November 9 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Acts 17:22-34

²²Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
²³For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
²⁴God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
²⁵Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
²⁶And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
²⁷That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
²⁸For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
²⁹Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
³⁰And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
³¹Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
³²And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
³³So Paul departed from among them.
³⁴Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Devotional:

From Greek poetry comes the line, 'We are also his offspring' (17:28). By now Athens was emerging to some extent from its polytheism despite the presence still of many statues and altars to gods and goddesses. Zeus was gaining supremacy among the gods and was being regarded as creator and ruler.

This god, the poets had said, was father of men. In the Greek religion and mythology there had been intermarriage between gods and human beings on numerous occasions. So it was an easy transition to regard Zeus as father of men as well as their creator. If we who are persons are the children of Deity then we ought not to think that the 'Godhead' is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. Thus Paul reasons.

As we look into the wonder of personality we have a small inkling of the nature of God, in whose image man was created. True, this sin-marred creature shows little resemblance to his Father Creator! But men redeemed by God's only-begotten Son increasingly partake again of the divine nature by the influences of His indwelling Spirit.

For all their wisdom, what an inadequate view of man and God the Greeks had! The simplest Christian believer understands far more than they. Never need we or our children in secular schools apologize for our faith. We are wiser than the remarkable Greeks. We have more understanding than all our teachers (Psalm 119:99). We are the offspring of Jehovah, the Creator-God. He made us and, further, He has adopted us into His special family.