“The Prophets of God Helping Them”
371
Regarding the relation that Israel should sustain to surrounding
peoples, the Lord had declared through Moses: “Thou shalt make no
covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them: neither shalt thou
make marriages with them; ... for they will turn away thy son from
following Me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the
Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.” “Thou art an
holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to
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be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the nations that are upon
the earth.”
Deuteronomy 7:2-4
;
14:2
.
The result that would follow an entrance into covenant relation
with surrounding nations was plainly foretold. “The Lord shall scatter
thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the
other,” Moses had declared; “and there thou shalt serve other gods,
which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole
of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling
heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang
in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have
none assurance of thy life: in the morning thou shalt say, Would God
it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!
for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight
of thine eyes which thou shalt see.”
Deuteronomy 28:64-67
. “But if
from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God,” the promise had been,
“thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all
thy soul.”
Deuteronomy 4:29
.
Zerubbabel and his associates were familiar with these and many
like scriptures; and in the recent captivity they had evidence after
evidence of their fulfillment. And now, having repented of the evils
that had brought upon them and their fathers the judgments foretold
so plainly through Moses; having turned with all the heart to God,
and renewed their covenant relationship with Him, they had been
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permitted to return to Judea, that they might restore that which had
been destroyed. Should they, at the very beginning of their undertaking,
enter into a covenant with idolaters?
“Thou shalt make no covenant with them,” God had said; and those
who had recently rededicated themselves to the Lord at the altar set up
before the ruins of His temple, realized that the line of demarcation
between His people and the world is ever to be kept unmistakably