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Patriarchs and Prophets
to believe it to be truth. While endeavoring to destroy the confidence
of the people in the men of God’s appointment, they really believe that
they are engaged in a good work, verily doing God service.
The Hebrews were not willing to submit to the directions and re-
strictions of the Lord. They were restless under restraint, and unwilling
to receive reproof. This was the secret of their murmuring against
Moses. Had they been left free to do as they pleased, there would have
been fewer complaints against their leader. All through the history of
the church God’s servants have had the same spirit to meet.
It is by sinful indulgence that men give Satan access to their minds,
and they go from one stage of wickedness to another. The rejection of
light darkens the mind and hardens the heart, so that it is easier for them
to take the next step in sin and to reject still clearer light, until at last
their habits of wrongdoing become fixed. Sin ceases to appear sinful
to them. He who faithfully preaches God’s word, thereby condemning
their sins, too often incurs their hatred. Unwilling to endure the pain
and sacrifice necessary to reform, they turn upon the Lord’s servant
and denounce his reproofs as uncalled for and severe. Like Korah, they
declare that the people are not at fault; it is the reprover that causes
all the trouble. And soothing their consciences with this deception,
the jealous and disaffected combine to sow discord in the church and
weaken the hands of those who would build it up.
Every advance made by those whom God has called to lead in
His work has excited suspicion; every act has been misrepresented by
the jealous and faultfinding. Thus it was in the time of Luther, of the
Wesleys and other reformers. Thus it is today.
Korah would not have taken the course he did had he known that
all the directions and reproofs communicated to Israel were from God.
But he might have known this. God had given overwhelming evidence
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that He was leading Israel. But Korah and his companions rejected
light until they became so blinded that the most striking manifestations
of His power were not sufficient to convince them; they attributed
them all to human or satanic agency. The same thing was done by the
people, who the day after the destruction of Korah and his company
came to Moses and Aaron, saying, “Ye have killed the people of the
Lord.” Notwithstanding they had had the most convincing evidence of
God’s displeasure at their course, in the destruction of the men who
had deceived them, they dared to attribute His judgments to Satan,