the apostles. But what did the apostles do? Luke narrates (Acts 8:15, 17), that the apostles who were at Jerusalem, when they heard that Samaria had received the word of God, sent thither Peter and John, that Peter and John prayed for the Samaritans, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, who had not yet come upon any of them, they having only been baptised in the name of Jesus; that after prayer they laid their hands upon them, and that by this laying on of hands the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit. Luke repeatedly mentions this laying on of hands. I hear what the apostles did, that is, they faithfully executed their ministry. It pleased the Lord that those visible and admirable gifts of the Holy Spirit, which he then poured out upon his people, should be administered and distributed by his apostles by the laying on of hands. I think that there was no deeper mystery under this laying on of hands, but I interpret that this kind of ceremony was used by them to intimate, by the outward act, that they commended to God, and, as it were, offered him on whom they laid hands. Did this ministry, which the apostles then performed, still remain in the Church, it would also behove us to observe the laying on of hands: but since that gift has ceased to be conferred, to what end is the laying on of hands? Assuredly the Holy Spirit is still present with the people of God; without his guidance and direction the Church of God cannot subsist. For we have a promise of perpetual duration, by which Christ invites the thirsty to come to him, that they may drink living water (John 7:37). But those miraculous powers and manifest operations, which were distributed by the laying on of hands, have ceased. They were only for a time. For it was right that the new preaching of the gospel, the new kingdom of Christ, should be signalised and magnified by unwonted and unheard-of miracles. When the Lord ceased from these, he did not forthwith abandon his Church, but intimated that the magnificence of his kingdom, and the dignity of his word, had been sufficiently manifested. In what respect then can these stage-players say that they imitate the apostles? The object of the laying on of hands was, that the evident power of the Holy Spirit might be immediately exerted. This they effect not. Why then do they claim to themselves the laying on of hands, which is indeed said to have been used by the apostles, but altogether to a different end?

     Christian Classics Ethereal Library / Public Domain

     Institutes of the Christian Religion



  • Why Study
    The Talmud
  • It's Tough
    to Be Kind
  • Why Study
    The Lectionary

#1 Holger Zellentin | University of Nottingham

 

#2 Khristi Adams | Biola University

 

#3 Tom O'Loughlin | University of Nottingham

 


     Devotionals, notes, poetry and more

coram Deo
     8/1/2014    Radically Ordinary

     The ordinary Christian life is not the opposite of the radical Christian life. The ordinary Christian life is a radical life. The ordinary Christian life is a life of daily trusting Christ; daily repenting of our sins; daily abiding in Christ; daily loving Christ; daily dying to self; daily taking up our crosses and following Christ; daily loving God and neighbor; and daily proclaiming the gospel to ourselves, our families, our friends, and our communities. Every Christian is an ordinary Christian, and every ordinary Christian is a radical Christian. The ordinary Christian is not a complacent, passionless, nominal, or casual Christian. On the contrary, every ordinary Christian person—child, teenager, college student, father, mother, husband, wife, single man, single woman, retired man, and retired woman—every Christian is radical because every Christian is united to Christ by faith and will bear radical, life-giving fruit.

     And what about the “radical” call to foreign missions? It’s true that not every Christian is a foreign missionary, but every Christian is on mission. We’re on mission not just when we drive out of our church parking lots every week but when we roll out of bed every morning. As followers of Christ, we are on mission when we go across the globe, when we go across the street, when we sit at the kitchen table with our family, when we enter our workplace or classroom, when we kneel to pray at the bedsides of our children, and when we discipline them and point them to our sinless Savior. Although not every Christian is called to serve God in a foreign country, every Christian is a foreigner in his own country—a citizen of heaven—and an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Every Christian is called out of darkness and into the light, and then called to go back into the darkness to shine—wherever God places him. And wherever He has placed us, we are called to be radically faithful, radically diligent, and radically shining as a light in our dark world. We are called to radically go wherever He calls us to go or radically stay right where we are, as we radically send and support those whom He has called to go. All of this we are to do with the same commitment and passion with which we radically serve alongside one another in the ordinary way Christ has ordained.

     Throughout history, God has done extraordinary things through ordinary people. The ordinary Christian will always fight the status quo of lukewarm Christianity. The ordinary Christian will always fight nominal, passionless Christianity. Whatever we do, wherever we live, whatever our income, whatever our vocation, whatever our education, whatever we do in retirement, whatever we drive, whatever we eat or drink—we are called to do all for the glory of God as ordinary, radical followers and proclaimers of Jesus Christ on mission to make disciples of all nations, in whatever place God has called us to live and serve.

     click here for article source

     Dr. Burk Parsons (@BurkParsons) is editor of Tabletalk magazine, senior pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Fla., a visiting lecturer at Reformed Theological Seminary, and a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow. He is editor of John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology.

