What it means, in other words, is that the salvation of a single soul is the most wonderful thing that God has ever done. He has surpassed and eclipsed everything. All His ways are matchless, godlike and divine; the creation, providence, the manifestation of power over Pharaoh and his hosts, the manifestation of His wrath – all these things are manifestations of the glory of god. But they are nothing when you put them beside what God has done in the redemption of man. Even creation becomes nothing when you put it beside this; providence is nothing, punishment is nothing; everything is eclipsed here. This, the Bible teaches us, is indeed the very wonder of heaven itself. – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 9, p. 226
Author: Josh King
Genesis 33 & The Frame
Sometimes the frame is as important as the picture. Sometimes it is part of the picture. Sometimes it is necessary to properly interpret the picture. Don’t lose the frame for the picture.
After stealing the birthright Jacob flees Esau. He encounters angels, He encounters God. He heads toward Laban. Years later after gaining the flock, he flees Laban. He encounters angels, He encounters God. He heads toward Esau. Do you see the frame that unites chapters 28-33.
Now for the glue that holds the frame together. In the first encounter with God that we call Jacob’s ladder, God promises Jacob offspring, land, and blessing. God says that he will be with him wherever he goes, and bring him back to the land (Genesis 28:15). God will not leave off this work, He will do all that He has promised (Genesis 28:16).
Jacob’s fear then is an expression of unbelief. But his unbelief, or weak faith does not nullify God’s faithfulness.
Do not fear. God will bring us home.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis Grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
– John Newton
Genesis 32:22-32 & Blessedly Broken
Fathers stoop to wrestle with their sons, but woe to the son who mistakes his father’s condescension for true weakness. Though He stoops he still sets the rules. Here God comes in the form of a man, reserves His power, and wrestles with the wrestler.
With a touch, not a powerful blow, Jacob’s hip explodes. Jacob will not prevail because of superior strength; he will prevail only in prayer. But before he is blessed he must be further broken, blessedly broken. God’s severe mercy must cut to heal.
Jacob must relinquish his name, his identity. A lady will hesitate to give her name to a creeper because information is power. To relinquish his name is to tap out, to say uncle. But more than this it is to admit who he is. Is he not rightly named Jacob (Genesis 27:36)? Previously he stole the blessing by concealing his identity; God demands we confess if we are to receive His blessing. There can be no masquerade, no disguise. The truth of who we are must be owned up to.
Upon Jacob’s confession of his old self God redefines who he is, He changes his identity. Jacob then asks the Stranger’s name, but notice the change of tone. God demanded the name, Jacob asks politely and is refused, but He is blessed.
It is of the utmost importance to realize that in this wrestling match God bestows nothing that He has not already promised. God has not been pinned to the mat, Jacob has, and yet in a sense he walks away winning, he is blessedly broken. As Derek Kidner said, “It was defeat and victory in one.” Or as Bruce Waltke comments,
The limp is the posture of the saint, walking not in physical strength but in spiritual strength. God’s severe mercy allows Jacob a victory, but it is a crippling victory.
The self-sufficient wrestler has become the dependant-cripple, and this is a glorious thing, a good thing. May we all be so stricken, so defeated, so devastated, so blessed.
Tolle Lege: To the Golden Shore
Readability: 1
Length: 508 pp
Author: Courtney Anderson
Simply, To The Golden Shore is one of the best biographies I’ve ever read. Adoniram Judson was the first foreign American missionary. He labored in Burma for 38 years, translated the Bible into Burmese, lost two wives and seven children, and endured a horrible prison sentence of 17 months all for their joy in Christ. May these few tidbits encourage you to get outside of your little world, realize God’s plan for the peoples, buy the biography, and reorient your life toward the joy of all peoples in Christ.
A letter of courtship to the father of his first wife Ann:
I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left is heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteous, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?
Ann Judson on the loss of their second child, Roger Williams:
Our hearts were bound up with this child; we felt he was our earthly all, our only source of innocent recreation in this heathen land. But God saw it was necessary to remind us of our error, and to strip us of our only little all. O, may it not be vain that he has done it. May we so improve it that he will stay his hand and say ‘It is enough.’
