Reflections with GOD for Saturday, January 28, 2012

Quotes for Today:
You don’t need fancy highbrow traditions or money to really learn. You just need people with the desire to better themselves. by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, Accepted, 2006
It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated. by Alec Bourne
An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t. by Anatole France (1844 – 1924)
A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and of vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness. by Ann Radcliffe (1764 – 1823), The Mysteries of Udolpho, 1764
Education is the best provision for old age. by Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. by Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. by B. F. Skinner (1904 – 1990), New Scientist, May 21, 1964
The strength of the United States is not the gold at Fort Knox or the weapons of mass destruction that we have, but the sum total of the education and the character of our people. by Claiborne Pell (1918 – )
Everyone has a right to a university degree in America, even if it’s in Hamburger Technology. by Clive James
School is learning things you don’t want to know, surrounded by people you wish you didn’t know, while working toward a future you don’t know will ever come. by Dave Kellett, Sheldon, 10-09-11
The number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes. by Denis Diderot (1713 – 1784)
The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. by Diogenes Laertius
Education begins a gentleman, conversation completes him. by Dr. Thomas Fuller (1654 – 1734), Gnomologia, 1732
I didn’t go to college at all, any college, and I’m not saying you wasted your time or money, but look at me, I’m a huge celebrity. by Ellen DeGeneres, Tulane Commencement Speech, 2009
Only the educated are free. by Epictetus (55 AD – 135 AD), Discourses
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week. by Evan Esar (1899 – 1995)
Education… has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. by G. M. Trevelyan (1876 – 1962), English Social History (1942)
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater. by Gail Godwin
A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. by George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. by H. G. Wells (1866 – 1946), Outline of History (1920)
College isn’t the place to go for ideas. by Helen Keller (1880 – 1968)
Education has for its object the formation of character. by Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903)
The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. by Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903)
Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained. by James A. Garfield (1831 – 1881), July 12, 1880
Bachelor’s degrees make pretty good placemats if you get ‘em laminated. by Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content, 01-04-07
That’s what college is for – getting as many bad decisions as possible out of the way before you’re forced into the real world. I keep a checklist of ‘em on the wall in my room. by Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content, 01-04-07
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students. by John Ciardi (1916 – 1986)
She knows what is the best purpose of education: not to be frightened by the best but to treat it as part of daily life. by John Mason Brown (1900 – 1969)
Fathers send their sons to college either because they went to college or because they didn’t. by L. L. Henderson
Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices. by Laurence J. Peter (1919 – 1988)

Sermon for Today:
THE GREAT PHYSICIAN AND HIS PATIENTS by Charles H. Spurgeon
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 5TH, 1865, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. (#618)
“They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”(Matthew 9:12).
THIS was Christ’s apology for mingling with publicans and sinners when the Pharisees murmured against him. He triumphantly cleared himself by shewing that accordingly to the fitness of things he was perfectly in order. He was acting according to his official character. A physician should be
found where there is work for him to do, and that it is where healing is required. There was evidently none among the Pharisees, if their own opinion of themselves were to hold good, for they were perfectly whole. There was much to do, according to their own admission, among the
publicans and sinners, for they were sore sick; therefore our Lord was in his place, and fittingly executing his office when he sought out those who needed him.
I. We shall have no time for a preface this morning, and therefore let us enter at once into the text by observing that MERCY GRACIOUSLY REGARDS SIN AS A DISEASE.
Sin is more than a disease. If it were only a sickness, men were to be pitied for suffering it; but the element of the perverse will, of voluntary rebellion and designed offense enters into sin, otherwise it were far less truly sin; and this makes it more than a sickness, and worse than a malady. Let us not think that the picture of disease really does set forth all the heinous nature of sin; it is only a generous way in which Mercy chooses to look at it and to deal with it. As Justice views it, all the plague, and venom, and virus, and contagion in the world would be sweet and harmless, compared with one single evil thought or imagination; but Mercy leniently and graciously chooses, in order that it may have a sort of apology for its operations, under the great plan of salvation, to view sin as a disease. It is justified in such a view, for almost everything that may be said of deadly maladies may be said of sin. Let us come to particulars.
Sin is an hereditary disease: we are born with a tendency towards it, nay we are born in it. The taint is in our blood: the very center of our being feels the infection. Born in sin and shapen in iniquity, in sin did our mothers conceive us, and our offspring in like measure received from us that original sin which is part of our fallen nature. Every man born into the world bears within him the seeds of sin, in the bias and current of his mind, nor is this to be wondered at, for “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” “How can he he clean that is born of a woman?”
Sin, like sickness, is very disabling. A sick man cannot carry burdens, climb mountains, run in service, walk with perseverance, or leap for joy. The occupations and the pleasures of other men are things from which he is shut out. Even so does sin prevent our serving God. We cannot pray to
him: we cannot praise him aright. In every duty we are weak, and for every good we are feeble. There is not a single moral power of manhood which sin has not stripped of its strength and glory. If we would run in the way of God’s commands, then sin has lamed us; if we would grasp God’s
promises, evil has paralysed us; if we would see into the mysteries of grace, guilt has blinded us; if we would hear the voice of God, transgression has smitten us with deafness; and if our voices would swell the song of cherubim and seraphim, alas, the plague of our heart within has made us
dumb. Of all or us in our measure it may be said through sin, “unstable as water, then shalt not excel.” Sin weakens man’s nature for all good.
Sin also, like certain diseases, is a very loathsome thing. Some diseases are so extremely disgusting that scarcely can their names be mentioned; but, oh, they are sweetness itself when compared with sin. The most putrid poisonous air that ever blew from a fever hospital, never had such foulness in it as dwells in sin. Pest-houses, and lazar-houses are clean and safe compared with the haunts of vice. In God’s esteem, and in the esteem of all holy minds, the most detestable, obnoxious, dreadful thing in the whole world is moral evil. If that could be got rid of, all other evil would cease to be. This is the mother and nurse of all evil, the egg of all mischief, the fountain of bitterness, the root of misery. Here you have the distilled essence of hell; the “quintessence,” as the old divines would say of everything that is unlovely, disreputable, dishonest, impure, abominable —in a word — damnable.
Like some diseases, sin is fearfully polluting. As the leper cannot be tolerated abroad; as the plague-stricken are separated from their fellows, even so sin separates us from communion with God and holy beings. It is not alone their unwillingness to associate with us, as our horrible unfitness to have fellowship with them. It is dreadful to hear about with us a cancer, which has reached the stage of sickening rottenness; and yet this is not half so terribly disgusting as sin is to the heart of God. God is very gracious, but he cannot endure sin in his presence, and hence to set forth his hatred of it in type and figure he forbade diseased persons to enter his courts, or even to mingle with the camp of his people. For the unclean there was a plain and clear separation until he had been purified. Sin necessarily shuts us out from God’s presence. Into his holy fellowship we must not come, we dare not attempt to come; the fire of his anger would consume us, as it did Nadab and Abihu, if we as sinners should venture near him apart from Christ Jesus. We cannot stand at the altar to officiate as priests before God, though this was the proper lot of manhood, by reason of the leprosy that is on our brow. Our praising God, simple as that might seem, cannot be acceptable in his sight, because of the defilement of our uncircumcised lips. Almighty grace must take away our uncleanliness or we cannot worship. Iniquity is a polluting thing. Everything we do and everything we think of grows polluted through our corruption. The unclean person could not touch a vessel, sit on a bed, or come near a garment without defiling it; and our sin has much the same effect. Our prayers have stains in them, our faith is mixed with unbelief, our repentance is not so tender as it should be, our communion is distant and interrupted. We cannot pray without sinning, and there is filth even in our tears. Well was it for Israel that there was an Aaron to bear the sins of their holy things, and blessed is it for us that Jesus takes the sins even of our best works, and casts them into the depths of thesea.
Sin too may be likened to many sicknesses from its being contagious. A man cannot be a sinner alone. “One sinner destroyeth much good.” The seeds of sin are winged like thistle-down. You may shut up the leper in a lazar-house, but there is no such way of shutting up sin, it will get out and spread itself. A man, if he be evil, will make others evil. His children will imitate him; his dependants, feeling his influence, will walk in his footsteps. Even his neighbors cannot look upon his sin without being in some measure infected by it, for “the thought of evil is sin.” There is a fierce contiguousness in every form of moral evil; like fire among stubble it spreads most rapidly.
Sin moreover, like many diseases, is very painful; and yet, on the other hand, at certain stages it brings on a deadness, a numbness of soul preventing pain. The most of men are unconscious of the misery of the fall. They think themselves rich and increased in goods, having need of nothing, when they are naked, and poor and miserable. Sin causes a madness which makes sick souls dream that they are in sound health. They talk as though heaven were their heritage, when they are sitting on the brink of hell. But when sin is really discerned, then it becomes painful. I would sooner suffer— I know not what may be the pangs of some disease, but I feel sure I may say this — I would sooner suffer a complication of all the ills that flesh is heir to, than suffer the plague of a guilty, awakened, enlightened, quickened conscience; for when conscience accuseth a man there is no rest for him either day or night; its little finger is heavier than the loins of all other griefs. When sin becomes exceeding sinful before the eye, then there is a gloom and a heaviness of spirit which crushes the soul into despair, making life bitter, as Pharaoh did the lives of the children of Israel. Speak of Egyptian darkness, it was bright as noon-day compared with the darkness of a mind borne down with its own guilt. Oh what wretchedness was mine before I laid hold on Christ. There are some who feel not so acutely the agony of conflict with sin, but it was my lot to feel a horror of great darkness, verging upon despair, so that had I not soon found a Savior, my soul had chosen strangling rather than life. Believe me, there is no pain so bitter as the pain of sin, and no curse so heavy as the curse which comes from the black lips of our civil iniquities; and yet I would to God that some of you felt it now that ye might not feel it hereafter. I would that this whip would fall upon your backs, that you might be flogged out of your self-righteousness, and made to fly to Jesus Christ and find a shelter there.
The disease of sin is deep-seated, and has its throne in the heart. It does not lie in the hand or foot, it is not to be removed by amputation, much less by outward applications; no lancet can reach it, it is impossible to cauterize it. The skill of physician can often extract the roots of disease, but no skill can ever reach this. It has entered the marrow, the very core and center of our being, and only the Divine one is able to purge us from it. “No outward forms can make me clean The leprosy lies deep within.” It is in its own nature wholly incurable. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” If so, then can he that is accustomed to do evil learn to do well. Can a brine fountain send forth sweet waters? Shall the thorn suddenly yield olives? Can the cataract which has been for ever dashing down the steep, reverse its course and return towards the river-head? Shall fire suddenly become gentle and lose its consuming power while the fuel is round about it? Shall the lion of himself eat straw like the ox? Shall the leopard bleat like a lamb? Such changes, being changes or nature, are only to be wrought by divine strength; and so it is not possible for the disease of sin ever to be cared by any human remedies. Man cannot cure himself. He may reform, He may drive the disease inward, and prevent its coming out upon the skin; He may so model, and guide, and restrain himself, that the coarser forms of sin which are condemned among men may not appear in him; but the virus, the essential poison of sin, no man can ever extract from his own heart, nor can another man do it for him. Jehovah Rophi, the healing Lord, must manifest his omnipotent power. The utmost religiousness, the most devout prayers, the greatest possible circumspection, will not avail to remove the taint of sin, if they spring from an unrenewed heart. The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not reconciled to God, neither, indeed, can it be.
And so, let us close the story of this sickness of sin, by observing that it is a mortal disease. It kills not just now, but it will kill ere long. Not merely shall the body die as the result of sin, but the soul must be killed for ever with eternal wrath. O sinner, thou little knowest what thy sin will bring thee to; but if thou wilt read in God’s Word, thou shalt discover that it will bring thee to the worm that never dies, and to the fire that never can be quenched. Perhaps to-morrow thou mayest know what a full-blown sin is; perhaps to-morrow, I said — that word may be prophetic to some of you — but if not to-morrow, it is but a matter of time, a few months, more or less, and you will be in torment. Sin, when it is ripened, bringeth forth death and damnation. Oh! thou dost not know what that word “to be damned” means! Thou canst play with it sometimes, and lightly hurl it at thy fellow creatures; but couldst thou only once hear the shriek of a damned soul, couldst thou only once see a spirit cast out from the presence of God into eternal misery, surely it would compel thee to cry, “What must I do to be saved.” Enough of this: it is clear that there is a very excellent parallel to be drawn between sin and disease. Humbling as it is, yet the fact is nevertheless most certain, that we are all suffering under the disease of sin.
II. But now, secondly, IT PLEASES DIVINE MERCY TO GIVE TO CHRIST
THE CHARACTER OF A PHYSICIAN.
Having deigned to consider sin as a disease, which is a great proof of mercy, it now graciously confers upon Christ the character of a physician. Be it for ever understood that Jesus Christ never came into the world merely to explain what sin is. Moses had for his mission the exposition of sin, Christ has for his mission the eradication of it. We know what sin is through the law: that is as much as the law can do for us. Christ comes, not merely to tell us what it is, but to inform us how it can he removed. Jesus did not come to apologize for sin; Christ never died in order that sin might
appear less sinful, that God might be less severe towards sin, or hate it less. God forbid! We never see sin to be so black as when we view its evil as revealed in the sufferings of Jesus, nor is God’s wrath ever more intolerable than when we behold it consuming his only-begotten Son. “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.” Christ did not come to lay a flattering unction to men’s souls, to prevent distress of conscience, to say to them “Peace, Peace!” where there is no peace; no, he came to cure sin, not to film it over; not to make men forget the disease by drugging them with presumptuous draughts of consolation, but by absolutely removing that which is the cause of their dread and of their fear to make them whole. Christ Jesus did not come in order that you might continue in sin and escape the penalty of it; he did not come to prevent the disease being mortal, but to take the disease itself away. Many people think that, when we preach salvation, we mean salvation from going to hell. We do not mean that, but we mean a great
deal more; we preach salvation from sin; we say that Christ is able to save a man; and we mean by that that he is able to save him from sin and to make him holy; to make him a new man. No person has any right to say, “I am saved,” while he continues in sin as he did before. How can you be
saved from sin while you are living in it? A man that is drowning cannot say he is saved from the water while he is sinking in it; a man that is frost-bitten cannot say, with any truth, that he is saved from the cold while he is stiffened in the wintry blast. No, man, Christ did not come to save thee in thy sins, but to save thee from thy sins; not to make the disease so that it should not kill thee, but to let it remain in itself mortal, and, nevertheless, to remove it from thee, and thee from it. Christ Jesus came then to heal us from the plague of sin, to touch us with his hand and say, “I will, be thou clean.”
