Category: Devotion of the Day

FEASTING AND SHARING

Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared.
Nehemiah 8:10

The revival under Ezra was built around the Word of God. The Gospel is neither a funeral nor a frolic but a feast and our duty is threefold. We are to “eat the fat,” feed on the solid and substantial doctrine of the Book. We are also to “drink the sweet.” The Word is not only strengthening but sweetening, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Some believers are strong but not sweet.

Then we are to send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared. We are to share, like Samson, with his hands full of honey fresh from his encounter with the lion.

So the Gospel feast means strength and sweetness and sharing. We do not fully experience what God has provided until we participate in all three. A true revival, like this one of Ezra’s day, eats the fat and drinks the sweet and sends portions to them for whom nothing is prepared.

FIRM AND FRUITFUL

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye knew that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
I Corinthians 15:58

We have here a good combination of firmness and fruitfulness. Some saints impress us with their fixity of belief, their sturdy orthodoxy, but they seem not to be abounding in God’s work. They are like tombstones, not trees, by rivers of water. Paul gives us this double-barreled idea again: “Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Col. 2:7). Rock-ribbed and radiant! Alas, the steadfast are always singing and the singing are not always steadfast!

I suppose we shall always have the unmovables who do not joyfully abound and the abounding who do not always abide, but blessed is the man who achieves by grace a good synthesis of both. Grounded and grateful! True and thankful! Steadfast and singing! Abiding and abounding! Theology and doxology!