A Ruler Who Wronged His People

Solomon was building his palace thirteen years before he finished it. He also built the throne-hall where he judged the people. This room was the Hall of Judgment; and it was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling.

His palace where he lived, in another court farther in from the Hall of Judgment, was of the same workmanship. He made a palace, too, similar to this hall, for Pharaoh’s daughter whom he had married. All these buildings were of costly stones, hewn according to measurements, sawed with saws, both on the inside and outside.

Solomon also gathered together chariots and horsemen; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen that he placed in the chariot cities and with him at Jerusalem. And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel who provided food for him and for his household: each man had to provide food for a month in the year.

When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to test him with puzzling questions. So she came to Jerusalem with a very large number of servants, with camels that carried spices and a great amount of gold and precious stones. As soon as she came to Solomon, she told him all that was in her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions: nothing was too difficult for him to answer.

When the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the palace that he had built, the food on his table, the housing of his officers, the way his waiters served him, their clothing, his cup-bearers, and the burnt-offering which he offered at the temple of Jehovah, she was greatly surprised. She said to Solomon, “What I heard in my own land of your acts and of your wisdom was true. But I would not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; but as it is, the half was not told me; your wisdom and prosperity are even greater than what was reported to me.”

Now Solomon loved women; and he married many foreign wives–Moabites, Canaanites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites, and Ammonites. He had seven hundred wives of princely birth, and three hundred concubines. When Solomon was old, his wives influenced him to worship other gods, and he was not loyal to Jehovah his God. Solomon built a place of worship for Chemosh, the god of Moab, on the hill that is opposite Jerusalem, and for Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods.

Then God raised up as a foe against him Rezon, the son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer, king of Zobah. He gathered men about him and became commander of a robber band, and he went to Damascus and lived and reigned there. He was a foe to Israel as long as Solomon lived.             Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, was a man of great ability. When Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, he placed him over all the men of the tribe of Joseph who were working for the ruler.

Once upon a time, when Jeroboam went away from Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh met him on the way and took him aside. Now Ahijah had put on a new garment, and while they two were alone in the field, Ahijah took hold of the new garment he had on and tore it in twelve pieces. Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces; for Jehovah, the God of Israel, declares, ‘I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you, but he shall have only one tribe.’” So Jeroboam also rebelled against Solomon.

Solomon, therefore, wanted to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, and he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

http://kids.ochristian.com/Childrens-Bible/A-Ruler-Who-Wronged-His-People.shtml

 

Building A Great Temple

In the fourth year of Solomon‘s rule over Israel he built the temple of Jehovah. The temple was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high. The porch before the large room of the temple was thirty feet wide and fifteen feet deep. Solomon made windows for the temple with casings, broad on the inside and narrow on the outside.

The temple was built with stone which had been made ready at the quarry; neither hammer nor chisel nor any iron tool was heard while the temple was building. Against the wall of the temple on the outside Solomon built wings, both around the larger room and the inner room, and made side-chambers around the temple.

The entrance to the lower side-chambers was on the south side of the temple. Winding stairs led to the second floor, and from the second to the third. Solomon built the wings against the sides of the temple, each seven and a half feet high; and they were joined to the temple with timbers of cedar.

He covered the walls of the temple on the inside with boards of cedar from the floor of the temple to the rafters: and he covered the floor of the temple with boards of cypress.

He also made a room thirty feet square in the back part of the temple with boards of cedar reaching from the floor to the rafters. He built it as an inner room, even as the most holy place. The temple, that is the large room in front of the inner room, was sixty feet long. And there was cedar inside the temple with carving in the form of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar, no stone was seen. Solomon prepared the inner room as a place for the ark.

In the inner room Solomon made two winged bulls of olive wood. The height of each was fifteen feet. Each of their wings measured seven and a half feet across, fifteen feet from the end of one wing to the end of the other. He set these up in the inner room of the temple; and their wings were stretched out so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the temple; and he covered them with gold.

Then Solomon gathered in Jerusalem the leaders of Israel to bring up the ark of Jehovah out of Zion, the City of David, at the time of the autumn festival in September. When all the leaders of Israel had come, the priests took up the ark and the tent of meeting and all the sacred vessels that were in the tent. So the priests brought in the ark of Jehovah to its place in the inner room of the temple under the wings of the winged bulls. There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb. And when the priests came out from the inner room, the cloud filled the temple of Jehovah, so that the priests could not stand and perform their service on account of the cloud, for the glory of Jehovah filled his temple.

Then Solomon said:

“Jehovah has set the sun in the heavens,

But has said that he will dwell in thick darkness.

So I have built thee a temple as a lofty dwelling,

A place for thee to abide in forever.”

As Solomon stood before the altar of Jehovah in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, he spread out his hands toward heaven and said, “O Jehovah, the God of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven above or on earth beneath, who keepest thy solemn agreement and showest kindness to thy servants who serve thee whole-heartedly, who hast kept with thy servant David my father the promise that thou didst make to him.

“But will God actually dwell on earth? Indeed heaven and the highest heaven cannot hold thee; how much less this temple that I have built!”

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A Young Man’s Wise Choice

Solomon went to Gibeon to offer a sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. He offered upon that altar a thousand animals as a burnt-offering.

