March 14, 2010
Scripture:
John 17:1-5. The glories mentioned here are His essential glories. “Whom thou hast given me”. We can see ourselves in that. V24. These are not His essential glories, these are aquired glories that were added to His essential glories.
As we were thinking of the Lord of Glory, the thought came to me of Saul of Tarsus. While on that Damascus Road, in the brightness of the noonday, he was struck with something brighter than the meridian sun. A ray of glory from heaven struck that rebel blind. In contrast, when our Lord’s prayer is answered, and we are with Him in His glory, we will be able to behold His glory: His official, moral glory. We won’t be blinded. We will be able to gaze on our Lord, and Revelation tells us that we will sing, “Worthy is the Lamb to receive glory and honour and power.” How feeble and stammering are our efforts here, and how glorious they will be above.
Hymn 201 - Trust and Obey
Prayer
Last time we talked about Saul’s and God’s to-do lists. Saul was trying to find his father’s asses, but God was working to have him meet Samuel. That’s because Samuel was to anoint Saul as king. Israel had never had a king before, but they asked God for one so that they would be like the nations around them. Last time we saw how Samuel and Saul had met and had gone to the feast.
1 Samuel 9:25-27: Now, Saul didn’t ask to be king. God gave him the job. God chose Adam to name all the animals. He also chose Moses to lead the Children of Israel. And in Luke 1:38 He chose Mary to be the woman to have the baby Jesus. She was willing to do what the angel asked. God also chose all the prophets as well. Now after God chose all these people, He didn’t send them off in their own strength. He helped them. He told Moses and Joshua that He would be with them. The Lord may choose you to do something, either great or small, for Him.
1 Samuel 10:1: Samuel took a little bottle of oil and anointed Saul to be king. He them told Saul what would happen to him after he left Samuel. When he reached Rachel’s sepulchre he would meet two men that would tell him that his father’s asses had been found, and that his father was now worried about him. Further on, he would meet three men. One of these men would have three kids, another would have a bottle of wine, and the other would have three loaves of bread. They would give Saul and his servant two loaves of bread. He would then go on to the Hill of God, and there would meet a group of prophets with instruments. The Spirit of the Lord would then come upon him. God wanted a king that would trust Him. He was letting Saul know all these things so that he when he saw them come to pass, he would trust in the Lord and obey what He said. And it tells us in V9. that God gave Saul a new heart, and all these things happened to him that day.
Now, Saul looked like a good king. He was tall and strong and looked as if he would be a good leader. But does what you look like make you a good king? No, instead God wanted Saul to trust and obey Him. That would make him a good king.
Now if we can remember Rachel was the wife of Jacob and the mother of Benjamin. A sepulchre is like a grave, it’s where they bury dead people. It reminds us of death. In the New Testament, Jesus died for our sins. After He died, He was put in a sepulchre. But He didn’t stay dead, He rose again on the third day. And then, after 40 days, He went back to heaven. Then the Holy Spirit came down to earth on Pentecost. Now we can live as if our Old Nature is dead, and we can have a new heart like Saul. We can live in God’s strength, and can ask for His help.
So may we realize that we are to trust and obey the Lord in all that we do. Our hymn told us that that is how to be happy in Jesus.
We saw how the Jews made a covenant with God. They put themselves under the law again. Based on what they knew, this was what they did. In making this commitment, they followed part of the law given in Deuteronomy.
As part of this covenant, they agreed to be a separate people, v. 30. There is a lesson for us in this. The Lord has given us the desire to do the same: to be a people separated to Him. We should come away from the world and the religious systems. Although they make it sound like a very cut-and-dried matter, it was really very emotional; it dealt with people’s hearts and affections. But the Lord says, “My son, give me thine heart” (Proverbs 23:26).
In v. 31, they committed to keeping the Sabbath day holy. The Sabbath was first mention in Exodus 16; it was a day of rest for the Children of Israel; no manna came on the seventh day. What about after the 6 days of creation? God rested on the seventh day, but not because He was tired. He rested in the enjoyment of His perfect creation. Remember the verse “There remaineth … a rest to the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). When we get to Heaven, we will enter into God’s rest, His joy in perfection. When we re-read Genesis 1, we’ll see that when God started the six days of creation, He didn’t start with nothing. He started with an earth that was void and formless. He had no pleasure in that. So He created the earth, and then filled it with beauty, and finally man. The book of Joshua reminds us of how the children of Israel cleared the enemy nations out of Canaan, and then re-filled the land. In the days of Noah, God removed the wicked people and repopulated the earth with Noah and his family. What about the day you were saved? You were dead in trespasses and sins, but He removed all that. He didn’t leave you empty, but filled you with Christ. This purging and refilling is a recurring theme throughout Scripture, and the Sabbath day is a beautiful reminder to us of it. We don’t keep the Sabbath day; the New Testament clearly shows us that we should remember the Lord’s Day instead. But we can see the Sabbath as a reminder of that rest we are waiting for.
Hymn 341 - Jesus bids us shine
Prayer