Jesus, alone in His memories

I’m listening to a high definition video of an orchestra playing Rachmaninoff - Symphony no.2 opus 27.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvuitFzDxDg. And Tchaikovsky - Pianoconcert no. 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yya-rNwuxnc. The sounds are wonderful and must be reminiscent of the heavenly choirs.

 

Yet, the music of heaven puts earth to great shame. That’s hard to imagine after hearing the amazing fullness coming from this world’s instruments and those accomplished artists who have mastered them. The sounds which those experts create pull on our heart strings, and call forth chills and a yearning in the hearers for goodness and peace on earth. But, as heaven is higher than the earth, so great is heaven’s music higher than earth’s most heavenly music.

 

To anyone who has never heard the beauty of instruments combined in harmony can never conceive of what I’m hearing from these HD videos. The comings and goings of instruments and groups of instruments, the harmonies, the melodies, the dissonances, the major sevenths, the minor sixths and sevenths, the augmented and diminished chords, other chords stretched in four dimensions, all defy reality. High violins and low cellos; high flutes and low tubas, with clarinets and oboes in between. Only the person who has experienced the pathos of orchestral pieces can know what I mean. Likewise, no one who has ever heard heaven’s music can imagine its glory.

 

Lucifer was the conductor of the heavenly choirs. “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created.” (Eze. 28:12-15).

 

Shining forth the colors of the high priest over the “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” (Rev. 5:11) of angelic hosts, Lucifer also led their praises to the Most High. His leadership in song to God was perfect, simply exquisite, filling the immense sanctuary with the loftiest music. The different sounds musicians bring forth from machine-crafted instruments, the angels brought forth from their throats. As the vocalist was born with a more natural sound from the divinely formed instrument and by birth has more control of sound than an instrument made by human hands, so the chords and trills of heaven far surpass anything devised in the musical instruments of our modern world.

 

At His incarnation, Jesus left such an environment. “When He cometh into the world, He saith, ‘…A body hast Thou prepared Me.’” (Heb. 10:5). Still, His voice often soared in praise to God for His Father's glory that filled the earth. “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.” (Num. 14:21). The great Creator is worthy of all praise, “there is no searching of His understanding.” (Isa. 40:28). The angels carried His melodious barotone syllables to His God. It was all music to His Father’s ears. And the same privileged seraphim carried back the message from the King,  “Thou are My beloved Son; in whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11).

 

The music teacher who has played with other masters of music seeks to inspire the pupils with what music is supposed to sound like. The teacher exemplifies the sounds of paper scores; she or he transfers the written chords to the audible chords for the benefit of the students. Yet, only the teacher knows the other sounds from the whole orchestra that are missing at the home or studio. The teacher has been surrounded by the whole, polished symphony. But, the dreamy memories of past glorious strains pop! and silence ensues. The pupil cannot know the loss felt by the teacher.

Jesus knew the symphonies of heaven. He had had the atmosphere that could detect double, triple, and quadruple the seven octave range that we use here. He walked alone in the earth because no one else could fathom the glories that He had known. Those heavenly symphonies had played for Him and His Father. He had had the front row seat next to the great King. As Lucifer, the morning star, brought the hosts to attention, the mirror-like sea as the backdrop, “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.” (Luke 2:13). “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa. 11:9). “The voice of harpers harping with their harps” (Rev. 14:2) had thrilled the Son’s deepest soul. God had joined with the choirs and Jesus had shone with a brilliance that lightened the heart of every angel around the throne. “And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” (Rev. 4:5).

 

“The LORD possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old…. Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” (Prov. 8:22,30). “Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” (Ps. 45:7). “The LORD Thy God in the midst of Thee is mighty;… He will rejoice over Thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over Thee with singing.” (Zeph. 3:17).

