Bible Reading
Luke 4:33-44:
33And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,
34Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.
35And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.
36And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.
37And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.
38And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.
39And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
40Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
41And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.
42And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.
43And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.
44And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.
Devotional
It was evening and the sun was setting. But the night that was coming was to be for many like the brightness of a clear morning when the sun rises. All those who had any sick with divers diseases brought them to Jesus, and they did not bring them in vain. They brought them to a compassionate and mighty Lord, to Him who is the dayspring from on high and the Light of the World. He laid His hands on everyone of them and healed them. As the hymn expresses it:
At even, when the sun was set,
The sick, O Lord, around Thee lay;
O in what divers pains they met!
O with what joy they went away!†
That night there was really no night, for the Sun of righteousness had risen with healing in His wings.
What an earnest this is of the time when our Lord will bring into being the new heaven and the new earth, when those who have put their trust in Him will never again experience suffering or disease. How our thoughts turn to the new Jerusalem, where there will be no night nor setting of the sun—a city that has no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God illumines it and the Lamb is the light thereof.
[†From "At Even, When the Sun Was Set" Click here for the full hymn and tune.]
For January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021, we are planning to post Andrew Kuyvenhoven's
Daylight, a full-year daily devotional, with each month devoted to a particular theme (January—Your Kingdom Come, February—Living with God, March—Sharing the Suffering of Christ, etc.).
So that we can begin the Kuyvenhoven postings on January 1, we are re-posting until then devotional selections from
Think on These Things, a daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.
We are indebted to
P & R Publishing and
Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)
