What Might Have Been

When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them a home in the beautiful garden of Eden and endowed them with stewardship over all the created beings and vegetation. Adam named all the animals and had free use of the earth. God had a beautiful plan for man here on this planet: a home where they would ever have the joys of peace and harmony between heaven and earth. What a wonderful heritage it was and could have been forever, but they disobeyed God, and what might have been never came about.

They were barred from the beautiful Garden of Eden, and Adam had to earn their living by the sweat of his face. And Eve had to bear children through much pain and suffering. How different it was from their original home in the garden. It was not what it might have been. However, God’s love is everlasting and pure, and it never left them. He did have a plan of redemption.

God’s love cannot cooperate with sin. As time moved on and the human family multiplied, man became satisfied and settled down to live in the beautiful world with plenty of gold and precious metals and lush vegetation and the variety of foods. They put God out of their minds and became selfish. They began to worship the things that God had created, instead of God. They became so wicked and disobedient to the law of God that God was forced to destroy the whole living creation by a flood, all accept for eight human beings and a sample of all the animals. The surface of the earth was completely torn up and changed. What might have been was gone because of disobedience—sin.

God then had a chosen family, the descendants of His faithful servant, Abraham. God’s plan was that the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham, were to preserve the knowledge of God and His law, and to educate the inhabitants of the world about the love of God and His wonderful plan of redemption. This chosen family was few in number at first, but grew into a multitude.

They were led to Egypt where they could multiply and develop into a great nation that would exemplify to the whole world what God was like, and demonstrate His eternal love. But while they were in Egypt, many of them were influenced by the Egyptians, who worshiped idols, and consequently lost their faith in God. What might have been a powerful witnessing nation for the Lord became a servitude race and were slaves to the Egyptians for a couple hundred years. They missed the blessing that they might have had, but God did not leave them. He sent a deliverer—Moses.

They were guided out of Egypt by the hand of God, who used Moses for their visible leader. God used many judgments and wonderful miracles to help the Egyptians know that He was God, and to strengthen the faith of the children of Israel. Through plagues the Egyptians were duly punished for their cruelty and suppression of the Israelites. The Lord sent ten plagues to Egypt, pleading to Pharaoh with each one to recognize the God of heaven and to let His people go. But Pharaoh was stubborn and refused to change his affections from his idols to the God of Heaven, nor did he want to lose the servitude of the Israelites. But finally, after the Lord sent the ten severe plagues, the last of which God had His angel kill all the firstborn of the Egyptians, the Israelites were thrust out of the country with all their belongings and their animals. And they were given gold and jewels just to get rid of them.

The Israelites were led out of Egypt by the Lord to the bank of the Red Sea. From a human standpoint, they were in an impossible place to proceed: with a mountain on either side and the sea in front of them, they were hedged in. They were agitated and worried; even though they had seen the miracles that God had performed in delivering them from Egypt, their faith in God was weak or non-existent. Moses encouraged them and said, “Wait and see the salvation of the Lord.” (Exodus 14:13.)

The Egyptians decided that they were going to recapture the Israelites and bring them back as slaves. They were close on the trail of the Israelites, and there was no way of escape. However, the Lord had a wonderful plan for deliverance. He opened up the Red Sea so the Israelites could walk through on dry ground, and when the Egyptian army came and attempted to go through the sea, the sea closed up on them and they were all drowned. Egypt never again was a leading nation in the world. What might have been if Egypt had accepted God, never happened.

The chosen people of God started out on their journey through the desert to the land that the Lord had promised them. “And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.” Exodus 3:17.

Canaan was not such a long distance from Egypt—the Children of Israel with their herds of cattle and with their families of babies and children walking through the desert could have made it in a year or two—that is, if they had put their trust in God and realized that they were being led of God and were fulfilling His plan to fit into the eternal pattern. But because of their murmuring and complaining and their lack of faith, they had to wander in the wilderness for forty years instead of just two years. During those forty years, all the original ones who were twenty years old or older when they left Egypt died in the wilderness, and the younger ones went in and possessed the land.

How sad it is that those men and women, who might have had a home in Canaan, died in the desert. They did not have faith enough in their heavenly Father to do His will, or to believe that He was leading them. What might have been a couple of years took forty years because of unbelief.

After the Israelites’ long forty years of traveling through the wilderness, they were finally led by God to the Promised Land. There they began, by Divine direction and miracles, to conquer the idolatrous tribes and take possession of the land and establish the true worship of God. But again, about the time of the third and fourth generation, they failed the Lord. Their faith became weak and they began looking to men and the other nations for guidance; they wanted a King in order to be like all the other nations around them. It was not God’s plan for them to have a human king, but He did not leave them. He chose the king for them and blessed the ruler.