In Gibeon Jehovah appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and said, “Ask what I shall give you.” Solomon said, “Thou hast showed to thy servant David my father great kindness. Now, O Jehovah my God, thou hast made thy servant ruler in the place of David my father, although I am but a child who does not know how to go out or come in. Give thy servant, therefore, an understanding mind to rule thy people, that I may see clearly what is good and what is evil; for who is able to rule this thy great people?”

Jehovah was pleased that Solomon had asked this; and God said to him, “Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life nor riches nor the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to see clearly what is just, I have now granted what you ask; I have given you a wise and understanding mind. I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor.” When Solomon awoke, he found that it was a dream; and he returned to Jerusalem.

Once two women came to Solomon and stood before him. The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house. While with her in the house I had a child. Three days later this woman also had a child, and we were alone by ourselves in the house. While we two were alone this woman’s child died in the night, because she lay upon it.

“Then she rose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid it on her breast and laid her dead child on mine. When I rose at dawn to nurse my child, there it was dead; but when I looked at it closely in the morning, I found that it was not my son.” Then the other woman said, “No; the living is my son, and the dead child is your son.” So they quarrelled before Solomon.

Then Solomon said, “One says, ‘This one who is alive is my son, and your son is dead.’ But the other says, ‘No; your son is dead, and my son is the one that is alive.’ Bring me a sword.” So they brought him a sword. Then he said, “Divide the living child in two and give half to the one and half to the other.” At that the woman to whom the living child belonged spoke to Solomon–for she loved her son with all her heart–and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child and on no account put it to death.” But the other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours! Divide it!” Then Solomon said, “Give the first woman the living child, and on no account put it to death; she is its mother.”

When all Israel heard of the decision which Solomon had given, they had great respect for him, for they saw that he had divine wisdom to decide questions justly.

http://kids.ochristian.com/Childrens-Bible/A-Young-Mans-Wise-Choice.shtml

Absalom The Ungrateful Son

Some time later Absalom, David’s son, prepared a chariot and horses and fifty men to run before him. He used to rise early and stand beside the highway which led to the city gate. He would call to him every man who had a suit that was to come before the ruler for judgment and say, “Of what city are you?” When the man replied, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel,” Absalom would say to him, “Your claims are good and right; but the ruler has not appointed any one to hear you. Oh, that some one would make me judge in the land, so that every man who has any complaint or cause would come to me, and I would see that he received justice!” And whenever a man came near to bow before him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. In this way Absalom treated all the Israelites who came to David for justice. Thus, Absalom stole from David the hearts of the Israelites.

At the end of four years, Absalom said to his father, “I should like to go and keep my promise, which I have made to Jehovah in Hebron.” David said to him, “Go in peace.” So he went to Hebron; but Absalom sent messengers to all the tribes of Israel to say, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, cry, ‘Absalom has become ruler in Hebron.’” With Absalom there went two hundred men from Jerusalem, who were invited and went innocently, knowing nothing at all of what he was going to do. Absalom also sent for Ahithophel, David’s adviser, from the city of Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. And the plot was strong, for more and more people kept going over to Absalom.

When a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel have gone over to Absalom,” David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Up, let us flee; for, if we do not, none of us will escape from Absalom. Go at once, or he may quickly overtake us and bring evil upon us and kill the people of the city.” Then David’s servants said to him, “It shall be done as our lord wishes; we are your servants.”

So David and all the people who followed him went out and stood at the last house, while all the officers and the royal body-guard and all the men of Ittai the Gittite, the six hundred who had followed him from Gath, passed on before him.

Then David said to Ittai, “Why do you also go with us? Go back and stay with the new ruler, for you are a foreigner and away from your own land. Yesterday you came, and to-day shall I make you go up and down the land with us, while I go where I may? Go back and take your men with you, and may Jehovah show you kindness and faithfulness.” But Ittai answered, “As surely as Jehovah lives and as my lord the ruler of Israel lives, wherever my lord is, whether dead or living, there your servant will be!” David said to Ittai, “March on.” So Ittai marched on with all his men and with all the children who were with him.

All the people were weeping aloud while David stood in the Kidron valley, and they went by before him on the way to the wilderness. And Zadok and Abiathar came carrying the ark of Jehovah and set it down until all the people had passed. Then David said to Zadok, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I win Jehovah’s favor, he will bring me back and show me both it and the place where he dwells. But if he declares, ‘I have no trust in you, then here am I, let him do to me as he thinks best.’” So Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem and stayed there.

But David went up, weeping as he climbed the Mount of Olives with his head covered and his feet bare. All the people who were with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went.

And when David came to the summit, where one worships God, Hushai the Archite with his garment torn and earth upon his head, came to meet him. David said to him, “If you go on with me you will be a burden to me. But if you go back to the city, and say to Absalom, ‘Your brothers have gone away and your father has gone after them; I will be your servant, O king; as I have been your father’s servant in the past, so now I will be your servant,’ you can defeat for me the advice of Ahithophel. And have you not there with you Zadok and Abiathar the priests? See, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok’s son, and Jonathan, Abiathar’s son. By them you shall send word to me of everything that you hear.” So Hushai, David’s friend, went into the city, when Absalom came to Jerusalem.

