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6:1

@@@^And how do I know for certain that Jacob walked with God? I know this because in the end of his first day’s flight from the face of Esau, Jacob rested with God, and there he saw the angels of God walking up and down the ladder which spanned the distance from heaven to earth.

6:2

@@@^Then, after having spent another twenty years in the school of God, Jacob left Padanaram and started toward home with riches untold, although he had given fourteen years of time and labor out of the twenty years in return for which he received nothing but Laban’s two daughters in marriage. Jacob, you see, in God’s school learned how to turn poverty in to well-paying business. Moreover, he not only made himself rich, but he made his father-in-law rich also. He learned how to work and how to save. But he did not stop then. He continued in the school of God, and when in Egypt, his son Joseph, who was then second to the king, was not ashamed to introduce his father to Pharaoh on the throne. Jacob was a cultured man.

7:1

@@@^Then there was Moses. From his youth up to his forties he went both to the school of God and the school of Pharaoh. With this dual education he felt strong and capable enough to free the Hebrew nation from Pharaoh’s brickyards. He started out by killing an Egyptian, and then he fled the country. God, nevertheless, was not through with him. He took him to Mount Horeb and there He made him tend sheep. There while keeping sheep to make a living and to pay his tuition he was unlearning Pharaoh’s education, and there in the school of God, he learned how to become the world’s greatest emancipator-general, author, ruler, educator, lawmaker and prophet.

9:1

@@@^The school of God does not teach only from its textbook, not merely in the school-room, it teaches the practical as well as the theoretical. The practical, of course, most men dislike, and some would not take practical training even for a gift. Let us take Joseph for example. When he finished the class-room work he was initiated into the practical. His training was perhaps most trying because his vocation was to be not only one of the greatest but unique as well. Besides, his curriculum included the learning of a strange language and love for his enemies. He was to learn by experience that if one serves God faithfully, then whatever befalls him in life he is to know that it is but a gift from God, and that he is to make the best of it.

10:4

@@@^How can we know that the work we are doing is the work God would have us do? — It is certain that God would not build instruments to kill regardless of the pay; that He would not work at something that the Devil works at; neither would He go into partnership with one who is not walking with God.

13:2

@@@^@0@9Jer. 10:23 — “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”@7@^In this verse we are told that the way man should go is not in himself, that he of himself does not know how to direct his steps. Someone else must direct them if he is to go in the right direction. For this very reason God’s people are led by a prophet and are preserved by a prophet. (Hos. 12:13.) So it was that through the medium of the prophets God led and preserved the Church of the Old Testament, and by the same Spirit He founded, led, and has to this day preserved the New Testament Church, although the spirit that rebelled against God’s leadership anciently, is still in the Church today.

13:5

@@@^“We have been inclined to think that where there are no faithful ministers, there can be no true Christians; but this is not the case. God has promised that were the shepherds are not true he will take charge of the flock himself. God has never made the flock wholly dependent upon human instrumentalities. But the days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place, we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will manifest that his fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor.

18:2

@@@^The statement, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse,” implies that some are already bringing into it, but not all. This, along with the charge that the whole nation is robbing God, positively shows that the tithes are now brought, not to God’s storehouse, but to some other house. To repeat, God’s storehouse has ever been and ever will be where “the message of the Hour” is, where “Present Truth” is, the house from which “meat in due season” is dispensed at the time the tithes are paid.

7:4

@@@^I especially wish to note your Section #3. Your Section #3 covers five pages. In scanning those pages of that section I notice that you dwell in those pages on Esau and Jacob. You compare these two men to symbols. They represent various symbols. In those five pages you make many strong statements of the application of those two individuals to our present day, but you give no Scriptural proof. You understand, dear brother, when a man says a thing or a person means so and so, he must have divine proof for his assertion. If not, why should a person accept as authority his statement any more than a person should accept as authority any one else’s statement. In dealing with the Word of God, we must be guarded that we do not insert into Scripture what does not contain there. If the Spirit of God should make a comment on a text, then the application is inspired. But when a man makes an assertion in regard to a Scripture and He has no divine authority for the support of his assertion, he is liable to handle the Word of God deceitfully. I am sure you do not intend to do anything like that, but there is a possibility nevertheless.

7:8

@@@^It would seem that if ever there was a time when the Word of God was in abundance it was at the time when the apostles went forth preaching the Word of God. The Holy Spirit gave those men of God such divine enlightenment on the Old Testament Scriptures that they had an understanding of the Word in a most clear and forceful manner. The Bible really became a new book to the people in the days of those apostles. As you read Acts, chapters two, three, and four, you receive a most beautiful insight into the meaning of some of the Psalms and the writings of the Prophets. It was the application of the Old Testament Scriptures by those apostles of Christ which led hundreds, yes thousands to accept the Saviour. Surely that was no time of famine.

