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The Great Controversy
Jeremiah in the dark and dismal pit of his prison house? Did He forget
the three worthies in the fiery furnace? or Daniel in the den of lions?
“Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten
me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will
I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My
hands.”
Isaiah 49:14-16
. The Lord of hosts has said: “He that toucheth
you toucheth the apple of His eye.”
Zechariah 2:8
.
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Though enemies may thrust them into prison, yet dungeon walls
cannot cut off the communication between their souls and Christ. One
who sees their every weakness, who is acquainted with every trial, is
above all earthly powers; and angels will come to them in lonely cells,
bringing light and peace from heaven. The prison will be as a palace;
for the rich in faith dwell there, and the gloomy walls will be lighted
up with heavenly light as when Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises
at midnight in the Philippian dungeon.
God’s judgments will be visited upon those who are seeking to
oppress and destroy His people. His long forbearance with the wicked
emboldens men in transgression, but their punishment is nonetheless
certain and terrible because it is long delayed. “The Lord shall rise
up as in Mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon,
that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His
act, His strange act.”
Isaiah 28:21
. To our merciful God the act of
punishment is a strange act. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have
no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”
Ezekiel 33:11
. The Lord is
“merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and
truth, ... forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Yet He will “by
no means clear the guilty.” “The Lord is slow to anger, and great in
power, and will not at all acquit the wicked.”
Exodus 34:6, 7
;
Nahum
1:3
. By terrible things in righteousness He will vindicate the authority
of His downtrodden law. The severity of the retribution awaiting the
transgressor may be judged by the Lord’s reluctance to execute justice.
The nation with which He bears long, and which He will not smite
until it has filled up the measure of its iniquity in God’s account, will
finally drink the cup of wrath unmixed with mercy.
When Christ ceases His intercession in the sanctuary, the unmin-
gled wrath threatened against those who worship the beast and his
image and receive his mark (
Revelation 14:9, 10
), will be poured out.