HE SHALL LIFT YOU UP

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1904

“HE SHALL LIFT YOU UP.”

If the Lord's people will walk faithfully before Him, He will prosper them in the sight of the world. Through them He will demonstrate the wisdom of allegiance to Him. The people who scoffed at Noah, because he spent time and energy and means in building an ark, at last saw the wisdom of his investment.

After the death of Abraham there was a famine in the land where Isaac dwelt, and he moved over to Gerar. There he sowed grain, and it brought forth a hundred fold. This was practical evidence in the sight of the heathen that the God of Isaac was greater than their gods. They realized that Isaac had the advantage of them, but instead of yielding themselves to the only God who could produce such results, and be “a very present help in trouble,” they became envious of Isaac’s prosperity, and the king asked him to move away. Thus the knowledge of the true God (whom to know is life eternal), manifested through a missionary who was a veritable type of Christ, was officially rejected. But all this experience was not without its impression even on King Abimelech; for subsequently he went in person, accompanied by high officers of State, to make peace with Isaac. In this act there was a second acknowledgment that Isaac’s God was superior to the gods of the Philistines.

The Lord did missionary work in Egypt by prospering His people when, under the revival efforts of Moses and Aaron, they turned unto Him. There were Egyptians who, seeing how the children of Israel were favored through the power of their God, took refuge in the houses of the Israelites during the plagues. Thus they became believers in the God of Israel, and went out with the liberated people. The Lord’s design concerning His children, conditioned on their obedience, is set forth in Deuteronomy 28:—

“It shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth.” Verse 1.

“And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them.” Verses 10-13.

But some contend that those Old Testament promises were for the Jews only. So they were for the Jews as the Lord’s people. But the Lord is just as anxious that His people today should be illustrations of His power to

bless and uphold those who are faithful to Him as He ever was. All the promises of God are in Christ, and in Him are yea and amen. 2 Cor. 1:20. “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.” James 4:10.