When a physician presents himself, one of the first enquiries is, “Is, he a regular practitioner? Has he a right to practice? Has he a diploma?” Very properly, the law requires that a man shall not be allowed to hack our bodies and poison us with drugs at his own pleasure without having at least a show of knowing what he is at. It has been tartly said that “a doctor is a man who pours drugs, of which he knows little, into a body of which he knows still less.” I fear that is often the case. Still a diploma is the best safeguard mortals have devised. Christ has the best authority for practising as a Physician. He has a divine diploma. Would you like to see his diploma? I will read you a few words of it: it comes from the highest authority, not from the College of Physicians, but from the God of Physicians. Here are the words of it in the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.” He has a diploma for binding up broken hearts. I should not like to trust myself to a physician who was a mere self-dubbed doctor who could not show any authorization; I must have him know as much as a man can know, little as I believe that will probably be. He must have a diploma; it must be signed and sealed too, and be in a regular manner, for few sensible men will risk their lives with ignorant quacks. Now Jesus Christ has his diploma and there it is — God hath sent him to bind up the brokenhearted.
The next thing you want in a physician is education; you want to know that he is thoroughly qualified; he must have walked the hospitals. And certainly our Lord Jesus Christ has done so. What form of disease did he not meet with? When he was here among men it pleased God to let the devil loose, in order that there might be more than usual venom in the veins of poor diseased manhood; and Christ met the devil at his darkest hour and fought with the great enemy when he had full liberty to do his worst with him. Jesus did indeed enter into the woes of men. Walked the hospital! Why the whole world was an infirmary, and Christ the one only physician, going from couch to couch, healing the sons of men. Something more be it observed, may be said of him, he is experimentally as well as by education qualified in the healing art. I have heard of a celebrated physician that he was wont to try the effect of his medicines upon himself. This has been done in our Masters case. There is not a single disease which he does not know experimentally, for he himself took our sicknesses and infirmities. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He knows his patient’s case by having passed through the case himself. There is no brokenness of heart, there is no grief of soul which Jesus Christ has not himself participated in; and though you may say he knows not sin in its infection, yet he knows sin in its imputation, and is, by having suffered all its penalties, perfectly well acquainted with it.
One likes a physician, too, who has a wide practice. One does not care for a man’s merely understanding his tools; we like to know whether he has used them, and whether he has been successful in his art. Blessed he the name of the beloved Physician! he has the widest imaginable practice. These eighteen hundred years he has been healing sin-sick souls — what am I saying? — these six thousand years he has been “mighty to save;” for before he bodily gave himself to the cross, the virtue of the medicine of his own blood had begun to operate upon the sons of men. O souls, ye may see in heaven the multitudes whom he has healed. There, before the eternal throne, you may view the myriads who have been delivered from all sorts of diseases through the power and virtue of his touch. You need not fear to trust yourselves in his hands, for even the hem of his garment healeth our diseases.
To sum up the virtues of this Physician in a very few words: His cures are very speedy — there is life in a look at him; his cures are radical — he strikes at the very center of the disease, and hence his cures are very sure and certain. He never fails, and the disease never returns. There is no
relapse where Christ heals; no fear that one of his patients should be but patched up for a season, he makes a new man of him: a new heart also does he give him, and a right spirit does he put within him. He is a physician, one of a thousand, because he is well-skilled in all diseases. Physicians generally have some specialite. They may know a little about almost all our pains and ills, but there is usually one disease which they have studied the most carefully, one part of the human frame whoseanatomy is as well-known to them as the rooms and cupboards of their own house. Jesus Christ has made the whole of human nature his specialite. He is as much at home with one sinner as with another sinner, and never yet did he meet with an out-of-the-way case that was out of the way to him. He has had extraordinary complications of strange diseases to deal
with, but he has known exactly in one moment, with one glance of his eye, how to treat the patient. He is the only universal doctor I ‘at home’ in every case; the medicine he gives is a catholicon; it heals in every instance, never failing. His medicine is himself! If there be a smart caused by it, it is
borne upon his own back. “By his stripes we are healed.” “His flesh is meat indeed; his blood is drink indeed:” he himself casts out the disease from poor dying men. We do but trust him, and sin dies: we love him, and grace lives; we wait for him, and grace is strengthened; we see him, as we soon shall, and grace is perfected for ever. O blessed physician for this desperate disease!
III. I cannot, however, tarry longer on that point, but come to the third, which is the main one that I am driving at; namely, THAT NEED IS THAT ALONE WHICH MOVES OUR GRACIOUS PHYSICIAN TO COME TO OUR AID.
He says, “They that are whole need not a physician,” and you will see the natural conclusion from his line of reasoning is, “I do not go to the whole, because they do not need me; I go to the sick because they do need me; the reason why I go anywhere is because I am needed.” I believe, dear friends, though doubtless there are some exceptions, that if you were to take the medical profession through, you would perceive larger-heartedness, and more humanity there than almost anywhere; and you would find that there is scarcely a physician, certainly none known to me, who would, if he had two urgent cases to consider, make any distinction between the two, except that he would give his first attention to the sufferer who needed him most. Of course if the matters are both trivial, common sense allows a man to select that which will best remunerate him for his skill, but in imminently dangerous cases, necessity decides. The true physician is born with a physician’s heart, and feels for the woes of his fellow men; and, though a man has obtained a diploma, he is no physician, and ought not to practice if his soul is not in his work, and his heart full of benevolence to the afflicted. The true physician having a sympathy and an intense desire to be of service, if there be two persons requiring him, would say, “This is in the more imminent danger, I shall go there first.”
Now what is most certainly only fair to acknowledge concerning human physicians, we must admit with a far greater cogency concerning the great physician of souls. If there were two sinners both perishing, and Christ were not able to save at the same moment more than one, he would go to that one first which needed him most. This is his rule. He acts according to sovereignty, but that sovereignty is under the control of his own infinite, mercy, and if he hears a cry from two hearts to-day, if he should give any preference, the preference would be given to that which was the cry of the most lost, the most abject, the most needy sinner. Now think this over and you will see that it is true, and most consolatory. What was it made Christ a physician at all? Was is not because men were sick with sin? Suppose they had been perfect, would Christ have ever been a Savior if men had not been lost? Brethren, it would have been a work of supererogation; it would have been a folly, a monstrous folly, on his part, to undertake an office which was not required of him. It is sin which makes room for his work as a Savior. I say it — you will understand me — he is only a Savior because there are sinners, and his Saviorship is based upon our sinnership. He takes that position because he is wanted. Again, what was the main thought which was upon him when he was compounding his great medicine? What was it made him shed great drops of blood? Was it human guilt, or human merit, think you? Why guilt, and guilt alone. What made him give his back to the scourgers, and his cheeks, to the smiters? What made him stretch his arms to the cross and give his feet to the nails? What made him bear the unsufferable wrath of Almighty God? Was it man’s goodness? Why you cannot think of such a thing; it was human vileness, villany,
degradation, iniquity, which made such sufferings as these all needful.
As I see then Christ in his great surgery, compounding the Almighty medicine which is to expel the disease from the veins of humanity, I see him every moment thinking of sin! sin! sin! Man’s sin makes him die. And now that he is in heaven, beloved, what is it that Christ is thinking of there? “He maketh intercession” — what, for? For the righteous? If they were self-righteous, perfectly righteous, they would not need intercession from him. “He maketh intercession for the transgressors.” He is exalted on high — what for? To reward the good? Nay, verily, but to give repentance and remission of sins — evidently to those who have no repentance and whose sins have need to be forgiven. Up in heaven, Christ still has his eye upon sinners — sinners are the jewels whom he seeks. Where, again, was Jesus Christ when he was on earth? Did he not spend the most of his time among sinners? Was he not always dealing out healing to the sick, life to
the dead, and so on? You might ask again, on the other hand, to whom is the gospel sent? What is it? “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” That is the gospel — “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned;” so that those who are hidden to believe are evidently those who deserve to be damned.
Need, need, need alone quickens the physician’s footsteps, bringing Jesus from the throne of glory to the cross, and in his spiritual power, bringing him every day from the throne of his Father down to broken-hearted heavy-laden souls. Now, this is very plain talking, and you all receive it, but still the most of people do not understand it. A minister, when he had done preaching in a country village, said to a farm-laborer who had been listening to him, “Do you think Jesus Christ died to save good people, or bad people?” “Well, sir,” said the man, “I should say he died to save good people.” “But did he die to save bad people?” “No, sir; no, certainly not, sir.” “Well, then, what will become of you and me?” “Well, sir, I do not know. I dare say you be pretty good, sir; and I try to be as good as I can.” That is just the common doctrine; and after all, though we think it has died out among us, that is the religion of ninety-nine English people out of every hundred who know nothing of divine grace: we are to be as good as we can; we are to go to church or to chapel, and do all that we can, and then Jesus Christ died for us, and we shall be saved. Whereas the gospel is that he did not do anything at all for people who can rely on themselves, but gave himself for lost and ruined ones. He did not come into the world to save self-righteous people; on their own showing, they do not want to be saved. He comes because we need him, and therefore he comes only to those who need him; and if we do not need him, and are such good respectable people, we must find our own way to heaven. Need, need alone, is that which quickens the physician’s footsteps.
IV. We therefore come to another point, upon which we shall not stay many minutes. It follows, therefore, and the text positively asserts it, that THE WHOLE — THAT THOSE WHO HAVE NO GREAT NEED — NO NEED AT ALL, WILL BE UNAIDED BY CHRIST.
OF course they ought to be left alone. No physician in his senses thinks of sending a prescription, no surgeon thinks of sending his bottles and his boxes of pills to people who profess to be perfectly well. The prescription would be put into the fire and the physic thrown in the streets — the man
himself would reckon it to be a gross insult. Christ did not come into the world merely to insult humanity. If humanity be the fine thing it thinks it is, then let it exalt itself as it may, and let it go on with the health it thinks it possesses; let it work out its own salvation if it will allow that even this is required. To send a physician to those who are whole is an insult to the physician too. He knocks at the door, “Who is ill here?” is the first question. “Nobody, we are all well, thank you, sir: we are all well, we thank God: we are not as other men are down the street there, we have no
fever, the small-pox never comes here, we never catch the scarlatina, we have nothing of the kind, sir; we are glad to see you — glad to see you, but — we have nothing the matter with us.” The physician would find at once that he had been hoaxed in being asked there.
And that truly is the treatment Jesus Christ gets from a great many people. You hear them say,
“Lord have mercy upon us, miserable sinners” — dressed in satin and all sorts of furbelows, and as good people as you would find in all the parish; and if you come to question them, they are not “miserable sinners” at all. I would like to chalk “miserable sinners” on their backs ,and see whether they could bear it. It is the same with you — you come here, and if I pray about sinners, there are some of you who say, “Yes, yes, we are sinners;” and yet if I came round and said, “Now let us take the ten commandments — have you broken them?” I daresay there are some here who would say, Really I do not know that I have in particular done anything wrong I do not feel that I have erred very remarkably.” No, the fact is you insult Christ by sending to him when you are not ill, and it is nothing better than impertinence, though you think it to be a compliment. The whole have no need of a physician: there is no need for a physician’s skill. “Why,” saith the doctor, as he looks round upon all his store of knowledge, what is the good of this? — a fool is as good as I am to a man who is not ill. If you were sick, I would try to do my best, but as there is nothing the matter
with you, there is no room for me.” You may fetch any crossing-sweeper, and he will be of as much use to you as the best physician, when you are not ill. So if you do not confess yourselves really to be sinners, Jesus will have no preciousness in your eyes, he will be but an ordinary person. If you
are not sick, there is no likelihood of gratitude. Men will not thank a physician for doing nothing. You will never be thankful to Christ for saving you, if you do not feel that you want saving. Then again, there will be no honor to him. Suppose you went to heaven, and entered there in the same
self-righteous frame of mind as you are in now, what would you say? “Well done!” There would be no honor to Christ, no glory to Jesus. A man must have a deep and conscious need of Christ, or else he cannot illuminate the throne of Christ with glory by his praise, when he shall enter heaven.
Now methinks there is some sweet music in what I have been saving to those of you who do need, though it must sound like a mockery to those of you who think you do not need it.
V. To conclude, it follows then, that THOSE WHO ARE SICK SHALL BE HELPED BY JESUS.
Let the question go round these galleries and this area
this morning, “Am I sick? Am I sinful? Then I have a need of Jesus, and
need is the only thing that will bring Jesus to me? Oh says one, “but I am
so very sinful.” Then you have a very great need, and there is room for
very great power on the Savior’s part, and that display of grace shall give
him very great glory. Sinner, believe on him, that he can save thee; trust
him to save thee and let not thy great sin keep thee back. “Oh but I have so
many sins!” Then again thou hast the greater need, and as it is need that
brings the doctor, so thy many needs will be so many knocks at his door,
so many rings at his bell; he will come the faster only plead earnestly every
one of these thy sins, and ask him to have pity upon thee. “Yes,” say you
“but I have been so long sick.” Then your case is a very bad one, and there
is the more need of his care. He healed the woman that had been thirty-six
years disabled, and if you have been thirty-six years-ay, if it be eighty years,
he is still able to heal, and your need — let us keep to that — your need is
your only plea. You have evidently a very strong plea, for you have a very
great need. “Ah,” says another, “but I have relapsed since I thought I was
healed — I have backslidden.” Now there is a special promise given to that
form or sickness, “I will heal their backsliding.” He does not specially say
“I will heal their drunkenness and so on,” but here is a special promise for a
special case. Now you want him. This is a great sin, this backsliding. Go to
him — ask him the rather to come to you. “Yes,” says another, “but I
cannot feel my sin as I would.” This only proves how much you need the
Lord Jesus, since you have not even that form of fitness which lies in a
deep sense of need; you cannot even feel, for you have the stone in the
heart. Oh make this a plea with him. Say “Jesus I want thee more than
anybody else, for there are some who have a little health; they can feel they
are diseased, but I have not even that. I want thee, oh I want thee more
than any.” Perhaps you will say “But I cannot believe on him as I would.”
