Bible

The Man Nobody Knew, Part II

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When we look at the trial of Jesus, we see that He was contending with supernatural forces, with demons. These demons were in control of the minds of the men that were all around Him. The demons had induced these men to do the most insulting things imaginable to Him. One of the things mentioned in the Bible is that they spit in His face. (Matthew 26:67.) “Jesus stood meek and humble before the infuriated multitude, while they offered Him the vilest abuse. They spit in His face—that face from which they will one day desire to hide.” Early Writings, 170.

They tempted Him to lose patience, to become irritated, but He was too big for that. I want to tell you, friend, if you and I get to know Him, we will be too big for that, too.

People become upset over such insignificant things. People get upset when they think they have not been treated with enough deference and respect. Have you ever seen that happen? Composers of country music often depict this theme in the music they write. You have perhaps heard one of these songs on the radio. It is what they call the “Somebody Done Somebody Wrong” song. But when you read the story of Jesus from beginning to end, you find that He was always calm and self-possessed. He was bigger than all of that. Are you bigger than that? You will be, if you get to know Him.

Personal Magnetism

Let us look at one other aspect of Jesus’ life and ask ourselves, “Do I know Him?” This is an exciting and fascinating subject to study. Jesus was a person who had personal magnetism. You know what I am talking about. People were powerfully attracted to Him, because He had a love in His heart for people. You see, Jesus loved every human being. He loved the worst sinners—the lepers, the people who were outcasts from society, the adulterers, and the tax collectors. There are numerous stories in the gospel in reference to these people, the scum of society. Jesus showed them love.

No matter what mistakes you have made, no matter how many sins you have committed, He still loves you. Because He loves human beings so much, He has a personal magnetism beyond compare. If you and I get to know Him, we will have a personal magnetism, too, and as a result, people with whom we associate will want the religion we have. If people do not want the religion we have, there is something the matter with our religion. Something is wrong with our religion, because we do not really know Him.

Let us look at an example, which illustrates the personal magnetism Jesus possessed that was a result of the love He had for every human being. He passed by no human being as worthless. Matthew knew about this magnetism, and he recorded his own personal experience with Jesus in the gospel he wrote. Matthew 9:9 says, “Then as Jesus passed on from there [Caper-naum], He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ And he arose and followed Him.” The more you study this verse, the more you will understand from it. It does not say that Jesus stopped; He was passing by. He was walking by the tax booth, and as He walked by, He gave the invitation, “Follow Me,” and Matthew got up and followed Him.

We cannot study this text without the realization that Jesus had personal magnetism; He had drawing power. Matthew was a man who had a lucrative job, but as Jesus passed him, he felt drawn to Him and did not hesitate to follow Him. If you need a leader in your life who will give you personal magnetism and make you an attractive human being, Jesus is the One you need.

Man of Authority

A similar example to Matthew’s experience is given in Matthew 8. In verses 5 to 13, the story is told of a person who understood this principle of magnetism. A centurion came to Jesus because his servant was “paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” Jesus said that He would come and heal the servant, but the centurion replied, “No, Lord, you do not need to come.” The centurion recognized that Jesus had authority, and he said, “You do not need to come down to my house because I am a man under authority. And I say to this person, ‘Go here,’ and they do it, and to that person, ‘Go there,’ and they do it; and I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.’ ” This centurion realized that Jesus had much more authority than he had. He said, “You do not need to come down to my house. All you need to do is speak, and if you will speak the word, my servant will be healed.”

This man had never before met Jesus. If you read the story as recorded in Luke 7:1–17, you will see there that some of the Jews came to Jesus and pleaded, “Oh, Lord, please help us. Please help this man, be-cause he has been good to us. He has given us a lot of money for the church.” But when the man actually came into Jesus’ presence, he recognized immediately in Whose presence he was. The centurion told Jesus, “You do not need to come down to my house. Even though you volunteered to, you do not need to . . . . All you need to do is speak the word and it will happen.” This man understood that authority is dependent on faith. He also understood that faith is dependent on authority. Now you think that through. Authority is dependent on faith, and faith is dependent on authority. This man knew that he needed to express faith.

“When Jesus heard [it], He marveled, and said to those who followed, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Then Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Go your way; and as you have believed, [so] let it be done for you.’ And his servant was healed that same hour.” Matthew 8:10–13.

Authority Depends on Faith

Authority depends on faith, and faith depends on authority. The Greek word for authority is exousia. At times, the King James Bible translates it power, but the most literal translation is authority. How much authority does Jesus have? How much power does He have? Well, friend, that is a question that I cannot answer. The way He described it to His disciples was, “Everything in heaven and earth is mine. I have all authority. I have all power.” (Matthew 28:18.)

We do not know Him, and that is why, friend, we experience so little of the power of God in our lives. We do not have faith in His authority and power. If we knew Him, we would know He has the authority and power to do everything; when He speaks, it happens.

Jesus demonstrated this over and over again when He was here. All it took was a word, a look, a touch, because He had authority; He had power. He had magnetic power to draw people to Himself.

Just before He was crucified, He said to the people, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.” John 12:32. Do you know Him? If you know Him, you will have faith and confidence in Him, because you will know that He has all authority and all power.

Learn Dependence

There are people—friends in our own church family and in other places—who have been going through some terrible, terrible trials for which there is no human cure. Sometimes people wonder, “If you are serving an omnipotent God who has all power, why do you get into this kind of trouble?” This I cannot fully answer, but I will tell you one of the reasons. One of the reasons we find ourselves in such terrible troubles is so we will learn how incapable we are to know what is best for our lives, and we will realize that we need help from a higher power. God allows us to get into trouble where there is no human solution.

“The apostle Paul says, ‘When I am weak, then am I strong.’ 11 Corinthians 12:10. When we have a realization of our weakness, we learn to depend upon a power not inherent.” The Desire of Ages, 493. “Christ is our only hope. We may look to Him, for He is our Saviour. We may take Him at His word, and make Him our dependence. He knows just the help we need, and we can safely put our trust in Him. If we depend on merely human wisdom to guide us, we shall find ourselves on the losing side. But we may come direct to the Lord Jesus.” Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 486.

Pastors come into contact with such issues in the lives of those to whom they minister—there is no physician who can help a certain problem; there is no financial counselor who can help—then you need the Lord. Jesus has drawing power, and He has all authority to exercise it in your behalf. He has all authority. He has all power.

“The eternal Father is waiting for us to take our eyes off finite man, and place our dependence on him. Then look not to man for your light and strength. Put not your trust in the arm of flesh. All your love and praise and exaltation are to be given to him who loved you and gave himself for you. Strive to be one with Christ as he was one with the Father; but in no case exalt man, not even the ablest speaker that ever lived. Lift up Jesus. Talk of him, extol his name, and by so doing your own hearts will be warmed and encouraged and strengthened. As the believer studies the word and beholds Christ, he will become more and more like Christ. Searching the Scriptures, he will learn of Christ, whom to know aright is life eternal.” Review and Herald, October 16, 1900.

As You Have Believed

Maybe you are not receiving much of Jesus’ power and authority. Did you notice what Jesus said to the centurion? “According as you have believed . . . .” Matthew 8:13. You see, if we do not know Him, if we do not have confidence in Him, or if we do not have faith in Him, He cannot do much for us. That is something Jesus taught over and over again. When the blind people came to Him, Jesus would say, “Do you believe I can restore your sight?” They would respond, “Yes,” and He would say, “Well, according to your belief, let it be.” If they believed, what happened? They received sight. What if they did not believe?

An example of such unbelief is given in the Bible in Matthew 13:53–58. It is an experience that Jesus had in His hometown of Nazareth. “They were offended at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honour, except in his own country and in his own house.’ And he did not do many works there because of their unbelief.” Verses 57, 58. How terrible! There were sick people in that town and people who needed help of all kinds, which they could have had, had they only believed.

“Some doubted. So it will always be. There are those who find it hard to exercise faith, and they place themselves on the doubting side. These lose much because of their unbelief.” The Desire of Ages, 819.

Oh, friend, think it through in your own mind. Is that your situation? Do you realize there is Someone who is all-powerful that wants to help you? He is attractive; He has personal magnetism; He has drawing power; but He cannot do much for you if you will not believe. That is one of the things that Jesus taught over and over again—I cannot do very much for you unless you will put your faith and trust in Me.

“Have you an unwavering trust in God? Lacking self-confidence, do you put your faith in him, rejoicing that you are privileged to be his child, even to suffer for his dear sake? Rejoicing in Christ as your Saviour, pitiful, compassionate, and touched with the feeling of your infirmities, love and joy will be revealed in your daily life. If you love Him who died to redeem mankind, you will love those for whom he died. A restful peace and happiness will fill your heart to overflowing when you believe that Jesus carries you and all your burdens.” Review and Herald, November 16, 1886.

Master of all Situations

I want you to ask yourself again, “Do I know Him? Am I going to become better acquainted with Him?” Jesus was the Master of every situation. Did you know that if you choose to put your trust in Him, you will never become the victim of circumstances? This is because He is still the Master of every situation.

In Matthew 8, we read that Jesus had been preaching and teaching all day. In verses 23 to 27, we see that He was very tired, and when He got into a boat, He went to sleep. While He was asleep, the devil tried to drown everyone in the boat. Great tempests came up on the sea. (The Bible is very clear that the devil is the prince of the power of the air. [See Ephesians 2:2.] He can stir up tempests, tornadoes, and a multitude of other things. It would be good to remember this the next time a tornado is called an “act of God.” That is a lie.) At about one or two o’clock in the morning, the boat was about to sink, and Jesus was asleep. What were the disciples to do?

Maybe you have not had such an experience; my wife and I have had this experience a number of times. What do you do when the phone rings at two o’clock in the morning? Are you ready to solve any problem that comes along at that time of the night? Jesus was, even though He was exhausted. The disciples awakened Him, and they said, “We are about to perish!” Jesus asked them, “Why are you fearful? You do not have enough faith; that is your problem.” He was not fearful. He was the Master of the situation, not because He was the Master of earth and sea and sky. Oh no! He had laid that power down. He was the Master of the situation because He was trusting in the Father’s might. He did not need to worry.

My dear friend, when you have chosen to commit your life to Him and you realize that He is the Master of every situation, you will not have to worry either.

“Trust yourself in the hands of Jesus. Do not worry. Do not think God has forgotten to be gracious. Jesus lives and will not leave you. May the Lord be your staff, your support, your front guard, your rearward.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 248.

What Will I Do If . . .

Someone may say, “What am I going to do? I may lose my job, and then I will not be able to buy any food or clothing nor be able to pay my rent. What am I going to do? I might succumb to some serious disease like all these other people I see getting sick. Then I will not be able to earn a living; I will not be able to do anything. What will I do?” Some people pass their whole life worrying, “What will I do if this happens? What will I do if that happens?” Do you know what Jesus said concerning this? He told us not to be anxious about what might happen. You can read about that in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5).

Why? Why not be anxious? Because your heavenly Father knows what you need; He knows how to take care of you. This does not mean you will not have to work. The Bible says that in this world we all must earn our bread by the sweat of our brow. (Genesis 3:19.) If you are following the Lord, you need not worry concerning the food you eat or the clothes you wear; your necessities will be taken care of. Jesus said, “You do not need to worry about that. If you make God first in your life and seek His righteousness and the kingdom of heaven, He will add the things to you that you need.” (Matthew 6:33, 34.) He is still the Master of all situations.

“Christ is our example. . . . He turned to His Father in these hours of distress. He came to earth that He might provide a way whereby we could find grace and strength to help in every time of need, by following His example in frequent, earnest prayer.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 509.

“You are as a child who is not yet placed in control of his inheritance. God does not entrust to you your precious possession, lest Satan by his wily arts should beguile you, as he did the first pair in Eden. Christ holds it for you, safe beyond the spoiler’s reach. Like the child, you shall receive day by day what is required for the day’s need. Every day you are to pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ [Matthew 6:11.] Be not dismayed if you have not sufficient for tomorrow. You have the assurance of His promise, ‘So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.’ [Psalm 37:3.]” Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 110, 111.

Confidence in our Redeemer

So many times when people came to Jesus, trying to trick Him, they thought they had Him in a jam out of which He could not get. They thought they would either be able to destroy His influence or bring about His arrest by the Romans. It is very interesting to read the stories written in Matthew 21 and 22, in John 8, and in so many other scriptures. Jesus showed with ease, every time, that He was the Master of the situation.

If you are in a terrible situation for which there is no possible human solution, do you realize that He could be the Master of the situation in your life, too? He will be, if you commit your life to Him.

Ellen White wrote: “Let us have more confidence in our Redeemer. Turn not from the waters of Lebanon to seek refreshment at broken cisterns, which can hold no water. Have faith in God. Trustful dependence on Jesus makes victory not only possible, but certain. Though multitudes are pressing on in the wrong way, though the outlook be ever so discouraging, yet we may have full assurance in our Leader; for ‘I am God,’ he declares, ‘and there is none else.’ [Isaiah 45:22.] He is infinite in power, and able to save all who come to him. There is no other in whom we can safely trust.” Review and Herald, June 9, 1910.

Oh, friend, whoever you are, you need to know Him. If you choose to come to Him, to commit your life to Him, no matter how terrible of a sinner you are, no matter how weak you are, no matter how troubled you are, no matter how complicated your situation, He will be Master of the situation, and He will save you. Do you know Him? If you know Him, He will grant you eternal life, because He has all power and grace. He loves you, friend. He wants to save you.

[Bible texts quoted are literal translation.]

Pastor Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life Ministry and pastor of the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Lessons From the Book of Amos, Part II

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The Book of Amos is a book of declarations by God stating that He is going to deal with the situations that have built up over a long period of time. When reading Scripture, one thing we know, as we see how God has dealt with people’s faults, is that He does not deal with them instantly. It usually takes a long time for God to bring judgment and punishment. God understands our frailties, and He is longsuffering. He allows our cup to fill and fill and fill, but once that cup is finally full, a roar is heard from out of Zion. (See Amos 1:2; Joel 3:16.) This is the situation of which Amos is writing.

Chapter 3 of Amos begins, “Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” Verses 1, 2. As you read the Bible, you see very clearly that the plan of God is centered in a covenant—the covenant He established with Abraham and that has been handed down to successive generations. God did not consider Abraham his wife; He did not consider Jacob His wife. It was the offspring of Jacob, the twelve tribes of Jacob, that became the wife of God.

Wife of God

The nation of Israel was the wife of the God of Heaven. Their relationship with God came about as a result of the exodus. When Jacob went down into Egypt, 70 souls journeyed from the land of Canaan into Egypt, but it was a nation of one to two million people that came out of Egypt. (See Exodus 1:1–5; 12:37, 38.) This relationship was sealed at Mount Sinai by the response of the children of Israel when they said, “All that the Lord has said, we will do.” Exodus 19:8; 24:3, 7.

These were the only people that God had known in this special sense, as He emphasizes in Amos 3:2. This was a unique and special relationship; it was a marriage relationship, and God said to them, “You are the only one whom I have known in this way.” Did God not know the other families of the earth? Yes, He knew all the families of the earth, but He did not consider them in any special relationship as He did the children of Israel. Israel was, as it were, the sweet, blushing bride of God, but as we read the history of Israel, there was, almost from the time of the honeymoon, unfaithfulness.

Most of us are either married, have been married, or intend to be married. We have certain expectations and requirements regarding marriage. One of these requirements is that of faithfulness on the part of each spouse to the other. We do not get this idea from society at large; we get it from the Bible. But let us suppose that when we married, understanding that faithfulness was part of the marriage covenant, we decided the grass was greener on the other side of the fence, and we got caught sampling the greener grass. What kind of response could we expect to receive for this kind of unfaithfulness?

Most of us, upon arriving home—at least in Western society—would expect to find our bags packed and sitting out on the porch or, even worse, thrown out onto the street. There is something about the act of adultery that seems equal to the unpardonable sin in the human mind. A trust factor has been broken. Feelings of disgust well up in the heart of the one who has been betrayed. From where do our understanding and reaction originate? It comes from our understanding of faithfulness in the Bible. Love and faithfulness go together, and God is the Author.

We have gotten the idea that God does not experience these kinds of feelings in His marriage relationship with His people. One thing we need to remember is that the book of Amos was written in the language of the time in which Amos lived. It was not written in the language of today’s America. In the time of Amos, a woman was in a different relationship to a man than what we find today; she was not only his wife, but she was considered to be his property. This was the way things were done in Israel’s society. God communicated to Israel on this level.

Israel was God’s property, just as we are His property. We have been bought with a price, so we belong to God; we are His property not only from the standpoint of ownership but, also, from the standpoint of relationships. We are considered to be His bride.

The children of Israel were not in a slave relationship, but they were in a marriage relationship, of which God reminded them when He said, “I brought you up out of Egypt; you are the only one that I have known—the only one.”

God knew Israel intimately; there was no one else of whom this could be said. Because this was true, it would call for the greatest punishment for the practice of unfaithfulness on Israel’s part.

One – One = One

I do not want to belabor the point, but we all know the story of just how longsuffering God had been with Israel. As I mentioned, almost from the wedding night, Israel had climbed into bed with anybody and everybody that caught her fancy. God would forbear a long time with her, but the events that would follow would be crushing to Israel.

God warned, in Amos 3:2, “I will punish you for all your iniquities”—not just some, not just the most recent, but for all your iniquities. Did God have the right to do this? Yes, He did, because this was His wife; she was His property. Jesus alluded to this when he told the parable of the fig tree. (See Matthew 21:19–22.) Jesus came to a fig tree that was beautiful to look upon, but there was no fruit on it. There was no fruit of faithfulness on the part of the fig tree that represented His bride, so He cursed the tree so that it withered, dried up, and died. This is what happened to the Northern tribes. We find no trace of the Northern tribes today. I have heard people try to give some kind of an explanation as to what has happened to the Northern tribes. They try to trace them through secular history, but the Scripture reveals that those tribes withered and died and never came back on the scene again.

Although God was going to deal with the unfaithful children of Israel, He worked a miracle with mathematics that went something like this: One minus one left one—Judah. God wanted all of the tribes of Israel to be His bride, but the remaining two, Israel and Judah, had to be separated so that one could survive.

“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3. The answer to that is no; they cannot walk together if there is disagreement. There have been occasions when I have been asked to counsel couples who are experiencing problems in their marriages. One of the things I have learned is that usually these couples have not been getting along for a long period of time. By the time they call the pastor for counseling, the situation has been building and festering. Blessed is the couple who, when they get into difficulty, seek help immediately, because the best opportunity to deal with the healing of a marriage is when the problems first begin. If things are allowed to go on, alienation takes hold. This is what had happened as far as the children of Israel were concerned.

God was always available to deal with and resolve the problem, but they always wanted to be off “doing their own thing,” not paying any attention to Him. They could not walk with God and with other gods. This was an unworkable arrangement. Men who try to do this, without exception, are failures in their religious life. God knows that, and He does not want it to happen. That is why the first commandment says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3. No other gods should be allowed to come in and take over a relationship where God should be. The person who fails in their love relationship with God will be a godless person. Alienation leads to apostasy, and the apostate is an outlaw, as far as God is concerned. The question we must ask ourselves is: “Are our affections given to Christ in self-surrender and in happy trust to Him as our God?”

The Lion Roars

As Amos unfolds the story, he is trying to gain the attention of these tribes, and he says, “Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin [is] for him? shall [one] take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done [it]? Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:4–7.

God is telling the tribes, I am going to punish you, and I want you to understand that it is coming. I am warning you. “Will a lion roar?” The nature of a lion when seeking prey is to roar when he has it in sight. He does this because usually the prey will freeze when it hears the roar, making it easier to catch. God uses this illustration, calling upon the prophet to convey these words by saying, “Listen, it is coming; I am not going to roar unless I have a prey, unless there is something in My sight that is going to suffer destruction.”

