Young People’s Blog

“Keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude, vs. 21).

Perhaps you have never thought of it, but the man who wrote the book of Jude was actually the brother of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus also had a brother named James who wrote the book of James. They had grown up with the Lord Jesus, but it does not seem that they believed on Him until after He was crucified.

They would have had plenty of opportunity to see the love of God displayed in His life, and now Jude tells us to keep ourselves in the love of God. How do we do that? We know that the Lord’s love for us never changes; He continues to love us, even if we are doing something that displeases Him. However, we do not enjoy His love if we are displeasing Him; we need to confess the sin, and get right with the Lord. Then we can enjoy His love again.

So, keeping ourselves in His love means that we are on guard in our life, watching that we do not do things that displease the Lord. Then we will continue to enjoy His love for us.

“And Noah…offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake” (Genesis 8:20-21).

After the flood, Noah and his family came out of the ark. When he went into the ark, Noah had taken seven of every clean animal. When he came out of the ark, he was led of the Lord to offer burnt offerings with some of those clean animals, and it tells us that “the Lord smelled a sweet savour.” Why was this?

It was because those burnt offerings spoke of Christ. The Lord Jesus would not come and suffer on the cross for more than 2,000 years after the flood, but God looked on to this, and said that He would not curse the ground any more for man’s sake. God is a God of mercy, as well as justice. Yes, God will judge this world, and perhaps very soon, yet He smells “a sweet savour” when He sees the work of Christ on the cross. God knows that man can never improve through his own efforts, but in coming to Christ, our sins can be washed away. Through the value of that work sin will eventually be removed from this whole universe.

“Praying in the Holy Ghost” (Jude, vs. 20).

It is a real privilege to be able to go to the Lord in prayer. Most people in the Old Testament did not know about prayer; God had not given them that privilege yet. But now, since the Lord Jesus has died, we may all go to the Lord, first of all to thank Him for all He has done for us, and then to bring before Him our needs, and the needs of others.

An old brother, now with the Lord, used to remind us that “a prayerless life is a powerless life,” and this is true. Prayer brings us into the Lord’s presence, and by the Holy Spirit we can go to the Lord at any time. Sometimes we hesitate to pray about little things, and perhaps reserve only the big things for the Lord to look after. But the Lord wants to hear about little things too, and He loves to hear us pray about simple things in our everyday life. I knew an older Christian lady who would put her glasses down, and then forget where they were. Since she could not see very well without them, she would have to ask the Lord to help her find them. She said that He always helped her find them!

“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith” (Jude, vs. 20).

When we read the book of Jude, it is a rather sad epistle, for it tells us of some of the evil that was already coming in among Christians. People were pretending to be Christians, and then saying that since the Lord Jesus had forgiven their sins, they could do whatever they wanted. Jude reminds us that judgment is coming, and that such individuals will be severely punished for what they are doing.

But then, at the end of the epistle, there is real encouragement. There are four things we are to do, if we are real Christians, and the first one is to build ourselves up on our most holy faith. What does this mean? It means that as things get more difficult for us, we are to learn as much as we can about Christ, and all that He is to us. Getting saved is only the beginning, for God has many other things to teach us — things that will help us to live for His glory in this world. The more sin and turning away from God we see in this world, the more we should want to learn more of Christ. This comes from reading the Bible and going to meetings where Christians come together for prayer and reading of God’s Word.

“And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon” (Judges 7:20).

Read Judges 7:15-23. This was a most unusual battle, for Gideon had only 300 men, while the Midianites had thousands. Yet the Lord defeated the Midianites, and it tells us in the next chapter that 120,000 of them died that day. But what is strange is that Gideon’s men did not have any weapons. They had lamps (or torches) in their left hands, and trumpets in their right hands; they did not have any hand for holding a sword. Yet the Midianites were defeated.

The Lord allowed the Midianites to fight with one another, for it says that “the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow.” Then, when other Israelites saw the Midianites running away, they too came out and helped chase them.