Then add that also to your other sins, confess your unbelief, tell him you
have great need of him to give you faith; and go to him, and oh may he
help you to believe that he is able to forgive this sin also. “Well,” says one,
“but I grow worse the more I think about these things.” I am glad of it,
dear friend, this growing worse is a part of the cure. Suppose you should
keep on growing worse, it you should get to feel yourself as black as the
devil and as damned as a lost soul, yet still while you are in this world the
great physician can heal you, and you have still this great plea, that, you
want him, you want him. “Oh,” says one, “I cannot see how I can plead my
need as the only thing.” My dear friend, what would you plead, suppose
you were publicly begging. If I had to turn to the trade of a beggar, believe
me, I would not wear this black coat, or, if I did, I would take care to have
it pretty well riddled with holes; because the great thing you have to do
when you plead in the street, is to convince the passers-by that you are in
need. Some lean wretched-looking fellows have faces which are worth a
fortune to them — their cheeks white with consumption — their bodies
thin and lean as with starvation — with scarce a handful of rags on them,
they squat down in some corner and write on a paper “I am starving,” and
as you pass them you cannot help it, your hand goes into your pocket —
“Here is a case of destitution,” you say-and you give them relief. Imitate
these vagabonds in all but their deception. Use their logic, the rational
argument, that need is a beggar’s best plea. You are destitute, you are
starving; spread your case before God. The best case you can make out in
order to prevail with God, is a bad one. Let it be as bad as it can be and I
venture to say the worst is the best. Do not be apologising, attempting to
make your sins less than they are; tell him you are a wretch undone without
his sovereign grace, and there guilty and vile, and self-abhorred, fall flat
before him, say, “Lord Jesus, if thou wantest some one to heal; I am just
the man. If thou wantest a case that can be blazoned abroad and that will
make the public ears ring and ring again with the praise of thy all-healing
medicine, I am thy man, Lord. If thou wantest one full of sores and wounds
and putrefying disease like Job upon a dunghill; if thou wantest one that is
very far gone, that is rotten through and through, Lord, I am thy man.” O
think you, sinner, he is just your Savior, for while he loves to meet with
such cases as yours, you should rejoice to meet with such a Savior as he is;
and all you are asked to do is to believe that he can save you and to trust
him to do it. If you knew him you would believe him. He loves to save. He
can save the vilest. Trust him then, and may the Spirit of God so lead you
to understand him, that you can rely upon him, and, if you do, he will say,
“Sinner, thy sins be forgiven thee, be of good cheer, go on thy way
rejoicing.”May God bless these words, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Hymn for Today:
“It Is Well with My Soul” by Horatio G. Spafford
1. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.
2. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and hath shed his own blood for my soul.
Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.
3. My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.
4. And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
even so, it is well with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.

Through the Bible in One Year:
1 Samuel 1 to 10
1 There was a man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the highlands of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
2 He had two wives, one called Hannah, the other Peninnah; Peninnah had children but Hannah had none.
3 Every year this man used to go up from his town to worship, and to sacrifice to Yahweh Sabaoth at Shiloh. (The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there as priests of Yahweh.)
4 One day Elkanah offered a sacrifice. Now he used to give portions to Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters;
5 to Hannah, however, he would give only one portion: for, although he loved Hannah more, Yahweh had made her barren.
6 Furthermore, her rival would taunt and provoke her, because Yahweh had made her womb barren.
7 And this went on year after year; every time they went up to the temple of Yahweh she used to taunt her. On that day she wept and would not eat anything;
8 so her husband Elkanah said, ‘Hannah, why are you crying? Why are you not eating anything? Why are you so sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?’
9 When they had finished eating in the room, Hannah got up and stood before Yahweh. Eli the priest was sitting on his seat by the doorpost of the temple of Yahweh.
10 In the bitterness of her soul she prayed to Yahweh with many tears,
11 and she made this vow, ‘Yahweh Sabaoth! Should you condescend to notice the humiliation of your servant and keep her in mind instead of disregarding your servant, and give her a boy, I will give him to Yahweh for the whole of his life and no razor shall ever touch his head.’
12 While she went on praying to Yahweh, Eli was watching her mouth,
13 for Hannah was speaking under her breath; her lips were moving but her voice could not be heard, and Eli thought that she was drunk.
14 Eli said, ‘How much longer are you going to stay drunk? Get rid of your wine.’
15 ‘No, my lord,’ Hannah replied, ‘I am a woman in great trouble; I have not been drinking wine or strong drink — I am pouring out my soul before Yahweh.
16 Do not take your servant for a worthless woman; all this time I have been speaking from the depth of my grief and my resentment.’
17 Eli then replied, ‘Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant what you have asked of him.’
18 To which she said, ‘May your servant find favour in your sight.’ With that, the woman went away; she began eating and was dejected no longer.
19 They got up early in the morning and, after worshipping Yahweh, set out and went home to Ramah. Elkanah lay with his wife Hannah, and Yahweh remembered her.
20 Hannah conceived and, in due course, gave birth to a son, whom she named Samuel, ‘since’, she said, ‘I asked Yahweh for him.’
21 Elkanah, the husband, went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to Yahweh and to fulfil his vow.
22 However, Hannah did not go up, having said to her husband, ‘Not before the child has been weaned. Then I shall bring him and present him before Yahweh and he will stay there for ever.’
23 Elkanah her husband then said to her, ‘Do what you think fit; wait until you have weaned him. May Yahweh bring about what he has said.’ So the woman stayed behind and nursed her child until she weaned him.
24 When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, as well as a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and took him into the temple of Yahweh at Shiloh; the child was very young.
25 They sacrificed the bull and led the child to Eli.
26 She said, ‘If you please, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood beside you here, praying to Yahweh.
27 This is the child for which I was praying, and Yahweh has granted me what I asked of him.
28 Now I make him over to Yahweh for the whole of his life. He is made over to Yahweh.’ They then worshipped Yahweh there.
1 Hannah then prayed as follows: My heart exults in Yahweh, in my God is my strength lifted up, my mouth derides my foes, for I rejoice in your deliverance.
2 There is no Holy One like Yahweh, (indeed, there is none but you) no Rock like our God.
3 Do not keep talking so proudly, let no arrogance come from your mouth, for Yahweh is a wise God, his to weigh up deeds.
4 The bow of the mighty has been broken but those who were tottering are now braced with strength.
5 The full fed are hiring themselves out for bread but the hungry need labour no more; the barren woman bears sevenfold but the mother of many is left desolate.
6 Yahweh gives death and life, brings down to Sheol and draws up;
7 Yahweh makes poor and rich, he humbles and also exalts.
8 He raises the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy from the dunghill to give them a place with princes, to assign them a seat of honour; for to Yahweh belong the pillars of the earth, on these he has poised the world.
9 He safeguards the steps of his faithful but the wicked vanish in darkness (for human strength can win no victories).
10 Yahweh, his enemies are shattered, the Most High thunders in the heavens. Yahweh judges the ends of the earth, he endows his king with power, he raises up the strength of his Anointed.
11 Elkanah then went home to Ramah, but the child stayed in Yahweh’s service, in the presence of Eli the priest.
12 Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels; they cared nothing for Yahweh
13 nor for what was due to the priests from the people. Whenever anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being cooked;
14 he would thrust this into cauldron or pan, or dish or pot, and the priest claimed for his own whatever the fork brought up. That was how they behaved with all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh.
15 The priest’s servant would even come up before the fat had been burnt and say to the person who was making the sacrifice, ‘Give the priest some meat for him to roast. He will not accept boiled meat from you, only raw.’
16 Then, if the person replied, ‘Let the fat be burnt first, and then take for yourself whatever you choose,’ he would retort, ‘No! You must give it to me now or I shall take it by force.’
17 The young men’s sin was very great in Yahweh’s eyes, because they treated with contempt the offering made to Yahweh.
18 Samuel was in Yahweh’s service, a child wearing a linen loincloth.
19 His mother used to make him a little coat which she brought him each year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, ‘May Yahweh grant you an heir by this woman in exchange for the one which she has made over to Yahweh,’ and they would go home.
21 Yahweh visited Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the child Samuel grew up in Yahweh’s presence.
22 Although very old, Eli heard about everything that his sons were doing to all Israel,
23 and said, ‘Why are you behaving as all the people say you are?
24 No, my sons, what I hear reported by the people of Yahweh is not good.
25 If one person sins against another, God will be the arbiter, but if he sins against Yahweh, who will intercede for him?’ But they did not listen to their father’s words, for Yahweh was bent on killing them.
26 Meanwhile, the child Samuel went on growing in stature and in favour both with Yahweh and with people.
27 A man of God came to Eli and said to him, ‘This is what Yahweh says, “Did I not reveal myself to your father’s family when they were in Egypt as slaves in Pharaoh’s household?
28 Did I not single him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn the offering, to carry the ephod in my presence; and did I not grant all the burnt offerings made by the Israelites to your father’s family?
29 Why do you trample on the offering and on the sacrifice which I have ordered for my Dwelling, and honour your sons more than me, by growing fat on the best of the offerings of Israel, my people?
30 Whereas — this is what Yahweh, God of Israel, declares — I had promised that your family and your father’s family would walk in my presence for ever, now, however — this is what Yahweh declares — nothing of the sort! Those who honour me I honour in my turn, and those who despise me will be an object of contempt.
31 Be sure, the days are coming when I shall cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s family, so that no one in your family will live to old age.
32 Beside the Dwelling, you will see all the benefits that I shall confer on Israel, but no one in your family will ever live to old age.
33 I shall keep one of you at my altar for his eyes to go blind and his soul to wither, but the bulk of your family will die by the sword.
34 ‘ “What happens to your two sons Hophni and Phinehas will be a sign for you: on the same day both will die.
35 I shall raise myself a faithful priest, who will do as I intend and as I desire. I shall build him an enduring House and he will walk in the presence of my Anointed for ever.
36 The members of your House who survive will come and beg him on their knees for a silver coin and a loaf of bread and say: Please give me some priestly work, so that I can have a scrap of bread to eat.” ‘
1 Now, the boy Samuel was serving Yahweh in the presence of Eli; in those days it was rare for Yahweh to speak; visions were uncommon.
2 One day, it happened that Eli was lying down in his room. His eyes were beginning to grow dim; he could no longer see.
3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying in Yahweh’s sanctuary, where the ark of God was,
4 when Yahweh called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ He answered, ‘Here I am,’
5 and, running to Eli, he said, ‘Here I am, as you called me.’ Eli said, ‘I did not call. Go back and lie down.’ So he went and lay down.
6 And again Yahweh called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ He got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, as you called me.’ He replied, ‘I did not call, my son; go back and lie down.’
7 As yet, Samuel had no knowledge of Yahweh and the word of Yahweh had not yet been revealed to him.
8 Again Yahweh called, the third time. He got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, as you called me.’ Eli then understood that Yahweh was calling the child,
9 and he said to Samuel, ‘Go and lie down, and if someone calls say, “Speak, Yahweh; for your servant is listening.” ‘ So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 Yahweh then came and stood by, calling as he had done before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Samuel answered, ‘Speak, Yahweh; for your servant is listening.’
11 Yahweh then said to Samuel, ‘I am going to do something in Israel which will make the ears of all who hear of it ring.
12 I shall carry out that day against Eli everything that I have said about his family, from beginning to end.
13 You are to tell him that I condemn his family for ever, since he is aware that his sons have been cursing God and yet has not corrected them.
14 Therefore — I swear it to the family of Eli — no sacrifice or offering shall ever expiate the guilt of Eli’s family.’
15 Samuel lay where he was until morning and then opened the doors of Yahweh’s temple. Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision,
16 but Eli called Samuel and said, ‘Samuel, my son.’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied.
17 Eli asked, ‘What message did he give you? Please do not hide it from me. May God bring unnameable ills on you and worse ones, too, if you hide from me anything of what he said to you.’
18 Samuel then told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Eli said, ‘He is Yahweh; let him do what he thinks good.’
19 Samuel grew up. Yahweh was with him and did not let a single word fall to the ground of all that he had told him.
20 All Israel knew, from Dan to Beersheba, that Samuel was attested as a prophet of Yahweh.
21 Yahweh continued to manifest himself at Shiloh, revealing himself to Samuel there,
1 and, for all Israel, the word of Samuel was as the word of Yahweh; since Eli was very old and his sons persisted in their wicked behaviour towards Yahweh. It happened at that time that the Philistines mustered to make war on Israel and Israel went out to meet them in war, pitching camp near Ebenezer while the Philistines pitched camp at Aphek.
2 The Philistines drew up their battle-line against Israel, the fighting was fierce, and Israel was beaten by the Philistines: about four thousand men in their ranks were killed on the field of battle.
3 When the troops returned to camp, the elders of Israel said, ‘Why has Yahweh caused us to be beaten by the Philistines today? Let us fetch the ark of our God from Shiloh so that, when it goes with us, it may save us from the clutches of our enemies.’
4 So the troops sent to Shiloh and brought away the ark of Yahweh Sabaoth enthroned on the winged creatures; the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, came with the ark.
5 When the ark of Yahweh arrived in the camp, all Israel raised a great war cry so that the earth resounded.
6 When the Philistines heard the noise of the war cry, they said, ‘What can this great war cry in the Hebrew camp mean?’ And they realised that the ark of Yahweh had come into the camp.
7 At this, the Philistines were afraid; for they said, ‘God has come into the camp. Disaster!’ they said. ‘For nothing like this has ever happened before.
8 Disaster! Who will rescue us from the clutches of this mighty God? This was the God who struck down Egypt with every kind of misfortune in the desert.
9 But take courage and be men, Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been slaves to you. Be men and fight.’
10 So the Philistines gave battle and Israel was defeated, each man fleeing to his tent. The slaughter was very great: on the Israelite side, thirty thousand foot soldiers fell.
11 The ark of God was captured too, and Hophni and Phinehas the two sons of Eli died.
12 A Benjaminite ran from the battle-line and reached Shiloh the same day, his clothes torn and dust on his head.
13 When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat beside the gate watching the road, for his heart was trembling for the ark of God. The man came into the town and told the news, whereupon cries of anguish filled the town.
14 Eli heard the sound and asked, ‘What does this uproar mean?’ The man hurried on and told Eli.
15 Eli was ninety-eight years old; his gaze was fixed; he was blind.
16 The man said to Eli, ‘I have come from the camp. I escaped from the battle-line today.’ ‘My son,’ said Eli, ‘what happened?’
