We Are Here to Find God.

The Third Angel’s Message (1897)

February 9, 1897

The Spirit of Prophecy. - No. 1.

A. T. Jones

(Tuesday Forenoon, Feb. 9, 1897.)

I SUPPOSE there is no one in this room who does not think but that he truly believes in the Spirit of Prophecy; that is, that the Spirit of Prophecy belongs to the church,-to this message as is manifested through Sister White, and that these things are believed, professedly believed at least, so far as the idea and the Scriptures that prove that such things are a part of this work. But that is not where the trouble lies, for we are in trouble now. If we do not know it, we are much worse off than if we were in trouble and did know it. And more than that, the cause of God, as well as you and I, are in such trouble that we are in danger day by day of incurring the wrath of God because we are where we are. The Lord tells us that more than once, and he tells us how we got there, and he tells us how to get out of it. And the only thing I know how to tell you here, is to study the Spirit of Prophecy, and get out of it what you need.

 

That is only one of the statements that is made. In knowing these statements, and having known them for some time, I would have been glad to stay at home and go on with the work there, because there is so much to be done and so many involved. God calls for many changes among the men who have formed committees, boards, councils, etc., and these men who compose these committees, boards, and councils are the very ones assembled here upon whom it will fall to make the changes. Now, how shall these men make the changes in which they themselves are involved, unless they themselves are changed first? The only way to have the change wrought is to have the men changed. All who will do so God will work through, and all who will not do so-what will become of them? That is why I say we are in trouble to-day. When the Lord tells us what trouble we are in, he tells us how we got there and how to get out of it. It all comes through disregarding the Testimonies. Then when we get into trouble by disregarding the Testimonies, and the Testimonies tell us just how to get out of that trouble, and we follow the testimony that leads us out, then we shall be straight on the Testimonies.

I have nothing to get off onto you, for I am in it with the rest of you. The Lord says that the cause is in trouble, and I am part of the cause; I belong with it, my life is wrapped up in it, and so is yours; it is everything to us. Then when the cause is in trouble, you and I are in trouble. It may be that you personally had no definite connection with the steps that brought the cause into trouble; yet we, being a part of the cause, and the cause itself being our life, are in trouble all the same because the cause is. But God tells us what to do to get out of it. 

I do not want to give you man's counsel, but the Lord's. It may be that we shall see men's names, and if so I shall not dodge it. If a name should be left out and not read, and we know who it is, it does not follow that an attack is made upon that brother. Suppose that I commit a wrong, and the Lord tells me of it in a testimony. When that testimony comes to me, I turn my back upon the wrong, and you may use it all you want to, and it will not be against me; for I am not in it if I have turned from it by acknowledging it, and acting accordingly. 

As a real matter of fact, it is a question whether anybody finds right down in his own heart a belief of the Testimonies until he gets one or two or three, and he has accepted all, and then he will be pretty well satisfied that he believes the Testimonies, and not till he has had some such experience. I will begin and end with the Word. Here is something that tells us what to do when we come to such places as this: "If the Lord is in the midst of your councils, beholding your order and love and fear, and your trembling at his word, then you are prepared to do his work unselfishly." 

Here we are in council. Though we be different in character, if we are molded by the same spirit of Christ, we are one. Then the church can rise as clear as the sun at mid-day, and go forth as terrible as an army with banners. 

God has been shut away from his work, from the management of his work in general, in state work, councils, in boards, in churches, etc. We have had false gods, because the people have put men, and men have allowed themselves to be put, between God and the work. God is going to work in his cause anyhow, and if you will not get out of his way and let him work his own way, the wrath of God will fall upon those who are in the way. Men keep themselves, and allow themselves to be kept, in places that they should have been out of long ago. If we will get out of his way, and let him work, he will work with a gentle hand. We do not want a whip of cords. We would better be surprised a little now, than become greatly surprised after awhile; and in love be reproved, than to go on not knowing these things, and be made to flee from the temple as they did that day, or to be altogether surprised when we cannot help it. 

So if the Lord is in the midst of your councils, beholding your love and your fear, and your tremblings at his word, then you are prepared to do his work; and he will not be in partnership with any unjust transactions. 

Again I read: "Man's way is to devise and scheme. God implants a principle." And where God has implanted a principle, our life and actions together are simply an expression of that principle. And if God's principle is not there, then the principle of the devil is there. "Circumstances cannot work reforms. Christianity proposes a reformation in the heart. What Christ works within will be worked out under the dictation of a converted intellect. The plan of beginning at the outside and trying to work inward, has always failed and always will fail." 

I cannot apply a testimony to anybody else than myself, for it must be applied at the heart, and work from within. God will then apply it wherever I go. And it is the same with all of us in the testimony that comes to any, in any meeting or council or General Conference meeting. The president cannot apply all over the field a testimony given to him. He must accept it in his soul, and surrender to it body, soul, and spirit; and then Jesus Christ will apply the testimony everywhere he, the president, goes. It is a living thing in him, and then if he goes forward, that testimony is applied by the Lord wherever he may be.

But men have tried to apply the Testimonies to other people without having the testimony a living thing in themselves.

Over and over again that has been tried, and that is where the trouble is. If the testimony is not accepted by him body, soul, and spirit, so that the principle which is in it is a living thing in him, it matters not how much he may read that testimony and apply it to other people, his own influence will be against the testimony which he is applying. For if it is not lived in his life, and all that he says and does, it is destroyed by his actions.

And that is what has brought about the conditions that exist now. "God's way is to give man something he has not." We are to take the thing that we have not, that God gives us, and that will make us a power in the Lord. 2 Cor.2:14: "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place."

