Signs of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 21. (5/30/1895)

Signs of the Times

May 30, 1895

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 30, 1895

Proving the Lord.

The Holy Ghost saith, "To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness; when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years." Heb. 3:7-9.

ONE who is on probation is being proved, for probation means proving. It is a fact, therefore, that God was on probation during those forty years in the wilderness. Nay, more, God is on probation as long as man is, because he invites men to prove him, to see if he is not to be trusted. When he speaks of the duty of tithing, and the blessing to follow, he says, "Prove me now herewith." Mal. 3:10.

IN the provocation in the wilderness, the Israelites were proving God by his works. He "wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan." Ps. 78:43. Yet "they forgot God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea." Ps. 106:21, 22.

AND so the Lord says, "Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their hearts; and they have not known my ways." Heb. 3:10. What a strange thing! They saw his works forty years, and yet did not know his ways! "As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried; he is a buckler to all those that trust in him." Ps. 18:30.

THERE is no other method of learning a person's ways than by his works. Those years in the wilderness were filled up with the wonderful works of God, all of them showing his love and his power. Yet in all that time the children of Israel, with few exceptions, did not get well enough acquainted with him to dare trust him. And so because of their unbelief they could not enter into his rest.

NOTHING more marvelous was ever done than to cause water to gush out of a flinty rock.

MEDICAL AND SURGICAL SANITARIUM (MAIN BUILDING), BATTLE CREEK, MICH.

No doubt the Israelites wondered at the sight, and probably they acknowledged God for a little while as the giver of it, and felt thankful to him for supplying their needs. But it soon became an old story. As they drank of that same stream day after day, and month after month, they forgot that it had not always been flowing. As they went farther down the stream, they forgot even that it flowed from a dry rock. And so they quenched their thirst without thinking that they were beholding the wonderful work of God. For the water's first gush from the rock was no greater miracle than its continued flow.

"BECAUSE that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." Rom. 1:21. This describes the Jews as well as the heathen. And does it not describe many who are called Christians? Who is there that is not every day beholding as wonderful works of God as the Israelites ever saw? If we do not daily recognize God as the direct supplier of our food and drink, because our needs are supplied by "natural" means, how much different are we from the Israelites, who got so accustomed to water that came from a dry rock, that they took it as a matter of course?

WE have no reason to condemn the Israelites for their unbelief. They were not exceptional people. They were no more disbelieving than other generations have been. Instead of wondering how they could have been so foolish, let us consider if we have not been beholding the works of God for many years, without learning anything of his ways. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God," "lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."

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