Milo

Context
The Testimony of Two or Three Witnesses
…Then the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything so evil among you. You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
19:15-21 Sentence should never be passed upon the testimony of one witness alone. A false witness should suffer the same punishment which he sought to have inflicted upon the person he accused. Nor could any law be more just. Let all Christians not only be cautious in bearing witness in public, but be careful not to join in private slanders; and let all whose consciences accuse them of crime, without delay flee for refuge to the hope set before them in Jesus Christ.

Punishment of a False Witness.
But if convicted of perjury, it will be sufficient for his own condemnation, and his punishment shall be exactly the same as would have overtaken the object of his malignant prosecution.

What punishment he intended or the law allotted to the accused, if he had been convicted, the same shall the false accuser bear.

Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And thine eye shall not pity,…. The false witness when convicted; this is directed to the judges, who should not spare such an one through favour or affection, but pronounce a righteous sentence on him, and see it executed, in proportion to the crime, and that according to the law of retaliation:
but life shall go for life; in such a case where the life of a person must have gone, if the falsehood of the testimony had not been discovered, the false witness must suffer death; in other cases, where a member would have been lost, or the price of it paid for, the same penalty was to be inflicted:

eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot; that is, the price of an eye an eye, &c. see Exodus 21:23.

June 20th

Have you come to “when” yet?

And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Job 42:10.

The plaintive, self-centred, morbid kind of prayer, a dead-set that I want to be right, is never found in the New Testament. The fact that I am trying to be right with God is a sign that I am rebelling against the Atonement. ‘Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer; I will walk rightly if You will help me.’ I cannot make myself right with God, I cannot make my life perfect; I can only be right with God if I accept the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to resign every kind of claim and cease from every effort, and leave myself entirely alone in His hands, and then begin to pour out in the priestly work of intercession. There is much prayer that arises from real disbelief in the Atonement. Jesus is not beginning to save us, He has saved us, the thing is done, and it is an insult to ask Him to do it.
If you are not getting the hundredfold more, not getting insight into God’s word, then start praying for your friends, enter into the ministry of the interior. “The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.” The real business of your life as a saved soul is intercessory prayer. Wherever God puts you in circumstances, pray immediately, pray that His Atonement may be realized in other lives as it has been in yours. Pray for your friends now; pray for those with whom you come in contact now.

June 20

“Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” (Isa. 30:21)

WHEN we are in doubt or difficulty, when many voices urge this course or the other, when prudence utters one advice and faith another, then let us be still, hushing each intruder, calming ourselves in the sacred hush of God’s presence; let us study His Word in the attitude of devout attention; let us lift up our nature into the pure light of His face, eager only to know what God the Lord shall determine—and ere long a Very distinct impression will be made, the unmistakable forth-telling of His secret counsel.
It is not wise in the earlier stages of Christian life to depend on this alone, but to wait for the corroboration of circumstances. But those who have had many dealings with God know well the value of secret fellowship with Him, to ascertain His will.
Are you in difficulty about your way? Go to God with your question; get direction from the light of His smile or the cloud of His refusal.
If you will only get alone, where the lights and shadows of earth cannot interfere, where human opinions fail to reach—and if you will dare to wait there silent and expectant, though all around you insist on immediate decision or action—the will of God will be made clear; and you will have a new conception of God, a deeper insight into His nature and heart of love, which shall be for yourself alone—a rapturous experience, to abide your precious perquisite forever, the rich guerdon of those long waiting hours.—David.

“STAND STILL,” my soul, for so thy Lord commands:
E’en when thy way seems blocked, leave it in His wise hands;
His arm is mighty to divide the wave.
“Stand still,” my soul, “stand still” and thou shalt see
How God can work the “impossible” for thee,
For with a great deliverance He doth save.

Be not impatient, but in stillness stand,
Even when compassed ’round on every hand,
In ways thy spirit does not comprehend.
God cannot clear thy way till thou art still,
That He may work in thee His blessed will,
And all thy heart and will to Him do bend.

“BE STILL,” my soul, for just as thou art still,
Can God reveal Himself to thee; until
Through thee His love and light and life can freely flow;
In stillness God can work through thee and reach
The souls around thee. He then through thee can teach
His lessons, and His power in weakness show.

“BE STILL”—a deeper step in faith and rest.
“Be still and know” thy Father knoweth best
The way to lead His child to that fair land,
A “summer” land, where quiet waters flow;
Where longing souls are satisfied, and “know
Their God,” and praise for all that He has planned.—Selected.

20 JUNE

Be poor in spirit

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ Matthew 5:3
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Luke 5:1–11

To be poor in spirit is to be humble, to know ourselves, and to judge ourselves to be what we are. There would be no excellency in this poverty of spirit if it was not founded in truth and suited to our circumstances. It is such a temper of mind as becomes a sinner under a dispensation of mercy and grace. When we hear a rich man talk of his wealth, furniture and servants, we are not surprised or offended, but if a beggar who has neither food, raiment or dwelling, should affect an air of importance and talk at the same rate, we should think him mad. No less an impropriety is it for one of fallen Adam’s race to fancy that he has any wisdom, strength or goodness of his own. Yet thus we all dream by nature. Vain man would be wise. Sinful man labours to establish his own righteousness. He knows not that he is poor and miserable and blind and naked, but is trusting and boasting in a power which he has not. When we are awakened from this dream by the Spirit of God, we become poor in spirit, or humble—truly so in a measure, but imperfectly at the best. Now there are three discoveries made to the soul, which strip us of our fancied riches and attainments and make us poor. Those who know the most of these are the most advanced in poverty of the spirit:
(i) a humbling sense of the sinfulness of our hearts. When this is known it causes as sudden a change of thought as it would if a man should unexpectedly find he had the plague upon him. How little then would he think of all his possessions! So the convicted sinner.
(ii) a humbling sight of the majesty of God. How greatly did this affect Job and Isaiah (chapter 6). But especially,
(iii) a humbler taste of his love. A manifestation of God reconciled in Christ humbles the soul to purpose. Without a hope of this sort, the former would lead to despair. But when this hope arises to a strong, well-grounded persuasion, when the Lord shines upon the soul, then there is true poverty of spirit.

FOR MEDITATION: O that my failings might at least teach me humility, and convince me more effectually how frail I am. Diary, 22 January 1755

SERMON: MATTHEW 5:3 [2/3]

June 19th

The service of passionate devotion

Lovest thou Me? Feed My sheep. John 21:16.

Jesus did not say—Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on adherence to a belief or a creed. “If any man come to Me and hate not …, he cannot be My disciple.” There is no argument and no compulsion, but simply—‘If you would be My disciple, you must be devoted to Me.’ A man touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says—‘Now I see Who Jesus is,’ and that is the source of devotion.
To-day we have substituted credal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many are devoted to causes and so few devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is a source of deep offence to the educated mind of to-day that does not want Him in any other way than as a Comrade. Our Lord’s first obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of men; the saving of men was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted to the cause of humanity only, I will soon be exhausted and come to the place where my love will falter; but if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity though men treat me as a door-mat. The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of the life is its unobtrusiveness. It is like a corn of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies, but presently it will spring up and alter the whole landscape. (Cf. John 12:24.)