FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
October 17, 2014
Nathaniel Fajardo
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER TWO – Part VI
THE TWO WITNESSES OF REVELATION CHAPTER 11
David, the “sweet psalmist and singer of Israel” wrote: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” and composed this song: “You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord shall lighten my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop; by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven: He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” Ps. 119: 105; 2 Sam. 22: 29-31, N.K.J.V.
Solomon, whose name means “peaceable” and in one passage is called Jedidah, “beloved of Jehovah” (2 Sam. 12: 25), had God-given extraordinary “wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand of the seashore . . having “wisdom [that] excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men—than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Chalcol, and the Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations.
He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five.” 1 Kings 4: 29-32. Now Listen to what this real wise man says to all antinomian religious wise men of the earth when all will be arraigned “before the judgment seat of Christ” (Rom. 14: 10; 2 Cor. 4. 5: 10, etc.) He declared: “The commandment is a lamp; and the law is light: reproofs and instructions are the way of life.” Prov. 6: 23. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12: 13, 14,
In the book bearing his name, Job, which Moses wrote before Genesis in the Midianite wilderness— that “blameless and upright” patriarch “who feared God and shunned evil,” “the greatest of all the people of the East” back then, declared: “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” Job 23: 12. Do we, too?
The Two Witnesses of God of and for the truth (“For we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth,” 2 Cor.13: 8), of the plan of redemption Omniscience prepared before the foundation of the world and the fall of man—are the Old and New Testaments. Together they make up the whole Holy Scriptures, not merely the New Testament, as some Christians hold which plainly contradicts the Bible testimony itself.
Echoing Zechariah 4: 1-6 in the Old Testament, John, almost verbatim, wrote: “These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands standing before the God of the earth” (Rev. 11: 4)–the written Word of God’s revealed will, plan, and method (standard procedure; formula; process; rule) for redeeming and restoring sinners who earnestly “seek glory, honor, and immortality” (Rom. 2: 7). “It is written, man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”Matt. 4: 4; Deut. 8:3. These we must learn and joyfully participate in as “God’s fellow workers, God’s field, God’s building” (1 Cor. 3: 9).
This is “the common salvation,” the “faith once delivered to the saints,” which all true disciples of Christ will “earnestly contend for” (Jude 3) not just profess. Together they reveal God’s character of perfect love, mercy, wisdom,righteousness, and justice which Satan, the great slanderer, liar, murderer, and deceiver, misrepresented, maligned, and convinced angels and man through consummate stealth and craftiness into believing his own attributes to be that of God.
Together, like no other book can or ever will, they reveal the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the transgression of God’s law by its terrible consequences,—pain, sorrow, suffering, alienation, strife among man and nations, and death—“the last enemy that will yet have to be destroyed” at Christ’s second coming. 1 Cor. 15: 26.
Ellen G. White wrote:
“The Bible is the textbook, and is to be searched diligently—not as we would read a book among many books. It must be to us the book that meets the wants of the soul [in contrast to the flesh or carnal mind and desires]. This book will make the man [woman, or child] who studies and obeys it wise unto salvation [2 Tim. 3: 15-17]. As food cannot nourish the body unless it is eaten and digested, neither can the Word of God profit the soul unless it is received as a teacher in higher educational lines, as above all human productions, unless its principles be obeyed because it is the wisdom of God.” – This Day with God, p. 127.
“The Bible is God’s word speaking to us, just a surely as though we could hear it with our ears. If we realize this, with what awe we would open God’s word, and with what earnestness we would search its precepts! The reading and contemplation of the Scriptures would be regarded as an audience with the Infinite One.” – Vol. 6 Testimonies, p. 393.
The New Testament is Based on the Old
Here are excerpts from The Certainty of the Third Angel’s Message (1979) by the late Australian evangelist and prolific author, Louis F. Were, in his book The Certainty of the Third Angel’s Message, (1979):
“Dr. S. H. Brooks affirms that Genesis is quoted 19 times in 9 New Testament books: Exodus, 24 times in 12 New Testament books; Leviticus, 12 times in 9 books; Numbers is quoted or alluded to in 9 books; Deuteronomy, 26 times in 13 books; the Psalms, 59 times in 12 books; Isaiah, 50 times in 11 books; Proverbs, 6 times in 6 books; and Zechariah, 6 times in 4 books. To these must be added 376 allusions to the Old Testament in the New.
