Rejecting Gospel Light

1 May

But when I speak with thee, I will open my mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house. Ezekiel 3:27

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 6:8-13

Ambassadors are usually sent to conciliate, by courteous and friendly discourse, those with whom they have to deal. But God here follows a method completely contrary to that. Ezekiel tells us the Lord says, "He who hears, let him hear: he who forbears, let him forbear." By this the Israelites may understand that the prophet was sent to them, not because there was any hope of their becoming wise again, since they had proved by sufficiently numerous examples that they were altogether desperate, but to tell them that that the Lord will strike and wound them further, and at length inflict a deadly blow on them.
Now we see confirmation of what the prophet previously warned, that the office of teaching was given to him, not because his labor would be useful and fruitful among the common people, but that he might enflame the Israelites to madness if they still prove unwilling to grow wise.
God deals with the reprobate in various ways. Sometimes He appears doubtful that they can be cured. He sends prophets to them to exhort them to repentance. But when He sees their ingratitude in burying the light that is sent to them, God then deprives them of all doctrine. The light shines forth again but at length is succeeded by other, deeper darkness.
Therefore, as long as the doctrine of salvation shines upon us, let us hasten to repent lest God darken all our minds and senses, and deprive us of the singular benefit of having the image of His paternal favor engraved on us.

John Calvin 

FOR MEDITATION: It is sobering to think that continued rejection or disregard of the gospel may result in its removal. With the great blessing of gospel light comes great responsibility to steward that light. What a curse it would be if we were driven into darkness as the Israelites were in Ezekiel's day!

365 Days With Calvin
Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Supra- or Infra-lapsarianism?

We have received the following difficult question about predestination: "Supralapsarians claim that their theory does justice to the logical symmetry of the decree of God. Opponents reply that it comes perilously close to making God the Author of sin. They would further emphasize the historical fact that both the Westminster Confession and the Synod of Dort adopted the infra-lapsarian position. Were these synods correct in adopting the milder infra theory?" We will be answering this question in several issues. Some explanation is required. Many will not even have heard the words, supra- or infra-lapsarianism, or if they have, will not have remembered what they mean. Nor should they worry. The subject here is one about which Scripture says nothing. In general, these two words have to do with the logical order of God's decrees. More particularly, they have to do with the relationship between predestination and the fall of mankind in God's decrees. The question is: When God chose some and not others, did He choose them as those whom He had already foreseen as fallen (infra-lapsarianism), or did He choose them solely for His own glory and then "afterward" decree their fall and redemption as the way in which He would use them for His glory (supra-lapsarianism). This involves the further question of where Christ comes in the decree. Did God foresee the fall first, then choose some to salvation, and only then decree Christ and His work as the answer to sin, so that Christ comes last in God's decree? Then the order would be: (1) creation and the fall, (2) election, (3) Christ (= infra-lapsarianism). Or did God first decree Christ as the One through whom He would glorify Himself, then choose some "in Christ" and finally decree the fall and redemption as the way in which He would glorify Himself in Christ and His people? Then the order of God's decrees would be: (1) Christ, (2) election, (3) creation and the fall. Then Christ is first in God's decrees (supra­lapsarianism). "Infra-lapsarian" means "under" or "after" the "fall" (infra = under, lapsus = fall) and is the other teaching that the decree of predestination was after the decree of the fall. According to this scheme God first saw His people as fallen and then determined to save them, choosing some only to be saved. The word "supra-lapsarian" means "above" or "before" the "fall" and refers to the teaching that the decree of predestination was before the decree of the fall. According to this scheme, God first planned to save some for the glory of His Name and then planned what He would save them from. Infra-lapsarianism, then, teaches that the logical order of God's decrees is the same as the order of things in history - the fall first and Christ last. Supra-lapsarianism says that the order is the opposite of history, Christ first and the fall last, that is, that we must think of things in God's decree in order of their importance. Perhaps we can now see the difficulty. When we ask the first question above the infra-lapsarian order seems preferable in light of Romans 8:29 and Ephesians 2:4 (i.e., when God chose us He saw us as already fallen, NOT conformed to the image of Christ and NOT holy). When we ask the second question the supra-lapsarian order perhaps seems preferable especially in light of Colossians 1:16-18 (i.e., that Christ is before everything else, also in God's decrees. Which, if either, is correct?

