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Selected Messages Book 1
to fallen man. Every idea He presented was His own. He needed not
to borrow thoughts from any, for He was the originator of all truth. He
could present the ideas of prophets and philosophers, and preserve His
originality; for all wisdom was His; He was the source, the fountain,
of all truth. He was in advance of all, and by His teaching He became
the spiritual leader for all ages.
It was Christ that spoke through Melchizedek, the priest of the
most high God. Melchizedek was not Christ, but he was the voice of
God in the world, the representative of the Father. And all through the
generations of the past, Christ has spoken; Christ has led His people,
and has been the light of the world. When God chose Abraham as a
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representative of His truth, He took him out of his country, and away
from his kindred, and set him apart. He desired to mold him after
His own model. He desired to teach him according to His own plan.
The mold of the world’s teachers was not to be upon him. He was to
be taught how to command his children and his household after him,
to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. This is the
work that God would have us do. He would have us understand how
to govern our families, how to control our children, how to command
our households to keep the way of the Lord.
John Called to a Special Work
John was called to do a special work; he was to prepare the way
of the Lord, to make straight His paths. The Lord did not send him
to the school of the prophets and rabbis. He took him away from the
assemblies of men to the desert, that he might learn of nature and
nature’s God. God did not desire him to have the mold of the priests
and rulers. He was called to do a special work. The Lord gave him
his message. Did he go to the priests and rulers and ask if he might
proclaim this message?—No, God put him away from them that he
might not be influenced by their spirit and teaching. He was the voice
of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall
be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and the
glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together:
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (
Isaiah 40:3-5
). This is the