Our journey is likened to the journey of the Israelites to the promised land. Yet we are also comparable to Israel’s experience of backsliding and revival in the Judges and Kings. By only general impression, I believed we lived in the figurative time of Isaiah, for many of his sermons and admonitions fit our then current state of affairs.
In 2018, events led me to a deep study of women’s ordination, seeking God, and finding a deeper understanding of Christ as He guided my study and brought me into contact with people who pointed me to Scriptures that gave a more complete understanding. When that study tapered off, it was like I had been looking at a ball of dirt with a few tips of iron barely poking through the surface, but as the debris of error, false interpretation, and confusion were swept away, a clearer picture of Christ was revealed, and I knew this beautiful picture of Him was truth.
I’ve longed for another study like that, to clear more of the debris that obscures my Savior, to see Him more perfectly. About two weeks ago, I asked Him to lead me to something more than surface reading, but I had no idea where to start. He stopped my surface reading march through Scripture in the book of Jeremiah, and though the study is hardly complete, already I am compelled to sound the alarm.
Discussions can get heated on Fulcrum7, to the point where I begin to avoid the comments section. The discussion in question, I took certain parties before the Lord in prayer, that they might be led to repent. When I finished praying, I opened my Bible to Jeremiah 7, and hit a figurative brick wall at verse 16. “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.”
I looked into the context trying to find why God would tell Jeremiah not to pray for His people, and found this:
“Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Ba’al, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?” (Jeremiah 7:8-10).
I wept, and I understood Jeremiah’s weeping as well.
Two Sabbaths following the speaker preached from Jeremiah as present truth for our church today. Following the service, my daughter, who studies independently and deeply even at her young age, told the speaker in my presence, “Jeremiah got my attention in chapter 12, when he said, ‘Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart” (vs 10,11).
The Old Paths
We were the people of the book. Our Bibles were everything to us, and we “Stud[ied] to shew [ourselves] approved unto God, a workm[e]n that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, edited only to make it plural past tense). Through our study, guided by the Holy Spirit, beautiful gems of truth were revealed, and we gladly showed them to others. New things were revealed. We mapped out the plan of salvation within the Sanctuary. We discovered the Sabbath. We learned better how to take care of the temple of God, the importance of the law, of Christ’s love for us, and His perfect robe of righteousness. We learned of overcoming and were given a peculiar message to share.
The world was unkind to us, but we were unkinder to ourselves. In the world we struggled to find work, some were thrown in jail. A few lost their lives. We were labeled a cult, lumped in with all sorts of extremists, and some of us became extremists. Like Israel of old we had fits and starts, sometimes jumping with joy at the message, and then backsliding and grumbling, other times rejecting the message and running the messengers out of the church or exiling them. In 1915 God’s messenger died, and quickly, strange doctrine began to creep in. To become acceptable to the world, we downplayed our uniqueness.
Soon lost were the God-given methods of healing the sick and the doctor/minister sought compensation according to worldly methods, rather than how we were instructed to fund medical missionaries. Books of a new order were written. Strange versions of Scripture became common in the pulpit, and preachers honest to the new versions (and source material) began kicking out the pillars of our faith. Higher Criticism under new names replaced the historical grammatical method of biblical interpretation, and laymen were told that only the educated could interpret the Word of God, and only their opinions mattered. Strange practices entered our hospitals and profit replaced service. Worldly music became common place in the church, and rebellion replaced unity. (Though I could name names and point fingers for each thing mentioned here, I chose not to. If you revel in dirty laundry, there’s plenty of it available with just a precursory search, but I pray that your focus be on Christ, rather than the faults of others.)
“Thus saith the Lord, ‘Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.’ But they said, ‘We will not walk therein’” (Jeremiah 6:16).
We have more light than any other generation from the dawn of history. We have the recorded history of the life of Christ, which gives us more light than all who came in the four thousand years that preceded Him. We have the amazing fulfillments of prophecy through 1844 to lighten our way even more. We have a messenger that shed more light upon the already brilliant light of Scripture, making plain its precepts, so that none may doubt when they ask the question, “What must I do to be saved?” We have all this light, and we say, “We will not walk therein”!
