January 20

Read: Leviticus 20:7-8

Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes (I Kings 8:61).

The Old Testament Call

Is God’s call to live a holy life something new and strange? No. The call may be new to me and holiness may seem strange to men without spiritual life. But to the people of God the call is not new.

Abraham heard God’s call to leave a heathen people and a heathen country. After he had served the Lord for some years, God spoke to him again saying, “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Genesis 17:1).

Israel had experienced God’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage. God had led them across the Red Sea and through the wilderness. Now they were about to enter the promised land. At this point God said to them “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the Lord which sanctify you” (Leviticus 20:7-8).

To a later generation another of God’s servants brought the divine call. “That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else. Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments” (I Kings 8:60-61).

To His people of every age God promises, “I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Prayer For Today

O God, my Father, my spirit longs to be like Thee. With the saints of all the ages I pray, Make me holy as Thou dost desire me to be.