17 The messenger replied, ‘Israel has fled before the Philistines; the army has been utterly routed. What is worse, your two sons are dead and the ark of God has been captured.’
18 When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backwards off his seat by the gate and broke his neck and died, for he was old and heavy. He had been judge of Israel for forty years.
19 Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was with child and near her time. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and husband were dead she crouched down and gave birth, for her labour pains had come on.
20 When she was at the point of death, the women at her side said, ‘Do not be afraid; you have given birth to a son.’ But she did not answer and took no notice.
21 She named the child Ichabod, saying, ‘The glory has gone from Israel,’ alluding to the capture of the ark of God and to her father-in-law and husband.
22 She said, ‘The glory has gone from Israel, because the ark of God has been captured.’
1 When the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
2 Taking the ark of God, the Philistines put it in the temple of Dagon, setting it down beside Dagon.
3 When the people of Ashdod got up the following morning and went to the temple of Dagon, there lay Dagon face down on the ground before the ark of Yahweh. They picked Dagon up and put him back in his place.
4 But when they got up on the following morning, there lay Dagon face down on the ground before the ark of Yahweh, and Dagon’s head and two hands lay severed on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left in its place.
5 This is why the priests of Dagon and the people frequenting Dagon’s temple never step on Dagon’s threshold in Ashdod, even today.
6 Yahweh oppressed the people of Ashdod; he ravaged them and afflicted them with tumours — Ashdod and its territory. When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening they said,
7 ‘The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, for he is oppressing us and our god Dagon.’
8 So they summoned all the Philistine chiefs to them, and said, ‘What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?’ They decided, ‘The ark of the God of Israel shall be taken away to Gath.’ So they took the ark of the God of Israel to Gath.
9 But after they had taken it there, Yahweh oppressed that town and a great panic broke out; afflicting the people of the town from highest to lowest, he brought them out in tumours too.
10 They then sent the ark of God to Ekron, but when it came to Ekron the Ekronites shouted, ‘They have brought me the ark of the God of Israel to kill me and my people!’
11 They summoned all the Philistine chiefs and said, ‘Send the ark of the God of Israel away; let it go back to where it belongs and not kill me and my people’ — for there was mortal panic throughout the town; God was oppressing them.
12 The people who did not die were afflicted with tumours, and the wailing from the town rose to the sky.
1 The ark of Yahweh was in Philistine territory for seven months.
2 The Philistines then called for their priests and diviners and asked, ‘What shall we do with the ark of Yahweh? Tell us how to send it back to where it belongs.’
3 They replied, ‘If you send the ark of the God of Israel away, you must certainly not send it away without a gift; you must pay him a guilt offering. You will then recover and will realise why he continually oppressed you.’
4 They then asked, ‘What guilt offering ought we to pay him?’ They replied, ‘Corresponding to the number of Philistine chiefs: five golden tumours and five golden rats, since the same plague afflicted your chiefs as the rest of you.
5 So make models of your tumours and models of your rats ravaging the territory, and pay honour to the God of Israel. Then perhaps he will stop oppressing you, your gods and your country.
6 Why should you be as stubborn as Egypt and Pharaoh were? After he had brought disasters on them, did they not let the people leave?
7 Now, then, take and fit out a new cart, and two milch cows that have never borne the yoke. Then harness the cows to the cart and take their calves back to the byre.
8 Then take the ark of Yahweh, place it on the cart, and put the golden objects which you are paying him as guilt offering in a box beside it; and then send it off on its own.
9 Watch it; if it goes up the road to its own territory, towards Beth-Shemesh, then he was responsible for this great harm to us; but if not, we shall know that it was not his hand that struck us, and that this has happened to us by chance.’
10 The people did this. They took two milch cows and harnessed them to the cart, shutting their calves in the byre.
11 They then put the ark of Yahweh on the cart, with the box and the golden rats and the models of their tumours.
12 The cows made straight for Beth-Shemesh, keeping to the one road, lowing as they went and turning neither to right nor to left. The Philistine chiefs followed them as far as the boundaries of Beth-Shemesh.
13 The people of Beth-Shemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the plain when they looked up and saw the ark and went joyfully to meet it.
14 When the cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-Shemesh, it stopped. There was a large stone there, and they cut up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to Yahweh.
15 The Levites had taken down the ark of Yahweh and the box with it containing the golden objects and put these on the large stone. That day the people of Beth-Shemesh presented burnt offerings and made sacrifices to Yahweh.
16 The five chiefs of the Philistines, having witnessed this, went back to Ekron the same day.
17 The golden tumours paid by the Philistines as a guilt offering to Yahweh were as follows: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron;
18 and golden rats to the number of all the Philistine towns, those of the five chiefs, from fortified towns down to open villages: still to this day the large stone in the field of Joshua of Beth-Shemesh, on which they put the ark of Yahweh, is a witness.
19 Of the people of Beth-Shemesh the sons of Jeconiah had not rejoiced when they saw the ark of Yahweh, and Yahweh struck down seventy of them. The people mourned because Yahweh had struck them so fiercely.
20 The people of Beth-Shemesh then said, ‘Who can stand his ground before Yahweh, this holy God? To whom shall he go, so that we are rid of him?’
21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-Jearim, to say, ‘The Philistines have sent back the ark of Yahweh; come down and take it up to your town.’
1 The men of Kiriath-Jearim came and, taking up the ark of Yahweh, brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated his son Eleazar to guard the ark of Yahweh.
2 From the day when the ark was installed at Kiriath-Jearim, a long time went by — twenty years — and the whole House of Israel longed for Yahweh.
3 Samuel then spoke as follows to the whole House of Israel, ‘If you are returning to Yahweh with all your heart, banish the foreign gods and Astartes which you now have, and set your heart on Yahweh and serve him alone; and he will deliver you from the power of the Philistines.’
4 And the Israelites banished the Baals and Astartes and served Yahweh alone.
5 Samuel then said, ‘Muster all Israel at Mizpah and I shall plead with Yahweh for you.’
6 So they mustered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before Yahweh. They fasted that day and declared, ‘We have sinned against Yahweh.’ And Samuel was judge over the Israelites at Mizpah.
7 When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had mustered at Mizpah, the Philistine chiefs marched on Israel; and when the Israelites heard this, they were afraid of the Philistines.
8 They said to Samuel, ‘Do not stop calling on Yahweh our God to rescue us from the power of the Philistines.’
9 Samuel took a sucking lamb and presented it as a burnt offering to Yahweh, and he called on Yahweh on behalf of Israel and Yahweh heard him.
10 While Samuel was in the act of presenting burnt offering, the Philistines joined battle with Israel, but that day Yahweh thundered violently over the Philistines, threw them into panic and Israel defeated them.
11 The men of Israel sallied out from Mizpah in pursuit of the Philistines and beat them all the way to below Beth-Car.
12 Samuel then took a stone and erected it between Mizpah and the Tooth, and gave it the name Ebenezer, saying, ‘Yahweh helped us as far as this.’
13 So the Philistines were humbled and no longer came into Israelite territory; Yahweh oppressed the Philistines throughout the life of Samuel.
14 The towns which the Philistines had taken from Israel were given back to Israel, from Ekron all the way to Gath, and Israel freed their territory from the power of the Philistines. There was peace, too, between Israel and the Amorites.
15 Samuel was judge over Israel throughout his life.
16 Each year he went on circuit through Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and judged Israel in all these places.
17 He would then return to Ramah, since his home was there; there too he judged Israel. And there he built an altar to Yahweh.
1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges of Israel.
2 His eldest son was called Joel and his second one, Abijah; they were judges at Beersheba.
3 His sons did not follow his example but, seduced by the love of money, took bribes and gave biased verdicts.
4 The elders of Israel all assembled, went back to Samuel at Ramah, and said,
5 ‘Look, you are old, and your sons are not following your example. So give us a king to judge us, like the other nations.’
6 Samuel thought that it was wrong of them to say, ‘Let us have a king to judge us,’ so he prayed to Yahweh.
7 But Yahweh said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you: it is not you they have rejected
8 but me, not wishing me to reign over them any more. They are now doing to you exactly what they have done to me since the day I brought them out of Egypt until now, deserting me and serving other gods.
9 So, do what they ask; only, you must give them a solemn warning, and must tell them what the king who is to reign over them will do.’
10 Everything that Yahweh had said, Samuel then repeated to the people who were asking him for a king.
11 He said, ‘This is what the king who is to reign over you will do. He will take your sons and direct them to his chariotry and cavalry, and they will run in front of his chariot.
12 He will use them as leaders of a thousand and leaders of fifty; he will make them plough his fields and gather in his harvest and make his weapons of war and the gear for his chariots.
13 He will take your daughters as perfumers, cooks and bakers.
14 He will take the best of your fields, your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his officials.
15 He will tithe your crops and vineyards to provide for his courtiers and his officials.
16 He will take the best of your servants, men and women, of your oxen and your donkeys, and make them work for him.
17 He will tithe your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.
18 When that day comes, you will cry aloud because of the king you have chosen for yourselves, but on that day Yahweh will not hear you.’
19 The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel. They said, ‘No! We are determined to have a king,
20 so that we can be like the other nations, with our own king to rule us and lead us and fight our battles.’
21 Samuel listened to all that the people had to say and repeated it in Yahweh’s ear.
22 Yahweh then said to Samuel, ‘Do as they ask and give them a king.’ Samuel then said to the Israelites, ‘Go home, each of you, to his own town.’
1 Among the men of Benjamin was a man called Kish son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah; a Benjaminite and a person of rank.
2 He had a son called Saul, a handsome man in the prime of life. Of all the Israelites there was no one more handsome than he; he stood head and shoulders taller than anyone else.
3 Now since the donkeys belonging to Kish, Saul’s father, had strayed, Kish said to his son Saul, ‘My son, take one of the servants with you and be off; go and look for the donkeys.’
4 They went through the highlands of Ephraim, they went through the territory of Shalishah, and did not find them; they went through the territory of Shaalim but they were not there; they went through the territory of Benjamin and did not find them.
5 When they reached the territory of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, ‘Come on, let us go back or my father will stop worrying over the donkeys and start being anxious about us.’
6 The servant, however, replied, ‘Look, there is a man of God in this town, a man who is held in honour; everything he says comes true. Let us go there, then; perhaps he will be able to show us the way that we should take.’
7 Saul said to his servant, ‘But if we do go, what can we take to the man? The food in our sacks is finished, and we have no present to offer the man of God. What else have we got?’
8 The servant spoke up again and said to Saul, ‘Look, I happen to have a quarter of a silver shekel; I shall give that to the man of God, for him to tell us which way to go.’
9 In Israel, in olden days, when anyone used to go to consult God, he would say, ‘Come on, let us go to the seer,’ for a man who is now called a ‘prophet’ used to be called a ‘seer’ in olden days.
10 Saul then said to his servant, ‘Well said! Come on, let us go.’ And they went off to the town where the man of God was.
11 As they were going up the slope to the town they came across some girls going out to draw water, and said to them, ‘Is the seer there?’
12 The girls replied, ‘He is. He arrived a moment or two ahead of you. You had better hurry: he has just come to town because the people are having a sacrifice today on the high place.
13 You can catch him as soon as you go into the town, before he goes up to the high place for the meal. The people will not eat until he comes, since he must bless the sacrifice; after that, the guests will start eating. If you go up now, you will find him straight away.’
14 So they went up to the town and, as they were going through the gate, Samuel came out towards them on his way to the high place.
15 Now, Yahweh had given Samuel a revelation the day before Saul came, saying,
16 ‘About this time tomorrow, I shall send you a man from the territory of Benjamin; you are to anoint him as prince of my people Israel, and he will save my people from the power of the Philistines; for I have seen the misery of my people and their cries of anguish have come to me.’
17 When Samuel saw Saul, Yahweh told him, ‘That is the man of whom I said to you, “He is to govern my people.” ‘
18 Saul accosted Samuel in the gateway and said, ‘Tell me, please, where the seer’s house is.’
19 Samuel replied to Saul, ‘I am the seer. Go up ahead of me to the high place. You must eat with me today. Tomorrow, when I let you go, I shall tell you whatever is on your mind.
20 As regards your donkeys, however, which strayed three days ago, do not worry about them; they have been found. And for whom is the whole wealth of Israel destined, if not for you and for all the members of your father’s family?’
21 To this, Saul replied, ‘Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And is not my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why are you saying a thing like this to me?’
22 Samuel then took Saul and his servant and brought them into the hall and gave them a place at the head of the guests, of whom there were about thirty.
23 Samuel then said to the cook, ‘Serve the portion which I gave you and told you to put on one side.’
24 The cook then picked up the leg and the tail and put it in front of Saul, saying, ‘This is for you. This is what was left. Make a good meal . . .’ That day, Saul ate with Samuel.
25 They came down from the high place into the town. A bed was made for Saul on the roof and he lay down there.
26 At dawn, Samuel called to Saul on the roof, ‘Get up, and I shall send you on your way.’ Saul got up, and Samuel and he went outside together.
27 They had walked as far as the end of the town when Samuel said to Saul, ‘Tell the servant to go on ahead of us, but you stand still for a moment, so that I can make known to you the word of God.’
1 Samuel took a phial of oil and poured it on Saul’s head; he then kissed him and said, ‘Has not Yahweh anointed you as leader of his people Israel? You are the man who is to govern Yahweh’s people and save them from the power of the enemies surrounding them. The sign for you that Yahweh has anointed you as prince of his heritage is this:
2 after leaving me today, you will meet two men near the tomb of Rachel, on the frontier of Benjamin . . . and they will say to you, “The donkeys which you went looking for have been found, and your father has lost interest in the matter of the donkeys and is worrying about you and wondering, What am I to do about my son?”
3 Going on from there, you will come to the Oak of Tabor, where you will meet three men going up to God at Bethel; one will be carrying three kids, one three loaves of bread and the third a skin of wine.
4 They will greet you and give you two loaves of bread which you must accept from them.
5 After this, you will come to Gibeah of God (where the Philistine garrison is) and, when you are just outside the town, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place, headed by lyre, tambourine, pipe and harp; they will be in a state of ecstasy.
6 The spirit of Yahweh will then seize on you, and you will go into ecstasy with them, and be changed into another man.
7 When these signs have occurred, act as occasion serves, for God is with you.
8 You will then go down, ahead of me, to Gilgal, and I shall join you there to make burnt offerings and to offer communion sacrifices. You must wait seven days for me to come to you, and I shall then reveal to you what you must do.’