Can a bird fall in a snare where there is no snare set? The thought here is that the coming punishment is deserved. A bird is not caught in a trap unless a trap is set for it, and who is it that sets the trap? You have set your own trap. You have heard the idiom, give someone enough rope and he will get tangled up in it. In other words, allow him enough freedom and he will eventually hurt himself or be caught. That is basically what God is saying here. Sin sets the trap, and when the trap springs, the sinner is not going to escape. It is just that simple. We think we can parlay with sin, that we can dabble a little bit in it, and it will not catch us, but sooner or later, it will catch up with us. Praise the Lord! He is longsuffering! He will allow us to get into circumstances in hopes that we will turn away from those circumstances. This is what He was hoping for Israel, but Israel continued to become entangled. When God comes out of His place, you can mark it down—action is going to follow.

My father was not an angry or passionate man. Many parents today seem to beat and bang on their kids all the time, but that was not the case with my dad. We got what punishment we had coming, but I do not ever remember getting a licking that I did not deserve. My father never punished us on a supposition. I can remember, though, that if we acted up, he would warn us. If we did not stop, once he got up, it was all over; we knew what was coming. We could plead and plead and plead all we wanted, but the punishment still came. That is basically what God is dealing with here.

God was not the type of parent, as we find in many circumstances today, that would just scream and scream at the kids and do nothing. When I was in my early years of ministry, I went to visit a home that had an empty oil drum right outside the living room window. This family had a number of children, and when I came to visit, they all went outside to play. One of the boys, Mark, grabbed a big stick and began to beat on the oil drum. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. His mother yelled out, “Mark, you stop that.” Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. “Mark, I’m coming out there. You stop that.” Boom, boom, boom, boom. “I’m coming out there, Mark.” She never went out, and Mark never stopped.

God is not that way. He says, “If I get up, it is all over; I am coming out, and you are going to get thrashed.” That is the way it was with Israel. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets.” God does not get onto someone without giving him or her warning. We, as Seventh-day Adventists, have memorized this text!

Warnings Conveyed

God used the office of prophet to convey not just His will but to convey warnings. “I am telling you, this is the way it is going to happen. If you do not change, this is going to happen. If you do not turn around, this is going to happen.” And after a while, it happened.

“The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” Verse 8. The prophets could not withhold the warnings given to them by God. We know this from Ellen White’s life. She said that she could not withhold the warnings that God had given; she must convey them. (See The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, vol. 3, 1,296.) This is what verse 8 is saying. If God has spoken, who can but prophesy?

Spectators Invited

Continuing in Amos 3, we read: “Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof. For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; An adversary [there shall be] even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.” Verses 9–11.

God is calling upon the heathen to witness the whipping of those who are going to receive His punishment. He is saying that He wants them to come and watch what He is going to do to His wife. Now that is almost an inconceivable thought.

Egyptian bondage and the Philistine oppression were not forgotten history. These things were rehearsed over and over again to Israel. Because they never learned the lessons of deliverance and translated them into their lives, they began to repeat their former history, and they became oppressors of their own. While Egypt and Philistia went out from their own land and oppressed others, Israel began to turn upon their own and oppress them. They were different from Egypt and Philistia in that they looted their own fortresses rather than going out into enemy territory. So Ashdod and Egypt were told to come in to witness the punishment that God was going to render.

It is one thing to get a spanking. It is another thing to get a spanking in front of people. I always wanted to have my spanking by myself. I especially did not want to have my brothers see me getting a spanking. Inviting people to witness the spanking makes it even worse. This is the scenario that God was planning, as far as His bride was concerned. He was inviting all of their enemies to watch what He was going to do. He even told them to go up on the mountain where they could get a better look.

Why would God do such a thing? Never forget that God had a plan that through this bride the Redeemer would come. He was committed to the redeeming of those who accepted Him—not only of old but also the present and future generations who by faith would look to Him. God had a commitment; the Messiah would come. That Messiah would have to come through the bride that He had known, but sadly, Israel had lost all sense of sin; there was no shame.

No Sense of Shame

The shame was gone. Israel enjoyed living in the highest of luxury, indulging in all kinds of perverse habits. Yet, they would still prepare the bulletin for Sabbath School and church and plan other activities, believing that all was well.

It is no different today. When men lose their sense of sin, God appeals to their sense of shame. It seems strange that the sense of shame should survive the sense of sin. Many times people can be brought to repentance through a sense of shame rather than an understanding of sin. If they are shamed, they know they are caught, and they will say, “I am sorry; I am sorry.” That is the way it is. Sometimes we are more afraid of what people think of us than of what God thinks of us. There is a lot going on which, if revealed, would cause a sense of shame, but we continue on in sin. How do I know? Because we are still in this world! We have not gotten it right yet. That is why Jesus waits; that is why Jesus delays His coming. He wants us to have a sense of sin, not just a sense of shame.

The nations round about Israel were going to know that God’s protection had been removed. As a result, while they were in the height of prosperity, they would be served a calling card showing that God had removed Himself, and Israel would not stand a chance of escape. The punishment would come; it would come as a lion on its prey.

No Safe Place

This is one of the dangers that we face in America today. We have not been a righteous nation, contrary to what some would have us believe. As a result, God is removing His protection. We see that happening more and more, and as a result, the inevitable will come. Liberties are being removed—one of God’s ways of dealing with us. We know that with the Sunday laws our freedoms are going to be completely taken away.

The answer as to how to avert these problems is the same today as it was in the days of Amos. Repent and turn from your sins; turn to God for help. That is one of the things that the tribes of Judah and Israel would not see.

“Thus saith the Lord; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus [in] a couch. Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord God, the God of hosts, That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord.” Verses 12–15.

Amos finishes this message by giving an illustration of what happens when a shepherd retrieves the remains of an animal from the mouth of a lion. This reflects back to the Law of Moses, which required a shepherd to produce the remains of the animal that was killed while it was in his care as proof that he did not steal it. Amos was a shepherd, so he used the language of a shepherd to try to convey to the people the point that God wanted them to understand. He was telling them that as the remaining parts of the slaughtered animal tell the tale of its destruction, so the broken remains of the wealth of Israel would be a pathetic witness to the complete destruction of that kingdom.

According to the Law of Moses, if a fugitive got into trouble, he could run to the sanctuary, grab hold of the horns of the altar, and that would be a place of safety for him, a place of refuge—but that was a last refuge. It was not the first refuge. Even this last refuge would not be available to Israel. They could not run to the sanctuary and claim refuge by grabbing hold of the altar. The dye was cast, and now it would be just a matter of time until the blow fell.

A Lesson for Us

What is the lesson for us who are living in this twenty-first century? Mrs. White wrote: “We are all amenable to God. When we take into consideration our accountability to Him for every action, when we remember that we are ‘a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men,’ we will desire to be purged from our fretfulness and harshness, our lack of sympathy and tenderness for one another. These evils are as tares amid the wheat, and must be destroyed.” Notebook Leaflets from the Elmshaven Library, vol. 1, 79.

That is really what God wants to have happen in our lives. He wants to come into such a close relationship with us that everything that is offensive will be removed, and His work can go forward so Jesus can come.

I mentioned earlier that Israel had not learned the lessons of deliverance, and I have often wondered how well the church of today has learned its lessons. Are they of such dynamic significance to us that the deliverance has the power and strength to motivate us the rest of our lives or until Jesus comes? I have met people in Sunday-keeping churches who are exuberant that the love of God has delivered them from their sins. They just bubble and sparkle and are willing, at the drop of a hat, to tell you what God has done for them. You have met those kinds of people; I know you have. They are out there, but there are very few Seventh-day Adventists who have had that kind of experience.

Perhaps you have heard Adventists referred to as Sadventists. I realize that we do not have to get into a celebration mode, but somewhere along the line I would hope that we could become a little happier about what God has done for us and have a willingness to share that happiness with others. These lessons of deliverance, if we really reflect on what God has done for us, will change our whole lives. If we could somehow convey that to others, what a blessing we would receive! I have always in my life desired to continue the experience of a relationship that manifested itself in not only doing what was right but treating others in the right way as well, because that is basically the message that Amos is trying to get across.

God, I know, was doing everything possible to save Israel, but it did not happen. Although God had chosen Israel as His bride, they were unfaithful. Even though He warned them and tried to get them to change their ways, they ignored Him. Finally, God had to take measures of punishment.

“Those who might become co-laborers with Christ, and do good service in advancing the interests of His kingdom, but who use their talents and influence to tear down instead of to build up, are like noted rebels; their prominence, the value of the talent they use in the service of Satan, increases their guilt and makes their punishment sure. These will feel the wrath of God.” The Signs of the Times, October 24, 1906.

I do not want to be found in that category. I want to be found doing what is right and good so that the longsuffering of God is working to draw me into a more perfect relationship with Him, rather than a forbearance on His part until the axe has to fall. Is this your desire?

To be continued . . .

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life Ministry. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mikebaugher@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

The Filthy Garment, Part I

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There are some people today who are discouraged by what they see taking place in the world and in Adventism, but I am excited! I am excited, because I see the signs, in the church and in the world, that Jesus is coming soon. When I read inspired writings and look around at what is happening, I realize that God foresaw all of this a long time ago. Although the events we see occurring are awful, it is encouraging that there is Someone who knows all about them, who said that this is what would happen, who knows how to protect us and take us out of this evil world.

I want to study with you a passage of Scripture that was written over 2,500 years ago. This passage of Scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, has a special meaning. It had a meaning then. It had a fulfillment then. But it was meant to have a special meaning and a special fulfillment in the last days as well—in the times in which you and I are living.

The Accuser

“And he showed me Joshua the great priest standing before the angel of Jehovah, and the saw-tan was there, standing at his right hand.” Zechariah 3:1. In English, the Hebrew word saw-tan is converted to Satan. Satan is one of the few words in the English language that comes directly from the Hebrew language. The word saw-tan means “the adversary.” So the saw-tan, the adversary, was standing at his right hand “to accuse him.” In the book of Revelation, Satan is called “the accuser of the brethren.” Revelation 12:10.

Some months ago, when I was preaching a sermon, I was reading from Matthew 16:23 where Jesus, speaking to Peter, said, “You depart behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me because you do not understand the things of God, but those of men.” This verse clearly says, “Turning, He said to Peter, depart from Me, Satan.” I read that text and said, “Jesus, here, called Peter Satan,” and someone objected to that and wrote me a letter. They said, “Pastor John, you made a mistake, and it needs to be corrected. Ellen White says that Jesus was really speaking to Satan, not Peter.” (See Conflict and Courage, 312.) Well, I got my Bible out again and read it, and it says, “Turning, He said to Peter . . . .” I believe what Ellen White said—that Jesus was addressing Satan directly, but the Bible says that He was speaking to Peter. We must never take the insight of a later prophet and use that to nullify the Bible. From this text, I understand that when God rebukes the devil, He includes all the other intelligences that are allowing the devil to speak through them. Did you get that? When God rebukes the devil,—whether it is in Genesis 3:15, Matthew 16:23, or Zechariah 3:1—in that rebuke is included not only the archfiend himself but every other intelligence, whether angel or human being, that is allowing the devil to speak through them. I want to tell you, friends, there is a large number of people today who are allowing the devil to speak through them.

Zechariah says, “And he showed me Joshua the great priest standing before the angel of Jehovah, and the saw-tan was there, standing at his right hand to accuse him.” Remember that the high priest represents God’s people. How does the saw-tan, or Satan, accuse God’s people? He usually does it through other human beings. We read, in Testimonies, vol. 5, 609: “An earnest effort should be made in every church to put away evilspeaking and a censorious spirit as among the sins productive of the greatest evils in the church. Severity and faultfinding must be rebuked . . . .”

Faultfinding and Supposition

You will find yourself in plenty of trouble when you rebuke “severity and faultfinding,” but Mrs. White states that it must be rebuked “as the workings of Satan.” When a person is engaging in faultfinding, who is speaking through them? It is Satan, the adversary. Remember, Zechariah 3:1 says that the saw-tan, the adversary, was “standing at his right hand, to accuse him.” Satan was going to accuse him to the Lord.

I have noticed, as I have read various references in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy on this subject, that when the devil accuses you, he always accuses you to someone else. When the Pharisees accused Jesus, they talked to his disciples about it, and when they accused the disciples, they talked to Jesus about it. Have you noticed this? Are you glad that God does not operate in this way?

When it is necessary for God to rebuke you or me, He will come directly to us. If you are praying, “Lord, show me what is wrong in my character,” believe me, the Lord will show you! He will not go and tell all your enemies about it, but He will show you personally.

Mrs. White continued: “Let all, in the fear of God and with love to their brethren, close their ears to gossip and censure. Direct the talebearer to the teachings of God’s word. Bid him obey the Scriptures and carry his complaints directly to those whom he thinks in error.” Ibid., 609, 610.

To whom is he supposed to carry his complaints? Is he supposed to carry his complaints to the head of the nearest ministry? No. Is he supposed to carry his complaints to the pastor of the church that person attends? What did the inspired writing say? It said that he is to “bid him to obey the Scriptures and carry his complaints directly to those whom he thinks in error”—not to the pastor.

I cannot count the many times people have either called me on the telephone, written me a letter, or come directly to my office wanting to tell me about someone that is in trouble. And, of course, they expect me to fix the situation. After I have read some of the passages from the Bible and inspired writings, I have decided that I do not even need to listen to such things.

If you have a concern, you need to go directly to the person for whom you have the concern and talk to them. Write them a letter; call them on the telephone; do not come to me. That is what the Bible says to do. (See Matthew 18:15–17.) Mrs. White continued: “This united action would bring a flood of light into the church and close the door to a flood of evil.” Ibid., 610.

Another statement that discloses how people allow the devil to speak through them—remember, when God rebukes the devil, He rebukes everyone who allows the devil to speak through them or to use them—is recorded in the October 17, 1899, Review and Herald: “There is a lack of frankness; the way is hedged up by supposition.” Supposition is one of the devil’s favorite ways in which to accuse people. Mrs. White explains how supposition works: “Some one discovers a supposed defect in a brother or sister, and he acts on this supposition, as if it were true. When criticism and faultfinding, and a desire for the highest place enter the church, the serpent, disguised, enters with them, leaving a trail of evil wherever he goes.” Ibid. Who is the serpent spoken of here? It is the saw-tan, the adversary, and it enters when there is criticism and faultfinding in the church.

So Satan, the adversary, the saw-tan, is at the right hand of God’s people. He is there to accuse, to find fault. This is one of the biggest problems among God’s people—has been in all ages and still is. Some people will overcome. Those who overcome will go to heaven; the people who do not overcome will not go to heaven.

“I saw that all the religion a few poor souls have consists in watching the garments and acts of others, and finding fault with them. Unless they reform, there will be no place in heaven for them, for they would find fault with the Lord Himself.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 145. If these people do not reform, will they be going to heaven? No.

“I feel an intense interest regarding every faultfinder; for I know that a quarrelsome disposition will never find entrance into the city of God.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 7, 271. If I have a quarrelsome disposition, I will not go to heaven.

Overcome Tendencies

After reading these statements, I have made the decision to overcome these tendencies. By the grace of God, I will not do these things anymore. How is it with you?

God has allowed some terrible things to happen so we will look at the inspired writings, wake up, and see what problems must be solved before Jesus can come and take us out of this world.

Numerous churches are in trouble. One of the reasons churches get into trouble is because they are lacking in church discipline. In some churches, you can say just about anything you please and still be a member of that church. If that is the situation in your church, it is going to be destroyed.

“When a person comes to a minister or to men in positions of trust with complaints against a brother or a sister, let the minister ask, ‘Have you complied with the rules our Saviour has given?’ And if he has failed to carry out any particular of this instruction, do not listen to a word of his complaint. In the name and Spirit of Jesus, refuse to take up a report against your brother or your sister in the faith. If members of the church go contrary to these rules, they make themselves subjects for church discipline, and should be under the censure of the church. This matter, so plainly taught in the lessons of Christ, has been treated with strange indifference. The church has either neglected her work entirely in the matter of correcting evil, or has done it with harshness and severity, thus wounding and bruising souls. Measures should be taken to correct this cruel spirit of criticism, of judging the motives of others, as though Christ had revealed to men the hearts of their brethren. The neglect of doing aright, with wisdom and grace, the work that ought to have been done, has left churches and institutions almost inefficient and Christless.” Review and Herald, April 16, 1895. When was the last time you were witness to someone being disciplined by the church for faultfinding or criticism? Is there a reason God’s people are in trouble? Yes!

Church Discipline

I want to present to you a couple of statements about this matter of church discipline, and I hope that you will pray about them and say, “Lord, help us to do in our church what You have told us to do.” If you do not, the devil will see to it that your church is destroyed.

There are certain things the Lord has said that are not to be allowed in the church. Here is one: “No church can be in a healthy, flourishing condition unless its leaders shall take firm, decided measures to repress this fault-finding, accusing spirit wherever it exists. Its indulgence should be made a matter of church discipline; for it is a violation of the law of God, a violation of the rules which Christ has laid down for preserving order in the church. If these mischievous talkers are not subjected to church discipline they become confirmed in their evil work, and God charges the guilt upon the church.” Review and Herald, October 19, 1886.

Satan, the saw-tan, stood at his right hand to accuse him. What about people who are working in institutions or ministries? “No one should be retained in any one of the Lord’s institutions who in a crisis fails of realizing that His instrumentalities are sacred. . . . The halfhearted and worldly, those who are given to gossip, who dwell on the faults of others, while neglecting their own, should be separated from the work.” Testimonies, vol. 7, 202. God’s work, in so many places, is so feeble, because we have not been following this instruction.

“It is the special work of Satan to cause dissension . . . .” Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 2, 791. This is his special work. “We should be weeding out of our thoughts all complaining and faultfinding. Let us not continue to look upon any defects that we may see.” Ibid., 789. Notice she says that we should be weeding these things out of our thoughts. We should not even be thinking about them.

Help Each Other

You know, friends, if we spend our time looking at the defects of others, we will develop in ourselves the same defects at which we are looking, examining, watching, and studying.

Is there anything desirable in impatience? “The loud, harsh complaint, the fretful, fault-finding spirit, are evidences of a narrow, conceited mind. Impatience brings strife and accusation and sorrow.” Review and Herald, February 21, 1888.

What is the most powerful thing we can do to help our brother or sister who is very faulty? Mrs. White says, “A word of love and encouragement will do more to subdue the hasty temper and willful disposition than all the faultfinding and censure that you can heap upon the erring one.” Testimonies, vol. 7, 266.

How can we help each other to be cured from the faultfinding spirit? Ellen White suggested that “These notional, faultfinding ones would often cure themselves of the habit if they would go directly to the individual they think is wrong.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 145. How can we be cured of a faultfinding spirit? If such a person would make it a rule that, when someone else has done something wrong, they will not go to the local elder, deacon, pastor, or call some leader in a ministry trying to burden that person with the problem, but will go directly to the individual in question and talk to them, then possibly the problem would be resolved! Mrs. White says, “But it is easy to let the tongue run freely about this one or that one when the accused is not present.” Ibid. Oh, friend, we should never do that. If we find the need to point out something that is wrong with someone, the least we can do is talk with him or her directly, not talk about them when they are not present.

The Devil’s Work

As we have studied, we are in the shaking, and if we do not overcome on these points, remember, we will be engaged in the devil’s work. Zechariah 3:1 says that the saw-tan, the adversary, stood at his right hand to accuse him. Ellen White wrote: “Something will arise to test everyone. The great sifting time is just before us. The jealous and the faultfinding, who are watching for evil, will be shaken out. They hate reproof and despise correction.” Testimonies, vol. 1., 251.

The jealous and the faultfinding will be shaken out of God’s church. One of the awful things that hap-pens when someone is shaken out is that they usually do not get shaken out all by themselves. Someone goes out with them because of sympathy.

It was through sympathy that the devil caused the fall of about a third of the angels in heaven. And that is why, when someone gets shaken out, they never go out alone. Somebody else sympathizes with them. They sympathize with the one who has gotten reproved, and they hate the one who reproves. As Amos says, “They hate the one that rebukes in the gate.” Amos 5:10.

