Like and Unlike by Philip Giddings

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 23, 1915

Like and Unlike

By Philip Giddings

PHILIP GIDDINGS

How alike some people seem to be, who are, however, so unlike!

In the fourth chapter of Genesis we learn that Cain, going out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelling in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden, begat Enoch, who begat Irad, who begat Mehujael, who begat Methusael, who begat Lamech, who was the first polygamist on record, and who like his progenitor, slew a man. In the fifth chapter we read that Seth (in place of Abel, who was killed) begat Enos, who begat Cainan, who begat Mahalaleel, who begat Jared, who begat Enoch, who begat Methuselah, who begat Lamech.

The Lamech who took two wives, and killed a man, was a very different individual from the Lamech who was the father of Noah. The Enoch who walked with God was not that Enoch who dwelt in Nod, to the windward of God’s appointment. And while the ages of those of the one list are given, of the other no account is made, as if their mislived years were not worth the counting.

There are those called “my disciples,” and those who “draw away disciples after them;” those who go in the path of the Lord’s commandments (Ps. 119: 35; Matt. 15: 3), and those who travel in the bypath of man’s tradition. The way of God ought to be God’s all the way. “Bethel,” the house of God, should be God’s chapel and court—not Jeroboam’s. Amaziah, having departed from God, must be displaced and replaced by Amos, who will take the “plumb line” message “in the midst of my people Israel.”

“Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.” See Amos 7: 7-15.

Thus, too, must Israel stand—like Israel’s God—on plumb line’s straightness, with plumb line in his hand.

For “judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.” Isa. 28: 17; Eccl. 12: 13, 14; James 2: 10-12. From any given point outside a straight line, only one perpendicular can be drawn to the straight line; all other lines are oblique. There is another wall being built not true to center, and daubed with mortar not tempered. There are men “that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing,” who “have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in

the day of the Lord,” who “have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith: and the Lord hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.” This wall, the builder, and the dauber of it, shall fall. Eze. 13: 1-16.

Though we sit in the same pew, and be called by the same name, yet it is still true that “they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.” Rom. 9: 6. We may even preach the truth, but unless it be found also where God desires it,—“truth in the inward parts” (Ps. 51: 6),—the truth on our lips is turned to a lie by our lives. “Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God? for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you. . . . For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, . . . but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; . . . whose praise is not of men, but of God.” Rom. 2: 17-29.

It is not enough to have the plumb line in thy hand; it must guide thy feet on the wall built by it. Thus, standing on the wall, a good understanding have all they that do his commandments.

Unless Gehazi’s feet be found with his master’s, with Elisha’s staff in Gehazi’s hand merely, the Shunammite’s “child is not awaked.” 2 Kings 4: 29-31.

Gehazi was in office to Elisha as Elisha had been to Elijah; and yet you know the difference in successorship: the one succeeded to the double portion of the spirit of his master; the other, seeking after Naaman’s lucre, gained it, but with the leprosy attached. See 2 Kings 2; 5: 20-27.

And so there was Judas, and another Judas not Iscariot: the one who by transgression fell from the ministry and apostleship, whose “bishopric let another take,” Judas who traded away his Lord; and Jude the servant of Jesus Christ.

There is a Lamech and another Lamech; Methusael and Methuselah; Mehujael and Mahalaleel; Irad and Jared; Enoch and another Enoch; Cain and Cainan.

There have been the Cain line and the Abel line of worshipers from the start: “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. . . . But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.” Gen. 4: 3-5. “And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.” Gen. 4: 4.

But why this difference? “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” Heb. 11: 4. And “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Rom. 10: 17. One took God’s way, making an offering by the shedding of blood; the other took his own way, without the blood, and finally shed his brother’s blood.

You may worship, but in vain, unless you be and do how and what God says. Matt. 15: 8, 9.

Remember, Adam’s oldest son, Cain, brought an offering unto the Lord, which the Lord did not respect. And the warning is given to worshipers away from God’s plumb line: “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain.” Jude 11.