the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings

Mal 4:1-6  "For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 
But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 
And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts. 
"Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. 
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 
And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." 

Malachi 4:1-3

The great and terrible day of the Lord is here prophesied of. 
This, like the pillar of cloud and fire, shall have a dark side turned towards the Egyptians that fight against God, and a bright side towards the faithful Israelites that follow Him: 
The day comes, that is, the Lord comes, the day of the Lord; and it has reference both to the first and to the second coming of Jesus Christ; the day of both was fixed, and should answer the character here given of it.
I. In both Christ is a consuming fire to those that rebel against Him. The day of His coming shall burn as an oven; it shall be a day of wrath, of fiery indignation. This was foretold concerning the Messiah, Psa_21:9, Thy hand shall find out all thy enemies, and shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of thy anger. It will be a day of terror and destruction like the burning of a city, or rather of a wood, the trees whereof are withered and dried, for to that the allusion seems to be, as Isa_10:17, Isa_10:18, 
The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame, and it shall consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field. 

Now observe here, 
1. Who shall be fuel to this fire - all the proud in heart, whose words have been stout against God, and their necks stiff and unapt to yield to the yoke of His commandments (all those that in the pride of their countenances will not seek after God, nor submit to the grace and government of Jesus Christ - all that proudly say they will not have Christ to reign over them), and all those that do wickedly in their affections and conversations, that willfully persist in sin, in contempt of and contradiction to the law of God; they are such as do wickedly against the covenant, as another prophet had lately expressed it, Dan_11:32. God, that has perfect knowledge of every ones character, knows who are the proud, and of every ones actions, knows who they are that do wickedly; and they shall be as stubble to this fire; they shall be consumed by it, easily consumed, utterly consumed, and it is wholly owing to themselves that they shall be so, for they make themselves stubble, that is, combustible matter, to this fire. If they were not stubble, it would not burn them; for the fire will be to every man according as he and his works are found; if they be wood, hay, and stubble, they will be consumed; but if they be gold, solver, and precious stones, they will abide the fire and be purified by it, 1Co_3:13-15. Those that by their unbelief oppose Christ thereby set themselves as briers and thorns before a devouring fire, Isa_27:4, Isa_27:5. 2. What shall be the force and what the fruit of this fire: The day that come shall burn them up, shall both terrify and ruin them, and shall leave them neither root nor branch, neither son nor nephew (so the Chaldee paraphrase): neither they nor their posterity shall be spared; they shall be wholly extirpated and cut off. Who knows the power of God's anger? The proud and those that do wickedly will not fear it, but they shall be made to feel it. Where are those now that called the proud happy, when thus they are made completely miserable, when there remains no branch of their happiness to be enjoyed for the present, nor any root of it out of which it might again spring up? Now this was fulfilled, 
   (1.) When Christ, in His doctrine, spoke terror and condemnation to the proud Pharisees and the other Jews that did wickedly, when He sent that fire on the earth which burnt up the chaff of the traditions of the elders and the corrupt glosses they had put upon the law of God. 
   (2.) When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, and the nation of the Jews, as a nation, quite blotted out from under heaven, and neither root nor branch left them. This seems to be principally intended here; our Savior says that those should be the days of vengeance, when all the things that were written to that purport should be fulfilled, Luke_21:22. Then the unbelieving Jews were as stubble to the devouring fire of God's judgements, which gathered together to them as the eagles to the carcass. 
   (3.) It is certainly applicable, and is to be applied, to the day of judgement, to the particular judgement at death (some of the Jewish doctors refer it the punishment that seizes on the souls of the wicked immediately after they go out of the body), but especially to the general judgement, at the end of time, when Christ shall be revealed in flaming fire, to execute judgement on the proud, and all that do wickedly. The whole world shall then burn as an oven, and all the children of this world, that set their hearts upon it and choose their portion in it, shall take their ruin with it, and the fire then kindled shall never be quenched.
II. In both Christ is a rejoicing light to those who serve Him faithfully, to those who fear His name and give Him the glory due to it (Mal_4:2), who stand in awe of that name of his which the wicked profane and trample upon. Here are mercy and comfort kept in store for all those who fear the Lord and think on His name. Observe,
1. Whence this mercy and comfort shall flow to them: To you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his wings. The day that comes, as it will be a stormy day to the wicked, a day in which God will rain upon them fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest, as he did on Sodom (Psa_11:6), a day of clouds and thick darkness (Amo_5:18, Amo_5:20), so it will be a fair and bright day to those who fear God, and reviving as the rising sun is to the earth; and particular notice is taken of the rising of the sun upon Zoar when that was mercifully distinguished from the cities of the plain, which the fire consumed; see Gen_19:23. So to those that fear God is comfort spoken. When the hearts of others fail for fear let them lift up their heads for joy, for their redemption draws nigh, Luke_21:28. But by the Sun of righteousness here we are certainly to understand Jesus Christ, who would undertake to secure the believing remnant, in the day of the general destruction of the Jews, from falling with the rest, and to comfort them in that day of distress and perplexity with his consolations; He directed those that were in Judea to flee to the mountains (Mat_24:16), and they did so, and were all safe and easy in Pella. 
But it is to be applied more generally, 
   (1.) To the coming of Christ in the flesh to seek and save those that were lost; then the Sun of righteousness arose upon this dark world. Christ is the light of the world, the true light, the great light that makes day and rules the day (John_8:12), as the sun. He is the light of men (John_1:4), is to men's souls as the sun is to the visible world, which without the sun would be a dungeon; so would mankind be darkness itself without the light of the glory of God shining in the face of Christ. Christ is the Sun that has light in Himself, and is the fountain of light (Psa_19:4-6); He is the Sun of righteousness, for He is Himself a righteous Saviour. 
Righteousness is both the light and the heat of this Sun; the word of His righteousness is so; it guides, instructs, and quickens; so is the everlasting righteousness He has brought in. He is made of God to us righteousness; He is the Lord our righteousness, and therefore is fitly called the Sun of righteousness. Through Him we are justified and sanctified, and so are brought to see light. 