When that principle is there, wherever we go God is talking; he is speaking. He is making known the knowledge of himself by us in every place. It may be a business transaction; that makes no difference. Everything we do will remind them of God after we are gone, so he makes manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. 

"God's way is to make man something that he is not;" to make me something that I am not. Then when a testimony comes to me telling me that I am not right, that testimony is to make me what I am not,-to make me right. I cannot stand where I am and apply it; but when I apply it, I shall be what I was not, and everywhere I go God can make himself manifest. 

"Man's way is to get an easy place, and indulge appetite and selfish ambition. God's way is to work in power. He gives the grace if the sick man realizes that he needs it. Man is too often satisfied to treat himself according to the methods of quackery, and then vindicate the manner of his working as right." God's way is different. We are all sick men, and if we could realize it God would give the cure necessary. Man prefers quackery, and thinks his manner of work is right; but God purposes to purify the soul. John 7:38: "He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

This is the kingdom of God within him. "Day by day men are revealing whether the kingdom of God is within them. If Christ rules in their hearts they are gaining strength of principle, power, ability to stand as faithful sentinels, true reformers; for there can be no reformation unless there is a thorough co-operation with Jesus Christ. Through the grace of Christ men are to use their God-given faculties to reform themselves. By this selfdenying action, which the Lord of heaven looks upon with approval, they gain victories over their own hereditary and cultivated tendencies; then, like Daniel, they make impressions upon others that will never be effaced. The influence will be carried to all parts of the earth." 

This is the witness that I referred to a minute ago. When you receive a testimony and take it into your heart and life, that makes you something you were not, and then it is the kingdom of God within you, and the witness will be carried to all parts of the earth. May be you will never go out of your State. Then how can it ever be? Where you go and where I go, God is making impressions on the heart that will never be effaced, and by them making yet other impressions, and so on. One may harden himself against it, but it will go there just the same; and when that impression is made by you, he will know that it is from the Lord. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection, but they also said that they took knowledge of the disciples that they had been with Jesus and learned of him after his death. In their hearts they knew that he had risen. The fact was there, but they were not converted by it. That is the principle that is in the Bible. From a testimony written in 1896 I read: "Many of the men who have acted as councilors in board and council meetings need to be weeded out." Notice, it says many. There are not very many altogether, so that when many of them are weeded out, many cannot be left. "Other men should take their places, for their voice is not the voice of God. Their plans and devices are not in the order of God. The same men have been kept in office as directors of boards, until under their own management and their own ways, common fire is used in the place of sacred fire of God's own kindling. These men are no more called Israel but supplanters." Supplanters instead of Israel! In what worse trouble could we be? 

Again, from a testimony written in 1894: "Changes should have been made long ago. God would have the church roll away her reproach." Here are the words: "The same men are not to compose your board year by year; changes should have been made long ago. God would have the church roll away her reproach; but as long as men who have felt fully competent to work without accepting counsel of God are kept in office year by year, this cannot be done. This state of things is leavening every branch of the work, because men do not feel their need of the guidance of the Holy Spirit." 

What shall be done? Is the Lord going to have a chance to work now? Shall he be allowed to bring about the needed changes? This testimony is not to be applied by our taking hold of this work and going about abruptly to make the changes. My heart must be right before I can take part in any change. The thing to do is to surrender ourselves to God, and then let him work through us. We do not care who the men are if God is there.

 

We are not to begin here to look about now to see what candidates we can raise up, that we can favor and work into positions that are held now by others; for then, though they would be out of the places, we would be in the places, and the Lord would be as far off as before. The trouble is now that the Lord has been left out. Now, if we would work ourselves into their places, the Lord would be left out still, and the cause would be worse off than before. But that is not what is wanted. There is to be no politics here; but if politics is in us, it will be here, and will show itself here. If indeed a man does have politics in him, the best place for him to spend it is out in the open world, amongst those who are politicians and nothing else, for that is all he is; and if he does not spend it there he will spend it in the church, and only spread mischief and deviltry there. And of course it is better that such work as that should be open in the world than in the church. So that is not what we are here for. We are here to find God, and open our hearts that he may occupy the place from center to circumference, in every thought and word and deed; and God is not a politician; he is God. What we are to do is to seek God with all the heart, so that God shall do all that is to be done; and he will do it if we let him. Give God a chance. Those who are in the way are to get out of the way, and the rest of us are to keep out of the way. Then God can have the place that belongs to him. 

 To be continued…

Take Heed to Old Testament Warnings.

Sunday Evening, March 14, 1897.

AS we saw in the previous lesson, Israel apostatized, and called for a king that they might be like all the nations. In the present study, we shall see how entirely like the nations they did become. But Israel apostatized from God; because they did not believe God with all the heart. The word was not mixed with faith in them that heard it. They grew formal, and then the evils that they would have escaped if they had been faithful to God, came upon them, as upon any other heathen; and then, as the Spirit of prophecy tells us, all the evils that were the result of their own apostasy they charged back upon the government of God. They considered that his government was a failure; it was not good enough for them, it was not sufficient for them in this world, and they must have a government of their own-one which they could handle and by which they could govern and protect themselves. 

Then they said to Samuel, "Make us a king like all the nations," "that we may be like all the nations;" and although the Lord, by Samuel, solemnly protested against it, they protested against that protest, and said, "Nay; we will have a king over us like all the nations." As they' would have it so, the Lord let them have it so. Not only had they decided and settled it that they would have a king, but they had already decided who it was they should have for king. It was Saul, the son of Kish; and the Lord let them have him, too, because they must have their own way.

