the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 3
Hosea 9:8—Ephraim was a watchman with my God. (R.V.)
Watch with God.—To watch with God is the privilege of comparatively few. Eight were left outside the garden; to three only did Jesus say, "Come and watch." To watch for the morning star, for the first flowers of the coming spring, for the coming of the Bridegroom, for the setting up of the Kingdom—such is the privilege of those elect souls who are bidden to take their lamps, and go forth to meet the Bridegroom. It is a high honor to be appointed to watch with God the slow evolution of his purpose; to stand on the watch-tower and see what He will say; to be a watchman for the people, a spokesman of their danger when the sword approaches; to be allowed to enter into some of his tears, and yearnings, and prayers, as He beholds the city and weeps over it.
Watch against sin.—But we may be displaced from that position of privilege and responsibility as Israel was. We learn that at this time the chosen had deeply corrupted themselves, as in the darkest days of the Judges; and we may fall into similar corruption and rebellion, unless we watch ourselves, we watch with God. Let us watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation. Corruption is always around us in this world of death. Its germs float on every breeze. We need, therefore, to steep ourselves in the antiseptic of the Holy Spirit’s grace. This is the true Eucalyptus in which the germs of disease perish.
Watch unto Prayer.—"Prayer," said Phillips Brooks, "is not compelling God’s reluctance, but laying hold of God’s willingness." It is as though we waited for God’s movements to bless us, and taking the stream at the flow, launched our heavy barge upon it, that his power might bear us forward.
