DAY 273    Read John 2 through 4.

Today's reading:  Of five incidents in Christ's early ministry two involve conversations with one person--one a ruler of the Jews, the other a Samaritan woman.  Both discussions reveal important spiritual truths.

Memory gem:  "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life"  (John 4:14).

Thought for today:
Come with me this clear, beautiful day--join us in the bus.  There are over forty of us.  We are traveling southward from Samaria.  It is a beautiful country, with hills and valleys.  Now we see before us two mountains--turn slightly eastward--one on the south, one on the north.  Between them nestles a small town called Nablus, which is an abbreviation of Neapolis or "new city."

We ride through the town, and, turning southeast, we see on our left great piles of rock--outlines of walls, towers.  The ruins of the city of Shechem are being excavated by archaeologists.

A few hundred yards farther south, on the left side of the road, is a wall surrounding Jacob's well.  Most archaeologists have no doubt that it is the actual well of Jacob, mentioned in the fourth chapter of John.  I remember the first time I ever sat down at the well where Jesus once sat.  Strange to say, there was a woman there who drew water out of the well for me.  I was glad to drink.  It was clear, cool, and sweet.  How refreshing on that warm day of our journey!

Are you thirsty today?  Is there something you feel you need and never can find?  Are you dissatisfied in some way with your life?  If so, remember that the spiritual thirst which God sends to the soul needs the water of life.

Christ invites, "Let him that is athirst come.  And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely"  (Revelation 22:17).  There is no cost, no charge.  Just come and receive it.  Come to the well, as did the woman of old, and hear the blessed words of eternal life, and find your life changed, as hers was.  Find Jesus--not only a prophet, but the blessed Messiah for whom we have looked so long, the only hope of Jew and Gentile, the Lover of all men and women and young people and boys and girls.

Come and sit down here by the well.  Drink of the water of life freely.  And may you be blessed, saved, and satisfied.

DAY 272    Read Matthew 3:1 through 4:11; Mark 1:1-13; Luke 3:1-23; 4:1-13; John 1:19-51.

Today's reading:  When Jesus reached the age of "about thirty," he was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah.  We read about the three great temptations and then about the calling of the first disciples.

Memory gem:  "And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"  (Matthew 3:17).

Thought for today:
Jesus of Nazareth had heard of the work of His cousin, John the Baptist; and knowing that the time had come for His own public ministry to begin, He joined a company journeying to the Jordan River, and there requested baptism of John.  John recognized that Jesus was different from the others; he exclaimed, "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?"

Jesus answered, "Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness"  (Matthew 3:14, 15).

That is what Jesus said: "It becometh us"--or it is proper for us, it is our duty--"to fulfill all righteousness."  And His baptism was a part of it.

So John led the Saviour down into the Jordan and buried Him beneath the water.  But we must always remember that our holy Saviour did not receive baptism as a confession of guilt on His part, but to identify Himself fully with sinners.  He took the steps that we must take and did the work that we must do.  He was an example to us.

Now, friend, I ask you this question:  Have you been baptized?  If not, why not?  And I will ask just one more question, the one asked by the godly Ananias of Saul at the time of his conversion"  "And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord"  (Acts 22:16).

Your baptism will show your faith in the death of Christ, who washes away your sins in His own blood (see Revelation 1:5).  Why should you delay?

DAY 271    Read Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:57 through 2:38; Matthew 2; Luke 2:39-52.

Today's reading:  The familiar stories about the angelic choir, the shepherds, and the wise men impress on our minds anew the unique circumstances of the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Memory gem:  "Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins"  (Matthew 1:21).

Thought for today:
How simple was the cradle of the Babe of Bethlehem!  It was just a crude manger, no doubt filled with hay or straw.  And this baby was an unusual one.  He had been mentioned by a holy prophet hundreds and hundreds of years before.  "Unto us a child is born"  (Isaiah 9:6).

This babe was named by an angel months before he was born, and His name was Jesus.  The very town in which He was to be born had been pointed out more than six hundred years earlier (see Micah 5:2).

Isn't it strange that God chose the little town of Bethlehem, five miles south of Jerusalem, for the great event of the Saviour's birth?  He was not born in Jerusalem, the capital of Judea and the headquarters of God's people.  He was not born in Rome, the capital of the world.  He was not born in one of the great cities of India, China, or Persia, but in a small village of Judea.  The name of the town was significant, too, for Bethlehem means "house of bread."  Later on, Jesus called Himself "the bread of life"  (John 6:35).

