1月21日 遵行神的命令
遵行神的命令
圣徒所打的是神的仗，因此理当受神的指挥。他们照着祂的命令安营，也照着祂的命令开拔。
基督精兵必须受神命令的约束。尽管军队行进在地上，但作战的统帅部却在天上，并颁布指令：“这是你的命令……这些是你的兵器。”凡是越过神的吩咐、或擅自采用神未准许之手段的人，即便看起来在对付罪上有些“成效”，也必因这种僭越行为而被追究责任。
在人间的战争中，军纪是严明的。有些人即便打了胜仗，但若是因为僭越职权或擅自行动，仍会被送上军事法庭甚至处决。神在这一点上的管教也极其精准。凡是那些发明出一套自以为是的敬拜方式，或是捏造出自定的苦修形式的人，神都要质问：“谁向你们讨这些呢？”（赛1:12）这就是所罗门所说的“不要行义过分”（传7:16）——即当我们竟自以为能“修正”神的律法，在祂的规条上再添上自己的补丁时，我们就陷入了自义。神曾警告以色列：假先知是在徒劳无功，因为他们并没有奉祂的差遣（耶23:32）。同样，若你所行的一切不符合神的设计与旨意，也终将归于徒然。
神的意念非同人的意念，神的道路非同我们的道路。若当年摩西凭着人的智慧来策划出埃及，我们大概会以为他该去掠夺埃及人的马匹和军火；但神却要祂的百姓赤手空拳、徒步而出，而摩西也紧紧追随了神的号令。既然这是神的战争，理所当然要由祂来统领：他们照祂的命令安营，照祂的命令起行，也照祂的命令争战。他们所用的战术与兵器，全都是神亲手指定的。我们从这些榜样中学到了什么呢？在奔向天国的征途中，面对拦阻我们的邪灵与私欲，我们也必须严守神的规矩——这些准则已清清楚楚地写在祂的话语之中。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：创22章，太21章，
个人灵修：尼11章，徒21章
JANUARY 21, WENDESDAY
FOLLOWING GOD’S ORDERS
It was God’s war they waged, and therefore only reasonable they should be under His command. They encamped and marched by His order.
The Christian soldier is bound to God’s orders. Though the army is on earth, the council of war sits in heaven and issues directives: “Here are your orders… these are your weapons.” And those who do more or use other than God commands, though with some seeming success against sin, shall surely be called to account for their boldness.
The discipline of war among men is strict in this case. Some have been court-martialed and executed even though they have beaten the enemy, because they forgot their rank or acted without orders. The discipline of God is also very precise on this point. He will say to all who invent ways of their own to worship Him or who fabricate their own forms of penance, “Who has required this at your hands?” This is truly to be “righteous over-much,” as Solomon says (Ecclesiastes 7:16), when we presume to correct God’s law and add supplements of our own to His rules. God told Israel that the false prophets were wasting their time because they did not come on His errand (Jeremiah 23:32). You, too, are wasting your time if you are doing anything that is not by God’s design.
God’s thoughts are not like man’s, nor His ways like ours. If Moses in his own wisdom had directed Israel’s flight from Egypt, we would have expected him to plunder the Egyptians of their horses and arms. But God would have His people come out naked and on foot, and Moses kept close to His orders. It was God’s war they waged, and therefore only reasonable they should be under His command. They encamped and marched by His order; they fought at His command. And the tactics and weapons they used were all prescribed by God. What are we to learn from their example? In our march to heaven, fighting with the cursed spirits and lusts that stand in our way, we too must go by God’s rules, which are spelled out for us in His Word.