 

But all the evils which the Lord told them would come because of their choosing a king and a kingdom, did come upon them. They began to reap some of it in the days of Saul. They were helped considerably to be saved from their evils by the influence and reign of David. Although they rejected God, he did not forsake them, he still remained with them to lead all who would be led, and to save them, if possible, from the calamities that must certainly come, and which he knew would come, and from which they could not escape, as a nation. But he would save all who would escape it as individuals. They had started in a course that inevitably and irrevocably carried them on, one step after another, until, as we shall see, ruin came. 

With Solomon began in plainest measure the troubles that were a necessary result of the course which they had taken against the protest of the Lord. And Egypt was always with it. Egypt always comes in. Solomon took a wife from Egypt, against the word of the Lord. He sent to Egypt for horses, against the word of the Lord. The glory that the Lord gave him he perverted to the service of Egypt and Egyptian idolatry, and the idolatry of all the nations around. The burdens which were brought upon the people in supporting Solomon's three hundred wives and seven hundred concubines from all the heathen nations, in their idolatrous worship, were such as should not have been borne, that could not have been borne for good by the people; and for the good of both peoples, the Lord decided to separate the ten tribes from the two. 

We cannot know what that good was that the Lord intended for the ten tribes, or for the two, because it never was realized. Jeroboam was signalized as the one who should rule the ten tribes first. But Jeroboam, forgetting the splendid example of David, to wait the Lord's good time, and have him bring him to the throne of the ten tribes in his own way-even yet while Solomon lived, he lifted up his hand against the king, in that he took the step that proposed to take the throne of the ten tribes and rule them, to set himself up for king against Solomon. That was treason and rebellion. Solomon thought to punish him for it, and he fled to Egypt and stayed there until Solomon's death. 

If he was not an Egyptian in heart before, he was after he got there. When Solomon had died, Jeroboam returned from Egypt. The time came for the ten tribes to be separated from the two, and Rehoboam took the course that separated them. When the people came and asked him to lighten the burdens that his father had laid upon them, it was a reasonable and proper request. The ancient men who had been advisers of Solomon, advised him to do that thing. But Rehoboam was not content to take the advice of these, because he did not want to be the servant of the people, as they advised him to be; he wanted to be the boss of the people, and he therefore consulted with the young men that had grown up with him. His mother was an Ammonitess, one of the basest of the idolatrous wives that Solomon had; and the young men who had grown up with him were the sons of other idolatrous women whom Solomon had for wives. These young men had grown up in all the abominations of heathenism that Solomon had practiced with his wives. Rehoboam partook of their sentiments and leaned to their way, and of course rejected the Lord's counsel, and the counsel of the men who had the fear of the Lord before them. 

Rehoboam gave to the people the answer with which we are all familiar: You have asked me to make your burdens lighter, but instead of that, I will make them heavier; where they were as your little finger, I will make them to be like unto your loins. They said, "To your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David." Rehoboam, when he saw what had come, was really surprised at it; and yet that is not so strange in him, because when he was so blind as not to be able to see that the thing that he said to them was the most unwise thing to say, it is not strange at all that he should be surprised at what followed when he did say it. He sent his treasurer to them, to pacify them and to smooth the thing over and bring them back, if possible. But they stoned the treasurer to death at once, and Rehoboam, seeing what the result was, became scared and rushed to his chariot and hurried back to Jerusalem, raised up an army to come up and subdue them and compel them to serve him. But the prophet of the Lord told him that was not what was to be done, and that they should remain at home, and they did so. 

Then Jeroboam took the kingdom, and set up the golden calves which he had brought from Egypt, so that the ten tribes were led at once into Egypt, into Egyptian idolatry and Egyptian system of government when they were separated from the two. Thus by Jeroboam the tide was started, and the example was set that was followed by all the rest of the kings of the ten tribes. And always after, it is "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which sinned and made Israel to sin." And the apostasy was steadily, steadily downward, until the whole kingdom perished, and never was heard of again, and never will be. The apostasy in the line of kings of the ten tribes was from bad to worse and worse. Jeroboam was bad; the ones who immediately succeeded him were bad also. Then came Omri, and he was worse than the others; then came Ahab, and he was worse then all before him. Thus it went on through the kingdom, until the whole of it perished and was gone.

But the Lord was all the time trying his best to get them to serve him. He sent them prophets after prophets; he called again and again unto the kings to fear him, to serve him. When we come to the last days of Israel, you have Amos and Hosea especially prophesying. Amos, Hosea, and Micah prophesied for Israel, and to Israel, in the last days of Israel. Only a little of Micah, however, directly concerns the ten tribes. Almost all of Amos is concerning them, and the most of Hosea. Amos and Hosea are largely, almost all, prophesyings concerning Israel, and the Lord's last call for Israel to turn once more to him, and be saved from utter destruction. 

All those prophesyings, and the history of Israel, are put in the Bible for the warning of the people who live in the last days of this word's history. And the instruction of God is there for the people in the last days-to turn to God that they may be saved from actual ruin. That is why those things are put there. So that Amos and Hosea are just as much present truth to-day, to you and to me, and to everybody in the world, as they were to the people in the ten tribes in the day that they wrote. 

Amos prophesied, and the priest that was at Beth-el said to him, Don't you prophesy here; this is the king's house, and the king's court; get you over to Judah. And he went and told the second Jeroboam that Amos was prophesying evil concerning the land, and was teaching rebellion against the king, and saying that the sword of the Lord would fall upon it all, and that the Lord could not bear all his words. 

Let us turn now to the particular passage, and read Amos 7:10-15:- 

Then Amaziah the priest of Beth-el 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 Beth-el: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court. 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 sycamore fruit: and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. 