  We continue in this issue to deal with the question of supra- versus infra-lapsarianism (cf. vol. V, no. 20). The questioner, has asked concerning Westminster and Dort, "Were these synods correct in adopting the milder infra theory?" i.e., is one or the other view correct?
        It is clear from the Reformed confessions that they take the infra-lapsarian viewpoint. Thus you will find in them statements to the effect that God chose (elected) His people out a fallen race, that is, out of the human race which He had first foreseen as fallen.
        Nevertheless, we would emphasize that neither the Canons of Dort (copy available on request) or the Westminster Confession of Faith condemn supra-lapsarianism. Indeed at both assemblies there were men present who held supra-lapsarian views - Gomarus and Maccovius at Dort and Rutherford, Goodwin and Twisse at Westminster.
        Both views teach the Biblical fundamentals: (1) that predestination is double and includes both election and reprobation; (2) that it is eternal and unconditional (i.e., that God chooses and rejects without regard to personal merit, but solely according to His good pleasure - Eph. 1, Rom. 9); (3) that God eternally decreed the fall of man and the coming of sin into the world; and (4) that God decreed all things for His own glory.
        Both teach, then, that predestination is eternal and is in that sense before the actual historical event of the fall. Both also teach that in history redemption follows the fall and the coming of sin into the world. Christ's cross is the remedy for sin. The question only concerns the order of God's decrees, about which Scripture says nothing.
        That is not to say that there is no truth in either view. But insofar as there is Biblical truth in either view, there is truth in both.
        For example, Scripture teaches that Christ is first and central in God's decrees (cf. Col. 1:16-17). Supra­lapsarianism emphasizes this with its order: Christ, election in Christ, creation and the fall.
        On the other hand infra­lapsarianism emphasises the Biblical truth that election is gracious by seeing Christ even in God's decrees as the answer to and remedy for sin with its order: creation, fall, election, Christ (cf. Rev. 13:8). Note though that infra­lapsarianism does NOT say that election follows the fall in time (that would be Arminianism), but only in God's decree.
        Nevertheless, the question is too speculative and abstract. Scripture says nothing about the logical order of God's decrees and it is, therefore, a matter of little importance and ought not be a matter of strife or division or a test of orthodoxy among Christians.
        The fact is that God's decree is ONE, just as God Himself is One. It is, therefore, we believe, unnecessary to talk about order in the decrees and to try to separate and arrange them in some order.
        We should emphasize that Christ is "before all things" as supra­lapsarianism does. This is very important. But we should also emphasize that election is gracious and reprobation just, as does infra-lapsarianism. That is equally important.
        Emphasizing these two things we will not be, strictly speaking either supra- or infra-lapsarians, but will merely be keeping to those things that are revealed and leaving the secret things, the things God has not revealed, to God Himself.

Rev. Ronald Hanko

http://www.prca.org/resources/publications/cr-news/item/710-supra-or-infra-lapsarianism-1

http://www.prca.org/current/Doctrine/Volume%205/news-e11.htm#Supra-%20or%20Infra-lapsarianism?%20%282%29

Obeying at All Cost

30 APRIL

Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us. Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God. Jeremiah 42:5-6

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Hebrews 11:1-10

Jeremiah acts as a kind of mediator here, addressing the people in God’s  name as though he has been sent from heaven. The people respond by saying they will do whatever God commands. They say even more emphatically: Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God.

In saying this, the people do not suggest that God’s word is wrong or in any way unjust; rather, they use the word good in the sense of being joyful, and evil as being sad and grievous. They ask for nothing more than that God will declare to them what pleases to Him, to which they will be so submissive that they will refuse Him nothing, even if it is contrary to the flesh.

If this declaration proceeds from the heart, it is a testimony of true piety; for the minds of the godly ought so to be framed as to obey God without making any exception, whether He commands what is contrary to their purpose or leads them where they do not wish to go. By contrast, those who wish to make an agreement with God, saying He should require nothing but what is agreeable to them, show that they do not know what it means to serve God.

True obedience of faith requires that we renounce our desires and do not set up our own arguments and wishes against the Word of God. We do not object to what God requires of us, saying it is too hard or not quite agreeable to us. So whether it is good or evil, meaning agreeable to or contrary to the feelings of the flesh, we ought to embrace what God requires and commands. This is the foundational measure of true religion.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: When God commands us to do something unpleasant, we often try to excuse ourselves from that particular duty, demonstrating the insincerity of our promise. Let us instead strive for the obedience of faith that Calvin talks about and renounce our selfish thoughts.