A letter from Adoniram to missionary widow and later second wife Sarah Boardman
My DEAR SISTER: — You are now drinking the bitter cup whose dregs I am somewhat acquainted with. And though, for some time, you have been aware of its approach, I venture to say that it is far bitterer than you expected. It is common for persons in your situation to refuse all consolation, to cling to the dead, and to fear that they shall too soon forget the dear object of their affections. But don’t be concerned. I can assure you that months and months of heartrending anguish are before you, whether you will or not. I can only advise you to take the cup with both hands, and sit down quietly to the bitter repast which God has appointed for your sanctification. As to your beloved, you know that all his tears are wiped away, and that the diadem which encircles his brow outshines the sun. Little Sarah and the other have again found their father; not the frail, sinful mortal that they left the earth, but an immortal saint, a magnificent, majestic king. What more can you desire for them? While therefore your tears flow, let a due proportion be tears of joy. Yet take the bitter cup with both hands, and sit down to your repast. You will soon learn a secret, that there is sweetness at the bottom. You will find the sweetest cup that you ever tasted in all your life. You will find heaven coming near to you, and familiarity with your husband’s voice will be a connecting link, drawing you almost within the sphere of celestial music.
Emily’s recollections of a speaking engagement in the states where Adoniram simply preached the gospel:
As he sat down it was evident, even to the most unobservant eye, that most of the listeners were disappointed. After the exercises were over, several persons inquired of me, frankly, why Dr. Judson had not talked of something else; why he had not told a story…
On the way home, I mentioned the subject to him.
‘Why, what did they want?’ he inquired; ‘I presented the most interesting subject in the world, to the best of my ability.’
‘But they wanted something different… a story.’
‘Well, I am sure I gave them a story… the most thrilling one that can be conceived of.’
‘But they had heard it before. They wanted something new of a man who had just come from the antipodes.’
‘Then I am glad they have it to say, that a man coming from the antipodes had nothing better to tell than the wondrous story of Jesus’ dying love.’
Some of his last words to his third wife Emily:
‘It is not because I shrink from death, that I wish to live; neither is it because the ties that bind me here though some of them are very sweet, bear any comparison with the drawings I at times feel towards heaven; but a few years would not be missed from my eternity of bliss, and I can well afford to spare them, both for your sake and for the sake of the poor Burmans. I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet when Christ calls me home. I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from his school. Perhaps I feel something like the young bride, when she contemplates resigning the pleasant associations of her childhood, for a yet dearer home—though only a very little like her – for there is no doubt resting on my future.’
‘Then death would not take you by surprise,’ I remarked, ‘if it should come even before you could get on board ship.’ ‘Oh, no,’ he said, ‘death will never take me by surprise – do not be afraid of that—I feel so strong in Christ. He has not led me so tenderly thus far, to forsake me at the very gate of heaven. No, no; I am willing to live a few years longer, if it should be so ordered; and if otherwise, I am willing and glad to die now. I leave myself entirely in the hands of God, to be disposed of according to his holy will.’
The Doctor: The Ultimate Truth About God
Now the ultimate truth about God, his ultimate attribute, if we may so speak, is glory. We talk about the power of God, His omnipotence, His Omniscience and His omnipresence, and all these various other attributes, but of course ultimately what makes God God is His glory! You cannot describe it; you cannot define it! All the Bible itself does is to give us some kind of description of men and women who have had a glimpse of the glory of God; they fall to the ground and they feel utterly unworthy. Glory! What is it? Well all I know is that it is perfect light, perfect love; it baffles description. So that everything that God does is in some shape or form the manifestation of His glory. – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 9, p. 224
Tolle Lege: In Christ Alone
Readability: 1
Length: 237 pgs
Author: Sinclair Ferguson
In Christ Alone is a collection of 50 articles written over two decades that the author one day noticed had a common theme. It is a theme that unites much of Paul’s letters together as well for the phrase “in Christ” appears in his letters 72 times. Thus it comes as no surprise that such a grand theologian as Sinclair Ferguson finds this grand theme uniting so many articles. Indeed it is a theme that should unite all that the minister does, for all of our salvation is in Christ alone. We have no other message but Christ and Him crucified. So it is with great joy I commend this book to you, for it ministered much Jesus unto me.
