October 15 - Morning"But who may abide the day of his coming?" — Malachi 3:2
His first coming was without external pomp or show of power, and yet in
truth there were few who could abide its testing might. Herod and all
Jerusalem with him were stirred at the news of the wondrous birth. Those
who supposed themselves to be waiting for Him, showed the fallacy of
their professions by rejecting Him when He came. His life on earth was a
winnowing fan, which tried the great heap of religious profession, and few
enough could abide the process.
But what will His second advent be? What
sinner can endure to think of it? "He shall smite the earth with the rod of
His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked."
When in His humiliation He did but say to the soldiers, "I am He," they
fell backward; what will be the terror of His enemies when He shall more
fully reveal Himself as the "I am?" His death shook earth and darkened
heaven, what shall be the dreadful splendour of that day in which as the
living Saviour, He shall summon the quick and dead before Him? O that the
terrors of the Lord would persuade men to forsake their sins and kiss the
Son lest He be angry! Though a lamb, He is yet the lion of the tribe of
Judah, rending the prey in pieces; and though He breaks not the bruised
reed, yet will He break His enemies with a rod of iron, and dash them in
pieces like a potter's vessel.
None of His foes shall bear up before the
tempest of His wrath, or hide themselves from the sweeping hail of His
indignation; but His beloved bloodwashed people look for His appearing
with joy, and hope to abide it without fear: to them He sits as a refiner
even now, and when He has tried them they shall come forth as gold. Let
us search ourselves this morning and make our calling and election sure, so
that the coming of the Lord may cause no dark forebodings in our mind. O
for grace to cast away all hypocrisy, and to be found of Him sincere and
without rebuke in the day of His appearing. October 15 - Evening"But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck." — Exodus 34:20
Every firstborn creature must be the Lord's, but since the ass was unclean,
it could not be presented in sacrifice. What then? Should it be allowed to
go free from the universal law? By no means. God admits of no exceptions.
The ass is His due, but He will not accept it; He will not abate the claim,
but yet He cannot be pleased with the victim. No way of escape remained
but redemption — the creature must be saved by the substitution of a
lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must die.
My soul, here is a lesson
for thee. That unclean animal is thyself; thou art justly the property of the
Lord who made thee and preserves thee, but thou art so sinful that God
will not, cannot, accept thee; and it has come to this, the Lamb of God
must stand in thy stead, or thou must die eternally. Let all the world know
of thy gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for thee, and
so redeemed thee from the fatal curse of the law. Must it not sometimes
have been a question with the Israelite which should die, the ass or the
lamb? Would not the good man pause to estimate and compare?
Assuredly
there was no comparison between the value of the soul of man and the life
of the Lord Jesus, and yet the Lamb dies, and man the ass is spared. My
soul, admire the boundless love of God to thee and others of the human
race. Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and
ashes redeemed with a price far above silver and gold! What a doom had
been mine had not plenteous redemption been found! The breaking of the
neck of the ass was but a momentary penalty, but who shall measure the
wrath to come to which no limit can be imagined? Inestimably dear is the
glorious Lamb who has redeemed us from such a doom. October 15 |