Then David and all the people who were with him, reached the Jordan tired out, but he refreshed himself there.

And Absalom, with all the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel was with him. When Hushai, David’s friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to him, “May the king live, may the king live!” But Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this your love for your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?” Hushai answered, “No! to him whom Jehovah and his people and all the men of Israel have chosen, to him will I belong and with him will I stay. Also whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? As I have served your father, so will I serve you.”

The advice which Ahithophel gave in those days was thought by David and Absalom to be the same as if it had come from God himself. And Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now pick out twelve thousand men, and set out and follow David to-night. Thus I will come upon him when he is tired and weak and will frighten him, and all the people who are with him will flee. Then I will kill only the king, and I will bring back all the people to you as the bride turns to her husband. Seek only the life of one man, and all the people will be at peace.” This advice pleased Absalom and all the leaders of Israel.

Then Absalom said, “Call now Hushai and let us hear also what he has to say.” When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him, “Thus Ahithophel has spoken; shall we act as he advises? If not, you advise us.” Then Hushai said to Absalom, “The advice that Ahithophel has given this time is not good. You know that your father and his men are mighty warriors and are now angry, like a bear robbed of her cubs. Your father is also a soldier and will not stay at night with the people. Even now he has hidden himself in one of the caves or in some other place. If some of the people fall at first, whoever hears it will say, ‘There is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.’ Then even he who is brave, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will completely lose courage; for all Israel knows that your father is a great warrior, and they who are with him are brave men. But I advise, let all the Israelites be gathered to you, from Dan to Beersheba, as many as the sand that is by the sea, with you yourself marching in the midst of them. In this way we will come upon him in some place where he will be found, and we will fall upon him as the dew falls on the ground; and of him and of all the men who are with him not even one shall be left. If he goes into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we will pull it down into the valley, until not even a small stone is found there.”

Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai is better than the advice of Ahithophel.” For Jehovah had planned to defeat the good advice of Ahithophel, so that Jehovah might bring evil upon Absalom.

Then Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, “This is what Ahithophel advised Absalom and the leaders of Israel; and this is what I advised. So now send quickly and say to David, ‘Do not spend this night at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means cross over, for fear that David and all the people with him be killed.’”

Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying at Enrogel; and a maid-servant was to go and bring them news, and they were to go and tell David, for they must not be seen coming into the city. But a boy saw them and told Absalom. Then they both went away quickly and entered into the house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his courtyard into which they descended. The women took and spread the covering over the mouth of the well, and scattered dried fruit upon it, so that nothing was known. And when Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house and said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” the woman answered, “They have gone over the brook.” When they had searched and could find nothing, they returned to Jerusalem.

But as soon as the men had gone away, Ahimaaz and Jonathan came up out of the well, and went and told David and said, “Get up, cross quickly over the water, for so has Ahithophel advised in regard to you.” Then David and all the people who were with him rose and crossed the Jordan. By daybreak there was not one left behind.

http://kids.ochristian.com/Childrens-Bible/Absalom-The-Ungrateful-Son.shtml

David’s Kindness To Jonathan’s Son

Then David asked, “Is any one left of the family of Saul to whom I may show kindness for Jonathan‘s sake?” And there was a servant of Saul named Ziba. When they called him before David, he said to him, “Are you Ziba?” He replied, “Your servant.” David said, “Is there any one else belonging to the family of Saul to whom I may show kindness like that which God shows to us?” Ziba answered, “A son of Jonathan is still living, but he is lame in his feet.” David inquired, “Where is he?” Ziba replied, “He is in the house of Machir in Lodebar.”

Then David sent and brought him from the house of Machir; and when Meribaal the son of Jonathan came to David, he bowed down to the ground before him. David said, “Meribaal!” He answered, “Here is your servant!” David said to him, “Fear not, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will give back to you all the land of your grandfather Saul; and you shall always eat at my table.” Meribaal bowed down and said, “What is your servant that you should look favorably upon one as unworthy as I?”

Then David called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “I have given to your master’s son all that belongs to Saul and to his family. You with your sons and servants shall cultivate the land for him and harvest the fruits, that your master’s son may have food to eat; but Meribaal, your master’s son, shall always eat at my table.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants; and he said to David, “Your servant will do all that my lord commands.”

So Meribaal ate at David’s table like one of his own sons. Meribaal also had a young son, whose name was Mica. And all who lived in the house of Ziba were Meribaal’s servants. So Meribaal lived in Jerusalem, and though he was lame in both feet, he always ate at David’s table.

http://kids.ochristian.com/Childrens-Bible/Davids-Kindness-To-Jonathans-Son.shtml

The Offense of the Cross

Then is the offense of the cross ceased–Gal 5:11

Paul Longed for the Salvation of the Jews

One thing which marks the ministry of Paul is how he lovingly yearned over the Jews. With a quenchless and intense desire, he prayed that they might be brought into the fold. Never did mother so long for the saving of her son as Paul longed for the saving of his countrymen. He was willing to suffer anything or everything, if only his people Israel might be won.