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
We thumb our noses at God, not seeking the old ways, not willing to surrender our idols, but rather rushing headlong into every abominable thing. We are becoming like those of Jerusalem in Ezekiel 8, no matter which way the prophet went, more abominable things than the last were made evident. We are unwilling to surrender our methods, unwilling to listen to the warnings God gives us, unwilling to hear the messages sent to us years ago, and wondering why we keep covering the same ground. If we won’t hear the law and the prophets, what can we expect besides confusion? “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Ba’al, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).
Like Little Children
Christ says, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much” (Luke 16:10). He also said, “…ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Matthew 23:23). Scripture lays out our duties to God and to our neighbors. We are to be faithful in all things, from the big issues like loving God and loving our neighbors, right down to the little things like what we wear and what we put into our bodies. Sometimes we get so caught up in the big things we neglect the little things, and sometimes we get so caught up in the little things that the big are neglected, but both are important.
To know judgment, mercy, and faith, one must know Christ. “…seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). He doesn’t just supply our temporal needs, but our spiritual needs as well. “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). However, He won’t complete the work in us if we fight against Him.
“At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me’” (Matthew 18:1-5).
I’ve watched little children seek the kingdom of God. They hear the word, and they accept it. They may ask you why a thousand times, but they still believe you. As the child accepts what his parents tell him, so we are to accept what God tells us. This can be hard, for cherished idols will fall. But either they fall, or we reject Him. To a point He is even willing to reason with us (Isaiah 1:18), but there can be no variance from a “thus saith the Lord”. Yet when His word is contrary to our selfish wishes and appetites, we twist it, wrestle it, burry it, contort it, and flat out deny it so that we can say with clear conscience, “We are delivered to do all these abominations”, and we don’t even consider them abominations!
Babylon Cometh
The following passage stopped me hard in my tracks last month and caused me to rethink many things.
“There are conditions to the fulfillment of God’s promises, and prayer can never take the place of duty. “If ye love me,” Christ says, “Keep My commandments.” “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.” John 14:15,21.
Those who bring their petitions to God, claiming His promise while they do not comply with the conditions, insult Jehovah. They bring the name of Christ as their authority for the fulfillment of the promise, but they do not those things that would show faith in Christ and love for Him” (COL 143, emphasis added).
How lightly we handle the name of Christ! We say, “I am a Christian”, yet we deny our profession by our lifestyle. We say, “I am a Seventh-day Adventist”, yet we are indistinguishable from the world. We pray, “We ask these things in Jesus’ name”, yet we do not repent, nor forsake our sins. In doing all these things, we add to our sins that of taking His name in vain.
“Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have executed and till He have performed the thoughts of His heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” (Jeremiah 23:19,20).
As a denomination, Babylon is coming for us, for we have not repented of our sins, nor turned from our rebellion, yet we rest comfortably in our belief that we are God’s chosen people, and we are secure in Him. We are not secure. Our only security is knowing Christ, and Him knowing us. When Babylon was finished with Israel, only the farmers and a poor people of no account were left (Jeremiah 39:10). They fled to Egypt (Jeremiah 43) contrary to God’s instruction. We have the promise this time that we will redeem the story.
“As trials thicken around us, both separation and unity will be seen in our ranks. Some who are now ready to take up weapons of warfare will in times of real peril make it manifest that they have not built upon the solid rock; they will yield to temptation. Those who have had great light and precious privileges, but have not improved them, will, under one pretext or another, go out from us. Not having received the love of the truth, they will be taken in the delusions of the enemy; they will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and will depart from the faith. But, on the other hand, when the storm of persecution really breaks upon us, the true sheep will hear the true Shepherd’s voice. Self-denying efforts will be put forth to save the lost, and many who have strayed from the fold will come back to follow the great Shepherd. The people of God will draw together and present to the enemy a united front. In view of the common peril, strife for supremacy will cease; there will be no disputing as to who shall be accounted greatest. No one of the true believers will say: ‘I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas.’ The testimony of one and all will be: ‘I cleave unto Christ; I rejoice in Him as my personal Saviour’” (6T 400.3).
“Also I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘hearken to the sound of the trumpet.’ But they said, ‘we will not hearken’” (Jeremiah 6:17).
There are two types of Watchmen: those God sets, and those we set up (Jeremiah 6:17, Ezekiel 3:17-21, Ezekiel 33:2). He holds them both accountable if they will not give warning. But if they give warning and we do not listen, our blood is upon our own heads. The watchmen are now sounding, but will you hearken?
Russell Wickham seeks the Lord with all his heart (Jeremiah 29:12).