IT was a serious charge that God made two thousand years ago against Ephraim. “I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing” (Hos. 8:12). But is it not a fact that what was laid then at Ephraim’s door lies at the door of many today?
Said a skeptic the other day to a Christian, “The Bible is a strange book.”
“Yes,” was the reply, “it is a wonderful book.”
“It has some strange characters amongst its saints,” continued the skeptic, “such as David and Solomon. If such men lived in our day we should say they deserved to be sent to prison for life.”
“Worse than that,” replied the Christian, “if they got what they deserved they would be sent to hell forever.”
Oh, beloved friend, could you but see the object God had in writing His “great things,” no longer would you deem them strange, but acknowledge His mercy to poor sinners, bringing salvation to the very worst, and making men, who are only fit for hell, to be fit for heaven (Col. 1:12). God never meant to manifest how good and great men should be, but how good and great He is, and this has been shown in the gift of His own Son (John 4:9, 10).
We can only learn the “great things” of God’s law as we see them told out in Jesus. He said, when coming into the world, “Lo, I come... I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Psa. 40:7, 8). The apostle says, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace are ye saved)” (Eph. 2:4, 5). It is an easy matter to love those that love us, but how hard to love those who we know are our deadliest foes. Yet, this is what we are by nature and practice, enemies to God, and so energized by Satan, that whilst traveling the broad road to hell we lifted up our puny arm of rebellion against Him.
But in spite of it, such was His great love, He gave His Son to die for us; yea, it produced a great mystery Christ and the Church (Eph. 5). Our nearness and dearness as believers to Christ are expressed in the words of the hymn―
“We two are so joined,
He’ll not be in glory
And leave me behind.”
How important then to take heed to the apostle’s question, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”
To neglect these great things found in God’s law, and made known to us so blessedly in God’s great love, is but to court His great wrath. One of the two you must have―one has been expressed, the other is coming. God’s great love has brought salvation with it. God’s great wrath is bringing damnation with it. Then decide which you will have salvation or damnation.
W. N.