Daily Bread  -  September, 2008

by Robert J. Wieland

The prophet Isaiah speaks of “eunuchs.”

They were unfortunates in the culture of ancient Israel, for they had been castrated. The idea that was prevalent there long ago was that the only “future” you had was through your children and descendants. You lived on through them.

So, if you were castrated and therefore had no descendants, poor you; you were done for.

It’s not hard for us to imagine what life was like at that time when you were castrated; we today may not be physically castrated, but we can feel useless as though we have no future; we are not leaving anything behind of eternal value. No one is living spiritually as our contribution.

But Isaiah has good news for us! The Lord has good news and special regard for us who feel useless:

“Thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My Sabbaths, and choose the things that please Me, and take hold of My covenant; even unto them will I give in Mine house and within My walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters [can you imagine that!]: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off” (56:4, 5).

Then the Lord details His blessings for those who embrace His holy Sabbaths: “Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of My covenant; even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make themjoyful in My house of prayer” (vss. 6, 7).

Well, that’s me; I stumbled on the seventh day Sabbath in my Presbyterian Sunday School, and the dear Lord gave me the grace to embrace it, the grace “not to pollute it” any further.

Am I ever thankful to Him!

It’s the only book in the Bible that pronounces a special blessing on you when you read it; and if you don’t know how to read, don’t be discouraged! The blessing is still promised you if you simply listen to someone else read the book to you.

It’s the last book in the Holy Bible—“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John, who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein ... ” (1:1-3).

So, step number one is to read those first three verses thoughtfully.

Then I would suggest as step number two, believe that promise!

Then I would suggest, read the last chapter of the book. (I usually read the last page of any new book I start to read—I want to know where the author wants to take me before I start this “journey” with him.)

That very last page of the Book of Revelation is glorious—“The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that is heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst (that’s you and I) come. And whosever will let him take the water of life freely” (vs. 17). The love of the Lord God is poured out in this Book!

As a beginning, let me suggest: just simply read the Book, the naked Book. The Lord of heaven and earth has promised that He will bless!

That promise does not mean that all of a sudden in a second’s moment you will understand every detail in the Book; of course not: but you will be blessed! The beginning will occur, and that is all that you can endure for a start.

You are praying for an understanding of this precious Book; now demonstrate your sincerity because all the holy angels are watching you to see if you are serious. If there were only one honest-hearted soul in the world and that was you, God would empty heaven in sending angels to be your teacher-guides.

Can I speak a bit from experience?

When I was about 11 or 12, one Sunday afternoon, sitting on our front steps, I tried to read Revelation . At that moment, our wonderful pastor, Dr. Campbell, drove up in his brand new 1926 Buick (the pastor of the big church with its huge Gothic windows and pipe organ). I asked him “Oh, Dr. Campbell, what does this book mean?” He smiled, put his hands on my head, and said, “Robert, don’t read that book; it’s sealed; you read something like the Gospel of Mark.” But I had read too far already, and I knew he was wrong. The Gospel of Mark is great; but Revelation is what Peter says is “present truth” (2 Peter 1:12). I still love the book of Revelation.

I pray that you will, too.

Around the world, millions of sincere Christians this week are studying Psalm 139, verse by verse.

It’s one of the most “Good News” chapters in the Bible! It tells you that the infinite Lord and Creator took a direct, personal interest in your formation when you were an embryo in your mother’s womb. The Septuagint (that is, the Greek translation of the Old Testament that Christ and the apostles used) renders the message of Psalm 139, “all men shall be written in Thy Book.”

That Book contains your page! The Infinite Father took a personal interest in your formation as though you were earth’s only inhabitant.

Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit, in His infinitude, notices when a little sparrow falls in the forest (Matt. 10:29: “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father [noticing it]” and caring. “Fear not, therefore.” He assures us, “ye are of more value than many sparrows” (vs. 31).

The Father respects you highly; there are things that in particular you can do that no one else can do as well. The Father actually needs you!

Satan doesn’t want us to understand this; he wants us to think of ourselves as mere digits in God’s creation; but in fact we are divinely called to be co-workers with the Lord Himself. There is someone on earth who cannot be reached with a living witness of the Gospel except through you; the Lord needs you; He Himself alone cannot function in this case without you.

