Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: June 20th

He will rejoice over thee with joy. - Zephaniah 3:17.

HERE is the love of complacency and delight. Why, can a person rejoice then without joy? No, but the language of Scripture is peculiar; it is full of significancy, and often of pleonasms. “I will rejoice over thee with joy;” a joy which deserves the name. The meaning is immediately, that he will rejoice over them even while he is saving them. This may seem incredible, but nothing is more true. The salvation of the people of God is expressly called “the pleasure of the Lord,” which is to “prosper” in the Redeemer’s hands. Our Saviour has in one chapter set forth three parables on purpose to display this,- to show that God not only saves, but that he delights to do it. The parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd seeks after that which was lost in the wilderness until he finds it, and when he finds it he lays it on his shoulder, not complainingly, but rejoicingly; and when he comes home he calls his friends and his neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the sheep which was lost.” The parable of the lost piece of silver which the woman searched for all through the house until she found it, and when she had found it she called her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost.” And the parable of the prodigal son, in which we are told that the father not only received him upon his return, but said, “Bring forth the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found: and they began to be merry.”

Oh that we could more fully and implicitly believe this!-that he not only recovers us, but delights in our recovery; that he takes pleasure in the prosperity of his people; that he takes “pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy;” that he takes pleasure in their graces, and views in them the fruits of his own Spirit, his own workmanship, the reflection of his own image: that he takes pleasure in their actions and duties; that the prayer of the upright is his delight; that their alms are the odour of a sweet smell; that if they speak often to one another he hearkens and hears, and records it in the book of his remembrance. He rejoices in their persons; they are his children and his friends. “Thou shalt no more therefore,” says he, “be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate; but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, [that is, my delight is in thee,] and thy land Beulah, [that is, married;] and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.”

I drew them with the cords of a man with bands of love. - Hosea 11:4.

OBSERVE the MANNER in which this attraction is accomplished. “I drew them with the cords of a man,” that is, rationally; and hence religion is called a “reasonable service,” and every Christian is required to “be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in him.” We cannot convince, inform, or reason with a beast. A beast is inaccessible to argument and motive. We therefore coerce a beast. But it is otherwise with a man. When we wish to influence a man we reason with him-we inform his mind-we argue and persuade. This is precisely the manner in which God deals with us; and therefore the Apostle says that “he works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure;” not to do without being willing; that would be tyranny and force; but to will and to do-and what we do willingly we do with pleasure. Though it will be readily conceded that there is a Divine energy employed in the conversion of a sinner, yet it is always employed in a way suited to the nature of the being on whom it is exerted; and this being is a rational being.

God always begins therefore by opening the eyes of our understanding, by shining into our hearts-“I drew them with bands of love,” that is, affectionately. Now there is something very winning and attractive in love; indeed, there is nothing else that can draw others towards us. Power may cause a man to be dreaded-wisdom may cause him to be feared-wealth may cause him to be envied-but it is love alone that can cause him to be loved. Therefore, says Solomon, “He that would have friends must show himself friendly.” Go and tell another that he ought to love you-command him to love you-reproach and threaten if he do not love you. Have you succeeded? Why you are farther off than ever.

No, there is no way of being loved but by appearing lovely; no way of being loved but by possessing and displaying tenderness and benevolence, and a concern for others. Dr. Doddridge had a lovely daughter, of whom he was deprived at the early age of nine years. One day, when he said to her, “My dear, how is it that everybody seems to love you?” she answered, “I do not know, papa, unless it is that I love everybody.” Now this was not only a striking answer, but it was really a philosophical one; it accords with the sentiments of Seneca, who has given us a love charm; and what was the recipe? Why, he says, “Love, in order to be loved.” No being ever yet drew another to him by a display of authority and terror. God himself never drew one soul to him by the law, which is only a system of authority and terror, but by the gospel, which is his scheme of mercy and grace.

The whole of Christianity may be considered as an infinite expediency, devised by the only wise God, to dispossess our minds of bad and unworthy thoughts of him, and to fix in our trembling bosoms confidence, which should be the principle of our return to him; and thus to bring us to him is the simple design of the gospel. And Paul says, “Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scripture, might have hope.” And, says Peter, “God raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God.”