ANGLICAN DAILY FOUNTAIN DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 (NONE SHALL APPEAR BEFORE ME EMPTY-HANDED)
TOPIC: NONE SHALL APPEAR BEFORE ME EMPTY-HANDED
TEXT: Exodus 23:10-19(NKJV)
10. ” Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce,
11. “but the seventh [year] you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard [and] your olive grove.
12. “Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.
13. “And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth.
14. ” Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year:
15. “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty);
16. “and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in [the fruit of] your labors from the field.
17. “Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
18. “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor shall the fat of My sacrifice remain until morning.
19. “The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
STUDY
From today’s reading concerning the Sabbatic years, God commanded the Israelites thus: Sow the land six years; harvest the crops six years; let the land rest the seventh year, let the poor have all that the land produced on the seventh year. In their worship place, the males should appear before God three times a year.
Three times a year they should keep a feast to the Lord: Feast of the unleavened bread, feast of harvest and the feast of ingathering. In observing the above, none was to appear before God empty-handed. God Himself commanded this. In our churches today we must maintain a good fellowship with God, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together (Heb. 10:25).
There is a great need for us to attend all church activities and in doing this, we must destroy selective obedience and obey God in all things. Again, today’s topic is a clarion call for giving willingly. God demands our substances, our services, money, gifts and talents. To be stingy and still appear before God empty-handed is a let down on God.
When we seize God’s tithes and offerings, refuse to offer sacrifices to Him, make pledges without fulfilling them, we make ourselves liars and thieves in God’s house. God loves a cheerful giver.
PRAYER: Dear God, help me not to appear before you empty-handed in Jesus’ name. Amen
