In proclaiming the everlasting gospel to every nation, God’s church is fulfilling the prophecy, “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” Isaiah 27:6. As the result of the labors of the followers of Jesus, an abundant fruitage is developing, bringing the benefits foreshadowed in the promise to Abraham, “I will bless thee, ... and thou shalt be a blessing.” Genesis 12:2.
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This promise of blessing should have met fulfillment in large measure during the centuries following the return of the Israelites from captivity. It was God’s design that the whole earth be prepared for the first advent of Christ, even as today the way is preparing for His second coming. See Zechariah 8:3, 7, 8.
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The sins that had characterized Israel prior to the captivity were not to be repeated. “Execute true judgment,” the Lord exhorted those engaged in rebuilding. “Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.” Zechariah 7:9; 8:16.
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Rich were the rewards promised those who should practice these principles: “As ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing.” Zechariah 8:13.
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By the Babylonish captivity the Israelites were cured of the worship of images. After their return, under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah they repeatedly covenanted to keep all the commandments of the Lord. The seasons of prosperity that followed gave evidence of God’s willingness to forgive. Yet with fatal shortsightedness they selfishly appropriated to themselves that which would have brought healing and life to multitudes.
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This failure was apparent in Malachi’s day. In his rebuke against transgressors, the prophet spared neither priests nor people. Only by heartfelt repentance could the blessing of God be realized. “I pray you,” the prophet pleaded, “beseech God that He will be gracious unto us.” Malachi 1:9.
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However, the plan for the redemption of mankind was not to be frustrated by any temporary failure of Israel. “From the rising of the sun to its setting,” the Lord declared through His messenger, “My name is great among the nations.” Verse 11, RSV.
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Those who once had been spiritual leaders had through transgression become “contemptible and base before all the people.” Malachi 2:9. Yet none were left without hope. Malachi’s prophecies of judgment were accompanied by invitations to the impenitent to make peace with God. “Return unto Me,” the Lord urged, “and I will return unto you.” Malachi 3:7. The God of heaven is pleading with His erring children to cooperate with Him in carrying forward His work in the earth. The Lord holds out His hand to Israel to help them to the path of self-sacrifice, to share with Him the heirship as sons of God. Will they discern their only hope?
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How sad that in Malachi’s day the Israelites hesitated to yield their proud hearts in hearty cooperation! Self-vindication is apparent in their response, “Wherein shall we return?”
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The Lord reveals to His people one of their special sins. “Will a man rob God?” He asks. “Yet ye have robbed Me.” Still unconvicted of sin, the disobedient inquire, “Wherein have we robbed Thee?”
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“In tithes and offerings ... . Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing ... . And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground ... . And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.” Verses 7-12.
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God gives the sunshine and the rain; He causes vegetation to flourish; He gives health and ability to acquire means; and He desires men and women to show their gratitude by returning tithes and offerings, that His vineyard may not remain a barren waste. They are to reveal an unselfish interest in building up His work in all the world.
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Through messages such as those borne by Malachi, as well as through oppression from heathen foes, the Israelites finally learned that true prosperity depends on obedience to the law of God. But with many, obedience was not the outflow of faith. Their motives were selfish. Outward service was a means of attaining national greatness. The chosen people did not become the light of the world, but shut themselves away from the world as a safeguard against idolatry. The restrictions forbidding intermarriage with the heathen and joining in the idolatrous practices of surrounding nations were so perverted as to build up a wall of partition between the Israelites and all other peoples. This shut from others the blessings God had commissioned Israel to give to the world.
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At the same time the Jews were, by their sins, separating from God. They were unable to discern the spiritual significance of their symbolic service. In self-righteousness they trusted their own works—the sacrifices themselves—instead of relying on the merits of Him to whom these things pointed. “Seeking to establish their own ... righteousness” (Romans 10:3, RSV), they built up a self-sufficient formalism. Not content with the ordinances God Himself had appointed, they devised countless exactions of their own. The greater their distance from God, the more rigorous their observance of these forms.
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With all these burdensome exactions it was a practical impossibility for the people to keep the law. The glorious truths shadowed in the symbolic service were buried under a mass of human tradition. Those who were really desirous of serving God groaned under a heavy burden.
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The people of Israel were separated so far from God that they could have no true conception of the character or mission of the promised Redeemer. Instead of desiring redemption from sin, their hearts were fixed on restoration to worldly power. They looked for Messiah to exalt Israel to dominion over all nations. Thus Satan had prepared the people to reject the Saviour when He should appear. Their pride and false conceptions would prevent them from honestly weighing the evidences of His Messiahship.
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For more than a thousand years the Jewish people had awaited the coming of the promised Saviour. In song and prophecy, in temple rite and household prayer, His name had been enshrined. Yet when He came they did not recognize Him. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” John 1:11. They discerned in Him no beauty that they should desire Him. See Isaiah 53:2.
