The Hedge

Bible Reading: Ezekiel 22:23-31

Key Verse: Verse 30 - “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”

Key Words: that should make up the hedge 

A hedge in Bible lands was and is used as a wall of separation.  The hedge separates orchards and gardens, and is used as a wall of protection.  From our text it is obvious that God was looking for a man to fill the gap, stand up for righteousness; but not a single man could be found.

I believe the principle is clear.  Not only are the Marines looking for a few good men, so is God—men of righteousness who will separate themselves from the world and stand up for righteousness.  The opportunity for us to mentor those young men is great.  We should very well take advantage of this opportunity.

The Olympic games seem reserved for youth.  And even then, “youth” is defined as “under 25.”  When youthful Melvin Stewart, 23, won the Gold Medal in the men’s 200-meter butterfly he shared some keen insight on age.  In 1988, Stewart finished a disappointing fifth at the games in Seoul.  His family was there with a gentleman named George Baxter.  Mr. B, as Stewart calls him, paid for his boarding school when he flunked out of school.  “He gave me a chance to turn things around.  I owe my education to him.  He was, and is, my mentor.”  Stewart continued, “That day in Seoul, Mr. B took me aside and said, ‘This is a blessing in disguise.  Use this to fuel the fire toward the next Olympics.’” 

After emerging victorious in Barcelona, Melvin Stewart threw his victory flowers to Mr. B and, “I told him, ‘I love you.’  I am going to give him my gold medal, too.  Mr. B is seventy-six years old and I do not do many things without talking to him first.  He’s incredible!  And he’s been married to the same woman for fifty-three years.  It is too bad, but older people are a great resource that too many young people do not rely on today.”  Melvin Stewart appears to be a gold medalist outside of the pool as well.

Are you allowing God to use you to stand in the gap and impact others for God’s glory?

                                                                                        Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do:  

✞The next time you see or hear of a hedge, remember God is looking for you to stand in the gap for His glory. 

The Flowers

Bible Reading: I Peter 1

Key Verse: Verse 24 “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:”

Key Words: and the flower thereof falleth away 

The Middle East has a number of flowers, some of which are the anemone; it is a perennial plant growing mostly by the sea and waterways.  They also have in abundance poppies and tulips, just to name a few.  But no matter what the flowers may be, it is inevitable that the flowers will eventually fade away.

So it is in our lives, we only have a short time to be productive and then we “fade away.”  So what we do with our time of “blooming” is important.

When Mickey Mantle was sixty-one, he was approached by an autograph-seeking middle-aged man and his little boy.  The man had tears in his eyes when he said, “Son, it took me thirty years to get here to shake this man’s hand.  This is the greatest baseball player who ever lived.” 

The little boy looked at Mantle then turned back to his dad and said, “Daddy, that is an old man.” 

The heroes of yesterday have aged, and their mortality reminds us that age and change occur more rapidly than we think or desire. You have only a short period of time to “bloom,” so use your time wisely 

                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do:

✞When you see, hear, or even smell a flower, remember our time is short, so use your time wisely. 

The Cockle

Bible Reading:  Job 31

Key Verse: Verse 40 - “Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.”

Key Words: cockle 

You may not have heard of the cockle.  It is only mentioned once in the Word of God.  It is not a very large plant; it only grows to approximately eighteen inches high.

The cockle is also known as the stench plant.  When the cockle is crushed, it puts off a rank odor.  It taints the milk and the meat of grazing animals.

The cockle is a lot like bitterness.  It causes a big stink and defiles many.

One of the most powerful pictures of the embittered heart is seen in Herman Melville’s character, Captain Ahab, in Moby Dick.  In a violent confrontation at sea, the great white whale dubbed Moby Dick had sliced off Ahab’s leg.  Ahab had been carried to his bunk in the bowels of the ship; and there he lay, clinging to life, leg absent, during the return voyage.