Ellen White said, “God will send reproof and warning to His people as long as they continue upon earth.” Testimonies, vol. 4, 180. There is only one way the reproofs can be made to stop and that is if we commit the unpardonable sin by refusing the invitation of mercy offered to us through Jesus Christ. When a nation or a person has gone so far, they have committed the unpardonable sin, and there is no hope for their salvation. It is then that the reproofs and warnings cease. (See The Desire of Ages, 324, 325.)

In another statement from inspired writings, we are told: “Bid him [the talebearer] carry his complaints directly to those whom he thinks in error.” Review and Herald, November 30, 1886.

As I have studied this subject, I have come to realize that God desires for us to be much happier than we are. We cannot be happy if our minds are full of all the things that are wrong in our church and with our brothers and sisters. If someone is doing something wrong, it is all right to go to them and talk with him or her about it, but we cannot be happy if we are dwelling on it all the time.

Ellen White wrote the following statement to a minister and a physician: “We must lay hold of the supreme Power, and close our ears to complaint and faultfinding. Crush this inclination, and empty the soul temple of evil-thinking. Let not one unhappy thought remain within.” This Day With God, 347. God does not want us to be full of unhappiness. He tells us to rid our minds of those unhappy thoughts!

There is Someone in charge, friends. Give Him a chance to work. Pray for the people who are in trouble. Go to them and show them how much you love them and how much you want to help them gain the kingdom of heaven.

[Bible texts quoted are literal translation.]

To be concluded . . .

Pastor Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life Ministry and pastor of the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Lessons from the Book of Amos – Part III

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When we began this study of the Book of Amos, we reviewed Amos’ ministry. We noted how he was a citizen of the Southern kingdom but that his work involved delivering messages out of his home area into the Northern kingdom. It had been over 200 years since Elijah had stood on Mount Carmel and had called for a decision on the part of God’s people, saying, “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him.” 1 Kings 18:21. That was a powerful call, and the people’s response to that call indicated that things would turn around, in that they would come back to God and carry out His will. (See verse 39.) But, as is often the case, revival and reformation did not last long.

In reality, this is one of the reasons why we have a congregation and a minister. It is so the minister can proclaim the Word and a continual revival and reformation can grow in the hearts of the congregation. This is why we should not go off in a hermit-like setting by ourselves. The Bible says that we should not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is” and even more so as we see that day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25.) Why is that? Because there is a certain dynamic that takes place within preaching. Paul calls it “the foolishness of preaching” (1 Corinthians 1:21), but there is a power involved in preaching that works on the hearts of the people to draw them to Christ so that a change can take place in their lives.

That took place in Elijah’s day, but it did not continue. It seems that when a torch is passed from one generation to another, the flame grows dimmer and dimmer. Truth did not prevail, as it should have. It did not continue to burn in the hearts of those who were called God’s people. Truth must be held in righteousness. It has to grow in intensity and in strength. It has to lodge in the hearts of those who hear.

This is one of the problems we are facing in Adventism today. Truth, as it has been studied and handed down from one generation to another, has not been appreciated, as it should. Truth has become watered down; it has undergone attack, and instead of each succeeding generation possessing and preserving the truth, it has become weaker and weaker, until open apostasy has broken out with little or no protest.

Responsibility to Generations

Apostasy was taking place in the days of Amos. From the time of Elijah’s powerful call to the time of Amos, spirituality was deteriorating. The Lord called upon Amos to point out to His people just how precarious their position was. We will see, as we go through chapter 4, that God, upon reaching a point, deals with people in a decisive way.

“Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that [are] in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. And ye shall go out at the breaches, every [cow at that which is] before her; and ye shall cast [them] into the palace, saith the Lord.” Amos 4:1–3.

“Hear this word, ye kine . . .” Now, this is anything but a flattering statement. You would never find a pastor today addressing the ladies of his congregation this way. Kine, of course, are cows. This statement was directed to the women of Israel, because they were, for the most part, responsible for the heritage of their children who were to grow up to be worshipers of God and leaders in Israel. Were they living up to the call that God had given them as mothers of Israel? No, they were not. They had a love of luxury and fashion. This statement that Amos made to them was a statement of contempt as to their condition. It was a biting and caustic statement, which was intended to arouse their attention that they might be able to see their spiritual condition.

Attention Getter

What could we use in today’s vernacular as an equivalent statement? I remember when I was a child, and not a Christian, that when I saw a lady I did not like, I would call her an “old bag.” An even more derogatory phrase would be “old pig.” That approximates what Amos meant when he addressed these women. He was calling them a bunch of old bags or old pigs, trying to get their attention.

God does that at times. He uses His prophets to get our attention, to arrest us in the direction in which we are going so that He might then be able to convey a message to us. God knows that unless He can gain our attention, our lifestyles will not change. He has got to stop us in our tracks.

When I was in conference work, one of my colleagues, a seasoned and skilled minister, was often sent by the conference leaders to churches that had multiple problems and difficulties. The people in these churches were frequently scrapping and fighting and at odds with each other.

One day, at a workers’ meeting, we were sitting at the lunch table, talking shop, and he told me about a church to which he had been sent. It was a church with a membership of between 600 and 700 people. The members were experiencing numerous difficulties and problems. His opening statement of his first Sabbath sermon was, “You know, when I walked into this church building, the first thing that came to my notice was how filthy a condition it is in. There is dirt in the corners; there are cobwebs; the carpet is not clean . . . .” His comments went downhill from there. He said, “Certainly the condition of this building represents the characters of the people who worship here.”

“I will tell you something,” he told me, “if looks could kill, I would be a dead man.” He continued to tell me that as soon as the benediction was given, people spun gravel getting out of the driveway so they could get home and call the conference president, demanding that he get this man out of there church! “We will not have him as our pastor,” they cried. “We cannot stand him. Why did you send him here?” The president listened. He knew why he had sent this pastor to their church.

The interesting thing was that after his initial sermon, he began a program of visitation striving to pour healing oil where it was needed, but not necessarily in wounds that he had opened. He pastored that church for about eight years. When it came time for him to leave, the congregation collected thousands and thousands of dollars to send him and his wife on a trip to the Middle East and Europe. The people wept as they heard the news that he was going to be leaving, because he knew how to minister to their needs after opening their wounds.

Betrayed Trust

God does that, too, at times. God sometimes must open a wound in order for it to heal. There is one thing about the prophets that God called to ministry. They said it like it was. The sword of truth had two edges, and as they swung, it cut in both directions. But God never cuts unless He intends to heal.

These women of Samaria were asleep. They were well-fed creatures who, for the satisfaction of appetite, pleasure, and fashion, made continual demands upon their husbands, which, in reality, caused the oppression of the poor. It was for this reason that much brutal oppression was taking place within Israel.

There are some important lessons to be learned from Amos’ account found in the first three verses of Amos 4. Women have a special calling. They have a special responsibility before God and before the world. Women have been entrusted with a major role in creating and conserving the precious ties of human life. Because of this, God has, for the most part, endowed women with special gifts of pity, generosity, and morality. They become the custodians of the generation that has already been born and are responsible for the generations that are yet to come. God holds women accountable for how they affect human life in terms of integrity and righteousness.

That is not to say that men do not have a role to play in this also, because they do. But it is the special responsibility of women to communicate and pass on values to the offspring of mankind. This is why, I believe, God was very careful in selecting the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a tendency to recoil from the overemphasis of Mary in Catholicism, as she was never to be exalted. But the Bible tells us that Mary was indeed a very special mother. “Blessed art thou among women.” (Luke 1:28, 42.) Mary had been given a tremendous responsibility in giving birth to the Saviour and raising Him to love His Father.

The women of Samaria had betrayed the special trust to which God had called them. As a result of this betrayal, Amos came down on them like a ton of bricks. They had it coming. It is no wonder the prophets were so persecuted! You do not call women a bunch of old bags and get away with it! They will recoil, unless it gets their attention, and they take the words that follow to heart.

Fishhooks

Evidently an indictment that was all-inclusive was needed in this situation, as we read in Amos 4:2: “The Lord God hath sworn by His holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.”

I do not know that we living in America can really begin to understand the wholesale evil that was transpiring in the nation of Israel. There are instances here and there that we hear of awful things, such as the news story where a seven-year-old child, weighing only 36 pounds, was discovered locked in a closet. We hear about these terrible kinds of things, and we wonder where the pity and feelings of a mother could be.

As a whole, we do not have those kinds of problems as a nation. But what we see taking place in the Book of Amos caused the prophet of God to deal with these things in a very forthright way. We could probably expound endlessly on the degradation and the depth to which the nation had fallen, but it was evil on the part of these women to press upon their husbands their life of luxury and ease at the expense of the poor and the unfortunate.

God, by His very nature, will not allow such conduct as this to go unpunished. He is the Holy One of Israel, and the very fact that Israel covenanted with Him as His holy people is what made it an issue. God had not dealt with other people whom He had not covenanted with like this. Do you know why? Because that is the way unconverted people naturally act. They are not regenerated. They do not have new hearts. They have not come to God. That is the way they are. But not God’s people! God’s people are not to act that way. And when you enter into a covenant with God, pledging that you are not going to act the way unbelievers act, that you are going to keep His Law, and then you go contrary to that, God says, No, this is not going to wash.

Two things come to light in reference to this verse. First, hooks give the mental conception of pain. When God removes you with hooks, it is not a pleasant experience. Some of you may have done some fishing in your lifetime. I used to fish when I was a child, and there were times when the hooks hooked into my skin. It was not a pleasant experience! Hooks bring to mind the thought of pain, and these were not just the tiny little fishhook like I used to catch trout. These were probably more like a gaffing hook used for a larger type of fish, where you hook onto it and drag it into a boat. This verse is referring to that type of a hook—one with barbs that will not allow the hook to release easily, that is big enough so an adult cannot pull away. So, second, a hook gives the idea that there is not an escape.

If you are hooked and you follow the leading of that hook, you are going to go wherever that hook pulls you. That is the idea in this verse—your experience will be a punishment for your sin, and you are not going to escape from it. I will not go into this aspect of it, but as you search out other references relating to hooks in the Bible, you will find these expressions are usually used when the devil is involved. The devil has his hooks that he will place in you, and he will lead you at his will.

People who live lives of luxury are prone to believe that they can do just about anything they want and never have to pay the price for their wrong doings. They think they are above punishment because of who they are or what they have. It may take years for the consequences of their actions to finally catch up to them. The wheel of punishment may turn very slowly, but it will eventually come around. God has put into practice the adage, “What goes around comes around.” It took years for the events recorded in Amos to finally catch up with the children of Israel, but they finally did.

Form with no Power

“Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, [and] your tithes after three years.” Amos 4:4.

You see, since the time of the building of the temple, Jerusalem had been the place of worship. It was here that the Ark of the Covenant was located in the sanctuary. This is where God met with His people. Any worship that took place anywhere else, on any other scale, was a worship that did not originate with the direction of God. It was worship that was instigated by the will of men, and it was void of the blessing of heaven. It could be a formal worship, but in reality, it was a ritual worship with no heart worship at all.

These people, even in Jerusalem, were going through a ritualistic kind of worship. They were very zealous in what they were doing. Sacrifices were offered every morning; they brought their tithes and offerings. They brought the second tithes and offerings every three years. But when you look at what was being done, following it back to its origin, you find it was nothing more, from a spiritual standpoint, than a Canaanite-type worship, because it had form without power. Although the people seemed very sincere in their worship, it had no merit or value with God.

God has a sanctuary where worship is to be directed. It is where the ark is contained. Where do we actually direct our worship today—to the sanctuary of our local church, to the church building? Or do we direct our worship to where the ark is located today? Any worship that does not direct its worship to where the ark is located is valueless, as far as God is concerned. Such worship is nothing but form and ritual.

That is how the children of Israel were worshipping. They were directing their worship to Gilgal and Bethel where there was no ark. God said, Go ahead and do it, but it does not have any value. It was worship that was instigated by the will of men, and it was void of the blessing of heaven.

Rebuke and Chasten

And so again, here is a lesson for us. There are forms of worship that are not acceptable to God. God has described the type of worship that is acceptable. We have abundant material in the writings of Ellen White and the Bible on the subject. But many have left the simplicity of worship and have gone over to Babylon. They have found something there they feel is more meaningful, and they have brought it back into our churches and have called it worship. It is not.

It is interesting to see how God has responded to past situations that are brought back for our consideration today. This is one reason we need to study the Bible more than we have before. We need to know where we stand with God. When we depart from God, even in small ways, it may appear that we are getting away with something, but the hand of God is at work. The message to the church of Laodicea is a prime example of how God has worked in the past and how He is still working today. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The message to the church of Laodicea says, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” Revelation 3:19. God has worked that way all through the course of history.

The word chasten is a particularly interesting word. It is a word that God uses to describe what He is going to do to His people. Webster gives the definition of this word as: punishment, suffering, to discipline, to purify. When God chastens, He does it for these reasons—to punish, to cause us to suffer, to discipline, and to purify. All these things are designed to get our attention. Punishment and suffering are intended to get our attention, so we will listen to what He has to say. God does this, but He does it in love.

Chastisements Increase

Amos goes on to record how God dealt with His people over time. In verse six of Amos 4 we read: “And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities . . . .” God is not giving them tubes of toothpaste. He is giving them famine. They do not have food on their teeth. This verse means they are licking them clean; they are suffering famine. “I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And also I have withholden the rain from you, when [there were] yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.” Verses 6, 7. The Bible says that God causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45), but not in the realm of chastening. When God chastens, He pours out the rain over here, but He causes another area to dry up over there.

Verse eight continues: “So two [or] three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.” Chastening number two!

“I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured [them]: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have overthrown [some] of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.” Verses 9–11.

As we read, we find that the intensity of the chastisements increases with every one. Yet God says that none of these things have changed the Israelites at all. Their hearts are still going in the same direction. There has been no turning around on their part. There was no reversal on their part in returning to Him.

Principle of Apostasy

Counsel was given by Ellen White that refers to the principle of events we find in Amos 4—apostasy.

“The Israelites had been guilty of treason, and that against a King who had loaded them with benefits, and whose authority they had voluntarily pledged themselves to obey. That the divine government might be maintained, justice must be visited upon the traitors. Yet even here God’s mercy was displayed.” Review and Herald, February 11, 1909. With all the chastisements that we have read about, God has mingled mercy. If the chastisements were not mingled with mercy, He would have just wiped the Israelites out completely. “While he maintained his law, he granted freedom of choice and opportunity for repentance for all. Only those were cut off who persisted in rebellion.

“Love no less than justice demanded that for this sin judgment should be inflicted. God is the guardian as well as the sovereign of his people. He cuts off those who are determined upon rebellion, that they may not lead others to ruin.” Ibid. Why do we weed our gardens? So the strength can go to the plants we want to grow. Weeds will sap the moisture and nutrients from the soil, and sometimes we have to pull them out so the good things will not be lost. “In sparing the life of Cain, God had demonstrated to the universe what would be the result of permitting sin to go unpunished. The influence exerted upon his descendants by his life and teaching led to the state of corruption that demanded the destruction of the whole world by a flood. The history of the antediluvians testifies that long life is not a blessing to the sinner; God’s great forbearance did not repress their wickedness. The longer men lived, the more corrupt they became.

“So with the apostasy at Sinai. Unless punishment had been speedily visited upon transgression, the same results would have again been seen. The earth would have become as corrupt as in the days of Noah. Had these transgressors been spared, evils would have followed greater than resulted from sparing the life of Cain. It was the mercy of God that thousands should suffer, to prevent the necessity of visiting judgment upon millions. In order to save the many, he must punish the few. Furthermore, as the people had cast off their allegiance to God, they had forfeited the divine protection, and, deprived of their defense, the whole nation was exposed to the power of their enemies.” Ibid. That is why Satan can come in with hooks. Once God’s protection is removed, the devil can come in, put his hook in, and lead us at will. The Israelites had forfeited their defense. “Had not the evil been promptly put away, they would soon have fallen a prey to their numerous and powerful foes. It was necessary for the good of Israel, and was also a lesson to all succeeding generations, that crime should be promptly punished. And it was no less a mercy to the sinners themselves that they should be cut short in their evil course. Had their lives been spared, the same spirit that led them to rebel against God would have been manifested in hatred and strife among themselves.” Ibid.

Stop and think about that for a minute. If God had not dealt with and cut short the issues that were causing His people to be separated from Him by the destruction of thousands, the millions would have turned upon themselves.

Bloody God or Loving God

I have had people come to me and say, “I do not want to have anything to do with the God of the Bible, because He is a bloody God.” Is He a bloody God? Let us be honest. Yes, He is. He is a bloody God. But the blood that God sheds is in mercy, sparing multitudes whose lives continue on.

Somehow we must understand that God is a loving God, even in these acts that seem repulsive to us. He knows the heart and the probation of every individual, and He is working to save each one. When that probation is finished, God has to take action. We need to understand that. It will help us appreciate our God much more. God, through His prophet Amos, intended to prepare a people for their coming punishment. He was going to deal with this matter. He was not going to let it pass by, as the people hoped that He would. God said, I have allowed all these horrible things, yet you have not returned unto Me.

Prepare to Meet Thy God

“Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: [and] because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” Amos 4:12. Every Israelite knew that not one could be in the presence of God and live. Each had, through history and the stories that had been handed down and through the Holy Word of God, instruction that no one could be in the presence of God and live. They all knew that. So in verse 12, when it says, “prepare to meet thy God, O Israel,” it is not meaning, “Why don’t you bring a sacrifice and an offering of repentance so you will be welcomed into the courts of heaven by God?” That is not what it is saying at all. It is telling them that they are going to be ushered into the presence of God. That should have terrified them! The sinner who knows that he is not right with God does not want to be brought into the presence of the holy God, because he knows that is a death sentence.

Amos comes along and tells the Israelites that, in fact, they are going to be ushered into the presence of God and that they had better be prepared to meet Him. How would they react? How will we react?

A Lesson for Us

Amos 4:13 says, “For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what [is] his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord [that is Jehovah, that is the God of heaven], The God of hosts, [is] his name.” He is the one into Whose presence we are going to be ushered—the Creator of the entire Universe. It is judgment hour. God is a merciful God. God is a loving God. But He is also a God of justice, and He will deal with sin. It may take Him a while, and in the process of time, there may be some chastisements along the way to get our attention. But if we ignore them and continue on as we have been, we had better be prepared to meet our God.

To be continued . . .

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life Ministry. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mikebaugher@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

The Filthy Garment, Part II

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We need to not only guard our tongues but guard our ears, as well. During these last days, there are things all around us to which a Christian should not be listening. “My ears must be closed to evil. . . . The ears must not be defiled by listening to any gossip that faultfinding ones would have us hear, for I not only cause them to sin in allowing them to talk of others’ faults, but I sin myself in listening to them.” The Upward Look, 237.

Do you want to quit sinning? If it is a sin to listen to gossip and faultfinding, it is a sin to allow someone to tell it to us. We need to say to them, “I am sorry; you will have to stop talking. I cannot listen. You need to talk directly with the person.” “I can prevent much evil speaking in thus having ears consecrated to God. I can say before the evil is done, ‘Let us pray,’ then ask God to enlighten both our minds to understand our true relation to one another and our true relation to God.” Ibid.

As I have been studying this subject, I realize that if I could put this principle into strict practice, it could really decrease my workload! People call me from all over the world, wanting to tell me about someone else’s wrongs. I have decided that I do not need to listen to such things. These people need to go directly to the person about whom they are talking. Ellen White has told us that as long as we are in this world, there will always be something we can criticize. Did you know that? (See Review and Herald, February 16, 1897.) Things are never going to be perfect in this world.

Someone may think that what I am saying seems to be teaching the Pollyanna attitude, and in historic Adventism, we have never held to this teaching. We have always believed that we need to speak out and speak up when there is sin in the camp. Well, there is a godly way to speak out, and there is a saw-tan [Satan] way to do it. The godly way is to go directly to whomever you know is doing something wrong, talk to them in the meekness and tenderness of Christ, and see if you can help them bring their life into harmony with inspired writings.