Of course, there was a time later when Gideon and his men did use their swords, but not until after the battle was won. The Lord used Gideon, but He got the praise for it, and that is how it should be. The Lord works that way in our lives too. He may ask us to do something, but He supplies the power, and then He gets the glory.

“Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it…And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host” (Judges 7:13-14).

God had one more encouragement for Gideon before he and his men actually went into battle. Read Judges 7:9-15. The Lord knew that Gideon was still hesitant, so he told him to take his servant and go down to the camp of the Midianites. There he heard one man telling another man about a dream he had the night before. In his dream a cake of barley bread actually rolled down a hill and knocked over a tent! But the friend knew that this cake of bread was a picture of Gideon, and that the dream showed that the Lord would defeat the Midianites by Gideon.

It was rather humbling to be compared to a cake of barley bread, but then Gideon knew two things. First, he knew for sure that he would win the battle. Secondly, he knew that the Lord would do it for him. The Midianites were “like grasshoppers for multitude,” and Gideon’s 300 men were naturally no match for them. Only the Lord could defeat that big army!

“And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water” (Judges 7:4).

Gideon must have been surprised when the Lord said that he still had too many soldiers. The Lord told him to bring them down to the water. Read verses 5-7, and you will see the further test God gave them. Those men who got down on their knees to drink were the largest number — 9,700. Those who took water up in their hands and drank like a dog, lapping with their tongues, were only 300 men. Then the Lord told Gideon that these 300 men would be his army to fight the Midianites.

Again, this is a lesson for us. The men needed water, but some were quick about it, and took it up in their hands. They had important business to fight the Midianites, and they did not relax while taking a drink. But the others knelt down, taking a good long drink.

In this world we should be like those 300 men. We need food, shelter, clothing, and other things to live in the world, but we should not spend all our time on these things. We have important work to do for the Lord, and that should be what we are thinking about.

“And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many…Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead” (Judges 7:2-3).

Gideon’s army was small by modern standards — only 32,000 men. Yet the Lord said that this was too many, for Israel might think that they had defeated the Midianites by their own power. The Lord told Gideon to tell anyone who was afraid to go home, and more than two-thirds of his army left.

This might have discouraged Gideon, for now he had only 10,000 men. However, we know that the Lord does not need large numbers to win a battle. There is no point in having men try to fight when they are afraid.

It is the same in the work of the Lord today. If we are afraid of the world, or afraid of Satan, then we are not ready yet. We need to go home and learn a little about how the Lord has overcome the world, and defeated Satan. Then we can go out in confidence, not in ourselves, but in the Lord.

“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it” (Song of Solomon 8:7).

“All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me” (Psalm 42:7).

Even among human beings, love has led people to make some tremendous sacrifices for others. Many times in the history of this world, people have suffered and even died for others because they loved them dearly. But no one ever endured the suffering that the Lord Jesus went through, yet nothing could quench His love.

Water in the Bible is sometimes a picture of the judgment of God, and especially when the water is the waves of the ocean. Such waves can be very high and very strong. Yet nothing could turn the Lord Jesus aside from His suffering on the cross, for His love was stronger than all that suffering. All God’s judgment for sin had to pass over Him, but His love rose above it all. Romans 5:8 reminds us that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” There was never any love like His!

“If the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside…let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew” (Judges 6:37, 39).

If you read about the way Gideon used the fleece, you will see that he put it out twice. The first time he asked that the dew be on the fleece, and all the ground be dry. When he put out the fleece, the next morning he was able to wring out a bowl full of water, but the ground was dry. Then, he asked that it be reversed. He asked that the fleece be dry, but dew on the ground, and God did that for him.

Have you ever wondered if there is a meaning to all this? The fleece is a picture of the Lord Jesus. During His life He was a “root out of a dry ground” (Isaiah 53:2). He was full of blessing, but everything around was dry. Then, at the cross, He became the dry fleece, for He could say, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd” (Psalm 22:15). But what was the result? Blessing for you and me, pictured by the dew on the ground. Everything in the Bible points to Christ.