October 7
The Continual Burnt Offering" F or it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us."
Our minds are carried back in these verses to the time when God said, “Let there be light,” and dispelled the darkness of the primeval chaotic world. We are then carried to that incident in the book of Judges where Gideon’s army went to battle against the Midianites with a trumpet in one hand and a torch hidden in a pitcher in the other. At Gideon’s command they broke the earthen vessels and the lights shone out striking terror to the hearts of the enemy who could not account for the crash and the blaze of light in the midnight hour. So we who are saved, having been turned from darkness to light, now have the responsibility of shining for God in this world. But in order that this may be, these earthen vessels of our humanity must be broken. Then others can behold the light.
Our earthen vessels break;
The world itself grows old;
But Christ our precious dust will take
And freshly mould:
He’ll give these bodies vile
A fashion like His own;
He’ll bid the whole creation smile,
And hush its groan.
To Him our weakness clings
Through tribulation sore,
And seeks the covert of His wings
Till all be o’er.
And when we’ve run the race,
And fought the faithful fight,
We then shall see Him face to face,
With saints in light.
—Mary Bowley