Prophets and Kings
by Ellen G. White
Chapter 14: "In the Spirit and Power of Elias"
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Through the long centuries that have passed since Elijah's
time, the record of his lifework has brought inspiration and courage to those
who have been called to stand for the right in the midst of apostasy. And for
us, "upon whom the ends of the world are come" (1 Corinthians 10:11),
it has special significance. History is being repeated. The world today has its
Ahabs and its Jezebels. The present age is one of idolatry, as verily as was
that in which Elijah lived. No outward shrine may be visible; there may be no image
for the eye to rest upon; yet thousands are following after the gods of this
world—after riches, fame, pleasure, and the pleasing fables that
permit man to follow the inclinations of the unregenerate heart. Multitude have
a wrong conception of God and His attributes, and are as truly serving a false
god as were the worshipers of Baal. Many even of those who claim to be
Christians have allied themselves with influences that are unalterably opposed
to God and [178] His truth. Thus they are led to
turn away from the divine and to exalt the human. {PK 177.1}
The prevailing spirit of our time is one of infidelity and
apostasy—a spirit of avowed illumination because of a knowledge of
truth, but in reality of the blindest presumption. Human theories are exalted
and placed where God and His law should be. Satan tempts men and women to
disobey, with the promise that in disobedience they will find liberty and
freedom that will make them as gods. There is seen a spirit of opposition to
the plain word of God, of idolatrous exaltation of human wisdom above divine
revelation. Men have allowed their minds to become so darkened and confused by
conformity to worldly customs and influences that they seem to have lost all
power to discriminate between light and darkness, truth and error. So far have
they departed from the right way that they hold the opinions of a few
philosophers, so-called, to be more trustworthy than the truths of the Bible.
The entreaties and promises of God's word, its threatenings against disobedience
and idolatry—these seem powerless to melt their hearts. A faith such
as actuated Paul, Peter, and John they regard as old-fashioned, mystical, and
unworthy of the intelligence of modern thinkers. {PK 178.1}
In the beginning, God gave His law to mankind as a means of
attaining happiness and eternal life. Satan's only hope of thwarting the
purpose of God is to lead men and women to disobey this law, and his constant
effort has been to misrepresent its teachings and belittle its importance. His
master stroke has been an attempt to change the law itself, so as to lead men
to violate its precepts while professing to obey it. [179] {PK 178.2}
One writer has likened the attempt to change the law of God
to an ancient mischievous practice of turning in a wrong direction a signpost
erected at an important junction where two roads met. The perplexity and
hardship which this practice often caused was great. {PK 179.1}
A signpost was erected by God for those journeying through
this world. One arm of this signpost pointed out willing obedience to the
Creator as the road to felicity and life, while the other arm indicated
disobedience as the path to misery and death. The way to happiness was as
clearly defined as was the way to the city of refuge under the Jewish
dispensation. But in an evil hour for our race, the great enemy of all good
turned the signpost around, and multitudes have mistaken the way. {PK 179.2}
Through Moses the Lord instructed the Israelites:
"Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you
throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth
sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you:
everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any
work . . . in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath
throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me
and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed." Exodus
31:13-17. {PK 179.3}
In these words the Lord clearly defined obedience as the way
to the City of God; but the man of sin has changed the signpost, making it
point in the wrong direction. He [180] has set up a false sabbath and
has caused men and women to think that by resting on it they were obeying the
command of the Creator. {PK
179.4}
God has declared that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the
Lord. When "the heavens and the earth were finished," He exalted this
day as a memorial of His creative work. Resting on the seventh day "from
all His work which He had made," "God blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it." Genesis 2:1-3. {PK 180.1}
At the time of the Exodus from Egypt, the Sabbath
institution was brought prominently before the people of God. While they were
still in bondage, their taskmasters had attempted to force them to labor on the
Sabbath by increasing [181] the amount of work required each
week. Again and again the conditions of labor had been made harder and more
exacting. But the Israelites were delivered from bondage and brought to a place
where they might observe unmolested all the precepts of Jehovah. At Sinai the
law was spoken; and a copy of it, on two tables of stone, "written with
the finger of God" was delivered to Moses. Exodus 31:18. And through
nearly forty years of wandering the Israelites were constantly reminded of
God's appointed rest day, by the withholding of the manna every seventh day and
the miraculous preservation of the double portion that fell on the preparation
day. {PK 180.2}
Before entering the Promised Land, the Israelites were [182]
admonished by Moses to "keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it."
