DAY 11    Read Genesis 31 and 33

Today's reading includes the remarkable experience of a man who wrestled with a divine being--and emerged victorious!

Memory gem:  "The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another" (Genesis 31:49).

Thought for today:
What is your name?  A man's name sets him apart from all others and establishes his personal identity.  Each of us has a name.  Each is different from the other.

My name means "lost sinner," so what can I do?  Is there any hope for such a one as I?  Yes, indeed there is hope for you!  A man who had a name like yours had a terrible contest at midnight with an angel, and they wrestled until the break of day.  His thigh was put out of joint at the touch of his divine antagonist, and all he could do was to cling helplessly.  He could struggle no more, but in faith he cried out, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."  And then the angel asked, "What is thy name?"

Ah, that was the worst question of all!  Hanging his head, as we may well believe, for the shame that was in his heart, he answered, "Jacob."  What did it mean?  Why, Jacob meant "supplanter," and every time his name was spoken, his acts and character were made known.  He was the man who had lied to his father and had cheated his brother out of his birthright.  He had stolen the blessing that belonged to another and had tried to supplant him in the affection of his father.  So now, in the darkness by the Jabbok River, alone with One whom he now knows to be more than man, he faces the ultimate question, "What is your name?"  He answers truthfully and with sadness, "Jacob"--the supplanter!

But friend of mine, listen to the enfolding mercy of God which brings him forgiveness for all the past because of present victory: "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed" (Genesis 32:28).

How glad we can be today for the men whose names have been changed by the forgiving mercy of God!  Old things have passed away and all things have become new to those who are in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 5:17).  Like wrestling Jacob, we must find our strength in surrender to Christ.

DAY 10    Read Genesis 29 and 30

Today's reading: Another love story!  In this one a man chooses a lovely bride, is deceived by his scheming father-in-law, and then signs up for another term of service to get the girl he wants.

Memory gem: "And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her" (Genesis 29:20).

Thought for today:
In 1 John 4:8 it is written, "God is love."  And the command of Jesus is that "ye love one another" (John 15:12).  In 1 Corinthians 13:13, we read that of all the virtues of life, the greatest is love.  Love of God in the heart of man, love for our fellow beings, and especially the love which leads to marriage are all in God's plan and originated in the mind and heart of God.  Of Jacob's love for Rachel we read in Genesis 29:20: "And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had for her."

This is the sort of true love that God wants us to have in courtship and marriage, a love that even the years cannot kill, love that is stronger than time.  That's the sort of love we are talking about today, love that "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7), a love that never fails.

DAY 9    Read Genesis 26 through 28

Today's reading begins with a famine, tells of trouble over a lie, recounts an episode of daring deception, and ends with a vision of angels given to a frightened fugitive.

Memory gem:  "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not" (Genesis 28:16).

Thought for today:
The Bible is full of angel ministry--story after story--binding earth to heaven; space visitors, keeping our little fallen world in touch with the kingdom of the stars.  Angels appeared to a forsaken maiden by the hidden well in the desert; under the oaks of Mamre; and in the palatial home of Lot, to save that backslidden believer from a fiery death.  They appeared in the mount of the law to Moses.  On Mount Moriah an angel held back the hand of Abraham from the slaughter of his son.  On the plain of Bethel they appeared to Jacob, ascending and descending a mystical ladder connecting earth with heaven.

These mighty beings who can appear and disappear at will, who excel in strength, who do God's commandments, "hearkening unto the voice of his word" (Psalm 103:20)--what teachers they will be in that land of eternal wisdom!  What knowledge they will share with us who find a home there by the shining river of life!  How wonderful it will be to meet our guardian angel and have him recount to us the mercies which God has extended to us as we traveled the path of His providence.

This is such a wonderful future, such a blessed experience, and such a holy companionship, that we invite you into the service of Christ.

DAY 8    Read Genesis 24 and 25

Today's Reading tells an old love story.  A beautiful and gracious young woman agrees to leave her home and become the bride of a man she has never seen!

Memory gem: "And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her" (Genesis 24:67).

Thought for today:
This is an old love story--yes, and "love at first sight" too!  Even more than that, love at first mention!

In Genesis 24:58 we read the answer that women have been making for thousands of years, "I will go."  And how that answer, first made by Rebekah, has been echoing from the lips of millions of her sisters down through the ages!

The question comes, "Will you go?" and back comes the answer, "I will go"--earth's sweetest music to those who are in love.  "I will go," and she is gone, although it means separation from family, from friends.  It may mean loneliness, sickness, childbearing, grief, disappointments, sorrow, sometimes tragedy, but still she says, "I will go."  And the world keeps on going because men ask, "Will you go?" and women still answer in the same old way, with shining eyes and trembling voice, "I will go!"

