Gods Sabbath

142

E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

God appears as a wonderful Forgiver and Restorer, while His people demonstrate a persistent inability to learn and follow His ways.

Our Commitment

With hindsight, we can view the history of Israel as an in credible story of lack of spiritual perception. But is this disposi tion peculiar to the Israelites? If we look honestly, we can see in

their history a mirror of our own. And to the extent that we follow the same pat tern, are we not guiltier than they? We have lessons from history which were only being written in their time, that are coun sels to bless us if we heed them, but con demn us if we do not. Despite Israel’s repeated reversions, their heavenly Father bore long with them in divine patience. They were illogical,

senseless, and ungrateful, yet without becoming discouraged He unfailingly restored their peace every time they gave the work of deliverance into His hands. Rightly understood, these stories are a powerful indication of the correct course to be followed by those who hope to be God’s instruments in ending the reign of sin. These records reveal con sistent relationships between God’s way and success, and be tween human ways and failure. These outworkings are so relia ble that if we know the procedures used at a particular point of time, we can predict with infallible accuracy whether success or failure was the outcome. Such results are not arbitrary, nor manipulated by God to establish His authority and leadership. They are the simple outworking of law. He alone has the capacity to plan and solve. Therefore, He alone can enjoy success as supreme Plan Maker. When we usurp His position and undertake that work ourselves, we prove by our consequent failures the simple truth that we do not possess the ability to handle such respon sibility.