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Faithfulness to God

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 3, 1903

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 9.

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Faithfulness to God

By C. H. Bates

C. H. BATES
“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Acts 17:24. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Gen. 1:1. From these two texts of scripture we learn definitely how this earth came into existence; namely, by the hand of the Lord; and in Ps. 24:1 we read: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” From these texts the following facts are established: this earth wasmade by the Lord; it was made in the beginning; it belongs to him. Let us bear these facts in mind.
In the Word of God some other things are mentioned as belonging especially to the Lord. In Ps. 50:10 we read, “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine.” Hag. 2:8. “He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.” Deut. 10:18. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
Briefly stated, the following facts may be gleaned from the four texts quoted: our live stock, whatever it may be, belongs to the Lord; our gold and silver, or in other words, every dollar in our possession, is rightfully his; our clothing comes to us as a gift from him; and last, but not least in importance, our very bodies are his; for in Isa. 52:3 we read this startling declaration, “Ye have sold yourselves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money.”
“But,” says one, “does this silver dollar in my possession belong to the Lord?” or, “Does this fine horse belong to him?”—Yes, even our very life is his. “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”
Before going further in the study, it might be asked, In what sense do these things belong to us? Let us read Matt. 25:14: “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.” According to this scripture, the goods were only delivered to the servants by the Master, to be used; for the text plainly says that they were his goods.
In Luke 12:43 these servants are called stewards. Now a steward is one who has charge of another man’s goods. We have found that all that we have belongs to the Lord, and that we are only stewards or overseers of his goods. The Lord has set apart one tenth as especially belonging to him, and we are not to appropriate it to ourselves under any consideration. In Lev. 27:30 we read: “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord.”
By turning to Num. 18:24, we learn the use that was to be made of the tithe: “But the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave-offering unto the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit.” The Levites were God’s ministers appointed by him to do a special work. In the days of Nehemiah, the people became negligent in regard to this matter, and in Neh. 13:11 we read these words: “Then contended I with the rulers, and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? . . . Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto the treasuries.” In Malachi 3 we read, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? 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, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Before closing, I wish to call attention to the reckoning time as spoken of in Matt. 25:19: “After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.” This reckoning time is surely coming, and we are rapidly nearing that day when every man must give an account of himself to God.