And he did prophesy unto them; but do not forget, those were the last days of Israel. But when they would not let Amos prophesy in that land, and drove him off, and persecuted him as they had many of the prophets before, the Lord raised up Hosea in the land of Judah; and he, being in the land of Judah where this idolatrous priest told Amos to go, could prophesy concerning Israel, and they could not persecute him and do as they wanted to him. 

Now just a word, glancing again over this whole field: You know that from the time of Samuel onward, the kings of Israel persecuted the people of God, persecuted the prophets, slew the priests, as they chose. They did it because they had the power, as well as the spirit, to do it. But now if Israel had never had a king, a kingdom, or a government of their own, could they have done that?-No; it would have been impossible. You know that the kings of Israel were worse than the heathen kings to the men of God and the prophets of the Lord: so that where kings of Israel and kings of Judah wholly maltreated the prophets of the Lord, heathen kings would respect them, and favor them. 

Hosea, as I was saying, prophesied concerning this also. Now I will read a few verses in Hosea, that you may see what he says on this. Look at the ninth chapter first, just a word or two:- 

They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt. 

Ephraim was one of the ten tribes; but the name is used here for the whole of them. The ten tribes went to Assyria; they were carried captive by the Assyrians. Yet when they were carried captive by the Assyrians, what does the Lord mean when he says they shall return to Egypt?-Egypt signifies the farthest possible apostasy from God. The darkness that is altogether Egyptian darkness, is where men rule in the place of God, and the whole rule-the government, the men, and all-is set against God, and against his people, as it was against Israel when they were in the land of Egypt just before the plagues fell upon Egypt, and Israel was delivered. And when the Lord here says that Ephraim should go to Egypt, although Assyria-the government of Assyria-was to carry them captive, it shows that they were determined to go into absolute apostasy, and therefore they could not, simply because they would not, dwell "in the Lord's land." 

You remember that we read what the Lord said to Abram: "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, into the land that I will show thee." Then that land is the Lord's land. And when he speaks by Hosea that Israel shall not dwell in the Lord's land, it does not refer to that little spot of land around Samaria; but refers to the land that was shown to Abraham and to which God had called his people when he brought them up out of Egypt. They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; then follows Egypt, absolute apostasy. You will see that further, as I shall read. 

They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord. What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord? For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles. 

Tenth chapter:- 

Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images. For now they shall say, We have no king. 

At this time they had no king. He had been murdered, and there was an interregnum. Another king had not yet come in his place. But mark what he says, "For now they shall say, We have no king." The Lord said to them, when they chose that king against his protest, that they were rejecting him. "Nay; but we will have a king." Did they have a king?-Yes; and the time came when they were compelled to say, "We have no king." But what did the Lord say just at this time? 

For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us? They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. 

In the thirteenth chapter you have what the Lord says. Ninth verse:- 

O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. I will be thy king. 

But they would not have it so. So you see all the way through, the Lord wanted to be alone their king; wanted them to find him their king, and not to have any other. Then as he says in the next verse, "I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath." So I read the whole of that verse:- 

I will be thine king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? 

He points them right back to the time when they said, Give us a king to reign over us. He says now, I protested that time that you should not have him, and told you this evil would come; now you confess, yourselves, that you have no king, but you have destroyed yourselves. I will be your king; let me be your king.

Now look at the eleventh chapter, first verse:- 

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.  Why does he speak that here in the last days of Israel, a thousand years after he had brought him out of Egypt? What is it for? 

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return. And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels. And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the Most High, none at all would exalt him. 

The Lord is mourning over Israel now, just when he is on the brink of ruin. He is making the last call: the last prophecy comes now; and with this, and at this very time, Hezekiah is reigning in Judah. When he came to the throne he set about to reform the kingdom, and to recover it from the apostasy of Ahaz. When he had cleansed the temple, and put everything in order, they had a two weeks' Passover. But before that Passover, Hezekiah sent messengers throughout the whole of the ten tribes, what remained of them, to call them up to the Passover at Jerusalem, to worship the Lord God of Hosts; but the record is, they scoffed at the messengers, and they laughed them to scorn; yet "a multitude" out of Issachar, and Zebulun, and Naphtali, and the different parts of the provinces came up to Jerusalem, and kept the Passover, and joined themselves to the Lord. And when these people went up to Jerusalem and took their places among the people in Judah, in that very season the Assyrian king came up and took possession of the whole land of the ten tribes. And thus those who obeyed that call by Hezekiah to go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, were saved from the captivity to Assyria. 

Now, just before Hezekiah makes his plea, Hosea is writing this, and the Lord is mourning over what the people are determined to do. See what he says:-  I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms. 

The Lord was so anxious to have them go in the right way, that he took them by the arms, and led them along; but they drew back the arm, they would not be led even that way. But yet he cannot give them up. See:- 

How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city. 

Thus he holds himself back from the judgments that must fall upon them. Because he is God, he will not let it fall yet; even when it must fall. But still they rebelled; still they went on in their own way. And the result is recorded in 2 Kings 17:5-8:- 

Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria and placed them in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 

Then it follows them down to the thirteenth verse:- 

Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them. 

Thus the ten tribes were lost. Hosea, when he prophesied of these, said, "Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints." Judah could stand yet awhile. Hezekiah was king; Manasseh followed Hezekiah, and he plunged the kingdom into apostasy again; his son followed his steps; Josiah followed him, and reformed the kingdom once more; and when Josiah was killed, then the kingdom went straight to ruin. There was no one after Josiah that feared the Lord. Even in Hezekiah's day, they were constantly calling for Egypt, and holding onto Egypt, trying to get Egypt to save them, trying to get help from Egypt, when the difficulties that had been brought upon them were all because of their unbelief and departure from the Lord. 