9 As soon as he had turned his back to leave Samuel, God changed his heart. And all these signs occurred that very day . . .
10 From there, they came to Gibeah: and there was a group of prophets coming to meet him! The spirit of God seized on him and he fell into ecstasy with them.
11 Seeing him prophesying with the prophets, all the people who had known him previously said to one another, ‘What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul one of the prophets too?’
12 And one of the local people retorted, ‘But who is their father?’ Hence the origin of the proverb: Is Saul one of the prophets too?
13 When he came out of his ecstasy, he went into Gibeah.
14 Saul’s uncle asked him and his servant, ‘Where have you been?’ ‘Looking for the donkeys,’ he replied, ‘and when we could not find them anywhere, we went to Samuel.’
15 Saul’s uncle said, ‘Tell me please what Samuel said to you.’
16 Saul said to his uncle, ‘He merely told us that the donkeys were already found,’ but did not mention anything that Samuel had said about the kingship.
17 Samuel summoned the people to Yahweh at Mizpah
18 and said to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, “I brought Israel out of Egypt and delivered you from the power of the Egyptians and of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.”
19 But today you have rejected your God, him who saves you from all your difficulties and troubles; and you have said, “No, you must set a king over us.” Very well, take your positions before Yahweh, tribe by tribe and clan by clan.’
20 Samuel then made all the tribes of Israel come forward, and the lot indicated the tribe of Benjamin.
21 He then made the tribe of Benjamin come forward clan by clan, and the lot indicated the clan of Matri; he then made the clan of Matri come forward one by one, and the lot indicated Saul son of Kish, but when they looked for him, he was not to be found.
22 Again they consulted Yahweh, ‘Has the man come here?’ Yahweh replied, ‘There he is, hiding among the baggage.’
23 So they ran and fetched him out and, as he stood among the people, he was head and shoulders taller than any of them.
24 Samuel then said to all the people, ‘You have seen the man whom Yahweh has chosen, and that among the whole people he has no equal.’ And all the people acclaimed him, shouting, ‘Long live the king!’
25 Samuel then explained the king’s constitutional position to the people and inscribed this in a book which he placed before Yahweh. Samuel then sent all the people away, everyone back to his home.
26 Saul too went home to Gibeah and with him went those strong men whose hearts God had touched.
27 But there were some scoundrels who said, ‘How can this fellow save us?’ These treated him with contempt and offered him no present.(New Jerusalem Bible)

Daily Office for Saturday, January 28, 2012:
Psalm 55
1 [For the choirmaster For strings Poem Of David] God, hear my prayer, do not hide away from my plea,
2 give me a hearing, answer me, my troubles give me no peace. I shudder
3 at the enemy’s shouts, at the outcry of the wicked; they heap up charges against me, in their anger bring hostile accusations against me.
4 My heart writhes within me, the terrors of death come upon me,
5 fear and trembling overwhelm me, and shuddering grips me.
6 And I say, ‘Who will give me wings like a dove, to fly away and find rest?’
7 How far I would escape, and make a nest in the desert!Pause
8 I would soon find a refuge from the storm of abuse, from the
9 destructive tempest, Lord, from the flood of their tongues. For I see violence and strife in the city,
10 day and night they make their rounds along the city walls, Inside live malice and mischief,
11 inside lives destruction, tyranny and treachery never absent from its central square.
12 Were it an enemy who insulted me, that I could bear; if an opponent pitted himself against me, I could turn away from him.
13 But you, a person of my own rank, a comrade and dear friend,
14 to whom I was bound by intimate friendship in the house of God! May they recoil in disorder,
15 may death descend on them, may they go down alive to Sheol, since evil shares their home with them.
16 For my part, I appeal to God, and Yahweh saves me;
17 evening, morning, noon, I complain and I groan. He hears my cry,
18 he ransoms me and gives me peace from the feud against me, for they are taking me to law.
19 But God will listen and will humble them, he who has been enthroned from the beginning; no change of heart for them, for they do not fear God.
20 They attack those at peace with them, going back on their oaths;
21 though their mouth is smoother than butter, enmity is in their hearts; their words more soothing than oil, yet sharpened like swords.
22 Unload your burden onto Yahweh and he will sustain you; never will he allow the upright to stumble.
23 You, God, will thrust them down to the abyss of destruction, men bloodthirsty and deceptive, before half their days are spent. For my part, I put my trust in you.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Psalm 138
1 [Of David] I thank you, Yahweh, with all my heart, for you have listened to the cry I uttered. In the presence of angels I sing to you,
2 I bow down before your holy Temple. I praise your name for your faithful love and your constancy; your promises surpass even your fame.
3 You heard me on the day when I called, and you gave new strength to my heart.
4 All the kings of the earth give thanks to you, Yahweh, when they hear the promises you make;
5 they sing of Yahweh’s ways, ‘Great is the glory of Yahweh!’
6 Sublime as he is, Yahweh looks on the humble, the proud he picks out from afar.
7 Though I live surrounded by trouble you give me life — to my enemies’ fury! You stretch out your right hand and save me,
8 Yahweh will do all things for me. Yahweh, your faithful love endures for ever, do not abandon what you have made.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Psalm 139:1-23
1 [For the choirmaster Of David Psalm] Yahweh, you examine me and know me,
2 you know when I sit, when I rise, you understand my thoughts from afar.
3 You watch when I walk or lie down, you know every detail of my conduct.
4 A word is not yet on my tongue before you, Yahweh, know all about it.
5 You fence me in, behind and in front, you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such amazing knowledge is beyond me, a height to which I cannot attain.
7 Where shall I go to escape your spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I scale the heavens you are there, if I lie flat in Sheol, there you are.
9 If I speed away on the wings of the dawn, if I dwell beyond the ocean,
10 even there your hand will be guiding me, your right hand holding me fast.
11 I will say, ‘Let the darkness cover me, and the night wrap itself around me,’
12 even darkness to you is not dark, and night is as clear as the day.
13 You created my inmost self, knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 For so many marvels I thank you; a wonder am I, and all your works are wonders. You knew me through and through,
15 my being held no secrets from you, when I was being formed in secret, textured in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes could see my embryo. In your book all my days were inscribed, every one that was fixed is there.
17 How hard for me to grasp your thoughts, how many, God, there are!
18 If I count them, they are more than the grains of sand; if I come to an end, I am still with you.
19 If only, God, you would kill the wicked!-Men of violence, keep away from me!-
20 those who speak blasphemously about you, and take no account of your thoughts.
21 Yahweh, do I not hate those who hate you, and loathe those who defy you?
22 My hate for them has no limits, I regard them as my own enemies.
23 God, examine me and know my heart, test me and know my concerns.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Genesis 18:1-16
1 Yahweh appeared to him at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day.
2 He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them, and bowed to the ground.
3 ‘My lord,’ he said, ‘if I find favour with you, please do not pass your servant by.
4 Let me have a little water brought, and you can wash your feet and have a rest under the tree.
5 Let me fetch a little bread and you can refresh yourselves before going further, now that you have come in your servant’s direction.’ They replied, ‘Do as you say.’
6 Abraham hurried to the tent and said to Sarah, ‘Quick, knead three measures of best flour and make loaves.’
7 Then, running to the herd, Abraham took a fine and tender calf and gave it to the servant, who hurried to prepare it.
8 Then taking curds, milk and the calf which had been prepared, he laid all before them, and they ate while he remained standing near them under the tree.
9 ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ they asked him. ‘She is in the tent,’ he replied.
10 Then his guest said, ‘I shall come back to you next year, and then your wife Sarah will have a son.’ Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.
11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well on in years, and Sarah had ceased to have her monthly periods.
12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ‘Now that I am past the age of childbearing, and my husband is an old man, is pleasure to come my way again?’
13 But Yahweh asked Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Am I really going to have a child now that I am old?”
14 Nothing is impossible for Yahweh. I shall come back to you at the same time next year and Sarah will have a son.’
15 Sarah said, ‘I did not laugh,’ lying because she was afraid. But he replied, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh.’
16 From there the men set out and arrived within sight of Sodom, with Abraham accompanying them to speed them on their way.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Hebrews 10:26-39
26 If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them.
27 There is left only the dreadful prospect of judgement and of the fiery wrath that is to devour your enemies.
28 Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses is ruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three;
29 and you may be sure that anyone who tramples on the Son of God, and who treats the blood of the covenant which sanctified him as if it were not holy, and who insults the Spirit of grace, will be condemned to a far severer punishment.
30 We are all aware who it was that said: Vengeance is mine; I will pay them back. And again: The Lord will vindicate his people.
31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 Remember the great challenge of the sufferings that you had to meet after you received the light, in earlier days;
33 sometimes by being yourselves publicly exposed to humiliations and violence, and sometimes as associates of others who were treated in the same way.
34 For you not only shared in the sufferings of those who were in prison, but you accepted with joy being stripped of your belongings, knowing that you owned something that was better and lasting.
35 Do not lose your fearlessness now, then, since the reward is so great.
36 You will need perseverance if you are to do God’s will and gain what he has promised.
37 Only a little while now, a very little while, for come he certainly will before too long.
38 My upright person will live through faith but if he draws back, my soul will take no pleasure in him.
39 We are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faith until our souls are saved.(New Jerusalem Bible)
John 6:16-27
16 That evening the disciples went down to the shore of the sea
17 and got into a boat to make for Capernaum on the other side of the sea. It was getting dark by now and Jesus had still not rejoined them.
18 The wind was strong, and the sea was getting rough.
19 They had rowed three or four miles when they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming towards the boat. They were afraid,
20 but he said, ‘It’s me. Don’t be afraid.’
21 They were ready to take him into the boat, and immediately it reached the shore at the place they were making for.
22 Next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side saw that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that the disciples had set off by themselves.
23 Other boats, however, had put in from Tiberias, near the place where the bread had been eaten.
24 When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’
26 Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, you are looking for me not because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.
27 Do not work for food that goes bad, but work for food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of man will give you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.(New Jerusalem Bible)
St. Thomas Aquinas:
Psalm 119:97-104
97 How I love your Law! I ponder it all day long.
98 You make me wiser than my enemies by your commandment which is mine for ever.
99 I am wiser than all my teachers because I ponder your instructions.
100 I have more understanding than the aged because I keep your precepts.
101 I restrain my foot from evil paths to keep your word.
102 I do not turn aside from your judgements, because you yourself have instructed me.
103 How pleasant your promise to my palate, sweeter than honey in my mouth!
104 From your precepts I learn wisdom, so I hate all deceptive ways.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Wisdom 7:7-14
7 And so I prayed, and understanding was given me; I entreated, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.
8 I esteemed her more than sceptres and thrones; compared with her, I held riches as nothing.
9 I reckoned no precious stone to be her equal, for compared with her, all gold is a pinch of sand, and beside her, silver ranks as mud.
10 I loved her more than health or beauty, preferred her to the light, since her radiance never sleeps.
11 In her company all good things came to me, and at her hands incalculable wealth.
12 All these delighted me, since Wisdom brings them, though I did not then realise that she was their mother.
13 What I learned diligently, I shall pass on liberally, I shall not conceal how rich she is.
14 For she is to human beings an inexhaustible treasure, and those who acquire this win God’s friendship, commended to him by the gifts of instruction.(New Jerusalem Bible)
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
23 For the tradition I received from the Lord and also handed on to you is that on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread,
24 and after he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’
25 And in the same way, with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’
26 Whenever you eat this bread, then, and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Matthew 13:47-52
47 ‘Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet that is cast in the sea and brings in a haul of all kinds of fish.
48 When it is full, the fishermen bring it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in baskets and throw away those that are no use.
49 This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the upright,
50 to throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
51 ‘Have you understood all these?’ They said, ‘Yes.’
52 And he said to them, ‘Well then, every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom new things as well as old.’(New Jerusalem Bible)
2 Samuel 12:1-25
1 Yahweh sent the prophet Nathan to David. He came to him and said: In the same town were two men, one rich, the other poor.
2 The rich man had flocks and herds in great abundance;
3 the poor man had nothing but a ewe lamb, only a single little one which he had bought. He fostered it and it grew up with him and his children, eating his bread, drinking from his cup, sleeping in his arms; it was like a daughter to him.
4 When a traveller came to stay, the rich man would not take anything from his own flock or herd to provide for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead, he stole the poor man’s lamb and prepared that for his guest.
5 David flew into a great rage with the man. ‘As Yahweh lives,’ he said to Nathan ‘the man who did this deserves to die.
6 For doing such a thing and for having shown no pity, he shall make fourfold restitution for the lamb.’
7 Nathan then said to David, ‘You are the man! Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, “I anointed you king of Israel, I saved you from Saul’s clutches,
8 I gave you your master’s household and your master’s wives into your arms, I gave you the House of Israel and the House of Judah; and, if this is still too little, I shall give you other things as well.
9 Why did you show contempt for Yahweh, by doing what displeases him? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword, you took his wife to be your wife, causing his death by the sword of the Ammonites.
10 For this, your household will never be free of the sword, since you showed contempt for me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite, to make her your wife.”
11 ‘Yahweh says this, “Out of your own household I shall raise misfortune for you. Before your very eyes I shall take your wives and give them to your neighbour, who will lie with your wives in broad daylight.
12 You have worked in secret, but I shall work this for all Israel to see, in broad daylight.” ‘
13 David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against Yahweh.’ Nathan then said to David, ‘Yahweh, for his part, forgives your sin; you are not to die.
14 But, since you have outraged Yahweh by doing this, the child born to you will die.’
15 And Nathan went home. Yahweh struck the child which Uriah’s wife had borne to David and it fell gravely ill.
16 David pleaded with Yahweh for the child; he kept a strict fast and went home and spent the night lying on the ground, covered with sacking.
17 The officials of his household stood round him, intending to get him off the ground, but he refused, nor would he take food with them.
18 On the seventh day the child died. David’s retinue were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. ‘Even when the child was alive’, they thought, ‘we reasoned with him and he would not listen to us. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He will do something desperate.’
19 David, however, noticed that his retinue were whispering among themselves, and realised that the child was dead. ‘Is the child dead?’ he asked the officers. They replied, ‘He is dead.’
20 David got off the ground, bathed and anointed himself and put on fresh clothes. Then he went into Yahweh’s sanctuary and prostrated himself. On returning to his house, he asked to be served with food and ate it.