It is when we remember that deep longing that we realize what the cross meant for Paul. For the great stumbling block of faith to the Jews–the offense that made the Gospel of Christ smell rank to them–was, as our text indicates, the cross. Take that away, and it would be a thousand times more easy to win the Jews to the acceptance of the Lord. Say nothing about that, just slur it over, and you would take half the difficulty out of the way of Israel. Yet in spite of his yearning to see Israel saved, that was the one theme which Paul would not ignore. God forbid, he says, that I should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ my Lord. There is a great lesson there for Christian teachers and for all who are trying to advance Christ’s kingdom. The more earnest and eager they are to have men saved, the more willing are they to go to all lengths to meet them. And that is right, for we must be all things to all men–to the Jews as a Jew, to the Romans as a Roman; but remember there are a few great facts we cannot yield, though they run counter to the whole spirit of the age. It were better to empty a church and preach the cross than to fill it by keeping silence like a coward. It were better to fail as Paul failed with the Jews than to succeed by being a traitor to the cross. Religion can never be a pleasant entertainment. When the offense of the cross ceases, it is lost.

The Cross an Offense to the Jews

Now I want to make it a little plainer to you why the cross was an offense to the Jews and to put things in such a way that you may see at once that the same causes are operative still.

It Blighted All Their Hopes

First then, the cross was offensive to the Jews just because it blighted all their hopes. It shattered every dream they ever dreamed, every ideal that ever glimmered on them. No telegram of news full of disaster, plunging a man into unlooked-for poverty–no sudden death of one to whom the heart clings, laying a man’s life in ruins at his feet–not these more certainly shatter a man’s hopes than did the cross the vision of the Jews. They had prayed for and had dreamed of their Messiah, and He was to come in power as a conqueror. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”–you can almost hear the tramp of victorious feet. That was the light which burned in the Jewish darkness; that was the song which made music in their hearts. Then in the place of that triumph, there comes Calvary. In place of the Christ victorious, Christ crucified. And was this the Messiah who was to trample Rome, pierced in hands and feet by Roman nails? To the Jews a stumbling block: you cannot wonder at it when every hope they had formed was contradicted. Yet in spite of it all Paul preached Christ crucified, and that was the offense of the cross.

Now I venture to say that that offense of Calvary is just as powerful now as it was then. If I know anything about the ideals men cherish now and about the hopes that are regnant in ten thousand hearts, they are as antagonistic to the cross as was the Jewish ideal of Messiah. Written across Calvary is sacrifice; written across this age of ours is pleasure. On the lips of Christ are the stem words, I must die. On the lips of this age of ours, I must enjoy. And it is when I think of the passion to be rich and the judgment of everything by money standards; of the feverish desire at all costs to be happy, of the frivolity, of the worship of success; it is when I think of that and then contrast it with the “pale and solemn scene” upon that hill that I know that the offense of Calvary is not ceased. Unto the Jews a stumbling block–unto far more than the Jews: unto a pleasure-loving world and a dead church. Therefore say nothing about it; let it be; make everything interesting, pleasant, easy. Then is the offense of the cross ceased–and with it the power of the Gospel.

Second, the cross was an offense to the Jews because it swept away much that they took pride in. If there was any meaning in Calvary at all, some of their most cherished things were valueless. The Jews were preeminently a religious people, and this is always one peril of religious people. It is to take the things that lead to God and let the heart grow centered upon them. There was the ceremonial law for instance, with its scrupulous abhorrence of defilements. No one who has not studied the whole matter can ever know what that meant to the Jew. And there were the sacrifices smoking upon their altars, and the feasts and festivals and journeys to Jerusalem. And there was the temple, that magnificent building, sign of their hope and symbol of their unity. At least let this be said of that old people, that if they were proud, they were proud of worthy things. It is better to be proud of law and temple than to be proud of battleship and millionaire. Yet all that pride, religious though it was–that pride, deep-rooted as the people’s life–all that was swept away like autumn leaves if there was any meaning in the cross. No more would the eyes of men turn to Jerusalem, no more would sacrifices fill the altars, no more was there room for ceremonial law if the Son of God had died upon the tree. And it was this crushing into the very dust of all that was dearest to the Jewish heart that was so bitter an offense of Calvary.

A Man Must Come with Empty Hands

And today has that offense of the cross ceased? Has that stumbling block been removed out of the way? I say that this is still the offense of Calvary, that it cuts at the root of so much that we are proud of. Here is a woman who strives to do her duty. God bless her, she does it very bravely. Here is a student proud of his high gifts. God prosper him that he may use them well. But over against reliance upon duty and all attempts of the reason to give peace, there hangs the crucified Redeemer saying, “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Here is the offense of the cross in cultured ages. It is that a man must come with empty hands. He must come as one who knows his utter need of the pardoning mercy of Almighty God; and in an age like ours that leans upon its heritage and is proud of its magnificent achievement, that call to unconditional surrender is the offense of evangelical religion. We are all tempted to despise what we get freely. We like a little toil and sweat and travail. We measure the value of most things not by their own worth, but by all that it has cost us to procure them. And Calvary costs us nothing though it cost God everything; the love and the life of it are freely offered; and to a commercial age and a commercial city there is something suspicious and offensive there. Ah sirs, if I preached salvation by good works what an appreciative audience I could have. How it would appeal to many an eager heart! But I trample that temptation under foot, not that I love you less but that I love Christ more, and I pray that where the gospel is proclaimed, the offense of the cross of Christ may never cease. I do not believe that if you scratch a man you will find underneath his skin a Christian. I do not believe that if you do your best, all is well for time and for eternity. But I do believe–