Rebekah, going to Canaan, found a husband, her true life, and a permanent home.  So the soul that comes to Christ enters into true fellowship, rejoices even now in eternal life by faith, and knows that in God's good time there will be the Canaan land in the new earth to come, and eternal rest for the people of God.

So the Holy Spirit has gone forth to win a bride for Christ.  Are you willing, friend, to enter into this glorious spiritual relationship with your Redeemer, to belong to Him, to rejoice in Him, and to "live happily ever after"?  That is the privilege of all God's children.  So today, as the Spirit pleads with our hearts, let us each one say, "I will go."

​DAY 7    Read Genesis 20 through 23

Today's reading includes one of the most dramatic short stories in all literature: Abraham's obedience to the divine command to offer his beloved son as a sacrifice.

Memory gem:  "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering" (Genesis 22:8).

Thought for today:
The ram offered in Isaac's place represented Christ, who was to be sacrificed in our stead.  When man was doomed to death because of his transgression of God's law, the heavenly Father, looking upon His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, said to the sinner, "Live!  I have found a ransom."

While Isaac was not actually burned as a sacrifice, he was offered up in the heart of Abraham.  Abraham had actually sacrificed Isaac to God, as we read in Hebrews 11:17, although he had not killed him.  The external completion of the act was suddenly prevented by God Himself.  It is not external performance that makes a sacrifice, but the intention of the heart.  Not death, but life, is the final goal of all sacrifice.  In figure, Abraham received Isaac as resurrected from the dead.

The blood of the sacrificial ram of Mount Moriah pointed forward to the blood of Christ shed to atone for the sins of men.  Abraham's sacrifice and those offered in the temple of Solomon built on the same spot all pointed forward to the death of the Saviour who was to come.  The Christian ordinances, celebrated in our day--the broken bread and the poured out wine--point backward to the same sacrifice of Christ and the same salvation.  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

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Difficult or obscure words:
Genesis 22:2.  "Moriah"--the site of Solomon's temple is mentioned here and in 2 Chronicles 3:1

​DAY 6    Read Genesis 16 through 19

Today's reading recounts, among a number of other occurrences during Abraham's life, the escape of Lot' and his two daughters--not his wife--from the destruction of Sodom.

Memory gem:  "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32).

Thought for today:
While Lot's wife was out of Sodom, Sodom was not out of her.  Her heart was back in the city, which was soon to be consumed.  She fled but desired to look back.  And the Scriptures say, "She became a pillar of salt" (Genesis 19:26).  She was like a woman who, saved from a burning house, rushes back to find some treasured possession and is burned with her possessions.  Lot's wife had been saved from destruction by angels, but she had nothing in common with angels.

Possibly if Lot himself had not lingered, had not argued with the angels, had not hesitated, his wife might have been saved.  In that respect, his influence on her was not good.

Just to look may seem like a little sin, but, as Matthew Henry puts it in his quaint way, "There is no little sin, because there is no little God to sin against."

There are too many halfway Christians in the world today, people who are outwardly church members, servants of the Lord, professors of the faith, but whose hearts are still in Sodom, still in the world.  That is what Jesus was talking about when He said: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).

​DAY 5    Read Genesis 11 through 15

Today's reading introduces to us one of the outstanding Bible characters--Abraham, illustrious ancestors of the Israelites and outstanding man of faith.

Memory gem:  "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance. obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went" (Hebrews 11:8).

Thought for today:
"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.  He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16).

The promise to Abraham concerning the seed which would inherit all things really was a promise of the coming Christ, the true Messiah.  Now let us read Galatians, chapter 4, verse 29: "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

The promise was made to the seed of Abraham, and the seed of Abraham is Christ.  Therefore all who become true followers of Christ share in the promise.  What was the promise to Abraham?  That in his seed the whole world would be blessed--that is, all the nations, not merely one nation, but all of them--and that Abraham and his seed would inherit the land.

What land?  Let us turn to the book of Romans, chapter 4, verse 13: "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith."

Notice that Abraham was to be heir of the world, not merely Palestine, for the entire earth renewed and brought back to its Edenic condition will be the eternal inheritance of the seed of Abraham.  It will come through Christ to all who belong to Him.

Really, friend, it's wonderful to be a Christian.  By surrendering our hearts to God and having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as our sin-pardoning Saviour who died for us upon the cross, we too may "walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham" (Romans 4:12).  He is our spiritual father.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Genesis 14:18 "Melchizedek"--No one is certain of the ethnic identity of this "priest of the most high God."
Genesis 15:13.  "Four hundred years"--This period which is mentioned in Acts 7:6, can be harmonized with the 430 years of Exodus 12:20 and Galatians 3:16, 17 by taking a different starting date.  The 430 years began with Abraham's call to leave Haran.  The 400 years begin 30 years later when Ishmael started to "afflict" Isaac.

