8月9日 默想神的圣洁
默想神的圣洁
“我从前风闻有祢，现在亲眼看见祢。因此我厌恶自己，在尘土和炉灰中懊悔。”（伯42:5–6）
世上最圣洁的人，一旦亲眼目睹神无限的圣洁，就会认清自己的真实光景，并在神面前深深谦卑下来。以赛亚在异象中看见神坐在宝座上，周围天上的侍役遮掩自己的脸面，高声呼喊说：“圣哉！圣哉！圣哉！万军之耶和华。”然而，这属天的景象也向先知揭示了他自己的污秽；当他听见撒拉弗在神面前呼喊“圣哉”时，他却因自身的属灵光景而惊呼自己的“不洁净”（赛6:3、5）。
约伯也是如此，当他瞥见神的圣洁时，便立刻意识到自己灵魂的污秽。“我从前风闻有你，现在亲眼看见你。因此我厌恶自己，在尘土和炉灰中懊悔。”（伯42:5-6）在一间昏暗的屋子里，我们看起来似乎相当洁净；然而，倘若我们被神荣耀威严与圣洁的光辉所环绕，那么阳光在空气中所能照出的无数尘埃，也绝不比神的圣洁在定我们罪时所显明的污秽更多。可是，骄傲的诡计就在于，它绝不肯出现在使自己黯然失色的地方；它宁愿躲在自我高举的昏暗光线中，贪图人的敬拜与赞美。
你若是一个信徒，神便已将圣洁的生命法则栽种在了你里面。然而，比起亚当犯罪前人所拥有的那受造本性，这又算得了什么呢？那些见过第二座圣殿却对第一座圣殿毫无记忆的以色列人，以为眼前的建筑已然十分辉煌。但是，那些曾亲眼目睹第一座圣殿（即所罗门圣殿）之宏伟的老年人，在欢喜的同时却不禁老泪纵横，因为他们回想起了第一座圣殿被毁的惨状。“然而有许多祭司、利未人、族长，就是见过旧殿的老年人，现在亲眼看见立这殿的根基，便大声哭号。”（拉3:12）因此，愿这幅图景提醒我们，人在起初满有荣耀的状态中，因着撒但的诡计，竟堕落到了何等悲惨的境地。将来在天上，你必能重新得享亚当在乐园中所享受的福分；但在你攀上那座圣山之巅以前，仍有无数疲惫的步伐，需要穿越私欲、试探与罪恶所布下的重重障碍。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：得2章，徒27章，
个人灵修：耶37章，路6章
AUGUST 9, SUNDAY
MEDITATE ON THE HOLINESS OF GOD
“Now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent” (Job 42:5–6).
The holiest man in the world, once he sees God’s infinite holiness, knows himself as he really is and is humbled. Isaiah’s vision revealed God sitting on His throne surrounded by heavenly ministers covering their faces and crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.” But the heavenly scene also opened up to the prophet his own vileness; when he heard the seraphim crying “holy” before God, he cried out “unclean” regarding his own spirituality (Isaiah 6:3, 5).
Job was another man who realized the impurity of his soul when he glimpsed God’s holiness. “Now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent” (Job 42:5–6). In a darkened room we seem clean enough; but if we could surround ourselves with beams of God’s glorious majesty and holiness, the sun’s rays could not discover more specks of dust in the air than God’s holiness would convict us of our sin. But the policy of pride is not to appear where it can be outshined; it prefers to go where it will be adored in the muted light of self-exaltation.
If you are a believer you have a principle of holiness planted in you. But what about the nature you had before Adam sinned? The Israelites who saw the second temple, but could not remember the first one, thought it was a splendid structure. Yet those who had also seen the walls of the first one, Solomon’s Temple, had tears mixed with their rejoicing as they recalled its destruction. “Many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice” (Ezra 3:12). Let this remind us, then, of what man in all his glory fell into by Satan’s design. In heaven you will realize the same pleasures Adam enjoyed in paradise, but many weary steps through obstacles of lust, temptation, and sin lie between you and the top of that hill.