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bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath"
(Neh. 13:15-18).
There it is in plain language! Sª"bbath-breaking was a
prime cause of Judah's captivity! It was so
important
to
GOD that He punished His own chosen people with this
most severe national punishment--defeat in war, being
taken from their land and made SLAVES in a foreign land!
SIN is defined by GoD as the transgression of His LA
w
(I
John 3:4). His LAW says: "Remember the sabbath day, to
keep it holy.... the seventh day is the sabbath of the
LoRD thy GOD." To work on the Sabbath, to defiJe. it by
your own pleasure seeking, doing business, etc. is AMAJOR
SIN, punishable by ETERNAL DEATH!
Jews Were Warned
The Jews were without excuse. They had been warned by
the prophets. Notice the warning through Jeremiah:
"Thus saith the Eterna!; Take heed to yourselves, and
bear no burden on the sabbath day ... neither do ye any
work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as
J
commanded
your fathers.... But if ye will not hearken unto me to
hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even
entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day;
then will
l
kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall
devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be
quenched" (Jer. 17:21-22, 27).
That was the warning. The Jews did not heed it. Now
see what happened!
"Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month,
which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of
Babylon, carne Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard [to–
day we would call him general of the armies, or field
marshal], which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusa–
Jem, and burned the house of the Eterna!, and the king's
house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses
of the great roen, burned he with tire" (Jer. 52:12-13).
When God
warns,
the punishrnent is SURE!
Why Israel Defeated
Nowsee what happened to the
other
nation oflsraelites, the
kingdom oflsrael, 117 years beforeJudah's captivity.
God had laid down the choice to these people in the
days of Moses, long before they were divided into two
nations. This was fully covered in last month's installment
regarding Leviticus 26. Now see what God said about it
through the prophet Ezekiel.
Ezekiel was given a message from God to the HOUSE OF
ISRAEL (not Judah- the Jews). Ezekiel was among the
Jewish captives after
their
captivity, which occurred more
than a hundred years after Israel's captivity. By that time
the Assyrians had long since left their land on the south–
ern shores of the Caspian Sea and migrated northwest,
finally settling in the land today called Germany.
The people of the house of Israel also migrated north–
west across Europe. But they did not stop in Germany.
They continued on farther west and north-into Western
'
14
Europe- France, Belgium, Holland, the Scandinavian
countries, and the British Isles-where they are to this
day, except for the tribe of Manasseh, which much later
migrated to North America and became the United
States.
The prophet Ezekiel was commissioned to go from
where he was, among the Jews, to the HOUSE OF ISRAEL.
"Go speak unto the HOUSE OF ISRAEL," said God (Ezek.
3:1), and again: "Go, get thee unto the house of Israel"
(verse 4).
But Ezekiel never took that message to the lost house of
Israel. He couldn't. He was a slave among the Jews.
Yet he is taking it to them, today, by means of having
written it in his book in the Bible-and by the fact that it
is being taken to those very people today by
The Plain
Truth
and
The World Tomorrow
broadcast!
It is a prophecy!
It
is a message for our peoples today!
You are reading it NOW! God help you to heed!
Prophecy to Us, Today
Speaking first of ancient Israel , God says, in Ezekiel 20:
"Wherefore
I
caused them to go forth out of the land of
Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave
them
my
statutes, and shewed them
my
judgments, which
if a roan do, he shall even live in them. Moreover also
I
gave them
my
sabbaths,
to be a sign
between me and
them, that they might know that
I
am the LORD that
sanctify them" (verses 10-12).
Notice, this passage repeats the exact wording of the
forever-binding Sabbath covenant of Exodus 31: 12-17!
Now continue: "But the house of Israel rebelled against
me in the wilderness: they walked not in
my
statutes, and
they despised
my
judgments ... and
my
sabbaths they
greatly polluted" (verse 13).
Then God pleaded with their children, a generation
later: "But
1
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:
1
am tbe Eterna! your God; walk in
my
statutes, and
keep
my
judgments, and do tbem; and hallow
my
sab–
baths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that
ye may know that
I
am the Eterna! your God" (verses
18-20).
The entire emphasis here is ditferentiating between
God's statutes, judgments and sabbaths on the one hand,
and
their fathers'
ditferent sabbaths, statutes and judg–
ments. They were observing a
different day
from God's
Sabbath! They had already turned to the pagans' day,
today called suNday-tbe day of the SUN and SUN wor-
ship!
.
"Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me,"
continued God, through the prophet Ezekiel. " ... They
polluted MY sabbatbs" (verse· 2t).
So what did God finally do-generations later?
He scattered them, in national captivity and slavery
(verse 23). But WHY?
The
PLAIN TAUTH May 1979