If you cannot do this, let them go. If they are living in open sin, and you have gone to them two times, according to Matthew 18, it will be necessary to take their situation to the church for action. If the church will not act, and they allow someone with open sin to stay in that church, then you will have to get out of that church if you want to go to heaven.

When we say that we should not find fault, we are not talking about having a Pollyanna attitude and just letting anything go. This was not Jesus’ instruction. This was not Ellen White’s instruction. In the Review and Herald, July 20, 1905, Mrs. White wrote: “Because we are not to find fault, this does not mean that we are to pass by things that are wrong, without saying a word. If you see one doing wrong, go right to him, and tell him his fault in the way outlined in the Scriptures. In the meekness of Christ tell him the truth, and you may save his soul from death. But if you gloss over the mistakes, leaving those who have made them to think that they have done nothing wrong, you must share in the punishment, because you were unfaithful to your trust.”

So, we are to go directly to the person. We are not to go to someone else and tear down another’s reputation. In fact, Ellen White said that we are never to tear down the reputation. “Many are filled with self-importance and esteem themselves above their brethren. Such should let self die; let the carnal mind be crucified. If you have enmity, suspicion, envy, and jealousy in your hearts, you have a work to do to make these things right. Confess your sins; come into harmony with your brethren. Speak well of them. Throw out no unfavorable hints, no suggestions that will awaken distrust in the minds of others. Guard their reputation as sacredly as you would have them guard yours; love them as you would be loved of Jesus. Work for their interest, instead of seeking to tear them down that you may build yourself upon their ruins. It is Satan’s work to injure the brethren, and he loves to have you help him in it. But disappoint him; do not let him triumph over you.” Ibid., April 29, 1884.

“Do not accuse your brethren. Rather accuse yourselves. An untold amount of mischief is done by words of faultfinding and slander. Never tear down the reputation of a fellow being.” Ibid., November 10, 1910. What could happen in our churches if everyone, waiting for the return of the Lord, would say, “By the grace of God, I am never, ever going to tear down anyone’s reputation again”?

Disfellowshipping Sometimes Necessary

If a person is a faultfinder and they have been reproved for it but will not listen, they are to be disfellowshipped. Not only are they to be disfellowshipped but those who sympathize with them are also to be disfellowshipped.

“There are those members who are busybodies, speaking evil, sowing the seeds of doubt and infidelity, who pay no heed to the light God has given them in His Word. If we have but one church member who by his spirit, words, and influence seeks to counterwork the influence of the minister of Christ, labor with that one faithfully; and if after taking the steps required by Christ, he will not hear, will not change his course of action, then separate him from the church, and let him know the reason why the church cannot hold him in her fellowship. And if there are those who sympathize with him, who will not discern the right from the wrong, who, after patient instruction has been given them, choose to keep on the wrong side, let them also be suspended. God’s name must not be dishonored by murmurers, faultfinders, and those who are continually sowing seeds of disaffection.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 15, 163, 164.

Do you realize, friends, that what we are talking about right now is the very thing that kept the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years? Of course, we have been in the wilderness for over 150 years.

Jesus has given us an example: “When Christ was living on this earth, how surprised would have been His associates, if, after becoming acquainted with Him, they had heard Him utter one word of impatience, one word of accusation or of faultfinding!” The Paulson Collection of Ellen G. White Letters, 16. His associates would have been shocked if they had ever heard Jesus say anything like that. Oh friend, if you could get a hold of this and if your church could get a hold of it, your church would not only be saved from destruction but it could prosper. People could be brought into your church, and the lambs of the fold, the people who are lost, would not be afraid to come into your church, because it would be a safe place. It would not be a place where people are tearing each other down and destroying each other’s reputations by faultfinding and gossip. It would be a place where people are building up one another. Instead of trying to tear people down by telling them their faults, they would be trying to help them to overcome. “He [Christ] expects those who love Him and believe in Him, to represent Him in character.” Ibid.

A Brand Plucked

Zechariah 3:2 says, “And Jehovah said to the saw-tan [the adversary], Jehovah gives a rebuke to you, the saw-tan. Even Jehovah gives a rebuke to you who has chosen this one at Jerusalem. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”

If you are a part of God’s people, you are one of those brands plucked from the fire. The New Testament talks about this. James talks about it in the last few verses of his book. Jude 23 talks about it. Paul talks about it in 1 Thessalonians 1:10: “We have been saved from the coming wrath through Jesus.”

What an awesome, awesome thing to think about. All of us, friends, were absolutely destined to destruction with no way out. We were headed for the fire, all of us, but the Lord said, “I am going to give you a second chance; if it is your desire, I will get you out of the fire.”

Filthy Garments

In Zechariah 3:3, it says, “And Joshua was clothed in filthy garments; he was standing before the angel.” Joshua was clothed in filthy garments. Friends, this is not just a description of history; this is a prophecy about God’s people at the end of time. It should be something that would motivate us to think very seriously. When the Holy Spirit wrote down in prophecy a description of God’s people in the end of time, He said, “They are clothed in filthy garments.” Filthy garments. Are you clothed in filthy garments? You should know, if you are spending time with the Lord and the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, that this is how you are clothed, because the Scriptures say so.

Friends, no one can enter into the kingdom of heaven with a filthy garment. The filthy garments are representative of the sins and the defective characters of God’s people.

The devil’s accusation is so difficult to meet, because it is true. I have noticed that when any human being is accused of anything, —this is true in the world, and it is true in the church—they immediately try to find some flaw in the accusation, so on a technicality, they can show that the accuser is wrong. That happens in the courts all the time; a technicality brings victory.

But friends, you cannot obtain the victory on a technicality of this charge, because the accusation is true. The devil is a liar, but this time he is telling the truth. “While Jesus is pleading for the subjects of His grace, Satan accuses them before God as transgressors. The great deceiver has sought to lead them into skepticism, to cause them to lose confidence in God, to separate themselves from His love, and to break His law. Now he points to the record of their lives, to the defects of character, the unlikeness to Christ, which has dishonored their Redeemer, to all the sins that he has tempted them to commit, and because of these he claims them as his subjects.” The Great Controversy, 484. The devil knows accurately the sins that he has tempted us to commit; he has a complete record, and he brings it to the Lord and says, “Look here. These are your people!” He has a record. The accusation is true.

What to do?

What are we going to do? As awful as this is, I have been encouraged, as I have studied these issues, because I saw that the Lord is going to give a command to “Take those filthy garments off.” (See Zechariah 3:4.) I do not know what you are doing in your private devotions, but in my private devotions, I am praying that the Lord will bring me to the position in my Christian walk where He can remove the filthy garments from me. I want them off. I want His clean clothing placed on me. (See Verse 5.)

“Who will now put on the white robe of Christ’s righteousness, which is without spot or wrinkle, so that Satan cannot in derision point to their filthy garments? Keep the soul clean and pure. You have no time to gather up the mistakes of others. Attend to your own mistakes, and make the erring ashamed by your kindly, sympathetic interest in them.” The Upward Look, 117.

Take encouragement in the following quotes:

“Satan tries to bring reproach against those who are trying to serve and honor God. He presents them in a questionable light, as those who are clothed with filthy garments. God says, take away the filthy garments. You have no right to put them upon my children. Take them away. My people may have imperfections of character. They may fail in their endeavors; but if they repent, I will forgive them.” Review and Herald, April 30, 1901.

“The robe of Christ’s righteousness is prepared for all those who will exchange their own sinful, filthy garments for the robe Jesus has prepared for them. This garment was furnished at great cost by the Son of God, and he presents it as a free gift to any one, rich or poor, high or low, wise or ignorant, who will exchange his sin-defiled garments for this robe of matchless purity.” The Youth’s Instructor, August 11, 1886.

“There are very many who cling to their filthy garments, which Christ stands ready to remove, choosing the spots and stains of sin rather than the pure robe of Christ’s righteousness. The pure and holy garments are not prepared to be put on by any one after he has entered the gate of the city. All who enter will have on the robe of Christ’s righteousness and the name of God will be seen in their foreheads. This name is the symbol which the apostle saw in vision, and signifies the yielding of the mind to intelligent and loyal obedience to all of God’s commandments. There will be no covering up of sins and faults to hide the deformity of character; no robes will be half washed; but all will be pure and spotless.” Ibid.

“Jesus loves His children, even if they err. They belong to Jesus and we are to treat them as the purchase of the blood of Jesus Christ. Any unreasonable course pursued toward them is written in the books as against Jesus Christ. He keeps His eye upon them, and when they do their best, calling upon God for His help, be assured the service will be accepted, although imperfect. Jesus is perfect. Christ’s righteousness is imputed unto them, and He will say, Take away the filthy garments from him, and clothe him with change of raiment. Jesus makes up for our unavoidable deficiencies.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 2, 184.

Are there unavoidable deficiencies? Evidently. We do not know what the unavoidable deficiencies are of somebody else. That is why we must not judge them nor find fault with them. We do not know! There are some people who have physical deficiencies that they cannot help. We can recognize those things. But there are people who have mental and spiritual deficiencies that they cannot help. Only the Lord knows, so we must not judge them. Now, there is no excuse for open sin, whatever the deficiency is. But Mrs. White says that Jesus makes up for our unavoidable deficiencies.

This is good news! We should be glad there is Somebody that knows! God does not ask us to do something that we cannot do without His help. He says, “Do not worry about the unavoidable deficiencies.” The Lord is going to make up for those, but are we doing our best, and are we asking the Lord to help us?

Lord’s Injunction

Zechariah 3:7 says, “Thus said Jehovah of hosts: If in my ways you will walk and if my injunction you will keep, also you will judge my house, and also you will keep my courts.” What does He mean when He says, “If you will keep my injunction”? What is the Lord’s injunction? Ellen White tells us very plainly that it is the Ten Commandments. (See Manuscript Releases, vol. 21, 385.) The Ten Commandments is not ten laws. It is one law with ten parts, so it is spoken of in the singular throughout the Bible.

The encouraging thing to me, as I have studied this, is that there is going to be a group of people in the world who are going to have the filthy garments removed, and they are going to have the festal garments placed upon them. They are going to be the people who keep the injunction; they will keep the commandments. Friends, I want to be one of those people.

Jesus told the Jews, “If you do not believe that I am the one, you are going to die in your sins.” John 8:24. Many, many times I have prayed to the Lord asking that He does not let me die in my sins. That is all. If I die in this world, that is all right, but I do not want to die in my sins. If the filthy garments are going to be removed and if the festal garments are going to be put on, it is going to happen in this world—not in heaven.

“After the filthy garments have been removed, the subject changes, showing that this has its application in the future. If the people of God will walk in the ways of the Lord and keep His charge, which is the ten commandments, then the promise is that they shall judge His house and have places to walk among the angels.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 21, 385.

There will be a group of people upon whom the Lord will look and say, “These people have repented. These people are not going any longer in the way of sin.” You see, the Lord cannot take away the filthy garments from most of the people in the world and give them festal garments, because they would get them dirty the first day of wearing them. A woman does not put on her wedding dress and then change the oil in her car. She does not put on the dress until she is going to keep it clean.

The same applies here. The Lord cannot take away our filthy garments and place upon us the festal garments until we are in a condition where we will not get the festal garments filthy. That is the condition, the experience, that I want. Is that the experience you want? If it is, ask the Lord to give it to you.

[Bible texts quoted are literal translation.]

Pastor Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life Ministry and pastor of the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Lessons From the Book of Amos, Part IV

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What Might Have Been

Ellen White records for us a vision that was given to her of the work that was taking place in Battle Creek, Michigan. The vision that she relates is about a meeting that occurred in the Tabernacle Church:

“We were assembled in the auditorium of the Tabernacle. Prayer was offered, a hymn was sung, and prayer was again offered. Most earnest supplication was made to God. The meeting was marked by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The work went deep, and some present were weeping aloud.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 104.

She goes on to say that the issue at hand involved the reception of the message to the Laodicean church, the need for repentance on the part of God’s people, and their reconciliation one with another. Those attending the meeting were often heard repeating the words of Jesus: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” Revelation 3:19.

She continues: “No one seemed to be too proud to make heartfelt confession, and those who led in this work were the ones who had influence, but had not before had courage to confess their sins.

“There was rejoicing such as never before had been heard in the Tabernacle.” Ibid., 105.

Would not that have been a tremendous occasion to witness?

“Then I aroused from my unconsciousness, and for a while could not think where I was. My pen was still in my hand. The words were spoken to me: ‘This might have been. All this the Lord was waiting to do for His people. All heaven was waiting to be gracious.’ I thought of where we might have been had thorough work been done at the last General Conference, and an agony of disappointment came over me as I realized that what I had witnessed was not a reality.” Ibid., 105, 106.

What a disappointment! You know, it is not good to dwell on things that might have been. It means sweet dreams dispelled, fair hopes blighted, and human lives ruined. Yet, dear friend, this was the prophet’s task.

Sorrow of a Prophet

This is the setting for the fifth chapter of Amos. Amos has a very heavy heart as he writes these words concerning the Northern kingdom of Israel: “Hear ye this word which I take up against you, [even] a lamentation, O house of Israel. The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up. For thus saith the Lord God; The city that went out [by] a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth [by] an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.” Verses 1–3.

Amos was chosen by God because he was spiritually in tune with God. He understood what was transpiring, and no doubt, the lament had at its core “what might have been.” And now, instead of “what might have been,” there comes the need to face the reality of “what is.”

I wonder how many prophets have been shown “what might have been” down though the centuries of time. Many prophets wrote, “I have seen things that I cannot describe. I have seen things that I cannot put into words.” How many times have prophets seen what might have been and, because they were in one accord with God and desired His will, were overcome with sorrow upon returning to a state of consciousness?

Think of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of heaven, Who came down to this earth and walked among men, taking upon Himself human flesh, knowing the realities of heaven and knowing what it was like to be in tune with the Father. Yet, as He walked and as He saw what was taking place in the temple porticos, the Bible tells us that He was “a man of sorrows.” Isaiah 53:3. I can understand that. The Scriptures tell the sad story.

God has always extended a very glorious picture to His people. So often, however, they respond in like manner as we find recorded in Ezekiel 33:31–33: “And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee [as] my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, [but] their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou [art] unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.”

The Virgin is Fallen

Amos describes the people of God as wanting to come, sit, and listen to very melodious and beautiful music, but when the prophet comes to them with a message in hope of changing the direction of their lives, they do not want to hear it. They want to hear a lovely song sung. When the reality finally sets in of the consequences for rejecting God, it will be for them too late. This is the story that Amos here records. He says, “The virgin of Israel is fallen.”

Amos presents this matter to the Northern kingdom, using the illustration of a girl in her beautiful youth who is cut down, never to rise again. In every culture, in every land, there seems to be an awesome regard for youth. Youth is portrayed as that time in life when everything is a bowl of cherries. When a young person tragically loses his or her life, old and young feel it very deeply. That is the picture presented here—a girl in the blossoming of her youth was cut down.

Every time I hear of a young person who has lost his or her life, the thought always comes to me, What might it have been for that person, had he or she lived? What would have been the direction of his or her life?

The Reality

Amos is entertaining the same thought, and then he brings us the reality of the picture. Those who compose the cities, Amos says, will suffer until they are left with only ten percent of what they formerly had.

When a city suffers a fate like this, its glory is gone. It is not a very bright picture that is painted here by Amos. But what we need to focus on is the fact that this ten percent constitutes a remnant. The 90 percent that were sufficient to produce a glory of the city are going to be stripped away. We are told in Psalm 37:11 that “the meek shall inherit the earth.” And so a remnant is left. It is not intended to be a bright picture. It is a picture that is painted with dark colors, a picture of darkness and gloom.

“For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live.” Amos 5:4. God is hoping that the ten percent will increase. There will be a remnant that will be left, but He is wanting more than that. Most are going to be lost; the virgin is going to be cut down.

“But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour [it], and [there be] none to quench [it] in Bethel.” Verses 5, 6. The places that Amos refers to here—Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba—were places of sacred memory to Israel.

One of my responsibilities as a pastor is that of marriage counseling. I always ask the couple in distress what it was that brought them together in the first place. How did they meet? What are the memories of their early affections?

These verses reveal that God is basically doing the same thing. These three locations were places of sacred memory. Bethel was where Jacob dreamed of the ladder that led to heaven and where he made his vow to be the Lord’s. Gilgal was the place where the people reconsecrated themselves before they entered into Canaan. Beersheba was where Abraham called on the Lord, where Isaac built his altar, and where Jacob offered sacrifice before going into Egypt to be re-united with his son, Joseph.

But the tragedy is that all of these places of sacred memory for Israel and the resulting heritage had now been transformed into places of idolatrous practices. It is sad but true that places of sacred memory can be, through a transforming process, turned into places of haunt.

Plea to Return

So God appealed to His people to seek Him and to turn back. Even though the divine sentence had been pronounced, God was still pleading with any that may have been in the valley of decision.

Hosea was a contemporary with Amos. They wrote at the same time, and the story and the appeal were the same. Hosea unfolded to his readers that, even though Israel was unfaithful, God could take them back. The cry was, “How can I give thee up, O Ephraim? Turn and come back to Me, and I will heal all your backslidings. I will forgive your sins, if you will only come back.” (See Hosea 14:1–4.) Amos gave the same appeal.

This has always been the appeal that God has given. Regardless of what you have done, He says, “I will take you back. Just come to Me. Learn of Me. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me.”

In the time of the antediluvians, Noah built an ark, which held the portent of their destruction. For 120 years, with every wooden peg that was driven, Noah proclaimed to the people that destruction was on its way. “Turn from your wicked ways,” was the cry, but when the time came and the door of the ark was closed, only eight were saved.

Then there was Jerusalem. Jerusalem was thrust into a position of desolation. When Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives and cried out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!” Matthew 23:37. You would not what? You would not come to Me. You would not come and have your sins forgiven. You would not put away your unrighteous ways. You would not allow the Spirit to change your heart. Therefore, “your house is left unto you desolate.” Verse 38. Interestingly, even though these words of Jesus held the portent of their destruction, those in Jerusalem still received the exposure and witness of Pentecostal power, as He hoped that more would come to Him.

God’s threatenings are based upon the condition of man’s conduct. The threatenings of God are given concerning a certain set of circumstances created by men. If and when those circumstances change, through their repentance, the threatenings cease to apply. You see, those threatenings are designed to turn men back to God, not to plunge them into despair.

Protection of the Poor

“Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, [Seek him] that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord [is] his name: That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.” Amos 5:7–9.

God does not leave them wondering what they are going to do when the judgement comes. They have turned “judgment to wormwood.” Wormwood is mentioned in the Book of Revelation. It is a plant that has a very bitter, pungent taste, and here, Amos denounces those who have made the procedure of going to tribunals for protection a hateful, bitter experience. They have gone for a resolve, only to find bitterness.

The Lord had set in place the process of resolve for the purpose of protecting the poor from those who would try to take advantage of their unfortunate circumstances. There are always people who would fall into this category, and God takes a special interest in protecting His people from hurt and harm.

The interesting part about this is that the Jews have always had the reputation of striking a sharp deal, and they have handed this trait down to their posterity—literally as well as spiritually. Ellen White writes about striking sharp deals: “There should be in our business deal no shadow of selfishness or overreaching. Let no one take advantage of any man’s ignorance or necessity.” Testimonies, vol. 7, 163. We, as Seventh-day Adventists, have some things to learn in these areas. God especially hates this. In the days of Amos, it had become so difficult to obtain justice that God termed it “wormwood.” As a result, righteousness was left off in the earth. This should speak to us, as a church, today.

Turn Away

I could not begin to count the number of times I have heard stories in which individuals have made appeals to the church to do the right thing, only to be brushed aside. I do not know how many letters I have written about such situations. Maybe you have written letters, too, only to be flicked off like a bug. God said that is not the way it is to be. He pleaded for His people to turn away from sin and not do it anymore, because there are consequences that will come from such actions.