 

After all of the glowing commotion from eternity, now all Jesus could hear were peeps of the grandiose music that surrounded Him, only the faintest echoes of that heavenly home. The multiplied songs and calls of birds, the moo’s and baa’s of humble animals must satisfy. And the Prince of peace mercifully accepted their challenged disabilities to imitate heaven’s choir. Their love for Him made up the difference. But, oh, if only He could hear again heavenly sounds of perfection during His earthly sojourn!

 

That day of restored glory came, the day when Jesus would be embraced with glory of His Father’s own self. “Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light.” (Matt. 17:1,2). The seven lamps beamed forth from His head once again.

 

The Father deemed His Son’s work worthy of a respite. One oasis of pleasure to again have the fullness of joy and fellowship that He had left to live in this world darkened from the glory it had had before sin. The very throne of heaven on earth, Jesus was transported to a heaven brought near by the King Himself! The familiar orchestras and choirs once more filling the ears of Messiah the Prince! Oh, the reprieve from the constant sights and mourns from the Father’s judgments in the abominations and desolations by Satan. Humanity had asked for a better master than their Creator and loving Father. The Son of God must suffer all that we received in judgment. Yet a deeper draught of woe must be brought to the lips of the Saviour, and the meditations of that were weighing heavily on Him; the cross was leaving a shadow upon His eternal Spirit. So, the Father’s omniscience chose two servants to commune with His Son concerning the Gethsemanes that they had faced. No one better, no angel more beloved of the Son than these two men, could speak the very words He needed. Heaven on earth. A fellowship safe from the enemies always hating Him and plotting His death. Resting in His Father. Forgetting, at least for a moment, the fast approaching taste of damnation for every man. The smile of peace from a concert pianist amongst a swelling movement by her musical compatriots returned to the Saviour’s countenance.

The two most recent journies of heaven and hell

“The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isa. 53:5).

“For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” (Heb. 12:6-8).

In the July 14 blog we saw two men, Ignatius Loyola and Martin Luther, both of whom experienced God’s just chastisement of their peace, but chose two different responses to the righteousness of God. The quotation below taken from the EGW estate website

(http://egwtext.whiteestate.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=HRSCV3&lang=en&collection=6&section=all&pagenumber=351)

“Was there, at that time, any difference between the monk of Manresa and the monk of Erfurth? Unquestionably,—in secondary points: but the state of their souls was the same. Both were deeply sensible of the multitude of their sins. Both were seeking for reconciliation with God, and longed to have the assurance in their hearts. If a Staupitz with the Bible in his hand had appeared in the convent of Manresa, possibly Inigo might have become Luther of the Peninsula. These two great men of the sixteenth century, these founders of two spiritual powers which for three centuries have been warring together, were at this moment brothers; and perhaps, if they had met, Luther and Loyola would have embraced, and mingled their tears and their prayers.

“But from this hour the two monks were destined to follow entirely different paths.

“Inigo, instead of feeling that his remorse was sent to drive him to the foot of the cross, persuaded himself that these inward reproaches proceeded not from God, but from the devil; and he resolved never more to think of his sins, to erase them from him memory, and bury them in eternal oblivion. Luther turned towards Christ, Loyola only fell back upon himself.

“Visions came erelong to confirm Inigo in the conviction at which he had arrived. His own resolves had become a substitute for the grace of the Lord; his own imaginings supplied the place of God’s Word. He had looked upon the voice of God in his conscience as the voice of the devil; and accordingly the remainder of his history represents him as given up to the inspirations of the spirit of darkness.” History of the Reformation, p. 354

Identical to the circumstances at Christianity’s birth out of a belligerent Israel, the Reformation was born out of Christendom and its army of Jesuits. Just as in ages past, submitting the conscience to the righteousness of the Law was God’s will for both of the soon-to-be world leaders of two vastly opposed religions.

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” (Rom. 10:1-3).

Like it had been for Israel, Christ’s sincere desire and prayer for Christendom was that they might be saved. If only they had surrendered to the truth and repented to God, salvation could have been theirs. “I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.” (Rev. 2:19-22).