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Postmillennialism (4)

The Postmillennial Interpretation of Revelation 20

The interpretation of Revelation 20, the one passage in Holy Scripture that mentions the millennium, or thousand-year period, is basic to the right understanding of the millennium and, indeed, of the truth of the last things generally. The explanation of the passage by Reformed amillennialism appeared earlier in this treatment of the biblical doctrine of the last things.¹

Here I sketch the interpretation of the passage by the leading spokesmen of postmillennialism in the Reformed tradition. According to the Puritans and their modern disciples, Presbyterian postmillennialists such as J. Marcellus Kik and Loraine Boettner, and the Christian Reconstructionists, who lean heavily on Kik's exegesis of Revelation 20, the millennium of Revelation 20 is a very long period of time, extending (in the judgment of most) from the ascension of Christ to a time shortly before Christ's coming again.

Like amillennialism, therefore, postmillennialism explains the millennium figuratively, not as a literal period of one thousand years. Indeed, many postmillennialists suppose that the heyday of the millennium—the "golden age" for the church on earth—will last for hundreds of thousands of years prior to the second coming of Christ.

But it is in its explanations of the binding of Satan (vv. 2, 3) and of the reign of the martyr-saints with Christ (v. 4) that postmillennialism differs radically from amillennialism in its interpretation of Revelation 20.

The Binding of Satan

Postmillennialism understands the binding of Satan to be Christ's gradual restricting of Satan's influence upon men and nations throughout this present age until finally at least the vast majority of humans alive in the world are converted to Christ; all nations are "Christianized," that is, governed by the law of God and influenced by the Spirit of Christ in all their activities; and such evils as war, poverty, and crime are severely curtailed.

The more optimistic postmillennialists suggest that when Satan's binding has been fully realized, even sin and death will sharply diminish. R.J. Rushdoony promises a "world relatively free of crime, at peace, and men having a long life expectancy."² Christian Reconstructionist Martin G. Selbrede envisions "voluntary obedience to Christ on a world-wide scale so total that all rebellion and depravity have been 'extinguished.'" Selbrede is certainly right to describe his millennial hope as "unbounded optimism."³

A curious feature of the postmillennial conception of the binding of Satan is the notion that the binding of Satan is dependent upon the aggressive actions of the church. Postmillennialists charge that Satan's obvious influence over nations and people in our day is the fault of the church. If the church would exert herself, she could accomplish Satan's full binding in the postmillennial understanding of it. Whereas Revelation 20:1 places the chain that binds Satan in the hand of the angel, postmillennialism puts it in the hand of the church.

Unfortunately the Church of today does not realize the power that Christ has given her. Christ has placed in her hands the chain by which she can bind Satan. She can restrain his influence over the nations. But today the Church bemoans the fact that evil is becoming stronger and stronger. She bemoans the fact that the world is coming more and more under the control of the Devil. Whose fault is that? It is the Church. She has the chain and does not have the faith to bind Satan even more firmly. Satan is bound and the Church knows it not! Satan can be bound more firmly and the Church does it not!4

Christian Reconstruction likewise condemns the Christian church for the sorry state of a world under the spiritual domination of Satan. Especially if the church would promote the law of God in national and societal life, Satan would soon be completely bound.

The teaching that the coming of the millennial kingdom of Christ in its full glory is being held back by an unfaithful church is yet another instance of the striking formal similarities of postmillennialism to premillennial dispensationalism that I have already noted.5 Dispensationalism teaches that the millennial kingdom Christ intended to establish at His first coming was delayed by the unbelief of the Jews. Postmillennialism teaches that the millennial kingdom in the fullness of its power and glory is being delayed by an unfaithful church.

What postmillennial interpretation of the binding of Satan ignores is that the binding of Satan is a present reality, not a future possibility. He is bound. He has been bound. He has been bound as tightly and completely as can and need be during this present age. The one who has bound him is an angel from heaven, not the church. The church has many important callings. Binding Satan is not one of them. And, of utmost importance, the binding of Satan concerns one limitation of the devil, and one only: he is not able to deceive the nations, so as to bring about the world-kingdom of Antichrist. His binding has nothing to do with converting a majority of the human race, "Christianizing" the nations, putting an end to wars, diminishing crime, and increasing "material blessings" for the human race.