Now look at the latter days of Judah. Ahaz sent to Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, and asked him to come up and save him out of the hand of the king of Damascus and the king of Samaria. Tiglath-Pileser did so; he took possession of Damascus, thus relieving Ahaz. Ahaz paid him tribute, and went up to Damascus to meet him, and to pay him obeisance as a subject. While there he found an idolatrous altar, had one made like it, and set it up at the door of the temple of the Lord. Thus he led the nation into apostasy, as the others in Israel. 

In Judah Hezekiah succeeded Ahaz. When Hezekiah became king, he wanted to be delivered from the Assyrian rule and tribute. There was a party in Judah that were with Hezekiah, determined to be delivered from Assyria. This party supposed that the only way to do this was to get the help of Egypt. Isaiah was prophesying then, and he told them to depend upon the Lord for deliverance from both Egypt and Assyria. He told them that it was because of their sinning against the Lord, that they were oppressed. He told them that their attempt to get help from Egypt would not avail; because their trying to get help from Egypt, would bring them more oppression, because Egypt would only oppress them instead of helping them; that Egypt could not deliver. 

Now look at the eighth chapter of Isaiah. What passage of Scripture is it that is used so much by us in the book of Isaiah, about the coming of the Lord, and the waiting for the coming of the Lord? Where do we find it? Do you remember that the eighth chapter of Isaiah is the one that speaks about those who seek unto familiar spirits, that peep and mutter,-referring to Spiritualism? There is where it says, "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him." Then is that an advent chapter?-Yes. Is that a chapter that reaches to the coming of the Lord?-Yes. 

Now see what is in that chapter. See what is in the beginning of this chapter, beginning with the fifth verse. 

The Lord spake also unto me again, saying, Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloh that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son [this was Assyria and Damascus]; now, therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. 

That was literally true concerning them. The king of Assyria came up and flooded the whole land. But why is that written in a connection and in a place where the coming of the Lord is looked for, and concerning a people who are to look for the coming of the Lord?

That is written in that place, and brought down to us, to show to all the people now in our day, that difficulties and hardships and perplexities are going to come upon all the land and upon all the nations, that will overflow and pass over and reach even to the neck and fill the breadth of the land, and that the people will not know how to escape it.

That is why this passage is brought down to us who are looking for the Lord. Let us read on and see. 

Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. 

Are there such times as that now, just now, just when the coming of the Lord is looked for? Are they associating themselves because fear and perplexity is upon them? because troubles are coming upon the land? Do we see anything of that kind anywhere? Have any of you seen it?-O yes, you have! Has anybody but Seventh-day Adventists seen it?-Indeed, if there could be any difference, nearly everybody sees it more plainly than the Adventists. But it is seen; that is plain enough. And they are associating themselves together, binding themselves in companies and bundles, and girding themselves. What are they girding themselves for? What is going to come?-They are going to be broken in pieces. Then what are they girding themselves for?-To be broken in pieces. Yet they do not think so; but that they are girding themselves against the evils that are coming. And the attempts they make to deliver themselves from the evils, only deepen the thing, and bring them that much nearer to destruction, and to the breaking in pieces.

Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion. 

It is clear that that reaches to the coming of the Lord. It is an exhortation to the people who are to meet the Lord. But why does it bring in the troubles in the time when Assyria was oppressing Judah? Because that simply shows most plainly what kind of troubles would be upon all the land and trouble all the people in the time of the coming of the Lord. And the attempts that Judah made to escape those evils and to deliver themselves from them, are exactly such attempts as will be made by made by those who profess to be the people of God, to deliver themselves from the evils that are coming. 

God is calling all the time: Put no dependence upon Assyria; put no dependence upon Egypt; but put your dependence upon the Lord alone.

Turn your back against Assyria: that is right. But do not go to Egypt to escape Assyria. Seek the Lord. Go not to Egypt; go to the Lord. And when you find the Lord with all your heart, you will be delivered from all this trouble and oppression from Assyria. Just a few words upon that. The thirtieth chapter of Isaiah tells us the secret of that. 

Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin: that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. Verses 1-3.

His ambassador came down there to make their overtures to Egypt. And when Judah sent ambassadors to Egypt, Egypt was ashamed of the ambassadors. 

For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. The burden of the beasts of the South: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. Verses 4-7. 

Now that you may see that this is not foreign, I turn here and read from a testimony, dated July 5, 1896, as follows:- 

The warnings given in the word of God to the children of Israel were meant, not merely for them, but for all who should live upon the earth.

 He says to them, "Woe to the rebellious children, . . . that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin: that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt."

 If the Lord reproved his people anciently because they neglected to seek counsel of him when in difficulty, will he not be displeased to-day if his people, instead of depending on the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness to enlighten their way, turn from him in their test and trial, for aid, to human beings who are as erring and inefficient as themselves?

Where is our strength? Is it in men who are as helpless and dependent as ourselves; who need guidance from God even as we do? Christ says, "Without me ye can do nothing;" and he has provided the Holy Spirit as a present help in every time of need.

 

But you know that in the perplexities of last year, that were hoped to be settled by the political campaign, even Seventh-day Adventists were so carried away from their allegiance to God that they would take part in the campaign in trying to manipulate the affairs of politics and to control the elections and trying to shape up things. What for?-O to help the land out of the difficulties that they were so sure were coming upon the land. Of course, difficulties are coming upon the land. But will Seventh-day Adventists form themselves into companies for any such work as that? Let them be delivered from Assyria; let them be delivered both from Assyria and Egypt unto God. This is the only salvation. This is the only deliverance, whether then, now, or evermore. 

God First!

Continued

March 7, 1897

The Apostasy of Israel. - No. 5.

(Sunday Evening, March 7, 1897.)