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The life of Jesus among the Jewish people was a reproof to their selfishness. They hated His example of truthfulness, and when the test came they rejected the Holy One of Israel and became responsible for His crucifixion.
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In the parable of the vineyard, Christ called the attention of the Jewish teachers to the blessings bestowed on Israel and showed God’s claim to their obedience. Withdrawing the veil from the future, He showed how the whole nation was bringing ruin on itself:
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“There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country.”
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“When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them. Afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him.”
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Christ now put to them the question, “When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” The priests joined with the people in answering, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
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They had pronounced their own doom! Under Jesus’ searching gaze they knew He read the secrets of their hearts. They saw in the husbandmen a picture of themselves.
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Regretfully Christ asked: “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.” Matthew 21:33-44, RSV.
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The Jewish nation determined they would not receive Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. Henceforth their lives were surrounded with darkness as the darkness of midnight. The doom foretold came on the Jewish nation. In their blind rage they destroyed one another. Their rebellious pride brought on them the wrath of their Roman conquerors. Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple laid in ruins, and its site plowed like a field. Millions were sold as bondmen in heathen lands.
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That which God purposed to do for the world through Israel, the chosen nation, He will finally accomplish through His church. He has “let out His vineyard to other tenants,” who faithfully “give Him the fruits in their seasons.” These witnesses for God are the spiritual Israel, and to them will be fulfilled all the covenant promises made to His ancient people.
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For many centuries the preaching of the gospel in its purity was prohibited. As a consequence, the Lord’s great moral “vineyard” was almost unoccupied. The people were deprived of the light of God’s Word. Error and superstition threatened to blot out true religion. God’s church was as verily in captivity during this long period of persecution as were the children of Israel in Babylon during the exile.
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But, thank God, to spiritual Israel have been restored the privileges accorded the people of God at the time of their deliverance from Babylon. In every part of the earth, men and women are responding to the Heaven-sent message, “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.” Revelation 14:7.
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“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great,” which hath “made all nations drink the wine of her impure passion.” To spiritual Israel is given the message, “Come out of her, My people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.” Verse 8; 18:4, RSV. As the captive exiles heeded the message, “Flee out of the midst of Babylon” (Jeremiah 51:6), so those who fear God are withdrawing from spiritual Babylon. Soon they are to stand as trophies of divine grace in the heavenly Canaan.
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When the promised Messiah was about to appear, the message of the forerunner of Christ was: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:2. Today in the spirit and power of John the Baptist, messengers of God’s appointment call the attention of a judgment-bound world to the closing of probation and the appearance of Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. On His church rests the responsibility of warning those standing on the brink of eternal ruin. To every human being who will give heed must be made plain the principles in the great controversy.
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In these final hours the Lord expects His church to arouse to action as never before. Those who have been made free in Christ through precious truth are to show forth the praises of Him who has called them out of darkness into marvelous light. The blessings so liberally bestowed are to be communicated to every people. From every true disciple is to be diffused life, courage, and true healing.
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The coming of Christ will take place in the darkest period of earth’s history, when Satan will work “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.” 2 Thessalonians 2:10. His working is revealed by the multitudinous heresies and delusions of these days. His deceptions are even leavening the professed churches of Christ. The great apostasy will develop into darkness deep as midnight. But out of that darkness God’s light will shine. To His people God says, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” Isaiah 60:1.
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At Nazareth Christ said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18, 19, RSV. This was the work He commissioned His disciples to do, “to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house ... . Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.” Isaiah 58:7, 8, RSV.
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Thus in the night of spiritual darkness God’s glory is to shine forth through His church. All around us are heard the wails of a world’s sorrow. On every hand are the needy and distressed. It is ours to aid in relieving life’s hardships and misery. If Christ is abiding in us, our hearts will be full of divine sympathy.
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There are many from whom hope has departed. Bring back the sunshine to them. Many have lost their courage. Pray for them. Read to them from the Word of God. Upon many is a soul sickness which no physician can heal. Bring them to Jesus.
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The whole earth, wrapped in darkness and pain, is to be lighted with the knowledge of God’s love. From no class of people is the light to be excluded. No longer are the heathen to be wrapped in midnight darkness.
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Christ has made every provision that His church shall be a transformed body, every Christian surrounded with a spiritual atmosphere of light and peace. He desires that we shall reveal His own joy in our lives.
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Christ is coming with power and great glory. While all the world is plunged in darkness, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of His second appearing. While the wicked flee, Christ’s followers will rejoice in His presence.
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Then the redeemed will receive their promised inheritance. Thus God’s purpose for Israel will meet with literal fulfillment. God’s purposes have been moving steadily forward to their accomplishment. It was thus with Israel through the history of the divided monarchy; it is thus with spiritual Israel today.
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The seer of Patmos testifies: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
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“He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with Him are called and chosen and faithful.” Revelation 7:9, 10; 17:14, RSV.
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