Articles
Taking Our Place
Taking Our Place
The sacred scriptures of old are abundant in examples of people called upon to take a stand. Remember the record where Jehovah spoke to Moses, and said, Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt” (Exod. 3:10). Don’t you know that captured Moses’ attention? Do you think there would be few, or many godly men that would respond as Moses did, i.e., “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Remember also when the children of Israel were at the foot of Mount Sinai and began to play the harlot, and Moses said, “Whoso is on Jehovah’s side, let him come unto me” (Exod. 32:26).
Throughout the sacred writings people are called upon to make a choice, and this call to action has been echoed throughout man’s history: “Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (Isa. 52:11; Hosea 1:10; 2 Cor. 6:17-18).
Even now, we must take our place and choose our side and that is either “on Jehovah’s side,” (Exod. 32:26), or the devil’s side, because that’s exactly how our God will separate the nations: “and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:32-34, 41).
For this reason, men have given their lives to preach the gospel. Paul said, “Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Cor. 5:11). Knowing that the wrath of God is to come upon the world of ungodly men should be a sobering fact to us all. Therefore, as children of God, “we wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10).
However, between now and then we are faced with a battle. The apostle Paul called it a “warfare” (1 Timothy 1:18). This warfare is described as a “wrestling…against the principalities, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly place” (Eph. 6:12). In this warfare, satan, and his ministers “fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:14-15). Thus, they will be found among the righteous. When you’re called to take your place in the war, will you be able to spot them? ret
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