Daily Devotional
Sorrow Turned by Truth
The readings join blessing, judgment, and endurance under one Lord. Balaam is forced to confess that God has set His blessing upon His people, and that from Jacob a ruler shall arise. Lactantius says, “For this cause, therefore, being God, he took upon him flesh, that, becoming a mediator between God and man, having overcome death, he might by his guidance lead man to God.” The star and scepter are not ornaments for talk; they declare the Christ who leads men through death to God, and therefore calls them to follow Him on the same hard road.
That road is not free from reproach. The psalm laments the ruin of the holy place and the blood of the saints; Jeremiah shows that such desolation is not an accident but a chastisement for stubborn sin. When a people harden themselves, neither noble ancestry nor former mercies will shield them. Our Lord therefore warns His disciples beforehand: they will be cast out, hated, and even killed by men who imagine they serve God. He tells them this so that they do not fall away when suffering comes.
Yet Christ does not leave His own untaught or orphaned. “How then says He, I have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now? John 16:12 By the all and the hearing He shows nothing else, but that He uttered nothing alien, but only what was of the Father.” The Spirit does not invent a new faith; He leads the church more deeply into the word of the Son.
Therefore let no one boast in outward privilege, and let no one despair under affliction. Repent while it is called today, keep the commandments of Christ, and endure reproach without deceit, for sorrow borne with Him is turned at last into joy.
“Moses himself [wrote] in the book of Numbers: “There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a man shall arise out of Israel.” For this cause, therefore, being God, he took upon him flesh, that, becoming a mediator between God and man, having overcome death, he might by his guidance lead man to God.”
— Lactantius
“How then says He, I have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now? John 16:12 By the all and the hearing He shows nothing else, but that He uttered nothing alien, but only what was of the Father.”
— John Chrysostom, Homilies on John
For Reflection & Discussion
What sin have you delayed repenting of, though the warnings of God are plain, and what concrete confession and amendment will you make today?
Who has reproached or opposed you for Christ, and how will you answer today without deceit, revenge, or cowardice?
What command of Christ will you keep this week at real cost—through prayer at fixed hours, almsgiving, fasting, or patient endurance under insult?
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