I love books. Over the last four years, I have culled and sold or given away about 2,000 books from my personal library. And yet, over 4,200 books remain on the shelves. In the corner, near a favorite chair is a collection of books with a particular character. There are three Bibles in various translations, numerous books on revival, prayer, worship, and devotionals. Many were gifts. Some are treasured helps, tools to search my soul, chisels that God uses to separate sin from undoing the work of grace that God started on January 12, 1974.
One of the books in the corner I picked up on July 8 and read the page associated with that day. It was a devotional by J. Sidlow Baxter. Baxter was a pastor and theologian born in Australia in 1903 and who died in 1999. He wrote over 30 books, probably his most famous one, EXPLORE THE BOOK, “a 1760-page tome that analyses and summarizes each book of the Bible.” (Wikipedia) When I was a young Christian, I referenced it often.
The heading for the July 8 devotion was based on Luke 19:42 and was titled . . .
But We Do Not Know
“If thou hadst known.” —Luke 19:42
The context is the triumphal entry when Jesus arrives on the back of a donkey at the approach to Jerusalem. The people are crying out “Hosanna to the Son of David”, the Pharisees in the crowd want Jesus to rebuke the people for their words and worship. But Jesus responds with, “If these are silent, the very stones will cry out” (vs. 40). And then Jesus saw the city of Jerusalem. Maybe, He rounded a corner and saw the city. Maybe His view had been obscured by some trees. Maybe His attention had been down on the donkeys back. But He sees Jerusalem and then verse 41 says that “He wept over it.” And as he wept, He said something through His tears, saying,
“If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, 44 and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:42-44)
“If you had known”
Baxter provides a meditation on the import of those words. Israel of Jesus’s day did not realize their opportunity to bow before their Messiah. They didn’t recognize that God incarnate was walking their streets. They didn’t recognize that salvation and rescue were near. And Jesus wept.
None of us knows when our time on earth will end.
Read that again because you don’t believe it. You see, we all believe that we have limited time but we also believe that we have enough time to do all the things we put off doing today. But none of us knows.
If we knew what tomorrow was bringing to us, how differently we would live today!
Baxter tells an extraordinary story to dramatically underline that point.
“Only last week a colleague was telling me of a minister who went playing golf with a man whom he was anxious to win for Christ. This minister felt strangely constrained to raise again the matter of salvation as the two of them played golf. They sat down to rest at one point, and the golf companion said, ‘I have known for some time that I ought to accept Christ as my Saviour, but I’ll tell you what: as soon as this game of golf is over, I’ll seriously think of doing it.’
So saying, he rose to resume the game: but just as he did so, a misdirected golf ball came whizzing through the air and struck him right on the temple, killing him instantly! Oh, if only he had known!”
Awake My Heart
J. Sidlow Baxter (Zondervan, 1960)
“He rose to resume his game.”
And died.
A game people!
Is that how we are going about our lives? Christ is less important than a game? Christ can be put aside for a game? Think about it. Think hard about it. These are the kind of thoughts that should rock the soul.
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