Other comments on this day's readings can be found here.
Reading 1 - Jos 14:11
"I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm
just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then" (Jos 14:11).
"For fighting, and for all the intercourse and manifold
activities of life, his sinews are as braced, his eyes as clear, his spirit and
limbs as alert as they were in those old days. No doubt you will say that was
due to miraculous intervention. No doubt it was; but is it not true that, in a
very real sense, a man may keep himself young all his life, if he will go the
right way to work? And the secret of perpetual youthfulness lies here, in giving
our hearts to God and in living for Him. Christianity, with its self-restraint
and its exhortations to all, and especially to the young, to be chaste and
temperate and to subdue the animal passions, has a direct tendency to conserve
physical vigour; and Christianity, by the inspiration that it imparts, the
stimulus that it gives, and the hopes that it permits us to cherish, has a
direct tendency to keep alive in old age all the best of the characteristics of
youth. Its buoyancy, its undimmed interest, its cheeriness, its freedom from
anxiety and care -- all these things are directly ministered to, and preserved
by, a life of simple faith that casts itself upon God, and dwells securely, in
joy and in restfulness, and not without a great light of hope, even when the
shadows of evening are falling.
"One of the greatest and most blessed of the characteristics
of youth is the consciousness that the most of life lies before us; and to a
Christian man, in any stage of his earthly life, that consciousness is possible.
When he stands on the verge of the last sinking sandbank of time, and the water
is up to his ankles, he may well feel that the best and the most of life is yet
to be.
" 'They shall still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall
be full of sap and green.' A gnarled old tree may be green in all its branches,
and blossom and fruit may hang together there. The ideal of life is, that into
each stage we shall carry the best of the preceding, harmonised with the best of
the new... The fountain of perpetual youth, of which the ancients fabled, is no
fable, but a fact; and it rises, where the prophet in his vision saw the stream
coming out, from beneath the threshold of the Temple door" (Alexander
MacLaren).
Reading 2 - Isa 19:11-15
"The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; the wise
counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, 'I am
one of the wise men, a disciple of the ancient kings'? Where are your wise men
now? Let them show you and make known what the LORD Almighty has planned against
Egypt..." (isa 19:11,12).
Verses 11-15 picture a "sustained and contemptuous exposure of
the experienced statecraft of Egypt. The political skill of that land's priests
and Pharaohs had wide reputation outside its own borders (Exo 1:10; 1Ki 4:30;
Act 7:22). Yet it would all prove useless to stave off the downfall and chaos
purposed by the Lord of the hosts of angels, who in Moses' day had wrought such
havoc in that land of unmatched prosperity (Psa 78:49)" (Harry Whittaker,
"Isaiah" 229).
Reading 3 - Tit 2:14
"(Jesus) gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness
and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is
good" (Tit 2:14).
"(Jesus) gave himself for us": Jesus laid down his life,
deliberately, willingly (John 10:11,15,18; 1Pe 2:23), on our behalf. The
preposition "for" is "huper", as also in 1Ti 2:6 ("a ransom on behalf of all
men"), which can bear this meaning; Jesus may be seen as a representative --
dying ON BEHALF OF men -- and not as a substitute -- dying INSTEAD OF
men.
The original word for "redeem" here is "lutron", which means
to release for a price, or -- put simply -- to buy. It is one of the several
words (or word groups) translated "redeem", "redemption", and
"ransom".
The word translated "his very own" ("peculiar people": KJV) is
the Greek "periousios", which literally means "something beyond". Paul is
quoting from the Old Testament: "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant,
then out of all nations you will be MY TREASURED POSSESSION (Heb 'segullah') .
Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a
holy nation" (Exo 19:5,6). "Segullah", we are told, referred to the private
treasure of kings; in societies where kings were more or less absolute
dictators, everything in their realm was considered to be legally their property
-- but even a king could not control and spend and enjoy all properties in his
kingdom, and so he would possess certain properties, properties which were set
apart as his own "special treasure", his "peculiar" or unique property, and no
one else's.
In the figure here, God Almighty is the great king, and all
the universe belongs to Him, and all men, and all they have -- it is all His.
The cattle on a thousand hills belong to Him! But... the Heavenly Father has
condescended to choose a special few of all His subjects to be His own family,
His own special possession, His own cherished riches. They stay close to His
person; they recline in His bosom; they hear His whispers of endearment; they
feel the tender touch of His special love. They are dearer to Him than the stars
in the heavens, or the glorious snow-topped mountains. They are dearer to Him
than the treasures of the richest mines, or the harvests of the richest fields.
They are the ones He has redeemed with the precious blood of His Son. "Then
those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and
heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who
feared the LORD and honored his name. 'They will be mine,' says the LORD
Almighty, 'in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them,
just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him' " (Mal
3:16,17).