~ Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, our King! May the Lord use this time meditating on His perfect Word in some small way to bless and encourage you today! ~
Exodus 28:38
And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord.
HAT a veil
is lifted up by these words, and what a disclosure is made! It will be
humbling and profitable for us to pause awhile and see this sad sight.
The iniquities of our public worship, its hypocrisy, formality,
lukewarmness, irreverence, wandering of heart and forgetfulness of God,
what a full measure have we there! Our work for the Lord, its emulation,
selfishness, carelessness, slackness, unbelief, what a mass of
defilement is there! Our private devotions, their laxity, coldness,
neglect, sleepiness, and vanity, what a mountain of dead earth is there!
If we looked more carefully we should find this iniquity to be far
greater than appears at first sight. Dr. Payson, writing to his brother,
says, "My parish, as well as my heart, very much resembles the garden
of the sluggard; and what is worse, I find that very many of my desires
for the melioration of both, proceed either from pride or vanity or
indolence. I look at the weeds which overspread my garden, and breathe
out an earnest wish that they were eradicated. But why? What prompts the
wish? It may be that I may walk out and say to myself, 'In what fine
order is my garden kept!' This is pride. Or, it may be that my neighbours may look over the wall and say, 'How finely your garden flourishes!' This is vanity.
Or I may wish for the destruction of the weeds, because I am weary of
pulling them up. This is indolence." So that even our desires after
holiness may be polluted by ill motives. Under the greenest sods worms
hide themselves; we need not look long to discover them. How cheering is
the thought, that when the High Priest bore the iniquity of the holy
things he wore upon his brow the words, "HOLINESS TO THE LORD:" and even
so while Jesus bears our sin, He presents before His Father's face not
our unholiness, but his own holiness. O for grace to view our great High
Priest by the eye of faith!
Reflect on this Scripture!
I'm
asking the Lord for wisdom in understanding and applying what we have
read today to my daily life ... will you do the same? I pray you will.
NE cheering
word, poor lost sinner, for thee! You think you must not come to God
because YOU are vile. Now, there is not a saint living on earth but has
been made to feel that he is vile. If Job, and Isaiah, and Paul were all
obliged to say "I am vile," oh, poor sinner, wilt thou be ashamed to
join in the same confession? If divine grace does not eradicate all sin
from the believer, how dost thou hope to do it thyself? and if God loves
His people while they are yet vile, dost thou think thy vileness will
prevent His loving thee? Believe on Jesus, thou outcast of the world's
society! Jesus calls thee, and such as thou art.
Just as I am,
without one plea But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that thou
bidd'st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come!"
OAH was
shut in away from all the world by the hand of divine love. The door of
electing purpose interposes between us and the world which lieth in the
wicked one. We are not of the world even as our Lord Jesus was not of
the world. Into the sin, the gaiety, the pursuits of the multitude we
cannot enter; we cannot play in the streets of Vanity Fair with the
children of darkness, for our heavenly Father has shut us in. Noah was
shut in with his God. "Come thou into the ark," was the
Lord's invitation, by which He clearly showed that He Himself intended
to dwell in the ark with His servant and his family. Thus all the chosen
dwell in God and God in them. Happy people to be enclosed in the same
circle which contains God in the Trinity of His persons, Father, Son,
and Spirit. Let us never be inattentive to that gracious call, "Come, my
people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee,
and hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be
overpast." Noah was so shut in that no evil could reach him.
Floods did but lift him heavenward, and winds did but waft him on his
way. Outside of the ark all was ruin, but inside all was rest and peace.
Without Christ we perish, but in Christ Jesus there is perfect safety.
Noah was so shut in that he could not even desire to come out,
and those who are in Christ Jesus are in Him for ever. They shall go no
more out for ever, for eternal faithfulness has shut them in, and
infernal malice cannot drag them out. The Prince of the house of David
shutteth and no man openeth; and when once in the last days as Master of
the house He shall rise up and shut the door, it will be in vain for
mere professors to knock, and cry Lord, Lord open unto us, for that same
door which shuts in the wise virgins will shut out the foolish for
ever. Lord, shut me in by Thy grace. C.H.S. - M&E