Oh yes, the Lord can turn the mountains upside down and drain the ocean without needing you to help Him; but those are “easy” things for Him to do! What He can’t do is to reach an alienated human heart without your help.

When you tell what the Lord Jesus has done for you personally (if you can tell it in a humble way!), this reaches the alienated heart. This makes the Bible come alive; you can touch that secret, buried spot in someone’s heart—and possibly you won’t realize at the moment what you have done. But angels will rejoice at the accomplishment.

Hold your head high—unworthy as you are, you are important in God’s plan of salvation for the world. Kneel, and wait before Him; “wait on the Lord, ... and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord,” says David (Psalm 27:14).

You kneel and you say not a word, maybe in the dark; you have “shut thy door” (Matt. 6:6), and you are shut in with the Lord of heaven and earth, your Creator and Savior. His Son has programmed this intimate appointment just for the two—the Father and you.

You may object—“but there’s selfishness and sin in my heart!” Okay, but let Him cleanse it out. He will!

Friday evening, as we watched the sun go down in glory, we were deeply thankful that we knew the holy Sabbath day was being ushered in.

It was 80 years ago that I was a pre-teen in Sunday School, listening to our teacher ask us to memorize the ten commandments so we could repeat them next Sunday. I was an obedient child and I did what she told us to do.

But I was struck by the term “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.” Looking at the calendar on the wall, I was perplexed; Sunday was obviously the first day of the week!

I asked the teacher next Sunday “Why?” She said she didn’t know; but Dr. Campbell, our pastor who drove that beautiful new 1926 Buick, seemed to think it was all right and all the other churches were coming to church on Sunday—it had to be all right.

That satisfied me for a time.

Then someone told me that the reason why we observe the first day instead of the seventh was that the Roman Catholic Church had changed the day.

That did it for me—when I checked out the evidence, I found it was true.

To this day I thank the dear Lord for giving me the grace to say “Yes!” to the call of the Holy Spirit, to receive the Sabbath truth in my teenage years.

I became the only Sabbath-keeping boy in my public high school; I endured the snickering of my fellow classmates when they saw me walking through town on my way to the dinky little Seventh-day Adventist Church on Saturday morning dressed in my Sunday clothes; and the girl whom I secretly liked who played the piano so beautifully for me when I played Massenet’s Thais on the violin—of course she had no sympathy for “Saturday keeping.”

My trials in teenage Sabbath-keeping were not as severe as some teens have had to endure; but I thank the Lord today for His grace in leading me in my teenage years. My Presbyterian pastor offered to help me financially in college if I would forget this crazy “Saturday business.” In my senior year in high school I was offered two scholarships to universities (having won an academic contest); I turned them down, and went instead to a little tiny Seventh-day Adventist junior college where I began the process of working at 24 jobs to work my way through six years of college, training to be a missionary.

All I can say today is, “Thank the dear Lord for His much more abounding grace” (Rom. 5:20, 21). If any teen reads this, let me encourage you: give your heart and your life to that dear Lord who died for you!

The economic meltdown is frightening to many people. I know some who desperately need just a little money in order to survive what may come.

What I think of is a passage in Isaiah: “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

“He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure ...” (33:14-16).

I don’t know how Isaiah could any more clearly speak of TV.

Any fiction in TV or movies is to be eschewed, and especially that which consists of violence.

Beware of the “love” of violence! The Lord has said something very severe about it: “The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth” (Psalm 11:5).

A violent movie on TV may be exciting for youth to watch; but what the Lord virtually says is, “You love violence? I will have to let you have what you love; I won’t deliver you from it in fact when it comes.”

To watch a violent movie involves a hardening of the heart; it is always inevitable. And a hardened heart will not find entrance into the Lord’s New Jerusalem, the City of peace.

I once gave Bible studies in a family where there was some welcome for them; but the papa in the family was not interested. I tried to interest him, but he was cold. His pastime? Pulling the wings off flies!

A tiny little bit of violence? I believe it had its dire effect on his soul.

Outside of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, are those who “love and make a lie” (Rev. 22:15). In simple language, that means “fiction.”

