the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Discovering Christ Day by Day
Today’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 25-27
“The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.”
2 Chronicles 25:9
It is never pleasant to lose money; but when the loss comes at the expense of a matter of principle the flesh always rebels. “Why lose that which may be so usefully employed? May not the truth itself be bought too dear? What shall we do without this money? Remember the children and our small income!” All these things and a thousand more tempt us to that which is evil, tempt us to compromise deeply held convictions, and tempt us even to abandon the worship of God, when doing that which we know is right involves serious loss. How many I have seen move their families away from the preaching of the gospel and the worship of God in his house for a better paying job!
God’s Provision
When we are tempted by the fear of loss or hope of gain to that which we know is contrary to the revealed will of God, may God the Holy Spirit cause these words to ring in our ears. — “The Lord is able to give thee much more than this!” Our Father holds the purse-strings, and what we lose for his sake he can repay a thousand-fold. It is ours to obey his will. We may rest assured that he will provide for us. A grain of heart-ease is worth more than a ton of gold. God’s smile and a dungeon are enough for one who has Christ. His frown and a palace would be hell to a heaven-born soul. Let worst come to worst, let all material goods be forfeited, we have not lost our Treasure. — “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” — “The Lord is able to give thee much more than this!”
God’s Prophets
God’s prophets and preachers in all ages have a very painful work. Often their faithful preaching of God’s Word brings upon them the hatred of those who hear them; but whether they are loved or hated for their work, faithful men are faithful. Whether the Amaziahs of the present day will hear, or whether they will forbear, God’s servants must and will be found faithful. They abide faithful through evil report and good report. The injuries they sustain God will recompense. He that despises them despises God who sent them. In the end God will judge their cause and bring forth their integrity as the light of the noon-day sun. Knowing these things, the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, “with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment.”
King Uzziah
When we read that King Uzziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, we are to understand it in the same sense as we did of Amaziah. — Uzziah kept up a form of religion in the land in opposition to idols; but he only had a form of godliness. The sequel of his life proves he was not a regenerate man. His searching after God was nothing but research into the things of God. Thousands in all ages are like him. They fill their heads with knowledge, though their hearts remain empty and dead (Zechariah 7:5-6).
Despising God and his Sacrifice (the Lord Jesus Christ), Uzziah invaded the priest’s office to the everlasting destruction of his soul. The incense offering typified the Lord Jesus, because none but Christ can approach Jehovah to make intercession and to offer sacrifice for the sins of the people. So Uzziah’s daring act, going in himself, with his own offering, displayed his contempt for the way of salvation God has appointed. Who is like Uzziah? — All who, being ignorant of the righteousness of God in Christ, refusing to submit themselves to the righteousness of Christ, presumptuously attempt to approach the holy Lord God in their own righteousness. All such will-worship idolaters are yet plagued with a dreadful leprosy of soul and live in a separate house, without God, and without Christ in the world.
Faith in Christ
Is there one like Uzziah reading these lines? What multitudes there are of lost religionists who count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing and do despite to the Spirit of grace! Having no real sense of their own state by nature, to their own filth, corruption, lusts and universal depravity, totally unconscious of the infinitely precious value of the sin-atoning blood of Christ, they are strangers to themselves, strangers to the Savior, and strangers to God’s grace and salvation in Christ. Blessed are they who, being taught of God, know the necessity of the work of God upon the soul, and the absolute expediency of being washed from the leprosy of sin in the blood of Christ!
I give you praise, my God, from the depths of my soul, for your free and sovereign grace bestowed upon my poor, wretched, sinful soul that caused me to see the preciousness of Christ’s blood and your salvation in him! How I thank you for that blessed gift of faith wrought in me by the Holy Spirit that causes me to trust my dear Savior! Being found in him, I am cleansed from the leprosy of sin and uncleanness and accepted of God by the censer of Christ’s perfect righteousness!
Oh, glorious, gracious, precious Lord Jesus, you alone have brought life and immortality to light in my soul by thy gospel! Give me grace to love, trust, and adore you, consecrating my entire life to you today, tomorrow, and forever. Amen.