Not the labors of my hands

Can fulfil Thy law’s demands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone:

Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Third, the cross was an offense to the Jews because it obliterated national distinctions. It leveled at one blow those social barriers that were of such untold worth in Jewish eyes. It was supremely important that the Jews should stand apart; through their isolation God had educated them. They had had the bitter-sweet privilege of being lonely, and being lonely they had been ennobled. Unto them were committed the oracles of God; they were a chosen nation, a peculiar people. The covenants were theirs, theirs were the promises, the knowledge of the one true God was theirs; until at last, almost inevitably, there rose in the Jewish mind a certain separateness and a certain contempt, continually deepening, for all the other nations of mankind. They had no envy of the art of Greece. They were not awed by the majesty of Rome. Grecians and Romans, Persians and Assyrians –powerful, cultured, victorious –were but Gentiles. There is something almost sublime in the contempt with which that little nation viewed the world. Then came the cross and leveled all distinctions; it burst through all barriers of nationality. There was neither Jew nor Gentile, Greek nor barbarian, but Christ was all and in all. Let some wild savage from the farthest west come to the cross of Christ pleading for mercy, and he had nothing less to do and nothing more than the proudest Jew who was a child of Abraham. One feels in an instant the insult of it all, how it left the Jew defenseless in the wild. All he had clung to was gone; his vineyard-wall was shattered: he must live or die now in the windswept world. And this tremendous leveling of distinctions–this striking out Jew and writing in humanity–this, to the proud, reserved, and lonely people, was no small part of the offense of Calvary.

At the Cross, All Distinctions Are Obliterated

Now I would not have you imagine for a moment that Christ disregards all personal distinctions. If I sent you away harboring the thought that all who come to Christ get the same treatment, I should have done Him an unutterable wrong. In everything He did Christ was original because He was fresh from God into the world, but in no sphere was He so strikingly original as in the way in which He handled those who came to Him. So was it when He was on the earth; so is it now when He is hid with God. There is always some touch, some word, some discipline, that tells of an individual understanding. But in spite of all that and recognizing that, I say that this is the “scandal” of the cross, that there every distinction is obliterated, and men must be saved as lost or not at all. You remember the lady from a gentle home who went to hear the preaching of George Whitefield? And she listened in disgust to a great sermon and then, like Naaman, went away in a rage. “For it is perfectly intolerable,” she said, “that ladies like me should be spoken to just like a creature from the streets.” Quite so: it is perfectly intolerable–and that is the stumbling block of Calvary. Are you who may be cultured to your fingertips to be classed with the savage who cannot read or write ? It would be very pleasant to say No–but then were the offense of the cross ceased. A friend of mine who is a busy doctor in a thriving village not ten miles from Glasgow was called in the other day to see a patient who, as was plain at the first glance, was dying. And the doctor, a good Christian, said, “Friend, the best service I can do you is to ask, Have you made your peace with God?” Whereon the man, raising his wasted arm and piercing the questioner with awe-filled eyes, said, “Doctor, is it as bad as that?” I want to say it is always as bad as that. I want to say it to the brightest heart here. You do need pardon and peace with God in Christ as much as the wildest prodigal. Accept it. It is freely offered you. Say, “Thou, O Christ, art all I want.” And then, just as the wilderness will blossom, so will the offense of the cross become its glory.

http://devotionals.ochristian.com/george-h-morrison-devotional-sermons-devotional.shtml

 

Tozer Devotional-Do You Know Where You are Going?

Do You Know Where You are Going?

It is a simple axiom of the traveler that if he would arrive at the desired destination he must take the right road. How far a man may have traveled is not important; what matters is whether or not he is going the right way, whether the path he is following will bring him out at the right place at last. Sometimes there will be an end to the road, and maybe sooner than he knows; but when he has gone the last step of the way will he find himself in a tomorrow of light and peace, or will the toward which he journeys be a of trouble and distress, a of wasteness and desolation, a of darkness and gloominess, a of clouds and thick darkness? The inspired prophet Jeremiah says (and for that matter all the holy prophets who have spoken since the world began say) and our Lord and His apostles say that man does not know the way; indeed he hardly knows where he should go, to say nothing of the way he should take to get there. The worried Thomas spoke for every man when he asked, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? That is the truth and we had better face it squarely: the way of man is not in himself. However severe the blow to our pride, we would do well to bow our heads and admit our ignorance. For those who know not and know they know not, there may in the mercy of God be hope; for those who think they know there can be only increasing darkness.

http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer?id=716

The Mystery of History

“This is what the LORD Almighty says:  ‘Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.’” — Zechariah 8:4

Sometimes there is more meaning in the English language than we ever intended. Sometimes, one word has an entire message in it. Two such examples are the words “history” and “mystery.”

For example, if we break the word history apart, we get “his-story.” And that’s what history is. It is man’s story about himself, the past as we see it.

But then there is mystery. Break mystery into two (with a little word play), and we can get the words “my-story.” This is the story of humanity according to God. Many things in life we don’t understand or don’t even know about. They are beyond human comprehension. To us, so much is a mystery. But God calls it “My story.” To Him, it all makes sense and only He sees the whole story of mankind.

