December 9, 2012
Scripture:
Hymn 313 - God is in Heaven
Prayer
Today we will be turning back to 1 Kings 19. Elijah had fled from Jezebel when she had threatened to kill him. He ran away to a mountain in which God met him and God asked Elijah why he was there. Elijah felt that he was the only one serving the Lord, but God showed him that there were many others: in fact, there were 7000 people in Israel that feared God. While God was talking to Elijah, He told him who to anoint as the next king and who was to take his place as prophet.
As I meditated on this story, I noticed that some of the attributes of God were brought out. Attributes are characteristics, or qualities of a person. One of God’s most well-known attributes is His love. We know this because He sent His Son to die on the cross for us. But there are several other attributes here, as well.
1 Kings 19:9, 11, & 18
V. 9: God came to see Elijah on this mountain. Here we see that God is everywhere (sometimes we use the word omnipresent). God doesn’t have a body like us, and that gives Him the ability to be everywhere at once. Read Jeremiah 23:24. God is always watching us, and caring for us.
V. 11: Secondly, God is all-powerful (omnipotent). He showed His great power in the creation of the world; and in this verse, we see His power in controlling that creation. This morning we read about how God took a rib from Adam’s side and created Eve: this was another display of His power. It is magnificent to know that our God has the power to take care of us (Psalm 62:11).
V. 18: The last attribute that we get from this chapter is that God is all-knowing (omniscient): He knew who was worshipping Him in Israel. He knows the past, present, and future. Knowing this, we can look to Him for direction throughout lives.
I trust that knowing about these attributes will help us to love and trust God better.
Luke 18:28-43
What the Lord said about the rich young ruler prompted a thought to Peter. The ruler only needed one thing: to sell what he had and follow Jesus, but he wouldn’t do it. Peter told Jesus, “We’ve left all and followed you.”
There is a cost to following the Lord. We may have to leave some “advantages” to obey His will. Peter left his livelihood of fishing. If he hadn’t, we probably would never have heard of him. He thought that he paid quite a price, but were there any advantages he received from following the Lord?
There are. The next verse tells us that God is no man’s debtor. In time and eternity, no one is worse off for following the Lord. There are a lot of people who have given up a lot more for the gospel than we have. God doesn’t necessary want all of us to give up all the things in this list (we need to cleave to our wives and be there for our children). For some of them, God must specially direct.
The Bible asks, “What will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Some of the richest people in the world are really the poorest, and some of the poorest are actually the richest. Paul said that he would willingly lose all to win Christ. To follow Christ may require us to give up sins, but we are then protected from situations of sorrow and heartache that those sins would bring. Some good verses on this subject are: “seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt.6:33) and “them that honour me I will honour” (1 Samuel 2:30). When we give up something for Christ, we will have benefit in this life and in eternity, so it’s not a loss at all.
At this point in our chapter, our Lord is only talking to His disciples; no Pharisees, scribes, publicans, or sinners. He reveals what is on his heart to these followers, and tells them what will happen at Jerusalem. Verses 32-33 are very clear, but the disciples didn’t understand, even though Jesus was only telling them things that the prophets had foretold.
There are things that the prophets didn’t see. There was a man named Clarence Larkin who illustrated this brilliantly. He drew a diagram entitled “The Mountain Peaks of Prophecy” which showed a prophet able to look into the future and see two or three mountain peaks (the Lord coming as a man and the Millennium), but unable to see the valley that separated them (the Church Age, or Period of Grace).
Ephesians 3:1-2. Right now, we are in the valley of the dispensation of the grace of God. This was given to Paul by revelation, not by study of the Old Testament. Read vv. 3 - 9. These things weren’t revealed before. They are unsearchable; you can’t find teaching about the time of grace in the Old Testament. You can find types, but not specified truths. Even though the prophets do talk about Jesus’ sufferings, the disciples still expected the Lord to usher in the kingdom.
In verse 33 we see the cross and the resurrection. We get both of these, plus Christ’s ascension back to heaven in prophecy.
These things were hid from the disciples, and it was really too bad because it would have been so precious to them to know—during Christ’s sufferings—that He would rise the third day. You would think that one of them would have recalled that Jesus had told them these things, but they didn’t remember until after His resurrection.
Hymn 338 - I love my Saviour, my precious Saviour
Prayer