[F]or John, the events, imagery, and language of the Old Testament are like a shadow cast backward into history by Christ, the light of the world.
In Jesus, God began from the beginning. In a word in which sin infects us all from the womb (Ps. 51:5), it was not possible to begin with a mature man. Our Lord had to begin His work in prenatal darkness, mature through every stage of life in perfect fellowship with His Father, and then die in the deeper darkness that surrounded Him on Golgotha.
Our Lord’s self humbling is not merely exemplary it is saving.
When the wonder of the gospel breaks into your life, you feel as though you are the first person to discover its power and glory. Where has Christ been hidden all these years? He seems so fresh, so new, so full of grace. Then comes a second discovery-it is you who have been blind, but now you have experienced exactly the same as countless others before you. You compare notes. Sure enough, you are not the first! Thankfully you will not be the last.
The invisible is more substantial than the visible;
The future shapes the past;
The new is more fundamental than the past.
What does all this mean?
Simply put, it means that the story of the Lord Jesus, his person and work, is not a divine afterthought, a heavenly plan B hurriedly scrambles together when plan A went horribly wrong. No, the coming of Christ was in the plan before the fall. Everything that preceded it chronologically actually follows it logically.
In God’s workshop in this world, suffering is the raw material out of which glory is forged.
Feel the Need, The Need to Read
Even an apostle must read. Some of our very ultra Calvinistic brethren think that a minister who reads books and studies his sermon must be a very deplorable specimen of a preacher. A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot, and talks any quantity of nonsense, is the idol of many. If he will speak without premeditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men’s brains—oh! that is the preacher. How rebuked are they by the apostle! He is inspired, and yet he wants books! He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books! He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet he wants books! He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books! The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, “Give thyself unto reading.” The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either reading or praying. You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master’s service. Paul cries, “Bring the books”—join in the cry. – C.H. Spurgeon
Genesis 32:1-21 & Prayer – A Grace for Grace
There is much of the old Jacob here, but there is also something new. Although upon hearing of Esau’s enigmatic approach he first plans, then he prays, and what a beautiful prayer it is.
He calls God every name in the book, in a beautiful way. He begins His prayer by thinking on who He is talking to. When struggling in prayer, begin with God. Then Jacob expresses such humility confessing he is not worthy of the least of all of God’s kindnesses. Take all of God’s kindnesses toward us and put them in a barrel such that the greatest rise to the top and the least fall to the bottom, then scrape the sediment off the bottom – this is what Jacob says He is not worthy of, nor are we. Only after adoration and confession does he humbly bring his petition before God pleading on the basis of God’s promises. The Word of God fuels, informs, and empowers his prayers. You cannot be mighty in prayer if weak in the Word. We are to pray in faith, and faith comes by the Word.
So Jacob oscillates between planning and prayer, but God does not capitulate in faithfulness. God is faithful when we failthlessly plan. This is evidenced not just in God answering Jacob’s prayer, but in Jacob praying. Prayerless Jacob now prays a model prayer. Jacob’s prayer is both a result of God’s grace and a means to more grace. Pray to learn how to pray. Pray for grace to pray as a means to more grace.
The Doctor: Telling the Bible That It Can’t Mean That So It Must Mean This
Is that not, generally, the trouble in most arguments? You watch the next time you see two people having an argument! If you just sit and listen to them, you will notice that neither is really listening to the other; he is waiting for the other to stop; indeed he is ready to interrupt him. And that is precisely what so many people do with the scriptures. They have never really allowed the Scriptures to speak to them; they are so anxious to give their opinion. – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 9, p. 128
The Who Regulates the What
Oh Father,
Teach us that when we pray to You,
we pray
to You.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Oh how this singular thought would rectify much sin in our prayers
No Other Boast 