God sent His own Son into the world to be born as a babe, to grow up into manhood, to die on the cross for our sins, and then ascend to His Father in heaven.  But that was not the last that this world  would see of Him, for the promise is that He will come back again, not as a babe, but as a glorious king.

Jesus was the baby who changed history.  He was the Saviour of the world who was crucified on Calvary, but who rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.  And He will be the King of kings and Lord of lords when He comes to this earth again--not in a lowly stable but in clouds of glory; not with a baby's cry to His attentive mother, but with a mighty shout that will awaken the dead.

DAY 270    Read John 1:1-18; Luke 1:1-4; Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-28; 1:5-56.

Today's reading:  Two of the Gospel writers give us detailed genealogies of Jesus human family.

Memory gem:  "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth"  (John 1:14).

Thought for today:
The virgin birth of Christ is demanded by at least three things in the Sacred Record.  First, the preexistence of Christ is plainly declared in the Bible.  Jesus prayed His Father to glorify Him with the glory which He had with the Father before the world was made (see John 17:5).  Therefore, the holy Son of God existed before He was born of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem.  This fact demands a virgin birth, not a normal human birth.

Second, the Scriptures teach that Jesus was sinless.  They declare that He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners"  (Hebrews 7:26).  In fact the Bible declares Christ's deity.  He was "Emmanuel,...God with us"  (Matthew 1:23).  He who was a supernatural being must enter the world as the Son of man in a supernatural way.

Third, for centuries divine prophecy had declared that He--the Messiah, the Christ, the Redeemer of this world--would come and would ultimately sit upon the throne of His father David.  To His kingdom there would be no end, and it would be worldwide. Isaiah 9:7.  If Jesus had been merely a man, the son of Joseph, His legal father, He could never sit on the throne of David.  According to Bible prophecy, no natural descendant of King Jechonias could ever hold that position.  Listen to these words:  "O earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord....Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed [that is, of Jechonias's direct bodily descent] shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah''  (Jeremiah 22:29, 30, see also Matthew 1:11).  Jesus, not being Joseph's natural son, but only his legal son, could sit there.  He had not only a divine right, but a legal right to that place.

DAY 269    Read Malachi

Today's reading:  One would suppose that God's people had finally learned to obey and trust the Lord, but the Old Testament's last message calls for repentance.  It closes, however, with a prophecy of final victory over evil.

Memory gem:  "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts"  (Malachi 3:1).

Thought for today:
What does God say about those who are unfaithful in tithes and offering?  Listen to these strong words of Malachi 3:8:  "Will a man rob God?  Yet ye have robbed me.  But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?  In tithes and offerings."

Could it be that many of the physical curses that have come upon the natural world have been due to unfaithfulness on the part of the inhabitants of the world?  Why not try Him?  Those who have, have found His blessing always with them.  They have found that He lives up to His word.  They have found that He fulfills His word; and what He promises, He does.

There was A.A. Hyde, the Mentholatum king, who was bankrupt and owed $100,000.  Then he pledged God a faithful tithe.  Someone brought him a formula and said, "Manufacture it."  He did, and you know the rest.

A boy named William was sixteen years old and poor, just starting out to make his way in life.  He knelt on a towpath with the captain of a canal boat and listened to the captain's prayer.  Then the captain said: "Someday someone will be the leading soapmaker in New York.  It might as well be you.  You know soap and candlemaking.  Make an honest soap and give a full pound.  Be a good man, and give the Lord what belongs to Him."

That boy was William Colgate.  And he did pay his tithe--first one tenth, then two tenths, later three, four and five tenths.  Finally he gave it all.

If all professed believers were faithful in tithes and offerings, churches would be adequately supported everywhere; there would be no temptation to employ unscriptural means to secure money for church expense; and the gospel message would be sent quickly to all the world.

