the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Discovering Christ Day by Day
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 20-21
A Wise Woman of Bethmaachah
2 Samuel 20:16
Solomon speaks of a poor man who by his wisdom saves a city (Ecclesiastes 9:14-15). That man is our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who saves the church of his elect, the City of God, by his blood and by his grace. He who is Wisdom is made of God unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption as our Savior. But here is a wise woman, who saved the city of Bethmaachah by her wisdom. Interceding for her people and saving them, she stands in the Book of God with a few women like Deborah who were typical of our Savior.
Christ our Savior
It is delightful to see this mother in Israel saving the city by her intercession. How thankful we ought to be for every reminder of our great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, saving the world of his elect by the effectual exercise of his glorious office as our Mediator. He accomplished peace and reconciliation by the gift and sacrifice of himself.
God the Son stood forth as our Surety in the covenant of grace, before ever the worlds were made, pledged himself to the work of our salvation for the glory of God, and the triune God trusted him to perform the great work (Ephesians 1:12).
Christ Trusted
Three times in the first fourteen verses of the book of Ephesians God the Holy Spirit tells us that the purpose of the Triune God in our salvation is that we should be to the praise of his glory. One reason given why we should desire his glory is “that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”
Our heavenly Father entered into a covenant with his Son on our behalf before the world began for the saving of our souls. In Hebrews 13:20, it is called the everlasting covenant. Frequently it is called the new covenant. This covenant was made in eternity between God the Father and God the Son; but it was made for us. In so far as the benefits and blessings of it to us are concerned, it is an unconditional covenant. The Lord God said, “I will love them freely? I will be their God; and they shall be my people.” This everlasting covenant of grace is a sure covenant, a covenant which infallibly secured and guaranteed to God’s elect all the blessings of salvation and eternal life in Christ (Jeremiah 31:3; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Jeremiah 32:38-40; 2 Samuel 23:5).
Trust Accomplished
Blessed be his name forever, our Lord Jesus accomplished all he was trusted to accomplish as our Mediator! The only condition to the covenant and the blessings of grace and salvation promised in it was the obedience of the Son of God as our Substitute unto death (Hebrews 13:20). And there never was a danger of that condition not being met by the Son of God! There was never the slightest possibility of failure on his part. He was willing to obey. He was able to obey. And he did obey his Father’s will even unto death, even unto the shedding of his blood, the blood of the everlasting covenant!
Having found a ransom for our souls in the Person of his own Son, our heavenly Father gave his chosen into the hands of his Son, as sheep into the hands of a shepherd, and trusted him with the salvation of our souls and the glory of his own great name (John 6:39). If God the Father has trusted his glory to his dear Son as our Substitute and Savior and trusted the salvation of our souls to his hands, how we ought to trust him with our immortal souls and with all that concerns us. If the Father trusted him, he is a trustworthy Savior!
Saved from Eternity
Upon the basis of this covenant, our heavenly Father accepted us in Christ from eternity (Ephesians 1:4-6). Be sure you do not fail to grasp the teaching of Holy Scripture regarding the matter of our acceptance before God. Our acceptance is in Christ. Our acceptance is from everlasting to everlasting. Our acceptance is absolute and unconditional. Our acceptance means that God the Father, our heavenly Father, looks upon us in Christ as perfect in him, and has done so from eternity. He declares, “It must be perfect to be accepted!” Being “accepted in the Beloved,” our heavenly Father has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ from eternity, and has promised to bless us forever for Christ’s sake (Ephesians 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:9). The Lord God commanded Aaron, his high priest, to bless his people symbolically (Number 6:23), because he had sworn from eternity, for Christ’s sake, saying, “I will bless them” (Numbers 6:27).
Let Jesus Christ our Mediator be eternally praised, eternally loved, eternally adored for this great interposition of grace!
Goliath’s Sons
In 2 Samuel 21 we are reminded by God the Spirit that David’s first exercise in the field of battle was with the giant Goliath; and his last was with the same enemy. In our spiritual warfare it is the same. The great champion we contend with, the devil, began the war; and he, with the hordes of hell, seeks our destruction to the end. By David’s final slaughter of Goliath’s sons, I am reminded of the precious thought that, “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Romans 16:20).
How these two things ought to cheer our hearts this day and inspire in our souls a holy expectancy of everlasting glory!
