Spiritual Gifts

FINAL DELIVERANCE

In Ezekiel’s prophecy the following seems to be a description of the final deliverance of God’s people: “I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.” Ezekiel 20:35-37. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and their entrance into Canaan, seems to be here used to represent the final deliverance of God’s people into the heavenly Canaan. Israel passed through a literal wilderness, but these through “the wilderness of the people.” So we find, in the Revelation, an account of the people of God going into the wilderness for the 1260 years of the “Dark Ages.” Revelation 12:6, 14. In the Song of Solomon we have a reference to the church coming out of the wilderness. He says, “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” Song of Solomon 8:5. Again he speaks of her as “she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” Song of Solomon 6:10. SGL 24.2

The Lord says He will plead as He plead when He brought His people out of Egypt. He plead with them then respecting His law and His Sabbath, saying, “How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My law? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath.” Exodus 16:28-29. SGL 25.1

In this latter pleading the Lord says He will bring His people “into the bond of the covenant.” The bond of the covenant must be its confirmatory seal, or the sign of its authority. The sign of God’s covenant (which covenant commanded He declares is the ten commandments, Exodus 34:28) is the seventh-day Sabbath. That Sabbath four times in the Scriptures is said to be His sign. Exodus 31:13, 16, 17; Ezekiel 20:12, 20. We see, therefore, that in the preparation for the final deliverance there is to be an agitation of the law of God, and a restoration of the seal to that law, which seal is the Sabbath of the Lord. SGL 25.2

There is still another feature that was connected with the deliverance of Israel, which is mentioned by the prophet Hosea when he says, “By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.” Hosea 12:13. So if there is a similarity in the last deliverance to that from Egypt, we may look for the gift of prophecy to be connected with the preparation for the deliverance. SGL 26.1