Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: November 5th

Let us alone: what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art,-the Holy One of God. - Luke 4:34.

SOME have supposed that it was the design of the unclean spirit to interrupt and disturb the Saviour when he thus “cried out;” and, indeed, the wicked are continually saying, by their tempers and lives, “We desire not the knowledge of thy ways;” “We will not have this man to reign over us.”

When conscience would accuse or upbraid them, they endeavour to stupefy it with an opiate or to curb it back with a gag. When God employs the rod, and would speak to them by it, they turn away their ears from hearing. When God’s ministers are faithful, then they are ready to “say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” When friends admonish, and entreat, how often do they say, “Pray, keep your religion to yourselves; be as religious as you choose; you go your way to heaven, and leave us to go ours. Why should you intermeddle with us?” We may always judge of the spirit of Satan in persons by their aversion to Christ and having any thing to do with him; and we may always judge of the Spirit of God being in us by our loving to approach him, and his approaching us, and having much continually to do with us.

Then it expressed fear:-“Art thou come to destroy us?” Satan has now a degree of permission which he will not always possess. He is not yet judged, but “reserved in chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” His misery is nothing, therefore, to what it will be. “The devils,” says James, “believe and tremble:” they have faith enough to make them miserable. And this is the case with many of their followers. They have faith enough to make them very unhappy. They have the faith of assent, but not of consent; not of acquiescence, nor of dependence; not of application, never giving themselves to him. They believe and tremble; the first Christians believed and rejoiced. “Believing,” says Peter, “we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” David said, “My meditation of him shall be sweet;” “I will rejoice in the Lord.” The church said, “His name is as ointment poured forth;” it is most fragrant and delightful.

It expressed commendation. “I know thee who thou art,-the Holy One of God.” Here, we see, Satan not only believed much, but talked well. How conversant is he with the Scriptures! How he quoted it in his address to our Saviour! Every thing he said was expressed in the language of inspiration. How he must have read the Bible! How attentive he must have been to it when it was preached! Yes; “Satan,” says the apostle, “can transform himself into an angel of light.” Heretics are all his mouth: they speak many good things, but these are only to sanction the bad ones, and thus render them the more mischievous.

Truth is the substratum of all error; and every truth taken out of its place, or pushed too far, or improperly applied, becomes error. We cannot depend upon good talking, but we should always “love one another, not in word and in tongue, [the devil can do this,] but in deed and in truth.” Let us look at the Author of this miracle, and we shall see how the enemy of souls is under the dominion of the Lord Jesus; that, though an adversary, yet he is restrained and chained. He could not injure Job till he had obtained leave. Satan would never leave any of his subjects unless he was compelled to do it. The “strong man armed keepeth his palace and his goods in peace,” but a stronger than he cometh, and binds the strong man, and spoileth his goods. Therefore the Saviour rebukes him and expels him.

When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me: until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. - Psalms 73:16-17.

WE have here the infirmity and excellency of a good man. What a state heaven will be when “that which is perfect is come, and that which is imperfect is done away!” The present is a mixed condition, during which we feel like a man under his recovery, thankful for his deliverance and his hope, yet feeling the sad remembrance of his former complaint; so that he cannot do the things that he would, nor enjoy himself as he would, and longing for the day of his restoration.

Observe, first, The source of his perplexity. As a general principle he was constrained to make the admission, “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart;” but here he erred, as he was unable to harmonize the principle with some of the dispensations of Divine Providence; namely, the prosperity of the wicked and the adversity of the righteous. These have generally proved a stumbling-block to pious men in all ages, and the enemy of souls has never been backward to avail himself of it. Even Jeremiah said: “Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee, yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? “Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?” So it was here with Asaph; he says, “My feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.”

Observe, secondly, The principle which cheered him, and which led him to conceal what he could not help feeling. “If I say I should speak thus, behold I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was painful for me.” Ah! they were dear to him, and they should be dear also to us; and they will be dear to us if we are born of God, for the Apostle John says: “He that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him.” And then we should remember that it is beneath a Christian to regard only his own satisfaction of mind, or even conscience, in many things: he should regard the satisfaction of others, and be willing to make sacrifices. “Let every one,” says Paul, who himself acted upon the principle, “please his neighbour for his good to edification, for even Christ pleased not himself.”

Thirdly, Observe the source of his relief. “I went into the sanctuary, then understood I their end.” Thus, in every perplexity, we should repair like him to the temple of revelation: we should turn away from science to faith; we should inquire what the end will be; for, as the proverb says, “All is well that ends well.”

Fourthly, Observe the candid acknowledgment he makes of his mistakes and miscarriages: “Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.” A good man is not infallible, and therefore liable to err. There is life and principle in that man. Painting is not dying; the bough may be borne down by the violence of the flood, but when the pressure has rolled off, it will retain its erectness, and point towards heaven. To know therefore whether the infirmities of a man be the spots of God’s children, we must not dwell on the things themselves, but we must look beyond; we must know the man afterwards. Is he open to conviction? Is he willing to retract? Does he say to God, “What I know not teach thou me. If I have done iniquity, I will do so no more?”

Old Mr. Eyland has remarked that the three hardest words to pronounce in the English language are I was mistaken, but they are noble ones. They imply much wisdom, much concern for improvement. Frederick the Great was generally victorious, but he lost one great battle, going contrary to a council of war which he called. But when he wrote home to the senate, he made no scruple of saying, “I have lost a great battle entirely through my own fault.” On which the historian of his life says: “This did him more honour than any of the victories which he had gained.” And here, so “ignorant was I, I was as a beast before thee.”