This Sun of righteousness, in the fullness of time, arose upon the world, and with Him light came into the world (John_3:19), a great light, Mat_4:16. In Him the day-spring from on high visited us, to give light to those that sit in darkness, Luke_1:78, Luke_1:79. Righteousness sometimes signifies mercy or benignity, and it was in Christ that the tender mercy of our God visited us. 
   
   (2.) It is applicable to the graces and comforts of the Holy Spirit, brought into the souls of men. Grotius understands it of Christ's giving the Spirit to those that are His, to shine in their hearts, and to be a comforter to them, a sun and a shield. Those that are possessed and governed by a holy fear of God and a dread of his majesty shall have His love also shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost; and then the sun may be said to arise there, and to bring both a delightful day and a fruitful spring along with it. 
   (3.) Christ's second coming will be a glorious and welcome sun-rising to all that fear His name; it will be that morning of the resurrection in which the upright shall have dominion, Psa_49:14. 

That day which to the wicked will burn as an oven will to the righteous be bright as the morning; and it is what they wait for, more than those that wait for the morning.
2. What this mercy and comfort shall bring to them: He shall arise with healing under his wings, or in his rays or beams, which are as the wings of the sun. Christ came, as the sun, to bring not only light to a dark world, but health to a diseased distempered world. The Jews (says Dr. Pocock) have a proverbial saying, As the sun riseth, infirmities decrease; the flowers which drooped and languished all night revive in the morning. Christ came into the world to be the great physician, yea, and the great medicine too, both the balm in Gilead and the physician there. When He was upon earth, He went about as the sun in His circuit, doing this good; He healed all manner of sicknesses and diseases among the people; He healed by wholesale, as the sun does. 
He shall arise with healing in His skirts; so some read it, and they apply it to the story of the woman's touching the hem of His garment, and being thereby made whole, and His finding that virtue went out of Him, Mar_5:28-30. But His healing bodily diseases was a specimen of His great design in coming into the world to heal the diseases of men's souls, and to put them into a good state of health, that they may serve and enjoy both God and themselves.

