“God's Emergency Measures” — another look at the
“many and various ways” in which God has worked to hold His family together as
He demonstrates the truth — all in the larger setting of the great controversy over
His character and government.
At infinite cost God has sought to convince the universe that His government will be
for ever one of peace and freedom based on mutual and well-founded trust. But when Satan
plunged the family into the crisis of rebellion and distrust, emergency measures were
required to maintain a semblance of order and respect until the basis for real peace and
freedom could be clarified and confirmed. God even had to command His children to stop
lying, stealing, cheating, and murdering one another. To gain our attention He had to
raise His voice on Sinai, rain fire on Mt. Carmel, and send she-bears in Elisha's day. The
One who sees the little sparrow fall had to establish a sacrificial system that called for
the death of thousands of His creatures. And the One who is love personified had to set up
a system of priestly mediation because His people were either too irreverent or too afraid
to be His friends. He even sent His Son to be the One between, when there really is no
need for anyone to stand between us and our gracious God. Besides, the One who came is
God, and no one stood between Him and Judas as the Creator knelt to wash His betrayer's
dirty feet.
How Satan has sought to pervert the meaning of God's emergency measures as evidence of
the correctness of his charges that God is arbitrary, vengeful, unforgiving, and severe!
Perhaps Satan's greatest success has been in leading God's children to believe that were
it not for the constant intercession of His Son, the Father could not find it in His own
heart to forgive and heal.
Thank God for the emergency measures! But we must understand them for what they are.
Bible passages included:
Galatians 3:19. "Why then the law? It was added because of
transgressions." (RSV)
Galatians 3:24, 25. "So the Law has been our attendant on our way
to Christ, so that we might be made upright through faith. But now that faith has come, we
are no longer in the charge of the attendant." (Goodspeed)
"So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by
faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law." (NIV)
Romans 3:31. "Does this mean that by this faith we do away with
the Law? No, not at all; instead, we uphold the Law." (GNB)
1 Timothy 1:8, 9. "We know that the law is good if a man uses it
properly. We also know that law is made not for good men but for lawbreakers and rebels,
the ungodly and sinful..." (NIV)
Hebrews 10:3, 4. "But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of
sin year after year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take
away sins." (RSV)
Jeremiah 7:22, 23. "For on the day that I brought your fathers
out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them, nor give them command regarding
burnt-offering or sacrifice; but this command I gave them, 'Listen to my voice, and I will
be your God, and you shall be my people.'" (American
Translation)
Jeremiah 3:16. "In those days...men shall speak no more of the
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord; they shall not think of it nor remember it nor resort to
it; it will be needed no more" (NEB)
Jeremiah 31:33, 34. "I will put my law within them, and I will
write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no
longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'
for they shall all know me." (RSV)
Hosea 6:6. "It is true love that I have wanted, not sacrifice;
the knowledge of God rather then burnt offerings." (Phillips)
"I would rather have my people know me than have them burn offerings to me."
(GNB)
Exodus 20:19, 20. "They said to Moses,'If you speak to us, we
will listen; but we are afraid that if God speaks to us, we will die.' Moses replied,
'Don't be afraid.'" (GNB)
Deuteronomy 5:24, 25, 27. "Today we have seen that it is possible
for a man to continue to live, even though God has spoken to him. But why should we risk
death again? That terrible fire will destroy us. We are sure to die if we hear the Lord
our God speak again... Go back, Moses, and listen to everything that the Lord our God
says. Then return and tell us what he said to you. We will listen and obey."' (GNB)
Numbers 12:6-8. "If any man among you is a prophet I make myself
known to him in a vision, I speak to him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses; he is
at home in my house; I speak with him face to face, plainly and not in riddles." (Jerusalem)
Exodus 33:11. "Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face,
as a man speaks to his friend." (RSV)
John 15:15. "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant
does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have
heard from my Father I have made known to you." (RSV)
John 16:25, 26. "I have been speaking to you in parables —
but the time is coming to give up parables and tell you plainly about the Father. When
that day comes, you will make your requests to him in my name, for I need make no promise
to plead to the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you." (Phillips)
John 14:9. "He who has seen me has seen the Father." (RSV)
John 20:28. "Thomas answered him, 'My Lord and my God!'" (RSV)
©1984 Graham Maxwell
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