Daily Devotionals

The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions

Devotional: August 13th

August 13—Morning—Leviticus 2:13

"And every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat-offering: with all thy offering thou shalt offer salt."—Leviticus 2:13.

Ponder over these words, my soul, and looking up for grace, and the divine teachings, see whether Jesus is not sweetly typified here. Was not Jesus the whole sum and substance of every offering under the law? The Holy Ghost taught the church this, when he said, "the law was a shadow of good things to come, but the body is of Christ." And did not the church, by faith, behold him as the salt which seasoned and made savoury the whole? Moreover, as all the sacrifices were wholly directed to typify him who knew no sin, but became sin for his people; the seasoning the sacrifice with salt, which was also a type of Christ’s purity and sinlessness, became a sweet representation, to denote that a sinner, when he came with his offering, came by faith; to intimate that he looked for acceptance in the Lord as his sacrifice, and for preservation in the salt of his grace, in Christ Jesus. And who then, among believers now, would ever approach without an eye to Jesus, and the seasoning with this salt all his poor offerings. Lord, grant that the salt of the covenant of my God may never be lacking; for where Jesus is not, there can be no acceptance. Lord, let me have this salt in myself, and may every renewed presentation of myself be there salted. Then shall I be as the salt of the earth, amidst not only the putrefaction of the world, but the corruptions of my own heart. Lord, say to us, and impart the blessing of thyself in saying it, "Have salt in yourselves;" and then shall we have peace with thee, and with one another.

August 13—Evening—Deuteronomy 21:20-21

"And they shall say unto the elders of his city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And alt the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die."—Deuteronomy 21:20-21.

My soul, pause over this Jewish precept. What a thundering command must it have been to flesh and blood! Think, how agonizing to the feelings of tender parents, to have come forth as the accusers of rebellious children, and gluttons and drunkards! What comfort could such have concerning them in their welfare of the life that now is, and what hope for that which is to come? But, as if these distressing feelings were not enough, it is they, the very parents, which are here commanded to bring forward the charge to the elders against their own bowels, and they are to be the means of bringing them to death. But, painful as it must have been to flesh and blood, such were the triumphs of grace, that, by virtue of it, "all Israel was to hear and to fear;" and if God was honoured, and the evil of rebellion put away, the close was glorious. Better to follow a child to the grave, than follow that child to hell. Better to root out a noxious weed from Christ’s garden, the church, than that it should live, and bring forth and spread its deadly fruit. And is there not a sweet spiritual lesson in all this? Look at it, my soul, and see. Hast thou a stubborn and rebellious lust warring against the law of thy mind, and bringing thee into captivity to the law of sin, which is in thy members? And dost thou groan, as Paul groaned under it? Is it like a child in thine affection, that to destroy it is like plucking out an eye, or cutting off an arm? Do by it as the Lord commanded the poor oppressed father to do by his son. Bring it, be it what it may, not before the elders of thy people indeed, but before the Lord of heaven and earth; bring it to Jesus, and tell him of thy burden, and shew to him thy sorrow. I venture to believe, that he will give grace to crush it, and strength, like so many stones of the people, to beat it down in thine heart, and it will be to his glory, and to thy joy. Oh! the blessedness of bringing all to Jesus! He can, he will subdue the stubborn heart, break the power of the rebellious heart, restrain the propensity of the gluttonous or sottish heart, and give suited help to the several necessities of his people, so as to make the soul cry out, under the blessed strength imparted to our weakness, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me." Help me then, dear Lord, and help all thy children, under their several infirmities, by thy Spirit, "to mortify the deeds of the body, that we may live."