In Judaism, we believe that God interacts with humanity in two different ways:  the “hidden face” and “revealed face.” When God’s face is revealed, there is no mystery in life. Divine Providence is obvious, like when He parted the Red Sea. But there are other periods of time when God’s face is hidden and His ways are mysterious. It’s extremely difficult to see His plan for our lives.

For thousands of years, the world has been enveloped in mystery. Humanity has been through very dark and troubled times. God’s face was well hidden. But open your eyes and you will see that times have changed. We are in a stage where God is obviously present and guiding the destiny of humanity.

Thousands of years ago, the prophet Zechariah prophesized about the miraculous return of the Jewish people to their homeland. He wrote, “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age.The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there” (8:4). My friends, that time is now!

I cordially invite you to visit Jerusalem. If you want to speak to God, join the many of us at the Western Wall, the only remnant still standing of the Temple. But if you want to see God – to see His face and His providence – walk the streets of Jerusalem. The old and young that you will find there reveal that the mystery of our history is all becoming clear.

http://www.holylandmoments.org/devotionals/the-mystery-of-history

The Perils of Unsettlement

None of these things move me–Act 20:24

These Words Paul Spoke on His Way to Jerusalem

Paul was journeying to Jerusalem when he spoke the words of our text. They were addressed to the elders of Ephesus whom he had summoned to meet him at Miletus. It was a journey attended by much hazard, and Paul was aware how hazardous it was. The spirit of prophecy, in every city, had testified to the hardships that awaited him. Yet though bonds and imprisonment were in his prospect, and perhaps a shadow darker than imprisonment, the apostle was able to say in all sincerity that none of these things moved him. With an unwavering and undaunted heart he held to the route that he had planned. Like his master, in a still darker hour, he set his face stedfastly towards Jerusalem. In other words, this great apostle had overcome the perils of unsettlement, and it is on the perils of unsettlement that I should like to speak for a little while this evening

The Prospect of Christ‘s Return Provided the Spirit of Unsettlement

Now no one can read the New Testament without observing that this was one of the deadliest perils of the apostolic church. However fiercely other evils tried them, this one seems to have had peculiar power. The early Christians, like the Elizabethan mariners, had broken into an untravelled sea. They were beyond the experience of the ages. They lived in the daily hope that Christ was coming And all this wrought such a ferment in their hearts, and seemed to release them so from common obligations, that with all its victories and all its virtues the early church was a-quiver with unsettlement. Men threw their tools down and refused to work. They studied everything save their own business. Why should they take provident care against tomorrow when at sunrise tomorrow Christ might come again? So did there spread through apostolic days a spirit of unquiet and unrest, and men, through the very wonder of it all, were prone to be unbalanced for a little.

We Too Are Beset by an Age of Unsettlement

But though circumstances are very different now, this peculiar danger has not vanished. Today, not less than in the days of Pentecost, we are beset by the perils of unsettlement. I am not speaking of the characteristics of the age, though it is the fashion to call this an unsettled age. I take it that every age which has had life in it has been an unsettled and unsettling age. I speak rather of these large experiences which befall each of us upon our journey when I say that we are still exposed to the swift and subtle perils of unsettlement. Sometimes they reach us through a staggering sorrow which lays the palace in ruins at our feet. Sometimes through the thrilling of good news, or the excitement or variety of travel. Sometimes through the calling of the summertime, with its mystery of light and beauty, touching our hearts and strangely stirring them with cravings which we cannot well interpret. In such ways, and in other ways as evident, are we all in danger of unsettlement. We lose our grip on what we used to cling to. We begin to drag our anchors unexpectedly. We are restless and know not what we want, and we lack the unity that makes for power, and so do we learn out of our own experience the perils which the apostle mastered.

Unsettlement Caused by the Monotony of Life

Indeed, the very concentration of today leads to the intensifying of this danger. When life is narrowed into a dull routine, unsettlement is very easily wrought. In the old days, when life was larger, men were less ready to be thrown off their balance. Familiar with a wider range of circumstance, they were not so lightly moved away by novelty. But now when that large liberty is gone, and men have to concentrate unceasingly, they have lost the power of responding quietly to what is new or strange or unexpected. They are more easily cast out of their reckoning than men who traveled across a larger field. When life is monotonous, even a little incident has the power of disturbing greatly. And so the very monotony of labor, which is so characteristic of today, makes it an easier thing to be unsettled.

