Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: April 29th

Unskilful in the word. - Hebrews 5:13.

LET us more particularly consider cases in which persons are very unskilful in using the word of righteousness. There are some things in the Scriptures which may appear to be contradictory to us as long as we remain in this weak state; and when this is the case, it is better for us to leave them than to destroy the plain, obvious meaning of others. We can see harmony between things which appear very contradictory to our little children; but they will see the harmony by-and-by. We can see the opposite ends of a chain thrown across a river, but we cannot see the connection in the middle; this is under water: if the water were lowered, or the chain raised, we should see the middle,- the connection,-as well as the two ends. Yet this reasoning may be pushed too far. The apparent opposition of many passages of Scripture arises entirely from inattention and ignorance in the reader: a little distinction would serve to harmonize.

Thus, it is possible and easy to reconcile such language as this:-“Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit;” “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.” “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments;” “He that believeth maketh not haste.” “God repented that he made man;” “God is not a man that he should lie, nor the Son of man that he should repent.” “No man is tempted of God;” “God did tempt Abraham.” In the same way, people have supposed that Paul and James are opposite to each other as to justification; whereas the one refers to God and the other to man; the one to justification as a reality, and this is by faith, the other as to its evidence and fruits, and this is by works.

Now, we find the Scriptures in the hands of some people nothing but confusion: we can never get two ideas or notions to lie straight in their brains. “If,” say they, “God works in us to will and to do, why should we work out our own salvation? If it be a duty, how can it be a privilege? If it be a promise, how can it be a command?” Now, these things may be easily harmonized, and will be by those who are “skilful in the word of righteousness.”

Then they use the word of righteousness unskilfully who do not use it impartially. All religious parties have their separate portions and passages of Scripture, while there are others of which they are more or less heedless. They. do not, indeed, like to own this; but the thing is undeniable. It is a surprising thing to what a contracted part of the sacred writings the attention of some is confined; and, could they have their way, they would not suffer their preachers to move an inch from it. But we are to leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ, “and go through the length and breadth of the land of revelation.” Why? “All Scripture was given by inspiration of God.” “Whatever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope.” Why did God give the whole of the Bible, if it were needless? Why, in all the Epistles, after the doctrines are laid down, are personal and relative duties so enforced? “Oh,” we have heard some say, “you need not preach upon these; the grace of God will teach people to do these.” Why did not the apostles know this, and save themselves all the trouble of specification and enforcement? But the statement is not true: the grace of God is to enable, not to teach.

The Scriptures teach; the Bible contains all the information the church will ever possess in this world. The Spirit brings no new information to the mind, but he leads us into all truth. A man, therefore, in his proper state of mind, will not confine his attention to parts of the word of righteousness; he will not search it to find comfort only, but profit too; he will look not only after privileges, but duty; he will regard not only the promises, but also the commands; and will be able to say,-

“Make me to walk in thy commands;

’Tis a delightful road;

Nor let my head, or heart, or hands,

Offend against my God.”

The place was called the brook of Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. - Numbers 13:24

CANAAN was rich in its productions, and the Jews had even while in the wilderness a specimen of it; and as the spies held forth grapes, figs, and pomegranates, they said, “This is the fruit of it;” so that the children of Israel had something beside the report and the promise: they had not only the pledge of it, they had a part of Canaan itself, a little realization of it. And have not Christians something of heaven even while they are here? and concerning which they also may say, “This is the fruit of it?” The report is indeed something, and it is a good report, and the promise is also exceedingly precious, and is a promise that shall never fail; but the Christian is a partaker of heaven while on earth. Are not the knowledge, purity, and blessedness, in which consists their Spiritual life, to believers now what the grapes of Eshcol were to the children of Israel-the earnests and foretastes of the heavenly Canaan? And there are seasons in which these earnests and foretastes are most richly vouchsafed and enjoyed.

The first of these is Solitude. As Christians, our souls can never prosper in the divine life without occasional and frequent retirement. As the treasures of friendship are mainly unfolded and enjoyed in secret, so is this abundantly the case with the friendship subsisting between God and his people. It is then he manifests himself unto the Christian as he does not unto the world. It is then we sing:-

“Be earth with all her scenes withdrawn,

Let noise and vanity be gone;

In secret silence of the mind

My God and there my heaven I find.”

Secondly, The means of divine appointment. In reference to the sanctuary, have we not often prayed with Watts,

“Send comforts down from thy right hand,

While we pass through this barren land;

Lord, in thy temple let us see

A glimpse of heaven, a glimpse of thee.”

And how often have we been privileged to see his power and his glory in the sanctuary? As he himself has said, “I will bring them to my holy mountain, and I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. Thirdly, The table of the Lord. It is here that sense aids faith; it is here that Jesus Christ stands and shows to his beloved and loving disciples his hands and his side; and while participating in this ordinance they have said, “I sat under his shadow with great delight, and found his fruit sweet unto my taste.” Affliction is another season at which God vouchsafes his earnests and foretastes of heaven. Jacob was a fugitive when he said, “This is none other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven.” John was an exile in Patmos when he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” “And,” says Paul, “as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. Lastly, These earnests and foretastes of heaven are peculiarly vouchsafed in dying moments, and we shall need them then; and

“Jesus can make a dying bed,

Feel soft as downy pillows are.”

Affliction tends to promote the believer’s readiness to leave this world; but these earnests tell us what heaven is, and render it attractive, so that he sings-

“Yes, I have tasted of the grapes,

And now I long to go

Where my dear Lord the vineyard keeps,

And all the clusters grow.”