When we have it set in our minds that we are the only ones who have the right answer, and we fail to take into account the understandings of others, an attitude develops that we are right, that we will always be right, and that no one can tell us what we need to do. God says to turn away from this.

God says, “I am the One Who is to be your wisdom. I am the One Who, if you look to Me, will give you guidance and direction in every situation that you face, that indeed you will do the right thing, because I am the holy measurement. And every thing that you take off of Me will be measured right and correctly.”

This whole passage is an appeal to the people’s better sight. Turn away from sin, because there is infinite power in God, Who will help you through to salvation.

Prudent Silence

But the words take a turn in Amos 5:10, 11: “They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. Forasmuch therefore as your treading [is] upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.” This is God’s view of the whole thing.

Isaiah gives a different view: “They [God’s people] shall build houses, and inhabit [them]; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.” Isaiah 65:21. That will happen only when we have put ourselves into God’s care and keeping.

But the people depicted in the Book of Amos had become so self-exalted that they said, “We will be able to plant our vineyards, and we will have good wine next year, and we will build our houses, and we will be able to rejoice.” But God said, “No. You are not going to enjoy any of it,” for Amos 5 continues, “For I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate [from their right]. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it [is] an evil time.” Verses 12, 13.

An interesting fact of reality comes alive here. Verse 10 says, “They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.” The one that was set up in the gate was appointed by God and was a mouthpiece or a spokesman for God. The gate was that special place of appointment where justice was to be rendered. If there was any place that was to hold a place of right doing, it was the gate of the city. Many times, throughout Scripture, God talks about the injustice that takes place at the gate. There will be an accounting for that.

What is the attitude revealed here? Well, it is an attitude of selfishness and arrogance—don’t tell me what to do; I want my own way. When this type of an attitude prevails, the Bible says that the prudent man keeps silence.

Have you ever heard someone say, Don’t keep harping on that; it makes me mad? Perhaps we have even said that ourselves. The better part of wisdom is, when something has been said, leave it alone. If there is no change, prudence dictates that silence is golden.

To know when to be silent and when to speak takes much wisdom. Why does it take wisdom? Because self gets in the way. Self wants to assert self. We always want the last word, do we not? Why? Because we know we are right, and the other person is wrong. If we can just speak a little bit longer, we feel that our last word will have the power of convincing. But I can tell you, if we would follow the counsel of the prophet about being prudent in knowing when to remain silent, it could save a lot of domestic dispute and violence. Be quiet!

Patiently Wait Upon the Lord

There is a tendency for us to run ahead of God. There is a tendency for us to become impatient. Do you remember the story of King Saul? When the Israelites were getting ready to go into battle against the Philistines, Samuel was to come and offer sacrifice. King Saul was to wait for Samuel to come, but he grew impatient and offered the sacrifice himself. (See 1 Samuel 13:8–10.) He had no business offering sacrifice. “Samuel had appointed to meet the king at Gilgal, there to ‘offer burnt-offerings and sacrifices, and to show him what he should do.’ The prophet did not arrive within the allotted time, and as Saul saw their dangers increasing, and the hearts of the people failing for fear, he became impatient. Instead of resorting to prayer, and humbling his soul before God, he determined to do something himself to relieve the difficulties of the situation.” The Signs of the Times, August 3, 1882. Ellen White wrote that “equipped as he was with armor and weapons of war, he approached the altar and offered sacrifice before God.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 618.

As soon as the sacrifice was offered, Samuel approached the encampment. Saul went out to greet him, proud of himself, of what he had done, and yet it was at that moment that judgment fell upon Saul’s house. “Saul endeavored to excuse his own course, by depicting the terror of the people and the danger of an immediate attack from the Philistines. But the prophet returned the stern and solemn answer,—

“ ‘Thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee; for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue; the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him [to be] captain over his people, because thou hast not kept [that] which the Lord commanded thee.’ [1 Samuel 13:13, 14.]” The Signs of the Times, August 3, 1882.

Saul failed the test God had given him. “The Lord had detained his servant [Samuel], in order to test the faith and obedience of the king. Saul did not stand the test. God had promised to be with him, if he would be obedient. He should have trusted this promise, and waited patiently for divine instruction and guidance.” Ibid. Since he disobeyed, Saul had to suffer the consequence of his disobedience. “This act [the sacrifice] was a flagrant violation of the divine command that only those should offer sacrifice who had been sacredly consecrated to the work. Moreover, the public nature of the act, as well as the high position of the offender, added greatly to the pernicious influence of his example, and rendered prompt punishment indispensably necessary.” Ibid.

Accept the Remedy

“Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.” Amos 5:15. God is talking here to religious people. He is saying, “Let there be a change. Let things come about where it will be a seeking of Me and My way.” How do people get into such conditions? It seems that there is always a pattern followed from which the end can be quite accurately forecast.

One of the interesting things about the ministry is that in many ways the work of a pastor parallels that of a physician. People have trouble recognizing that fact.

A physician goes to school and studies medical practices and techniques for years. Then he or she serves an internship where hands-on-instruction is experienced. The intern sees patients with a skilled physician. After examining a patient, the intern will make a diagnosis, based on the information gleaned from other patients with the same symptoms. Perhaps 98 percent of the time, people accept the diagnosis of the physician. The physician generally will write a prescription for medicine. The patient willingly takes it to a pharmacy, receives and takes the medication, and usually gets over the problem.

A pastor’s work is a little different in that it deals with fruit. A pastor goes to school to learn how to inspect fruit, along with the study of the Word, because the Word tells the pastor what kind of fruit to look for. (“By their fruits ye shall know them.” Matthew 7:20.) When a pastor spots bad fruit, he says, “My, my, what I see here is bad fruit; let me give you a prescription.”

Do you know what the responses of the people are? “Who are you to tell us?”

The pastor may respond, “I have been sent to this church as the pastor to try to help you see where you are going. I have seen your condition before. I have seen this and this and this happen in this and this and this individual, so I can tell you where you are going, because your fruit is the exact same fruit.”

And the people say, “Who do you think you are?” They do not want to accept the diagnosis or the offered remedy.

Prophets have the same calling, to a great degree. There is always a pattern that is followed, and it can be pretty well forecast. What is taking place in Amos 5? Why did all these things transpire in the way that they did?

Too Pure

Amos was trying to say that, first of all, God had given the children of Israel a true system of worship. It was the same system that had been delivered in the Garden of Eden. When man was put out of the Garden, the system of religious worship was changed to give man hope of redemption.

Another element was at work then, as it is today. When God gives man something good, the devil is not content to leave well enough alone. Man, in and of himself, cannot create religion, but he can adapt it. He adapts it because the devil, who knows all about God and religion, gives him ideas. The sad revelation is that what God gives us in the way of religious principles—now consider this carefully—are too pure for us. Think about that for a minute.

What God gives us in the way of religious principles are too pure for us. If we would accept the principles He gives for what they are, they have the potential of lifting us up to the state of purity, to the perfection He requires. We, in our human nature, want to bring those principles down to a comfortable level for us. We accomplish this by compromising what we know is right and good, that which is delivered to us by the hand of God. We change the good that God has given to us to fit the ideals that the devil gives to us.

Idolatrous worship seems less of an apostasy if it retains some forms of true worship. That is usually the compromise. We do not want to go too fast or too far away from God’s principles, but we do want to feel comfortable, so the devil lets us down into idolatry, as into other sin, by easy stages. First, we get rid of the spirit of true worship but retain the form. Then we get rid of the object of worship, which then corrupts the form. And then we adopt a new object, and we adopt that into the worship, which is really corrupted. This is the way that all sin goes. Easy does it, until we do not recognize the path down which the small steps have led us.

This is exactly the process of how the papacy was formed. It did not happen overnight. It took nearly five centuries for the papacy to form into the institution that persecuted the saints.

Creeping Compromise

The worship that was set up at Bethel and Gilgal was not pure and simple idol worship. It was worship of God by means of idols and in forms that mimicked the worship at Jerusalem. You see, heresy at the outset always masquerades in the guise of truth. Sometimes, when you see this process taking place, it is very difficult to put your finger right on the issue. This is why it is called creeping compromise. It moves imperceptibly, but it moves. If it moves far enough for someone who is in tune with God to raise an alarm, usually that person is chastised that he or she is just being legalistic or is trying to ruin what others are attempting to accomplish. So the prudent man remains silent, and things begin to change. Heresy masquerades. By adopting a sheep’s clothing, the wolf gets easy access into the fold, and it is only after he has entered into the fold and the immediate danger is over that his true character is revealed. But then it is very hard to catch him and to throw him out of the fold.

We must know what truth is, be able to recognize it, and prevent error from corrupting that which is pure. That is the mission to which historic Adventism has been called. It has been called to stop these false issues, to give a warning, and to hold the truth in purity very high.

Day of Darkness

The people in Amos 5 were not only to stop seeking evil, but they were to hate evil and to love good. Unfortunately, they did not go in that direction.

“Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing [shall be] in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. And in all vineyards [shall be] wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end [is] it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.” Amos 5:16–18.

The word therefore, in verse 16, has a reference that carries us back to the cause of this judgment. That which has been outlined earlier is now the cause of that which is to come. These people thought they were just about right on as far as religion was concerned, but they were a long way off. They were even looking forward to the day of the Lord to come. They were Seventh-day Adventists; they kept the Sabbath. They looked forward to the coming of Christ, but they did not have a clue as to what the real state of things was all about, because they hated everyone who tried to share the real issues with them. They abhorred those who were speaking the truth, and the prudent kept silent. They thought they were ready for the day of the Lord. They knew that when this event happened they would be set in a place of security and power. They felt that this was the time when God would conquer their foes and set them up as His people forever. They looked forward to that day. They would be the beneficiaries of it all. But the truth of the matter was that when the day of the Lord came, it would be a time when God would judge all sin—even theirs.

So Amos said that that day would be a day of darkness. He described it for them: “As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. [Shall] not the day of the Lord [be] darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?” Verses 19, 20.

Then God continued to describe His feelings of nausea when it came to worship time. “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.” Verse 21. This has to do with the incense of prayer that is being offered. “Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name [is] The God of hosts.” Verses 23–27.

God said, “I do not want anything to do with you. I hate everything with which you come to Me. You come and you offer worship; I hate it. I hate your feast days. You come and you sing your beautiful songs before Me; I do not want to listen. I do not even want anything to do with your instruments of music.”

Comparison Contrast

It is interesting that Amos played a comparison contrast here. God said, “I want to send you the purity of religion. I want to send you a purity that will elevate you. In order for you to rise to that purity, you need to have some guidance, some counsel, and I will send you prophets to accomplish that task.”

What did the people do? They hated those that God sent to them to help them. With the feeling of hatred in their hearts, they went to the temple and there began to play on the viols. They began to sing songs of music, and they bowed down in worship. God said, “You hate what I did for you. I hate what you are doing. I do not want to have anything to do with it. You do not want to have anything to do with those that I have sent to you; I do not want to have anything to do with you either.” There is a comparison contrast. Amos was trying to convey to them the feelings of God and how He felt about what they were doing with what He had sent to them as His good gifts.

“You will not listen; I will not listen. You hate; I hate.” But God said, “Mark it down. You will be the ones who will suffer far more than I. Judgments will come running down like a river upon you. You have neglected Me in times past. You have neglected Me in times present. You will not escape.”

Amos was not an easy prophet to have around—none of the prophets were. This is why the people killed them. This is why attempts were made to destroy their influence. The surprising thing about all of this is God’s forbearance.

God will forbear, but finally, there is a moment reached. None of us knows when our moment is reached, so the questions that we really need to ask ourselves are, How am I relating to the counsel that God gives? Are there things that, when I have heard them or when I have read them in the words of inspiration, I have ignored? I do not want to hear them, and if anyone says I ought to do them, I do not like them.

I have heard people, and I am sure you have heard people, who, when invited to a worship service, will ask, Who is preaching? If the speaker is perceived as one who preaches smooth things, you can be sure they will be there. If the speaker is known as one who speaks hard things, if he uses the Spirit of Prophecy, you will not see these people in attendance.

I saw this happen repeatedly when I pastored in Riverside, California,—right out the back door of Loma Linda. Many churches are clustered within close proximity of that area, and people are church floaters, going where they can get their ears tickled. (See 11 Timothy 4:3, 4.) That is not the way God would have it.

To be continued . . .

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life Ministry. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mikebaugher@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Lessons From the Book of Amos, Part V

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Perhaps you have never before studied the Book of Amos. I have chosen the Book of Amos in developing a series of articles to give us an understanding of the New Testament. You may wonder how Amos of the Old Testament is going to help us with the New Testament. You cannot understand the New Testament unless you understand the Old Testament.

In 1 Corinthians 10:11, we are told that the things that happened in the Old Testament were written for our admonition, for our instruction, and for examples to us upon whom the ends of the world are come. I find that statement very interesting, because it refers to Old Testament instances and says that those things are going to pertain to us for last day event understanding. I understand that to mean that those things found in the Old Testament, as far as principles are concerned, are last day concepts. History has an uncanny way of repeating itself.

As we read the Old Testament, we learn how God dealt with His people—how He tried to woo them, how He tried to lead them, and how He tried to help them. We learn what their reactions were to the way God was relating to them. It is all there. We also find that there were many times that God had to deal with distasteful situations and conditions. Many times God would extend His mercy and His love, only to meet with a stiff-necked people. They yearned after their own way, and they would have nothing whatsoever to do with God. That is basically the setting of the Book of Amos.

What was God going to do? There comes a time of finality when no remedy of any kind will rectify a problem. That is what Amos was called to reveal to God’s people. God said, “I have tried this, and I have tried that, and it did not work. So now I am going to call My prophet. He is going to be My spokesman. He is going to be My mouthpiece. I am going to send him with a message, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel.”

Woe Unto You

As we come to Amos 6, we find what is going to take place. ”Woe to them [that are] at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, [which are] named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!” Verse 1.

This chapter starts out pronouncing a woe. When you are reading Scripture, and you come to the word woe, you want to pay special attention, because God is using this word to draw attention to what is going to follow. The meaning of the word woe has not changed over the years. We still use it today. When we talk about a bad situation, we may refer to it as a woe. It still carries with it the connotation of doom and disfavor, of calamity and misfortune. The prophet Amos is here attempting to let Israel know just where they stood in relation to their favor with God. To hear a woe coming from one of God’s prophets is no light matter. It needs to be taken to heart.

The Bible says, ”Believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.” 11 Chronicles 20:20. When God speaks, He means exactly what He says. This principle is taught in the Old Testament. This is certainly the case here with the Northern kingdom of Israel and with Judah as well.

At Ease in Zion

“Woe to them [that are] at ease in Zion.” The word ease depicts a very meaningful picture of what was taking place. God had to pronounce a woe, because they were at ease in Zion. The Hebrew word sha’anan used here for ease means to be tranquil—but in a bad sense—that is, to be settled back when everything around you is wrong. When things were in a life-threatening condition, there was a settling back, with an attitude of, Why should I care? It is not affecting me. Things are going great, as far as life is concerned. I am quite secure from any danger.

That was the attitude of the people when Amos came on the scene, and he said, ”Woe to you that are at ease in Zion.” This was a direct statement to those who were at ease in Zion. It was one thing for the world to kick back and to take it easy, believing that there was no accounting for their indifference or ease. But for those who were in Zion—those who knew the Scriptures and God’s requirements—to kick back, it was altogether a different matter.

Parallel to Laodicea

There is a parallel here to the church of Laodicea, and this is why I believe that Old Testament prophetic utterances have last day applications. What is the message to the church of Laodicea? It is, “Woe unto you. You think that you are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, but I am here to tell you a different story. You need to look at where you are, because in actuality, you are poor, wretched, blind, miserable and naked.” (See Revelation 3:17.)

I do not know of any one of us who would like to hear those words spoken to us, do you? There is a sense of stiffening up, when we hear words like that. We think that certainly they cannot apply to us—we are not miserable; we are happy most of the time! Wretched? No, no, Lord, you have it all wrong. Poor and blind and naked—what do you mean? We are rich and increased with goods, and we have need of nothing. This is specifically what God was speaking to His people in the days of Amos. ”Woe unto you who are taking your ease.”

Hiding From God

Being at ease is caused by only one thing. Those to whom Amos is speaking believe that they have been entirely successful in hiding their true condition from God. They consider themselves to be right. There is nothing wrong, as far as they are concerned. They think that God is off on a vacation somewhere and does not know what is happening. This indeed is a masterful deception that the devil will pull off in every generation.

Sacred history tells us that this is a very easy deception on God’s people. This is precisely the reason why it is so difficult for the Gospel to be accepted when it is preached. There are people who are at ease, either in the world or in Zion, who think that everything is all right when indeed everything is all wrong. Those who could benefit from the Gospel are so deceived that they think God—nor anyone else—knows their situation. It is easy to fall into such a trap, when everything around you seems to be going right.

At this particular point of time in history, Israel was at its height of prosperity. The stock market was at 12,000, and they were buying and selling and having a good time. They were kicked back, at ease. Yet, all of this was leading to a deplorable condition. They were oppressing the poor; they were grinding down everyone they could so their stock prices would stay high. They were riding high!

Temperance

As I studied about this, I mused to myself about what was really happening—what contributed to this deception, this kicking back at ease. I came across a very interesting quotation from pages 52 and 53 of the book Temperance: “The use of wine among the Israelites was one of the causes that finally resulted in their captivity.” We need to remember that the Book of Amos applies to last day conditions.

Ellen White continues, on page 53 of Temperance, to quote from Amos 6. Israel had problems with intemperance. Wine was blurring their thinking processes. We know that wine affects the mind in this manner, and I am convinced that this is one of the reasons we are in the condition that we are as a people today. “But,” someone protests, “Pastor, what are you saying? We are Seventh-day Adventists; we don’t use wine. What are you talking about?”

When I became a Seventh-day Adventist, I was taught that one of the foundational principles of Adventism was abstaining from alcoholic beverages. Let me ask you a question: When was the last time you heard a temperance crusade being promoted within the Adventist church? It used to be that temperance crusades came around as often as Ingathering. It was something that was promoted and upheld before the people. This is one of the things about preaching; we need to continually hold before the people the high ideals of God, or those principles seem to lose contact with our minds and are forgotten.

I have read how some Adventists today are now imbibing in alcoholic beverages, and they have no compunctions about doing so. If we want to be successful Seventh-day Adventist Christians, we will follow the counsels God has given for us. We will review them constantly, holding them up in our minds so we do not lose sight of what it is that God has for us. This will prepare us for the last days on this earth.

Like the World

Temperance crusades, unfortunately, have been relegated to the heap of old rubbish along with some of the other teachings that have made us distinct as a people. But God has not changed—we have changed. We, too, have been at ease in Zion for so long that we think we need to update things and do away with some of the old things we think hold us back as a people. But remember, God does not change, and neither should we.

We have the problem of doing the same things that the world does. We go to the same places that the world goes; we listen to the same music that the world listens to. So why should we not drink the same drink that the world drinks and have a “good time”? This was what was happening in the days of Amos. We need to learn the lessons that are there for us. The sad part is, in many Adventist churches, if we begin to touch on these areas of intemperance and how people ought to live, we will immediately be branded as mean-spirited, narrow-minded, bigoted, and meddlers into people’s lives.

When I was in conference work, I mentioned from the pulpit, one Sabbath during the 11 o’clock service, some of the concepts of temperance and stated that we should not imbibe certain beverages. That very week the conference president drove 175 miles to see me. After confirming things I had expressed in my sermon, he counseled, “Mike, you need to leave those things alone on Sabbath morning. Keep them for prayer meeting.” You know as well as I do what prayer meeting attendance is in comparison with the attendance at 11 o’clock on Sabbath morning!