To the very end, when He must take away the reins of power from the Church and give it to the nobody’s of the Reformation, Christ held out the offer of forgiveness and salvation to His Church. So, even if the leaders rejected the plain reproofs and instructions from the Bible, the result of Christ’s intercession was that many Catholic people were saved when they heard the apostolic truth from the Bible resurrected out of the heaps of corrupting mystical Church falsehoods.

But all who would not surrender to the righteousness of God continued to establish their own righteousness, as Ignatius Loyola did. The light of heaven, together with the protection and prosperity of God upon the Catholic peoples, transferred onto Protestantism. Despite the dangers and fatal persecution of new power given to the Inquisition conversion machine, the Reformation survived and flourished in Protestant America.

But, today Luther’s Protestantism, the prophet which stood up against a Christianity deeply corrupted by satanic spiritualism of the most ancient paganism, has abandoned her protest. Again, as in the 2nd and 3rd century church and as with Ignatius’ response to the Spirit of truth, the Protestant people of God are denying the authority of God to condemn their sin and to judge their peace. Soon, very soon, all the blessing of God will leave Protestantism and return to Catholicism just as it had from ancient Israel to ancient Babylon. “The crown removed from Israel passed successively to the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. God says, ‘It shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.’” Education, p. 179.

Since 9/11 the God of Protestantism has been allowing an accelerating removal of America’s glorious Protestant Constitution of self-government. In two years will happen a great, satanic celebration over the demise of Protestantism and Republicanism in the world. In their places will sit the abominations of Catholicism and its Communist/Neo-fascist dictatorships around the world. And that demonic celebration preliminary to the New World Order will take place on Halloween 2017, to the day, the 500th anniversary of Luther’s nailing up his 95 theses on the Wittenberg church door.

The divide from which flowed Luther’s Reformation and Loyola’s Counter-Reformation came at the point of whether or not to surrender to the justice and mercy of God. Would each man, Luther and Loyola, fall on his face before God? Would each one accept God’s just condemnation of his sins and then flee to the hope which He had set before them, Jesus the “hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (Heb. 6:19)? Would each allow the chastisement of Jesus’ peace heal his unrested soul? Would each pass all the way through his own Gethsemane, accepting all the shame and remorse that God intended for him, while hanging on to God’s gracious nature, assumed from the fact that God is our Father? Would each hang on through the horror of great darkness until joy cometh in the morning? Would he? And, will we? Will we humble ourselves and then hang on to hope in God like Jesus did, as we pass through our Gethsemanes?

“O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments;

[I] have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments:

Neither have [I] hearkened unto Thy servants the prophets, which spake in Thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto [me] confusion of [face], as at this day….

O Lord, to [me] belongeth confusion of face….

To the Lord [my] God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though [I] have rebelled against Him.” (Dan. 9:4-9).

What willl we do when God is weighing heavily upon our conscience, and our past guilt and shame and remorse are making us feel like we’ve committed the unpardonable sin? Will we blame God rather than ourselves for the conflict between our heart and His? Worse, like Ignatius, will we skirt all of that, and blame the devil for the chastisement of our peace and the apparent sense of hopelessness before God? In short, will we refuse the pricks of our conscience and deny God His authority of condemnation? Will we rise up higher than God and reject the righteousness of God instead of submitting to Him and surrendering to His good will?

Or, rather, when God has made us feel like we’ve committed the unpardonable sin, will we, like Martin Luther, humble ourselves before Him, admitting to our due chastisement of peace, and to the confusion of face from our own doing? Then, will we wholly lean on His mercy that we can correctly assume eternally dwells in our Father’s heart?

Centennial Ellen White symposium at Andrews University

I just want to say that I am very relieved tonight. The week is over, and the Sabbath has begun. Last weekend I travelled to Andrews University to hear a symposium on Ellen White and her gift of inspiration. We heard many lectures and questions/answer times, all of which thrilled me because so much was revealed about Mrs. White that agreed with the biblical prophets. Even one professor from the seminary spoke about how he had many questions relating to Ellen White.

