The Controversy Over God’s Commandments
ZEPHANIAH says of that time: “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord.” Zeph. 1 : 14–16. ZEPHANIAH tells exactly why the terrors of this great day come so upon men. It is “because they have sinned against the Lord.” This is what brought all the trouble in the days of Elijah. For when Ahab cried out to Elijah, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” Elijah replied, “I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that thou hast forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.” And it was because Elijah had held up before the people the commandments of God, and had insisted on obedience to them that he was now accused of troubling Israel; and it was Israel’s persistent violation of the commandments that brought upon them all the trouble. Here then, in the days of Elijah, was a controversy over the commandments of God. On one side was Jezebel wielding all the power of the state in behalf of the violation of the commandments; on the other side was Elijah and a few others maintaining the honor of God by strict adherence to the precepts of his law.