Devotions for Dieters

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When the baby Jesus was about six weeks old, Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem, where they made an offering for Mary's purification and presented the child to the Lord. While they were at the temple, they met a godly man named Simeon. Simeon had received a promise from the Holy Spirit that he would not die without seeing the long-awaited Messiah, the "consolation of Israel" (Luke 2:25-26, ESV).

Simeon took the child in his arms and blessed Him with these wonderful words, found in Luke 2:29-32 (ESV):

"Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel."

How did people like Simeon know that this child was the promised Christ or Messiah who was to come? If you had been there, could you have known?

The answer is that they believed the prophecies recorded in the Old Testament Scripture, and they waited for the "Coming One" who would fulfill them. Let's look at an interesting set of prophecies that Simeon and others would have known.

What Does God Say?

Here is an Old Testament prophecy of the coming Messiah:

"In that day the branch of the L ord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel" (Isaiah 4:2, ESV).

The verse doesn't say, "Messiah" but instead speaks of the "Branch of the Lord." There are several other prophecies, as well, that mention the "Branch," and it becomes very clear that this "Branch" indeed speaks of Christ. Here are four other references for you to look up in your Bible. Write down the answers to the questions:

1. Jeremiah 23:5. For whom will the Branch be raised up? What will His position be? What three features will mark His reign?

2. Isaiah 11:1-2. Whose "stump" does the Branch come from (note Matthew 1:6 and Luke 3:31-32)? What seven characteristics do you find about the Spirit who rests upon the Branch?

3. Zechariah 3:8. What is the Branch called in this verse?

4. Zechariah 6:12. The Branch is not an angel or a spirit, so what is He? What will He build (see Ephesians 2:18-22)?

My Thoughts

You may want to look at samples of some other prophecies, not directly related to the Branch but clearly looking forward to the Messiah.

1. Zechariah 9:9--The coming King

2. Isaiah 42:1-4 --The coming Servant

3. Genesis 3:15--The coming Man

4. Isaiah 9:6--The coming God

My Part

The clock ticks nearer to the hour when another New Year will appear. Fresh calendars adorn your home, replacing the tattered ones of the passing year. Thoughts of trying to do better next year cross your mind. You wonder what the New Year may bring into your life.

Now is a good opportunity to reflect on some of the Bible's promises and prophecies that are yet unfulfilled, such as the next prophesied event--the return of Christ for His Church. You can’t know the time, but you can be certain the event is coming (1 Corinthians 15:51-58). Like Simeon, are you eagerly awaiting the Lord's coming?

The Refiner's Fire

Zechariah 13-14, Revelation 21
Key Verse: Zechariah 13:9

The process of refining metals is used in the Bible as a metaphor of spiritual purification. In a sense, if you have something made of pure gold or pure silver, it is made of the leftovers. Refining is a process by which everything else is removed and only the pure metal remains. It is accomplished through firing, putting the metal over the fire until it is a liquid from which can be drawn all the dross.

Our lives are not pure gold by any means. God's desire is that we be holy as He is holy. That means there are things that need to be removed from our lives. It also means that He will assist in that process!

God's intent is not to destroy us but to purify us. Sometimes His method is akin to the intense heat of the refiner's fire. Our response to the process is crucial. We can either allow Him to work in our lives, cooperating in removing that which is impure, or we can resist or rebel.

To His people, God sent the message through the prophet Zechariah that He would "refine them like silver and test them like gold" (13:9). That is painful, but look at the promise: "They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'" The blessing will be ours.

Don't resist or rebel against God's refining fire. Learn from the tough times. Look for the ways in which God is using your difficulties to refine you.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Trust in the Lord

Everyone should know that human wisdom is very fallible. In spite of that, a woman in Haifa, Israel, is suing a television weatherman in small claims court for $1,000 after he predicted sunshine for a day that turned out to be stormy. The woman claims the forecast caused her to leave home lightly dressed. As a result, she caught the flu, missed four days' work, spent $38 on medication and suffered stress. Whether the legal system agrees with her or not, however, it's obvious that she reaped the consequences of trusting in human wisdom.

Solomon believed that no one should rely upon his own understanding. Instead, he declared, place your trust in God and seek His wisdom in every aspect of life. The promise God gave through this wise king is that, in return, He will direct your steps into the right path. God never makes a wrong prediction.

Most things, including the weather, are understood very imperfectly even by people who have spent many years studying them. At best, we can only make educated guesses. If those guesses prove true, it's still usually beyond our control to change our circumstances. The Lord, on the other hand, possesses all knowledge (Ps. 139:4-6). Furthermore, He is in control of all things--not only the weather (Mark 4:39), but illnesses (Matt. 8:3; Mark 1:30-34) and death itself (John 11:43-44). Every nation of the earth is at His mercy (Ps. 2:1-9). What He declares will come to pass. You can count on it.

In the Bible you'll find the wisdom of God. Trust Him to guide you when you read His Word. Be confident that He will direct your paths as you apply the Scriptures to your life. Take every opportunity, every difficulty, every issue that comes up in your life and let God show you His way through His Word.

An Orchestra of Praise

The hymnbook of the Bible is the Book of Psalms, and the last psalm summarizes what God wants us to know about praise and worship. The Christian faith is a singing and praising faith. No other religion has praise and singing such as we have, because we have the song of the Lord in our hearts. The psalmist answers some important questions about praise in this psalm.

