The Review and Herald
February 26, 1914
A Door of Hope
(Concluded.)
Had Israel taken heed to the messages of the prophets emphasizing the value of “the great things” of God's law, they would have been spared the humiliation that followed. It was because they persisted in turning aside from his law that God was compelled to allow their enemies to take them captive. “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 trial and affliction they were to learn lessons that under circumstances more favorable they had refused to learn. RH February 26, 1914, par. 1
In every age, transgression of God's law has been accompanied by the same result. In the days of Noah, when every precept of this law was set aside, iniquity became so deep and widespread that God could no longer bear with it, and he said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.” In the time of Abraham, 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 were kindled against them the fires of God's vengeance. The time preceding the downfall of the northern kingdom was one of similar disobedience and of similar wickedness. God's law was counted as a thing of naught, 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.” RH February 26, 1914, par. 2
And as it was then so it is today. Men boast of the wonderful progress and enlightenment of the age, but God sees the earth filled with guilt and violence. Men declare that the law of God has been abrogated, that the Bible is not authentic; and as a result, a tide of evil, such as has seldom been seen since the days of Noah and the days of apostate Israel, is sweeping over the world. Lawlessness, dissipation, extravagance, and corruption are coming in upon us as an overwhelming flood. Nobility of soul, gentleness, piety, are bartered away to gratify the lust for forbidden things. The taking of human life is a matter of daily occurrence. The terrible record of crime daily committed for the sake of gain is enough to chill the blood and fill the soul with horror. “Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.” RH February 26, 1914, par. 3
The time is right upon us when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the world. Disasters by sea and land follow one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property. Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of seemingly disorganized, unregulated forces, but in them God's purpose may be read. They are one of the means by which he seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger. RH February 26, 1914, par. 4
“As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.... Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” RH February 26, 1914, par. 5
The prophecies of judgment delivered by Amos and Hosea were tempered with prophecies of future glory. According to Hosea, the children of Israel were to “abide many days 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.” RH February 26, 1914, par. 6
This prophecy is to reach its complete fulfillment in the gathering out from all nations of a people prepared for the second coming of Christ. The remnant of Israel is symbolized by a woman, representing the Lord's chosen church on the earth. “Behold,” he says, “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.” RH February 26, 1914, par. 7
In the last days of this earth's history, God's covenant with his commandment-keeping people is to be renewed. “In that day I will 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 I 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. RH February 26, 1914, par. 8
“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.” Hosea 2:14-23. RH February 26, 1914, par. 9
“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 those 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 this 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 every divine requirement, they will be recognized by angels and by men as those that “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:6, 7, 12. RH February 26, 1914, par. 10
“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. RH February 26, 1914, par. 11