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
His truth. Thus they are led to turn away from the divine
and to exalt the human.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
Before entering the Promised Land, the Israelites were
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.
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.
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
upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon
Israel by profaning the Sabbath." Nehemiah 13:18.
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.
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.
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
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.
"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.
"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."
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
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 His 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In the closing work of God in the earth, the standard of
His law will be again exalted. False religion may prevail,
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.
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.
Today, as in the days of Elijah, the line of demarcation
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.