ARE YOU CRITICISING GOD’S WORK, WORKERS, AND INSTITUTIONS?
By David Paulson
Have you ever seen any of God’s work in the earth suffering under the evident marks of His displeasure? And have you therefore felt justified in making slighting remarks about it? If so, what God said to the children of Ammon applies to you. They said, “Aha,” against God’s sanctuary when it was profaned, and against the land of Israel when it was desolate, and against the house of Judah when they went into captivity. Eze. 25:3. Further than that, they clapped their hands, stamped with their feet, and rejoiced in their hearts. Verse 6. Because they took this attitude toward God’s work when it was apparently in disgrace, God said that they should be a spoil to the heathen, that He would cut them off from the people, and destroy them. Verse 7. Have you sometimes said in your heart, and occasionally whispered to others, that after all, God’s institutions are no better that worldly institutions? If you persist in so doing, you may learn your fate from what God said should happen to Moab and Seir when they said exactly the same thing. They declared that the house of Judah was like all the heathen (verse 8); and when we remember that this was said during the captivity of Judah, it is evident that they had a much better excuse for making such a remark than we ordinarily have for making a similar comparison between God’s institutions and worldly ones. But for all that, God said that Moab and Seir should not be remembered among the nations. Have you sometimes felt that you have not been treated rightly in God’s work? You may learn a lesson from the experience of Edom, when she sought to take vengeance against Judah (verse 12), and as a consequence God said that He would stretch out His hand over Edom, and cut off man and beast from among them. Have you sometimes cherished an “old hatred” because of some fancied or real injury that you received years ago? If so, you are doing just what the Philistines did against God’s people (verse 15), for which the Lord said He would execute great vengeance upon them, with furious rebukes. Have you sometimes, when it appeared that one of God’s institutions was upon the border line of a great financial disaster, planned some scheme whereby you could secure advantage over it? When you saw the institution crippled for lack of money, did you persist in keeping your wages to the highest possible notch, so that you might be replenished even though God’s institution was being drained to the bottom? If so, you were doing what Tyrus did; and from what God said should happen to Tyrus, you may certainly know what awaits you. Eze. 26:2, 3. We should bear in mind that at the very time God was uttering these reproofs and rebukes upon the surrounding nations, the temple was lying in ruins, and God’s people were suffering under the evident marks of His displeasure. Yet it was a fearful thing for these surrounding nations to make slighting and criticising remarks or unfavorable comparisons, or to seek in any way to take advantage of God’s work in the earth. One of the surest and quickest methods whereby we can reap a harvest of leanness of soul, and secure a wilted and blighted Christian experience, is to begin to talk against or to belittle God’s work, workers, and institutions. Instead, let us ask God to use us to strengthen His languishing cause.