July 25, 2021

Devotion for July 25

Genesis chapters 1 & 2 and Revelation chapters 21 & 22 serve as “bookends” for the rest of the Word of God. These four chapters tell us of God’s intentions for His creation and that it will assuredly be fully restored. The entirety of the contents between the bookends shows us the less than ideal, fallen circumstances—that are the result of sin—through which God navigates in order to show us the way back to Him. His love for us demands that we have the freedom to choose whether or not to follow that way.

 The angel who had been given a high place of leadership in heaven also had a choice. There was a time that he served the LORD joyfully, but a tiny seed of covetousness was cherished in his heart. He desired to be worshiped in the place of God. Instead of putting aside this desire in favor of loyalty to God, he cultivated this seed of selfishness and it grew into sin, defined in the Bible as lawlessness (1 John 3:4).

 For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.  Isaiah 14:13-15 (see also Ezekiel 28:11-19)

 “From the very beginning of the great controversy in heaven it has been Satan’s purpose to overthrow the law of God.  It was to accomplish this that he entered upon his rebellion against the Creator, and though he was cast out of heaven he has continued the same warfare upon the earth. To deceive men, and thus lead them to transgress God’s law, is the object which he has steadfastly pursued. Whether this be accomplished by casting aside the law altogether, or by rejecting one of its precepts, the result will be ultimately the same. He that offends “in one point,” manifests contempt for the whole law; his influence and example are on the side of transgression; he becomes “guilty of all.” [James 2:10].  In seeking to cast contempt upon the divine statutes, Satan has perverted the doctrines of the Bible, and errors have thus become incorporated into the faith of thousands who profess to believe the Scriptures. The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God — a battle between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition.”  The Great Controversy by E.G.White (page 582)

 And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive… Deuteronomy 6:24

Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Psalm 119:34

The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver. Psalm 119:72