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From Eternity Past
mind the ways He has devised for bringing us out from darkness into
the precious light of His grace and truth.
With those who lived at a distance from the tabernacle, more than
a month of every year must have been occupied in attendance upon
the annual feasts. This example of devotion should emphasize the
importance of religious worship, the necessity of subordinating our
selfish, worldly interests to those that are spiritual and eternal. We
sustain a loss when we neglect associating together to encourage one
another in the service of God. We are all children of one Father,
dependent upon one another for happiness. It is the proper cultivation
of the social elements of our nature that brings us into sympathy with
our brethren and affords us happiness.
The Feast of Tabernacles not only pointed back to the wilderness
sojourn, but forward to the great day of final ingathering. The Lord
shall send forth His reapers to gather the tares in bundles for the fire
and to gather the wheat into His garner. At that time the wicked will be
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destroyed. They will become “as though they had not been.”
Obadiah
16
. And every voice in the whole universe will unite in joyful praise
to God.
When the ransomed of the Lord shall have been safely gathered
into the heavenly Canaan, forever delivered from the bondage of the
curse, they will “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
1 Peter
1:8
. Christ’s great work of atonement will then have been completed
and their sins forever blotted out.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with songs
And everlasting joy upon their heads: ...
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 35:10
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