Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: September 1st

Happy art thou, O Israel. - Deuteronomy 33:29.

THIS may be surprising to some, for they are accustomed to think that religion is unfriendly to happiness, or at least to present happiness: though they may concede that it is essential to our safety in another world, they conclude that it only brings self-denial, and privations, and restraints, and trials in this. While, therefore, they allow it to be necessary, we find they are always disposed to postpone, which is a clear proof that they suppose it does not yield present happiness, for happiness is the pursuit of all, and none suppose that they can be happy too soon. It is easy to see that such a notion as this must be very injurious, especially to the young, whose thirst for pleasure is so keen and powerful; but it is as easy to prove that it is entirely a groundless notion. Let us appeal to the three tribunals.

Let us appeal to the bar of reason. All must acknowledge that God is able to make a man happy or miserable; and it is unreasonable to suppose that God will suffer us to be more happy while hating and opposing him, than in loving and serving him; that he will smile upon his enemies and frown upon his friends. But we are assured that “The righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his countenance doth behold the upright;” while “The wicked shall not stand in his sight; he hateth all workers of iniquity.”

Let us appeal to the bar of Revelation. Here we could quote half the Scriptures. We could say, with David, “Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance, in thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.” We could bring forward God himself, saying again, “Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed; behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.”

Let us appeal to the bar of Experience. There are some who have never made the trial; but there are others who have tried, and they are able to compare the service of sin and the service of Christ together, as they have been engaged in both. We are sure that these, even in their most trying moments, of whomsoever they complain, they will speak well of his name; they will acknowledge, with David, “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord.” They will tell us that they were strangers to satisfaction as long as they were unacquainted with their Saviour; but that since they have “taken his yoke upon them,” and have been “learning of him,” they have found “his yoke easy and his burden light,” and “his service is perfect freedom,” and they are “walking at liberty, because they keep his statutes.”

It is not, therefore, surprising that Christians should rejoice: it is rather wonderful that ever they should be found walking “mournfully before the Lord.” From their own experience they are disposed almost to address others when they meet them, even in their vain and sinful pursuits, and to say, “Forsake the foolish, and live and go in the way of understanding.” “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” They know this from experience.

Joy belongs to them, and it belongs to them only, in this lower world. Joy is their duty, joy is their privilege, joy is commanded, joy is promised them, their joy is insured, their joy is begun. And, though we cannot go so far as Dr. Young when he says,-

“’Tis impious in a good man to be sad,”

yet it is a very suspicious circumstance, and should awaken alarm in all our bosoms if we can live from week to week strangers to life and pleasure in the ways of religion.

And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. - Exodus 3:6.

HERE we see, first, that Divine manifestations always produce self diffidence and abasement. “Moses hid his face.” Those are always pleased with little things, who have not been abroad to see great ones; but those who have travelled much, and have had their attention directed to great and noble objects, have had their minds proportionately enlarged. Such will no longer think their own little hills and rivulets ahead of the Nile and the Alps. So if a man who thinks more highly of himself than he ought to think, is placed in the company of men of real intellectual greatness, how soon his little swelling self-importance will subside; how soon is he reduced to his proper level; so is it with the man who has become acquainted with the glorious God. He will say with Job, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes;” or with Isaiah, “Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts;” or with Peter, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord,” on his perceiving his power in the miraculous draught of fishes.

We see here also how little we can physically bear. “Moses was afraid to look upon God;” “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” The splendour would be too much for the eye; the sound would be too much for the ear; the poor frame would break down under that “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” We can only bear a certain degree of sensation. How soon is nature overpowered! When Jacob heard of the prosperity of Joseph, “there was no more Spirit in him.” And when John saw his Redeemer, though he knew him well, and had often reclined on his bosom, and we should imagine that he would not be afraid to meet him again, yet, “When I saw him,” he says, “I fell at his feet as dead.”

God proportions his dispensations to our present condition. It was commonly said in those days, “No man can see God’s face and live.” Moses believed this. But then, do we not often forget our principles? Some time after this, Moses even prayed for this manifestation; in mercy God did not grant him his request. Moses prayed, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And the Lord said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold there is a place by thee, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee into a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by; and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen.”