Daily Devotionals

The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions

Devotional: February 12th

February 12—Morning—Genesis 7:16

"And the Lord shut him in."—Genesis 7:16.

It was a sweet invitation to the patriarch Noah, when the Lord called him to the ark. Jehovah did not say, go thou into the ark; but, "Come." So saith Jesus to his people: "Come with me, from Lebanon, my spouse; with me, from Lebanon." Yes, precious Jesus, to be with thee is heaven; for thou thyself art the heaven of the soul. But observe further, my soul: when Noah had entered the ark, what kept him there? "The Lord shut him in." Yes, neither bolts nor bars were his security; but God himself, in his covenant engagements, kept him. The patriarch could no more get out, than the unbelieving carnal throng (who perhaps hung about the ark when they saw the flood arise, and felt its power) could get in. Precious Jesus! and what is it keeps thy people now? Is it not thyself? Are not thy redeemed eternally secure in thee, and thy blood and righteousness, as Noah in the ark? Yes, thou who hast the key of all things;" thou openest, and none shutteth; thou shuttest, and none openeth." In thee my soul is kept secure; for the Lord Jehovah hath shut me in: and I shall ride out all the storms, and floods, of sin and Satan; and, Noah-like, rise above the fountains of the greatest deeps, being shut in in the ark Christ Jesus.

February 12—Evening—Judges 15:18

"And he was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised."—Judges 15:18.

Here is a sweet thought, my soul, suggested in these words of Samson, and wilt thou not hope that the Holy Ghost may make it blessed to thy evening: meditation? The Lord had wrought a great deliverance for Samson, in the discomfiture of his enemies: and now on a renewed pressing occasion, he makes this the plea of looking up for being again delivered. "Thou hast given," saith he, "this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant, and shall I now die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?" As if he had said, "Shall my God cease to be God; or shall I now want his help, who hath always helped me in what has passed? Hath he begun to deliver; and will he now cease to do so?"—Pause, my soul!—And when thou hast duly made thine observations upon the blessedness of faith, which, when in lively exercise, always finds unanswerable arguments for future blessings, in the recollection of those that are passed, take the same plea to thy Jesus for every event which thou meetest with in thine exercises. Hath one like the Son of Man redeemed thee, brought thee out of the hands of infinite justice; given thee this great deliverance, from both the guilt and dominion of sin; taken thee into covenant relations with himself; opened a new and living way for thee in his blood; and doth he ever live to keep it open by his intercession? Hath Jesus indeed saved thee, loved thee, blessed thee, given himself for thee, and treasured up for thee a fulness of all needed supplies of grace for thy sojourning here; and is he gone before, to prepare an everlasting fulness of glory for thy enjoyment of himself to all eternity hereafter? And shall any circumstance now befal thee in the way, to cast down thy hopes, and to lessen thy faith in such a Saviour? Shall any thing arise to frustrate his designs, or ruin thy cause? Is it possible, that any new evil, for which Jesus hath made no provision, can happen; or any unthought of, unexpected calamity arise, which shall counteract the covenant of redemption, "ordered in all things and sure?" Precious Lord Jesus! help me ever to keep thee in view, and then all the springs of dependence on thee will be sure to flow.