21 His retinue said, ‘Why are you acting like this? When the child was alive, you fasted and wept; now that the child is dead, you get up and take food!’
22 ‘When the child was alive’, he replied, ‘I fasted and wept because I kept thinking, “Who knows? Perhaps Yahweh will take pity on me and the child will live.”
23 But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him but he cannot come back to me.’
24 David consoled his wife Bathsheba. He went to her and slept with her. She conceived and gave birth to a son, whom she called Solomon. Yahweh loved him
25 and made this known by means of the prophet Nathan, who named him Jedidiah, as Yahweh had instructed.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Psalm 51:11-18
11 do not thrust me away from your presence, do not take away from me your spirit of holiness.
12 Give me back the joy of your salvation, sustain in me a generous spirit.
13 I shall teach the wicked your paths, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, God, God of my salvation, and my tongue will acclaim your saving justice.
15 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will speak out your praise.
16 Sacrifice gives you no pleasure, burnt offering you do not desire.
17 Sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a broken, contrite heart you never scorn.
18 In your graciousness do good to Zion, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Mark 4:35-41
35 With the coming of evening that same day, he said to them, ‘Let us cross over to the other side.’
36 And leaving the crowd behind they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him.
37 Then it began to blow a great gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped.
38 But he was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep.
39 They woke him and said to him, ‘Master, do you not care? We are lost!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Quiet now! Be calm!’ And the wind dropped, and there followed a great calm.
40 Then he said to them, ‘Why are you so frightened? Have you still no faith?’
41 They were overcome with awe and said to one another, ‘Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.’(New Jerusalem Bible)

Saturday, 28 January 2012
Saturday of the Third week in Ordinary Time
Saint(s) of the day:St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest & Doctor of the Church (+ 1274) – Memorial
Commentary of the day:
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church
Story of a soul; Manuscript A, 75 v° – 76 r° (copyright Institute of Carmelite Studies)
“Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion”
I should have spoken to you about the retreat preceding my Profession, dear Mother…; it was far from bringing me any consolations since the most absolute aridity and almost total abandonment were my lot. Jesus was sleeping as usual in my little boat; ah! I see very well how rarely souls allow him to sleep peacefully within them. Jesus is so fatigued with always having to take the initiative and to attend to others that he hastens to take advantage of the repose I offer to him. He will undoubtedly awaken before my great eternal retreat, but instead of being troubled about it this only gives me extreme pleasure.
Really, I am far from being a saint, and what I have just said is proof of this; instead of rejoicing, for example, at my aridity, I should attribute it to my little fervor and lack of fidelity; I should be desolate for having slept (for seven years) during my hours of prayer and my thanksgivings after Holy Communion; well, I am not desolate. I remember that little children are as pleasing to their parents when they are asleep as well as when they are wide awake; I remember, too, that when they perform operations, doctors put their patients to sleep. Finally, I remember that: “The Lord knows our weakness,» that «he is mindful that we are but dust» (Ps 103[102],14).
Just as all those that followed it, my Profession retreat was one of great aridity. God showed me clearly, however, without my perceiving it, the way to please him and to practice the most sublime virtues. I have frequently noticed that Jesus doesn’t want me to lay up provisions; he nourishes me at each moment with a totally new food; I find it within me without my knowing how it is there. I believe it is Jesus himself hidden in the depths of my poor little heart: he is giving me the grace of acting within me, making me think of all he desires me to do at the present moment.

1st Thought for Today:
My Utmost for His Highest
Reading for Saturday 28th January 2012
BUT IT IS HARDLY CREDIBLE THAT ONE COULD SO PERSECUTE JESUS! by Oswald Chambers
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?(Acts 26:14)
Am I set on my own way for God? We are never free from this snare until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. Obstinacy and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set upon our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Jesus. Whenever we stand on our dignity we systematically vex and grieve His Spirit; and when the knowledge comes home that it is Jesus Whom we have been persecuting all the time, it is the most crushing revelation there could be.
Is the word of God tremendously keen to me as I hand it on to you, or does my life give the lie to the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of one thing only – a perfect oneness with the Father, and He says, “Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that I can be easily put upon, easily over-reached, easily ignored; but if I submit to it for His sake, I prevent Jesus Christ being persecuted.

Reflecting God-He Will Last Forever
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Scripture-Psalm 72:1-7
1 [Of Solomon] God, endow the king with your own fair judgement, the son of the king with your own saving justice,
2 that he may rule your people with justice, and your poor with fair judgement.
3 Mountains and hills, bring peace to the people! With justice
4 he will judge the poor of the people, he will save the children of the needy and crush their oppressors.
5 In the sight of the sun and the moon he will endure, age after age.
6 He will come down like rain on mown grass, like showers moistening the land.
7 In his days uprightness shall flourish, and peace in plenty till the moon is no more.(New Jerusalem Bible)
He Will Last Forever by Gerald Crispin
Have you ever wondered who God is, and what he is really like? Does he really love us? Though I have been a Christian for years, I still ask such questions about God. Maybe you’re the same. That is why I love Psalm 72. In this psalm we learn about God through the example of a just and righteous king. The Lord rules, protects, and nourishes his people and a godly ruler does the same. Through this example we learn more about God.
How long do you think the sun and the moon existed? How long do you think they will continue to exist? No matter the answer, God has always been and will continue to be. When the sun and moon have gone away he will still be the Lord God. He has no beginning and no end. The Lord and his kingdom will endure!
The reign of a human ruler, no matter how godly, will end in a few years or decades. God’s dominion will last forever! When we asked God to forgive our sin and make us a part of his family, he did, and we will live for eternity. We will be with God forever!
Hymn for Today:
“Jesus Shall Reign” by Isaac Watts
1. Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
does its successive journeys run;
his kingdom spread from shore to shore,
till moons shall wax and wane no more.
2. To Jesus endless prayer be made,
and endless praises crown his head;
his name like sweet perfume shall rise
with every morning sacrifice.
3. People and realms of every tongue
dwell on his love with sweetest song;
and infant voices shall proclaim
their early blessings on his name.
4. Blessings abound where’er he reigns;
all prisoners leap and loose their chains;
the weary find eternal rest,
and all who suffer want are blest.
5. Let every creature rise and bring
honors peculiar to our King;
angels descend with songs again,
and earth repeat the loud amen!
2nd Thought for Today:
“Sin destroys. Our confession and God’s forgiveness is its only remedy”(Neil B. Wiseman).
Prayer Needs:
Faculty and students as they prepare for full-time Christian ministry in the United Kingdom.

200. Remember the Future
January 27, 2012 by FivePractices
Join Robert Schnase for “Remember the Future: 30 Days of Preparation,” a series of reflections as The United Methodist Church prepares for General Conference 2012. These daily meditations explore hope, purpose, leadership and making and becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. With Wesleyan, scriptural, and leadership themes, explore together the mission of the church in a time of great change.
Check out the sample reflection below, and sign up today at Ministry Matters to receive the first of your daily meditations March 26!
Peter Steinke’s book A Door Set Open: Grounding Change in Mission and Hope contrasts hopefulness and hopelessness. Hopefulness, according to Steinke, stirs imagination, expands horizons, influences events, energizes, and creates a sense of buoyancy. Hopelessness shrinks the radius of possibility, becomes apathetic, entraps, minimizes options, resigns to existing conditions, and loses heart. Steinke also writes that hopefulness remembers the future so that we will not remain trapped in the present arrangement of things (p. 41).
Since reading Steinke’s book, the phrase Remember the Future has lingered in my mind. At first, the words are disorienting. Remember points backward, future looks forward. Yet in every discussion, deliberation, discernment, and decision, a leader must give deep and conscientious consideration to the future—to the future of the mission, to future contexts, to future generations, to a future with hope. Hope carries us across the threshold of “can’t.” We must always remember the future.
General Conference 2012 promises to be a significant moment in the life of the United Methodist Church. The Council of Bishops, through the Call to Action, has endorsed a core challenge: To redirect the flow of attention, energy, and resources to an intense concentration on fostering and sustaining an increase in the number of vital congregations effective in making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. To support this, the Council of Bishops and the Connectional Table have put forward bold proposals that consolidate and streamline general agencies; give annual conferences the freedom to organize according to their context; reform the Council of Bishops; strengthen accountability systems for bishops, pastors, and general agencies; and reduce the general church budget. Also, there are proposals from an array of task forces that may change our systems of clergy preparation, ordination, and deployment, including shifts in the guaranteed appointment. In addition, General Conference will consider thousands of petitions on hundreds of topics submitted by members and congregations from across the world.
Petitions, bishops, pastors, laity, caucuses, committees, boards, agencies, budgets, plenary, legislation, young people, the global church, conferences, ordination, mission, discipline, Wesley, malaria, seminaries, worship, translators, hymns, prayer—this is the peculiar vocabulary and singular language of General Conference. The agenda is overwhelming. The expectations are incredible. The worship is awe-inspiring. The array of material to read is unrealistic. The work is important. The tension is tangible. The outcomes are uncertain.
And, I pray, the Spirit is present. I pray that delegates focus on the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. I hope they direct our energies outward into the mission fields at home and across the globe that God gives us. And I pray they remember the future.
Beginning on March 26 and continuing for the thirty days leading up to General Conference, I will post a daily blog on Ministry Matters addressing an element of our mission together as United Methodists, weaving together scriptural themes, threads from our Wesleyan heritage, and insights from the literature of organizations and change. I’ll include references and background related to the Call to Action and some of the specific proposals that come before General Conference. Some of the daily blogs will include brief videos to explain or describe key ideas. Delegates, clergy, laity, and visitors from across the church are invited to opt in for a free subscription for the thirty days. Each day, you’ll receive a copy of the blog by email. Annual conference websites and local church websites are invited to link up as well.
The purpose of Remember the Future is to deepen understanding and further conversation about the key issues that shape our mission and future as a denomination. I hope the daily writings help focus the conversation on the mission of the church in Christ, and that they cause delegates at General Conference as well as local church leaders to continually remember the future!
The task of governance in an organization is to clarify the principle mission, maintain an outward focus, and force future-oriented thinking. How well do the governance structures of your congregation and of your conference do these things?
Why is it so difficult to focus on the future in leadership decisions? How do you remember the future in the roles of leadership you hold?

The Upper Room Daily Devotional
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Christmas Longings
Suggested Bible Reading:
Read Hebrews 11:8-16
8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he sojourned in the Promised Land as though it were not his, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
10 He looked forward to the well-founded city, designed and built by God.
11 It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that he who had made the promise was faithful to it.
12 Because of this, there came from one man, and one who already had the mark of death on him, descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore which cannot be counted.
13 All these died in faith, before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but they saw them in the far distance and welcomed them, recognising that they were only strangers and nomads on earth.
14 People who use such terms about themselves make it quite plain that they are in search of a homeland.
15 If they had meant the country they came from, they would have had the opportunity to return to it;
16 but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has founded the city for them.(New Jerusalem Bible)
They were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.(Hebrews 11:16 (NIV))
Today’s Devotional
Christmas traditions differ all over the world. In Australia where I spent my childhood, we lazed in front of electric fans while singing songs about snow and sleds. Many Australians would love to experience a white Christmas. When I grew up, I became a missionary in northern Japan. I could experience at last the Christmas scenes I’d imagined as a child. However, celebrating Christmas in the snow was not as I’d pictured; I longed for the warm-weather Christmases of my childhood, complete with extended family.
We see the longing for home in Bible characters who felt like “strangers and foreigners on the earth” (Heb. 11:13, nrsv). My longing for home prompted me to think of the sacrifice Jesus made when he came to earth. How he must have yearned for all he left behind!
Whenever I’m away from my earthly home of Australia, I try to turn my homesickness into a longing for my eternal home where finally I’ll be satisfied. When I reach my eternal home everything will be perfect, and I will no longer feel homesick. by Wendy Marshall (Tokyo, Japan)
3rd Thought for the Day: The longing for a home is a foretaste of heaven.
Prayer: Dear Lord, help us to anticipate the wonderful home you’re preparing for our eternity. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Missionaries
The scripture quotation, unless otherwise indicated, is from the NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2012 by The Upper Room, a ministry of GBOD. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce or redistribute without written permission from the publisher.

Daily Meditation: Wisdom — January 28, 2012
Center for Action and Contemplation
WISDOM
“And I chose to have Wisdom rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.”(Wisdom 7:10)
The beauty of the unconscious is that it knows a great deal—whether personal or collective—but it always knows that it does not know, cannot say, and dare not try to prove or assert too strongly; because what it does know is that there is always more—and all words will fall short. The contemplative is precisely the person who agrees to live in that unique kind of brightness (a combination of light and dark that is brighter still!). The Paradox, of course, is that it does not feel like brightness at all, but what John of the Cross calls a “luminous darkness,” or others call “learned ignorance.”
In summary, you cannot grow in the great art form, the integration of action and contemplation, without 1) a strong tolerance for ambiguity; 2) an ability to allow, forgive, and contain a certain degree of anxiety; and 3) a willingness to not know and not even need to know. This is how you allow and encounter mystery. All else is mere religion. From A Lever And a Place to Stand:
The Contemplative Stance, the Active Prayer, p. x (foreword)
Starter Prayer:
Grant me wisdom. by Father Richard Rohr

4th Thought for Today:
Saturday January 28, 2012
Forgiving in the Name of God
We are all wounded people. Who wounds us? Often those whom we love and those who love us. When we feel rejected, abandoned, abused, manipulated, or violated, it is mostly by people very close to us: our parents, our friends, our spouses, our lovers, our children, our neighbors, our teachers, our pastors. Those who love us wound us too. That’s the tragedy of our lives. This is what makes forgiveness from the heart so difficult. It is precisely our hearts that are wounded. We cry out, “You, who I expected to be there for me, you have abandoned me. How can I ever forgive you for that?”
Forgiveness often seems impossible, but nothing is impossible for God. The God who lives within us will give us the grace to go beyond our wounded selves and say, “In the Name of God you are forgiven.” Let’s pray for that grace. by Father Henri J. M. Nouwen

1.28.12 – “Love is as strong as death” from The Church of the Resurrection-United Methodist in Leawood, Kansas, United States
Daily Scripture: Song of Solomon 1:9 LOVER: I compare you, my love, to my mare harnessed to Pharaoh’s chariot.
