Section II
The "second priest" (Jer. 52:24; 2 Kings 25:18)
was the official assistant and understudy to the high priest.
* * * * *
"To summarize the difference between ancient and
modern doubt we may suggest that in olden times men saw superhuman beings in
every shadow, and so in time of trial, they supposed that their God was only one
of many. In modern times men seek a prosaic and ordinary explanation for
everything, and so in times of trial even God is explained away." (Islip
Collier, The Guiding Light)
* * * * *
Luke 15:13: "Gather together" is a technical term
signifying "to realize”, i.e., to convert to ready cash.
* * * * *
"Last night I passed beside a blacksmith's
door,
And heard the anvil ring with vesper
chimes.
Then looking in, I saw upon the
floor
Old hammers worn with beating years of
time.
'How many anvils have you had?' said
I,
'To wear and batter all those hammers
so?'
'Just one', said he, and then with twinkling
eye,
'The anvil wears the hammers out, you
know!'
And so, thought I, the anvil of God's
Word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat
upon.
Yet though the noise of telling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed, but the hammers are
all gone."
* * * * *
Galatians 6:14: The "world" outside us
crucifies us. And we crucify the "world" inside us (compare
5:24).
* * * * *
"His mother made him (Samuel) a little coat, and
brought it to him from year to year" (1 Samuel 2:19). It would be, for Samuel,
special beyond expression — his only tangible link, for most of every
year, to the mother who had "lent" him to the Lord, yet loved him with her very
life.
Mothers still make garments for their children,
and not just with cloth and needle! By their deeds, displayed from day to day
before young and observant eyes, mothers fashion "robes" that their children
wear for a lifetime. What children see, they imitate, almost unconsciously
dressing themselves in the characters — whether good or ill — which
they see in their mothers in the kitchen or the garden.
* * * * *
Everyone is zealous about something —
usually about his own interests and affairs. Some are zealous about talking
about the Truth. But the important thing is to be "zealous of good works" (Titus
2:14). This is enough to keep anyone both happy and busy.
* * * * *
Most of the requirements of Scripture are quite
clear and do not require exposition nearly as much as application. The practical
requirements of the Truth are usually such as to leave us no excuse for
misunderstanding or neglect. It is the theoretical aspects we love to get
sidetracked by. It is more pleasant and less demanding upon the flesh to discuss
and debate unlearned questions without end, than it is to face and conform to
plain commands.
* * * * *
Genesis 2:15: True happiness is found in creative
cooperation with God, and not in idleness.
* * * * *
Genesis 3:3: "Insensitive to the free gift of
many 'trees', we consider it amiss that even one 'tree' should be withheld, and
fret under the wholesome restraint of the Father."
* * * * *
It takes no special effort or ability to
criticize and condemn error. Any limited mind can do that, and enjoy the boost
it gives the ego. But it takes much discipline and self-denial to confront error
with a calm resolve, with personal godliness, and with a blameless and
constructive and upbuilding presentation of the Truth in its simplicity and
beauty.
* * * * *
The greatest ability is
dependability!
* * * * *
Genesis 3:8: "In sin we resort to the 'trees of
the garden' — the affairs or amusement of the world, the forms and
ceremonies — of religion, or its worldly technicalities, or its fervors
and passions, or its busy activities... whatever, in short, may serve to fill a
certain space, and bulk to a certain size, as a barrier between God and the
heart that shrinks from too direct an approach to Him. And we soothe ourselves
with the notion that this hedge serves the same purpose on God's side as on
ours." (Candlish)
* * * * *
Most arguments are nothing but two egos making a
childish display of themselves.
* * * * *
Whene’er you look within this Book,
Five things observe with care:
Of whom it speaks, and how it speaks,
And why and when and where.
* * * * *
Walking in relation to God:
1. With God in fellowship (Gen.
5:22);
2. Before God in sincerity
(17:1);
3. After God in obedience (Deut.
13:4);
4. In God, in unison (Col. 2:6).
* * * * *
The Lord was in the ark, since He called to Noah,
"Come thou...into the ark" (Gen. 7:1).Then "Yahweh shut him in" (v.
16)!
* * * * *
Abraham's bargaining with God (Genesis 18)
illustrates a shortsightedness of which we are all guilty: There is abundance of
mercy with God, but His servant is limited in outlook: he is afraid of
"overdrawing his account "!
* * * * *
Genesis 24:15: “Egyptians and Africans
carried pitchers on the head, Syrians on the shoulders or hip." (Thomson, The
Land and the Book)
* * * * *
Six of the patriarchs were buried in the cave of
Machpelah; and the first letters of the names of the first five recall the
sixth: (I)saac, (S)arah, (R)ebekah, (A)braham, (L)eah. ISRAL = Israel or Jacob!
(Genesis 49:31).
