Light Through Darkness
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observe to do all the words of this law: and that their children, which
have not known anything, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your
God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess
it.”
Deuteronomy 31:12, 13
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Had this counsel been heeded through the centuries that followed,
how different would have been Israel’s history! Only as a reverence
for God’s Holy Word was cherished in the hearts of the people, could
they hope to fulfill the divine purpose. It was regard for the law of
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God that gave Israel strength during the reign of David and the earlier
years of Solomon’s rule; it was through faith in the living word that
reformation was wrought in the days of Elijah and of Josiah. And it was
to these same Scriptures of truth, Israel’s richest heritage, that Jeremiah
appealed in his efforts toward reform. Wherever he ministered he met
the people with the earnest plea, “Hear ye the words of this covenant,”
words which would bring them a full understanding of God’s purpose
to extend to all nations a knowledge of saving truth.
Jeremiah 11:2
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In the closing years of Judah’s apostasy the exhortations of the
prophets were seemingly of but little avail; and as the armies of the
Chaldeans came for the third and last time to besiege Jerusalem, hope
fled from every heart. Jeremiah predicted utter ruin; and it was because
of his insistence on surrender that he had finally been thrown into
prison. But God left not to hopeless despair the faithful remnant
who were still in the city. Even while Jeremiah was kept under close
surveillance by those who scorned his messages, there came to him
fresh revelations concerning Heaven’s willingness to forgive and to
save, which have been an unfailing source of comfort to the church of
God from that day to this.
Laying fast hold on the promises of God, Jeremiah, by means of
an acted parable, illustrated before the inhabitants of the fated city
his strong faith in the ultimate fulfillment of God’s purpose for His
people. In the presence of witnesses, and with careful observance of
all necessary legal forms, he purchased for seventeen shekels of silver
an ancestral field situated in the neighboring village of Anathoth.
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From every human point of view this purchase of land in territory
already under the control of the Babylonians, appeared to be an act
of folly. The prophet himself had been foretelling the destruction of
Jerusalem, the desolation of Judea, and the utter ruin of the kingdom.
He had been prophesying a long period of captivity in faraway Babylon.