Gifts Received and Gifts Ministered
Psalm 68:18
You have ascended on high, you have led captivity captive: you have received gifts for men; yes, for the rebellious also…


If giving was the one work of the earthly life of Christ, so is it also of the heavenly. Reflect upon the vastness of the work which our Saviour is now carrying on in heaven. Well might He say, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." If we believe the word in the Bible, we must feel that what Christ does in any one believing soul would be enough to occupy all the care, as it would far indeed exceed the capacity, of the wisest and the best of men. The cleansing of one heart, the keeping of one life, the adaptation of a Providence, as minute as it is powerful, to the good of one soul, must be a work of thought, of exertion, of time, of patience, far beyond the reach of our very imagination to conceive. But multiply this work by a thousand times ten thousand, spread it through the length and breadth of the earth, protract it through a thousand generations, vary it by the infinite modifications of care and of circumstance, of disposition, race and age, — reflect on all this, and you will understand as never before how the ascended Christ gave gifts unto men.

(Dean Vaughan.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.

WEB: You have ascended on high. You have led away captives. You have received gifts among men, yes, among the rebellious also, that Yah God might dwell there.




Ascension Day
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