3. What good effect it shall have upon them. 
   (1.) It shall make them vigorous in themselves: “You shall go forth, as those that are healed go abroad and return to their business.” The souls shall go forth out of their bodies at death, and the bodies out of their graves at the resurrection, as prisoners out of their dungeons, and both to see the light and be set at liberty. “You shall go forth as plants out of the earth, when in the spring the sun returns.” Some make it to mean the going forth of the Christians from Jerusalem, and the escape they thereby made from its destruction. And thus the souls on whom the Sun of righteousness arises go forth out of the world, go forth out of Babylon, as those that are made free indeed. “You shall likewise grow up; being restored to health and liberty, you shall increase in knowledge, and grace, and spiritual strength.” The souls on which the Sun of righteousness arises are growing up towards the perfect man; those that by the grace of God are made wise and good are by the same grace made wiser and better; and their path, like that of the rising sun, shines more and more to the perfect day, Pro_4:18. Their growth is compared to that of the calves of the stall, which is a quick, strong, and useful growth. “You shall grow up, not as the flower of the field, which is slender, and weak, and of little use, and withers soon after it has grown up, but as the calves of the stall,” that, as one of the rabbin expounds it, grow great in flesh and fatness, with which both God's altars and men's tables are replenished; so the growth of the saints, on whom the Sun of righteousness arises, Honor's both God and man. Some read it, instead of You shall grow up, You shall move yourselves, or leap for joy, shall be as frolicsome as calves of the stall, when they are let loose in the open field; it denotes the joy of the saints, who rejoice in Christ Jesus; they shall even leap for joy; they are always caused to triumph.

   (2.) It shall make them victorious over their enemies (Mal_4:3): You shall tread down the wicked. Time was when the wicked trod them down, said to their souls, Bow down, that we may go over; but the day will come when they shall tread down the wicked. The wicked, being made Christ's footstool, are made theirs also (Psa_110:1), and come and worship before the feet of the church, Rev_3:9. The elder shall serve the younger. When believers by faith overcome the world, when they suppress their own corrupt appetites and passions, when the God of peace bruises Satan under their feet, then they tread down the wicked. When it came to the turn of the Christians to triumph over the Jews that had insulted over them, then this promise was fulfilled: They shall be ashes under the soles of your feet; they shall not only be trodden down, but trodden to dirt. When the day that comes shall have burnt them up, they shall trample upon them as ashes. When the righteous shall rise to everlasting life, the wicked shall rise to everlasting contempt; and, though they shall not triumph over them, they shall triumph in that God whose justice is glorified in their destruction. The saints in glory are said to have power given them over the nations, to rule them with a rod of iron, Rev_2:26, Rev_2:27. This you shall do, in the day that I shall do this. Note, The saints' triumphs are all owing to God's victories; it is not they that do this, but God that does it for them, that says, Come set your feet on the necks of these kings. Some read it, “In the day that I make, or shall make, the great day that I shall make remarkable, of which you will say with joy, This is the day which the Lord has made.” The day of the destruction of Jerusalem is called the great and notable day of the Lord (Act_2:20), and our Saviour in foretelling that destruction made use of such expressions as, like these, might be applied likewise to the end of the world and the last judgement; for it was such a terrible revelation of the wrath of God from heaven, and caused such a scene of horror upon this earth, that it might fitly serve for a type of that glorious transaction which will be an outlet to the days of time and an inlet to the days of eternity. By the accomplishment of these prophecies in the ruin of the Jewish nation, we should have our faith confirmed in the assurances Christ has given us concerning the dissolution of all things. 

Surely I come quickly; so says Christ, the Lord of hosts, to whom all power in heaven and earth is committed.

Are You in Good Hands?

Are You in Good Hands?

“Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge” (Psa_91:3)

It’s strikes me as more than a little suspicious that, in the midst of great financial bedlam, the airwaves are flooded with the incessant drone of marketing plans aimed at helping you secure your financial future, so that you may live out your days in a happy place – dancing, golfing, fishing, swimming, laughing and fooling’ around.

It seems that there is a plan or a pill for everything — I guess that’s the new American Dream.
’t buy into it, my friend. Put not your trust in princes, for their political prowess is based upon compromise at every point. Rather than govern by the high principles that make for the greatest of people, they opt for the path of least resistance. And that is what make both rivers and men shallow and crooked.

Rest your life in God’s hands alone. Let all your hopes and dreams, your aspirations and plans, your well-being and your future rest securely in His care. And do not allow the prattle of man’s devices to lure you into a lesser allegiance.