“…for long months of days and weeks, Ahab and anguish lay stretched together in one hammock, rounding in mid winter that dreary, howling Patagonian Cape; then it was that his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another; and so interfusing, made him mad.”

Ahab was eventually fitted with a peg leg, but there was no prosthesis for the soul.  Obsessed with hate, Ahab set his face to search out and destroy Moby Dick, whatever the cost.  He fitted a ship, hired a crew, and mounted a voyage of vengeance, which led to his death, the destruction of his ship the “Pequod,” and the loss of all his men except Ishmael, who lived to tell the tale.

Do not let bitterness destroy you; and do not be like the cockle plant, causing a stink wherever you go. 

                                                                                                 Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Ask God to keep you from becoming bitter.  The only alternative is to stink up the place when you are.

The Chestnut Tree

Bible Reading:  Genesis 30:25-43

Key Verse: Verse 37 - “And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.”

Key Words: chestnut tree 

The chestnut tree is a tree of imposing appearance, often reaching to heights of over one hundred feet.  Its diameter can reach six to ten feet at the base.

If you scratch the bark of the chestnut tree, it automatically turns white, which is symbolic of cleanliness.  The wood from the chestnut tree was used to make drinking troughs.

Cleanliness is important in the life of the believer.

Did you know that scientists have discovered that every snowflake has a tiny piece of dust at its core?  Yes, every snowflake has a dirty heart.  In the spiritual realm, the blood of Christ is applied to the heart of an unbeliever and it cleanses him from all sin.  Not a speck of defilement remains, for God removes every stain and washes each believer whiter than snow.

Did you know that in 1842, the first bathtub was denounced as a “luxurious and democratic vanity?”  Boston made it unlawful to bathe, except on a doctor’s prescription.  In 1843, Philadelphia made bathing illegal between the dates of November 1^st and March 15^th (cold winter months). 

How tragic that many Christians have adopted a similar schedule for their spiritual cleansing!  It seems as though many would rather have the stench of the world for a season than the sweet-smelling fragrance of cleanliness. 

                                                                                             Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞When you see or hear of the chestnut tree, remember the importance of being clean spiritually.

The Cedar Tree

Bible Reading:  Psalm 104

Key Verse: Verse 16 – “The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;”           

Key Words: the cedars of Lebanon 

There are three things we know in regard to the cedars of Lebanon.

First, the cedars are quite dense in that region of the country. 

Second, they produce a good fragrance.  People in general love to smell the cedars of Lebanon.

Third, the wood of the cedar was believed to be the wood used in the purification services.

There is a story that I love to tell in regard to purity.  The story goes something like this.

In the forests of northern Europe and Asia lives a little animal called the ermine.  He is mostly known by his snow-white fur—and there is nothing more beautiful in the fur markets of the world.  In some countries the state robes of judges are lined with it, the white being symbolic of purity and honor.  The ermine has a peculiar pride in his white fur coat.  Against all hazards he protects his fur against anything that would spoil it.

It is said that the fur hunters take cruel advantage of the ermine’s care to keep his coat clean.  They do not set a snare to catch him at some unwary moment, but instead find his home, a cleft in the rock or the hollow of a decaying tree, and daub the entrance and interior with filth.  Then their dogs start the chase.  Frightened, the ermine flees toward his home, his only place of refuge.  He finds it daubed with uncleanness, and he will not spoil his pure white coat.  Rather than go into the unclean place, he faces the yelping dogs and preserves the purity of his fur at the price of his life.  It is better that he be stained by blood than spoiled by uncleanness.

Purity for the believer is not just important – it is imperative. 

                                                                                        Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do: 

✞Keep yourselves pure from all the impurities in this world.

                    ✞When you see or hear of the cedar tree, remember the importance of purity. 

