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MAY 11
we may give an answer to those who sent us? “Why then do you baptize if you are not the
What do you say about yourself?” Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
23 He said: “I am 26 John answered them, saying, “I baptize
with water, but there stands One among you
‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: whom you do not know. It is He who, coming
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“Make straight the way of the LORD,” ’
after me, is preferred before me, whose san-
as the prophet Isaiah said.” dal strap I am not worthy to loose.”
Now those who were sent were from the These things were done in Bethabara
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Pharisees. And they asked him, saying, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
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DAY 10: Note the powerful words loaded into John 1:1.

“In the beginning.”In contrast to 1 John 1:1 where John used a similar phrase (“from the begin-
ning”) to refer to the starting point of Jesus’ ministry and gospel preaching, this phrase parallels
Genesis 1:1 where the same phrase is used.John used the phrase in an absolute sense to refer to the
beginning of the time-space-material universe.“Was.”The verb highlights the eternal preexistence of
the Word,i.e.,Jesus Christ.Before the universe began,the Second Person of the Trinity always exist-
ed; i.e., He always was (see 8:58). This word is used in contrast with the verb “was made” (or “were
made”) in v. 3, which indicate a beginning in time. Because of John’s theme that Jesus Christ is the
eternal God,the Second Person of the Trinity,he did not include a genealogy as Matthew and Luke
did. In terms of Jesus’ humanity, He had a human genealogy; but in terms of His deity, He has no
genealogy.
“The Word.”John borrowed the use of the term “Word”not only from the vocabulary of the Old
Testament but also from Greek philosophy,in which the term was essentially impersonal,signifying
the rational principle of “divine reason,”“mind,”or even “wisdom.”John, however, imbued the term
entirely with Old Testament and Christian meaning (e.g., Gen. 1:3 where God’s Word brought the
world into being; Pss. 33:6; 107:20; Prov. 8:27 where God’s Word is His powerful self-expression in
creation, wisdom, revelation, and salvation) and made it refer to a person, i.e., Jesus Christ. Greek
philosophical usage, therefore, is not the exclusive background of John’s thought. Strategically, the
term “Word” serves as a bridge-word to reach not only Jews but also the unsaved Greeks. John
chose this concept because both Jews and Greeks were familiar with it.
“The Word was with God.”The Word, as the Second Person of the Trinity, was in intimate fel-
lowship with God the Father throughout all eternity.Yet, although the Word enjoyed the splendors
of heaven and eternity with the Father (Is. 6:1–13; see 12:41; 17:5), He willingly gave up His heaven-
ly status, taking the form of a man, and became subject to the death of the cross (Phil. 2:6–8).“Was
God.”The Greek construction emphasizes that the Word had all the essence or attributes of Deity,
i.e.,Jesus the Messiah was fully God (Col.2:9).Even in His incarnation when He emptied Himself,He
did not cease to be God but took on a genuine human nature/body and voluntarily refrained from
the independent exercise of the attributes of Deity.

May 11 said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy
into your hand, that you may do to him as it
seems good to you.’ ” And David arose and
5
secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. Now it
1 Samuel 24:1–25:44
happened afterward that David’s heart troubled
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Now it happened, when Saul had him because he had cut Saul’s robe. And he
24 returned from following the Philistines,
that it was told him, saying, “Take note! David
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is in the Wilderness of En Gedi.” Then Saul
took three thousand chosen men from all 24:4 the day of which the LORD said to you.
Israel, and went to seek David and his men on David’s men perhaps believed that God had
the Rocks of the Wild Goats. So he came to providentially placed Saul in the same cave
3
the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a where they were hiding so David could kill the
cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs. king.However,nothing revelatory had previously
(David and his men were staying in the been said by the Lord that indicated He wanted
recesses of the cave.) Then the men of David David to lift a hand against Saul.
4
said to him, “This is the day of which the LORD
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