Spurgeon wrote, “Assuredly no subtle plot shall succeed against one who has the eyes of God watching for his defense. We are foolish and weak as poor little birds, and are very apt to be lured to our destruction by cunning foes, but if we dwell near to God, he will see to it that the most skilful deceiver shall not entrap us.”

Faith in God constitutes a ground of security at such times when the snare of the fowler and the noisome pestilence ransack any nation.

Are you in good hands? You are if your life is placed in the trustworthy Hands of God. For He will cover you “with His feathers” and His truth will be “your shield and buckler.”

The Lord's Supper

The Lord's Supper

Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the Passover— Mat_26:17-19

Christ's Perfect Composure
What first impresses us in the narrative of the Lord's Supper is the perfect composure of the heart of Jesus. There is no moment in our Lord's whole life when we realize so fully the meaning of His peace. It was the night on which He was betrayed. The shadows were deepening into the dark of Calvary. The last great agony of struggle was begun that was to close in crucifixion and the grave. Yet the heart of Jesus was supremely calm. We trace no fever and no fret in it. The Lord is still "at leisure from Himself," and institutes this memorial for His own. Does not that teach us that nothing in heaven or earth can check the love of Jesus for His children? If He thought of them and planned for them that night, He will think of them and plan for them forever. We sometimes wonder how Christ can remember us, in the midst of His vast transactions on the throne. The fear arises lest He may forget us, when men crucify the Son of God afresh (Heb_6:6). But when we recall the night of the betrayal, such fears take to themselves wings and fly away. If ever a heart might reasonably have been self-centered, was it not then? Yet Jesus took and brake and gave to the disciples.

Christ's Quiet Confidence in the Future
Equally notable is the quiet confidence of Jesus in the future. Some of the disciples had already begun to wonder if the life of Jesus were more than a fine dream. Slowly, and after many a hint and lesson, they were beginning to grasp the approaching crucifixion, and there was not one of them at table that night but pictured crucifixion as defeat. Then in the city were the priests and scribes, triumphant at last and only waiting the signal. And if they were sure of anything it was of this, that the death of Jesus would mean the end of everything. There was not a soul in Jerusalem that evening that dreamed of a glorious future for our Lord. And it was then that Jesus instituted the supper. His name was to last as long as the sun endured. From age to age His memory would be cherished, and men would love Him and would serve Him and would die for Him through the long years until He came again. I cannot help feeling that this is more than human. I know of no parallel to this in history. Cicero was deeply concerned to think what men might say of him six hundred years after his death. Cromwell believed his institutions would last. Napoleon knew that the world would wonder at him, but he knew perfectly that it would never love him. Christ only—Christ betrayed and crucified saw the love and the worship of the centuries. Men were to show His death "until He come."

The Simplicity of the Memorial
Again we are arrested by the great simplicity of this memorial There is no pomp and no elaborate ritual about it. It is a simple and humble and very homely deed. In the Old Testament things were very different. There we have striking and startling exhibitions. Altars were raised and the blood of beasts was shed, and there were a thousand significant details. But in the New Testament all that is done away. The sacrament is simplicity itself. And I do not think we should have difficulty in understanding the meaning of that change. When your father is trying to describe to you some family friend whom you have never met, he tells you everything he can about him, and he puts it in the brightest and the plainest words, until you feel you will know him when you meet. But when you have met, and the family friend is your friend, you have no need for that detailed description. The smallest token of his love to you, or even the pronouncing of his name, will bring him to your remembrance instantly. So in the Old Testament Christ was yet to come; no eye had yet seen Him in the flesh. But in the New Testament men have seen and known Him, and the simplest thing will serve as a memorial.

He Saw His Body and Blood in Bread and Wine
Again, I think it was a very Christ-like thing to see His Body and His Blood in bread and wine. It speaks of the royal hopefulness of Jesus that He found such meanings in a piece of bread. On Oliver Goldsmith's monument these words are written: Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit—He touched nothing that he did not adorn. That may have been true of Goldsmith; but in nobler senses it was true of Jesus. When He went to Cana He found water there; but the water was wine before the feast was ended. Now He takes the wine upon the table, and exalts it into the symbol of His blood. From water to wine and then from wine to blood—you see the upward trend in Jesus' action? No wonder the world began to bud and blossom under a gaze that understood things so. If a mustard seed is the Kingdom in disguise, what may not the poorest boy or girl become? If broken bread speak of His sinless body, there is still a chance for broken characters. It is quite true that we are saved by hope. The hopefulness of Jesus Christ is wonderful. It is that which makes Him the ideal Comrade for the brave young hearts that still are dreaming dreams.

