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Patriarchs and Prophets
judgment, no retribution; that “men are unfallen demigods;” that desire
is the highest law; and that man is accountable only to himself. The
barriers that God has erected to guard truth, purity, and reverence are
broken down, and many are thus emboldened in sin. Does not such
teaching suggest an origin similar to that of demon worship?
The Lord presented before Israel the results of holding commu-
nion with evil spirits, in the abominations of the Canaanites: they
were without natural affection, idolaters, adulterers, murderers, and
abominable by every corrupt thought and revolting practice. Men do
not know their own hearts; for “the heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked.”
Jeremiah 17:9
. But God understands the
tendencies of the depraved nature of man. Then, as now, Satan was
watching to bring about conditions favorable to rebellion, that the
people of Israel might make themselves as abhorrent to God as were
the Canaanites. The adversary of souls is ever on the alert to open
channels for the unrestrained flow of evil in us; for he desires that we
may be ruined, and be condemned before God.
Satan was determined to keep his hold on the land of Canaan, and
when it was made the habitation of the children of Israel, and the law
of God was made the law of the land, he hated Israel with a cruel and
malignant hatred and plotted their destruction. Through the agency of
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evil spirits strange gods were introduced; and because of transgression,
the chosen people were finally scattered from the Land of Promise.
This history Satan is striving to repeat in our day. God is leading His
people out from the abominations of the world, that they may keep
His law; and because of this, the rage of “the accuser of our brethren”
knows no bounds. “The devil is come down unto you, having great
wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
Revelation
12:10, 12
. The antitypical land of promise is just before us, and Satan
is determined to destroy the people of God and cut them off from their
inheritance. The admonition, “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into
temptation” (
Mark 14:38
), was never more needed than now.
The word of the Lord to ancient Israel is addressed also to His
people in this age: “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither
seek after wizards, to be defiled by them;” “for all that do these things
are an abomination unto the Lord.”
Leviticus 19:31
;
Deuteronomy
18:12
.
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