NOTE:  Most Bible scholars date Malachi's prophecy as about 425 B.C.--either shortly before or during Nehemiah's second term as governor.  Certain features favor the period before Nehemiah returned; for example, the call for reform in paying tithe (see Nehemiah 13:10-12).  Some scholars, however, give a date as late as 415 B.C.  In any event more than 400 years elapsed before the birth of Jesus and the opening of the New Testament.
    Since the Bible contains no record for events during this long silent period, we must depend on secular history to tell us what happened.
    It was a turbulent period for troubled Judah.  Waves of conquest swept back and forth over the land, bringing distress and desolation.  When Alexander's Grecian Empire split up among rival rulers, Palestine became a battleground between the Seleucid monarchs of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt--both Grecian dynasties.  One of the Syrians, Antiocus Epiphanes, desecrated the temple by offering swine on the altar in 168 B.C.  Smoldering Jewish resentment broke into open revolt, and three years later Judas Maccabaeus restored the temple services.  Judas was killed in battle in 161 B.C., and his brother Jonathan carried on the struggle.  External attacks and internal factional violence continued until 151, when Jonathan was made governor general in Palestine under Syrian control.  Unrest and disorder continued almost constantly.
    Finally the Romans, who had been dominating affairs in Egypt and the Near East for a hundred years, stepped in to stabilize conditions.  Pompey entered Jerusalem in 63 B.C., and from that time onward Judea (the Roman name for Judah) was controlled by rulers loyal to Rome.  Herod, a "converted" Idumean (Edomite) who ruled when Jesus was born, gained his throne with the aid of Roman arms and by the slaughter of thousands of Jews.
    Into this uneasy peace imposed by Roman power (Pax Romana) the Prince of Peace came to proclaim a kingdom of love.

DAY 268    Read Nehemiah 11:15 through chapter 15.

Today's Reading:  Chapters 11 and 12 carry through to the final ceremonies dedicating the wall.  Then a gap of unknown duration occurs.  In verse 6 of chapter 13 we learn that Nehemiah left Jerusalem for "certain days."  On his return he found it necessary to take strong measures again in rooting out evil practices.

Memory gem:  "Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God"  (Nehemiah 13:14).

Thought for today:
"In the work of reform to be carried forward today, there is need of men who, like Ezra and Nehemiah, will not palliate or excuse sin, nor shrink from vindicating the honor of God.  Those upon whom rests the burden of this work, will not hold their peace when wrong is done, neither will they cover evil with a cloak of false charity.  They will remember that God is no respecter of persons, and that severity to a few may prove mercy to many.  They will remember also that in the one who rebukes evil, the spirit of Christ should ever be revealed.

"In their work, Ezra and Nehemiah humbled themselves before God, confessing their sins and the sins of their people, and entreating pardon as if they themselves were the offenders.  Patiently they toiled and prayed and suffered.  That which made their work most difficult was not the open hostility of the heathen, but the secret opposition of pretended friends, who, by lending their influence to the service of evil, increased tenfold the burden of God's servants.  These traitors furnished the Lord's enemies with material to use in their warfare upon His people.  Their evil passions and rebellious wills were ever at war with the plain requirements of God.

"The success attending Nehemiah's efforts shows what prayer, faith, and wise, energetic action will accomplish."--Prophets and Kings, p. 675.

NOTE:  Nehemiah's twelve-year term as governor ended in 432 B.C.  He probably returned in about 425 B.C. (The same date is usually assigned to Malachi's prophecy.)

DAY 267    Read Nehemiah 9 through 11:14.

Today's reading:  After the seven day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the people gathered for a rededication of themselves to God.  They formulated and signed a solemn covenant.

Memory gem:  "Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God"  (Nehemiah 9:31.

Thought for today:
"Nehemiah's efforts to restore the worship of the true God had been crowned with success.  As long as the people were true to the oath they had taken, as long as they were obedient of God's word, so long would the Lord fulfill His promise by pouring rich blessings upon them.

"For those who are convicted of sin and weighed down with a sense of their unworthiness, there are lessons of faith and encouragement in this record.  The Bible faithfully presents the results of Israel's apostasy: but it portrays also the deep humiliation and repentance, the earnest devotion and generous sacrifice, that marked their seasons of return to the Lord.

"Every true turning to the Lord brings abiding joy into the life.  When a sinner yields to the influence of the Holy Spirit, he sees his own guilt and defilement in contrast with the holiness of the great Searcher of hearts.  He sees himself condemned as a transgressor.  But he is not, because of this, to give way to despair; for his pardon has already been secured.  He may rejoice in the sense of sins forgiven, in the love of a pardoning heavenly Father.  It is God's glory to encircle sinful, repentant human beings in the arms of His love, to bind up wounds, to cleanse them from sin, and to clothe them with the garments of salvation."--Prophets and Kings, p. 668.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Nehemiah 9:4.  "Stairs"--literally, ascent; probably the high pulpit of Nehemiah 8:4, where the word used means "tower," or high scaffold.

DAY 266    Read Nehemiah 6 through 8.

Today's reading:  In only fifty-two days of concerted effort the walls were finished and the gates were set up.  Imagine the joyful celebration that followed as the people observed the Feast of Tabernacles.

Memory gem:  "This day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength"  (Nehemiah 8:10).