Ligonier     coram Deo (definition)

American Minute
     by Bill Federer

     British Prime Minister Winston Churchill launched his campaign against Hitler on this day, July 19, 1941, in a historic speech before the House of Commons: “I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization … The whole fury … of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.” Churchill concluded: “If we fail, then the whole world, including the United States … will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister … by the light of perverted science. Let us therefore … so bear ourselves that … men will … say, ‘This was their finest hour.’ ”

American Minute

Lean Into God
     Compilation by Richard S. Adams


We do because of who we are,
not because of who we want to be.
--- Richard S. Adams


Most people are servants of their passions, but the truly free person is the one who can control his desires. When the sages taught “Only one involved in Torah is truly free” (Pirkei Avos 6:2), they meant to say that only Torah allows one to free himself from the shackles of desire and to truly exercise free choice. Without Torah, one is not free at all, he is a slave, controlled by a master foreign to his better instincts. While intellectually he might have correct ideas of how to live, ultimately his master - his passion - will force him to act otherwise.
--- Excerpt from: Torah Treasury

Upon God’s care I lay me down, as a child upon its mother’s breast;
No silken couch, nor softest bed could ever give me such deep rest.
--- Unknown
Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions

In order to obey God, one must receive his commands. How did it happen that I received them in adolescence, while I was professing atheism? To believe that the desire for good is always fulfilled — that is faith, and whoever has it is not an atheist.
--- Simone Weil Last Notebook (1942) p 137

In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.
--- John Bunyan
... from here, there and everywhere

History of the Destruction of Jerusalem
     Thanks to Meir Yona

     CHAPTER 14.

     Festus Succeeds Felix Who Is Succeeded By Albinus As He Is By Florus; Who By The Barbarity Of His Government Forces The Jews Into The War.

     1. Now it was that Festus succeeded Felix as procurator, and made it his business to correct those that made disturbances in the country. So he caught the greatest part of the robbers, and destroyed a great many of them. But then Albinus, who succeeded Festus, did not execute his office as the other had done; nor was there any sort of wickedness that could be named but he had a hand in it. Accordingly, he did not only, in his political capacity, steal and plunder every one's substance, nor did he only burden the whole nation with taxes, but he permitted the relations of such as were in prison for robbery, and had been laid there, either by the senate of every city, or by the former procurators, to redeem them for money; and no body remained in the prisons as a malefactor but he who gave him nothing. At this time it was that the enterprises of the seditious at Jerusalem were very formidable; the principal men among them purchasing leave of Albinus to go on with their seditious practices; while that part of the people who delighted in disturbances joined themselves to such as had fellowship with Albinus; and every one of these wicked wretches were encompassed with his own band of robbers, while he himself, like an arch-robber, or a tyrant, made a figure among his company, and abused his authority over those about him, in order to plunder those that lived quietly. The effect of which was this, that those who lost their goods were forced to hold their peace, when they had reason to show great indignation at what they had suffered; but those who had escaped were forced to flatter him that deserved to be punished, out of the fear they were in of suffering equally with the others. Upon the Whole, nobody durst speak their minds, but tyranny was generally tolerated; and at this time were those seeds sown which brought the city to destruction.

     2. And although such was the character of Albinus, yet did Gessius Florus 18 who succeeded him, demonstrate him to have been a most excellent person, upon the comparison; for the former did the greatest part of his rogueries in private, and with a sort of dissimulation; but Gessius did his unjust actions to the harm of the nation after a pompous manner; and as though he had been sent as an executioner to punish condemned malefactors, he omitted no sort of rapine, or of vexation; where the case was really pitiable, he was most barbarous, and in things of the greatest turpitude he was most impudent. Nor could any one outdo him in disguising the truth; nor could any one contrive more subtle ways of deceit than he did. He indeed thought it but a petty offense to get money out of single persons; so he spoiled whole cities, and ruined entire bodies of men at once, and did almost publicly proclaim it all the country over, that they had liberty given them to turn robbers, upon this condition, that he might go shares with them in the spoils they got. Accordingly, this his greediness of gain was the occasion that entire toparchies were brought to desolation, and a great many of the people left their own country, and fled into foreign provinces.

     3. And truly, while Cestius Gallus was president of the province of Syria, nobody durst do so much as send an embassage to him against Florus; but when he was come to Jerusalem, upon the approach of the feast of unleavened bread, the people came about him not fewer in number than three millions 19 these besought him to commiserate the calamities of their nation, and cried out upon Florus as the bane of their country. But as he was present, and stood by Cestius, he laughed at their words. However, Cestius, when he had quieted the multitude, and had assured them that he would take care that Florus should hereafter treat them in a more gentle manner, returned to Antioch. Florus also conducted him as far as Cesarea, and deluded him, though he had at that very time the purpose of showing his anger at the nation, and procuring a war upon them, by which means alone it was that he supposed he might conceal his enormities; for he expected that if the peace continued, he should have the Jews for his accusers before Caesar; but that if he could procure them to make a revolt, he should divert their laying lesser crimes to his charge, by a misery that was so much greater; he therefore did every day augment their calamities, in order to induce them to a rebellion.