After some generations of rulers, they had a king by the name of Solomon, who was the wisest king that ever lived, and from the directions of His father, king David, he had a beautiful temple built. God said it could stand forever. However, Solomon, who was meek, humble, and consecrated to God to begin with, finally became proud and brought in idol worship. The Israelites again went into idolatry, and were even more wicked than the heathen who were all around them. Finally the people of God got so mixed up with the world and idol worship that the Lord had to send them into captivity. Their city and temple were ravished and burned. The temple that the Lord told them could stand forever was destroyed. What might have been was demolished because of disobedience—sin. But the Lord did not leave them; He sent them prophets to guide them. However, they did not listen to the prophets either.

The Lord had a few faithful followers, and those He blessed and protected even in captivity. While in captivity for seventy years, a new generation grew up, and the Lord brought those who chose Him back to their homeland, and they rebuilt the temple. It was not as magnificent as the first one which king Solomon had built, but it was a beautiful temple. And it was dedicated to God, and He honored it with His presence.

Then and there the Israelites were determined to be through with heathen idolatry. As the years rolled on they became so strict trying to steer away from idol worship that they developed a whole new system of worship which was built upon the rules of do’s and don’ts. Their religion had no room for love and mercy. It became so stereotyped that when Jesus came and taught and practiced true worship of God, which is based on love and mercy, they didn’t even recognize Him. They missed the greatest blessing that could have come to man. They could have witnessed to the whole world that God had sent His Son to save mankind. What might have been a wonderful blessing turned out to be the worst tragedy in the history of this world—the crucifixion of Jesus by His own people.

Take a great leap in time now, and go to the closing days of the reformation. God had called the honest-in-heart out from the many delusions of the dark ages, and they had formed several churches (the Lutheran, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Presbyterian, etc.) and they all had received light from the throne of Grace and had been established in truth. But they decided that they had all the truth there was to get, and when more light was shown on God’s people, most of them rejected it. The blessing they may have enjoyed, the beautiful truth of the sanctuary message, they missed.

God then raised up another group. This group of people really believed the sanctuary message and preached that the Lord was coming on October 22, 1844, but they missed the interpretation of the prophecy and were bitterly disappointed. They thought that the earth was the Sanctuary. Actually, the Sanctuary is in heaven (See Hebrews, chapters 8, 9.) and Jesus went into the Most Holy Place in heaven to cleanse the Sanctuary October 22, 1844. But God’s promise is sure; He is coming back to this earth to take His faithful ones Home with Him.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He still cannot allow sin to exist in heaven, and “He is long suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” II Peter 3:9. He is waiting for His people to come to Him in repentance and He will furnish them with a robe of Christ’s Righteousness. Then He will take His people home. We could already be in the Kingdom rejoicing around the throne if we were ready. What might have been just hasn’t happened.

“In the prophecy of Jerusalem’s destruction Christ said, ‘Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.’ Matthew 24:12–14. This prophecy will again be fulfilled. The abounding iniquity of that day finds its counterpart in this generation. So with the prediction in regard to the preaching of the gospel. Before the fall of Jerusalem, Paul, writing by the Holy Spirit, declared that the gospel was preached to ‘every creature which is under heaven.’ Col. 1:23. So now, before the coming of the Son of man, the everlasting gospel is to be preached ‘to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.’ Rev. 14:6, 14. God ‘hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world.’ Acts 17:31. Christ tells us when that day shall be ushered in. He does not say that all the world will be converted, but that ‘this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.’ By giving the gospel to the world it is in our power to hasten our Lord’s return. We are not only to look for but to hasten the coming of the day of God. II Peter 3:12, margin. Had the church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come to our earth in power and great glory.” The Desire of Ages, 633, 634.

There are many “What might have beens.” We are again living in the day when Jesus is about to close up the work and come for His faithful ones here on earth. He is now waiting for His character to be stamped upon His people. No sin will ever be permitted to enter heaven. Christ will give us the strength and power to overcome sin. Let us not allow this opportunity to pass and go back in the wilderness again. Let us go forward, so they cannot say about this generation, “What might have been!”

God’s promises are sure, and He said, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” Malachi 4:5, 6.

He has sent us the prophet, and we have the instructions He gave her. If we will follow them, our eternity with Jesus will soon be a reality, not “what might have been!”

“When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 69.

Ruth Grosboll works at Steps to Life and can be contacted at: ruthgrosboll@stepstolife.org.