John 6: 27-40
Refreshment Sunday 
 
The whole of Holy Scripture testifies to the supremely inherent dignity and lofty status of the Lord Jesus Christ both in his divinity and his humanity.  It is sheer delight to the believer to recognize and ponder the inexpressible excellence of the One we adore and trust as Saviour.  As earthly Messiah or heavenly Monarch we are captivated by him in his two perfect natures, human and divine, and the splendor of his Person and his salvific achievement on our behalf win the gratitude, reverence, and affection of our deepest hearts.  
 
The highest accolades are paid to our Redeemer in his offices as Prophet, Priest, and King.  His appointed vocation is comprehensive and executed to completion.  The sufficiency and success of the restorative assignment of the Son of God is entirely assured in the Lord’s great manual of heavenly Promise - the Bible!  The range of provisions that Jesus brings us, and variety of privileges he has won for us are beyond both description and calculation.  They will endlessly unfold throughout the unceasing aeons of eternity.  Jesus’ mercy toward us is infinite in terms of sufficiency and certainty.  The intentions and actions of the Lord Jesus cannot fail for he comes to us with the Father’s seal of approval. 
 
Sufficiency:  I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35).  
Jesus is the eternal and effective satisfaction of the human soul.  Human nature is hungry for a sense of inner repletion, fullness, and contentment.  Nothing physical, experiential, emotional, aesthetic, or intellectual can meet that constant yearning.  The world has no answer to our fundamental human desire.  Even our fondest desires meet with disappointment and our dearest pursuits, once gained, cloy; our best attainments either corrode somewhat through honest assessment or analysis, escape our consciousness with loss of memory, and mean nothing to us at the point of demise.  All our appetites are fed with the bread that eventually spoils.  How often the great ones of the earth recoil at the last from their successes and the empty praises of the people.  Without the sustenance and satisfaction that comes from heaven, embodied in Jesus Christ, the world itself becomes a veritable desert and existence a wilderness.  
 
The only truly rewarding work in this life is to believe in the One God has sent (John 6:29).  Since our first parents ate the fruit of temptation and fall we have never been able to assuage hunger or quench thirst.  Only the Maker of souls can truly nourish souls.  Life in its abundance can only be derived from his abundant grace in all its delicious forms. 
 
Certainty:  (John 6:37-40).  
The certainties of the gospel are myriad.  Yet we sometimes live below our privileges (Thomas Chalmers) by doubting them, and many more even dare to dispute them.  How well Charles Spurgeon advises us to believe and rest in God’s “wills and shalls”.  The Lord Jesus came to secure eternal life for his people (a gift) and in this undertaking he will not, cannot fail.  Every believer is picked out by God’s eternal love and entrusted to the Son for safekeeping.  “The Father gives them to me,” says Jesus; “they will come to me” (the wooing effectual call).  “I shall lose none of all that he has given me”… and then comes the fullest possible commitment on which his reputation hangs, “but raise them up at the last day”.  First, Jesus satisfies us.  Finally, he will have kept us. 

RJS

Peter is typical of us all.  He was a slow learner in the understanding of the divine mind.  This impediment ran counter to the confidence that was seemingly his by nature.  There was a boldness and brashness about Peter.  He was not slow in coming forward either by speech or action.  Hesitancy was not his way.  He was a born leader decisive and opinionated with strong reliance upon his instant judgment.  These qualities brought him success in his career as a competent fisherman well able to seek out a profitable catch from the waters he could skillfully read, and negotiate an acceptable price for his effort.  Galilean fish would reach the best tables in the Roman Empire. 
 
Peter possessed an all-round expertise; a man of action with acuity in doing business.  It was no wonder that he demonstrated a strong sense of self-reliance.  He rated his views highly and yet we see that in his association with Jesus he became spiritually schooled in the virtue of humility.  It is the tendency of humanity to over-rate its mental ability.  Even in the exercise of great mental power it cannot discern the thought and intent of the divine mind.  It misreads the things of God.  The natural man is a non-starter in matters of the Lord’s way and his unsearchable purposes.  From many of his instinctive conclusions Peter had to back down and learn from his vulnerability to error.  We trace through the details of the New Testament Peter’s descent from hubris to humbleness.  It is a moving pilgrimage through stages of grace for the lovable apostle. 
 