     4. Now at this time it happened that the Grecians at Cesarea had been too hard for the Jews, and had obtained of Nero the government of the city, and had brought the judicial determination: at the same time began the war, in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, and the seventeenth of the reign of Agrippa, in the month of Artemisius [Jyar.] Now the occasion of this war was by no means proportionable to those heavy calamities which it brought upon us. For the Jews that dwelt at Cesarea had a synagogue near the place, whose owner was a certain Cesarean Greek: the Jews had endeavored frequently to have purchased the possession of the place, and had offered many times its value for its price; but as the owner overlooked their offers, so did he raise other buildings upon the place, in way of affront to them, and made working-shops of them, and left them but a narrow passage, and such as was very troublesome for them to go along to their synagogue. Whereupon the warmer part of the Jewish youth went hastily to the workmen, and forbade them to build there; but as Florus would not permit them to use force, the great men of the Jews, with John the publican, being in the utmost distress what to do, persuaded Florus, with the offer of eight talents, to hinder the work. He then, being intent upon nothing but getting money, promised he would do for them all they desired of him, and then went away from Cesarea to Sebaste, and left the sedition to take its full course, as if he had sold a license to the Jews to fight it out.

     5. Now on the next day, which was the seventh day of the week, when the Jews were crowding apace to their synagogue, a certain man of Cesarea, of a seditious temper, got an earthen vessel, and set it with the bottom upward, at the entrance of that synagogue, and sacrificed birds. This thing provoked the Jews to an incurable degree, because their laws were affronted, and the place was polluted. Whereupon the sober and moderate part of the Jews thought it proper to have recourse to their governors again, while the seditious part, and such as were in the fervor of their youth, were vehemently inflamed to fight. The seditions also among the Gentiles of Cesarea stood ready for the same purpose; for they had, by agreement, sent the man to sacrifice beforehand [as ready to support him;] so that it soon came to blows. Hereupon Jucundus, the master of the horse, who was ordered to prevent the fight, came thither, and took away the earthen vessel, and endeavored to put a stop to the sedition; but when 20 he was overcome by the violence of the people of Cesarea, the Jews caught up their books of the law, and retired to Narbata, which was a place to them belonging, distant from Cesarea sixty furlongs. But John, and twelve of the principal men with him, went to Florus, to Sebaste, and made a lamentable complaint of their case, and besought him to help them; and with all possible decency, put him in mind of the eight talents they had given him; but he had the men seized upon, and put in prison, and accused them for carrying the books of the law out of Cesarea.

     6. Moreover, as to the citizens of Jerusalem, although they took this matter very ill, yet did they restrain their passion; but Florus acted herein as if he had been hired, and blew up the war into a flame, and sent some to take seventeen talents out of the sacred treasure, and pretended that Caesar wanted them. At this the people were in confusion immediately, and ran together to the temple, with prodigious clamors, and called upon Caesar by name, and besought him to free them from the tyranny of Florus. Some also of the seditious cried out upon Florus, and cast the greatest reproaches upon him, and carried a basket about, and begged some spills of money for him, as for one that was destitute of possessions, and in a miserable condition. Yet was not he made ashamed hereby of his love of money, but was more enraged, and provoked to get still more; and instead of coming to Cesarea, as he ought to have done, and quenching the flame of war, which was beginning thence, and so taking away the occasion of any disturbances, on which account it was that he had received a reward [of eight talents], he marched hastily with an army of horsemen and footmen against Jerusalem, that he might gain his will by the arms of the Romans, and might, by his terror, and by his threatenings, bring the city into subjection.

     7. But the people were desirous of making Florus ashamed of his attempt, and met his soldiers with acclamations, and put themselves in order to receive him very submissively. But he sent Capito, a centurion, beforehand, with fifty soldiers, to bid them go back, and not now make a show of receiving him in an obliging manner, whom they had so foully reproached before; and said that it was incumbent on them, in case they had generous souls, and were free speakers, to jest upon him to his face, and appear to be lovers of liberty, not only in words, but with their weapons also. With this message was the multitude amazed; and upon the coming of Capito's horsemen into the midst of them, they were dispersed before they could salute Florus, or manifest their submissive behavior to him. Accordingly, they retired to their own houses, and spent that night in fear and confusion of face.