Unsettlement Is the Pain and Privilege of Youth

Let me say in passing that this is a peril from which no man can hope to be exempted. No quiet sheltering of home or task will ward off the inroad of unsettlement. It is true that as life advances it grows less. With the passing of years comes the passing of unrest. In the fulness of its disturbing strength, unsettlement is the pain and privilege of youth. Yet God has so ordered this strange life of ours that into every lot, however sheltered, sooner or later there break out of the infinite those things which are mighty to unsettle. There are perils which we can shun in prudence. We can shape our course so as to avoid them. But this is a peril which we cannot shun, though we had all the wisdom of Athene. Suddenly a great sorrow is upon us, or the thrilling of unexpected joy, or we waken to hear, with hearts that burn within us, the calling of another summertime. From such disturbance there is no escape. We cannot expel the angels when they visit us. We must open the door to them and bid them welcome, and say, “Come in, thou blessed of the Lord.” Only thus can we hope to use for good that recurring disturbance of the heart which falls upon us all, in diverse ways, amid the joys and sorrows of humanity.             Unsettlement

Makes our Work Harder to Perform

Well now, let us consider one or two of the evils of unsettlement, and the first and most evident perhaps is this, that it makes our work harder to perform. For most men work is hard enough, even when they give to it an undivided mind. It takes every power and faculty which they possess to be honest toilers in the sight of heaven. But work becomes doubly hard for all of us, and to certain natures grows well-nigh impossible when these powers are inwardly distracted and will not answer the summons of the hour. It is not easy to do the common duty under the shadow of overwhelming sorrow. It is not easy to ply the daily task under the new glow of a great joy. It is not easy to take the burden up and to go quietly to our familiar place when the glad and open world is calling us. That is the commonest peril of unsettlement, and I take it there is no one here but knows it. Labor grows irksome; duty becomes irritating; drudgery is well-nigh intolerable. And yet this drudgery, for every one of us, from the dullard to the loftiest genius, is the one road that leads, o’er moor and fen, to the sunrise and the welcome and the crown.

Unsettlement Relaxes the Hold of Our Good Habits

Another peril of unsettlement is this, that it relaxes the hold of our good habits. We come to find, in our unsettled hours, that they do not hold us so firmly as we thought. Most of us are the creatures of habit in a far larger measure than we think. If it is to them that we owe many a weakness, it is to them also that we owe many a virtue. There are few men who can look back upon their lives, with gratitude to God that they have done a little, without recognizing what a debt they owe to one or two habits which were early formed. Such habits may be very simple, yet they have a wonderfully redeeming power. They redeem every day from being wasted and every energy from being ineffectual. If a bad habit is the worst of curses and leads by the road of bondage to the dark, a good habit, through the grace of God, is one of our surest and most priceless blessings. Now it is always one peril of unsettlement that it relaxes the hold of our good habits. It lifts us out of the embrace of good ones and throws us into the embrace of evil ones. For always, when we lose our self-control, sin, as the Scripture says, coucheth at the door waiting to call us to what we practiced once but have long through the grace of God forsworn. All men have a hunger for the good, but all men have a bias to the evil. It is that bias which the devil uses in the season of a man’s unsettlement. Torn from his center by unexpected incidence, caught into new and strange environment, a man is in peril because his grip is weakened on the steadying and simple habits of his past.

Unsettlement Is the Enemy of Prayer Regularity

And especially, will you let me say in passing; is this true of the sweet habits of the interior life. Unsettlement is the peculiar enemy of regularity in private prayer. I take it that most men pray in secret. I trust I am not mistaken in so thinking It may be only a few words–it may be very formal–yet is it better than no prayer at all. But who does not know how this interior grace, which we may have learned beside a mother’s knee, is apt to be shed off like an old garment when the hour of unsettlement arrives. I grant you that in a great catastrophe there is an instinct in the heart to pray. It is often then, when all the deeps are broken, that the pride which never prayed is broken too. But in all the lesser unsettlements of life when there is disturbance only, not catastrophe, there is the constant peril of forgetting the sweet and secret exercise of prayer. I have known men who prayed through years of drudgery, and who ceased it when great good fortune came. I have known men who prayed right through the winter, yet somehow in summer they forgot to pray. I have known men–yes, and women too–who would never have dreamed of omitting prayer at home, who yet omitted it, not once only, amid the excitement and the stir of foreign travel. That is a grave peril of unsettlement. There is not one of us but is exposed to it. It is appalling how lightly we are held by the secret habits of the interior life. A glimpse of liberty, a day of sunshine, a stroke of luck, a touch of one we love, and it may be–God only knows–that we shall throw ourselves upon a prayerless bed tonight.

Resolute Continuance Is a Mark of a Great Character

Now it is always one mark of a great character not to be easily or lightly moved. A certain quiet and fine stability is generally one of the hallmarks of the noble. When Saul was chosen to be king of Israel and when the people shouted “God save the king,” we could scarce have wondered if that swift elevation had unsettled him and turned his head a little. And it has always been held as a proof of Saul’s nobility that he passed with a quiet heart through that great hour, and with the cry of the people in his ears went back to guide his father’s plough again. Of course there are natures more prone than others to yield to the pressure of unsettlement. There are dogged natures and responsive natures, and there always shall be till the trumpet sounds. Still speaking broadly and generally, we may say that to be unsettled lightly is a bad sign, and that one mark of nobility of character is a quiet and resolute continuance. The question is then how we, not being great, can hope to attain to that continuance. How can we organize into victory the common perils of unsettlement?