Three incidents stand out from several that illustrate Peter’s education in dependence upon the Lord for understanding of the deep things of God.  A person must be born of the Spirit and taught by the Spirit in order to grasp spiritual realities.  When Jesus posed the question, “Who do you say I am?” to his disciples, Peter answered, “You are the Christ” (Mark 9:29).  Here in Mark’s Gospel we detect something of the developing modesty of Peter, for he is the informant behind Mark’s account of the ministry of Messiah.  Peter does not embellish the narrative, but Matthew adds detail to the story, both Peter’s confession and Jesus’ reply:  “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but my Father in heaven” (Matt 16:17ff).  Peter eliminates any tendency to pride in his standing before God.  It is alien to him suggest any tendency to boasting in divine enablement received.  Yet, when he is at fault a short while later, and rebuked by Jesus for issuing rebuke at him, Peter is willing to confess his presumptuous sinfulness, “Get behind me Satan!  You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (cf Matt 16:23).  
 
Such an address from the Lord Jesus would be witheringly radical and hurtful but Peter does not shy away from his shame.  He lapsed so quickly into contradicting Jesus’ exposition of his saving assignment.  He had no insight into his redemptive suffering, death, and rising again.  He thought as a mere mortal and had no comprehension of the divine method of human salvation.  Peter, accordingly, learned of the spiritual blindness of natural man even when he hears the very word of God (Matt 16:21-22).  Without grace our minds are helpless.  We are totally blind to the truth of the Gospel. 
 
But how Peter progressed in his understanding of the divine purpose of God realized in the Lord Jesus Christ.  At Pentecost there was full assent to the way of salvation:  “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.  But God raised him from the dead… ” (Acts 2:22-24).  Peter learned cautiousness with words but boldness in the Gospel.  
 
RJS 

The Canaanite Woman
Matthew 15:21 – 28  

No one would be more unwelcome to a Jew than a Canaanite.  They were notoriously evil and superstitious and a traditional enemy and bad influence upon the Israel of God.  What is more a Canaanite woman would be unbelievably daring and exceedingly presumptuous to suppose that she might be able to gain an audience with Jesus.  She would be considered the ultimate outcast.  Not only her ethnicity but her demeanor would disqualify her from access to the Lord.  Very suddenly she emerges from within range of Jesus and emits a loud howl of anguish:  “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!  My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession”.  Its a moral situation that a Jew would almost expect from a despised pagan and the woman is creating an embarrassing public scene.  But Jesus neglects to respond to her.  The disciples are indignant and insistent that Jesus should firmly dismiss her.  Her wailing is uncouth and disturbing.  Jesus addresses her with a discouraging statement:  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”.  It was if he was intending to brush her aside.  But the woman was not put off by this negative reply to her plight.  Kneeling before Jesus she continues to plead with strong emphasis,“Lord, help me!”  
 
Again, Jesus is seemingly not moved by the urgency of her approach.  His answer is based on a matter of strict principle ostensibly at the heart of his divine assignment.  “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”  Jesus holds to the fact that he is the prophesied Messiah promised to Israel.  What entitlement to his favor has as a member of a disgraced and degenerate people? - the Canaanites!  Moreover, whether as a pet or unkempt mongrel it is not pleasant or complimentary to be addressed as a dog.  Such a saying would have turned many away instantly.  But Jesus has his purpose.  Suddenly, the amazing faith of an unworthy and undeserving Gentile is revealed.  The woman has already manifested an appreciation of the status and ministry of Jesus way in advance of his own people.  She acknowledges him as “Lord” and “David’s Son”, very close to a recognition of his divinity, if not so.  
 
She turns an apparent rebuke into an utterly persuasive request that cannot be refused by the donor of divine compassion for it is the expression of sincere saving faith that God grants and seeks.  “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  Jesus congratulates her before both skeptical onlookers and his immature friends:  “Woman, you have great faith!  Your request is granted.”  The demon possessed daughter is healed without delay.  
 
