| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 7 |
Page 5 |
It was solemn warning he gave in the picture of the ax lying at the root of the tree. An ax meant judgment. The business of an ax is to cut down. The doom of sin was clearly told. But the ax was not active. It was lying quietly beside the tree. There was mercy in the delay. Judgment was waiting that the people might have time to repent. God is patient. He does not wish to destroy. He wishes men to repent and be saved. He is slow to wrath. He waits to be gracious.
It is encouraging to see how the people seem to have been affected by John’s stern preaching. “What shall we do then?” they asked. They seem to have confessed their sinfulness and to have desired to turn from their evil ways. This should always be the attitude of those who hear voices of warning and calls to repentance. John’s answer to the questions of penitence was plain and simple. The man who had two coats should give one of them to the man beside him who had none. This is the great lesson of love which Jesus taught so often. The publicans who were proverbially unjust, extorting from the people more as taxes than they ought to collect, were touched by the preacher’s stern words and asked what they should do. “Just begin to be just,” he answered. “Exact no more than that which is appointed to you.”
These words of John’s impress the truth that God wants nothing unreasonable. “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Mic.6:8).
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