Apples come in all colors.
Well, maybe not all, but certainly in green, yellow, and red. Some we might call pink or lime, and even brown, but the brown ones are fake. It’s the caramel that tans them up.
Yet, of all these colors, it’s the ruby red we want to display on our table, the one that tempts us to dig our teeth in. The brightest red apples are not for cooking, no! These have the highest sugar content, perfect for a snack, but they’ll fall apart in the midst of a pie.
That’s what we need to show to the world. We need to be apple babies on display, rosy and red, and tempting beyond all measure.
Solomon 8:5 tells us:
“…I raised thee up under the apple tree…”
The New International Version says we were conceived under the boughs of that spreading tree. Young’s Literal Translation says we were awakened there. Webster’s Bible Translation tells us our mother brought us forth under the branches of the tree.
Read in Deuteronomy 32:10:
“He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.”
He kept him as the apple of his eye. He kept him as a bright red treasure, filled with sweetness and goodness, a pleasure to behold. That’s how God sees us.
Psalm 17:8 reflects the cry of our hearts.
“Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.”
When we are the treasured possession of our Lord, he gives us extra protection. He polishes us, sets us out on display, and brags to all creation about us.
Proverbs 7:2 describes what God expects from us, for when God treasures us, we should also treasure him.
“Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.”
Where do we find the law of the Lord? In the Bible, of course. We should treat it with as much care as a ruby red apple, set out for the world to enjoy. It will tempt people, and they will want to take a taste.
Zechariah 2:8 is our reassurance in our struggles, for as humans, we will struggle.
“For thus said the LORD of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.”
We are off limits to the devil, for when the evil one takes a snack out of us, the Lord of hosts makes applesauce out of the devil. Then he throws the applesauce out the back door, for it is sour mash, worthy only of swine.
Doesn’t it feel good to be an apple baby, rosy and red, and filled with sweetness for the world to enjoy?
God holds us before the world as his special treasure, and he makes us off limits to the wiles of the evil one.
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Code: FGO.J.24.14.vp
Originally Published 1-26-15 in Hope