     8. Now at this time Florus took up his quarters at the palace; and on the next day he had his tribunal set before it, and sat upon it, when the high priests, and the men of power, and those of the greatest eminence in the city, came all before that tribunal; upon which Florus commanded them to deliver up to him those that had reproached him, and told them that they should themselves partake of the vengeance to them belonging, if they did not produce the criminals; but these demonstrated that the people were peaceably disposed, and they begged forgiveness for those that had spoken amiss; for that it was no wonder at all that in so great a multitude there should be some more daring than they ought to be, and, by reason of their younger age, foolish also; and that it was impossible to distinguish those that offended from the rest, while every one was sorry for what he had done, and denied it out of fear of what would follow: that he ought, however, to provide for the peace of the nation, and to take such counsels as might preserve the city for the Romans, and rather for the sake of a great number of innocent people to forgive a few that were guilty, than for the sake of a few of the wicked to put so large and good a body of men into disorder.

     9. Florus was more provoked at this, and called out aloud to the soldiers to plunder that which was called the Upper Market-place, and to slay such as they met with. So the soldiers, taking this exhortation of their commander in a sense agreeable to their desire of gain, did not only plunder the place they were sent to, but forcing themselves into every house, they slew its inhabitants; so the citizens fled along the narrow lanes, and the soldiers slew those that they caught, and no method of plunder was omitted; they also caught many of the quiet people, and brought them before Florus, whom he first chastised with stripes, and then crucified. Accordingly, the whole number of those that were destroyed that day, with their wives and children, [for they did not spare even the infants themselves,] was about three thousand and six hundred. And what made this calamity the heavier was this new method of Roman barbarity; for Florus ventured then to do what no one had done before, that is, to have men of the equestrian order whipped 21 and nailed to the cross before his tribunal; who, although they were by birth Jews, yet were they of Roman dignity notwithstanding.

          The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, by Flavius Josephus Translator: William Whiston

The War of the Jews: The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem (complete edition, 7 books)

Proverbs 21:17-18
     by D.H. Stern

17     Pleasure-lovers will suffer want;
he who loves wine and oil won’t get rich.

18     The wicked serve as a ransom for the righteous,
and likewise the perfidious for the upright.


Complete Jewish Bible : An English Version of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and B'Rit Hadashah (New Testament)

My Utmost For The Highest
     A Daily Devotional by Oswald Chambers

                Mastery over the believer

     Ye call Me Master and Lord; and ye say well; for so I am.
---
John 13:13.

     Our Lord never insists on having authority; He never says—‘Thou shalt.’ He leaves us perfectly free—so free that we can spit in His face, as men did; so free that we can put Him to death, as men did; and He will never say a word. But when His life has been created in me by His Redemption, I instantly recognize His right to absolute authority over me. It is a moral domination—“Thou art worthy …” It is only the unworthy in me that refuses to bow down to the worthy. If when I meet a man who is more holy than myself, I do not recognize his worthiness and obey what comes through him, it is a revelation of the unworthy in me. God educates us by means of people who are little better than we are, not intellectually, but ‘holily,’ until we get under the domination of the Lord Himself, and then the whole attitude of the life is one of obedience to Him.

     If Our Lord insisted upon obedience He would become a taskmaster, and He would cease to have any authority. He never insists on obedience, but when we do see Him we obey Him instantly. He is easily Lord, and we live in adoration of Him from Morning till night. The revelation of my growth in grace is the way in which I look upon obedience. We have to rescue the word ‘obedience’ from the mire. Obedience is only possible between equals. It is the relationship between father and son, not between master and servant.
“I and My Father are one.” “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.” The Son’s obedience was as Redeemer, because He was Son, not in order to be Son.

My Utmost for His Highest

Country Child
     the Poetry of RS Thomas


                Country Child

Dropped without joy from the gaunt womb he lies,
Maturing in his place against his parents' ageing :
The slow scene unfolds before his luckless eyes
To the puckered window, where the cold storm's raging
Curtains the world, and the grey curlew cries.
Uttering a grief too sharp for the breast's assuaging.

So the days will drift into months
     and the months to years,
Moulding his mouth to silence, his hand to the plough :
And the world will grow to a few lean acres of grass,
And an orchard of stars in the night's unscaleable boughs.
But see at the bare field's edge, where he'll surely pass.
An ash tree wantons with sensuous body and smooth.
Provocative limbs to play the whore to his youth,
Till hurled with hot haste into manhood he woos and weds
A wife half wild, half shy of the ancestral bed,
The crumbling house, and the whisperers on thestairs.

Selected poems, 1946-1968

Searching For Meaning In Midrash
     D’RASH


     What a fascinating proverb! Though it was uttered some seventeen centuries ago, one can easily imagine it being coined in twentieth-century America, most likely as a bit of folk wisdom offered by an enlightened farmer living in the south during the heyday of the Civil Rights movement. “Hey! Forget about skin color,” he would say. “Underneath, people are all the same!”