The Epistle to the Hebrews and Jewish portions of the Epistle to the Romans are entirely dependent on the Old Testament. Concerning the book of Revelation, Professor W. Milligan says: . . .it maybe doubted whether it contains a single figure not drawn from the Old Testament, or a single sentence not more or less built up of materials brought from the same source. . . . [It] is a perfect mosaic of passages from the Old Testament.’ – ‘The Revelation of St. John, p. 72.
“The Old Testament is the foundation of the New. The New Testament elevates and magnifies the teachings and prophecies of the Old.
“The New in the Old is contained;
The Old is by the New explained.
The New is latent in the Old;
The Old is patent in the New.
The New is in the Old concealed;
The Old is by the New revealed.
The New is in the Old enfolded;
The Old is in the New unfolded.”
“Strange doctrines may find apparent support from isolated passages or texts interpreted without reference to their contexts. But the test of true doctrine is its agreement with the rest of the Scripture [itals. mine]. A spirit of unity prevails throughout the Word of God. ‘The spirit of the prophets are subject to the prophets.’ 1 Cor. 14: 32.
Prophecy is history written in advance; History is prophecy fulfilled. – “By prophesying, many centuries in advance, future messages or movements in His work of salvation, God safeguards His children from deception. The miracle of prophecy not only guides His people, but is a powerful convicting force in the proclamation of their message, as there could not possibly any collusion between the prophets of long ago and people proclaiming a message in later centuries. As the movement is seen to be in perfect harmony with the prediction, to the honest in heart the conviction is irresistible that both the prediction and fulfillment are God ordained.”- Ibid, pp. 15, 16.
Apostle Peter wrote: “We also have the prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Peter 1: 19-21. N.K.J.V. – This genuine prophetic word is “made more sure” by the Holy Spirit. It clearly reveals two general classes of people—those living just before the Flood, and those living just before Jesus Christ returns—our generation! See Matt. 24: 1-51; Luke 17: 20-37, etc.
The Scoffers of the Last Days. The same apostle wrote: “Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days,walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation’ For this they willfully forget: that by the words of God the heavens of were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that thenexisted, perished, being flooded with water.” 2 Peter 2: 3-6.
Jesus also portrays this large class in the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12: 13-21. Foolish in their riches, literally or spiritually for lukewarm Christians boast in ignorance, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” to which “the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, says: “You do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” Rev. 3: 14-17. When thus informed of his true spiritual condition in the sight of and weighed in the balances of the immutable, unchanging standard—the Decalogue of the “one Lawgiver” (James 4: 12), the Faithful and True Witness, i.e., Christ through the all-seeing eye of the Holy Spirit and the recording-guardian angels, he no longer can plead ignorance “to be winked at” (Acts 17: 30).
In verse 19, the rich fool said, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, ‘You fool! This night your soulwill be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.’”
Those Who Hunger and Thirst after Christ’s Righteousness.— This class oftentimes walk alone on the “strait and narrow way,” following Christ’s example of self-denial and self-sacrifice He set for us in His adopted human nature. They never claim to be sinless, but ever aware of their helplessness, depend totally on Christ’s power and grace to do all that He bids, joyfully, and carry a burden for souls. These have ever been in the minority in comparison with the multitudes who aver there is another gospel, another easier, broader, faster way to heaven, but ends in perdition. Matt. 7: 14; Luke 13: 24.
Are we seeking a much closer walk and a deeper knowledge of God and His will than we’ve ever had before? It’s high time. Then let’s join together in this prayer:
“Lord, though I have been bought with a price [1 Cor. 6: 20], and Thy property, I have in the past refused to give myself to Thee. I know acknowledge that I am not my own, that I cannot do as I please with myself. Take me as I am, a poor, sinful creature, and cleanse and purify me from all sin by taking my sin Thine own dear self. I do not deserve this, but Thou art the only One who can save me. Take away my sin and give me Thy righteousness. I do not want to remain in sin one more day. Impart to me Thy righteousness, and keep me from all transgression of Thy holy law.” – E.G. White, This Day with God, p. 153.
(To be continued next week)