Genesis 40:20. And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
A morning reading from Jay’s Morning and Evening Exercises (January to March), with editing. Jay (1769–1853) was a minister in Bath. The complete set of his Morning Exercises and of his Evening Exercises (2 vols) have been reprinted fairly recently and may be obtained from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
If the chief butler had been falsely, and the chief baker had been justly, accused, the providence of God was now seen in the clearing of the one, and the punishment of the other. If both were either equally innocent or guilty, here was an instance of the arbitrariness of a prince who probably prided himself in his absolute authority, and in having it said, “Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive”. Or perhaps he decided to show his subjects that he would be known both in the exercise of mercy and judgement.
The birthday of princes has been anciently and generally solemnised as a token of the respect due to their sovereignty, but it has often been abused and given rise to wickedness and mischief. We see this in the case of Jeroboam. At the commemoration of his birth, intemperance rioted; and the intoxication of the king himself injured his health, and made him forget his dignity in joining familiarly with low buffoons and jesters. “In the day of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners” (Hos 7:5). And how was it with Herod on a similar occasion? “Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee”; the daughter of Herodias danced; the king was excited; and John was beheaded.
But, in almost every rank of life, the usage prevails of persons observing with some degree of festivity the day of their birth. The thing is lawful in itself if it is used lawfully. It may be used profitably. But our pious forefathers made it – if a day of friendship and congratulation – yet a day also of pious feeling and regard. And surely it should be made:
1. A day of thanksgiving to the Author and Giver of life:
for our being, for the rank we occupy in the scale of creation, for the country and family in which we were brought forth, for our civil and religious advantages, for our preservation through so many perils, when so many have been cut off.
2. A day of humiliation:
because we were shapen in iniquity and in sin did our mother conceive us, because we went astray from the womb, because our transgressions are innumerable and our trespass is gone up into the very heavens, and because we have not made the use we ought to have made of any of our privileges: “I do remember my faults this day”.
3. A day of reflection:
that, as there is a time to be born, so there is a time to die; that so much of life has already passed away as a shadow; that when a few years are come, we shall go the way whence we shall not return; that our continuing here is as uncertain as it is short; that we may never see a birthday again; and if we do not, where shall we be when it returns?
4. A day of prayer:
that we may so number our days as to apply our hearts unto wisdom; that we may obtain pardoning mercy and renewing grace; that we may be prepared for all the duties and trials that lie before us; that, whether we live, we may live unto the Lord; or, whether we die, we may die unto the Lord, so that, living and dying, we may be the Lord’s.
Blessed are they who, without complaining of their lot or being impatient to be gone, yet know that the day of their death is better than the day of their birth. Though for them to live is Christ, to die is gain. Every returning birthday tells them: So much nearer your heavenly home.
But how dreadful is the state of those who do not prepare for the day of their death. If they consider their situation, they must know that every year that passes brings them that much nearer to the time when they must part from all they love and it brings them that much nearer to a world after which they can have no desire. If conscience is not stupefied and all thought banished by company and gaiety, a birthday to them is far from enviable. Verses may be written, smiles may be put on, but “even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness”.
What a difference between the two following references to the birth of the individuals:
“Who,” says Voltaire, “can, without horror, consider the whole world as the empire of destruction? It abounds with wonders; it also abounds with victims. It is a vast field of carnage and contagion. Every species is without pity pursued and torn to pieces, through the earth, the air and water. In man, there is more wretchedness than in all the other animals put together. He loves life and yet he knows that he must die. If he enjoys a transient good, he suffers various evils, and is at last devoured by worms. This knowledge is his fatal prerogative: other animals do not have it. He spends the transient moments of his existence in diffusing the miseries which he suffers; in cutting the throats of his fellow creatures for pay; in cheating and being cheated; in robbing and being robbed; in serving, that he might command; and in repenting of all he does. The bulk of mankind are nothing more than a crowd of wretches equally criminal and unfortunate, and the globe contains carcasses rather than men. I tremble at the review of this dreadful picture to find that it contains a complaint against providence itself; and I wish I had never been born.”
An eighteenth-century French writer whose Christianity amounted to no more than Deism, the false idea that God created the world and then left it to itself.
Now let us hear the language of the excellent Halyburton, who died as he lived, full of confidence in God. “I shall shortly get a very different sight of God from what I have ever had, and shall be made fit to praise Him for ever and ever. O the thoughts of an incarnate Deity are sweet and ravishing. O how I wonder at myself that I do not love Him more and that I do not admire Him more. What a wonder that I enjoy such composure under all my bodily pains and in the view of death itself. What a mercy that, having the use of my reason, I can declare His goodness to my soul. I long for His salvation; I bless His name I have found Him and die rejoicing in Him. “O blessed be God that I was born! O that I was where He is! I have a father and mother, and ten brothers and sisters, in heaven, and I shall be the eleventh. There is a voice in this providence, and I shall be telling it for ever! If there is such a glory in His conduct towards me now, what will it be to see the Lamb in the midst of the throne? Blessed be God that ever I was born!”
Halyburton (1674-1712) was latterly a Professor of Divinity in St Andrews University. He was very much respected as a godly man; his writings also were highly regarded and his sermons have been described in the Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology as “heart-searching and intensely practical”. His works are still in print, in four volumes, and are available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.