Deuteronomy 5:12. The Lord designed that by a faithful observance of the
Sabbath command, Israel should continually be reminded of their accountability
to Him as their Creator and their Redeemer. While they should keep the Sabbath
in the proper spirit, idolatry could not exist; but should the claims of this
precept of the Decalogue be set aside as no longer binding, the Creator would
be forgotten and men would worship other gods. "I gave them My
Sabbaths," God declared, "to be a sign between Me and them, that they
might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Yet "they despised
My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My Sabbaths: for
their heart went after their idols." And in His appeal to them to return
to Him, He called their attention anew to the importance of keeping the Sabbath
holy. "I am the Lord your God," He said; "walk in My statutes,
and keep My judgments, and do them; and hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a
sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God."
Ezekiel 20:12, 16, 19, 20. {PK
181.1}
In calling the attention of Judah to the sins that finally
brought upon them the Babylonian Captivity, the Lord declared: "Thou hast
. . . profaned My Sabbaths." "Therefore have I poured out
Mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath:
their own way have I recompensed upon their heads." Ezekiel 22:8, 31. {PK 182.1}
At the restoration of Jerusalem, in the days of Nehemiah,
Sabbathbreaking was met with the stern inquiry, "Did not your fathers thus,
and did not our God bring all this evil [183] upon
us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the
Sabbath." Nehemiah 13:18. {PK 182.2}
Christ, during His earthly ministry, emphasized the binding
claims of the Sabbath; in all His teaching He showed reverence for the
institution He Himself had given. In His days the Sabbath had become so
perverted that its observance reflected the character of selfish and arbitrary
men rather than the character of God. Christ set aside the false teaching by
which those who claimed to know God had misrepresented Him. Although followed
with merciless hostility by the rabbis, He did not even appear to conform to
their requirements, but went straight forward keeping the Sabbath according to
the law of God. {PK 183.1}
In unmistakable language He testified to His regard for the
law of Jehovah. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the
prophets," He said; "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall
in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall
break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be
called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew
5:17-19. {PK 183.2}
During the Christian dispensation, the great enemy of man's
happiness has made the Sabbath of the fourth commandment an object of special
attack. Satan says, "I will work at cross purposes with God. I will
empower my followers to set aside God's memorial, the seventh-day Sabbath. Thus
I will show the world that the day sanctified [184] and
blessed by God has been changed. That day shall not live in the minds of the
people. I will obliterate the memory of it. I will place in its stead a day
that does not bear the credentials of God, a day that cannot be a sign between
God and His people. I will lead those who accept this day to place upon it the
sanctity that God placed upon the seventh day. {PK 183.3}
"Through my vicegerent, I will exalt myself. The first
day will be extolled, and the Protestant world will receive this spurious
sabbath as genuine. Through the nonobservance of the Sabbath that God instituted,
I will bring His law into contempt. The words, 'A sign between Me and you
throughout your generations,' I will make to serve on the side of my sabbath. {PK 184.1}
"Thus the world will become mine. I will be the ruler
of the earth, the prince of the world. I will so control the minds under my
power that God's Sabbath shall be a special object of contempt. A sign? I will
make the observance of the seventh day a sign of disloyalty to the authorities
of earth. Human laws will be made so stringent that men and women will not dare
to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. For fear of wanting food and clothing, they
will join with the world in transgressing God's law. The earth will be wholly
under my dominion." {PK
184.2}
Through the setting up of a false sabbath, the enemy thought
to change times and laws. But has he really succeeded in changing God's law?
The words of the thirty-first chapter of Exodus are the answer. He who is the
same yesterday, today, and forever, has declared of the seventh-day Sabbath: "It
is a sign between Me and you throughout your [185]
generations." "It is a sign . . . forever." Exodus
31:13, 17. The changed signpost is pointing the wrong way, but God has not
changed. He is still the mighty God of Israel. "Behold, the nations are as
a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold,
He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to
burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations
before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and
vanity." Isaiah 40:15-17. And He is just as jealous for His law now as He
was in the days of Ahab and Elijah. {PK 184.3}
But how is that law disregarded! Behold the world today in
open rebellion against God. This is in truth a froward generation, filled with
ingratitude, formalism, insincerity, pride, and apostasy. Men neglect the Bible
and hate truth. Jesus sees His law rejected, His love despised, His ambassadors
treated with indifference. He has spoken by His mercies, but these have been
unacknowledged; He has spoken by warnings, but these have been unheeded. The
temple courts of the human soul have been turned into places of unholy traffic.