     One might also conjure up an inspirational story that led to its coining: A member of the Ku Klux Klan, who hates African-Americans, is seriously injured. He requires a blood transfusion to save his life. The only available donor whose blood is a match is a black man. The donor gives, and the Klansman’s life is saved—and changed. The former racist comes to realize that if the blood of a black man can save a white man, then maybe deep down all men are equal.

     However, the proverb isn’t contemporary in origin; it goes back to the third century. It is attributed to Rabbi Yitzḥak, not to a liberal farmer. And in context, it is not about race, it is about sex. Why a goat? Perhaps because the animal is a symbol of fertility and sexuality. Why milk? Perhaps because it is a euphemistic way of referring to semen: Both are white bodily fluids, one of which is responsible for the generation of a child and the other its nurturing. (The Rabbis often make a point of using delicate language rather than explicit words.)

     There is one other interesting possibility that we should consider: that the author of the proverb is talking about himself. Rabbi Yitzḥak is also known as Yitzḥak Nappaḥa, Yitzḥak “the smith.” We cannot be certain if Yitzḥak had been a smith by trade or if his title was a family nickname, having been passed down from an ancestor. Perhaps it came to him by virtue of a physical attribute; maybe his skin was as dark as a blacksmith’s. One could imagine people making fun of his color and calling him “Nappaḥa.” As a young boy, maybe he had been tormented by the other kids. When he grew up and became a Rabbi, maybe one of the lessons that he wanted to teach was not to ridicule or judge someone by what you see on the outside; what really counts is to be found on the inside.

     ANOTHER D’RASH

     This Midrash gives three different reasons why Joseph refused the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife. The first two are external—fear of punishment by God (“If Adam was thrown out of Eden for his minor sin, imagine what will happen to me for this major sin!”) and fear of his father’s disapproval (“Reuben lost his birthright for his sin!”). In the third explanation, Joseph responds by saying to Potiphar’s wife, in essence, “You’re a married woman. What you want me to do is wrong. And you have a husband. If you want a man, go to him. After all, he’s permitted to you.” The third understanding sees Joseph as finding the strength to avoid sin from within.

     The behaviorist view of human nature, based on the writings of B. F. Skinner, agrees with the first two explanations of the Midrash. People avoid wrong to avoid punishment. Just like the pigeon who is shocked every time it tries to eat a piece of grain and therefore stops trying to eat the grain, a human will avoid wrong if the consequences are painful enough. The internal mechanism is entirely mechanical: Wrong leads to pain, which leads to avoidance of pain, which now equals avoidance of wrongdoing.

     Others would say that this view of human nature leaves out the human thought process, and that conscience is superior to consequence. The Rabbis understood that the best form of good is that which is internalized. They knew that punishment, or at least the warning of it, may never materialize. Think of a youngster who wants to take cookies from the cookie jar. If Mommy is always standing there to say, “No, no, no, those are for after dinner,” then the first time Mommy becomes busy and is not paying attention, the child may actually take some cookies. But when the youngster has learned that taking cookies is itself not desirable, then that child will avoid the act whether or not the mother is there to warn him. We can replace the child and a cookie jar with the teller whose hand could go into the till, or the broker who handles thousands of dollars of clients’ funds. It’s much better for all involved, but especially for that individual, if the value of honesty is not imposed from without but is ingrained from within.

     We should avoid transgression, whether larceny or adultery, in any way possible. However, we are better off if we resist temptation not because there is a stronger power outside ourselves, but rather because we have the strength and power inside ourselves.

Searching for Meaning in Midrash: Lessons for Everyday Living

Take Heart
     July 19

     Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
--- Matthew 11:28–30.

     We may learn from these words the character of the lessons, as well as of the teacher. (
John A. Broadus, “Come unto Me,” downloaded from the Web site of Blessed Hope Ministries of Shiloh Church, Gainesville, Georgia, at members.aol.com/blesshope, accessed Aug. 21, 2001.) It is the knowledge of himself that Jesus will give, and as he is gentle and humble, so those who go to learn from him will be taught lessons of gentleness, lessons of humility. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me”; you need not fear to make me your teacher, “for I am gentle and humble in heart and you shall find rest for your souls.” He promises to free them from their grievous toils, to relieve them of their heavy burdens, to give them rest.

     To appreciate fully the expressiveness of this figure, you must imagine yourself bearing a heavy burden, a weight you can hardly sustain, and after bearing it till you are almost crushed to the ground, you throw it off and rest. There are few things so delightful as this rest to one who has been heavily burdened. And suppose the burden is clinging to you, bound with cords you cannot sever, though you are bowed down under the load and vainly striving to throw it off. Then one offers, if you go to him, to loose the bonds and take away the burden and let you rest—how sweet would be the thought! How quickly, how joyfully, how thankfully, you would run to him!