Now the Lord says of us that has delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. The kingdom of God is established again among his people, and "the kingdom of God is within you," and it is among you by being within each one and all. Now then, the kingdom of God is a perfect kingdom, because the king is a perfect king, because the law of that kingdom is a perfect law. Then is a perfect king, and a perfect law, and a perfect kingdom, sufficient for you? Is it? Is that enough for a man?-O yes, assuredly! Ought it to be enough for a man? 

And if all that is not enough for a man, is the trouble with the kingdom, or with the man?-

You know that the trouble can be only with the man. But suppose the man professes to be a Christian. Is the trouble still with the man, or with the kingdom? 

(Voices) With the man. 

Suppose he professes to be a Seventh-day Adventist, and the kingdom of God is not sufficient for him; suppose you get a crowd of them together, and the kingdom of God is not sufficient for them, but they must have a kingdom of their own, another kingdom; they must set up a government, must tax themselves, choose off rulers from among themselves to govern themselves; are they God's children? Is God's perfect kingdom enough for them? Do they belong to the government of God? Is God's government enough for them? Is the kingdom of God in them? Is it? How can it be, when the perfect kingdom, and the perfect king, and the perfect law, is not enough for them? 

You see, then, that separation of church and state, even among Seventh-day Adventists, begins in the heart; and it must begin there with every man, everywhere, or there can be no separation of church and state where he is. If no man in the fourth century, in the Roman Empire, had had a union of church and state in his own heart, there would not have been a papacy formed in the fourth century. If he had had only the church, the church alone, in his heart, and none of the state, none of principles of the state, only the church,-God, his kingdom, his law, his righteousness, he alone ruling there,-could there ever have been a papacy? 

(Voices) No. 

Then what is the thing that is essential always to avoid?-Any union of church and state in the heart. What, then, is the only sure safeguard against a papacy? It is to love God with all the heart, and all the soul, and all the mind, and all the strength. It is to "get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house." It is to turn your back upon Egypt. It is to "dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations."

 

I read now from "Empires of the Bible," page 152 and onward, some quotations that I inserted there from "Patriarchs and Prophets," with scriptures, upon this very connection. First I read some of my own words; but I will tell you when I read the words of "Patriarchs and Prophets:"- 

"Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." The Lord never intended that his people should be formed into a kingdom, or state, or government, like the people of this world. They were not to be like the nations around them. They were to be separated unto God "from all the people that were upon the face of the earth." "The people shall not be reckoned among the nations."

Now if I reckon myself as belonging to the state of Germany, then am I reckoning myself among the nations? If I reckon myself as belonging to the government of England, a part of it, a loyal and patriotic citizen, who would fight for the flag, am I reckoning myself among the nations? And if I fight for that flag, my flag, my British flag, and my Seventh-day Adventist brother over here belongs to the United States, and is loyal and patriotic, and the two nations get into war, and he must repel invasions, and there is a conflict, then I am on one side, and my brother is on the other, and brother is fighting against brother. Has God ordained that?-You know that he has not. Then did he ever mean anything when he said that the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations? 

I read on a little of my own writing in "Empires of the Bible:"- 

Their government was to be a theocracy pure and simple-God their only King, their only Ruler, their only Lawgiver. It was, indeed, a church organization, beginning with the organization of "the church in the wilderness;" and was to be separated from every idea of a state. The system formed in the wilderness through Moses, and continued in Cainaan through Joshua, was intended to be perpetual. 

Now I read from "Patriarchs and Prophets:"- 

The government of Israel was administered in the name and by the authority of Jehovah. The work of Moses, of the seventy elders, of the rulers and judges, was simply to enforce the laws that God had given. They had no authority to legislate for the nation. 

Who had no authority to legislate for the nation? 

(Voices) The church. 

How many composed the church? Did that take in one, or two, or ten, or twelve, or any fifty?-Yes. Then did they, or any of them, have any authority to legislate for the rest, or even for themselves?-They did not. 

Hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add aught unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it. 

Quoting again now from "Patriarchs and Prophets:"- 

This was, and continued to be, the condition of Israel's existence as a nation. 

Then when Israel departed from that, and took the step to-The loss of existence. Do not forget that. 

Now another paragraph which I have written, and which I want to repeat now:- 

The principles of the government of Israel were solely those of a pure theocracy. In any government it is only loyalty to the principles of the government on the part of the citizens, that can make it a success. 

That is universally held to be so. What government are we considering here? The government of God. Of what government were they citizens?-The government of God. Then loyalty to the principles of that government was the only thing that could make that government and that rulership a success, even with God. 

It was only by the constantly abiding presence of God with Israel, that the government there established could possibly be a success. Loyalty to the principles of that government, therefore, on the part of the people demanded that each one of the people should constantly court the abiding presence of God with himself, as the sole King, Ruler, and Lawgiver, in all the conduct of his daily life. But "without faith it is impossible to please Him." It is "by faith" that God dwells in the heart and rules in the life. Therefore the fundamental principle, indeed the very existence, of the government of Israel, lay in a living, abiding faith on the part of the people of Israel. 

Continued…

Choosing God's Law

March 7, 1897

The Apostasy of Israel. - No. 5.

(Sunday Evening, March 7, 1897.)

IN the lesson the other evening I stated that I had never seen until lately a copy of the ten commandments published by Seventh-day Adventists, outside of the Bible, that was as God spoke them. I am glad that the time has come when Seventh-day Adventists can have a copy of God's law as God gave it. I am glad that Brother Howe has gotten out copies of the law of God, as God gave it. And now let us not leave ourselves open any longer to the same charge as others, of leaving out part of the law of God, when we go before the people. 

