January 3, 2010
Scripture:
I was thinking of what was read in Revelation 5, in connection with what we just sang. Our hymn spoke of peace. In Heaven, there will be peace. Here we have stress from our work and other duties. Up there, we will have zero stress. Nothing there will cause us worry or stress. Can you think of it? We’ll be surrounded not only with peace, but also with love. We’ll be able to gaze on the face of our Saviour. What a scene we can look forward to. Surely we can say, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.”
Hymn - 193 - Peace, peace, sweet peace
Prayer
Last time, we finished the book of Esther. Now, I’d like to talk about different creatures in the Bible. The Bible mentions 99 different creatures.
But before we talk about any specific creatures, I’d like to talk about man. God formed man out of the dust of the earth, instead of just speaking him into existence like the animals. He breathed into him the breath of life. Man has the breath of God in him. There are three types of creatures. There are plants, which just have a body. They can’t move. Then there are animals. They have a body and a soul. That means they have a mind, will and emotions. For example, when you step on a dogs tail, he shows emotion! Plants can’t do that. The third category is humans. Humans have something more than animals and plants. They have a body, a soul, and a spirit. Our spirit is what interacts with God. Only man has a spirit. He is special.
Now, our first creature is an Adder. Read Genesis 49:17 and Proverbs 23:32. An adder is a very poisonous type of snake. If it bit you, you would get sick and die. Satan is like a snake. His bite is called sin. He bit Adam and Eve, and as a result, we all have a sin nature. That’s the lesson we get from the adder: beware of sin! In the Old Testament, there’s another snake story. God punished the Israelites, and many people had been bitten by snakes. Moses was told to make a serpent of brass and put it on a pole. Anyone who looked at that snake was made perfectly whole. We can look to our Saviour and live. He is the cure for our sin.
Our second creature is the ant. Proverbs 6:6-8. Ants have no guide. If you look at an ant hill, there’s no boss ant telling everybody what to do. They do what they want to do, but everything that they do is for the benefit of the colony. They are industrious, hard workers. An ant colony is like an assembly. We have no one overseer; no pastor. We do have a guide, though. The Holy Spirit is our guide. He might guide a brother to give out a hymn, and another to read a passage; but it’s all for the benefit of the assembly. Proverbs 30:25. The ant gathers in the summer, so that it has food for the winter. We should store up God’s Word in our mind, so that it’s there when we need it.
Well, those are the first two of the ninety-nine creatures!
Although this chapter reads like history, we can’t forget that it is a prayer. We’ve seen so far how the Children of Israel left Egypt and how God was with them.
V. 14: it is interesting that the Sabbath is brought out here; we first have it mentioned in Genesis, when God rested on the seventh day, after creating the world. In Exodus, it became a commandment; in fact, it is the commandment with the most explanation after it. The Sabbath was the Jews’ holy day; it was Saturday. We don’t keep the Sabbath; instead, we have the Lord’s day, Sunday. In the gospels, the Pharisees were very determined to keep the Sabbath and have the Lord do the same. However, the Lord tried to show them the truth; He was closer to the truth than they were. He was the truth.
In v. 15, we read about how the Lord gave them manna from heaven. Manna is a type of Christ in his humiliation. Just as they ate the manna, we can enjoy the Lord, as we read about Him in the gospels.
Although this is a prayer, it is inspired of God for our reading now; read II Timothy 3:16. All of God’s word is meant to lead us; God gave the Children of Israel manna to feed them in their hunger and water to quench their thirst. We should be feeding on the truths of God’s word; but what if we aren’t hungry? Could it mean we’re feeding on “junk food?” May we not get tired of it as they did of the manna! We are still in the wilderness, and can enjoy the manna; but we can also get a foretaste of heaven by meditating on the Lord as the risen Christ (typified in the old corn of the land).
Hymn 262 - Satisfied with Thee, Lord Jesus
Prayer