     It is impossible that people should be without subjection to some higher power; by our very nature we look up to some being that is above us. All who are not subject to God are the subjects of Satan, and those who wish to be delivered from the dominion of the Evil One must find such deliverance in having God himself for their King, as he intended they should when he made them. Accordingly, when the Savior offers to give rest, he bids them take his yoke upon them and learn from him. And then he concludes the invitation by encouraging them to believe that this exchange will be good and pleasant; they labor under the galling yoke of Satan and are burdened with the grievous weight of sin, but his yoke is easy. His burden is light.
--- John A. Broadus

Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

On This Day
     A Tender Conscience | July 19

     Samuel Ward stuffed himself with plums one Evening. In his journal the next Morning, July 19, 1596, he confessed his sin—“my gluttony in eating plums and raisins and drinking so much after supper.” It was one of many such confessions.

     Samuel was a Puritan, born in 1577, who attended St. John’s College, Cambridge, and was a fellow at Sidney College. In 1603 he became town preacher at St. Mary’s in Ipswich. He married Deborah Bolton, a widow from Cambridgeshire, the following year. When King James approved a new translation of the Bible, Samuel was selected as part of the New Testament translating team. Samuel, known as the youngest of the King James translators, is better known for his diary in which he daily confessed his sins:

     May 13—My desire of preferment over much. Thy (he often addressed himself in the second person) wandering regard in the chapel at prayer time.

     May 17—Thy gluttony the night before.

     May 23—My sleeping without remembering my last thought, which should have been of God.

     May 26—Thy dullness this day in hearing God’s word … thy by-thoughts at prayer time same Evening.

     June 12—My too much drinking after supper.

     June 14—My negligence … in sleeping immediately after dinner.

     June 22—My immoderate diet of eating cheese.

     June 27—My going to drink wine and that in the tavern, before I called upon God.

     July 8—My immoderate laughter in the hall.

     July 15—My incontinent thoughts at Hobsons.

     July 23—For eating so many plums, although thou heard that many died of surfeits (intemperance).

     August 13—My intemperate eating of damsons, also my intemperate eating of cheese after supper.

     August 21—My long sleeping in the Morning.

     Despite his vices (and perhaps because of his diligence in confessing them, being tender of conscience) he did a great work for Christ and helped translate the most beautiful version of the Bible in history.

     Let’s come near God with pure hearts and a confidence that comes from having faith. Let’s keep our hearts pure, our consciences free from evil, and our bodies washed with clean water.
--- Hebrews 10:22.

On This Day 365 Amazing And Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs And Heroes

Morning and Evening
     Daily Readings / CHARLES H. SPURGEON

          Morning - July 19

     “The Lord our God hath shewed us his glory.” --- Deuteronomy 5:24.

     God’s great design in all his works is the manifestation of his own glory. Any aim less than this were unworthy of himself. But how shall the glory of God be manifested to such fallen creatures as we are? Man’s eye is not single, he has ever a side glance towards his own honour, has too high an estimate of his own powers, and so is not qualified to behold the glory of the Lord. It is clear, then, that self must stand out of the way, that there may be room for God to be exalted; and this is the reason why he bringeth his people ofttimes into straits and difficulties, that, being made conscious of their own folly and weakness, they may be fitted to behold the majesty of God when he comes forth to work their deliverance. He whose life is one even and smooth path, will see but little of the glory of the Lord, for he has few occasions of self-emptying, and hence, but little fitness for being filled with the revelation of God. They who navigate little streams and shallow creeks, know but little of the God of tempests; but they who “do business in great waters,” these see his “wonders in the deep.” Among the huge Atlantic-waves of bereavement, poverty, temptation, and reproach, we learn the power of Jehovah, because we feel the littleness of man. Thank God, then, if you have been led by a rough road: it is this which has given you your experience of God’s greatness and lovingkindness. Your troubles have enriched you with a wealth of knowledge to be gained by no other means: your trials have been the cleft of the rock in which Jehovah has set you, as he did his servant Moses, that you might behold his glory as it passed by. Praise God that you have not been left to the darkness and ignorance which continued prosperity might have involved, but that in the great fight of affliction, you have been capacitated for the outshinings of his glory in his wonderful dealings with you.


          Evening - July 19

     “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench.” --- Matthew 12:20.