The Reign of the "Souls"

The reign of the "souls" with Christ of Revelation 20:4-6, according to postmillennialism, coincides with the gradual binding of Satan. Throughout the present age, as Satan is increasingly bound, the church progressively gains influence in society and power over the nations until at last, in the heyday of the millennium, she will have dominion—earthly dominion—over all the nations of the world. By the word of God (for Christian Reconstruction especially the law of God), the church and her members will control politics, civic justice, public morality, economics, education, the media, entertainment, and the arts—worldwide. Coming is a universal, earthly kingdom of Christ, prior to the bodily return of Jesus Christ. This will be the mediatorial, or Messianic, kingdom in its fullest and final manifestation. Leading postmillennial theologians teach that this glorious manifestation of the kingdom of Christ may last hundreds of thousands of years before Christ returns.

This splendid earthly kingdom will be the victory of Christ in the world. Apart from this kingdom, Christ would be defeated.

For this kingdom, the postmillennialists ardently hope—as ardently as the dispensationalists hope for their earthly kingdom.

When this kingdom holds sway over all nations and peoples, the Christian Reconstructionists intend to implement once again the civil and judicial laws of the Old Testament, which ordered the national life of Israel. Hence, the name "theonomy" for the doctrine of Christian Reconstruction. "Theonomy" means 'law of God' with reference specifically to the civil and judicial laws of Old Testament Israel. Christian judges likely will sentence Sabbath-breakers to be stoned to death according to the Old Testament law of Numbers 15:32-36.

The First Resurrection

Basic to this postmillennial explanation of the reign of the saints with Christ is its interpretation of the "first resurrection," in Revelation 20:5, 6, as regeneration. Postmillennialism denies that the first resurrection is the translation of the souls of elect believers into heavenly life and glory at the moment of death. It is essential to the postmillennial explanation of the reign of the saints, as to its understanding of the millennium, that the first resurrection be interpreted as regeneration. For only then can the reign of the saints take place on the earth. If the first resurrection is, in fact, the translation of the souls of believers at death, the reign of the saints of Revelation 20:4-6 occurs in heaven as part of the communion of the saints, in their souls, with the reigning Christ at the right hand of God. And this would mean the collapse of the entire postmillennial conception of a coming "golden age" for the church in history, at least on the basis of Revelation 20.

Kik, therefore, calls the interpretation of the "first resurrection," in verse five, as the spiritual regeneration of God's people in this world the "key" to a right understanding of the millennium of Revelation 20.6

Postmillennial, Christian Reconstructionist (to be redundant) David Chilton does not greatly exaggerate when he judges that he can dispose of amillennialism by refuting its interpretation of the first resurrection as the translation of believers into heaven in their soul at death.

We can dispose of the amillennial position right away, by pointing out the obvious: this is a resurrection, a rising again from the dead. Dying and going to heaven is wonderful, but, for all its benefits, it is not a resurrection. This passage cannot be a description of the state of disembodied saints in heaven.7

With regard to John's seeing "souls" reigning with Christ, postmillennialists point out that "souls" can refer to 'persons,' or to 'lives.' Here, they say, the reference is to regenerated persons reigning on earth in both a body and a soul, especially during the time of the "golden age."

This postmillennial interpretation of the reigning of the saints, as seen by the apostle in Revelation 20:4-6, is exposed as false by the conclusive testimony of the passage that the reign of the saints follows their death—their physical death. It is not, therefore, a reign on this earth, but a reign in heaven. The conclusive testimony is not only that John sees "souls," in distinction from "men," or "believers," or "saints," that is, men and women living earthly life in the body, although this deliberate mention of "souls" is significant. Earlier, referring to the same persons in virtually the same language, John located "the souls of them that were slain for the word of God" "under the altar" (Rev. 6:9). He distinguished these souls (and their abode in heaven) from their brothers who still must be killed, as the saints in heaven had been, by the wicked who "dwell on the earth" (Rev. 6:10, 11).

But the conclusive testimony is that John sees "souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus." These persons, who have been killed by the anti-christian world-power for their faithful confession of Jesus Christ, lived and reigned with Christ. Souls of those who have been beheaded do not exercise earthly dominion in history.

