Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White
| How Long Will You Refuse to Keep My Commandments |
|
Today's Text:
And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. Exodus 16:5
|
The Message:
The Lord suffered His people Israel to go into bondage in Egypt because they did not walk in His ways but dishonored Him by their continual transgressions. Here, subjected to oppression and hard servitude, they could not keep God's Sabbath, and by their long mingling with a nation of idolaters their faith became confused and corrupted. Association with the ungodly and unbelieving will have the same influence upon those who believe the present truth unless they keep the Lord ever before them so that His Spirit shall be their shield.... Pharaoh saw the mighty working of the Spirit of God; he saw the miracles the Lord performed by His servant; but he refused obedience to God's command. The rebellious king had proudly inquired, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." And as the judgments of God fell more and more heavily upon him, he persisted in stubborn resistance. By rejecting light from heaven, he became hard and unimpressible.... Those who exalt their own ideas above the plainly specified will of God are saying, as did Pharaoh, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" Every rejection of light hardens the heart and darkens the understanding; and thus people find it more and more difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, and they become bolder in resisting the will of God. The Lord brought Israel from Egypt, that they might keep His Sabbath, and He gave them special directions how to keep it. The instructions given to Moses were recorded for the benefit of all who should live upon the earth to the close of time. God has spoken; let us listen to His words and obey them. When the manna was given, the people were tested upon God's law. Then said the Lord to the children of Israel through Moses, "I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no."... Notwithstanding this special direction of God, some did go out to gather manna on the seventh day, but they found none; and the Lord said unto Moses, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?" That there might be no mistake in the matter, the Father and the Son descended upon Mount Sinai, and there the precepts of His law were spoken in awful grandeur in the hearing of all Israel.-Manuscript 3, 1885. |
|
Commentary:
My friend, I don't believe that anyone in the church today would consider that they are as stubborn and stiff-necked as the Jews that God lead out of the land of bondage. Neither would any of us believe that we would openly break any of the commandments of God, but with that said many of us by our close association with the world have found it increasingly hard to be true to God and remain friends with the world.
The more that we partake of the spirit of the world the harder it is for us to discern what is right. The things that we once saw as sinful no longer seem to be as sinful as they once did. Familiarity with sin tends to lead us close and closer to sin until we no longer see them as sinful.
The light that God showed Pharaoh should have humbled him to let the children of Israel go, but because he persistently refused to accept the light that was given him, his heart was hardened and the light was turned to darkness. God has given us great light in these last days and the one truth that many are having a hard time to accept is the truth about who God is. He reveals to us that He is the One true God and that He has sent His Son (John 17:3) that we may know who He is. The doctrine of the trinity has confused the mind and caused many to reject a plain teaching of the Bible and have taken the One true God and made Him into a triune god made up of three gods, and declare that they are one in spirit and in purpose and thus are the one god. But this is not so.
The Jews in the time of Christ had their minds clouded with false teachings surrounding the first coming of the Son of God, and applied the characteristics of the second coming to the first. Their false understanding of the first coming lead them to reject the prophecies that foretold in the Scriptures and to crucify the Son of God. In the same way that the Jews rejected the light that God had given in His Son, so too have we rejected the light that God has given us in regards to who He really is.
As the false teachings of the church darkened the minds of the people in the time of Christ, so too has the false teaching of the trinity darkened the minds of the people of God today. Light is being revealed on this subject and there are numerous texts in the Word of God that reveal that Jesus is truly the Son of God, that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and that the Father is the One true God. Yet the people of God resist this very plain teaching.
My friend, do not be like the Jews of old and resist the light that God is giving to you. Study the Word of God and prayerfully ask Him to open your mind to the truth. "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15).
God bless,
|
|
Video of the Week
|
Comments
Post a Comment