12:3

@@@^“God has precious light to come to His people . . . When new light is presented to the church, it is perilous to shut yourselves away from it . . . To condemn that which you have not heard and do not understand will not exalt your wisdom in the eyes of those who are candid in their investigations of truth. And to speak with contempt of those whom God has sent with a message of truth, is folly and madness . . . For God will glorify His Word that it may appear in a light in which we have never before beheld it . . . Light will come to every earnest seeker for truth, as it came to Nathanael . . . There should be liberty given for a frank investigation of truth, that each may know for himself what is the truth . . .

71:3

@@@^We know that the Lord is speaking to His people at this very time through the publications of @9The Shepherd’s Rod;@7 that the message they contain is that which “will cause a shaking among God’s people” (@9Early Writings, @7p. 270); that those who accept this counsel of the True Witness will receive the seal of God and be numbered among the 144,000 (@9Testimonies, @7Vol. 3, p. 266); that those who reject it, will fall in the slaughter of Ezekiel 9 (@9Testimonies to Ministers@7, p. 445; @9Testimonies@7, Vol. 5, p. 211) and Isaiah 66:16; and that those who “escape of them,” the 144,000, the first fruits, are to be the servants of God in the time of the Loud Cry (Rev. 14:4; @9Testimonies,@7 Vol. 5 pp. 80, 81) to bring the second fruits out of “all nations.” Isa. 66:19, 20.

6:1

@@@^@0@9Verses 14-28 — “But I wrought for My name’s sake, that It should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. Yet also I lifted up My hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; because they despised My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My Sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless Mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols: I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them; and hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Notwithstanding the children rebelled against Me: they walked not in My statutes, neither kept My judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted My Sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness. Nevertheless I withdrew Mine hand, and wrought for My name’s sake, that It should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. I lifted up Mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries; because they had not executed My judgments; but had despised My statutes, and had polluted My Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord. Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they have committed a trespass against Me. For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings.”@7@^They were unfaithful in Egypt, in the wilderness, and in the promised land. We shall now read of the results.

10:1

@@@^@0@9Verses 42-44 — “And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to your fathers. And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have wrought with you for My name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God.”@7@^These things God does for His people, not because they are deserving, but for His name’s sake, because His promise cannot fail. The Kingdom of God, you see, does not begin in heaven, but on earth. And the Kingdom, you now see, is not to be made up of ghosts, but of living human beings, of saints, not a sinner among them.

14:3

@@@^@0@9Verses 23, 24 — “And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it.”@7@^The self-centered shepherds against whom the prophet is told to write, are to be replaced by one shepherd, David. When this takes place God’s people will then have but one shepherd. This, of course, cannot be Christ Himself, for Inspiration never calls Him David, but rather It calls Him the @9Son@7 of David. Since God’s people have always had, and still do have many shepherds, the truth stands out as clear as crystal that the David of verses 23 and 24 is yet to come, and that the shepherds whom Inspiration addresses are in particular those whom David is to succeed.

15:1

@@@^Ezekiel, then, was not given a vision of the shepherds in his day, nor of those before his day, but of the shepherds after his day — the day in which God raises up this antitypical David to feed His hungry and neglected flock. God’s people shall then no longer serve strangers, “But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.” Jer. 30:9. Here we see that not only Ezekiel, but Jeremiah also was given a vision of this same truth. Yes, all the prophets.

17:2

@@@^@0@9Verse 13 — “And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.”@7@^In the days of this antitypical David God gathers His flock from all the countries where they have been scattered, and brings them into their own land. God will no longer leave them in the mountains and the hills of the Gentiles. “Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.” Hos. 1:11; 3:5.

5:1

@@@^@0@9Verses 15-22 — “Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more, neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord God. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before Me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Wherefore I poured My fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: and I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned My holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of His land. But I had pity for Mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.”@7@^By these scriptures it can now be understood that God does not do this because His people of yesterday or of today have been good, but because He must vindicate His name, and He must let the heathen know that they were able to drive His people out of the land only because He allowed them to do so on account of the iniquity of His people.

12:1

@@@^@0@9Ezek. 37:1-12 — “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, Thou knowest. Again He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.@7 “So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

15:3

@@@^@0@9Verse 23 — “Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be My people, and I will be their God.”@7@^After the subjects of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel are gathered from among the heathen nations and they themselves become a nation and a kingdom “then” they are to be cleansed, and not @9before@7 say the Scriptures. From these you see that this is the work of the cleansing of the Sanctuary (Dan. 8:14), the purification of the church (“Testimonies,” Vol. 5, pg. 80) — the cleansing of the temple (Mal. 3:1-3) — the harvest time blotting out the sins and defects of the penitent and doing away with the impenitent. It is the Judgment for the Living that purifies the church. It sets her apart from the world, and fits her for the gathering of the people (Rev. 18:4) — makes her the ark for today, a place of refuge for all who wish to escape the plagues. Thereafter the saints remain clean. They sin no more. They are God’s clean and faithful people forevermore. There has never, therefore, come to God’s people a more important message than this.