Who is it that we praise? "Praise the Lord" (v. 1)--not the church, not the preacher, but the Lord. Our problem is that we often don't see the Lord. We look at gifts or lack of gifts from God. We say, "Why didn't the Lord do this, or why wasn't it done differently?" We don't really see Him. Let's get beyond the gift to the Giver. Let's get beyond the blessing to the Blesser. Let's praise the Lord. "Rejoice in the Lord," Paul said. "Again I will say, rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4).

Where do we praise Him? "Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty firmament" (v. 1). What an interesting combination. When we praise God in church, it's just like the praise of the angels in heaven. In the sanctuary or wherever we are, let's praise Him.

Why do we praise Him? "Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him according to His excellent greatness!" (v. 2). We praise Him for what He is and for what He does.

How do we praise Him? With the sound of the trumpet, with the psaltery, the harp, the timbre!, the dance, the stringed instruments, the flute and the loud cymbals. The psalmist is saying, "Get the whole orchestra together. Find every instrument you can, and let's praise the Lord." Some people don't like that kind of praise, but we are commanded here to praise Him and to make a loud song to His glory.

* * *

All of nature is praising God today, but His people are prone to forget to praise Him. Ask yourself these praise questions of Psalm 150 and then meditate on the psalmist's answers. You have much for which to give praise. Bring joy to God's heart by praising Him.

The Church of the Blind

Revelation 3:14-22

To be "wretched" means to be "oppressed" with a problem or burden. Who does not have such oppressions or burdens?

Yet here was a church boasting of its wealth and its place in the world, but so spiritually helpless that it was not lifting those with burdens but was hindering and degrading them. Their wealth was actually a burden to them, but they did not know it.

The Lord says that this was a "blind" church. They saw nothing clearly. They were nearsighted in the sense that they saw only earthly things. They had no heavenly vision.

They had no grasp of what there is beyond this life. They perhaps hoped, as people are hoping today, that everything would be all right on the other side of death, but they did not know. They lacked real spiritual vision because they lacked spiritual life.

Furthermore, they had no real sense of spiritual distance. Many people are so broad-minded today that they cannot see to do anything except what is confined within their own narrow limits of knowledge and prejudice.

They do not accept the broad-mindedness of Jesus Christ where He makes Himself available to everyone. "Blind leaders of the blind" is the way the Lord described them, and sad to say, many church leaders fit this category.

Being blind they lacked discernment. They could not evaluate things properly in the light of heaven and eternity.

Heaven has to do with spiritual values, while the riches that men go after here are only material and cannot gain one thing for heaven so far as salvation is concerned.

"But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off" (2 Pet. 1:9).

Love and Patience

Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.

There is no greater contrast in all the Bible than the love and patience of God with the general disregard for that love and patience by men. Perhaps this theme is more clearly seen in the prophecy of Jeremiah than in any other. Jeremiah is one of the most colorful figures in Hebrew history. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that we know more about his personality and character than we do about any other Old Testament prophets. Called of God when he was but a child (Jeremiah 1:6), Jeremiah knew personally the love and patience of God and prophesied for Jehovah for nearly half a century. His concern was to bring Israel back to God in repentance and faith. Tragically, he stood in the mainstream of an ungrateful people who were rushing to certain destruction, yet they sought not God.

Jehovah was so concerned for His people that He commissioned Jeremiah to "stand in the gate of the LORD'S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD" (Jeremiah 7:2). God would not permit His people to face imminent destruction and death without the opportunity to repent and be restored. Jeremiah's task was to stand between the Jews and certain destruction.

In a delightful picture of the concern of Jehovah for His people, Jeremiah 7 twice indicates that God did not simply commission the prophet and then withdraw Himself from interest in the Jews. Jeremiah 7:13 says, "And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up and speaking but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not." It is natural for anyone who has loved ones facing pending danger to show diligence in dealing with it. The same is true for Jehovah God. It is no impassive God who is seen here. God takes a profound interest in His people. This indicates that God is not disengaged from His people or the affairs that affect them. He mourns over their sin and rejoices in their salvation. Still they do not heed His call for repentance and thus He must deliver them into the hand of the enemy.

The expression of Jehovah's rising early is strengthened in verse 25. Here He reminds His people, "Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them." It is not the prophets alone who are said to rise early with the message of repentance, but God Himself. Day after day, He rises to recommission anew these prophets with their life-changing message.

And what will be Israel's response to this consistent love and concern of Jehovah? Joshua 7:26 indicates, "Yet they hearkened not unto Me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck; they did worse than their fathers." What a contrast! God calls and commissions prophets to bring His message to a wayward people. He rises early every morning and sends forth His prophets. Still, day after day, His people do not hearken unto Him but harden their necks and become even more stubborn in their sin.

Today God is just as concerned about us as He was about Old Testament Israel. He showers His mercy on us as He did on them. He warns us of our sin as He warned the Jews. And much like them, we do not listen, nor do we heed the warnings of those whom He has raised to call us to repentance. Remember, before we arose early to seek God today, He had already risen to prepare this day for us. In response to His great love and concern for us, let us serve Him faithfully today.

MORNING HYMN
Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heav'n to earth come down;
Fix in us Thy humble dwelling,
All Thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure, unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation,
Enter ev'ry trembling heart.