     What is weaker than the bruised reed or the smoking flax? A reed that groweth in the fen or marsh, let but the wild duck light upon it, and it snaps; let but the foot of man brush against it, and it is bruised and broken; every wind that flits across the river moves it to and fro. You can conceive of nothing more frail or brittle, or whose existence is more in jeopardy, than a bruised reed. Then look at the smoking flax—what is it? It has a spark within it, it is true, but it is almost smothered; an infant’s breath might blow it out; nothing has a more precarious existence than its flame. Weak things are here described, yet Jesus says of them, “The smoking flax I will not quench; the bruised reed I will not break.” Some of God’s children are made strong to do mighty works for him; God has his Samsons here and there who can pull up Gaza’s gates, and carry them to the top of the hill; he has a few mighties who are lion-like men, but the majority of his people are a timid, trembling race. They are like starlings, frightened at every passer by; a little fearful flock. If temptation comes, they are taken like birds in a snare; if trial threatens, they are ready to faint; their frail skiff is tossed up and down by every wave, they are drifted along like a sea bird on the crest of the billows—weak things, without strength, without wisdom, without foresight. Yet, weak as they are, and because they are so weak, they have this promise made specially to them. Herein is grace and graciousness! Herein is love and lovingkindness! How it opens to us the compassion of Jesus—so gentle, tender, considerate! We need never shrink back from his touch. We need never fear a harsh word from him; though he might well chide us for our weakness, he rebuketh not. Bruised reeds shall have no blows from him, and the smoking flax no damping frowns.

Morning and Evening

Amazing Grace
     July 19

          LEAVE IT THERE

     Words and Music by Charles A. Tindley, 1851–1933

     Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42:5)

     “Put all your troubles in a sack, take ’em to the Lord, and leave ’em there.” These good words of advice were given by Charles Tindley, the distinguished black Methodist pastor from Philadelphia, to one of his worried parishioners. It was the spark that prompted the pastor to develop this thought and pen the words and music of this familiar Gospel hymn in 1916.

     Charles H. Spurgeon, the noted English Baptist pastor, once gave this similar advice: “If you tell your troubles to God, you put them into the grave. If you roll your burden anywhere else, it will roll back again.”

     We will never be able to escape the troubles that life brings, but we can always turn to the Lord for strength and deliverance and then … “leave it there.” When we cannot calmly leave our burdens and affairs in God’s hands, we are often tempted to use wrong means to solve our problems, such as relying upon our human wisdom rather than God’s guidance. We need to seek relief for our problems by giving them to God.

     If the world from you withhold of its silver and its gold, and you have to get along with meager fare, just remember, in His word, how He feeds the little bird—Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.

     If your body suffers pain and your health you can’t regain, and your soul is almost sinking in despair; Jesus knows the pain you feel; He can save and He can heal—Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.

     When your enemies assail and your heart begins to fail, don’t forget that God in heaven answers prayer; He will make a way for you and will lead you safely thru—Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.

     When your youthful days are gone and old age is stealing on, and your body bends beneath the weight of care, He will never leave you then; He’ll go with you to the end—Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.

     Chorus: Leave it there, leave it there; take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. If you trust and never doubt, He will surely bring you out—Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.


     For Today: Job 13:15; Psalm 55:22; 62:8; Isaiah 26:3, 4; Philippians 4:6; 1 Peter 5:7.

     Make a mental list of the problems and anxieties that are troubling you. Ask God to show you how to discard these from your mind’s preoccupation and simply to leave them with Him. Use this musical message to help ---

Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions

De Servo Arbitrio “On the Enslaved Will” or The Bondage of the Will
     Martin Luther | (1483-1546)


     Sect. XC. — THE more immediate design of Moses then is, to announce, not so much the hardening of Pharaoh, as the veracity and mercy of God; that is, that the children of Israel might not distrust the promise of God, wherein He promised, that He would deliver them. (Ex. vi. 1). And since this was a matter of the greatest moment, He foretells them the difficulty, that they might not fall away from their faith; knowing, that all those things which were foretold must be accomplished in the order in which, He who had made the promise, had arranged them. As if He had said, I will deliver you, indeed, but you will with difficulty believe it; because, Pharaoh will so resist, and put off the deliverance. Nevertheless, believe ye; for the whole of his putting off shall, by My way of operation, only be the means of My working the more and greater miracles to your confirmation in faith, and to the display of My power; that henceforth, ye might the more steadily believe Me upon all other occasions.

     In the same way does Christ also act, when, at the last supper, He promises His disciples a kingdom. He foretells them numberless difficulties, such as, His own death and their many tribulations; to the intent that, when it should come to pass, they might afterwards the more steadily believe.

     And Moses by no means obscurely sets forth this meaning, where he saith, “But Pharaoh shall not send you away, that many wonders might be wrought in Egypt.” And again, “For this purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew in thee My power; that My name might be declared throughout all the earth.” (Ex. ix. 16; Rom. ix. 17). Here, you see that Pharaoh was for this purpose hardened, that he might resist God and put off the redemption; in order that, there might be an occasion given for the working of signs, and for the display of the power of God, that He might be declared and believed on throughout all the earth. And what is this but shewing, that all these things were said and done to confirm faith, and to comfort the weak, that they might afterwards freely believe in God as true, faithful, powerful, and merciful? Just as though He had spoken to them in the kindest manner, as to little children, and had said, Be not terrified at the hardness of Pharaoh, for I work that very hardness Myself; and I, who deliver you, have it in My own hand. I will only use it, that I may thereby work many signs, and declare My Majesty, for the furtherance of your faith.