So much is disclosed in this reported eye-witness incident.  The miracle performed is of great power.  Satan’s reign in a blighted human life is overthrown.  Enormous kindness has been shown to two lost wretches - pagan mother and daughter that Jews would not have been regarded as candidates for sovereign grace.  From a social outcast a magnificent confession has been made - Jesus is Lord and David’s heir, i.e. Messiah King.  Great faith has been exercised from an unexpected source - someone outside the confines of Israel.  The elect are found beyond the nation.  Great clues are given as to how we are to reverently argue with God in persistent trust and appeal. 

RJS

The vital element in true religion is the inclination of the heart.  Appearances, profession, ethics, ritual, discipline, good actions may all play their part in appropriate manner and degree, but it is the set of the heart that determines authenticity, genuineness, sincerity, reality.  
 
Over and over again Sacred Scripture affirms that God observes, sees, searches, examines, judges the heart.  He knows its secrets, desires, direction, yearnings, its true content, motives, preferences, and designs.  The inmost core, centre, the most private chamber of our inner being is discernible, open, transparent, and known thoroughly by him.  As hidden as the heart may be from others and even from ourselves, God reads the human heart with total clarity, unclouded vision, and exhaustively to the point that he knows the spring, source, and essence of our true being without limit.  
 
Lent is the season of the examination of the heart, as to whether it is touched, made whole, and matured by Grace - ripened for a fruitful relationship with the Lord.  Lent is the wise pastoral provision of the Church to set aside every hindrance and distraction in order to be, as John Owen expresses it, seasoned by grace, to rearrange our spiritual priorities and cultivate with due care our companionship with God.  
 
Our opening Lenten lessons bid us to approach God with the earnestness and totality of our full interior being, not merely our formal and physical presence before him, but in the way that he invites:  “Return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12).  Nothing less really counts or matters.  “Rend your hearts and not your garments” (v13).  Externals are not of the essence of true faith.  Outward performance is only validated by sincere inward disposition.  
 
Jesus, observing the inadequacy of mere outward observances of any kind, counsels absolute sincerity and the ultimate secrecy of true oneness with Christ:  “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (see Matthew 6: 16-18).  We know the state of our heart by that which it most treasures.  This ready awareness is the infallible test of the heart’s preference.  “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (v21).  
 
John Donne takes us to the heart of the matter concerning grace: 
“God did not elect me as a helper, nor create me, nor redeem me, nor convert me, by way of helping me; for he alone did all, and he had no use at all of me.  God infuses his first grace, the first way, merely as a Giver; entirely, all himself; but his subsequent graces, as a helper; therefore we call them Auxiliant graces, Helping graces; and we always receive them, when we endevour to make use of his former grace." 

Its influence in our hearts begins with a sovereign God and his free determination.  Grace in the first instant is a gift, entirely of his giving.  Lent humbles us before him in earnest longing and patient waiting.  Because we desire him we cling to him, for what we seek is a priceless blessing concerning which we have no desert.  Yearning, says Augustine, makes the heart grow deep, and mercy granted satisfies the most thirsty heart. 
 
RJS
 

SEASONED WITH GRACE 

"The mighty streams of the evil thoughts of men will admit of no bounds or dams to put a stop unto them.  There are but two ways of relief from them, the one respecting their moral evil, the other their natural abundance. 
 
The first is by throwing salt into the spring, as Elisha cured the waters of Jericho - that is, to get the mind and the heart seasoned with grace. 
 
The other is, to turn their streams into new channels, putting new aims and ends upon them, fixing them on new objects: so shall we abound in spiritual thoughts; for abound in thoughts we shall, whether we will or no." 

JOHN OWEN

John 3:1-8
 
The true Christian believer is an enigma to fellow human beings.  No less human, the believer in Jesus Christ possesses an added dimension to his person, his perception and his experience (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).  The differentiating quality is not any superior human faculty in the believer themselves, or anything personally meritorious.  What is distinctive about the Christian, of strong or weak faith, is union with Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ, and the understanding to some degree of spiritual truths not available to “natural man”.  
 