10 Your cheeks show fair between their pendants and your neck within its necklaces.
11 We shall make you golden earrings and beads of silver.
12 DUO: -While the king rests in his own room my nard yields its perfume.
13 My love is a sachet of myrrh lying between my breasts.
14 My love is a cluster of henna flowers among the vines of En-Gedi.
15 -How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves.
16 -How beautiful you are, my love, and how you delight me! Our bed is the greensward.
17 -The beams of our house are cedar trees, its panelling the cypress.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Song of Solomon 2:1 -I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys.
2 -As a lily among the thistles, so is my beloved among girls.
3 -As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my love among young men. In his delightful shade I sit, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4 He has taken me to his cellar, and his banner over me is love.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Song of Solomon 8:5 Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover? I awakened you under the apple tree, where your mother conceived you, where she who bore you conceived you.
6 BELOVED: Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong as Death, passion as relentless as Sheol. The flash of it is a flash of fire, a flame of Yahweh himself.
7 Love no flood can quench, no torrents drown. Were a man to offer all his family wealth to buy love, contempt is all that he would gain.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Reflection Question:
How comfortable or uncomfortable were you reading today’s Scripture passage? (Other parts of the Song are even more erotic—albeit in ways that fit that time’s ideas of beauty!) This bold Hebrew love poetry frames the strong pull of sexual attraction in a way that points to God’s intention that the union of bodies will bond souls together. Can we misuse sexuality in hurtful ways? Yes. Is our culture sometimes uneasy and ashamed, and at other times brazen, about sex? Yes again. But regardless of that, our sexuality is one of God’s good gifts.
How do these poetic passages join sexual allure with the even stronger, lasting force of committed love? (A popular song some years ago said, “We’ve got tonight/Who needs tomorrow?” How did the biblical Song show lovers enjoying “tonight” to fortify a bond that reaches way beyond “tomorrow”?) How does having Song of Solomon in the Bible show that God is not ill at ease with sexual attraction, but meant it as a force for good?
Family Activity:
God created each person as a sexual being and designed sexuality as a good gift. Children will learn about sex from someone, so as parents or caregivers, commit to being the people who teach them. With younger children, use appropriate names for all body parts, including those we keep covered. With older children and youth, bake a cake. Take the cake out of the oven 15-20 minutes early. Talk about what isn’t right about the cake and how timing matters in all things. Finish baking it and when it is done, celebrate its goodness. Talk about the goodness and gift of waiting for the right time to have sex. Pray, asking God for wisdom and guidance as your family continues these vital conversations through the years.
Saturday 1.28.12 Insight from Julie Peters
Julie Peters is the Associate Director of Student Ministries at The Church of the Resurrection.
As a youth minister, I have to admit that the first thing that occurs to me when I read passages like this is, “Yikes! How do I preach on this to a room full of middle school students?” And yet, as a second thought, I wonder for those of us who have already supposedly grown-up, are there lessons for us in the basic nature of a 6th grader that could give us insight into this scripture?
Follow me on this for a minute. Have you ever watched 6th graders interact? As a rule, they are goofy, awkward, super authentic, and overflowing with a basic enthusiasm for living in the moment. God made them who they are and more often than not, they embrace life and who they are in a way many of us have long forgotten. I watch them laughing a bit more loudly than their parent might wish, crying from the depths of their souls when someone hurts them, and singing with abandon with whatever voice God gave them. Basically, they are still free from much of the baggage that tells us to live for the audience around us and gain our worth from what others think, rather than gaining our worth just because God made us uniquely and beautifully us.
OK…so what does this have to do with Song of Solomon? Stay with me here. This past week, we have been looking at how sex is God’s good gift within the right parameters, and also how the world around us has defined sex in ways that really don’t line up with the powerful bonding of life and soul that is a part giving yourself to your mate so completely. I think again of the powerful image scripture gives us of husband and wife, two becoming one. The lovers in Song of Solomon are living in the moment and appreciating all that God has provided them in a mate, and yet building a love that lasts, becoming one. While I am not sure many of us girls would enjoy being likened to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariot horses, I do know that the authentic appreciation of one another, the ability to see the depth of beauty in the mate God has given you, and the abandon of awkwardness and shame as two become one come through in these passages loud and clear. These verses are a powerful image of surrender of self and a love that goes beyond all of the clutter of this world. It gives us glimpses of a love that is authentic, in the moment and yet bound for life, and is even stronger than death. So in this relationship as husband and wife, we get a small taste of the boundless, unconditional love of our God for us.
And for all of us, no matter what stage of life we are currently in, there are beautiful reminders for us in this scripture in regards to God’s love for us. We are reminded that God loves us and sees beauty in us, right where we are. We are reminded that our relationship with God is intimate and personal and we can surrender to our God with complete abandon, and not worry about what anyone thinks, because the way God loves is so far beyond what we can even understand, and goes even beyond death. And we are reminded of the joy and blessings that come as we enjoy who God has made us to be and appreciate the good gifts that God has given to us right where we are in any given moment.
May we live each day with the abandon and the security that comes from knowing that Jesus surrendered all for us and that in marriage, in relationship, and in life our true audience is the God who created us. As we live into this and allow God to love us and teach us how to love others we begin to understand a love that is even stronger than death.
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, TODAY’S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society®. Used by permission of International Bible Society®. All rights reserved worldwide.

5th Thought for Today:
Saturday 28 January 2012
Spirituality
We have to find a spirituality which is not running away form suffering but entering into suffering and discovering a presence of God, and a presence of people, in pain by Jean Vanier
Belonging: The Search for Acceptance
Windborne Production Video

Shabbat Shalom for Saturday, January 28, 2012,
Welcome to Bo (Come!), this week’s Parsha (Torah Portion).
Please read with us the portion of Torah that will be read in synagogues
around the world during this week’s Shabbat (Saturday) service. We know
you will be blessed!
BO (Come!)
Exodus 10:1–13:16
1 Yahweh then said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have made him and his officials stubborn, to display these signs of mine among them;
2 so that you can tell your sons and your grandsons how I made fools of the Egyptians and what signs I performed among them, so that you would know that I am Yahweh.’
3 Moses and Aaron then went to Pharaoh and said to him, ‘Yahweh, God of the Hebrews, says this, “How much longer will you refuse to submit to me? Let my people go and worship me.
4 Or, if you refuse to let my people go, tomorrow I shall send locusts into your country.
5 They will cover the surface of the soil so that the soil cannot be seen. They will devour the remainder of what has escaped, of what you have been left after the hail; they will devour all your trees growing in the fields;
6 they will fill your houses, all your officials’ houses and all the Egyptians’ houses — something your ancestors and your ancestors’ ancestors have never seen from the day they first appeared on earth until now.” ‘ Then he turned on his heel and left Pharaoh’s presence.
7 At which, Pharaoh’s officials said to him, ‘How much longer are we to be tricked by this fellow? Let the people go and worship Yahweh their God. Do you not finally realise that Egypt is on the brink of ruin?’
8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh who said to them, ‘Go and worship Yahweh your God. But who are to go?’
9 Moses replied, ‘We shall take our young men and our old men, we shall take our sons and daughters, our flocks and our herds, since we are going to hold a feast in Yahweh’s honour.’
10 Pharaoh said, ‘So I must let you go with your wives and children! May Yahweh preserve you! Plainly, you are up to no good!
11 Oh no! You men may go and worship Yahweh, since that was your original request.’ With that, they were driven from Pharaoh’s presence.
12 Yahweh then said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over Egypt for the locusts. Let them invade Egypt and devour whatever is growing in the country, whatever the hail has left!’
13 Moses stretched his staff over Egypt, and over the country Yahweh sent an east wind which blew all that day and night. By morning, the east wind had brought the locusts.
14 The locusts invaded the whole of Egypt and settled all over Egypt, in great swarms; never had there been so many locusts before, nor would there be again.
15 They covered the surface of the ground till the land was devastated. They devoured whatever was growing in the fields and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left. No green was left on tree or plant in the fields anywhere in Egypt.
16 Pharaoh sent urgently for Moses and Aaron and said, ‘I have sinned against Yahweh your God and against you.
17 Now forgive my sin, I implore you, just this once, and entreat Yahweh your God to turn this deadly thing away from me.’
18 When Moses left Pharaoh’s presence he prayed to Yahweh,
19 and Yahweh changed the wind into a west wind, very strong, which carried the locusts away and swept them into the Sea of Reeds. There was not one locust left in the whole of Egypt.
20 But Yahweh made Pharaoh stubborn, and he did not let the Israelites go.
21 Yahweh then said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand towards heaven, and let darkness, darkness so thick that it can be felt, cover Egypt.’
22 So Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven, and for three days there was thick darkness over the whole of Egypt.
23 No one could see anyone else or move about for three days, but all the Israelites did have light where they were living.
24 Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, ‘Go and worship Yahweh, but your flocks and herds are to stay here. Your wives and children can go with you too.’
25 Moses said, ‘But now you must give us sacrifices and burnt offerings to offer to Yahweh our God.
26 And our livestock will go with us too; not a hoof will be left behind; for we may need animals from these to worship Yahweh our God; for until we get there we ourselves cannot tell how we are to worship Yahweh.’
27 But Yahweh made Pharaoh stubborn, and he refused to let them go.
28 Pharaoh said to Moses, ‘Out of my sight! Be sure you never see my face again, for the next time you see my face you die!’
29 Moses then said, ‘You yourself have said it. I shall never see your face again.’
1 Yahweh then said to Moses, ‘I shall inflict one more plague on Pharaoh and Egypt, after which he will let you go away. When he lets you go, he will actually drive you out!
2 Now instruct the people that every man is to ask his neighbour, and every woman hers, for silver and golden jewellery.’
3 And Yahweh made the Egyptians impressed with the people, while Moses himself was a man of great importance in Egypt in the opinion of Pharaoh’s officials and the people.
4 Moses then said, ‘Yahweh says this, “At midnight I shall pass through Egypt,
5 and all the first-born in Egypt will die, from the first-born of Pharaoh, heir to his throne, to the first-born of the slave-girl at the mill, and all the first-born of the livestock.
6 And throughout Egypt there will be great wailing, such as never was before, nor will be again.
7 But against the Israelites, whether man or beast, never a dog shall bark, so that you may know that Yahweh discriminates between Egypt and Israel.
8 Then all these officials of yours will come down to me and, bowing low before me, say: Go away, you and all the people who follow you! After which, I shall go.” ‘ And, hot with anger, he left Pharaoh’s presence.
9 Yahweh then said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that more of my wonders may be displayed in Egypt.’
10 Moses and Aaron worked all these wonders in Pharaoh’s presence, but Yahweh made Pharaoh stubborn, and he did not let the Israelites leave his country.
1 Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,
2 ‘This month must be the first of all the months for you, the first month of your year.
3 Speak to the whole community of Israel and say, “On the tenth day of this month each man must take an animal from the flock for his family: one animal for each household.
4 If the household is too small for the animal, he must join with his neighbour nearest to his house, depending on the number of persons. When you choose the animal, you will take into account what each can eat.
5 It must be an animal without blemish, a male one year old; you may choose it either from the sheep or from the goats.
6 You must keep it till the fourteenth day of the month when the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter it at twilight.
7 Some of the blood must then be taken and put on both door-posts and the lintel of the houses where it is eaten.
8 That night, the flesh must be eaten, roasted over the fire; it must be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with the head, feet and entrails.
10 You must not leave any of it over till the morning: whatever is left till morning you must burn.
11 This is how you must eat it: with a belt round your waist, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You must eat it hurriedly: it is a Passover in Yahweh’s honour.
12 That night, I shall go through Egypt and strike down all the first-born in Egypt, man and beast alike, and shall execute justice on all the gods of Egypt, I, Yahweh!
13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. When I see the blood I shall pass over you, and you will escape the destructive plague when I strike Egypt.
14 This day must be commemorated by you, and you must keep it as a feast in Yahweh’s honour. You must keep it as a feast-day for all generations; this is a decree for all time.
15 “For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you must clean the leaven out of your houses, for anyone who eats leavened bread from the first to the seventh day must be outlawed from Israel.
16 On the first day you must hold a sacred assembly, and on the seventh day a sacred assembly. On those days no work may be done; you will prepare only what each requires to eat.
17 You must keep the feast of Unleavened Bread because it was on that same day that I brought your armies out of Egypt. You will keep that day, generation after generation; this is a decree for all time.
18 In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you must eat unleavened bread.
19 For seven days there may be no leaven in your houses, since anyone, either stranger or citizen of the country, who eats leavened bread will be outlawed from the community of Israel.
20 You will eat nothing with leaven in it; wherever you live, you will eat unleavened bread.” ‘
21 Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go and choose a lamb or kid for your families, and kill the Passover victim.
22 Then take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and with the blood from the basin touch the lintel and both door-posts; then let none of you venture out of the house till morning.
23 Then, when Yahweh goes through Egypt to strike it, and sees the blood on the lintel and on both door-posts, he will pass over the door and not allow the Destroyer to enter your homes and strike.
24 You will observe this as a decree binding you and your children for all time,
25 and when you have entered the country which Yahweh will give you, as he has promised, you will observe this ritual.
26 And when your children ask you, “What does this ritual mean?”
27 you will tell them, “It is the Passover sacrifice in honour of Yahweh who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, and struck Egypt but spared our houses.” ‘ And the people bowed in worship.
28 The Israelites then went away and did as Yahweh had ordered Moses and Aaron.
29 And at midnight Yahweh struck down all the first-born in Egypt from the first-born of Pharaoh, heir to his throne, to the first-born of the prisoner in the dungeon, and the first-born of all the livestock.
30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up in the night, and there was great wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without its dead.
31 It was still dark when Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Up, leave my subjects, you and the Israelites! Go and worship Yahweh as you have asked!
32 And take your flocks and herds as you have asked, and go! And bless me too!’
33 The Egyptians urged the people on and hurried them out of the country because, they said, ‘Otherwise we shall all be dead.’
34 So the people carried off their dough still unleavened, their bowls wrapped in their cloaks, on their shoulders.
35 The Israelites did as Moses had told them and asked the Egyptians for silver and golden jewellery, and clothing.
36 Yahweh made the Egyptians so much impressed with the people that they gave them what they asked. So they despoiled the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites left Rameses for Succoth, about six hundred thousand on the march-men, that is, not counting their families.
38 A mixed crowd of people went with them, and flocks and herds, quantities of livestock.
39 And with the dough which they had brought from Egypt they baked unleavened cakes, because the dough had not risen, since they had been driven out of Egypt without time to linger or to prepare food for themselves.