Aloofness Is Not the Answer to Unsettlement

Let me say first, and in a negative way, that it is but a sorry victory to stand aloof. It is not thus, as I understand my Bible, that God would have his children live. There are men who never take a holiday, they are so filled with dread of its disturbances. Knowing how certainly it will unsettle them, they prefer to forego it altogether. And while in the aged or the infirm of body such a reluctance is easily understood, with others it is a road to peace that is perilously near to cowardice. We were never meant to live our lives so. We were never meant to bar the gates like that. To shut the summer out, and to shut love out, is not victory, it is defeat. In many of the choicest gifts of God there is a terrible power of unsettlement, and a Christian was never meant to reject the gift because of the unsettlement it brings. There was once a philosophy which wrought along these lines. It was called the Stoical philosophy. It sought to achieve serenity of life by steeling the soul against the passions. And do you know what happened as a fact of history? Well, I shall tell you what actually happened–one of two results was found in life. Sometimes men won the serenity they craved, but they won it at a tremendous cost. For love was banished and the charm of things and the touch of sympathy that makes us brothers. And sometimes in the very hour of victory, nature, trampled on, rose to her rights again and in her passionate and overmastering way swept down the defenses they had built. It is no use fighting against nature. It is worse than useless fighting against God. We are not here to stand aloof from things and to steel our hearts against disturbances. We are here to welcome whatever God may send, whether it be sunshine or be sorrow, and somehow out of all unsettlement to wrest the music of our triumph-song

Unsettlement Is Helped by Seeing Things in Their Proper Proportions

Well now, one great help to that is learning to see things in their true proportions. Without a certain feeling for perspective, we can never be quiet in the thick of life. You remember what Dr. Johnson said to a friend who was worrying about a trifle? “Think, sir,” he said in his wise way, “think how little that will seem twelvemonth hence.” And if we only practiced that fine art of thinking how little many a thing will seem twelvemonth hence, we should be freed from much unsettlement today. It is good to know a big thing when we see it. It is not less good to know a little thing. There are people to whom the tiniest burn is as swift and dangerous as the Spey. And always when you have people of that nature who have never taken the measurements of life, you have people who live on the margin of unsettlement. Next to the grace of God for through bearing, there is nothing more kindly than a little humor. To see things in a smiling kind of way is often to see them in the wisest way. For as there are things, and always shall be things, that strike to the very heart of human destiny, so are there things, and always shall be things, that are so trifling as to be ridiculous. It is amazing how many worthy people seem never to have learned that simple lesson. You would think they had never heard the words of Jesus about swallowing the camel and straining at the gnat. And so are they always in peril of unsettlement, not because their experience is exceptional, but because they have never learned in life to see things in their true proportions.

See the Hand of God in Everything

But the greatest help of all is this, it is to see the hand of God in everything When a man has come to see the hand of God in everything, he touches the secret of the weaned heart. I have noticed among domestic servants one very common reason of unsettlement. It is that they do not know who is the mistress and have to take orders from half a dozen people. And all of us are servants in God’s house and always in our service we shall be irritable unless there be one voice we must obey and one will which gives us all our orders. That was the meaning of the peace of Job. He saw God always, and he saw Him everywhere. “The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away,” said Job, “blessed be the name of the Lord.” It was not God today and fate tomorrow. It was not heaven in the morning and blind chance at night. Through light and shadow it was God to Job, and that was one secret of his rest. So is it with us all. To have many masters is always to be restless. “I have set the Lord always before me,” said the Psalmist, “therefore I shall not be moved.” To see His hand in the least and in the greatest, in the burden no less than in the blessing, is the sure way, amid all life’s unsettlement, to have the heart at leisure from itself.

http://devotionals.ochristian.com/george-h-morrison-devotional-sermons-devotional.shtml

 

All Together Now

“Then the survivorsfrom all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worshipthe King, the LORDAlmighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.” — Zechariah 14:16

Sukkot, the Festival of Tabernacles, is definitely a favorite among kids and adults young at heart. After the seriousness of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Sukkot is a welcome change. Just after Yom Kippur ends, construction on the sukkah, a temporary outdoor hut, begins. Kids enjoy building the sukkahand decorating it. But once the holiday starts, the real fun begins.

Kids are thrilled to participate in the yearly activity known as “sukkah-hopping.” Think trick-or-treat, minus the costumes, plus an added dose of singing and many words of Torah. Kids go from one sukkah to the next and celebrate together with neighbors, family, and friends. Sukkot is the holiday of togetherness. It’s fun for the kids and brings great pleasure to God.

Like much in Judaism, Sukkot comes with many customs and rules. A sukkahmust have at least two and a half walls, but preferably, four. It must be made out of natural materials like wood and leaves. A sukkahcannot be taller than 20 cubits high. But how wide can a sukkahbe? The answer is:  infinity!

A sukkahcould, in theory, go on forever. Theoretically, every person in the world could reside in one very large sukkah. The festival of Sukkot is all about inclusivity. It is the holiday where everyone in the world comes together in service of God.

The prophet Zechariah writes:  “Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles” (14:16). The prophet tells us that in messianic times, all of the nations of the world will make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to celebrate the holiday of Sukkot. But you know what? It’s already happening.

For the first time in thousands of years, people from all over the world are streaming to Jerusalem on the holiday of Sukkot. People from all walks of life can be found on the cobblestone streets and alleyways of the Holy City. The time for coming together in service of God is now. And what better time than the holiday of Sukkot, a holiday of togetherness, to make it happen.

The psalmist writes, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalms 133:1). This Sukkot, let’s get together!

http://www.holylandmoments.org/devotionals/all-together-now