The believer, through divine revelation and instruction has access to the thoughts of God communicated through Holy Scripture - thoughts the unbeliever cannot access in their essential salvific and sanctifying meaning.  The unbeliever can recognize and recite bare facts of the faith, but they are incapable of entering into them in any experiential sense with personal comprehension and feeling.  The truths of the gospel do not possess them and they do not hold those truths in sincerity and with reverence before God.  Unbelievers may be able to lecture theologically and even from the Bible in certain contexts on matters of grammar and history.  They may possess noteworthy eloquence and speculative powers, but their souls are not spiritually “alive!”.  Formal orthodoxy may be relatively common, but there is no personal grasp of Jesus Christ, the sum and substance of Holy Scripture.  They do not “close’ with him.  
 
Whether good-naturedly or maliciously, the people of this world view believers as a source of puzzlement, for they have no link to the world to come.  There is a vision of reality granted by God that is beyond that which is observable and assessable visually.  St Augustine calls it the “eye of the soul”, sometimes “the eye of the heart”. 
 
Christian outlook and conduct are different, and in many ways an offense to the worldling.  Our common humanity truly exists but birth from above (regeneration) transcends the limitations and tendencies of our sinful humanity; not necessarily in our natural capacities and faculties, although these are in process of purification and direction, but the lives of believers are oriented to God in Christ, the manifestation of the Lord and the model of authentic humanity.  
 
The new ingredients within renewed mankind (true believers) are supernaturally imparted knowledge of God, and divinely produced holiness in resemblance of God - a compatibility and communion with him that in its essence, not in the behavior it engenders, is undetectable to human discovery.  It arises from the factual but mystical union of faith - an attachment to and connection with God the majestic Three-in-One.  The Father loves us as his chosen, the Son redeems us as his people, and the Spirit enlivens us, raising us from spiritual death.  
 
The reality of Christian believing is summed up by the phrase, “The life of God in the soul of man” (Henry Scougal).  The deep-down location of all who trust in and obey the Lord is a place of intimate and ultimate secrecy and safety for as long as they live in this unbelieving and rebellious world until their full identity is disclosed at the judgment:  “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things,” exhorts the apostle Paul, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:2-3).  Those alien to God cannot fathom believers.  Many will hate us and some will hurt us.  Quintessentially, the world is at enmity with God through its desires and designs.  The Christian is an uncomfortable rebuke to rebel hearts, for we are among the troops of the One who has come to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). 

RJS

Proverbs 8:22-36  
 
The passage referenced is a most intriguing portion of Holy Scripture.  Here wisdom speaks as a person.  The question often posed is interpretive - as to whether wisdom happens to be a personal entity beside God or an aspect of God.  Some choose to explain this section as Messianic others as metaphorical.  Is it a description of the eternal Son of God soon to be among us as man, or is it a poetic description of the wisdom of God in creation and his generous guidance of humankind that preserves and enhances our life? 
 
The arguments are attractive either way.  What is beyond doubt is the direction in which the passage points.  If these charming verses do not describe Messiah in a direct way they do prepare us for the full revelation of Messiah as the ultimate expression of divine wisdom both in the creation and control of the universe and all that it contains, and of all that unfolds within it. 
 
New Testament comparisons permit us, with hindsight, to view this passage as a “preview” of the status and meaning of the Lord Jesus.  Fuller insight into his Person afforded by the apostolic teaching enables us to peruse these verses in Proverbs in symbolic parallel to actual later disclosures concerning the Lord Christ.  He does personify the wisdom of God as well as all the other divine qualities.  
 
Jesus is the Word made flesh; God’s self-expression in every way.  He has ever been with God and is his collaborator in making all “that has been made” (John 1: 1-3).  A most captivating expression in our chapter sets the mind to magical musing, for without original intention on the part its author it applies aptly to Jesus both in his divine nature and human nature.  It is a gem of Scriptural portraiture.  “Then I was the craftsman at his side.  I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence” (v30).  
 
Father and Son are depicted as joyful and affectionate collaborative artisans bringing the cosmos and our earth into being through the Spirit (Genesis 1:1-2).  The passage is especially affecting when we think of Jesus as the master carpenter of Nazareth, the craftsman who made the best wooden objects in Galilee.  
 
Colossians 1:15-17  Here is the Pauline version of the notion of “the craftsman at his side”.  Speaking of Christ, the apostle remarks:  “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created:  things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him. 
 