     And this is the reason why Moses generally after each plague repeats, “And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, so that he would not let the people go; as the Lord had spoken.” (Ex. vii. 13, 22; viii. 15, 32; ix. 12, etc.). What is the intent of this, “as the Lord had spoken,” but, that the Lord might appear true, who had foretold that he should be hardened? — Now, if there had been any vertibility or liberty of will in Pharaoh, which could turn either way, God could not with such certainty have foretold his hardening. But as He promised, who could neither be deceived nor lie, it of certainty and of necessity came to pass, that he was hardened: which could not have taken place, had not the hardening been totally apart from the power of man, and in the power of God alone, in the same manner as I said before; viz. from God being certain, that He should not omit the general operation of His Omnipotence in Pharaoh, or on Pharaoh’s account; nay, that He could not omit it.

     Moreover, God was equally certain, that the will of Pharaoh; being naturally evil and averse, could not consent to the word and work of God, which was contrary to it, and that, therefore, while the impetus of willing was preserved in Pharaoh by the Omnipotence of God, and while the hated word and work was continually set before his eyes without, nothing else could take place in Pharaoh, but offence and the hardening of his heart. For if God had then omitted the action of His Omnipotence in Pharaoh, when He set before him the word of Moses which he hated, and the will of Pharaoh might be supposed to have acted alone by its own power, then, perhaps, there might have been room for a discussion, which way it had power to turn. But now, since it was led on and carried away by its own willing, no violence was done to its will, because it was not forced against its will, but was carried along, by the natural operation of God, to will naturally just as it was by nature, that is, evil; and therefore, it could not but run against the word, and thus become hardened. Hence we see, that this passage makes most forcibly against “Freewill”; and in this way — God who promised could not lie, and if He could not lie, then Pharaoh could not but be hardened.

The Bondage of the Will   or   Christian Classics Ethereal Library

Synoptic Gospels Lectures 3-5
     Robert C. Newman | Biblical eLearning


Exegesis of Mat. 2 3






Authorship and Date 4





Exegesis of Mat. 2 5




Proverbs Lectures 19-20
     Knut Heim | Denver Seminary


(Prov 31:1-9) 19
Teaching of King Lemuel's Mother






The Capable Woman, Proverbs 31 20




Proverbs 19-21
     JD Farag


Proverbs 19
J.D. Farag


01-02-2020


Proverbs 20
J.D. Farag


01-10-2020



Proverbs 21
J.D. Farag


01-16-2020

J.D. Farag

Proverbs 19-21
     Jon Courson


Proverbs 19
Jon Courson

click here
11-04-2015


Proverbs 20
Jon Courson

click here
11-11-2015



Proverbs 21
Jon Courson

click here
11-18-2015

Jon Courson | Jon Courson

Proverbs
     Gary Hamrick


Virtues
Gary Hamrick

click here
January 21, 2018

Gary Hamrick | Cornerstone Chapel

Proverbs 19-21
     Paul LeBoutillier


Proverbs 17-19
Wisdom for Life
Paul LeBoutillier






Proverbs 20-22
Walking In God's Wisdom
Paul LeBoutillier




Paul LeBoutillier | Calvary Chapel Ontario, Oregon

Proverbs 19-21
     Brett Meador | Athey Creek


Defer Anger
Proverbs 19:11
s2-270


09-22-2019



Proverbs 19:1-20:1
m2-274


09-25-2019


Let It Go
Proverbs 20:3
s2-271


09-29-2019



Proverbs 20
m2-275


10-02-2019


Proverbs 21
m2-276


10-09-2019

     Brett Meador | Athey Creek
     ==============================      ==============================


Getting the Story Right
Warren Janzen






A Heavenly Tap
Chris Swanson





Biblical Inspiration
Validated By Miracles
John MacArthur






Persian Empire 22
Old Testament Backgrounds
Don Fowler





Dealing with Doubt
Michael A. Rydelnik






Litigation and Religious Liberty
Drew Dickens





Proverbs 21 Abide:
Prosperity In Life
David Guzik






The Abolition of Death
Jim Orrick





Spirituality and the Lesser gods
Chris Wienand






The Comfort of God and Others
Lin McLaughlin





The Validity of the Gospel
Peter J. Williams






Whisperings of a Wannabe
J. Shelly Cunningham





Proverbs
Bruce K. Waltke


05-08-2012



Proverbs 19:21
Counsel of the Lord
Chuck Smith