Preparation for the Final Crisis
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own souls and for the souls of your fellow men. Earnest prayers
of heart-rending anguish would go up to heaven. You would weep
between the porch and the altar, confessing your spiritual blindness
and backsliding.
“Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders,
gather the children: ... let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber,
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and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the
Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare
Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach.”
Joel
2:15-17
.
“Turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and
with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your
garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and
merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him
of the evil. Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a
blessing behind Him?”
Verses 12-14
.
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After Israel’s apostasy and bitter retribution, God’s message of
grace for the repentant people was: “Behold, I will allure her, and
bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I
will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a
door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and
as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.”
Hosea 2:14,
15
.
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“And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call Me
my husband; and shalt call Me no more my lord.... And I will betroth
thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness,
and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even
betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord.”
Verses 16-20, margin
.
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