January 2, 2011
Scripture:
Scripture:
I’m thinking of the question we had earlier: “What hast thou done?” Turn to John 17: “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee … I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (vv. 1 & 4). The Lord glorified the Father in everything He did. He came to do His Father’s will. We can give Him glory and praise for the work that He completed on Calvary.
Hymn 370 - Yield Not to Temptation
Prayer
1Samuel 17:32-37
Today we are going to continue with the story about David and Goliath. We remember that David is a picture of the Lord Jesus. David’s father sent him to check on his brothers, who were at battle. The Lord Jesus was sent by His Father, too. The Lord came to His own and “His own received Him not”; when David came to the battlefield, His brothers didn’t want him there.
Vv. 32 & 33: David told King Saul that he shouldn’t worry about Goliath, because he was going to fight him. Everybody else was afraid, but David says, “Let not thy heart fail because of him.” The Lord Jesus said that quite a few times, too; in Matthew—and also in the gospel of John—Jesus says not to fear. But how could David, a young shepherd boy, fight the big tall giant? We will find out as we read on. Then Saul told David, “Goliath has been in the army since he was a youth and you are only a youth, you cannot fight him.”
Vv. 34 - 36: Next, David told Saul about how a lion and a bear came and took one of his sheep. David goes on and says that he wasn’t afraid; he saved the sheep and killed the lion and the bear. Then, David told Saul that God can help him conquer Goliath as He did the lion and the bear. Goliath had gone against the armies of the living God and God doesn’t want them to be defeated. We can see how these incidents with the lion and the bear prepared David to fight against Goliath.
V.37: We see that David had faith in God. I would like to look at another person in the Bible who wanted to do something for the Lord, but couldn’t because He did it in His own strength. Read Matthew 26:31 - 35. The Lord knew what was going to happen, but Peter felt so willing to die with the Lord. Now read Matthew 26:69 - 75. Peter wanted to do the right thing, but he was doing it in his own strength.
We see how David’s killing the lion and the bear had prepared him to kill Goliath. When you are with Christians, it might not be hard to serve the Lord, but when you get out into the world it’s not going to be easy. Read John 15:5. David knew that He is going to need the Lord’s help in the battle with Goliath.
Read Philippians 4:13: our strength is in the Lord. He is the vine; we are the branches and when Satan brings on a trial, our strength should be in the Lord. We can do much for the Lord if we make ourselves available.
We have the birth of the first promised baby; and he comes in preparation for the second. There was great excitement at his birth, and it’s good to see. The response wasn’t “ho-hum” or “So what?” like it often is today when truth is presented.
When the neighbours heard that Elisabeth had had a son, they said that the Lord had magnified his mercy to her. It’s not just great mercy, but “magnified mercy”. The first mention of mercy in our English Bible is in connection with Lot in Genesis 19:19. There it was also “magnified mercy”, and it still is here. God had told Zachariah that many would rejoice at John’s birth, and it came true. Many promises had been given that were finally coming to pass.
Things were still done in a very Jewish manner, with the child being circumcised and named on the eighth day. Of course, Zachariah and Elisabeth didn’t have to think up a name; but all their kinsfolk called the baby Zachariah. Elisabeth said, “No, he’ll be named John.” They asked Zachariah, and he wrote, “His name is John”. John means ‘Jehovah is gracious’. This was a special child, with a special name. He was to be a Nazarite from his birth, and Elisabeth and Zachariah, it seems, were dedicated to doing all that the angel had told them.
This seemed to break the chastening of the Lord on Zachariah for his unbelief. His voice returns, his mouth is opened, and he praises God. It shows us that the Lord’s things were a part of his life. That’s what our lives should be like; very involved with the Lord. Also, it shows us that he was occupied with the Lord. He wasn’t occupied with his first-born son (and a very special son at that), but with giving praise to God. Not the gift, but the giver.
This whole happening caused quite a sensation. The people feared, treasured it in their hearts, and it was talked about through out the hill country. The people saw God working. This is when Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and verses 68-79 are his psalm of praise and prophecy. We can see the expectancy in it; they were looking for an offspring of David, which Zachariah mentions in verse 69. However, many of the things that Zachariah spoke about haven’t come to pass yet, but will at his second coming. We also wait, but not for a babe.
Hymn 200 - ‘Tis the hope of his coming
Prayer