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Patriarchs and Prophets
desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress
and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but
I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find
Me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the
Lord: they would none of My counsel: they despised all My reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with
their own devices.” “But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely,
and shall be quiet from fear of evil.”
Proverbs 1:24-31, 33
.
The Israelites now humbled themselves before the Lord. “And they
put away the strange gods from among them, and served Jehovah.”
And the Lord’s heart of love was grieved—“was grieved for the misery
of Israel.” Oh, the long-suffering mercy of our God! When His people
put away the sins that had shut out His presence, He heard their prayers
and at once began to work for them.
A deliverer was raised up in the person of Jephthah, a Gileadite,
who made war upon the Ammonites and effectually destroyed their
power. For eighteen years at this time Israel had suffered under the
oppression of her foes, yet again the lesson taught by suffering was
forgotten.
As His people returned to their evil ways, the Lord permitted them
to be still oppressed by their powerful enemies, the Philistines. For
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many years they were constantly harassed, and at times completely
subjugated, by this cruel and warlike nation. They had mingled with
these idolaters, uniting with them in pleasure and in worship, until
they seemed to be one with them in spirit and interest. Then these
professed friends of Israel became their bitterest enemies and sought
by every means to accomplish their destruction.
Like Israel, Christians too often yield to the influence of the world
and conform to its principles and customs, in order to secure the
friendship of the ungodly; but in the end it will be found that these
professed friends are the most dangerous of foes. The Bible plainly
teaches that there can be no harmony between the people of God and
the world. “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.”
1 John
3:13
. Our Saviour says, “Ye know that it hated Me before it hated
you.”
John 15:18
. Satan works through the ungodly, under cover of
a pretended friendship, to allure God’s people into sin, that he may
separate them from Him; and when their defense is removed, then he