Let us plead with the dear Lord to give us a love for truth!

As the sun rises for another day, it looks down upon billions of people, each created in the image of God, each redeemed by the blood of the Son of God, but so few who understand His great sacrifice. The world is dark with misapprehension of God. And the statistics tell us that the percentage of Christians to world population is steadily shrinking. People who are wiser and more thoughtful than I am wonder how the gospel can ever be effectively proclaimed to these billions.

But as surely as the run rises upon the earth this morning, so surely does “the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings,” says Malachi (4:2). That is, to “those who fear [His] name,” and they are many. Christ is “the light that shineth in darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it” (John 1:5). He is “the true Light, which lighteth every person that cometh into the world” (vs. 9).

If I feel a burden for these billions who misapprehend God, how much more did the apostle Paul feel the same burden: “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent ... that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!?” (Rom. 10:14,15).

Great questions! But Paul says there is a soul-winning ministry going on that we don’t know about: “Have they not heard? Yes verily.” Then Paul quotes Psalm 19:4 where David directly compares the sunrise with the light of the gospel that shines—no, that’s not the word— reflected (that’s better). Everyone who will look, who “fears His name,” can find today some evidence of the love of God for lost souls.

You and I are not headlights; but we can be like the reflectors on bicycles that glow in the dark when even a little light shines on them. And you, one of earth’s billions, can light someone’s path today with that reflected light from the Sun of righteousness. Then when evening comes you can be happy!

Our “father” Abraham was an unusual person. His neighbors and relatives and friends were mystified by him.

They all knew that he was immensely wealthy, that he could well afford to build himself a magnificent palace to live in; but instead, he chose to spend the rest of his life living in a tent!

The Bible story is this: “By faith he [Abraham] sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles [tents] with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise” (Heb. 11:9).

That’s a surprising thing for any fabulously wealthy man to do—choose to live in a tent all his life! What was the “promise”?

“He looked for a City which hath foundations, whose builder and Maker is God” (vs. 10).

Abraham wanted to bear witness to the world of his day, and yes to the world of all ages since, of two truths:

(a) There is not a city in the world today that has “foundations” like the New Jerusalem. No city but that one will be left standing after the seven last plagues.

(b) Abraham anticipated what the Lord Jesus later said, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life” (John 6:27).

(c) So, why waste your life energies investing in what at the last will prove to be worthless?

(d) Does this mean that the Lord wants all of us to live in tents today, because our “father Abraham” chose to live that way?

No, for Abraham’s choice was symbolic; he was “the father of the faithful.” But the dear Lord wants us to use sanctified common sense: knowing that we are living in the last days of Christ’s ministry in the Most Holy, it’s good common sense that we live simply and economically. We don’t want anyone to accuse us in the final judgment day of being selfish and arrogant; Jesus loves the wealthy believers, but He also dwells in the modest, humble home where His name is revered.

We want Him to feel at home as a Guest of honor in our homes today. “Having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts. ...” (1 Tim. 6:8, 9).

Let’s keep our eyes open, looking for the New Jerusalem “which hath foundations.”

Do you like to fight battles? Or do you like to run away from them? Many wonderful Christian people, members of the church, want peace so much that they refuse to get down in the arena where battles for the Lord must be fought. To tell the truth, they’d rather watch TV than study for themselves to know the truth about the issues in the great controversy between Christ and Satan.

But Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of faith,” and Jude says  that we “should contend [earnestly] for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” for there are “certain men crept in unawares” who seek to corrupt that faith (vss. 3. 4). And Jesus tells us quite clearly, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matt. 10:34-36).

Wow! Is this what it means to follow Christ?

“But,” says someone, “surely this doesn’t apply to conflicts WITHIN the church!?? The world is full of controversy; I go to church so I can find a place of rest and peace!”

Well, I must tell the truth. Revelation 12:17 says that the dragon, the devil, in these last days, is “wroth” with the true church, and has gone to make war with the remnant church, where his most fearful strategy is to make war within the church against the pure, true gospel of Jesus. If Satan can corrupt THAT, he hopes yet to win the war against Christ. So Peter’s advice is exactly what we need today: “Be sober, be vigilant.” “Resist” him “steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8, 9).