* * * * *
From a traditional Passover
"Haggadah":
“From generation to generation, every man
is bound to look upon himself not otherwise than if he had himself come out of
Egypt. Therefore we are bound to thank, praise, laud, glorify, extol, honor,
bless, exalt and reverence Him, because He hath wrought for our fathers, and for
us all, these miracles. He brought us forth from bondage into freedom, from
sorrow into joy, from mourning to a festival, from darkness to a great light,
and from slavery to redemption: Therefore let us sing unto Him: Hallelujah!'
"
* * * * *
“When a modern thinker accepts the doctrine
of evolution and repudiates revelation, how can he give us an authoritative
moral code?” (Islip Collier)
* * * * *
“Natural affinities are in the wrong place
when they obstruct the Divine Will." (Robert Roberts)
* * * * *
Four handwritings
Upon the stone (Exodus 20:2);
Upon the wall (Daniel 5:24);
Upon the ground (John 8:6);
Upon the cross (John 19:19).
* * * * *
"Fellowship is friendly association for the
promotion of a common object — with more or less of the imperfection
belonging to all mortal life. To say that every man in that fellowship is
responsible for every infirmity of judgment that may exist in the association is
an extreme to which no man of sound judgment can lend himself. There will be
flawless fellowship in the perfect state. Perhaps it is the admiration of this
in prospect that leads some to insist upon it now. But it is none the less a
mistake. This is a mixed and preparatory state in which much has to be put with
when the true principles are professed." (Robert Roberts)
* * * * *
Every morning...
Manna was given (Exodus 16:14);
Incense was offered (30:7);
Praise was offered (1 Chron.
23:30);
Service was rendered (9:26);
Sacrifice was presented (2 Chron.
13:11);
God visits (Job 7:18);
God is their arm (Isa. 33:2);
His compassions are new (Lam.
3:23);
His judgments (Zeph. 3:5).
* * * * *
"It is not the man who knows the
most
Who has the most to say,
And it is not the man who has the most
Who gives the most away."
* * * * *
"For there is no bread" (Num. 21:5). It was a
transparent contradiction, in view of their next words: As far as they were
concerned, "this light bread" given them by God was "no bread" because they did
not care for it. How many of our complaints are similar; we do not recognize the
blessings we have for what they are. Instead, we eagerly desire those
"blessings'' we do not have.
* * * * *
There were 42 stations in the wilderness journeys
of Israel (Num. 33), and 42 generations from Abraham to Christ (Matt. 1:17); and
there are 42 periods of afflictions for God's people (Rev.
13:5).
* * * * *
Balaam’s ass (Num. 22:28): "It was just as
easy for God to impart the gift of utterance temporarily to a four-footed
creature, as to endow some other creatures with it permanently who show no
special aptitude for its wise use." (Robert Roberts)
* * * * *
“It is always difficult to resist fashions,
whether in clothes or theology, and when we think we are quite unmoved by the
stream, it often only means we are lagging a little way behind.”
(Collier)
* * * * *
“It’s okay to make a few mistakes,
but when the eraser wears out before the pencil that’s overdoing
it!” (Norm Zilmer)
* * * * *
He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep,
to gain what he cannot lose.
* * * * *
“If you can keep your head when all about
you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on
you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt
you,
But make allowances for their doubting
too;
If you can wait and not be tired of
waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in
lies;
Or being hated, don’t give way to
hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk
too wise;
“If you can dream — and not make
dreams your master;
If you can think, and not make thoughts your
aim;
If you can meet with triumph and
disaster
And treat those two impostors just the
same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve
spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for
fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to,
broken,
And stoop and build them up with worn-out
tools;
“If you can talk with crowds, and keep your
virtue,
Or walk with kings, nor lose the common
touch,
If neither foe nor loving friends can hurt
you,
If all men count with you, but not too
much;
If you can fill the unforgiving
minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance
run,
Yours is the earth and everything that’s in
it,
And — more than this —
you’ll be a man, my son!”
(Kipling)
* * * * *
“Any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved with mankind. And therefore, never send to know for whom
the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.” (Donne)
* * * * *
“Negative holiness can save no
man.”
* * * * *
“Life is like an onion: you peel off one
layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”
* * * * *
He asked for strength that he might do great
things;
But he was given infirmity that he might do
better things.
He asked for riches that he might be
happy;
He was given poverty that he might be
wise.
He asked for power that he might have the praise
of men;
He was given weakness that he might feel the need
of God.
He asked for all things that he might enjoy
life;
He was given life that he might enjoy all
things.
He had received nothing that he asked
for;
But he gained more than he hoped
for.
* * * * *
“He who teaches the law to his
neighbor’s son is as though he had begotten him” (Jewish
proverb).
* * * * *
Expect great things from God,
and attempt great things for
God.