That the souls who reign with Christ are the saints who have been taken up to heaven at death is confirmed by the mention of the "second death" in verse six. The second death is hell, as verse fourteen establishes: "The lake of fire [is] the second death." The first death is physical death. Corresponding to these two forms of death are two forms of resurrection, or deliverance from death. The second is the resurrection of the body into immortality. The first is the translation of the soul of the believer at the moment of physical death.

Contrary to the emphatic, but ungrounded, denial of the postmillennialists, the deliverance of the believer in his soul at death is indeed resurrection. The soul of the regenerated Christian in earthly life is corrupted by sin as much as is his body. Besides, his soul is earthy—completely adapted to living earthly life in this world and completely unsuited to living heavenly life in the other world, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. In addition, as corrupted by sin (as corrupted as is the body) and as guilty of all kinds of transgressions of thought, will, and passions, the soul of the believer is fully deserving of the punishment of eternal death at the moment of its separation from the body in death. That Christ perfectly purifies the soul of depravity, transforms it so that it is now fit to live heavenly life, and takes the soul into the eternal life of heaven at the moment of the believer's death is resurrection—real life for the believer out of real death.

The Intermediate State

Revelation 20:4-6 describes the "intermediate state" of elect believers.8

So clearly does the passage speak of the intermediate state that Benjamin B. Warfield, postmillennialist though he was, acknowledged that Revelation 20:4-6 teaches the intermediate state, and may not, therefore, be appealed to by postmillennialism on behalf of a reign of the church on earth. Recognizing that the "souls of them that had been beheaded" are "disembodied souls," Warfield concluded, concerning the millennium of Revelation 20, particularly verses four through six:

The picture that is brought before us here is, in fine, the picture of the "intermediate state"—of the saints of God gathered in heaven away from the confused noise and garments bathed in blood that characterize the war upon earth in order that they may securely await the end. The thousand years, thus, is the whole of this present dispensation, which again is placed before us in its entirety, but looked at now relatively not to what is passing on earth but to what is enjoyed "in Paradise."9

He added: "The millennium of the Apocalypse is the blessedness of the saints who have gone away from the body to be at home with the Lord."10

The Earthly Victory of Christ

Most postmillennialists, however, differ with Warfield. In the light of their exegesis of Revelation 20, particularly the binding of Satan and the reign with Christ of believing members of the church, as sketched above, most postmillennialists view the millennium as the history of this present age destined to climax in the future in a long period of time during which the church will enjoy almost total earthly victory over her enemies.

The church shall have dominion over land and sea/earth's remotest regions shall her empire be/they that wilds inhabit shall their off'rings bring/kings shall render tribute/nations kiss her ring.

This earthly victory of His church will be Christ's supreme triumph, according to postmillennialism, and the full and final glory of His kingdom. In jarring conflict with this giddy prospect of Christ's victory in history is the sobering conclusion of the vision of Revelation 20 concerning the thousand years. "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations...and they...compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city" (vv. 7-9).

How does postmillennialism explain this overthrow of the dominion of Christ and His church at the end of the millennium and history? And how does postmillennialism harmonize this worldwide revolt against Christ's kingship at the end with postmillennialism's conviction that Christ must have an earthly triumph in history? Does not this revolt represent, for postmillennialism, the defeat of Christ—the decisive defeat of Christ?

Prof. David J. Engelsma 
http://standardbearer.rfpa.org/articles/chapter-four-postmillennialism-4 

---

1. Standard Bearer 85, no. 15 (May 1, 2009): 343-346; no. 19 (August 2009): 448-450.

2. R.J. Rushdoony, God's Plan for Victory: The Meaning of Postmillennialism (Fairfax, Virginia: Thoburn Press, 1977), 2.

3. Martin G. Selbrede, "Reconstructing Postmillennialism," Journal of Christian Reconstruction: Symposium on Eschatology 15 (Winter, 1998): 202, 194. The emphasis is Selbrede's.

4. J. Marcellus Kik, An Eschatology of Victory (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1971), 196.

5 Standard Bearer 86, no. 2 (October 15, 2009): 34, 35.

6. Kik, Eschatology of Victory, 179.

7. David Chilton, Paradise Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion (Tyler, Texas: Reconstruction Press, 1985), 196. The emphasis is Chilton's.