The Feast Spoke of His Death
Then lastly, note that this feast speaks of His death. It was His death that Jesus chose for special remembrance. He might have chosen His birth (perhaps we think), or else His baptism. He might have bidden us commemorate some miracle. But instead of that He chose His death on Calvary. "Ye do show the Lord's death until He come." Now if there is one scene that sensitive hearts would shrink from, it is the awful scene of crucifixion. We never could have endured to look on Calvary, and yet it is Calvary that we commemorate. Is not that strange? A story I heard will explain it. There was a lady who was very beautiful—all excepting her hands, which were misshapen and marred. And for many a long day her little daughter had wondered what was the meaning of these repulsive hands. At last she said to her: "Mother, I love your face, and I love your eyes and your hair, they are so beautiful. But I cannot love your hands, they are so ugly." And then the mother told her about her hands: how ten years ago the house had taken fire, and how the nursery upstairs was in a blaze, and how she had rushed to the cradle and snatched the baby from it, and how her hands from that hour had been destroyed. And the baby saved was her little listening daughter. And then the daughter kissed the shapeless hands (that she used to shrink from, before she knew their story), and she said: "Mother, I love your face and your eyes and your hair; but I love your hands now best of all."

OUR PRAYER LIFE

OUR PRAYER LIFE
"Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before His God, as he did aforetime."-- Dan_6:10

THE CHOSEN hour. It was at the time when Daniel's enemies appeared to have accomplished his downfall and death--"when the writing was signed '--that this heroic statesman knelt down and prayed, and gave thanks to God. These are times when prayer is the only way out of our perplexities. George Muller said: "Our very weakness gives opportunity for the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to be manifested. That blessed One never leaves and never forsakes us. The greater the weakness, the nearer He is to manifest His strength; the greater our necessities, the more have we ground to rely on it that He will prove Himself our Friend. This has been my experience for more than seventy years; the greater the trial, the greater the difficulty, the nearer the Lord's help. Often the appearance was as if I must be overwhelmed, but it never came to it, and it never will. More prayer, more faith, more exercise of patience, will bring the blessing. Therefore our business is just to pour out our hearts before Him; and help in His own time and way is sure to come."

The chosen direction. "His windows open towards Jerusalem." There the Holy Temple had stood, and the Altar of Incense; there God had promised to put His Name and meet His people. When we pray, our windows must be open towards our blessed Lord, who ministers for us in Heaven, mingling the much incense of His intercession with the prayers of all saints (Heb_7:25; Rev_8:3).
The chosen attitude. "He kneeled upon his knees." It is most appropriate to kneel before God in homage and worship. St. Paul bowed his knees, even though his hands were chained, to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph_3:14). 

But we can pray also as we walk, or sit, or ride. 
Nehemiah flashed a prayer to the God of Heaven before he answered the king's question, but he also prayed before God day and night. 
Let us contract the habit of praying and giving thanks three times a day. At even, morning, and noon, let God hear your voice.

PRAYER
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above;
Pray, and praise Thee without ceasing
Glory in Thy perfect love. AMEN.

Growing in Knowing the Lord

Growing in Knowing the Lord

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior 
Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever.  (2Pe_3:18)

The new covenant of grace (at its very core) is a covenant of relationship. God's grace is available to enable us to grow in spiritual intimacy with our Lord. "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 
Here, grace is linked with growing and with knowing the Lord. 
As surely as grace was for spiritual birthing, grace is also for growing. 
The most strategic area of spiritual growth is progress in a deepening relationship with the Lord. Paul prayed in this manner for the saints: " that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him . . . and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Col_1:10). 
This process of growth necessitates consistent intake of the word of God. "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" (1Pe_2:2). 