Just as wisdom was begotten or possessed by God at the beginning (Proverbs 8:22), so the Word was with God in the beginning (John 1:1) and that Word in all his reasoning and instruction was pure divine wisdom - inherent wisdom (we might think analogically of thought, intention, or plan) - and active wisdom; divine success and achievement in all that God proposes or constructs as the supreme power and architect.  Christ participates in that supremacy of concept, control, and completion.  His supremacy is adorable and evokes our reverence and worship. 
 
Colossians 2:2-3  We encounter and receive the benefits of divine wisdom in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Paul desires that we should have “the full riches of complete understanding, in order that we may know the mystery of God, namely Christ” - the mystery of God, i.e. all the secrets of the divine mind and purpose of salvation are disclosed to us in our personal knowledge of Christ in whom his purpose for mankind is made plain:- “Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. 
 
Christ is wisdom.  Christ imparts wisdom.  He is our means of seeing things as they are, the way that they ought to be, and the end that is best for us.  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6).  His wisdom is a joy to contemplate, and a blessing to fulfill in all its dimensions of conduct and commanded obedience.  
 
Well might we borrow the concluding words of Proverbs 8:  “Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it.  Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.  For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord.  But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death” (vv 33-36). 


RJS

Matthew 8:23-34
 
What command is evinced in the speech and actions of Jesus.  His authority is universal over every realm of creation:  nature, humanity, and the demonic.  Nothing is beyond his power to control.  Once we grasp this fact we discover him to be worthy of all honor and trust.  His humanity is his condescension to serve our welfare.  He demonstrates his almightiness to induce our confidence in him.  He is deserving of our maximum awe and adoration.  
 
The Calming of the Storm (vv23-27) 
Jesus and the disciples set out to cross the lake.  The weather seems to facilitate a smooth crossing.  In weariness Jesus takes the opportunity to snatch a brief nap.  His human nature requires refreshment.  Asleep and inert there is no indication of the power he is able to exert.  Sleep renders us vulnerable and defenseless in an emergency.  In the posture of slumber Jesus resembles any ordinary man for he was indeed fully man. 
 
Suddenly, and surprisingly, especially to astute fishermen with expertise in reading the weather conditions with a high degree of accuracy, a furious storm arose on the lake and threatened to overturn the disciples’ vessels.  In the panic and fear of drowning the anxious friends of the Lord advise him of the crisis:  “Lord save us!  We’re going to drown!”  There is some expectation of the exercise of his miraculous power but there is no sense of the safety that their passenger ensures simply through being with them.  Accordingly, Jesus rebukes them of small faith and unnecessary fright.  After the rebuke administered to his men the Lord manifests divine strength by rebuking winds and waves and restoring a serene surface to the lake and the abatement of wild winds.  
 
There is dual revelation here.  The Master of the men is Master over the forces of nature.  They obey his word, perhaps accompanied by a commanding gesture.  He can also calm the tempests that assail the mind and heart of frail human beings who appear to be drowning in trouble. 
 
The Banishment of Demons (vv28-34) 
Again, in this narrative two aspects of the power of the Lord Jesus are disclosed.  Arriving at the other side of the lake two fearsome men accost him.  They are a terror to the residents of that region.  Their violence prohibits any approach and even a cautious passing-by at some distance.  The men met with Jesus but their speech was prompted by an evil source.  
 
These two wretched individuals were under the dominion of evil spirits.  Their persons were deranged and dangerous though the wicked and malicious powers that indwelled them.  How this possession of their souls occurred we cannot tell but they lived in an area of darkness and superstition.  Through their voices the vile demons shouted at Jesus from their sense of terror at their ultimate doom as desperate enemies of God.  “What do you want with us, Son of God.  Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”  The realm of darkness recognizes the authority of the Lord Christ.  They foresee that Jesus will expel them from the minds and bodies they inhabit.  They beg to take up residence in a herd of pigs. Jesus gives them a firm and ringing command that causes them to shiver and shove off.  Go! 
 