You can see plainly enough that the man who first gave out that copy of the law of God that nearly everybody else uses, was an Egyptian. It says, "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." But he said to himself, That does not apply to me, nor to anybody living nowadays; for we have never been brought out of Egypt. That was only for the Jews. He therefore left it out and printed the rest of the law, and thus presented to the world a mutilated copy of the law which the Lord himself gave. He thus caused it to appear that the only document that the Lord ever spoke from heaven began without telling who was the author of it, without even introducing him, but began just in a blunt, indefinite way "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." The question might well at once arise, Who in the world are you? Who is it that is talking? Well, when the law is taken as it was given, God tells who it is that is talking. "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." That is who it is that is talking; you shall have no other gods before me, "who am able to redeem from the bondage of Egypt."

Another thought just here is important: When the law is printed without the introduction that the Lord himself spoke, as it usually is on charts and cards, it is found necessary to place at the head of it the words, "The Law of God." This shows that men realize the necessity that there shall be some sort of certificate as to whose law it is, and who it is that speaks these commandments. And, seeing this necessity, men put at the head of the law of God their certificate that it is the law of God. 

But if they would only print the law as the Lord gave it, they would have the Lord's own certificate that it is the law of God, and that it is he himself who speaks these commandments. He says: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me," etc. And when men can have the Lord's own certificate that it is his law, surely there will be no need of any man's certificate that it is the law of God. 

And is not the Lord's certificate this is his law, better than the certificate of any man or of all men together? And when men leave out the Lord's own certificate that this is his law, and put their own certificate there, could there be any clearer case of men putting themselves in the place of God? O, let us put away this highhanded, bungling work; and let us take the holy law as its holy Author spoke it and wrote it! "I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Amen. Let it be so. 

Having there all that the Lord spoke, the law of God then presents to the world both the Redeemer and the Creator. It then tells all men that he who is the Author of that law, that he who calls man to its observance, is both Redeemer and Creator. This is shown by the law itself. And when they leave out the part that reveals the Redeemer, it is no wonder that they are willing and ready to leave out the part that reveals the Creator of man. Satan always wanted to get rid of the law, and to hide from men its importance. He started with having the Redeemer left out of it; and now he ends with having the Creator left out of it. But the Lord wants us to know that it is he who delivered us from Egypt, so we shall be able to see both the Redeemer and the Creator in the law which he gave for man. 

Another thing. When you and I can see, and do see, that Israel, when they went into the land, did not go at all into the land that the Lord intended for them, but missed it altogether, we can see how it was a disappointment to Moses not to go there. Now when it appears, as it does to some people, that Israel went into the land the Lord had prepared for them, and that that was exactly where the Lord wanted to take them, and then see that Moses died and went to heaven, they say that Moses had the best of the bargain after all; and that it was not so much of a disappointment to take him out of the land and take him to heaven. 

But when we understand that the Lord wanted to take him into his holy habitation, into the place he had made for himself to dwell in, into the sanctuary that his hands had established; then we can see how it was a disappointment even for Moses to die and go to heaven without entering into that land. When he could see that it was his sin that had something to do with keeping them out of the blessed land of promise; when he could see that Israel had missed what the Lord had for them; when he saw the glorious land, as he did from the top of Nebo, and was obliged to contemplate the long ages of wandering, of apostasy, and of trouble, through which the cause and people of God were to pass, and know that he had even a little to do with causing that long course of wandering; it is easy enough to see what a grievous disappointment it was to him not to enter that land without dying at all-even though he was taken to heaven from the grave. 

One other text, if any one were needed to settle the fact that Israel did not get out of Egypt as long as they were in the wilderness, is found in the book of Joshua. You remember the passage,-after they had crossed Jordan, then they were circumcised,-it is written, "This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you." Those people, you see, who left Egypt, never got out of Egypt till they had crossed Jordan; for not until then was the reproach of Egypt taken away. Then they were all converted men. That whole nation crossed Jordan by faith. It was a nation that believed God, and there was not a dissenting voice nor a doubting thought,-then they were out of Egypt. Thus you see that it is perfectly evident that spiritual Egypt is the literal Egypt of the Bible.

Now we turn to the text for to-night. This is Num. 23: 9. I begin to read with the seventh verse. It is Balaam as he is prophesying for Balak, king of Moab. 

And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the Lord hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: LO, THE PEOPLE SHALL DWELL ALONE, AND SHALL NOT BE RECKONED AMONG THE NATIONS. 

This text is spoken to us here to-night. This is present truth. This was God's expressed will concerning his people when they were on the border of the land to which he wanted to take them when he had called them out of the land of Egypt. They had wandered in the wilderness forty years, and now had come to the border of the land. And this is his will concerning them, that they should dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations. 

The fundamental reason for that, or one of the reasons, we would better say, you will get hold of by turning to the seventh chapter of Acts. Stephen was speaking that day, and told that the Lord brought the people out of Egypt, out of the land of bondage with wonders and signs, and in the thirty-seventh and thirty eighth verses you have these words; in the thirty-eighth verse is the particular passage:-

This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness. 

Then what was Israel in the wilderness?-The church. What was it to be when they had crossed the river and had entered the land?-The church. What was that saying but that there should be a separation between church and state?-just as, when he brought Abraham out of that country, the Lord taught the world separation between church and state, and just as he showed by Abraham that separation of church and state must begin in the heart of the individual. 

If I am not separated in my heart from the state, there will be a union of church and state wherever I am. And so, even though I do not hold office in the state, or run for office there, I will be a politician in the church; and I will run for office there, and wire-pull there. So that if a man is not in heart separated from the state, and yet belongs to the church, he would better take part in the politics of the world and be a politician there, than to run his politics into the church. 