False Security

Why not just sit back and relax? Maybe the world is not doing so badly. After all, the coming of Jesus is a long way away. These are the thoughts in many people’s minds. There is a danger in that kind of thinking; it causes us to lose the urgency of God’s message.

This is the very same kind of thinking that was in the minds of the children of Israel during the days of Amos when woe was brought upon them. “Woe to them [that are] at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria.” Israel thought that they were going to be safe. They were perched upon a mountain where they could see the approach of any enemy. God told them that it did not make any difference where they were located. They may have believed they were safe, but they were not.

”Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: [be they] better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?” Amos 6:2.

The cities mentioned here were all very familiar to the Israelites. These cities had been overthrown and destroyed. If we were to bring this into a modern scenario and terminology, we would say, “Take a look at the Twin Towers [the former World Trade Center, New York City, New York] today. How much hope would there be for your security to look to the Twin Towers today? Thousands were killed on September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers came down.” That was the lesson that God was trying to bring to these people’s minds: “Look at these towns out here. You think you are doing just fine. Look at them; they are destroyed. You need to learn the lessons from those things.”

They were all aware of what had happened to these communities. They had thought these cities were safe, but they had fallen into the hands of their attackers, and Amos used the destroyed ruins as an illustration of what was going to happen to them. “You are no better than they are, and you are going to be just as vulnerable as they were,” he told them.

An Evil Day

“Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near. . . .” Verse 3. One of the greatest, fatal deceptions to come upon God’s people is to believe that the day of the Second Coming of Jesus is a long way off. When you begin to believe that all is well—you have money in the bank, your health is good, you think life will go on as it has for many more years, you are at ease while others are suffering around you, you think that the day the Lord can reach you is a long way away—the devil is speaking in your ear.

All the while you put off the evil day. All the while, you think that the Second Coming of Jesus is a far way off. Believe me, people who know about the Second Coming, and who know that their lives are not right with Jesus, see His Second Coming as an evil day. They do not welcome the Second Coming, because they know that ultimately it will destroy their lives.

The children of Israel viewed it in the same way. They knew that the day of the Lord was the Day of Judgment, and they looked at it as an evil day. So the seat of violence came near, involving the oppression of the poor for their own personal gain.

It is not unusual that, when people come into a lot of money, such as winning the lottery, for example, they suddenly consider themselves to be someone of great importance. Have you ever noticed that? Many, many of the people who have become big dollar winners end up living under a bridge, because they cannot handle the prosperity that comes to them. But they had thought themselves very important!

One of the first things people do, when they come into big money, is to bedeck their mortal bodies with all kinds of junk to make them appear attractive to other people. And they buy big, big houses and big, big cars, thinking that these will impress people around them.

Picture of Luxury

“Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall.” Verses 3, 4.

What a tremendous picture is given in these verses! Prophets of old were able to put together word pictures that conveyed things you could not say by typing out a flat sentence. What a picture! While most people were out working from sunrise to sunset, these people were lounging on beds of ivory.

Ivory, even today, is a very precious commodity, but these were bedsteads that were inlaid with ivory! A very luxurious picture. Most people were lucky to have a mat to sleep on, let alone a bed—and certainly not a bed that was inlaid with ivory. They would stretch out and take their rest in luxury. This is a picture of the society today.

Perverted Appetite

And then, when they finally climbed out of their beds of luxury, they ate lambs out of the flock and calves out of the midst of the stall. It does not say that they were eating sheep and cows. It says they were eating the delicate meat of lambs and calves. They were eating lambs and calves, not sheep and cows, because one of the greatest treats for meat eaters is the tenderest cut. Nobody wants tough meat.

Have you ever heard of veal cutlets? Do you know from where veal cutlets come? Veal cutlets come from calves that have been penned up in small crates, hardly able to move. They are raised there until they are a certain age, and then they are slaughtered. Their meat is harvested at its most tender stage, so it can go upon the plates and into the palates of those who desire tender cuts of meat.

It would make you sick to see how these animals are raised and how they are treated, yet we see this very thing taking place in the days of Amos. They were crating up these little animals so they would have tender cuts of meat that only the rich could afford. If you are poor, you may be able to buy hamburger, but you certainly cannot afford veal cutlets. They are expensive. But here the people were satisfying the cravings of perverted appetites. They wanted the choice cuts; they would not settle for second best. They wanted tender meat. They wanted the lambs and the calves.

From what I have been able to determine, as I have researched this series on Amos, most Israelites—not all but most—ate meat only three or four times a year. That was the norm! The three or four times they ate meat centered around the times of their festivals. The poor ate meat even less times than that.

So the picture given in Amos 6 is that the leading citizens were eating quite a bit of the choice cuts—they had the money to buy it. Their actions were causing some very baleful effects to come into the nation. History has recorded that for us, and if we fail to learn the lessons that God has for us, then we are destined to repeat the same mistakes and to face the same future that Israel faced.

Symptoms Developing

Remember the visions recorded in Ezekiel 8 and 9, where God took Ezekiel to the temple and showed him the priests there that were worshipping the sun, playing the harlot? The record shows that God took him even deeper into vision and showed him greater abominations that were taking place. We ask, how in the world could these things of old have taken place? How could they have gotten so far out of hand that those who were commissioned of God to perform a sacred service so prostituted it that it became immoral and was an abomination before God? How could they depart from God in that way?

We see a definite pattern that brought these things to pass. Is it not true that if we see symptoms developing regarding a certain situation, we know what the results are going to be? This is one of the requirements of a physician. A physician always looks for symptoms. A pastor is somewhat like a physician. He watches for spiritual symptoms, and when he sees these symptoms, it behooves him, under the direction of God, to point out the potential results, so the actions can be corrected and God’s glory can be manifested.

Ezekiel saw things that were very uncomfortable for him, and as we have been studying, in Amos, we see things coming out in the forefront that are disturbing for us. We see certain kinds of trends and symptoms developing within the body of Adventism and within the body of Christians at large. I state this from a standpoint that the majority of God’s people are in other churches. (See John 10:16; The Great Controversy, 1888, 383.)

Sound of Music

“That chant to the sound of the viol, [and] invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David.” Amos 6:5. This verse is very difficult to translate. The phrase, “chant to the sound of the viol,” is translated in other versions to read, “sing idle songs to the sound of the harp.” But even this translation does not really do justice to what is being said here. The words, “sing idle songs,” are used only once in the entirety of the Old Testament, so it is difficult to find a translation that will make sense to us. There is an Arabic equivalent, however, which has the meaning, “to talk immoderately or to babble or prattle to the sound of the harp.”

It seems that this would be the best translation to apply to the context of what was taking place in this text and to us in the times in which we live.

The same is true of the phrase, “inventing to themselves instruments of musick.” The alternate translation of this would be, “shouting, they imagine themselves to be singing.” If you watch the videotape Are You Ready for Church? you see an exact parallel of this taking place today. In reality, there is nothing new under the sun! People are shouting and prattling and talking and considering this music. I am sorry, but I still like melodious strains of music and not all the babbling and shouting that passes for music today.

But let me point out to you that this was taking place in the days of Amos, and this music was part of their downfall. It was part of what led them to do things they probably never would have done otherwise. Ellen White tells us that music was part of the problem for the children of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai when they built the golden calf and just before they crossed over into Canaan, at Kadesh-Barnea, when they began to associate with the Midianitish women. They would never have succumbed to the temptations had it not been for the music. (See Patriarchs and Prophets, 319, 320, 454.)

Music pervades our entire society today. I am not bringing these things out to condemn anyone, but we need to elevate the standards once again. “If we do not receive the religion of Christ by feeding upon the word of God, we shall not be entitled to an entrance into the city of God. Having lived on earthly food, having educated our tastes to love worldly things, we would not be fitted for the heavenly courts; we could not appreciate the pure, heavenly current that circulates in heaven. The voices of the angels and the music of their harps would not satisfy us.” Review and Herald, May 4, 1897.

“That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.” Amos 6:6. The “affliction of Joseph” here means that the conditions in Israel were deplorable for most of the people, because most of the people were quite average people. They were getting by, but they were not happy, and they were not growing spiritually. They were not developing a character like God intended them to do. Those who were eating and drinking and laying and stretching themselves out on couches and beds thought life would never end. They had food, wine, and perfume. For what more could they ask?

Wrath of God

Verse 7 changes gears somewhat: “Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed. The Lord God hath sworn by himself, saith the Lord the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces; therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein. And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. And a man’s uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that [is] by the sides of the house, [Is there] yet [any] with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the Lord. For, behold, the Lord commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.” Amos 6:7–11.

Those who thought they were so blessed, living in luxury and letting the world go by, were to be the first to go into captivity. Do we dare make a comparison here? In the circumstances Amos described, he was speaking specifically of the leadership of that day. He asked, “Do you want the best places at the banquets? Do you want the most acknowledgement in the Synagogues? Then you are going to be the first to go into captivity.” And the reason was that they had departed from the plan that God had for His people.

All men are created equal. There is a value of the soul, and God looks upon all people the same, but there are certain areas of responsibility to which God has called people. He has equipped them for those responsibilities, but at the same time, they will have greater accountability when they are called before God in the Day of Judgment. That is the way that God works.

As He was trying to deal with the nation of Israel, God left no doubt regarding how He felt about the Northern kingdom. They would pay the price for their attitudes and their actions. God said, “I hate everything about you, and you are not going to escape; you are going to die.”

These verses give a very realistic account of the horrors of pestilence that would come after the seize of Jerusalem took place. So complete was the destruction to be that even where a large number gathered in a house to escape these dangers, not one of them would escape. There would be no place to hide.

Those who would give the burial message of them that had died did not even want to carry the bodies out, for fear that they would be attacked or sieged upon, so they would burn the bodies. When giving the burial message, they dared not even mention the name of the Lord. Why? Because they were fearful that a greater manifestation of wrath would come upon them by even mentioning the name of God.

This is one of the things that contributed to the loss of the name Yahweh. Many people have tried to re-capture the use of that name, and they have not succeeded. If someone comes to you saying that you need to call upon the name of the Lord in a certain way, do not listen. This is one of the things that contributed to the loss of the pronunciation of the name. The children of Israel did not dare call upon the name of the Lord because they were fearful that their sins would be raw and ripe before God and His wrath would come down upon them—even in a burial message. That is how far away from God that they had gone.

For Ensamples

Again I say, “All these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11. The books of the Old Testament, dear friend, point to last day happenings.

“Shall horses run upon the rock? will [one] plow [there] with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.” Amos 6:12–14.

The general order of things at this time of judgment, this time of retribution, would be so far out of the order that it would be like horses running on rocks—something you do not do. If you have ever ridden a horse, you know you do not run a horse on rocks. People knew that back then too. And you do not take oxen and plow a rock field. God was trying to convey to them that these things were not things that would normally be done, but they would be done to deal with such a corrupt and poisonous situation.

Some things become so poisonous in God’s mind that they have to be dealt with in a very severe way—a way that normally would not be used.

Again, we have to learn the lessons of these things. God is longsuffering. God is merciful. Israel’s history was long. That is the principle that God has for us in dealing with situations. We, as human beings, do not have long periods of time to deal with situations like God does. God did not deal with individuals per se; He dealt with entire nations who had long, long lives. Sometimes He allowed them to go on for hundreds of years, and then finally, when the cup was full, God dealt with them.

Translate that down to us today and to how we are to relate to people and individuals in circumstances within the church. We do not have long periods of time, but we can apply the principles. We can extend the hand of mercy, but when a limit is reached and situations become poisonous, we have to deal with them in the same way that God dealt with them. That is the lesson we can gain from Amos 6. If we are going on the same path as the children of Israel, we will have to pay the same price. The price was a permanent one for Israel. The whole Northern kingdom was lost.

A Remnant Spared

In spite of that, God held out a light. He held out the fact that there was a remnant that would be spared, and that remnant was Judah. And even out of Judah there was another remnant that was to be saved. A smaller group even yet—a remnant of a remnant. The Spirit of Prophecy tells us that the majority will leave us. (See Patriarchs and Prophets, 102, 103.) We need to try to examine the reasons why the majority depart, and stay far away from the circumstances that would draw us, if we possibly can.

The children of Israel loved their wine so much that it blurred their thinking. They loved their fine cuts of meat so much that they had perverted appetites. They loved their celebration music and dance so much that it caused them to enter into temptation. They loved their money that provided for all of this, and the love of money is the root of all evil.

Friend, we dare not repeat the same history. Are we going to survive? We can survive by understanding. We can survive by drawing near to God. We can survive by not stiffening our necks against rebuke, when it comes from the Word. We can survive. It is possible. Amos 6 is a dark picture, but God has placed it there so we can survive. He has made all the provisions for us to survive, if we will just learn the lessons.

To be continued . . .

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life Ministry. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mikebaugher@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

The Depth of the Cross

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You have, in all probability, noticed in your life, as I have in mine, that sometimes, after we have learned and known great truths for a while, we begin to take them for granted. We need to refresh our minds from time to time regarding these great truths that the Lord has been so gracious in giving to us.

Ephesians 3:14–19 says, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what [is] the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

In this passage, Paul was contemplating the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus. As he was doing this, he was humbled to his knees in prayer, where he was praying for every believer. As he realized the tremendous sacrifice of Deity for the redemption of fallen man—for you and for me—he asked heaven if we could have a little comprehension of Christ’s sacrifice, so we could understand more of this immeasurable love. In our finite minds, we have no concept of the love that Jesus has for us. He wanted us to realize this love, not just for the sake of knowledge, but that we might be filled with the fullness of God.

Where do we find this immeasurable love of which Paul speaks? The following three statements may help us understand where to find it.

“There is one great central truth to be kept ever before the mind in the searching of the Scriptures—Christ and Him crucified. Every other truth is invested with influence and power corresponding to its relation to this theme.” The Faith I Live By, 50.

“The cross of Calvary challenges, and will finally vanquish, every earthly and hellish power. In the cross all influence centers, and from it all influence goes forth. It is the great center of attraction, for on it Christ gave up His life for the human race.” Sons and Daughters of God, 242.

“The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light which streams from the cross of Calvary, and in connection with the wondrous, central truth of the Saviour’s atonement. Those who study the Redeemer’s wonderful sacrifice grow in grace and knowledge.

“I present before you the great, grand monument of mercy and regeneration, salvation and redemption—the Son of God uplifted on the cross of Calvary. This is to be the theme of every discourse. Christ declares, ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.’ ” “Ellen G. White Comments,” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5, 1137.

None of us can deny the force and the power of these statements. But in many churches this theme is preached far too little. It is merely mentioned at times. The cross of Christ is our inexhaustible source of power for the Christian walk. Do you need power in your Christian life? I do. In this article, we are going to look at four revelations that the cross will show us, if we look deeply enough.

Just a Story

I read an article some time back about a 9- or 10-year-old boy by the name of Braun who lived over 100 years ago. Braun’s parents were not Christians; they were agnostics. They thought, however, that at least once in his life their little boy needed to attend church, so they could say they had exposed their son to religion. They sent him to church with his nanny in a horse-drawn buggy.

The pastor was speaking about the cross, and for the first time in his life, Braun heard about a man by the name of Jesus Who was nailed to a cruel, old cross. He heard for the first time about the blood that dripped down this Man’s face and about the thorns that were stuck in His brow. He heard about the Roman soldiers who hammered the rough nails into this Man’s hands.

It was not long before Braun began to cry. He had never previously heard this story. Between sobs he loudly whispered, “Nanny, why don’t these men do something about this poor Man on the cross? Why don’t the people in the church take Him down? He’s innocent!”

The nanny was getting a little nervous about Braun acting up in church. He looked around at the congregation, and he was astonished. He saw the head deacon in the back of the church, sleeping. He saw some teenagers whispering, telling stories, laughing, and giggling. He saw another man with a newspaper under his Bible, pretending to read the Bible, but reading the daily news instead.

“Nanny, why don’t they do something? Take this poor Man down off the cross,” pleaded the sobbing boy.

Attempting to comfort him, the nanny said, “Herr Braun, it is just a story. Don’t worry about it. You’ll forget about it when we get home.”

Is the cross just a story for us? Is it something that we sing about once in awhile? Is it something that we hear about in sermons once in awhile, something the pastor may refer to in passing, or maybe we mention in prayer?

What is the cross to you? Has the cross reached down into your life and changed it from the core? That is what it is meant to do. What difference does the cross make in your marriage? What about the relationships between you and your children, your spouse, or the people you meet each day? Does the cross make any difference in the way you treat others? When you encounter despair and discouragement, what does the cross do for you then, if anything?

We do not need to know so much about the cross theologically as we need to know and understand how it affects our lives.

Magnitude of God’s Forgiveness

The first revelation we will consider reveals the magnitude of God’s forgiveness. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Romans 5:8–10.

We were His enemies, but He is our friend. God is not the enemy of His enemies, as we sometimes are. It is hard to be a friend to our enemy, but that is what God is. We deserve death, but He gives us life. We deserve condemnation, but He acquits us. We deserve a crown of thorns; He gives us a crown of glory. You and I, my friends, deserve the cross, but He gives us a throne. What a God we serve, what a Friend!

Father, Forgive Them

As we consider the cross and the magnitude of its forgiveness, we must contemplate what Jesus went through at Pilate’s judgment hall. We can picture a Man, stripped to His waist, His hands tied above His head. When those strong, Roman soldiers came in to whip His back, they did not use just a leather strap. The Roman whips had pieces of bone and jagged metal embedded in the straps, so with every whip to the back, pieces of flesh were torn out. He took our whipping—something that we deserve—but our Friend, while we were His enemies, took it for us.

As we reflect on Calvary, we can understand why He fell three times under the great burden of carrying His cross. He was weak from loss of blood. You and I could have done no better whatsoever.

As He was stretched out on the cross and those nails were driven through His flesh, He said nothing. As the cross was taken up and thrust into its hole, His flesh was ripped again when it hit the bottom. What were the only words that we hear from Jesus at this time? “Father, forgive them.” We see forgiveness at the cross, the great magnitude of forgiveness.

Judas betrayed Him; Peter denied Him; and the Jews forsook Him. The cross is very cruel, unjust, and unfair. You do not just nail a Man to a cross who touched blind eyes and they opened. You do not nail a Man to a cross who touched people’s ears and they became unstopped; they could hear the beautiful birds singing. You do not nail a Man to a cross who touched withered arms and legs and they immediately became vibrant with new life. A Man who can give back life to the dead—you just do not nail a Man like this to a cross. But they did that to Jesus! Yet, all we hear from Him is, “Father, forgive them.”

Do Unto Others

When we come to the cross, we receive forgiveness, so we can be forgiving to people in our lives. We know that Jesus has forgiven us from all of our past sins, so when people treat us cruelly or unjustly, we can forgive them, because we have been forgiven.

When we come to the cross, we find mercy, so we can be merciful to others. We have no excuse to not forgive people when they treat us unjustly. We can hear the echo of Paul’s words as we read, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32.

Has somebody wronged you? Has somebody hurt your feelings? Someone thoughtlessly and wrongly saying something can easily hurt your feelings. They may not even realize what they said, and they do not mean to hurt your feelings. But your feelings get hurt.

Instead of going to that brother or sister to straighten things out, some people will refrain from ever coming to church again, or they will find another group with which to worship. That is not the way to do it. We must come to one another and forgive our brothers and sisters, if they have done something wrong to us. Our souls will be flooded with the peace of Jesus when we do this.

Forgiveness a Conscious Choice

All of us have things in our past lives that we remember, perhaps with anger or regret. Maybe your mother left your dad for another man. Maybe your father was an alcoholic. It may be that your parents did not raise you the way they should have (at least in your eyes)—so you have built up resentment and bitterness, and hold grudges. We must let these things go. We must come to the cross, receive forgiveness and the freedom from guilt, and then we can forgive others. It has to be done that way.

Perhaps you have read the story of Corrie ten Boom. In 1938 or 1939, she and her sister were captured by the Germans and sent to Ravens-bruck, a prison camp. It was noth-ing but a place of death. People by the thousands were brought there in train cars. They were told that they were going to be safe from the dangers of war in this retreat. They fully expected to be going back to their beautiful homes when the war was over.

