March 20 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 5:6-15:

⁶I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
⁷Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
⁸Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
⁹Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,
¹⁰And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
¹¹Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
¹²Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.
¹³Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:
¹⁴But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
¹⁵And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

Devotional

Perhaps as we rejoice in the Lord on this day of worship our hearts will be moved at the joylessness of many around us. By the grace of God we have been enabled to respond to the commandment of our Creator and our Redeemer to remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. We have been taught that it is the law of God that we should labor six days and devote the Lord's Day to a holy resting and worship. The great privileges of this day bring rest and strength to our whole being. We would that all men everywhere might join us in our public worship, that all would also know the blessing of private worship and study of the Scriptures, and that they would experience the joy of performing acts of Christian love and service. But around us we notice many who lack this joy. They seem to have no thought of their Creator on this day; they give no evidence of an interest in the salvation that our Saviour purchased for His people; they act as if this were not His day, as if they were unaware that He is exalted at God's right hand. How empty, how ugly, how unprofitable, how self- centered, how frustrated, how boring to themselves, how foolish, how tragic, the lives of many about us really are. If it were not for the grace of God we would be as they. May God use us to reach them and commend to them the joy of serving Him and keeping His commandments.

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week 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.)