* * * * *
An Answer to an
Anti-semite
It's a free world. You don't have to like Jews if
you don't want to, BUT if you are going to be an anti-Semite, you should be
consistent and turn your back on the medical advances that Jews made
possible.
I am talking about the hepatitis vaccine
discovered by Baruch Blumberg, the Wasserman test for syphilis developed by
August Von Wasserman, and the first effective drug to fight syphilis developed
by Paul Ehrlich.
Bela Schick developed the diagnostic skin test
for diphtheria.
Insulin would not have been discovered if Oskar
Minkowski had not demonstrated the link between diabetes and the
pancreas.
It was Burrill Crohn who identified the disease
that bears his name.
Alfred Hess discovered that vitamin C could cure
scurvy.
Casimir Funk was the first to use vitamin B to
treat beriberi.
Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine and,
later, Albert Sabin developed the oral version.
Humanitarianism requires that we offer these
gifts to all the people of the world, regardless of race, color or creed. So,
the anti-Semites who do not want to accept these gifts can go ahead and turn
them down, but I am warning you: You are not going to feel so
good.
A reprint from Ann Landers.
* * * * *
Joshua 10:11 speaks of God fighting against His
enemies with great hailstones, on the way that goes up to Beth-horon. In May of
1957 hailstones the size of small apples fell on this region. (Baly,
Geography of the Bible)
* * * * *
The four-fold power of
Christ:
- Over the elements (Mark 4:36-41): the storm
without.
- Over madness (Mark 5:1-20): the "storm"
within.
- Over disease (Mark 5:24-34):the primary effect
of sin.
- Over death (Mark 5:35-43): the last effect of
sin.
* * * * *
"The young Jordan — type of that strange
life of ours! Bright and beautiful in its cradle, laughing its merry morning
away through the flowery fields of the Huleh; plunging with the recklessness of
youth into the tangled breaks and muddy marshes of Merom; hurrying thence,
full-grown, like earnest manhood with its noisy and bustling activities, it
subsides at length into life's sober mid-day in the placid lake of Gennesaret.
When it goes forth again, it is down the inevitable proclivity of old age,
sinking deeper and deeper, in spite of doublings and windings innumerable, until
lost in the bitter sea of death — that melancholy bourne from which there
is neither escape nor return." (Thomson, The Land and the
Book)
Yet, in the Age to come, the Dead Sea will be
"healed" by the waters that flow from under the altar of Yahweh (Ezek.
47:8-10).
* * * * *
In Judges, God often delivers His people by quite
insignificant means:
- A left hand and a dagger (3:15,16).
- An
ox-goad (3:31).
- A tent-peg
(4:21,22).
- A woman (5:7).
- 300
men with pitchers and lamps (7:6-16).
- A woman and a
stone (9:53).
- A social outcast
(11:2,3).
- 300 foxes with firebrands
(15:4).
- The jawbone of an ass
(15:16).
The lesson is that no flesh should glory in His
presence (1 Corinthians 1:27; 2 Corinthians 12:9).
* * * * *
"God does not expect of us more than we can do,
but He does expect the best we can do."
* * * * *
Genesis 23:18: "Up to this day, in this very
city, a purchase thus witnessed is legal, while the best drawn deeds of a London
lawyer, though signed and sealed, would be of no avail without such living
witnesses." (Thomson, The Land and the Book)
* * * * *
In speaking of infant "baptism" and other such
acts performed by the "Balaamite" clergy, John Thomas writes, "Surely if
Balaam's ass were here, and a clergyman should bestride him on such a mission,
the intelligent creature would break silence again, and with the voice of a man
rebuke the madness of the seer."
* * * * *
"The way of Balaam (Num. 22-24) is the
prostitution of a spiritual gift for a base gain. The error of Balaam is
the secret idea that the will of God may be circumvented under cover of an
outward respect for His Word. The doctrine of Balaam is the counsel to
ruin by seduction the people who cannot be cursed by permission." (J.S. Baxter,
Explore the Book)
* * * * *
The mediation of Moses was to keep God and man
apart (Deut. 5:5; Exod. 24:2).
The mediation of Jesus was to bring God and man
together (Eph. 2:14).
* * * * *
A land watered with the foot (Deut. 11:10): This
refers to a method of irrigation in which the farmer dug little channels in the
soil and dammed them up with earth. Then, to irrigate a new section of the
field, he would merely kick away a bit of earth.
* * * * *
Deuteronomy 26:5 should perhaps be translated "a
Syrian laboring in service," referring to Jacob's oppression by the cruel and
treacherous Laban (Gen. 31:38-42).
* * * * *
Deuteronomy 32:11 describes the method by which
eagles teach their young to fly: the parent forces the fledgling from the nest,
and then circles underneath to catch it and bear it up on outstretched wings if
it flounders.