When they arrived at the prison camps, they heard joyful, happy music; people were singing to them. But all too soon they learned that they had arrived at a place of death. Some would be gassed immediately upon arriving; some would be killed a month later, but as a rule, no one would live more than six months at any one of these camps. In fact, the fires of the furnaces burned for six years straight—from 1939 to 1945, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Millions and millions of innocent people were gassed to death.

But Corrie ten Boom was mistakenly released from this death sentence. She was accidentally let go—one of the very few people who got out of the camp alive. Corrie ten Boom set up a home in her native Holland for people as they were released from the prison camps. After the war, she spoke to many people in Germany and other countries about God’s forgiveness.

Do you know what she saw in the survivors of the ravages of war and the horrible things that were done to them? She saw that the people who were able to forgive were those who could go on living and functioning normally. Those who could not forgive were mentally unbalanced, and many suffered nervous breakdowns, which affected the rest of their lives. Forgiveness made the difference!

One night, in Munich, as she was speaking on God’s forgiveness, she noticed a man in the crowd; a man she would never forget. He was about 5 feet 10 inches tall, with deep-set eyes, a stocky build, and a square face. After her eloquent speech on forgiveness, this man came up to her, extended his hand, and asked, “Can you forgive me?” This man had been one of the cruelest guards in the Ravensbruck prison camp. She remembered how, when she and her sister walked in front of this guard, he had reached out and pulled her sister’s blouse off just to embarrass her. She remembered how this guard hit her sister in the face with his fist, knocking her to the ground and crushing her ribs with his leather boot heel. She remembered how her sister withered away to 90 pounds and died in this camp—this was one of the men responsible. Here he was, standing in front of her asking, “Can you forgive me?”

Corrie ten Boom wanted to spit in his face. She wanted to reach out and slap him across his face. Every emotion in her cried out for revenge, but she knew that unless she forgave him, every ounce of love in her would dry up. She knew that the bitterness, the resentment, and the unwillingness to forgive would eat out her spiritual heart. Contrary to her feelings, she reached out her hand and said, “Brother, I forgive you.” She wrote that immediately a new peace flooded through her.

Forgiveness is a conscious choice on your part and on mine—a choice to release someone from your condemnation because Christ has released you from His condemnation. We have to make that choice.

Is there someone to whom you need to express your forgiveness? There may be. Do you need to make a phone call to someone and say, “Brother (or sister), I forgive you; there may be a wall of separation between us, but I forgive you”?

When we come to the cross and see how Jesus forgives us of all the things that we have done, He will pour that forgiveness into our lives, so we can forgive others. Do you see now how the cross reveals the magnitude of God’s forgiveness?

Depth of God’s Love

The cross also reveals the enormity of the depth of God’s love. It leads us to a deeper message of His love than we have ever known before. This is the way Paul expresses it: “For He [God] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin [to be] sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 11 Corinthians 5:21. What a statement! Did Jesus ever sin? The Bible tells us that He never sinned. (See Hebrews 4:15.) He was tempted, just like you and I are tempted, but He never sinned. Did He ever think an evil thought? No! We are told He never sinned even by a thought. (See Review and Herald, November 8, 1887.) He never committed an unselfish act, but He who knew no sin became sin for us.

What are these deeper lessons we need to learn that, once we understand, our whole being, our whole way of thinking will be transformed? The cross must do this for us, or we are not taking full advantage of the power of Christianity. What is the power behind the cross that breaks the habits of sin in our lives? What is it that makes a dishonest man honest, that makes an impure woman pure, that makes an angry man patient? The cross breaks the grip of sin in our lives. We do not need a fancy theological definition here. What we need to understand are the practical realities of the cross. We need not only to know and to understand but also to experience the transforming power of the cross. It has to be experienced in our lives or it is of no avail.

Paul reveals the depth for which we are looking: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).” Galatians 3:13. What is the curse of the law from which He has redeemed us? Death! Death is the major curse of the law.

Atonement

Jesus voluntarily accepted and bore the corporate guilt of all humanity. As He hung on the cross, the Father turned away from Him, because of the sins for humanity that He bore. It was too much for Jesus to have this happen, because He had always been with the Father. This broke His heart. (See John 8:19; 10:30; The Great Controversy, 539.)

Jesus did not know whether He would ever be resurrected. He did not see through the portals of the tomb during those hours He was on the cross. He did not see Himself coming forth a victor. But He was willing to go to the grave and never, ever come up—if that meant that you and I could have hope of eternal life. Praise the Lord!

If He had fought against that—if He would have said, “No, there are not enough people who are going to accept this sacrifice; I want down; I want to go back to heaven; let these folks do what they want”—we would have no hope of heaven nor any hope of eternal life. I am so thankful that we serve a God who was willing to endure going through with the plan of redemption for you and me.

What He Experienced

I would like to share the following quotations:

“Bodily pain was but a small part of the agony of God’s dear Son. The sins of the world were upon Him, also the sense of His Father’s wrath as He suffered the penalty of the law transgressed. It was these that crushed His divine soul. It was the hiding of His Father’s face—a sense that His own dear Father had forsaken Him—which brought despair. The separation that sin makes between God and man was fully realized and keenly felt by the innocent, suffering Man of Calvary. He was oppressed by the powers of darkness. He had not one ray of light to brighten the future.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 214. Jesus experienced a lot of bodily pain, but we are told that His mental anguish of being separated from His Father was so much greater that He hardly felt the physical torture. It hurt Him more to have His Father turn away from Him.

“He could not see through the portals of the tomb. Bright hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the tomb a conqueror and His Father’s acceptance of His sacrifice. The sin of the world, with all its terribleness, was felt to the utmost by the Son of God. The displeasure of the Father for sin, and its penalty, which is death, were all that He could realize through this amazing darkness.” Ibid., 209, 210.

But, do you know what is beautiful? The Desire of Ages, 693, says, “His decision is made. He will save man at any cost to Himself.” Praise the Lord for His decision.

We need to make the decision to follow Him at any cost. We must! Can you imagine Jesus, the Creator of the universe, dying on that cross and saying that it was all worth it if you and I will be in heaven with His—with our—Father, even if it meant He might never be there again? He wants you and me to be there so much that He was willing to give up everything for us. This is the Man who created the worlds with His mouth; He spoke a word and this earth came into existence. He carpeted the earth with beautiful green. He is the one who caused the streams to flow and the brooks to babble. He caused the fruit trees to blossom. He gave the birds their songs so that we may enjoy their beautiful tunes. When His name is spoken in heaven, angels sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” They long to fulfill His every command. This is the Man who died on the cross for you and me. He was willing to go to the tomb so that you and I could sit upon a throne in heaven. For Jesus, the knowledge that some day we could be in heaven, made His death worth it all.

Your Worth

We have seen that the cross revealed the magnitude of God’s forgiveness and the enormity and depth of His love. We will now see that the cross reveals our worth.

We are definitely worth something; we are not just merely cosmic dust in this vast universe God created. We are not just skin coverings over bones and muscles. We are worth something in the sight of God. Sometimes that is hard to understand. With approximately six billion people in this world, we wonder how we could make a difference. How can God actually know about us individually when there are so many people? But it is true. He has a place in His heart just for you and just for me. I am so thankful that our God is able to love more than just a few people. He is able to love and to have a place in His heart for each one of us. His heart is so big—He is omnipotent and omniscient; He is omnipresent—He has a big, big heart.

Paul put it so personally when he said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. We can understand this a little better by using a very crude illustration. Parents may have eight, nine, or ten children. Let us say that one of the children dies from a disease or an accident. That would be a terrible tragedy. You would not say to that couple: “Well, don’t worry about it, because you have all those other children. Won’t they take the place of the one who died?” No, there would still be a place in the parents’ hearts for the one child who died.

We have an infinite God—can He not love more than just eight children? He has billions and billions of children, and He loves every one of them just as though he or she were the only one upon this earth. He would have died for only one. That is how much He loves us!

“The value of a soul, who can estimate? Would you know its worth, go to Gethsemane, and there watch with Christ through those hours of anguish, when He sweat as it were great drops of blood. Look upon the Saviour uplifted on the cross. Hear that despairing cry, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ Mark 15:34. Look upon the wounded head, the pierced side, the marred feet. Remember that Christ risked all. For our redemption, heaven itself was imperiled. At the foot of the cross, remembering that for one sinner Christ would have laid down His life, you may estimate the value of a soul.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 196.

We cannot comprehend it, can we? When we look up at Him, when we gaze upon those outstretched arms, He says, “I care for you. You are personal to Me, and I want you to be in heaven with Me forever.”

Hope in Despair

The cross also reveals hope in despair. What are some of the things that took place on that dark, crucifixion Friday? Jesus was nailed to a cross. A crown of thorns was placed on His head. A spear was stuck in His side. The sun quit shining. The birds stopped singing. Judas betrayed Him; Peter denied Him; the disciples fled.

A lot of terrible things happened on that Friday, and worst of all, the Son of God died on that dark Friday. But what was about to happen on resurrection morning? Joy was to be found on that Sunday morning resurrection! The sun rose; the birds sang; and most of all, the voice of God spoke, “Son, I call Thee.” That big, heavy stone that sealed up the tomb of God could no longer hold Him; it rolled away like a little pebble. Praise the Lord! And He came out, a victor! Conqueror! There is hope in despair.

You may be going through a crucifixion, but friend, there is a resurrection in the morning. Just stay with it; hold to your Christian walk; contemplate the cross and all of these things that it reveals. It can change your life! And it will, if you will let it.

We may each be going through some terrible heartaches right now. Heartache is worse than physical pain, much worse. We know that to be true because of what we are told regarding Jesus—His heart was aching more than the physical torture done to His body.

Maybe you are going through the agony of divorce. That can be worse than death itself. Maybe you are having economic problems. Something in your life can be hurting you to the extent that you must have the cross experience, and you must see and understand that there is a resurrection morning coming; there is joy! There is joy in the morning! We do have hope.

Christ is the Gospel

“Hanging upon the cross Christ was the gospel. . . . This is our message, our argument, our doctrine, our warning to the impenitent, our encouragement for the sorrowing, the hope for every believer.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 6, 1113.

This is our hope, friend. At the cross, you find forgiveness, and you find deliverance from guilt. At the cross, you find mercy, so you can be merciful to other people. At the cross, the love of God will break the habits of sin in your life, and believe me, sin is a hard habit to break. The only thing that will break it is the love of God, when you fall at the foot of the cross. That is where you can give yourself away to Jesus. Give yourself away! What can you do on your own? Nothing! You can do nothing without Him. (See John 15:5.) At the cross, Jesus says, “I care for you. You are more than a speck of dust in this vast universe.” At the cross, you will draw nearer and nearer to God. Is that not what you want? There is hope in despair.

The Master Artist

There is a beautiful, Muslim mosque in Teheran, Iran. While building the mosque, the workers had waited for an order of expensive mirrors to be shipped from Italy. These mirrors had cost tens of thousands of dollars. The mirrors finally arrived at the airport in Teheran, and the workers then shipped them to the work site, but when the crates were opened, they found that all of the mirrors were broken. Many of the workers were so discouraged that they just wanted to throw the broken pieces away and forget about it. But a master artist, seeing the dilemma, took a hammer and began breaking the pieces even more. He broke them all. The other workers thought he had lost his mind. What was he thinking, breaking these expensive mirrors? But then he took the jagged pieces of mirrors and set them in wet cement in the walls of the mosque. Today, the sun, shining down through the translucent roof, is reflected from the broken pieces. It looks as though the room is filled with millions of diamonds. The broken mirrors became more beautiful than they were before they were broken.

Bring your brokenness to the cross. You will become more beautiful than you have ever been before. The Master Artist of the cross can touch you—and your brokenness will become beautiful.

“In every true disciple this love, like sacred fire, burns on the altar of the heart. It was on the earth that the love of God was revealed through Christ. It is on the earth that His children are to reflect this love through blameless lives. Thus sinners will be led to the cross to behold the Lamb of God.” The Acts of the Apostles, 334.

I pray that this love will be manifested to everyone we meet.

Jerry Timmons was a Steps to Life staff member when he was fatally injured in an automobile accident, January 11, 2003.

The Meaning of the Cross

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Ellen White tells us that we are going to spend all of eternity studying the meaning of the cross; it is the focal point of everything else. (See The Sanctified Life, 93, 94.) My college freshman, composition teacher taught that, when writing a paper, you need to limit your subject so that you can cover it adequately. But the cross is a subject that we can never fully cover. We still need, however, to understand all that our minds can grasp.

There was a theory going around in the days of Jesus that the soul, or the spirit, hovered over the dead body for three days after death. Jesus, when summoned to the sick bed of his friend Lazarus, waited and did not arrive at Lazarus’ home until he had been dead four days. Thus, even according to the false theories of the Jews, he was really dead. Because Lazarus was raised in the presence of a large group of people, there was no way to deny what had taken place. Some of those present related to the Pharisees what had taken place. A meeting of the Pharisees and chief priests was quickly called. The record of that meeting begins in John 11:45 and continues to the end of the chapter.

Bonded Together as One

“If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.” John 11:48. They were afraid of the Romans. Are people afraid of the Romans, today? Yes, they are. God’s true church is afraid of the Roman power today just as the people in Jesus’ day were afraid of the Romans. Interestingly, the very thing that they believed would bring the Roman power to destroy them was the thing that would have delivered them from its power. This is amazing!

On this occasion, the church leaders decided they were going to have to kill Jesus to prevent the Romans from destroying them. Ironically, by that very act, they brought destruction on themselves by the Romans. As we continue our study, keep in mind that something similar could happen again.

“And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.’ Now this he did not say on his own [authority]; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.” John 11:49–52. What is the reason that the apostle John gives for the cross? The children of God were scattered all over the world, but John said that Jesus was going to die so that all of the people of God who were scattered abroad could be brought together into one. What a wonderful thought!

God’s people are still scattered all over the world and are going to continue to be so for a little while, because Ellen White said, concerning the 144,000 during the time of trouble, that they will be scattered all over the world. But when Jesus comes again, they are going to be gathered together into one church. I love to think about it. (See Early Writings, 282–287.)

Of One Spirit

Have you noticed that people sometimes do not like it at one church, so they go to another? It is not usually because they did not like the building, but because they did not get along with some of the people. Have you ever seen that happen? I have never seen anybody decide to go to another church because something was wrong with themselves, but I have seen a lot of people want to go to another church because they said that something was wrong with someone else. Well, now, here is my question: What if this were to take place in heaven? This has to do, friends, with the meaning of the cross. You see, as a result of sin, people are alienated from one another. According to the apostle John, God’s children will be gathered into one.

The Bible is a spiritual book, and when it says that God’s children will be gathered into one, it is not speaking of them being gathered into one building. “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit [with Him].” 1 Corinthians 6:17. “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.” Ephesians 2:14.

I have always had a fascination in the American Civil War. It was the most disastrous war the United States has ever fought. As I was in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the whole matter became crystal clear in my mind. At the time of the war, our whole country was separated into two armed camps that were totally alienated from one another. All wars are the result of alienation. By the way, there is a great deal of alienation in the world today. There is even alienation among the professed people of God.

Is the cross just a story, or are we experiencing its spiritual meaning? Let me tell you something—something very serious—if there is one other person in this world from whom you are alienated, at least one of you is not going to heaven unless that problem is solved. It is just that simple. Now it could be both of you, but it might only be one. You might have someone who is alienated from you and you might not be at fault at all, but if there are two people who are alienated, there is something wrong with at least one of them, and that person cannot go to heaven unless that situation is taken care of. The purpose of the cross is to destroy this alienation and bring reconciliation.

You Put Jesus on the Cross

Today, with many Christians, the cross is just like the law was for the Jewish nation. The Jewish nation taught the law, talked the law, and yet Jesus said to them, “Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keep the law?” John 7:19. Today, wherever I travel, I see crosses on churches; I see crosses around people’s necks; but people fail to understand what the cross means. If the cross has not destroyed the enmity in your heart, it has not done the work in your heart that must be done if you are to be saved.

“For it pleased [the Father that] in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled.” Colossians 1:19–21.

Why did Jesus have to go to the cross? “Christ died for our sins.” 1 Corinthians 15:3. Now, when you understand that, if you choose to sin, what have you chosen to do? You have chosen to do the very thing that sent Jesus to the cross. By wicked works you are alienated, expressing hatred for the Son of God. You cannot love sin and love Jesus. “You, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.” Colossians 1:21, 22.

Reconciliation

When we come to the cross and we see the spiritual meaning of it, the sin that we used to love we learn to hate. Everyone who has that experience, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is going to be reconciled into one.

“Now all things [are] of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore [you] on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For, He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 11 Corinthians 5:18–21.

Oh, friend, is the story of the cross just a story to you, or have you had this experience? Have you been reconciled to God so that you are no longer at enmity with Him? Can you be taken to heaven and feel perfectly at home there because you are in harmony with the whole system?

We are living in a time when we need to get down on our knees and say, “Lord, I am choosing to surrender. I am choosing to submit to the cross of Jesus Christ.”

Need to Control

When you are no longer alienated from God, you are in a position to be reconciled, not only to God but also to your fellow man. You will no longer live for self but for Him who died for you.

“Satan is the originator of sin. In heaven he resolved to live to himself. He resolved to be leader. He determined to make himself a center of influence. . . . Head he would be, to control, not to be controlled.” Review and Herald, April 16, 1901. It is this character trait, or desire, in people that splits up churches. When I was a young man, there was a popular song in circulation that denoted the thought, there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians around this place. This is the root cause of all manner of troubles.

It is said that Julius Caesar was once walking along a mountain road when, in the distance, he saw a small village. He is said to have remarked, “I would rather be number one in that village than to be number two in Rome.” This is why Julius Caesar was willing to kill millions of people—he wanted to be number one.

If space permitted, we could go through the gospels and see that this was the same problem that the disciples had. They never got over it until Jesus was crucified. After that, you never again find them contending as to who would be the greatest. Though they had been alienated, the blood of His cross reconciled them.

If you have a desire in your heart to control other people, you have the same problem. It is possible for you to be the most respected person in town and still have this problem. If you have this desire to control other people, you have not yet been reconciled. The person who lives for himself is not a Christian, because he has never experienced the cross. “No one can live for himself and at the same time be united with Christ. Conformity to the world, attachment to the world, manifests a decided denial of Christ.” The Signs of the Times, June 13, 1892.

When His disciples were struggling and quarreling over who would be next to Him in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus said, “The princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister.” Matthew 20:25, 26.

Great Among You

In the English-speaking countries, we are not used to having servants, so we have only one or two words to express the concept. We talk about servants and slaves, and that is about all. But in the Roman Empire, they had many servants of various categories and used a number of different words to denote a servant. There were some servants who were what we would call managers. It was one of these, by the way, who struck Jesus when He was being tried before Caiaphas. This was a high-class servant; someone who had some authority. There was, however, a lower level of servant. The Greek word for these servants is diakonos. This is where we get the word deacon. Jesus said, “He that will be great among you, let him be a diakonos.”

In the Roman Empire, there was one category that was the lowest of all servants. They would be what we would call slaves. In the King James Version of the Bible, this word is usually translated as servant, and in modern translations, it is translated as bondservant or slave. It is the lowest category of servitude. The Greek word is doulos. Jesus said, “He that will be great among you, let him be a diakonos [that is, a middle level of servant], but the one that will be first among you, let him be a doulos [that is, the lowest level of servant], even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister”—a more literal translation would be “not to be served, but to serve”—“and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:26–28.

Philippians tells us how Jesus followed this principle. He started out as the highest, “but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, [and] coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to [the point of] death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:7, 8. I say this reverently, friend, He went lower for you and for me than we could ever go for Him. You will never be able to go as low for Jesus as He has already gone for you. And I want to tell you, once the Holy Spirit drives that thought home into our consciousness, we will never be the same again. We cannot go on in this alienated form of life, fighting and bickering, and with all that is going on among professed Christians today. We cannot do it!