The Palm Tree

Bible Reading:  Revelation 7

Key Verse: Verse 9 - “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;”

Key Words: and palms in their hands 

The palm tree is a highly useful tree.  The tree grows to a height of about eighty feet.  The sap of the palm tree was used to make sugar.  Its fruit was edible and nourishing.  The seeds from its fruit were used to feed the camels.  The leaves were used as a covering for the roofs of houses.

·        The palm tree was used to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:40).

·        The palm tree is symbolic of righteousness (Psalm 92:12).

·        The palm tree denotes victory (Revelation 7:9). 

It is Revelation, chapter 7, I want us to look at for the sake of the devotion.  The palm tree is symbolic of victory.  Each of us, as a believer, is ultimately victorious over sin because of Jesus Christ.  Please note the following.

Walking through a park, I passed a massive oak tree.  A vine had grown up along its trunk.  The vine had started small – nothing to bother about.  But over the years, the vine had gotten taller.  By the time I passed, the entire lower half of the tree was covered by the vine’s creepers.  The mass of tiny feelers was so thick that the tree looked as though it had innumerable birds’ nests in it.

Now the tree was in danger.  This huge, solid oak was quite literally being taken over; the life was being squeezed from it.  But the gardeners in that park had seen the danger.  They had taken a saw and severed the trunk of the vine – one neat cut across the middle.  The tangled mass of the vine’s branches still clung to the oak, but the vine was now dead.  That would gradually become plain as weeks passed and the creepers began to die and fall away from the tree. 

How easy it is for sin, which begins so small and seemingly insignificant, to grow until it has a strangling grip on our lives.  And yet, Christ’s death has cut the power of sin.  Yes, the “creepers” of sin still cling and have some effect.  But sin’s power is severed by Christ; and gradually, sin’s grip dries up and falls away.

So the next time you see or hear of the palm tree, remember your victory through Jesus. 

                                                                                                 Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞Remember the palm tree is symbolic of victory, and victory for us comes through Jesus Christ. 

The Productive Tree

Bible Reading:  Psalm 1

Key Verse: Verse 3 - “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

Key Words: He shall be...planted 

From our text we see the psalmist comparing the believer to a productive, fruitful tree.  The psalmist gives us at least two reasons for the tree’s productivity.

First of all, it is planted!  Verse three says, “And he shall be like a tree planted...”.   The idea is well-grounded – a good root system.  If you buy a tree and never plant it, it will never be fruitful and will eventually die.

Secondly, where you plant the tree is important: verse three goes on to say, “...by the rivers of water.”  Trees planted by the riverbank have good soil (which is symbolic of the heart [see Mark 4:20]), and plenty of water (which is symbolic of the Word of God [see Ephesians 5:26]).

Just as the tree must be planted and have the right location, good soil, and plenty of water; so must the fruitful believer.

The psalmist gives us three things that will destroy our productivity. 

First of all, whom you listen to:  “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.”  Be careful to whom you listen.

Secondly, whom you linger with: “nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”  Be careful with whom you run.

Thirdly, what you take heed to: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord.”

It is easy to tell whom one listens to, the worldly or wise.  It is easy to tell whom one runs with, and it is easy to tell who spends time in God’s Word.  It shows all over them.

I heard of a man who was digging for oil.  It seemed that his well was going to be a dry hole, but he believed that there was oil at that place.  So he kept digging, and the people thought he was crazy to keep on spending money on that worthless well.  But he said that there was oil in there.  He kept digging and spent all the money he had and borrowed about all he could get.

Finally he went down until he struck a gusher.  He took his old hat and stuck it under the oil gushing out of the ground, filled it up, and put it on his head.  He ran down the main street of town.  He did not have to say anything.  He had oil all over him, on his face and clothes.  Everyone could see that he had struck oil, for he had it all over him.

Can others easily tell that we have Christ all over us?

The next time you see a tree growing by the water, ask yourself, “Where am I planted, and what am I producing?”

                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do:

✞Apply the above and ask yourself, “Where am I planted, and what am I producing?”