Thought for today:
"In Nehemiah's firm devotion to the work of God, and his equally firm reliance on God, lay the reason of the failure of his enemies to draw him into their power.  The soul that is indolent falls an easy prey to temptation; but in the life that has a noble aim, an absorbing purpose, evil finds little foothold.  The faith of him who is constantly advancing does not weaken; for above, beneath, beyond, he recognizes Infinite Love, working out all things to accomplish His good purpose.  God's true servants work with determination that will not fail, because the throne of grace is their constant dependence.

"God has provided divine assistance for all the emergencies to which our human resources are unequal.  He gives the Holy Spirit to help in every strait, to strengthen our hope and assurance, to illuminate our minds and purify our hearts.  He provides opportunities and open channels of working.  If His people are watching the indications of His providence, and are ready to cooperate with Him, they will see mighty results."--Prophets and Kings, p. 660.

NOTE:  For some reason, Tobiah is not mentioned in Nehemiah 6:2.  He may have been unwilling to attempt personal violence on Nehemiah.  Later (see verses 17-19) it is revealed that he was related by marriage to some of the Jewish leaders, apparently trying to accomplish his designs by intrigue.
"Gashmu" (verse 6) is a variant spelling of Geshem (see verse 2).
Nehemiah's "register" of the original returnees under Zerubbabel (see Nehemiah 7:5-73) differs only slightly from Ezra's (see Ezra 2:1-70).  It is quite easy to account for the differences.

DAY 265    Read Nehemiah 3 through 5.

Today's reading:  Nehemiah, a man of action, inspired the dispirited builders with zeal.  He met opposition and threats of violence with confident faith in God--and with vigorous action to counter the enemies' moves.  But he also took measures to clean out corruption among God's people.

Memory gem:  "Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?"  (Nehemiah 5:9).

Thought for today:
"The customs of the world are no criterion for the Christian.  He is not to imitate its sharp practices, its overreaching, its extortion.  Every unjust act toward a fellow being is a violation of the golden rule.  Every wrong done to the children of God is done to Christ Himself in the person of His saints....

"The slightest departure from rectitude breaks down the barriers and prepares the heart to do greater injustice.  Just to that extent that a man would gain advantage for himself at the disadvantage of another, will his soul become insensible to the influence of the Spirit of God.  Gain obtained at such a cost is fearful loss.

"We were all debtors to divine justice; but we had nothing with which to pay the debt.  Then the Son of God, who pities us, paid the price of our redemption.  He became poor that through His poverty we might be rich.  By deeds of liberality toward His poor we may prove the sincerity of our gratitude for the mercy extended to us.  'Let us do good unto all men,' the apostle Paul enjoins, 'especially unto them who are of the household of faith,'  Galatians 6:10.  And his words accord with those of the Saviour: 'Ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good.'  Mark 14:7.  'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.'  Matthew 7:12."--Prophets and Kings, pp. 651, 652.

NOTE:  To the three enemies listed in chapter 2, another is added in Nehemiah 4:7--the Ashdodites, or Philistines.  A look at a map of the period reveals that Nehemiah's little province of Judah was completely encircled by hostile neighbors: Samaria on the north, Ammon across the Jordan on the east.  Edom of the south, and Ashdod on the west.

DAY 264    Read Ezra 10; Nehemiah 1 and 2.

Today's reading:  Ezra succeeded in bringing about some good reforms in Judah, but God saw that a strong political leader was needed.  He raised up Nehemiah to meet the challenge.

Memory gem:  "The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build"  (Nehemiah 2:20).

Thought for today:
"Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem was opportune.  There was great need of the influence of his presence.  His coming brought courage and hope to the hearts of many who had long labored under difficulties.  Since the return of the first company of exiles under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua, over seventy years before, much had been accomplished.  The temple had been finished, and the walls of the city had been partially repaired.  Yet much remained undone.

"Among those who had returned to Jerusalem in former years there were many who had remained true to God as long as they lived; but a considerable number of the children and the children's children lost sight of the sacredness of God's law.  Even some of the men entrusted with responsibilities were living in open sin.  Their course was largely neutralizing the efforts made by others to advance the cause of God; for so long as flagrant violations of the law were allowed to go unrebuked, the blessing of Heaven could not rest upon the people.

"It was in the providence of God that those who returned with Ezra had had special seasons of seeking the Lord.  The experiences through which they had just passed, on their journey from Babylon, unprotected as they had been by any human power, had taught them rich spiritual lessons.  Many had grown strong in faith; and as these mingled with the discouraged and the indifferent in Jerusalem, their influence was a powerful factor in the reform soon afterward instituted."--Prophets and Kings, pp. 618, 619

NOTE:  Nehemiah received his commission as governor of Judah in 444 B.C