 

Though he was a pure Adventist, as a theologian who exegetes from the Bible only, for many years he had to keep Ellen White at a distance it seems. He couldn’t base his biblical interpretation on a “Thus saith Ellen White”. And he was glad to know that she never wanted anyone to do that. Still, he saw differences of meanings from the plain biblical text and Mrs. White’s messages.

 

But, over the years—he was happy to declare to us—he has seen more and more proof of Ellen White’s inspiration. After exegeting every word in a text, through the original languages, looking at how each word was used in other biblical texts, and extra-biblical manuscripts, etc. he began to see that the deeper study arrived at the same messages as what Ellen White had given. She had understood the deep message of the texts, which could only be done by experts in the original languages; but, she had only a 3^rd grade education.

 

All that that doctor of theology could say was that God had been her teacher. Now he is a full convert to the Spirit of prophecy. He looks forward to continued exegeting to see and prove her inspiration.

 

I must confess how surprised I was to hear all of this. For many years I’ve been listening to so many sermons that were contrary to the Spirit of prophecy, either in words or in spirit. I kept asking why we were hearing all that and kept getting the answer that that is what the seminary was teaching. But, that isn’t what I saw at the symposium. Every one of those professors were fully dedicated to Mrs. White’s gift of prophecy.

 

Along with all the wonderful lectures, Elder Ted Wilson was at the whole 4 day symposium.  Sabbath morning he gave the sermon and included quotations from Ellen White. He gave his family history starting from his great grandfather who was converted at a campmeeting after hearing Ellen White give the message. He was such a surprised skeptic that so much goodness could come out of the Bible and out of the mouth of the speaker, that he became an ardent follower of Jesus from that day onward. Thus, he raised his children by the books from Ellen White. And Elder Wilson’s grandfather raised Elder Wilson’s father by those books, who raised Elder Wilson by those books. So, our GC president has been surrounded by the Spirit of prophecy all of his life, and, he said, so has his wife. Halleluia! What a relief for me!

 

“I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places.” (Hab. 3:18, 19).

 

The Man Christ Jesus

“But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought Him a man after His own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over His people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.” (1Sam. 13:14).

Why did Samuel call David a man after God’s own heart? What did he mean by a man after God's own heart? Did he mean that the man would love like God loves? Did he mean that the man would follow the example set by God like a hunter chasing its prey? Either sounds like David. David said, “My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.” (Ps. 63:8). Was David a man by our definition of a man? No, David was a child at that time Samuel dismissed Saul as king. And even when David was unveiled to Israel he didn’t look or act like the typical man.

“He was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to.” (1Sam. 16:12). The word, “man”, assumes maturity. David didn’t have the look of the typical mature man—careworn, sullen, unhappy. David was every bit the opposite of that. He was joyful, youthful, unmarked by internal conflicts. He was like the King who would follow in his steps, “the Messiah the Prince.” (Dan. 9:25).

The “Son of David” (Matt. 12:23) was childlike as his earthly father had been. He had peace with God like David had, only He was greater than David. His peace was infinitely deep. That childlikeness left Him very unlike the other men, of whom it is written “the way of peace have they not known.” (Rom. 3:17). Compared to the other men who battled with life, Jesus didn’t appear mature at all. His peace left him very youthful in every respect. True, He received a different complexion resulting from His battles in the wilderness with Satan, but, His warm, earnest smile and engaging temperament covered His marred face with spiritual beauty. “He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” (Isa. 53:2).

David’s youthful appearance made Goliath very angry when the little shepherd boy came out to fight him, a respected warrior. The perceived insult was that Goliath didn’t rate a regular soldier to fight him. Instead of another furious gladiator to make the kill worth watching, in the soft answer that the Lord had sent to turn away his wrath, Goliath saw a sneer at his power and bloodthirstiness. And doesn’t God do everything He can to attempt our needed humilation? When Elisha did the same to the Syrian secretary of war Naaman, Elisha got the same response. If King Saul thought his height made him a great man, and Goliath even a greater man, then the King of heaven will look down upon them all and challenge their self-exaltation.

“Thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.” (Ps. 59:8).

“And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.” (1Sam. 17:42-45). To Goliath was nothing more than a pretty boy. A lad. A “stripling” (Vs. 56), a child to be kept out of sight.

The humble approach to defuse Goliath might have been what inspired David to write the verse from his eighth psalm. “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” (Ps. 8:2). David was poetic and musical. He was everything a “mature” man shouldn’t be. Yet, he was a man like Jesus was a man—neither one accepted by the mature, sophisticated elite.

As it turned out David was a man—but a different sort of a man. He was manly only because he loved receiving grace from God. It was mercy and grace that made David a person of justice and truth. He was jealous for the honor of God who had befriended him and given him the great sign of acceptance—peace, deep peace, “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” (Phil. 4:7).

So David was manly, but unexpectedly so, in a new and living way. “This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands. And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.” (1Sam. 17:46-48).

David wasn’t gruesome or vengeful when he took “the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem.” (Vs. 54). He was satisfied that the enemy of God was dealt with in justice. A man of war from his youth, Goliath had been trained to destroy the God of love. He perfectly reflected the spirit of Satan who sought to be “great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.” (Dan 8:10,11).

“And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.” (Rev 13:6,7).

Yet, despite the warfare David made fighting with the violent servants of Baal, his was not a fighting spirit. He loved peace and sought to make peace. David understood that “the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” (Jas. 3:18).

But, Israel was surrounded by nations of Canaanites who had departed from the God of justice and mercy, and they had none of that. Satan’s dark, violent spirit turned them into “natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, [who] speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children.” (2Pet. 2:12-14).

But, neither did other men in David’s cabinet of counselors know the love of God. Their justice was no better than the Canaanites’. Sin can happen to anybody. It can spring up from even the best of us.

“Woe is me…!

My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.

I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.” (Ps. 120:5-7).

Likewise, Jesus, the Man after whose heart David followed so hard, was a Man of peace. “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isa. 9:6). Jesus was the great Prince of peace. But, for the sake of His Father’s eternal kingdom, He was also “a man of war” (Ex. 15:3). He had to wage endless warfare against the enemies of His Father’s kingdom who tenaciously strove to maintain human tradition inspired by lawless spiritualism. Nevertheless, Jesus’ warfare made me very distraught when I sought to have peace and to see a Saviour of peace. But, most of what I read sounded like Jesus was a trouble-maker, and a lover of debate, a know-it-all who liked to show off His spiritual prowess. Just read John 8 and Matthew 23. It seemed like the gospels listed His warfare in great detail, but His mercy in broad, brief generalizations. I wanted to know the details of “the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.” (Luke 4:22). I learned later that we see Jesus through the people of the Bible.

“And they said, Is not this Joseph’s Son?” (Luke 4:22). The church people refused to see past His youthful appearance that clashed with the traditional expectations of a man who would be as morose and lifeless as the typical fallen human who was dead in sin. “They rebelled” (Isa. 63:10) against the unspoken message from His beautiful countenance, the promise of life “for evermore” (Ps. 16:11), and they “vexed His holy Spirit.” “Therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them.” (Isa. 63:10). “With righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall he slay the wicked.” (Isa. 11:4).

Jesus was the Prince of peace who would cut off the wicked in their consciences and be “delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.” (1Tim. 1:20). We don’t feel comfortable about Him doing that because maybe He will turn on us! But, who were the wicked?

Everyone who was not meek, everyone who refused to be humbled were the wicked. A God who humbles pride is not the Saviour that the world wants. We don’t think of a Saviour who slays our wickedness. And that has been the problem throughout all time. The fallen children of Adam have never wanted to be brought to repentance, starting with Cain. But, Cain’s problem has been all of our problem. We own the same carnal nature that Cain and his parents had. Sin doesn’t desire humiliation. It will not be humbled. Sin rejects reproof, because Satan controls the hearts of sinners.