No Longer Alienated

The apostles did not all think the same on every matter after the cross. The cross did not take away their ability to think, but they were no longer alienated from one another.

Friends, there is going to be a people when Jesus comes who are no longer alienated. They are no longer going to be fighting. The 144,000 will be perfectly unified, in harmony. It is going to happen, all right. The question is, Who is going to undergo the experience of the cross so that they can be part of it?

Christ died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again. Oh, friend, is this your experience? The cross must be an experience, no longer just a story. It must change the inner wellspring of the life so that we no longer live for ourselves. This is such a big problem in human nature that our daily prayer to God needs to be that He will divest us of selfishness. (See Our High Calling, 242.)

The servant of the Lord would not instruct us to pray this prayer every day if we did not need to do so. We are talking about a big problem. This is why we need to go to the cross over and over and over again, until the message soaks in.

I invite you, just now, to kneel down and pray that through the power of the Holy Spirit, this will be your experience.

Reprinted from the September 1994 LandMarks.

Pastor Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life Ministry and pastor of the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: historic@stepstolife.org or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Lessons From the Book of Amos – Part VI

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Reading the Book of Amos is a disturbing experience, because as we read, we are faced with the awesome demands a righteous God makes on the lives of His people. We are also presented with the consequences, if we do not follow the commands that God makes upon our lives.

In Part v of this series [April 2004], we noted the parallels between the church of Laodicea and the children of Israel with whom Amos dealt. In the message to the church of Laodicea, we know that, if it does not come into line with God’s position, He is going to spew it out. (Revelation 3:16.) In Amos, we are told the process that the church will go through. It is all revealed to us there. It is not a welcome message; it is not a comforting message, and if we have not been perturbed and disturbed by it, we probably have not yet grasped the message of Amos.

Selective Hearing

In reality, I think all of us have that little mechanism built into us where we tune things out. If you have ever had dogs, you know how they can exercise tuning you out when they want to. They will filter out all the whistles, all the shouts, and all the screams that are supposed to make them come to you or to mind. But it is uncanny how they can hear the rattling of their dish when food is being poured into it. They may be at the other end of the house or out in the field, but they can hear that food being poured into the dish, and they know that it is time to eat. Human beings are a lot like that as well!

We all have our sophisticated ways of tuning out what we do not want to hear. We find this technique, often called selective hearing, operational in the lives of husbands and wives. We tune out what we do not want to hear.

If we human beings can find ways of avoiding messages from each other, we certainly can do that with God. But God tells us over and over again, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22. He speaks to us out of heaven with all the authority of our Creator and as the One Who has the right to rule and to control our lives. But we bristle when God wants to control our lives for us. If what He wants us to do does not meet our selective hearing, there is a tendency for us to tune Him out.

This is what was happening in Israel of old. They also had selective hearing. They did not want to hear that God had the right to rule over them or that He had the right to expect them to respond. For the most part, sinful human beings do not want to be ruled over; they want to rule. If you do not think this is true, then I do not think you have heard the message that has been presented in the Book of Amos.

Filtered Messages

As we study the prophets of old, there is a tendency to filter out the messages that they delivered, because we do not want to face the truth that their messages have applications to us today. We especially hold this view pertaining to the Old Testament. And even though we, as Seventh-day Adventists, like to console ourselves that we are Bible Christians, when we come to a commanding passage in the Old Testament, we like to say that it applied to the people in that day. If there is something in the New Testament with which we do not want to come into harmony, we say that that instruction was given 2,000 years ago.

And then we look at the messages and instructions given in the Spirit of Prophecy, written just over 100 years ago. There are those today who allege that Ellen White was a creature of her day and time—that her writings do not really apply to us. There are even some people who want to rewrite her writings and update the English. I have never had any problem reading what she has to say. It is very clear to me. But there is always the desire to tinker with something that we do not want to hear. Amos 7 gives an account of this.

Vision of Disaster

“Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, [it was] the latter growth after the king’s mowings. And it came to pass, [that] when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he [is] small. The Lord repented for this: It shall not be, saith the Lord.” Verses 1–3.

Here is described a vision of judgment given to Amos. It was a vision of a natural disaster about to occur. The latter crop is referred to in verse 1. The first crop, or the first mowing, was given to the king as a tax, and the people had to depend upon the second mowing to not only feed themselves but also their animals and to have enough left over for the next year.

There is always more in the first mowing than there is in the second mowing, so you can imagine what was left—only enough for the people to just get by. But in this vision, Amos saw grasshoppers come in and begin to eat things down so that nothing was left. When Amos saw this, he, like Moses, began to intercede on behalf of Israel to God, so this would not take place. And the Bible says that God changed this disaster. He let it pass. He said, “It shall not be.”

Then Amos is given another vision.

“Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part. Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he [is] small. The Lord repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord God.” Verses 4–6.

Now, if the grasshoppers were a picture of a natural disaster, fire would seem to be something supernatural. If you have ever been through an area where a forest fire has burned, you know how devastating it is. All the vegetation has been destroyed, and it takes many years for restoration to take place.

That was the vision God gave to Amos—a warning of the devastation that was to come upon Israel as a judgment. And Amos said, “Lord, please, spare them; they are so small.” And the Lord said, “Alright, this is not going to happen.”

Intercessory Prayer

I wonder how many times intercessory prayer, prayer that we may never even know about, has spared us. Here was Israel, doing things that they thought God had no idea of, and the only reason they were spared judgment was because of God’s prophet. They did not even like Amos, but he was interceding on their behalf.

I am sure that we all have stories we could tell, either about parents or grandparents, who have interceded on our behalf. We will never really know or understand how many times intercessory prayer has preserved us until we enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The Plumbline

But then a third vision is given.

“Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall [made] by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb-line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” Verses 7–9.

A plumbline is a very basic tool of masonry or carpentry. It is used to build a wall so that the wall is plumb, that is, exactly vertical or true. The wall referred to in verse 7 had been established using a plumbline. It was set vertically straight by a plumbline.

Amos, in vision, saw the Lord standing like a construction foreman or a surveyor with a plumbline in His hand. He was checking the wall to see if it was still straight, if it was still bearing the load all right, and if it was still correctly aligned. He was looking to see that there was no hint of bulges or overhanging tilts or cracks or something that would cause the wall to go over.

What is the meaning of this vision? It is saying that the Lord brought Israel into being. He promised to save them; His laws were there to guide them. They were supposed to be in a covenant relationship with God and with His Law, and because of that, it was now necessary for God to take a plumb-line in His hand and to measure that wall to see if it was still straight.

God periodically comes by every one who has entered into a covenant relationship with Him and uses the plumbline to see if we are still straight and upright. It is not an arbitrary assessment; it is a highly precise and discriminating act, and we need to learn from Amos that this is how God works with His people. When we have agreed to be obedient to God’s Law and when we have been baptized to wash away our past sins, God uses the plumbline to continue measuring us.

Right to Measure

The two visions that Amos saw about disaster—the grasshoppers and the fire—have given way to a vision of something far more familiar in small scale, something almost domestic—the building of a wall with a plumbline. No disaster was involved in that. Grasshoppers coming through the field are disastrous. A fire sweeping through and consuming everything is disastrous. But using a plumbline to measure a wall is not disastrous. Everybody knows that a leaning wall cannot stand. A leaning wall has to be demolished and rebuilt.

The first two of these three visions equaled the equivalent of hell. This is the destruction; this is the wasting that is going to take place when judgment comes. The third vision of the plumbline is asking how are you going to measure up? Amos does not make any comment against this vision of judgment. He does not fall down on his knees and begin to pray, “Lord, spare Jacob.” The disasters of grasshoppers and fire had been canceled out in answer to the prayers of Amos. But Amos does not make any appeal against the use of the plumbline, because there is nothing harsh or capricious or arbitrary about God measuring His people. He has the right to do that.

Amos knew that. He knew what was going on, and if he should pray that God would overlook this fact—“Lord, do not measure Your people”—he would be a false prophet, because the words of the prophet deal with measuring.

Like Moses and others, he knew that this was God’s right and that it was helpful for His people. But Amos also knew that judgment would come, because he knew what was taking place in Israel.

Coming Judgment

The Bible never lets us escape from the fact that there is a judgment coming, and we are held morally accountable. As we see this fact being brought about in the Book of Amos, it should sober us in our thinking. This is why the apostle tells us that we are to be sober. (1 Peter 1:13; 4:7.) It should sober our thinking, because we live in a universe where good and evil matter. A lot of people do not think that evil matters. A lot of people do not think that good matters. But in God’s universe, good and evil matter, and where and on what side we place ourselves does matter.

“Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it [is] the king’s chapel, and it [is] the king’s court.” Verses 10–13.

Apparently, Amos had been telling what was going on around the countryside. That is not always the best or the most enviable posi-tion in which to be found. There was an encounter with the High Priest of the county, and this man went to the king and told him that Amos was conspiring against him.

Church and State Integration

Let us ask some questions here:

First of all, who was this man Amaziah? He was the priest of Bethel; he held a religious position. One of the things we need to understand is that for Israel the church and the state were very integrated. The priest and the king were to work together. The church controlled the state; religious ideas were to overrule any civil ideas of the government.

If we were to translate this into a setting of spiritual understanding today, we would see that the priest of Bethel would be like the Secretary of the Northern Conference of Israel, and the king would represent the conference president.

The priest dealt with the sanctuary; the king dealt with the business administration of God’s people. The king ruled God’s people; the priest dealt with the sacrifices of the temple. They worked very closely together.

Here was Amaziah, a priest, trying to pull rank on Amos, who was God’s prophet. Amos, if you please, was a self-supporting minister in God’s cause, and Amaziah was attempting to control how his ministry was run. This offers the opportunity for many parallels, but I will suggest only one. The priest of the order and organization was trying to dictate how independent ministries were to work and to operate! Indeed there is nothing new under the sun!

Attempt to Prejudice the Hearer

Amaziah was passing on information designed to prejudice the king from even entertaining the message that Amos had for him. He was building a case against Amos and his message so the king would not even consider whether or not the words that Amos spoke were true.

How many times have we heard about those kinds of things happening today? They happen so often on a religious level. If someone has a position to defend, many times they will go to any length to defend that position, even to the extent of misrepresenting the facts. They resort to bribery or falsehood or whatever meets the need at the moment.

Amaziah misrepresented Amos and then turned on him, and in so many words, he told Amos, “You are out of your league up here. This is religious headquarters. It is not the right place for a small-town preacher like you. Anyway, you belong in the south. They will enjoy your prophecy down there. Go back there, if you want to make a living.”

The expression in verse 12, “go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there,” implies that Amos was only doing the work of God for money. “You are only up here causing all this trouble, operating this independent ministry for the money that you get out of it.” Of course, that is always the issue with religious headquarters who think that they have a corner on the market of the self-supporting minister.

As mentioned before, religion and politics were mixed together in this setting, and for a prophet to predict the imminent fall of the nation and the death of the monarch, as Amos did in verse 9, would have been seen as terribly demoralizing and politically treacherous. So Amaziah took it upon himself to deal with this prophet by using misrepresentation and belittlement. Amos was not welcome. No wonder the land could not bear Amos’ words. No wonder the established religious leader tried to silence him. It was the natural response of the human heart. Amaziah felt he was just doing his duty. We need to understand that those conditions have not really changed at all today.

Chosen of God

Notice Amos’ response: “Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I [was] no prophet, neither [was] I a prophet’s son; but I [was] an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.” Verses 14, 15.

If we examine Amos’ reference to his occupation as a shepherd and a tender of sycomore trees, it appears that he was answering Amaziah’s criticism of prophesying for money by saying that he had no need of the prophet’s stipend, and he was not doing the work for the money. Amos made it clear that his background was entirely secular, that he was dedicated to the Lord and that the Lord had chosen him and had sent him.

God had chosen him because He could not find anyone else—not even from the ranks of the religious orders or from the king’s court or from the sanctuary—who could be used to carry His message. He sought one who was tending sheep and said, “I want you.”

Amos then became a type of the Great Shepherd, the One who comes to us bringing the message of gospel and truth. God chose a holy man. The Bible says, “Holy men of God spake [as they were] moved by the Holy Ghost.” 11 Peter 1:21. You do not have to be a priest; you do not have to be a king to carry God’s message of salvation. All you have to be is one who is dedicated wholly and completely to God, and He can use you in His cause.

“Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I [was] no prophet.” A lot of people asked Ellen White if she was a prophet. She always responded that she did not claim to be a prophet but a messenger of the Lord. The same feeling probably welled up in Amos when he was asked this. He said, “I am no prophet, neither am I a prophet’s son.” This is where the phrase comes from that we use so many times—“I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I can tell you, from what I see, that . . . .”

Work of Lay People

It is interesting to note that God called an Israelite to preach to Israelites. That is the method God uses to get His message across. If the professional rank and file are not going to do His will in completing the work He has called them to do, then He is going to raise up lay people to accomplish His purpose. When that happens, a scorning of the work that the lay people accomplish is going to take place. We need to be ready for that. If the message cannot be refuted from the writings of Inspiration, then you better watch out, because God has declared that His word will not return to Him void. You need to be aware, however, that there is always going to be opposition to the preaching of the truth.

Amaziah had said, in effect, that there was no salary for Amos, no career future. But Amos replied, “I am not a career man. I am a called man. The Lord took me from tending the flock, and He told me to go prophesy to His people, Israel.”

This is where spiritual gifts come into play. If God calls you to do a work for Him, He will equip you to accomplish the work. God calls individuals to ministry.

I believe that one of the failures that took place in Israel regarding the sanctuary was that those who were working in the sanctuary did not have a calling. They had a birthright. How many preachers’ kids do you know who have gone into ministry that did not have the same dedication as the father? The reason probably is that they did not have the calling to ministry. The father may have had the calling to ministry. The father may have encouraged the son to follow in his footsteps in ministry, but if that child did not have the call of God to go into ministry, it would be better that he work the plow than to try to fulfill a calling for which he has not been equipped. If God calls you to ministry, He will equip you for that ministry. He will give you the gift that is necessary for you to accomplish His ministry.

Service or Career Choice

There was a vast difference between Amos and Amaziah. This difference still divides those in full-time, Christian service today. The decision to serve God in full-time service can never be simply a career choice. I have colleagues who have selected ministry as a career choice, rather than being called of God. This was not the case with Amos. Amos did not decide one day that he was tired of following sheep from hillside to hillside and then choose to change professions and begin preaching. He did not think to himself that with such a change he would not have to get up so early in the morning to tend the sheep or worry about those who were out on the hillside in the bad weather. He did not consider that all he would need to do is preach on Sabbath morning and be done for the rest of the week. A lot of people believe that of a preacher. I do not think that very many of them have followed a preacher throughout the weekly routine to see just what he does.

Amos was not trying to focus attention on any sacrifice that
he was making to do God’s will. Rather, he was admitting his own lack of qualifications for the job. In effect, he was agreeing with Ama-ziah that he was out of his league as a country boy in the king’s sanctuary at Bethel. In other words, this messenger was utterly insignificant. What mattered is the fact that the Lord had sent him. He had a message from God, and Amos was driven by the message that he had received.

It was not his qualification for the job that put him where he was; it was God. All we need is a heart to obey God. That is all Amos had. We each need to pray for a heart to obey God, and if we are listening to the Word of God and trying to obey it, God can and will use us. When the occasion arose to defend the cause of God, all Amos needed was the word from God, and he was ready to go; he packed his suitcases and was ready.

“The Lord took me,” he said, “as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.”

Judgment Proclaimed

“Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not [thy word] against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.” Amos 7:16, 17.

That was Amos’ response to Amaziah. He was told not to prophesy again at Bethel. So what does Amos do in response? He immediately goes and prophesies against Israel at Bethel.

The location was important. Amaziah had not forbidden Amos to preach. He had not said, “Do not preach those things at all anywhere.” He just said, “Do not point out the wrongs that are being done at Bethel.” Why? Because that was the king’s chapel.

The offense of preaching often is found in where God’s message is delivered. Nobody minds the preaching of the Three Angels’ Messages, as long as the judgment is not part of the matter. “You can preach that all you want, but do not include us; do not point out what we are doing that is wrong! Tell all the people you want that they are going to hell, but do not tell us at headquarters that we are going to hell or that we are in danger of judgment.” This is basically what Amos was being told—“Go into someone else’s district; do not come into my district.”

Not My Backyard

A good friend of mine, a retired minister—independent minister now—was on an airplane in the Northwest. Little did he know, as he boarded the plane, that already seated in the plane was the local conference president. The conference president did not reveal himself to this man until after the plane landed at its destination. My friend got off first. The conference president followed him down the concourse and, coming up behind him, ran into him to the extent that it almost knocked him off his feet. When he recovered his composure, the conference president said to him, “What are you doing in my district?” My friend gave an excellent response: “I did not know it was your district. I thought it was God’s district.”

For Amos to speak in Jerusalem, where he was from, the things that God had told him to speak in Bethel would not have accomplished the purpose that God intended. God called him to preach in Bethel. His words, in verse 17, concerning Amaziah, his wife, his children, his land, and where he himself would end up would cause little or no problem if preached in Jerusalem. But speaking those things in the back yard where the priest lived was going to cause some problems. It would not be appreciated.

God had not just given Amos a message; He had given him a destination for that message. God said, “Go and prophesy to my people Israel.”

Rebuke; Exhort

Sometimes it is very difficult to deal with religious issues in the way that we should. It is not easy to speak out, pointing out areas where evil is taking place, but when God gives the message and calls us to go with that message, do you realize that we would be lost eternally if we did not carry out that message?

Ellen White would lament many times; she would weep before the Lord that she did not want to deliver the messages that God gave to her. She did not want to hurt people’s feelings with the messages that she had to carry. But she carried them anyway. She spoke them anyway. (See Spiritual Gifts, vol. 2, 60, 61.) We will never understand the anguish that she went through in having to do it.

In the instruction Paul gave to Timothy, the young man who would follow in his footsteps, he said, “Rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering.” 11 Timothy 4:2. That was where Amos’ personal experience was found. He told Amaziah that he must be obedient to what God had called him to do and that there was a vast difference between the word of man and the Word of the Lord.

Difference in the Word

Perhaps in Amos’ day it was at times difficult to distinguish the difference, particularly when some prophets spoke falsely in the name of the Lord, but that is not the case today. Why is that not the case today? Because, as 11 Peter 1:19 says, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed.” We now have the written Word of God, and that becomes the basis and the foundation of everything that we are to be and everything that we are to do. There is no doubt today about what God has said. We do not have to say, “Well, I heard this prophet, and I heard that prophet, and I heard another prophet, and I cannot figure it out.” No, we go to the Word, and there we find what is the truth. We can be sure that word, that message from God, always remains the same.

How are we to deal with situations like this? We see in this much more than just ourselves. We have before us the setting of prophet and priest, a setting where there is the confronting of the unwelcome, unsettling, unchanging Word of God. How are we to relate to that? How are we to cope with the voice of God when it applies to our situation?

Remember, we do not want to fall into the trap of filtering. When the Word comes, do not tune it out—examine it. Even though it may be cutting across our grain, do not filter it out. Do not become angry with the one who gives the message. Study it out; see if it is the truth. If you want to be angry with someone because it is the truth, be angry with the Lord, but do not be angry with the one who spoke the Word of the Lord. Does that sound reasonable? God can deal with anger. The message is the word of truth, so do not filter out what God is trying to get across. We will be in the same danger as Israel of old, if we do.

Do not try to fudge things or sort out things and put them into categories that we can get around. Take them as they come. If we will take God at His Word and apply God’s Word into our lives, it will not be long before Jesus can come. I am looking forward to that. I am longing for that day. I am getting tired of the things that I see going on in the world. I want it brought to an end. I want the Lord to come soon, and I know that you do, too. But we need to make sure that we are following as closely as we can what God has revealed to us in His Word.

To be continued . . .