So when the Lord called Abraham, he said, first of all, "Get thee out of thy country." And now that Abraham has increased and become the church, and that church is about to enter the special service of the Lord before the nations, he declares that that church should not be reckoned among the nations; they should dwell alone. You can see how the Lord wanted the people to hold to that, because he knew what the nations were; and he knew how the nations had reached that condition. He wanted his church to dwell alone, to have no ruler but himself, no law but his law, no legislation of any kind but the Lord's word, no government but the Lord's. 

God intended, when he brought them into the land, to be the head of the church. Jesus Christ was the head of the church, of course, just as really as he is now. You know from the lessons we have studied, how the people got into kingship, monarchy, and so on; it was by departing from him, by failing to recognize God as their only Ruler, his law as the only law. They became idolators, and so lost the government of God over themselves, and the power of his law upon them; and having separated from God, there had to be a government among them to satisfy the ambition of those who wanted to rule their fellows, and to protect them from themselves in their savagery, because of having departed from God. 

But the Lord separated Israel from all people and governments, unto himself. The Lord started Israel now just where he started Abraham, to be separated from the kings and rulers all around them, from all sorts of earthly government round about them. He wanted his people to dwell alone, and not to be such as could be reckoned among any of the nations, so that when the nations looked on them, they should see that Israel could not be reckoned as of their kind. 

He wanted Israel to stand before the world so distinctly-and this would make them distinct from all other nations-that all the nations looking upon them would say, That is singular; that is not the kind of government ours is. They have no king; each one just seems to get along without any ruler. And they would begin to inquire into that; they would say, What is the cause of this? How is it you get along without all this paraphernalia of a king, and armies, and taxes, and all these things that we have to endure? The answer would be, Why, God is our king. And it doesn't take nearly such an expense to run his government as it does yours; for we don't have any such troubles as you have. Yes; we have no taxes, and he is so good that we love to give to him everything we have, to support and spread abroad the blessings of his government.

 

And when his people should tell the heathen that, the heathen would say, Surely this nation is a wise and understanding people; and what nation on the earth is so great, that hath judgments so wise, so good, as all this law? And what nation has God so nigh unto them as the Lord thy God is, in all things that we call upon him for? That is what the Lord intended. And he said, Israel "shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." He intended to teach all the world a separation of church and state, not only in the church, but among the nations, as respects the states, and also as respects the church itself. 

Just look here at the scripture, and you will see that. Deuteronomy 4. A few verses tell the whole that I have sketched. Beginning with the first verse, reading to the eighth:- 

Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor: for all the men that followed Baal-peor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day. Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations; which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

 

Then was there any place for the making of any kind of law or legislation among Israel?-"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it." They were to do just that. Their laws were all made for them. Their legislation was all completed, and was perfect; and as long as they had that, they needed no other, and just as soon as it came about that they needed another, that was evidence itself that they had forsaken God. 

So long as they needed any kind of legislation, of themselves, among themselves, that was evidence that they had forsaken God, that his law was not enough for them any more, and that his government was not sufficient for them any more. That is precisely the way it is with all the rest of the heathen. That is the way with all the nations. That is how they became heathen. And you know that Israel went over that very same course. They forgot God and went into idolatry, and then said, We must have a king, so that we may be like all the nations. But do not forget that they had to reject God before they could have a king; and in rejecting God, that they might be like the nations, like the heathen, that is what the literal thought is,-in rejecting God that they might be like the nations, they became like the nations that rejected God. You know this by all the following history. 

It is perfectly plain, therefore, that it is not God's will, it is not for the interests of his people, that they shall be like the nations. It is not the will of God, it is not for the good of the people, that they shall have any kind of government like the nations that are around about them. You know these did not arise from following God, but they arose from apostasy. From all this, it is perfectly plain that God did not intend that his people should set up a government of themselves among themselves. 

The Lord did not intend that they should set up a government like the nations around them. When he says, "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it," you can see that he thus shut them off from any law-making of any kind, from any shadow of legislation of any sort, and thus prohibited them from ever setting up any form of government among themselves. 

And from this it is perfectly clear that when they found the need of any sort of government among themselves, in which they must have laws and rulers other than God, that of itself was proof positive that they had forgotten God; that they had gone away from him; that his government was not enough; that his power was not upon them to hold them, and so they must make and establish some form of government of their own, to protect themselves from themselves. 

Thus you see that it was not according to the Lord's will that his people, dwelling alone, should have a government of their own among themselves. It was not his will that they should dwell among the nations, and have a government like the nations; because when they should undertake to make a government of their own to govern themselves among themselves, that would be just like the governments of the nations, because they were all human, and humanity is all alike. So when Israel did undertake to set up a government to govern themselves, it was like these around them, and it could not be anything else. It was heathenish. And it always will be heathenish wherever it is attempted. 

"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." God intends that his commandments, his law, his government, shall be enough for his people. And it is enough for his people. That is settled. It always will be enough for his people. But it is not enough for those who do not have it; it is not enough for those who separate from God and from his law and government. His government is not enough for them, then, because they do not have it; and then if they make one of their own, it is just like that of the heathen. 

Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor: for all the men that followed Baal-peor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day. Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations. 

"This is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations." Not simply in my sight; but do this, and all the nations, the heathen, will say you are wise. The nations, the heathen, will say you have good sense. 

Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb. 

Do not forget what you have seen and heard, but especially do not forget what you heard when you stood before Horeb that day. What did they hear?-O, the law of God; the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus they heard that day; a voice from heaven proclaimed redemption and creation, that men should sin not. But Israel forgot God, and became idolatrous, and said, Make us a king; make us a king, like all the nations. But of that time, while they were undefiled, the Lord said afterward (Ps. 81: 13-16):- 

Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured forever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.