Isaiah 42:1-8
God carries an ideal in his heart. Eden pictures that ideal most winsomely—God and man walking and working in a garden as closest friends. Sin broke the ideal. God gave his Son to heal the hurt of sin and woo us back to the garden-life. Both prophecy and gospel tell how practical and winsome his wooing was. God’ll never rest content till his ideal has become real. Let us make it real today.
Hebrews 4:14-16; Hebrews 5:1-9
Jesus was the Brother of man as well as the Son of man. He shared our experiences. He trod the same rough road, and knew the same tight corners. He was tempted as we are, and he was tempted first, and he was tempted most. The path’s never so rough for our feet. His have smoothed it down. He understands. He can help; he knows by experience. And he will help, and we shall have victory today.
Matthew 3:16-17; Matthew 4:1-11
Jesus was tempted, really tempted. No one was ever tempted so cunningly and repeatedly. The tempter did his best and worst. And Jesus felt the temptations keenly. Many a time his brow was moist and his jaw set. But every temptation met its full match in him. He overcame by his set will and his Father’s grace. And so may we, by his victory and his help. Temptation is a chance for victory through Jesus.
Mark 1:12-20
Jesus touched every side of human life. He did it by giving a bit of his own life. He took a decisive stand in the Jordan with God’s messenger. He was tempted. He came into personal friendship with men. He took men into close partnership in his blessed ministry. He revealed the resistless power of God helping human need. And he still does. He will begin this sort of thing in us as we let him.
“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.” — Ecclesiastes 7:8
Look at David’s Lord and Master; see his beginning. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Would you see the end? He sits at his Father’s right hand, expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. “As he is, so are we also in this world.” You must bear the cross, or you shall never wear the crown; you must wade through the mire, or you shall never walk the golden pavement. Cheer up, then, poor Christian. “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.” See that creeping worm, how contemptible its appearance! It is the beginning of a thing. Mark that insect with gorgeous wings, playing in the sunbeams, sipping at the flower bells, full of happiness and life; that is the end thereof. That caterpillar is yourself, until you are wrapped up in the chrysalis of death; but when Christ shall appear you shall be like him, for you shall see him as he is. Be content to be like him, a worm and no man, that like him you may be satisfied when you wake up in his likeness. That rough-looking diamond is put upon the wheel of the lapidary. He cuts it on all sides. It loses much-much that seemed costly to itself. The king is crowned; the diadem is put upon the monarch’s head with trumpet’s joyful sound. A glittering ray flashes from that coronet, and it beams from that very diamond which was just now so sorely vexed by the lapidary. You may venture to compare yourself to such a diamond, for you are one of God’s people; and this is the time of the cutting process. Let faith and patience have their perfect work, for in the day when the crown shall be set upon the head of the King, Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, one ray of glory shall stream from you. “They shall be mine,” saith the Lord, “in the day when I make up my jewels.” “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.”
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Think about these questions as you meditate on the verse. What does this verse teach me? How does this verse apply to my Life?
“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” — 1 Samuel 7:12
The word “hitherto” seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past. Twenty years or seventy, and yet, “hitherto the Lord hath helped!” Through poverty, through wealth, through sickness, through health, at home, abroad, on the land, on the sea, in honour, in dishonour, in perplexity, in joy, in trial, in triumph, in prayer, in temptation, “hitherto hath 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, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and its arches of leaves; even so look down the long aisles of your years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of lovingkindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys. Are there no birds in yonder branches singing? Surely there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received “hitherto.”
But the word also points forward. For when a man gets up to a certain mark and writes “hitherto,” he is not yet at the end, there is still a distance to be traversed. 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, thrones, harps, songs, psalms, white raiment, the face of Jesus, the society of saints, the glory of God, the fulness of eternity, the infinity of bliss. O be of good courage, believer, and with grateful confidence raise thy “Ebenezer,” for-
He who hath helped thee hitherto
Will help thee all thy journey through.
When read in heaven’s light how glorious and marvellous a prospect will thy “hitherto” unfold to thy grateful eye!