8. See my treatment of the intermediate state, with specific reference to Revelation 20:4-6, in previous articles in this series: Standard Bearer 80, no. 9 (February 1, 2004): 210-213; 82, no. 3 (November 1, 2005): 64-67; 82, no. 10 (February 15, 2006): 225-228; 82, no. 20 (September 1, 2006): 465-468; 85, no. 3 (November 1, 2008): 57-60; 85, no. 6 (December 15, 2008): 132-134.

9. Benjamin B. Warfield, "The Millennium and the Apocalypse," in Biblical Doctrines (New York: Oxford University Press, 1929), 649. Warfield found evidence for a future "golden age" elsewhere in Scripture, especially the Old Testament prophecies and Revelation 19:11-21.

10. Ibid., 662.

Offering a Cup of Cold Water

29 APRIL

For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in Me, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 39:18

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Philemon

God was not unmindful of the Ethiopian who helped save Jeremiah’s life. Though Ebedmelech was an alien and from a barbarous nation, he alone undertook the cause of the prophet when others were either so terrified that they did not exert themselves, or else were sowrn enemies of God’s servant.

Ebedmelech alone dared to proceed in this hopeless situation to defend the holy man. Jeremiah says this service was so incredible that it would not go without a reward. Ebedmelech showed his concern for Jeremiah’s life, but not without danger, for he knew that princes were united against him, and these ungodly men had on their side the greatest part of the court and of the common people. Ebedmelech roused himself against enemies both high and low, but God aided him so that he was not overpowered by his adversaries. In this very great danger, Ebedmelech experiences the favor of God and is protected and delivered from danger. As Jesus later says, “He who gives a cup of cold water to one of the least of my disciples shall not lose his reward” (Matt. 10:42).

No doubt the Spirit of God uses the example of Ebedmelech to rouse us to the duties of humanity to teach us to relieve the suffering of the miserable, to give them as much help as we can, and not to shun the hatred of men or nay dangers that we may thereby encounter. Because we so often neglect doing good, we are told about the reward given to the Ethiopian so that we may know that, even though we should expect nothing from men when we are kind and generous, yet our work will not be in vain, for God in His wealth can render to us more than we can expect from the world.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION:

The Lord will honor those who give a cup of cold water to the needy, and He will reject those who give nothing, regardless of how religious they are. Are we, like Ebedmelech, among the first group? In what ways can you reach out to the downtrodden and the rejected?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Moving Forward

28 APRIL

Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die. Jeremiah 38:10

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 4

Let us be courageous when it is necessary, though we have little hope of a favorable outcome. Ebedmelech might have thought that his attempt to help Jeremiah would be in vain, however strenuously he pleaded for the prophet. He might then have relinquished the task instead of boldly undertaking it.

Likewise, those who think too much about a difficult task often talk themselves into inactivity. They think, "What effect can you possibly have? You are only one person, and your enemies are many. If the king himself has been forced to yield to the anger of wicked men, how can you as an individual have the confidence to resist them? Furthermore, such tumult will be raised that you will perish in it. Meantime, these wicked men will perhaps stone the unhappy man whom you are trying to help."

All these thoughts might have occurred to Ebedmelech, and he thus might have desisted from helping. But we see that he rested not in his own confidence but in God's favor.

Let us remember his example and hope beyond hope when God require us to do something. When faith and duty demand anything from us, we must close our eyes to all obstacles and go forward in our work, for all events are in God's hands alone, and they will happen as He pleases. Our duty is to proceed, even if we think our labors may be in vain and will not bear fruit. Ebedmelech happily succeeds in rescuing the prophet because he acts as a pious and upright man in obeying God.

God will also extend His hand to us, whatever difficulties we encounter, for we shall overcome them by His power and help.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION:

We often overanalyze situations and attempt to justify our neglect of duty.Ebedmelech did not do this, but rather stepped out in faith, trusting that he was doing the Lord's will. He left the results in God's hands. Are we doing that today?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Trusting His Incredible Promises

27 APRIL

Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. Jeremiah 31:8

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 49:1-17

Though the prophet addresses this teaching to ancient people, it contains truth that is perpetually useful. People act preposterously when they measure God's favor according to present appearances. This mistake that we almost inherit by nature involves all our thoughts and feelings. It also produces a lack of confidence in God. All of God's promises then grow cold to us, or at least lose their true value.