It is through the scriptures that we learn of the grace of God. The word of God is "the word of His grace" (Acts 20:32). Also, the word of God has the Lord Jesus Christ as the constant, primary subject. "And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke_24:27). 
Of course, the Holy Spirit is the one who is to guide us into all of these great truths of the Lord Jesus. "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth . . . He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you" (John_16:13-14). 
God wills for our lives is that we might live in His word. 
This allows us to grow in His grace that we might know Him better. This is what is to delight our hearts and change our lives. 
"Thus says the LORD: 'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, exercising loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,' says the LORD' " (Jer_9:23-24). So many people (sometimes, even the people of God) chase after human wisdom, earthly power, or material riches. 
God desires that He becomes the delight of our hearts and the goal of our life: "that he understands and knows Me." So, let's respond with joy to Hosea's call: "Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of [the knowing of] the LORD" (Hosea 6:3).

Dear Lord God, I want to press on to know You. 
Forgive me for chasing after human wisdom, earthly power, or material riches.
Nothing compares to knowing You. By Your grace, 
through the light of Your word, let me grow in knowing You, Amen.

The Faithful God (Part 1)

The Faithful God (Part 1)

“They did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.” (Jos_5:12)

We have each traveled a long and laborious pathway during these past few years as the World and the Church have both undergone unprecedented challenge and change. It seems that everything that can be shaken is being shaken, and ultimately only those things that are unshakable will remain. O to us may grace be given to stand in the unshakable Kingdom.

Sadly, some have not made the journey. Having been turned aside by the lure of lesser things, or backed down by the threat of difficult things, or held captive by the hollow hope of nostalgic things — not all who started out on this trek have made it this far. We look around and they are gone. “Demas hath forsaken me,” wrote the apostle Paul, “having loved this present world” (2Ti_4:10).

But not all who are gone from us have fallen. There are those happy souls who have finished their race with joy and been transported to the City, whose builder and maker is God; and we rejoice with them as we hope for heaven ourselves. And our hope is not in vain, nor will our longings be left unrewarded. For we are neither lethargic nor nostalgic; we are full of life and filled with dreams.

Today belongs to those who live by a faith that sees beyond the limitations of human reason and effort; a faith that trusts in the unfailing love of the Faithful God who alone has brought us safe thus far; and who alone will carry us all the way to our Hope of Glory.

Joshua serves as a splendid example of those who survive and prevail by placing their faith in the Faithful God. We’ll look at him in detail tomorrow.

The Faithful God (Part 2)

The Faithful God (Part 2)

“They did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.” (Jos_5:12)

Joshua was born a captive in Egypt, and as a young boy watched with wonder as God parted the Red Sea and made a way in the wilderness. He was with Moses as a young man throughout the wilderness wanderings, all the while being groomed by God for his future assignment.

Perhaps even now, as He did with Joshua, the Lord is grooming you for some future mission.

It was Joshua who led the spies into the Promised Land and saw for himself what others only dreamed about. He alone, with Caleb, argued the case for Faith when all others caved in to doubt, fear, and unbelief.

And it was Joshua, the man of faith, whom God anointed to lead the children of Israel into Canaan to experience the fulfillment of promises made by the Faithful God, and to finish the business at hand of reclaiming the Land from those who had been stolen by the powers of darkness.

These recollections serve as a great encouragement to us today as we face a similar opportunities for making progress in the things of God.

Just as the Lord rescued His people from Egyptian bondage, so He has marked us by His love and redeemed us unto Himself out of the fallen and faulted world system, wherein we were held captive under the heavy hand of task-masters who drove us with whip and stick in the lustful pursuit of power, sex, and money. Our lives were marred by corruption, stained with shame, and marked for death. But God, who is rich in mercy and unfailing in His faithfulness, redeemed us!

And now the Faithful God stands before us, and beckons us to follow Him onward and He takes us inward that we might go upward. The challenges are not over, nor are the changes complete, but our hearts are lifted with a sense of imminent breakthroughs; things oft dreamed about, and long-awaited, seem to be so very close at hand.

The smell of rain is in the air. Come, friend, take heart and renew your trust in the Faithful God. For it will be said of us as it was of our predecessors — “They did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year” (Jos_5:12).

From Egyptian bondage, through desert dryness and testing, to a land that flowed with milk and honey — the Faithful God has ever been there for us, as He was with them.