the crops, I will bless the ground and make the crops grow.” The heathen never did that. They took a kid, stewed it in the mother’s milk, then added some water to have volume, and sprinkled the result over their ground. They foolishly thought this would make the crops better. The Lord says, “Don’t use the heathen’s methods in your work. Don’t take the ways of the world to make these things prosper. The Holy Spirit will make the Word effective and the Holy Spirit will make your work profitable. The church erroneously has adopted many of the world’s ways to raise money or to get members. The ways of the world may be fine for their things, but con cerning the things of God we must seek the guidance of the Spirit of God. Let us consider one other passage. Remember the napkin that was around Jesus’ head? When He arose, it was wrapped together and was lying in a place by itself. Why was a fact like this put in the Bible? There must be something to learn from this. Mary wanted to hold on to Jesus in the garden. He said, “Touch me not, Mary, I haven’t ascended yet unto my Father.” About an hour later, how ever, she did hold Him by the feet. Why was it that in the garden she couldn’t touch Him, while on the way to Jersualem she could? Here is the tru th : in the garden she wanted to hold Him in order to keep Him from leaving her. The napkin about His head represents Christ as the head of the church and the Leader of God’s people. He had to leave the Body (the church is the body) and go back to heaven. As this napkin was wrapped together in a place by itself, separated from the rest of the body, it revealed that Christ wanted His disciples to know that He was going to be sepa rated from them, too. So, in these various passages we see some precious truths to learn and then to appropriate to our own hearts and souls. If you do that, you will be surprised at the blessings you will re ceive as you rejoice in the things of God. 7
given to another.” It had already happened in the intervening hours. The king promised Daniel, “If you interpret that, I’ll make you the third ruler in the kingdom.” But the Bible tells us that Darius made him the first ruler in the kingdom. It always pays to walk with God and to do God’s will. When the world would give you third place, God will give you first. God, In His grace, reveals what is going to happen in the future. We decide in this world where we are going. One doesn’t die and find out after death where he is going. When the sinner dies he is taken right into eternity or outer darkness. When a Christian dies he is taken straight to heaven where he is forevermore with the Lord. We, too, are weighed in. the balances and found wanting. When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ into- our hearts the scales tip the other way. Another interesting Scripture is found in Deuteronomy and Exodus concerning God’s c om m a n dm e n t, “Thou shalt not seethe (or stew) a kid in his mother’s milk.” The Israel ites were told this three times so it must be very important. There must be a wonderful meaning or the Holy Spirit wouldn’t have put it in the Bible. The phrase occurs twice in Exodus and once in Deuteronomy. The milk should have been used to make the baby animal into a strong crea ture. Instead of that the milk was used to destroy the kid. God is saying to us, “Don’t take the things the Lord gives you for con structive purposes and use them for destructive purposes.” There are some people who take lovely truths, like the coming of our Lord, or the Lord’s Supper, or consecration, or sanctifica tion, or the gift of the Spirit, or the keeping of the Sabbath, and use these precious thoughts to destroy the church, to split up families and churches. Everything the Lord gives us in His Word is for our blessing and good. I believe there is still another mean ing to the passage. In another Scrip ture we read, “If you will let me bless
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