Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

June 11– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“[In Zion, God] broke the arrows of the bow, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war.” 

—Psalm 76:3

Our Redeemer’s glorious cry of “It is finished” was the death-knell of all the adversaries of his people. By those words, Jesus broke “the weapons of war.” Behold the hero of Golgotha! He uses his cross as an anvil and his afflictions as a hammer, shredding bundle after bundle of our sins which were like poisoned “arrows of the bow.” He trampled on every indictment and destroyed every accusation against us. What glorious blows the mighty Breaker gives with a hammer far weightier than the fabled weapon of Thor!

How the Devil’s darts splinter into fragments and the hellish shields are broken like potters’ vessels! Behold, Jesus takes the sword of Satan’s power and snaps it across his knee as a man breaks a dry wooden stick and casts it into the fire. Dear child of God, no sin can now be an arrow to mortally wound you. No condemnation can become a sword to kill you, for the punishment of our sin was born by Christ! He made full atonement for all our iniquities as our blessed Substitute, and he himself is the Guarantee of our salvation. Who can accuse us now? Who can condemn us? Christ has died and, more than that, has risen again for us.

Jesus has emptied the quivers of hell, has quenched every fiery dart, and broken off the head of every arrow of wrath. The ground is strewn with the splinters and relics of the weapons of hell’s warfare. They are only visible to us to remind us of our former danger and of our great deliverance. Sin has no more dominion over us. Jesus has made an end of it and put it away forever.

O Enemy of God, your destruction has come to an end!  So, dear believer, boast in all the wondrous works of the Lord. Shout his name; do not keep silent!  When the sun rises and when it sets, proclaim loudly, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” [M&E]