Selfishness, envy, pride, malice—all are cherished. {PK 185.1}
Many do not hesitate to sneer at the word of God. Those who
believe that word just as it reads are held up to ridicule. There is a growing
contempt for law and order, directly traceable to a violation of the plain
commands of Jehovah. Violence and crime are the result of turning aside from
the path of obedience. Behold the wretchedness and misery of multitudes who
worship at the shrine of idols and who seek in vain for happiness and peace. [186]
{PK 185.2}
Behold the well-nigh universal disregard of the Sabbath
commandment. Behold also the daring impiety of those who, while enacting laws
to safeguard the supposed sanctity of the first day of the week, at the same
time are making laws legalizing the liquor traffic. Wise above that which is written,
they attempt to coerce the consciences of men, while lending their sanction to
an evil that brutalizes and destroys the beings created in the image of God. It
is Satan himself who inspires such legislation. He well knows that the curse of
God will rest on those who exalt human enactments above the divine, and he does
all in his power to lead men into the broad road that ends in destruction. {PK 186.1}
So long have men worshiped human opinions and human
institutions that almost the whole world is following after idols. And he who
has endeavored to change God's law is using every deceptive artifice to induce
men and women to array themselves against God and against the sign by which the
righteous are known. But the Lord will not always suffer His law to be broken
and despised with impunity. There is a time coming when "the lofty looks
of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." Isaiah 2:11. Skepticism may
treat the claims of God's law with jest, scoffing, and denial. The spirit of
worldliness may contaminate the many and control the few, the cause of God may
hold its ground only by great exertion and continual sacrifice, yet in the end
the truth will triumph gloriously. {PK 186.2}
In the closing work of God in the earth, the standard of His
law will be again exalted. False religion may prevail, [187]
iniquity may abound, the love of many may wax cold, the cross of Calvary may be
lost sight of, and darkness, like the pall of death, may spread over the world;
the whole force of the popular current may be turned against the truth; plot
after plot may be formed to overthrow the people of God; but in the hour of
greatest peril the God of Elijah will raise up human instrumentalities to bear
a message that will not be silenced. In the populous cities of the land, and in
the places where men have gone to the greatest lengths in speaking against the
Most High, the voice of stern rebuke will be heard. Boldly will men of God's
appointment denounce the union of the church with the world. Earnestly will
they call upon men and women to turn from the observance of a man-made
institution to the observance of the true Sabbath. "Fear God, and give
glory to Him," they will proclaim to every nation; "for the hour of
His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea,
and the fountains of waters. . . . If any man worship the beast and
his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall
drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into
the cup of His indignation." Revelation 14:7-10. {PK 186.3}
God will not break His covenant, nor alter the thing that
has gone out of His lips. His word will stand fast forever as unalterable as
His throne. At the judgment this covenant will be brought forth, plainly
written with the finger of God, and the world will be arraigned before the bar
of Infinite Justice to receive sentence. {PK 187.1}
Today, as in the days of Elijah, the line of demarcation [188]
between God's commandment-keeping people and the worshipers of false gods is
clearly drawn. "How long halt ye between two opinions?" Elijah cried;
"if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him." 1
Kings 18:21. And the message for today is: "Babylon the great is fallen,
is fallen. . . . Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers
of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached
unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." Revelation 18:2, 4,
5. {PK 187.2}
The time is not far distant when the test will come to every
soul. The observance of the false sabbath will be urged upon us. The contest
will be between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. Those who
have yielded step by step to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs
will then yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to
derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. At that time the gold
will be separated from the dross. True godliness will be clearly distinguished
from the appearance and tinsel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its
brilliance will then go out in darkness. Those who have assumed the ornaments
of the sanctuary, but are not clothed with Christ's righteousness, will then
appear in the shame of their own nakedness. {PK 188.1}
Among earth's inhabitants, scattered in every land, there
are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Like the stars of heaven, which
appear only at night, these faithful ones will shine forth when darkness covers
the earth and gross darkness the people. In heathen Africa, in the Catholic
lands of Europe and of South America, in China, in India, [189] in the
islands of the sea, and in all the dark corners of the earth, God has in reserve
a firmament of chosen ones that will yet shine forth amidst the darkness,
revealing clearly to an apostate world the transforming power of obedience to
His law. Even now they are appearing in every nation, among every tongue and
people; and in the hour of deepest apostasy, when Satan's supreme effort is
made to cause "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and
bond," to receive, under penalty of death, the sign of allegiance to a
false rest day, these faithful ones, "blameless and harmless, the sons of
God, without rebuke," will "shine as lights in the world."
Revelation 13:16; Philippians 2:15. The darker the night, the more brilliantly
will they shine. {PK
188.2}
What strange work Elijah would have done in numbering Israel
at the time when God's judgments were falling upon the backsliding people! He
could count only one on the Lord's side. But when he said, "I, even I
only, am left; and they seek my life," the word of the Lord surprised him,
"Yet I have left Me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not
bowed unto Baal." 1 Kings 19:14, 18. {PK 189.1}
Then let no man attempt to number Israel today, but let
everyone have a heart of flesh, a heart of tender sympathy, a heart that, like
the heart of Christ, reaches out for the salvation of a lost world. {PK 189.2}
Click here to read the next chapter:
"Jehoshaphat"
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