40 The time that the Israelites spent in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
41 And on the very day the four hundred and thirty years ended, all Yahweh’s armies left Egypt.
42 The night when Yahweh kept vigil to bring them out of Egypt must be kept as a vigil in honour of Yahweh by all Israelites, for all generations.
43 Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, ‘This is the ritual for the Passover: no alien may eat it,
44 but any slave bought for money may eat it, once you have circumcised him.
45 No stranger and no hired servant may eat it.
46 It must be eaten in one house alone; you will not take any of the meat out of the house; nor may you break any of its bones.
47 ‘The whole community of Israel must keep it.
48 Should a stranger residing with you wish to keep the Passover in honour of Yahweh, all the males of his household must be circumcised: he will then be allowed to keep it and will count as a citizen of the country. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.
49 The same law will apply to the citizen and the stranger resident among you.’
50 The Israelites all did as Yahweh had ordered Moses and Aaron,
51 and that same day Yahweh brought the Israelites out of Egypt in their armies.
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,
2 ‘Consecrate all the first-born to me, the first birth from every womb, among the Israelites. Whether man or beast, it is mine.’
3 Moses said to the people, ‘Remember this day, on which you came out of Egypt, from the place of slave-labour, for by the strength of his hand Yahweh brought you out of it; no leavened bread may be eaten.
4 On this day, in the month of Abib, you are leaving,
5 and when Yahweh has brought you into the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, flowing with milk and honey, which he swore to your ancestors that he would give you, then you must observe this rite in the same month.
6 For seven days you will eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there must be a feast in Yahweh’s honour.
7 During these seven days unleavened bread may be eaten; no leavened bread may be seen among you, no leaven among you throughout your territory.
8 And on that day you will explain to your son, “This is because of what Yahweh did for me when I came out of Egypt.”
9 This will serve as a sign on your hand would serve, or a reminder on your forehead, and in that way the law of Yahweh will be ever on your lips: for with a mighty hand Yahweh brought you out of Egypt.
10 You shall observe this law at its appointed time, year by year.
11 ‘When Yahweh has brought you into the Canaanites’ country, as he swore to you and your ancestors that he would, and given it to you,
12 to Yahweh you must make over whatever first issues from the womb, and every first-born cast by animals belonging to you: these males belong to Yahweh.
13 But every first-born donkey you will redeem with a lamb or kid; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. All the human first-born, however, among your sons, you will redeem.
14 And when your son asks you in days to come, “What does this mean?” you will tell him, “By the strength of his hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt, out of the place of slave-labour.
15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Yahweh killed all the first-born in Egypt, of man and beast alike. This is why I sacrifice every male first issuing from the womb to Yahweh and redeem every first-born of my sons.”
16 This will serve as a sign on your hand would serve, or a headband on your forehead, for by the strength of his hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt.’(New Jerusalem Bible)
Jeremiah 46:13–28
13 The word that came from Yahweh to the prophet Jeremiah when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced to attack Egypt.
14 Publish it in Egypt, proclaim it in Migdol, proclaim it in Noph and Tahpanhes! Say, ‘Stand your ground, be prepared, for the sword is devouring all round you!’
15 Why has Apis fled? Why has your Mighty One not stood firm? Why, Yahweh has overturned him,
16 he has caused many to fall! Falling over one another, they say, ‘Up, and back to our own people, to the country where we were born, away from the devastating sword!’
17 They have given Pharaoh king of Egypt the nickname, ‘Much-noise-but-he-lets-the-chance-slip-by’!
18 As I live, the King declares, whose name is Yahweh Sabaoth, he is coming, a very Tabor among mountains, a Carmel high above the sea!
19 Get your bundle ready for exile, fair inhabitant of Egypt! Noph will be reduced to a desert, desolate, uninhabited.
20 Egypt was a splendid heifer, but a gadfly from the north has settled on her.
21 The mercenaries she had with her, these too were like fattened calves: but they too have taken to their heels, have all run away, not held their ground, for their day of disaster has overtaken them, their time for being punished.
22 Hear her hissing like a snake as they advance in force to fall on her with their axes, like woodcutters,
23 they will fell her forest, Yahweh declares, however impenetrable it was for they are more numerous than locusts, there is no counting them.
24 The daughter of Egypt is put to shame, handed over to a people from the north.
25 Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, has said, ‘Look, I shall punish Amon of No, Pharaoh, Egypt, its gods, its kings, Pharaoh and those who put their trust in him.
26 I shall hand him over to those who are determined to kill him, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to his generals. But afterwards, Egypt will be inhabited again as in the past, Yahweh declares.
27 But do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, Israel, do not be alarmed: for look, I shall rescue you from afar and your descendants from the country where they are captive. Jacob will return and be at peace, secure, with no one to trouble him.
28 Do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, Yahweh declares, for I am with you: I shall make an end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I shall not make an end of you, I shall discipline you only as you deserve, not leaving you quite unpunished.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Luke 22:7–30
7 The day of Unleavened Bread came round, on which the Passover had to be sacrificed,
8 and he sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and make the preparations for us to eat the Passover.’
9 They asked him, ‘Where do you want us to prepare it?’
10 He said to them, ‘Look, as you go into the city you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house he enters
11 and tell the owner of the house, “The Master says this to you: Where is the room for me to eat the Passover with my disciples?”
12 The man will show you a large upper room furnished with couches. Make the preparations there.’
13 They set off and found everything as he had told them and prepared the Passover.
14 When the time came he took his place at table, and the apostles with him.
15 And he said to them, ‘I have ardently longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
16 because, I tell you, I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’
17 Then, taking a cup, he gave thanks and said, ‘Take this and share it among you,
18 because from now on, I tell you, I shall never again drink wine until the kingdom of God comes.’
19 Then he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’
20 He did the same with the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you.
21 ‘But look, here with me on the table is the hand of the man who is betraying me.
22 The Son of man is indeed on the path which was decreed, but alas for that man by whom he is betrayed!’
23 And they began to ask one another which of them it could be who was to do this.
24 An argument also began between them about who should be reckoned the greatest;
25 but he said to them, ‘Among the gentiles it is the kings who lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are given the title Benefactor.
26 With you this must not happen. No; the greatest among you must behave as if he were the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves.
27 For who is the greater: the one at table or the one who serves? The one at table, surely? Yet here am I among you as one who serves!
28 ‘You are the men who have stood by me faithfully in my trials;
29 and now I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father conferred one on me:
30 you will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.(New Jerusalem Bible)
“Go [come in] to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of
his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them that you
may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the
Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may
know that I am the Lord.” (Exodus 10:1–2)
Last week we read how God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand that
the Israelites be freed from slavery.
Pharaoh, however, refused to free the Israelite slaves and God unleashed
plagues on the Egyptians. Pharaoh practically begged Moses to stop each
plague. And he promised every time to free the Israelites.
But instead of freeing them, he made their lives increasingly more difficult.
God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he could display His power.
Why did God Demonstrate His Power in Egypt?
“If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country
tomorrow.” (Exodus 10:4)
Parsha Bo begins with the eighth plague upon Egypt: Locusts
We may wonder why God, who was fully capable of delivering Israel from
Egypt without involving Pharaoh in the process, decided to demonstrate
His power to both Israel and Egypt.
Scripture is clear on this: God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that He might
show His signs and wonders, in order that the Egyptians would finally know
that the God of Israel is the Sovereign Lord.
He hardened Pharaoh’s heart to demonstrate His power over all the false
gods of Egypt, represented by each of the ten plagues.
His purpose was that both Israelites and Egyptians might know that He is
YHVH Elohim (Lord God).
The Temptation to Compromise
“Have only the men go and worship the Lord….” (Exodus 10:11)
God sought to liberate the children of Israel from Egypt for one purpose:
that they may serve Him.
In the midst of God’s demonstrations of power, Pharaoh tried to get
Moses to compromise (just take the men) but Moses refuses to
compromise with Egypt.
“…not a hoof is to be left behind.” (Exodus 10:26)
We must also take this same attitude with the enemy of our soul, and refuse
to compromise. We must be determined to live completely and fully in
God’s Kingdom of Light and to leave behind nothing in the kingdom of darkness!
Only that way can we hope to serve God wholeheartedly.
In the same way Moses commanded Pharaoh to release the Israelites,
Yeshua says to the enemy of our souls, “Let my people go!”
The purpose of our liberation from the pharaoh of this world and from
slavery to sin is that we may become slaves of righteousness.
“You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to
righteousness.” (Romans 6:18)
And what a freedom it is to be a slave to righteousness! The enemy has
no power over those who are slaves of righteousness.
The Plague of Darkness
“Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt
—darkness that can be felt.” (Exodus 10: 21)
With the ninth plague of darkness, Elohim (God) established His supremacy
over the Egyptian sun god.
Although the Egyptians were plunged into total darkness, the Israelites had
light in their dwellings in the land of Goshen.
Likewise, Yeshua came to give freedom to the prisoners of darkness.
“I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people … to
say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’”
(Isaiah 49:8-9)
As Covenant people of God, we can trust that even when there is total,
paralyzing darkness in the world, we can still have light in our dwellings,
just as the Israelites had in Goshen.
If we will rise up and shine, and do all things without arguing and
complaining, we will be lights in the midst of the dark and perverse
generation. (Philippians 2:14-15)
If we want light in our homes, in our dwellings, then we must turn from hatred
and walk in love. We must stop cursing, fault finding, and arguing, and
instead begin blessing.
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in
the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light,
and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a
brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They
do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.”
(1 John 2:9-11)
The Final Plague: Death of the Firstborn
“The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I
see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you
when I strike Egypt.” (Exodus 12:13)
This week’s parsha (Torah portion) tells the story of the first Pesach
(Passover), approximately 3500 years ago.
Even though Passover is celebrated later in this year [April], this portion
describes one of the most significant events in the Torah: the physical
salvation of Israel through the blood of the lamb.
This event is significant to all Believers, Jew or Gentile, as it foreshadowed
our spiritual salvation through the atoning blood of the Lamb of God,
Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah).
This final plague– the death of the firstborn of Egypt– required that Moses
prepare the people of Israel so that God could make a distinction between
the Egyptians and Israelites. (Exodus 11:7)
God commanded Israel to kill a lamb and place its blood on the doorposts
(mezuzot) of their dwelling places.
That blood was a sign to the angel of death to pass over those dwelling
places where the blood had been applied to the lintel.
Just as those who applied the lamb’s blood to their doorposts were saved
—Israelite and Egyptian alike—we are also saved from death and
destruction by the blood of the Lamb of God, Yeshua, who died on the
crucifixion stake (cross) on Passover. However, remember that He also
rose after three days.
Placing the blood on the doorposts and lintel forms the letter ‘chet’ in
Hebrew, which stands for chai, meaning living. Chai is related to the
Hebrew word chaim, which means life.
“Yeish co’ah b’damo shel haseh!” (There is power in the blood of the lamb!)
The Passover
“This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.”
(Exodus 12:2)
God demonstrated His power to the Jewish People so that we might recount
God’s great deliverance and redemption to our children in the future.
The institution of the Passover is so significant that God commanded it to be
the spiritual beginning of the months.
All our sense of time is reckoned from this moment of freedom, the
Passover, the day that God passed over us, and we were saved from His wrath.
That is why each year during Passover we recount this great story of
redemption at the Passover Seder, which is a designated teaching tool by
which we impart our faith in a mighty, merciful God to the next generation.
While most Jewish people celebrate the Passover each year, for many it’s
simply a family tradition or a religious ritual.
Like most Gentile Believers, Jewish people also need a deeper
understanding of the Passover and especially the blood of the Lamb.
Please pray that, as Jewish people study these passages of Scripture this
Shabbat (Sabbath), the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) would give them
revelation about salvation through the blood of the Messiah.
“Celebrate this day [Passover] as a lasting ordinance for the generations to
come.” (Exodus 12:17)
The Protection of the Blood Covenant
“There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever
been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at
any person or animal.” (Exodus 11:6)
When the angel of death passed over Egypt, a great cry was heard
throughout the land from the wailing of the mourners.
But wherever the blood had been applied to the doorpost in obedience to
God, it was quiet and calm.
In the face of so much destruction, some find it difficult to reconcile God’s
love for all people, as seen in the New Covenant (New Testament), with
God’s judgment of sin that is clearly depicted in the Torah.
But we see in this story that God didn’t just come in and wipe out all
the Egyptians. He warned them; He gave them time and opportunity
to repent.
And He put the umbrella of His protective covering over those who chose
to be in covenant relationship with Him.
Just as those Egyptians were saved who heeded God by entering a
household with the blood of the lamb on the doorpost, all people, not just
the children of Israel, are welcome to come into this privileged covenant
status with YHVH (the Lord), the God of the Israelites, through the blood
of the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua.
Hardness of Heart
“How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?” (Exodus 10:3)
Our own hardness of heart has ramifications not only for our own lives, but
for our loved ones and for our businesses and employees.
Pharaoh invited destruction upon himself, his family and all of Egypt simply
because of the hardness of his heart; he refused to humble himself or to
heed the ten rebukes of the plagues.
“He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be
destroyed, and that without remedy.” (Proverbs 29:1)
May our own hearts be soft clay in the Potter’s hands. May we each seek
to walk in humility, to heed rebuke and to receive proper correction.
Clay in the potter’s hands: “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the
clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8)
Protection from the Wrath to Come
“Gather together, gather yourselves together …before the day of the Lord’s
wrath comes upon you.” (Zephaniah 2: 1–3)
Throughout the Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures), the prophets foretell of the
judgment that will come upon the earth. The blood of the lamb is the only
thing powerful enough to protect us from the coming wrath of God.
God is merciful and does not desire even one to perish.
Therefore, He has given each one of us the opportunity to place the blood
of the lamb, by faith, on the doorposts and lintels of our hearts, by receiving
Yeshua’s atonement for our sins.
Will you pray that the Jewish people will receive Yeshua as their Messiah
and be saved by His blood?
Yeshua is returning, not as the meek, sacrificial lamb, but as the mighty Lion
of Yehudah (Judah), to execute judgment upon the peoples of the earth,
especially upon the enemies of Israel.
Will you take a bold stand for Israel in the coming days?
Shabbat shalom from all our ministry staff
“I will bless those that bless Israel.” (Genesis 12:3)