For Such a Time as This by C. B. Stephenson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 24, 1915

For Such a Time as This

By C. B. Stephenson

C. B. STEPHENSON

“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ.” An ambassador is a minister representing his sovereign or country at a foreign court. Christ says of his followers, “They are not of the world.” Having been born again from above, even by the Spirit, our citizenship is in heaven, the place of our spiritual birth. There our names are registered in the books. We are in the world, but not of the world, after we have been accepted into the heavenly family. An ambassador jealously cares for the interests of his sovereign and country. He is careful to represent them properly in every particular. He will make no compromise. Should he do so, his appointment would be canceled, and another called to take his place.

The Christian’s Sovereign is in the heavenly country. The Christian has, by solemn covenant, accepted a citizenship there, and thereby severed his spiritual allegiance to all others. His first duty is to love God supremely, and his neighbor as himself. The obligations of his heavenly citizenship will not conflict with those of the earth as long as the earthly are administered in harmony with the divine plan. In case of a conflict between the two, the error is always with the human government. Its wrongful requirements are not yielded to by the ambassadors of God, as the example of Daniel testifies. This brings a crisis, which will put to test the loyalty of God’s people. Just such a conflict we can see rapidly approaching.

In the fourth chapter of Esther is recorded a condition which illustrates the point. In Esther 3:8 the accusation is made that the Jews, the people of God, refused to observe the laws of the kingdom. The crisis came. The representatives of the King of glory refused to compromise, but stood loyal to their King and country. Mordecai refused to recognize the right of an earthly court to make and administer laws which required him to violate the laws of God. He addressed a message to Queen Esther, calling her attention to their perilous situation, and suggesting that she had come to the kingdom “for such a time as this.” For their loyalty to God, the whole Jewish nation was placed under death sentence, but that did not turn them. After they had exhausted every means of adjustment with the earthly court, and failed, they rested the case with their King. In prayer they appealed to him for deliverance, with the result that he sustained them, and turned the death sentence upon their enemies. The reports of their allegiance and faith quickly spread to all the provinces, and the God of the Jews was known as the God of gods. By the loyalty of the church, attention was quickly called to the true God. If King Saul had been faithful in carrying out the instruction of the Lord to destroy all the Amalekites, this trial would not have come to the Jews of that day. Haman was a descendant of Agag, the king whom Saul spared. Our unfaithfulness may bring sore trials to others.

“For such a time as this.” At the present time conditions are quite similar to those of the days of Mordecai. In the Reformation of the sixteenth century, the Reformers did a splendid work in destroying many errors of the Dark Ages, but they “spared Agag,” and “a few of the best cattle,”—the Sunday, sprinkling, and the natural immortality of man. These errors, instead of being slain by the sword of truth, were brought up into the camp of the Lord, and today threaten to destroy not only the truth of the seventh-day Sabbath, but the people who will be loyal to this heavenly command. Another death sentence will some day be issued against God’s ambassadors because they will not observe certain laws of the land. Modern Mordecais are needed who will not compromise their country and King by recognizing the laws of a foreign court which are contrary to God’s law. The inspired writer says a decree will go forth that all who will not worship the beast and his image and receive his mark should be killed. Rev. 13:15, 16. No one who is faithful to God’s law will receive the mark of the beast. The conflict will surely come. The God of the church in the days of Queen Esther and Mordecai, is the Lord of the commandment-keeping church today, and will as surely deliver all who will be loyal.