Our comprehension of the might of the Messiah is extended.  He issues orders to devils and ordains that the oppressed should be healed and freed.  There is no sphere of reality where Jesus does not rule.  But still men do not receive him.  They cannot recognize the benefits of his power and goodness and they bid him to depart.  Unrepentant sinners banish Jesus from their region at eternal cost. 

RJS

MAN OF SORROWS
Maundy Thursday: Luke 22

The sufferings of the Lord Jesus are incalculable. They accompanied him through life. His destiny was clear to him. He was born to die - as a sacrifice for sin. The looming event of the cross, the hostility of men, and the horrible darkness of the presence of evil, satanic and human, oppressed him. The horror of Calvary was foreknown by him. It was a shadow that always crossed his path. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am - it is written about me in the scroll - I have come to do your will, O God’ ” (Hebrews 10: 5 - 7). Jesus felt the full force of Old Testament prophecy concerning him.
 
The sacrifices of the former covenant were not effectual in providing atonement for sin. They were pointers to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Jesus was fully prepared and willing to die for sinners in obedience to the will of God. He was entirely a voluntary victim in agreement with the saving desire and design of the Father. The covenant of redemption was decided by the members of the Trinity before the creation of the world.
 
The uppermost desire of Christ was to spare his chosen ones through his substitutionary death. It was the prime intent of his life among us as is shown in his words to the disciples before the last Supper: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22: 15). Christ was eager to spare believers from wrath and death. But as the evening advanced, Christ’s eagerness undiminished, acute anguish penetrated his soul in the Garden. His prayer intensely urgent, the sweat of his brow streaming to the ground beneath like a flow of blood from a vicious head wound, his spirit overwhelmed at the impending abandonment of him by the Father, Jesus cried out of his utter desolation, loneliness, and fear, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22: 42). The expression of dread was real. The resolve to redeem the lost prevailed. Christ took upon himself the woe and doom due to us for our revolt against heaven.


TWO SONS IN PARALLEL
Good Friday: Genesis 22: 1 - 19

Isaac’s journey to the region of Moriah and the journey of Jesus to the portal of death bear many careful comparisons. Both were born as a result of miracle - Isaac to barren parents and Jesus of a Virgin. Isaac was the first in the Messianic lineage and Jesus is the fulfillment of the Messianic hope. Each was the only cherished son of their father - Isaac the son that counted for covenant purposes, in disregard of Ishmael, and Jesus the fulfiller of the covenant. Each bore the wood for their altar of sacrifice. Each journeyed to face death in the same location, for Calvary was in the region of Moriah as was the mount on which Isaac was to be offered. Through Isaac’s release by the provision of a ram as substitute we gain an insight into Christ’s atoning death. God would “see to it” that a victim would be found to die in our stead. Abraham was enabled “to see” the forthcoming figure who would provide our deliverance. “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and as glad” (John 8: 56).


UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE
Easter Day: Mark 16: 1 - 8

Isaac was spared death but Jesus endured death in order to spare us. To spare means “to pass over”. Therefore, Jesus is our Passover Lamb, and the angel of judgment and death marks our pardon and safety in the Son of God, and avoids meting out our destruction. Because Jesus is risen, we who trust him are assured of our justification. What joy there is in the gospel of the empty tomb. Our substitute has put us right with God. Resurrection with Christ is guaranteed by the angelic messenger.  “He has risen! He is not here” (Mark 16: 6).

RJS

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
      From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
      Who made heaven and earth.
 
The believer ponders or perceives hills.  He is reliant upon God, perhaps in a mood of anxiety, insecurity, or pending trial of some sort.  Perhaps he is being confessional and encouraging of others.  But whatever he affirms is of enormous and lasting consolation to every child of God.  The hills may suggest the strength of God in his work of creation.  They are strong and elevated and may be symbolic of the power of God and the firmness of his promises.
 
It is likely that the author may be on the verge of a journey and has to traverse the hills and he is thinking of the dangers of robbers besetting him.
 
Whatever the thoughts that inspire him the poet is placing his confidence in the Lord who extends kindness and protection to his people and ably governs all that is in heaven and earth.  Nowhere is the petitioner beyond the divine Presence or aid.
 
He will not let your foot be moved;
      He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
      Will neither slumber or sleep.
 