But please be sure that you have your wits about you; that word “sober” means to think carefully lest you end up “resisting” the true work of the Holy Spirit! If you do THAT, you’ve crossed that line beyond which repentance is impossible. The stakes in the great controversy are high; the only place where you can avoid the battle is the grave. And please don’t choose to go there! Get on your knees; study; learn; stay awake; “watch”; and stand “for the right though the heavens fall,” says one wise writer.

Abraham has won his undying fame not because of any “work” which he did, but because he believed that something that was obviously “dead” would live immediately (pre-day-of-resurrection) because of the promise of the Lord. And that was his “dead” sexual powers to sire offspring.

“Abraham believed God, and it [his faith] was counted unto him for righteousness” (Rom. 4:3).

But what was it that he believed?

“Against hope [he] believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be” (vs. 18).

The normal unbelief of all mankind (in the face of God’s promise) ridiculed the idea that anyone as old as he was could function sexually and sire offspring; he was “dead.”

But God had said “I have made thee a father of many nations,” past-present tense. It’s already been done! (vs. 17). Nothing physical “told” Abraham that it was true; he had nothing to depend on except the naked promise of God which unbelief said was foolhardy. But chose to believe!

It was an effort of choice that Abraham made to believe what God had said when everything looked impossible.

And not only was Abraham called to believe that his own “dead” body could sire offspring; there was “the deadness of Sarah’s womb”(vs. 19) to be confronted. Abraham had to believe for himself and then he also had to believe for her! “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God” (vs. 20).

The entire unfallen universe marveled at his faith and glorified God because of it. They rejoiced that now it was proven for all to see, that fallen, sinful, naturally unbelieving man, can overcome and can think and believe in harmony with the mind of God.

The salvation of the fallen human race was assured now!

I’d like to be there when the resurrected Adam meets the Life-giver, and I would like to hear the Lord Jesus tell him, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

You too, want to learn to believe the promises the Lord makes to you!

We can never forget that the Lord Jesus is one of us; He is the divine Son of God, with all the attributes of divinity; but at the same time He is the Son of man, one with us for eternity. He “took” on His unfallen, divine nature our fallen, sinful nature. He loves us dearly, as His own.

Now, does the Lord Jesus, being divine, have a sense of time as we humans have? Is one of our days like a thousand years to Him, and vice versa? So, could it be that He doesn’t care how much longer time goes on?

Well, He says clearly that there will be an “end of the world”! When His disciples asked Him, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matt. 24:3), He answered their question directly, thereby making the statement that time will NOT go on and on ad infinitum.

And being one of us, forever human with us as well as divine forever, Jesus shares with us our weariness with the on-and-on passage of sinful, painful time with all the suffering there is in the world. Isaiah 63 describes His feelings, “In all their affliction, He was [is] afflicted.” There is no pain that any of us on earth feel that He does not have to share with us.

YES! A thousand times over, Jesus wants this reign of sin and suffering to end in the glad establishment of His everlasting kingdom on the earth made new.

And there is another reason why He wants the end to come soon: the end of sin and suffering will usher in the glorious “marriage of the Lamb.” As a Bridegroom, He longs for His wedding to come.

The reason? He is in love with the church as a man loves a woman; no one person could be the Bride of the infinite Son of God; but when He left His throne and His status as the infinite Son of God to come down here to save this fallen race of humans, His love for us was more than your love for your pets; when you love your dog, you have not become a dog. But He became one of us whom He loved; He joined our family.

And the reason why we want Him to come soon is not because we are hungry for our “reward” and we have these acquisitive feelings for the joys of heaven; we want the divine Son of God to receive His reward!

Why this special love for Him?

Why does this desire for Him to receive His reward transcend our desire for our own reward? There has to be a special reason why we, so naturally egocentric as we are, to be able to realize this unusually non-egocentric desire for Him:

We have come to realize that when He “poured out His soul unto death” for us (Isa. 53:12), it was the second, not the first that He experienced. It was saying “Goodbye!” to life forever—the embracing of the darkness of hell in His love for us.

There are not enough words to tell it.