Table of Contents
|
|
Chapter 24
"Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge"
GOD'S favor toward Israel had always been conditional on their obedience. At the foot of
Sinai they had entered into covenant relationship with Him as His "peculiar treasure.
. . above all people." Solemnly they had promised to follow in the path of obedience.
"All that the Lord hath spoken we will do," they had said. Exodus 19:5, 8. And
when, a few days afterward, God's law was spoken from Sinai, and additional instruction in
the form of statutes and judgments was communicated through Moses, the Israelites with one
voice had again promised, "All the words which the Lord hath said will we do."
At the ratification of the covenant, the people had once more united in declaring,
"All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient," Exodus 24:3, 7. God
had chosen Israel as His people, and they had chosen Him as their King.
Near the close of the wilderness wandering the conditions of the covenant had been
repeated. At Baalpeor, on the
very borders of the Promised Land, where many fell a prey to subtle temptation, those who
remained faithful renewed their vows of allegiance. Through Moses they were warned against
the temptations that would assail them in the future; and they were earnestly exhorted to
remain separate from the surrounding nations and to worship God alone.
"Now therefore hearken," Moses had instructed 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. . . . 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." Deuteronomy 4:1-6.
The Israelites had been specially charged not to lose sight of the commandments of God, in
obedience to which they would find strength and blessing. "Take heed to thyself, and
keep thy soul diligently," had been the word of the Lord to them through Moses,
"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."
Verse 9. The awe-inspiring scenes connected with the giving of the law at Sinai were never
to be forgotten. Plain and decided were the warnings that had been given Israel against
the idolatrous customs
prevailing among the neighboring nations. "Take ye . . . good heed unto
yourselves," was the counsel given; "lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a
graven image, the similitude of any figure," "and lest thou lift up thine eyes
unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host
of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God
hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven." "Take heed unto
yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and
make you a graven image, or the likeness of anything, which the Lord thy God hath
forbidden thee." Verses 15, 16, 19, 23.
Moses traced the evils that would result from a departure from the statutes of Jehovah.
Calling heaven and earth to witness, he declared that if, after having dwelt long in the
Land of Promise, the people should introduce corrupt forms of worship and bow down to
graven images and should refuse to return to the worship of the true God, the anger of the
Lord would be aroused, and they would be carried away captive and scattered among the
heathen. "Ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan
to possess it," he warned them; "ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but
shall utterly be destroyed. And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall
be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you. And there ye
shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear,
nor eat, nor smell." Verses 26-28.
This prophecy, fulfilled in part in the time of the judges, met a more complete and
literal fulfillment in the captivity of Israel in Assyria and of Judah in Babylon.
The apostasy of Israel had developed gradually. From generation to generation, Satan had
made repeated attempts to cause the chosen nation to forget "the commandments, the
statutes, and the judgments" that they had promised to keep forever. Deuteronomy 6:1.
He knew that if he could only lead Israel to forget God, and to "walk after other
gods, and serve them, and worship them," they would "surely perish."
Deuteronomy 8:19.
The enemy of God's church upon the earth had not, however, taken fully into account the
compassionate nature of Him who "will by no means clear the guilty," yet whose
glory it is to be "merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin." Exodus 34:6, 7. Despite the efforts of Satan to thwart God's purpose for
Israel, nevertheless even in some of the darkest hours of their history, when it seemed as
if the forces of evil were about to gain the victory, the Lord graciously revealed
Himself. He spread before Israel the things that were for the welfare of the nation.
"I have written to him the great things of My law," He declared through Hosea,
"but they were counted as a strange thing." "I taught Ephraim also to go,
taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them." Hosea 8:12; 11:3.
Tenderly had the Lord dealt with them, instructing them by His prophets line upon line,
precept upon precept.
Had Israel heeded the messages of the prophets, they would have been spared the
humiliation that followed. It was because they had persisted in turning aside from His law
that God was compelled to let them go into captivity. "My people are destroyed for
lack of knowledge," was His message to them through Hosea. "Because thou hast
rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee: . . . seeing thou hast forgotten the law of
thy God." Hosea 4:6.
In every age, transgression of God's law has been followed by the same result. In the days
of Noah, when every principle of rightdoing was violated, and iniquity became so deep and
widespread that God could no longer bear with it, the decree went forth, "I will
destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth." Genesis 6:7. In
Abraham's day the people of Sodom openly defied God and His law; and there followed the
same wickedness, the same corruption, the same unbridled indulgence, that had marked the
antediluvian world. The inhabitants of Sodom passed the limits of divine forbearance, and
there was kindled against them the fire of God's vengeance.
The time preceding the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel was one of similar
disobedience and of similar wickedness. God's law was counted as a thing of nought, and
this opened the floodgates of iniquity upon Israel. "The Lord hath a controversy with
the inhabitants of the land," Hosea declared, "because there is no truth, nor
mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and
stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood." Hosea
4:1, 2.
The prophecies of judgment delivered by Amos and Hosea were accompanied by predictions of
future glory. To the ten tribes, long rebellious and impenitent, was given no promise of
complete restoration to their former power in Palestine. Until the end of time, they were
to be "wanderers among the nations." But through Hosea was given a prophecy that
set before them the privilege of having a part in the final restoration that is to be made
to the people of God at the close of earth's history, when Christ shall appear as King of
kings and Lord of lords. "Many days," the prophet declared, the ten tribes were
to abide "without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without
an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim." "Afterward," the
prophet continued, "shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God,
and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days."
Hosea 3:4, 5.
In symbolic language Hosea set before the ten tribes God's plan of restoring to every
penitent soul who would unite with His church on earth, the blessings granted Israel in
the days of their loyalty to Him in the Promised Land. Referring to Israel as one to whom
He longed to show mercy, the Lord declared, "I will allure her, and bring her into
the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from
thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the
days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And it
shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call Me Ishi ["My
husband," margin]; and shalt call Me no more Baali ["My lord," margin]. For
I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be
remembered by their name." Hosea 2:14-17.
In the last days of this earth's history, God's covenant with His commandment-keeping
people is to be renewed. "In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts
of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground:
and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them
to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto
Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even
betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord.
"And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the
heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine,
and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto Me in the earth; and I
will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were
not My people, Thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art my God." Verses
18-23.
"In that day" "the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house
of Jacob, . . . shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth." Isaiah
10:20. From "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" there will be
some who will gladly respond to the message, "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for
the hour of His judgment
is come." They will turn from every idol that binds them to earth, and will
"worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of
waters." They will free themselves from every entanglement and will stand before the
world as monuments of God's mercy. Obedient to the divine requirements, they will be
recognized by angels and by men as those that have kept "the commandments of God, and
the faith of Jesus." Revelation 14:6, 7, 12.
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine,
and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of My people of Israel,
and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards,
and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I
will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land
which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." Amos 9:13-15. 301
Previous Chapter l Table
Contents l Next Chapter
|
|
