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.