Other comments on this day's readings can be found here.
Reading 1 - 1Sa 7:12
"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and
Shen. He named it Ebenezer [which means 'stone of help'], saying, 'Thus far has
the LORD helped us' " (1Sa 7:12).
The words "thus far" seem like a hand pointing in the
direction of the past. It may have been twenty years or it may have been
seventy, and yet, "thus far the Lord has helped!" Through poverty, through
wealth, through sickness, through health, at home, abroad, on the land, on the
sea, in honor, in dishonor, in perplexity, in joy, in trial, in triumph, in
prayer, in temptation... "thus far has the Lord helped us!" We delight to look
down a long avenue of trees. It is delightful to gaze from end to end of the
long vista, seeing a sort of green and living temple, with its branching pillars
and its arches of leaves. In like manner we may look down the long aisles of our
years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of love and
faithfulness which bear up our joys. We hear the birds singing in the trees, and
they all sing of mercy received "thus far".
But the words also point forward. For when a man gets up to a
certain age and may write "thus far" alongside his life, still he is not yet at
the end; there is still a distance to be traveled. More trials, more joys; more
temptations, more triumphs; more prayers, more answers; more toils, more
strength; more fights, more victories; and then come sickness, old age, disease,
death. Is it over now? No! there is more yet -- awakening in Jesus' likeness,
the glories of God's Kingdom, white raiment, the face of Jesus, the company of
the saints, the glory of God, the fullness of eternity.
Let us be encouraged, and with grateful confidence raise our
"Ebenezer" -- our memorial stones of faith: "Thus far has the LORD helped us..."
and He isn't finished yet!
Reading 2 - Isa 52:13--53:12
Isa 52:13 -- 53:12 presents one complete song [the chapter
division is surely in the wrong place here!]: there are 5 stanzas of 3 verses
each:
Isa 52:13-15: "Behold my servant" -- the two-fold aspect of Messiah in
sufferings and glory;
Isa 53:1-3: "Who has believed our message?" -- the
appeal of Christ heard by Israel, and rejected;
Isa 53:4-6: "He took up our
infirmities" -- the reason for his sufferings;
Isa 53:7-9: "he was
oppressed and afflicted" -- what his sufferings involved;
Isa 53:10-12: "it
was the LORD's will" -- the divine purpose behind Messiah's
sufferings.
Reading 3 - Rev 14:19,20
"The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes
and threw them into the great winepress of God's wrath. They were trampled in
the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as
high as the horses' bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia" (Rev
14:19,20).
"This treading of a winepress by warriors on horseback is no
doubt intended to indicate a close connection with the vision of Rev 19:13-15,
which in turn is interwoven with the judgement of the Sixth Thunder (Rev 14:18;
19:17): 'And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is
called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon
white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean ... and he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.' This is the beginning of
the assertion of the power and authority of Messiah. All things are now to be
put under his feet (1Co 15:25,27), and there can be only judgement for those who
resist. It will be an infallible and altogether righteous judgement, for even
the bells of these horses will be 'Holy to the Lord' (Zec 14:20,21).
"The sombre picture of blood flowing in such depth and
distance precludes, of course, any kind of literality of interpretation. This is
a symbolic River of Death, designed no doubt as contrast to that remarkable
River of Life described by Ezekiel (Eze 47).
"Is the length of this stream of slaughter also symbolic? In
judgement against a criminal, the penalty was not to exceed forty stripes (Deu
25:3). Then is this 'thousand six hundred furlongs' (forty forties) intended to
suggest both the intensification and finality of this mighty judgement against
the enemies of God? Perhaps also there is point in this distance being the
measure of the Holy Land, from Lebanon to Kadesh, which are mentioned in Psa 29:
6,8 as the geographical limits of the Seven Thunder judgements" (Harry
Whittaker, "Revelation").