Sign Post's Devotional Guide for the Week of November 26
To Read:
Acts 8
To Know:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
Snakes teach us a lesson. During my army time, I learned the lesson over and over again. My M.O.S (military occupational specialty) was Nike Universal Electronic Materiel Maintenance. Simply stated, I trained troops to maintain and repair anti-aircraft guided missiles. Half the training took place in the desert of New Mexico. That was home to rattlesnakes. Because dust storms were frequent, sandbags protected our portable electrical generators. At night, rattlers crawled between the bags, and my job was to scare them away in the morning. Scaring a rattlesnake is scary business. There was an enmity between us that could turn deadly in an instant.
Genesis 3:15 is the first biblical reference to the cross. On the cross the ancient serpent, the Devil, bruised the Savior but the evil one received a deathblow. One author wrote a book that he titled, “The Day Christ Died.” He was only partly right. Jesus’ death was temporary. It was the enemy of the human race who was killed that afternoon outside the walls of Jerusalem. Another author wrote a book almost four hundred years ago with a more appropriate title. That title was, “The Death of Death in the death of Jesus Christ.” Snakes are not evil creatures, but they do symbolize the serpentine heart of the enemy of our soul. Now he is a defeated foe. His eventual doom was prophesied at the beginning of the Bible. To Do: Faith in Christ is trust in his victory over sin and death on the cross. He is the woman’s seed. No man was involved in Jesus’ conception. God was and is his Father and his triumph over evil is God’s victory.
To Read:
Acts 9
To Know:
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” (Genesis 49:10) Two thousand years before Jesus was born, Jacob fathered twelve sons. Rueben, Jacob’s eldest, betrayed his father’s trust and Judah took his place. It was promised that one of Judah’s offspring would ascend to the throne and rule the world. The line of Judah continued two thousand years later when Jesus was born. Jacob’s prophesy is powerful evidence that world history unfolds according to the will of the eternal God. The first dated event was 4241B.C. That year the Egyptians adopted the solar calendar. 3400 B.C. was the year the Upper and Lower Kingdoms united. The “Old Kingdom” spanned the thousand years from 3400 to 2400 B.C. Egypt’s Feudal Age followed from 2000 to 1500 B.C. Egypt’s was a world power from 1580 and 1150 B.C. Rome, the eternal city, lasted only a thousand years. Hitler’s boasted thousand-year Reich lasted a mere twelve. Compared to the relatively short span of human empires, the great age of God’s people is amazing. The tribe of Judah survived for 2000 years. Twenty centuries after Jacob’s prophecy, Bethlehem was still in existence and there the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was born. Although seen only by the eyes of faith, Jesus Christ rules and overrules in the world today.
To Ask:
Father, it is assuring to know that you can prophesy events that come true two millennia later.
To Read:
Acts 10
To Know:
“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not nigh: a star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth.” (Numbers 24:17) Balak, the king of Moab, hired Balaam the prophet to curse the people of God. The Lord prevented the prophet from denouncing the people he was shepherding toward the land of milk and honey. Instead of a curse Balaam pronounced a blessing.. God promised that his people would be blessed and be a blessing for the world. Evil contains the seeds of its own destruction. In the 19th century many American seminaries succumbed to anti-supernaturalism. Pastors were sent forth to instill doubts regarding the trustworthiness of the Bible. Such distrust did not inspire young men to be preachers. The lack of students has now emptied the ranks of the seminaries. Has God chosen to discipline his church by allowing false prophets into pulpits? To protect his ancient church when the people of Israel journeyed toward the promised land, God refused to permit Balaam to utter his curse. It seems as if that protection has been removed from the modern church.
To Do:
It is important for the remnant of those in the churches who believe that the Bible is the unfailing word of God to pray for renewal. The Bible is the source of health and strength in the life of the churches. This unique book played a life-giving role in the history of the United States. We who believe the word of God needs to pray for wisdom as to how to influence the nation with the teaching of the scriptures without threatening our cultural pluralism.
To Ask: Father, may our people rediscover the role of the Bible in the making of this great nation.
To Read:
Acts 11
To Know:
“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ” (2 Samuel 7:12,13)
What is God’s house? Many treat the church building as God’s house. Does God live in a house made of materials that can be bought at Home Depot? Nathan the prophet told King David that one of his offspring would build God’s house. Jesus of Nazareth was that son. The angel Gabriel told Mary that the boy in her womb would be great “and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.” (Luke 1:32)
What Jesus built was his church. (Matt. 16:18) The apostle Paul understood that believers are the house of God. Redeemed people are his household. To the Corinthians he wrote, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Cor. 3:9) The Christian Church is the future of the world. On some future day, only believing human beings will populate the earth. The risen Lord Jesus will live in the midst of his people in the way we now live as families. What is the house of God is the wrong question? Who is the house of God is what we ought to ask? God’s house is composed of all the faithful in all the earth. To Do: The house of God is built by preaching Christ. When Jesus was with his generation during the days of his flesh he was building his church. Upon his ascension, Christ commissioned his apostles to carry on the work. There is an authentic apostolic succession. It is a chain of witnesses that comes down to our own day. Someday the last person appointed to believe the gospel will receive faith. On that day history will close and the day of eternity will never end. To Ask: Father, please make yourself at home in me. Friday
To Read:
Acts 12
To Know:
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)
To God, the world is much smaller and time is far shorter than it is to those of us whose lives only span four score years and ten. The sign God gave unbelieving King Ahaz came to pass hundreds of years after the king’s death. The sign was a virgin conception. The first to believe in the virgin birth, as Christ’s conception came to be called, was the unmarried mother herself. Her faith was unreserved. Mary said to the angel Gabriel who had made the momentous announcement, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Lk. 1:38) Why would anyone who discovered the truth about Jesus, that he is the eternal Son of God whose word caused the universe to be and who entered the world to save sinners from eternal destruction, not join Mary in her submission? To Answer: 1. Does the fact that despite the vastness of time God’s word comes true help your faith to grow firm? 2. Do you believe that evil has within it the seeds of its own destruction? 3. Do you remind yourself that Christ is with you as a member of the household (house)?