For when God promises anything, we look around us and ask how that can possibly be fulfilled. If our minds cannot comprehend the way and manner that a promise can come true, we then reject what has proceeded from the mouth of God. Let us carefully consider this prophetic doctrine so that when God promises what surpasses our faith and seems impossible to fulfill, this doctrine will come to our minds. Let it serve as a corrective to check our false thoughts, lest we, being preoccupied be a false and preposterous opinion, should do wrong to the power of God. 

If the deliverance that God promises seems incredible to us, let us remember that God has the power to make the blind to see, the lame to walk, the pregnant and those lying in bed to undertake a journey; for He can by His power overcome all obstacles. We shall find our faith victorious, provided we learn to rely on God's promises and firmly rest on them.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION:

Imagine how hard it would have been for the Jews to receive these promises in so dark a time, and yet, they were fulfilled.

We often doubt God's amazing promises because our present circumstances seem so bleak. Until we learn to fully lean on God and His promises, understanding that darkness and light are both alike to Him (Psa. 139:12), our faith will not be victorious. What circumstances are you facing today that require faith?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Rejoicing on the Eve of Exile

26 APRIL

For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, and say, O LORD, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel. Jeremiah 31:7

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Acts 16:16-34

Jeremiah now asks God's people to sing and shout for joy. This prophecy is given not long before the utter destruction of the people, the city, and the temple. But the prophet's intent here is to comfort everyone, even the dead in their graves, so that all might patiently wait for the promised deliverance. The people could be assured of deliverance because it is no more difficult for God to raise the dead than to heal the sick. This prophecy becomes especially helpful when the Jews are driven into exile and become so miserably scattered that they have no hope of deliverance.

So that his teaching might more effectively enter their hearts, the prophet exhorts the people to rejoice, to shout for joy, and to sing. Not only the people of God, but also strangers, are told to do so. For though the joy of believers is not like that of unbelievers, the prophet seems purposely to address his words to aliens so that the Jews might be ashamed for not believing the promises offered to them.

The prophet says, "Ye alien nations, shout for joy, for Jacob." What should Jacob do in the meantime? We now see the purpose for the prophet's vehemence in bidding all to rejoice for the redemption of the people. His intent is that this prophecy might not only bring some comfort to the miserable exiles, but also assure them that even in the midst of death they can live before God, provided they do not despair.

In short, the prophet's intent is not only to mitigate the sorrow of God's people, but also to fill them with spiritual joy so they might not cease to entertain hope and to take courage. They must not only patiently but cheerfully bear their calamities because God promises to be propitious to them.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION:

Singing and shouting for joy when we face profound setbacks in life seems incredibly idealistic. Yet, if we are believers, that is what God asks us to do, for even on the eve of calamity we know that we will eventually come through safely because of the gracious hand of our Savior, Christ Jesus.

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R Beeke

Prayer for God’s Ministers

LORD, Teach Thy ministers how they ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, that they may not preach themselves, but Christ Jesus our Lord, and may study to shew themselves approved to God, workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Make them mighty in the scriptures, that from thence they may be thoroughly furnished for every good work, in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, and sincerity, and sound speech, which cannot be condemned.

Enable them to give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, to meditate upon these things, to give themselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word, to give themselves wholly to them; and to continue in them, that they may both save themselves and those that hear them.

Let utterance be given to them, that they may open their mouths boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, that thereof they may speak, as they ought to speak, as able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, and let them obtain mercy of the Lord to be faithful.

Let the arms of their hands be made strong by the hands of the mighty  God of Jacob; and let them be full of power by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, to show Thy people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.

Make them sound in the faith, and enable them always to speak the things which become sound doctrine; with meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; and let not the servants of the Lord strive, but be gentle to all men, apt to teach.

Make them good examples to the believers; in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, and in purity; and let them be clean that bear the vessels of the Lord, and let Holiness to the Lord be written upon their foreheads.

LORD, grant that they may not labour in vain, or spend their strength for nought, and in vain, but let the hand of the Lord be with them, that many may believe, and turn to the Lord.

To God be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end,

Amen.

Matthew Henry

A Method For Prayer, pp. 104-105