​DAY 4    Read Genesis 7 through 10

Today's reading records the story of the great universal deluge that transformed the beautiful antediluvian earth into the largely inhabitable globe we now occupy.

Memory gem:  "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith" (Hebrews 11:7).

Thought for today:
The covenant of the rainbow is really a promise of God's grace to sinners everywhere--to us today.  Think of the hope that this token of the rainbow shining in the clouds must have brought to Noah and his family.  Even with the world devastated by the Flood, the evidence of the effect of sin, they could see in the sky the token of God's promise of forgiveness.  It was really a message of grace, the unmerited favor of God to us sinners here below.

With this assurance given to Noah is linked one of God's most precious promises of His grace, which we read in Isaiah 54:9, 10: "As I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.  For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."

Here on this earth we see only half of the rainbow in the clouds.  This is no doubt a type of the imperfectness of our present experience.  The children of God are still here, subject to sorrow, sickness, and death.  But someday, by God's grace and to His glory and praise, we shall see encircling the throne, the complete bow and rejoice in the immortal land.  So the rainbow here on earth is the symbol of our eternal deliverance.

My friend--whoever you are, and whatever your troubles in life may have been--remember God's rainbow promise; it's for you.  The rainbow is seen only when there is a storm.  But there is also sunshine.  In the darkest experiences of life, there is hope in God.  It shines as the light transfigures the darkness.

​DAY 3    Read Genesis 3 through 6

Today's reading:  Four short chapters bridge the whole 1500 years from the Garden of Eden to Noah's ark.  They trace the tragic account of ruin caused by the entrance of sin into God's perfect world.

Memory gem:  "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice that Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh" (Hebrews 11:4).

Thought for today:
The religion of Cain is very strong in the world today.  It does not deny the existence of God in words, but merely in deeds.  It does not deny the need of divine worship and liturgy.  In fact, this may be exalted to a very high and aesthetic plane.  The "way of Cain'' (Jude 11) is a religion of the flesh, a self-willed worship, a self-satisfied justification by works, an insubordinate self-redemption.  This religion relies on itself and denies and rejects substitution, while idealizing one's own power and culture.  This was the theology of the first murderer.

The way of Abel was different.  It was a humble acknowledgment that sin demands death, and a total reliance of the sinner upon the mercy and grace of God revealed in Christ's sacrifice.  This sacrifice was God-appointed in expectation of the final triumph of divine redemption through the woman's Seed.  And the end will be like the beginning in reverse, for the line of the murdered Abel will attain eternal life (see Hebrews 11:40), while the way of Cain will perish.

The faith of Abel still speaks to our hearts today.  Which shall it be--the religion of Cain? or the religion of Abel?  We may say that we are neutral, that we shall take neither.  The fact is, that if we are not of Abel, we are of Cain.  It is only through faith in the Redeemer, faith such as Abel had, that we can find peace of heart.  The religion of Cain never brings peace.  The millions who are under its sway are forever seeking peace, but never finding it.

So friend, whoever you are, wherever you are, come today.  Accept the religion of Abel.  We may have peace in our hearts if we believe on Jesus.  "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).

​DAY 2    Read Psalm 93 through 101; 103; and 104

Today's reading contemplates, through the writings of the Hebrew poets, the wonders of God's creation.  We marvel with the ancient psalmists at the glory and majesty of our Creator.

Memory gem:  "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker" (Ps. 95:6)

Thought for today:
It was this Word of God, made flesh for the salvation of men, that "in the beginning" (Genesis 1:1) not only made the worlds of our planetary system but all the marching constellations, for the heavens are the works of His hands.

And so it is that he who looks upward may see the hand of Christ in the sky--His works of power, wisdom, and beauty.

The hand of Christ, the Master Workman, had been seen in the vast dome of stars long ages before that anonymous technician ground his first lenses or Galileo put them in his first telescope.  As men began to peer out into the boundless voids with stronger and stronger eyes--the mighty glasses of great astronomical observatories--they were struck with silent wonder at the awesome vastness of the universe.  Now we know that the human mind can have no conception of the endless and gigantic creation about us.

The creation testifies of its Creator as the eternal, infinite God.  "All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord" (Psalm 145:10), said David with the tongue of inspiration.  He must have been gazing out into the blue-black sky as there on the verdant meadows of heaven began to bloom, one by one, the lovely stars, "the forget-me-nots of the angels."--Longfellow.

We rejoice in the human Christ, a humble Galilean carpenter; but we must know, too, that He was, and is, the Son of God Most High--that the very heavens are the work of His hands.  Indeed, His works praise Him when His worshipers are silent.