In his providence and wise provision of continual welfare for his chosen ones the Lord is never off-duty.  He will keep his folk steady and on the right track.  They need not falter.  The Lord does not doze off or waver in attentiveness.  He keeps his people on the basis of twenty-four hour guard duty.  Nothing escapes or eludes his eye.  He is unresting, does not require refreshment, he traces every step of those he loves, and covers them with his close hand.
 
The Lord is your keeper;
       The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall, not strike you by day,
        Nor the moon by night.
 
A double assurance is pronounced by the psalmist.  Be certain.  Our God determines to keep us.  We are held by him and nothing can tear us away from him.  Every moment he is watchful.  Even his servant Mr Sun will not be permitted to scorch us.  Sun stroke is ruled out though the noontide rays are full strength and withering without cover.  God carefully, considerately, affords shade with his interposing hand as a barrier and his soft breath as a coolant.
 
Even the harmless beams of the moon will be softened into a gentle nocturnal kiss from gilded beams.  In ancient times it was thought by some cultures that the moon was a harbinger of malicious spirits and ill-fortune.  Such superstition is swept away by our faithful saint of old.  Day and night divine concern follows, accompanies, and precedes God’s people – the individual, or “corporate Israel”, the company of the redeemed.
 
The Lord will keep you from all evil;
     he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
     your going out and your coming in
     From time forth and forevermore.
 
Our going out (from birth) to our coming in (home-going to heaven), every minute of the life of the elect, is diligently observed, and our immortal soul preserved, whatever eventuates upon our earthly pilgrimage - all dismay discarded.
 
RJS

2 Kings 6

“There are more things in heaven and earth than this world dreams of.”
-Attributed to Alfred the Great
 
Scripture witnesses to unseen forces in conflict.  Our world is the arena of intense spiritual conflict, the focus of fiendish attack by malicious spirits – fallen angels and Satan’s minions.  Great powers clash and we are affected by the battle.  We see and feel evidence of supernatural warfare but the combatants are not discerned by the human eye.  Paul the apostle speaks of “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) and enlarges upon the devil’s schemes and works of evil:  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).
 
The foes of humanity, and especially the people of God, are formidable.  They are organized, relentless, of superior intelligence, and wreak enormous harm.  They oppress mankind with many ills and calamities and subject persons of faith to bitter struggle, as Paul notes for our attention.  Satan is the cruelest being in existence, utterly merciless, and keeps his servants on the prowl:  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (2 Peter 5:8).  He perpetrates acts of evil personally, commands rebellious spirits, and influences those available to his pressures and temptations:  The spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient (Ephesians 2:2).  Man’s inhumanity to man in every aspect of its vile treatment is prompted by the prince of darkness.  Given the cunning, wiles, lies, and strength of the evil one we ought not to be surprised at what he can persuade sinners to do and what torments he wishes to bring upon believers.  Speaking of the sovereignty and omnipotence of God, John Newton observes:  The powers of darkness are likewise under his subjection and control.  Though but little of them is said in Scripture, we read enough to assure us that their number must be immensely great, and that their strength, subtlety, and malice, are such as we may tremble to think of them as our enemies, and probably should, but for our strange insensibility to whatever does not fall under the cognizance of our outward senses.  But he holds them all in a chain, so that they can do or attempt nothing but by his permission; and whatever he permits them to do (though they mean nothing less,) has its appointed subserviency in accomplishing his designs.
 
But just as there are fiends busy around us, so too there are invisible friends.  The Lord summons them to the help and reassurance of his folk at will.  A reliable account comes from a medical missionary in Africa.  A horde of murderous rebels was bearing down upon her medical center which was defenseless.  Urgent prayer was offered to the Lord and the men of violence only perceived a fire enveloping the building and hastened noisily by.  The medical staff and doctor were left safe in their clinic that had not burned at all.  Not a spark was seen.  No heat was felt.
 
When the prophet Elisha was under threat from a hostile army his fearful servant enquired, “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?”:  ‘Don’t be afraid”, the prophet answered.  “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so that he may see.”  Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:15-17).  The Lord Almighty always has the majority.  “The angel of the
Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them (Psalm 34:7).
 
RJS