But, God will test every sinner and find out who will back down from their gigantic pride. Therefore, He sent prophets and His own Son. The Son of God was not only a tender plant and a living root in dry ground, but He was a rod of righteousness. And He was the one who David typified, “a man Child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.” (Rev. 12:5).

“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” (Jer. 23:5). “Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5:31).

He would find all the sinners who would back down, everyone whose “mouth may be stopped” and whose conscience might “become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19). Those precious humbled ones would make up His kingdom. They could bow before the Most High who He represented; therefore they would make proper subjects of the Great King who they have been tempted to blaspheme and insult. But, for anyone who would repent, the King, notwithstanding their great insolence against Him, would treat them as full-fledge citizens of His eternal domination. If they would be humbled and keep getting humbled ever afterward until their ultimate humiliation at death, then they could be exalted, starting at their first humiliation giving them a taste of their coming citizenship.

“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.” (Heb. 3:14). “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed.” (John 8:31).

All who could stay with Jesus, abiding with Him, despite the prospects of their sins being reproved on a non-stop basis, have the Son. And he that “hath the Son” (1Jn. 5:12) “hath eternal life.” (John 6:54). But, contrariwise, all who stop accepting the humiliation of their pride and sin, leave the Prince and Saviour. No one “that hath not the Son of God” (1Jn. 5:12) “hath eternal life abiding in him” (1Jn. 3:15) because “the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36).

And the blessing to those who continue under Jesus’ administration of truth and grace will know great peace and certainty of salvation. “In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Jer. 23:6).

Our Saviour is both meek and manly. Our great High Priest is also the King of kings. He is both Prince and Savior. Are you interested in following Him? Will you accept the convicting Prince who judges righteously because you have learned that He is still a tender plant? The Child is born to us as a Wonderful Counselor; though to our frowardness He is the also Word of God whose convictions are “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12).

Won’t we take the candid Prince in order to have the gentle Saviour who immediately perceives the crest-fallen pride and turns to encourage the heart broken in contrition? Will we take the bad with the good, His “evil” with His “peace” (Isa. 45:7)? Will we accept His necessary evil for the blessedness that comes we confess to Him our sin? Will violent pride and sin dominate us, or will gentle humility and grace? Will we be a Goliath with a forehead full of blasphemy? Or, will we be a David with a heart that followed hard after “the God of [his] life” (Ps. 42:8)? “He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (Ps. 24:5). Will we receive the seal of God or the mark of the beast?

“And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” (Matt. 21:44).

For all who will be humbled, who will sorrow for their sin instead of fighting for their pride, He promises, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me; because the LORD hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek.” (Isa. 61:1). The meek are not meek because they were born that way; no one is born a meek sinner. Sinners are all born shaking their fist at God, no matter how mildly or ethically they shake their fist. Those in this promise are only meek because they got their mammoth pride humbled. The humbled, who bore up under the humbling process until the day of their death, will be able to hear the beauty of the gospel that the Bible preaches to them; but, everyone else have no ears to hear it. All the promises that are Yea and Amen to the humbled, mean nothing but foolishness to everyone who turned down the humbling. The common people heard Jesus gladly because, after the providential Roman Empire plague, they had endured their heavy-handed father John with his ax at the root of their sins. Are you humbled? You can know by reading the Testimonies of Jesus. Try Testimonies for the Church, volume 2, pages 631-677 and see if you don’t feel like an “unprofitable [servant]” (Luke 17:10). And that is only one testimony! But, the Jews who surrendered to the hardships and discipline from God were worthy to receive the blessings of a Saviour from God. And for us, the same promise from the Father still stands today.

It’s our choice. If we will accept the humbling of God whenever, however, wherever, from whoever it comes (friend or foe), then we will hear the manly and joyful voice of Jesus saying, “He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.” (Isa. 61:1-3).