THE FRUITS OF DISOBEDIENCE.
By A. S. Hutchins
TEXT:—“Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” Isa. 3:10, 11. The children of Israel were instructed when they should enter the land of Canaan, to drive out the inhabitants of the land from before them, and to destroy all their pictures, and all their molten images, and to pluck down all their high-places. In the following very explicit language, God told them, through Moses, what would be the consequences upon themselves, if they did not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before them. “Then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. Moreover, it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.” Num. 33:55, 56. It would seem that the voice of warning from Heaven, would have deterred this people from bringing the displeasure of God upon themselves, by disobedience in this respect. It seems as though they would have chosen the favor and presence of their great Deliverer from Egyptian servitude, rather than the thorns and scourges which they must endure if they would not expel the wicked Canaanites from before them, and then be themselves driven away into bitter captivity, from that land which might have been their quiet, peaceful home. From the time that the Lord took them by the hand to deliver them from the furnace of affliction and oppression in Egypt, to plant them in the promised land, “that they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws,” they had repeatedly witnessed the most marked and undoubted manifestations of his tender love for them; the course of the believing and obedient had ever received the highest approval, while the unbelieving and rebellious had often been visited before their eyes, with divine wrath and merited retribution. Repeated miracles, displaying the wonderful power of God, and his providential care for his people, had followed them all through the great wilderness for forty years; and they had “lacked nothing.” What more could they ask to lead them to obedience and to restrain them from sin? Still later in the history of this favored people, Joshua, that eminently pious and obedient servant of the Lord, in his dying charge, pleads with them, in consideration of former benefits and with promises of future victories and blessings, and by threatenings of future judgments from the hand of God, that they mingle not with the nations of the Canaanites, nor learn their ways; but that they cleave unto the Lord their God, and strictly keep, and do, all his requirements. Mark the distinctness of the solemn charge, and the certainty of incurring the awful displeasure of the Most High, if they disobeyed. “Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God. Else if ye do in anywise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you; know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you.” Josh. 23:11–13. To the credit of this chosen nation, it is recorded that, after entering the land of promise, they served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel. But alas! how soon the great and marvelous works of God, wrought for their deliverance and salvation, fade from the memory of the succeeding generation; and how soon they, and those who arose after them, manifest stubbornness of heart, and downright rebellion in forsaking the Lord God of their fathers who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and in turning unto other gods, and bowing down unto them. “Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand.” Ps. 106:40–42. Now as the history of ancient Israel was written for our benefit, we have an important and lasting lesson of instruction therein; not only from that portion which pertains to their unbelief and idolatry while passing through the wilderness, and the punishments which came upon them, but also from their subsequent disobedience and chastisements. As they disregarded the counsels and entreaties of chosen leaders who faithfully and repeatedly warned them of the dangers lying before them, so many, under the third angel’s message, have done, bringing upon themselves distress and anguish of heart. When brought into positions peculiarly trying, calculated to test their faith in God’s promises, many times, they murmured against Moses and against God. So, too, there are those now looking for speedy deliverance, and translation into the everlasting kingdom, who have murmured, and do murmur, against chosen servants of the Lord—chosen to lead out in the great work of the closing message of salvation to the world. They murmur against the providences of God, against the straitness of the way, and at pointed truths and testimonies, through which they should have been sanctified and brought into sweet communion with the great Head of the church. Says Paul, “Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.” Did God visit us with temporal judgments, and with death, as he did the first house of Israel, how quickly would the work of some of this unhappy class be closed. Solomon says, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore is the heart of the sons of men fully set in them to do evil.” Eccl. 8:11. But the root of disobedience and rebellion was taken to the promised land, where it quickly sprang up, bearing abundantly its poison fruit. Israel did not drive out the sinful nations from before them, as God commanded. They mingled with them, contrary to the express precepts which they had received from the faithful servants of God, who now could no more raise the warning voice against their sins. They had long admonished them, leaving behind their dying counsel for their benefit, which they would not heed. They drank in the spirit of these idolaters; they learned their works; they served their idols; which were a snare unto them. They made marriages with the unholy, and were led away from the service of the true God, who, with an outstretched arm, had often wrought so mightily for them, to serve the gods of the heathen. They sacrificed their own sons and daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood. Behold, the downward tendency of the disobedient! See their weakness and inability to resist temptations to the most heinous sins, and the strange and delusive influence of the vicious over them, when once brought under their power. “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go; keep her; for she is thy life. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.” Truly, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.” In the 7th and 11th chapters of Deuteronomy, we read of the spiritual and temporal blessings wherewith God promised to bless Israel when they should be established in the land “flowing with milk and honey,” provided they would keep his commandments. But these proffered favors were forfeited through blindness of mind and the most inexcusable disregard to divine principles and precepts. Instead of those great personal and national blessings, which they might have secured, crowning them with power to scatter and drive out from before them great and mighty nations, bringing peace and plenty to their land, with sunshine and joy to their homes, they were vexed with snares and traps, with thorns and scourges; they were repulsed and humbled by their enemies, and driven from the goodly land into distressing and long-continued captivity, where those who hated them ruled over them. By the rivers of Babylon they sat down and wept when they “remembered Zion.” That the Saviour should come was continually kept in the mind of the Jews by the types, shadows, and daily sacrifices, of the former dispensation; and in their own hands were the Scriptures, pointing to his advent, his ministry, humiliation, sufferings, death, resurrection, &c.; yet, when he came, he was by them rejected, with all the gracious offers of salvation to the believing and obedient, “his own received him not.” They preferred the life of a murderer to that of the Son of God. Their maddened cry was, “Crucify him, Crucify him,” when Pilate would have released him. Their cup of iniquity was filled up, and upon themselves they called down the terrible judgments of Heaven, even the destruction of their magnificent temple, and their renowned city; and the slaughter of themselves by tens and hundreds of thousands by the Romans, and their dispersion to all the nations of the world, with the gracious offers to them as a nation removed to another people. Truly, “the way of transgressors is hard.” Here, dear brethren, we do well to pause and enter into a critical examination of our own hearts, and see on what foundation we base our hope of eternal life in the kingdom of God. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor. 10:11, 12. “Be not highminded, but fear.” If we stand amidst the perils of the last days, we must have much of that wisdom from above, which “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” Rebellion is no more pleasing in the sight of God to-day than when he was leading his people through the wilderness, or in the days of Samuel when, in the following language, he reproved Saul: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” “They that would grow divinely wise,
Must with his fear begin;
Our fairest proof of knowledge lies
In hating every sin.” The Saviour died to “redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” The apostle, bringing our minds down the stream of time, to the last church, expresses this desire: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” As sons of God, as followers of the blessed Jesus, it is our privilege to attain unto this exalted position, to rise in communion and fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, till we are “without fault before the throne of God.” But as the sinful nations of Canaanites were permitted to remain in the land with the Israelites, so many now allow spiritual foes to linger in the heart. The love of the world, selfishness, and pride, with kindred sins, all of which should be uprooted, are fostered, and grow; the garden of the heart is neglected, and “thorns” spring up and “choke the word.” Oh! that souls thus deluded, who are dreaming of Heaven, might awake; awake to a sense of their danger ere it be too late; be made free from sin, become servants of God, and have their fruit unto holiness, and the end, everlasting life. As God anciently desired his people to be a peculiar people, and distinct from the world, so he requires of his people now a separation from the spirit of the world, that they do not unnecessarily mingle with those who will prove as thorns and snares unto them. The language of the Saviour is to the point: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” James, bearing testimony on this point, says: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” In enumerating the points of separation, God distinctly forbade his people making marriages with the nations; so now, the Lord expressly desires that we should be thus separate from unbelievers. Paul says: “Only in the Lord.” As applying on this point, we quote the following:— “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?74or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Cor. 6:14–18. There are many witnesses who could testify that disobedience in this direction has brought its bitter fruit of grief and sorrow to their hearts, blighting their joyous hopes of eternal life, and rendering uncertain the probability of their ever attaining unto it. It would be well if, from the experience of these, others would learn to obey God in all these things, and escape the judgments which ever follow disobedience. Notwithstanding the great mass of the present age forget these things and walk in their own ways, there are those who choose the path of obedience, and seek to honor God by conformity to all the requirements of his holy word. They believe to the saving of the soul; they will escape the judgments which hang over this guilty world, and be prepared for the inheritance with the saints in light.