THE TERRIBLE STORM!SECTION TWO THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD IN BIBLE TIMES THE FLOOD The Flood was a direct action by the Creator. When it took place, Satan had wanted to keep the wicked alive for his purposes; however, he was forced to see them destroyed. And amid the powerful forces unleashed by God, the devil feared that he himself would be destroyed before the worldwide storm and deluge was completed.
"In mercy to the world, God blotted out its wicked inhabitants in Noah's time. In mercy He destroyed the corrupt dwellers in Sodom. Through the deceptive power of Satan the workers of iniquity obtain sympathy and admiration, and are thus constantly leading others to rebellion. It was so in Cain's and Noah's day, and in the time of Abraham and Lot; it is so in our time. It is mercy to the universe that God will finally destroy the rejecters of His grace." Great Controversy, 543. "How was it with the rebellious inhabitants of the antediluvian world? After rejecting the message of Noah, they plunged into sin with greater abandon than ever before, and doubled the enormity of their corrupting practices. Those who refuse to reform by accepting Christ find nothing reformative in sin; their minds are set to carry their spirit of revolt, and they are not, and never will be, forced to submission. The judgment which God brought upon the antediluvian world declared it incurable."Testimonies to Ministers, 75. "By the waters of the Flood, He blotted this long-lived race from the earth, and with them perished the knowledge they had used only for evil." 1 Bible Commentary, 1089. "We have the history of the antediluvians, and of the cities of the plain, whose course of conduct degenerated from lightness and frivolity to debasing sins that called down the wrath of God in a most dreadful destruction, in order to rid the earth of the curse of their contaminating influence." 1 Bible Commentary, 1090. "Before the destruction of the old world by a flood, there were talented men, men who . . became corrupt in their imagination, because they left God out of their plans and councils. They were wise to do what God had never told them to do, wise to do evil. The Lord saw that this example would be deleterious to those who should afterwards be born, and He took the matter in hand. For one hundred twenty years He sent them warnings through His servant Noah. But they used the probation so graciously granted them in ridiculing Noah . . Then they held a carnival over the words of Noah, calling him a crazy fanatic. Gods patience was exhausted. He said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them, and, behold, I will destroy them from the earth. " 1 Bible Commentary, 1090. "As He called forth the waters in the earth at the time of the Flood, as weapons from His arsenal to accomplish the destruction of the antediluvian race, so at the end of the one thousand years He will call forth the fires in the earth as His weapons which He has reserved for the final destruction, not only of successive generations since the Flood, but the antediluvian race who perished by the Flood." 3 Spiritual Gifts, 87. THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH "For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it . . Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven." Genesis 19:13, 24. " . . like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger, and in His wrath." Deuteronomy 29:23. "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw good." Ezekiel 16:49-50. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 7. "In Sodom there was mirth and revelry, feasting and drunkenness. The vilest and most brutal passions were unrestrained. The people openly defied God and His law and delighted in deeds of violence. Though they had before them the example of the antediluvian world, and knew how the wrath of God had been manifested in their destruction, yet they followed the same course of wickedness." Patriarchs and Prophets, 157. "The inhabitants of Sodom had passed the limits of divine forbearance the hidden boundary between Gods patience and His wrath. The fires of His vengeance were about to be kindled in the vale of Siddim." Patriarchs and Prophets, 159. "The Lord rained brimstone and fire out of heaven upon the cities and the fruitful plain; its palaces and temples, costly dwellings, gardens and vineyards, and the gay pleasure-seeking throngs that only the night before had insulted the messengers of heaven, all were consumed." Patriarchs and Prophets, 162. The destruction of Sodom proclaimed the inhabitants of the most beautiful country in the world incorrigible in sin. The fire and brimstone from heaven consumed everything except Lot, and his wife, and two daughters. The wife, looking back in disregard of Gods command, became a pillar of salt." Testimonies to Ministers, 75. THE PLAGUES UPON EGYPT "And I will harden Pharaohs heart, and multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay My hand upon Egypt, and bring forth Mine armies, and My people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth Mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them." Exodus 7:35. "When the miracles were wrought before the king, Satan was on the ground to counteract their influence and prevent Pharaoh from acknowledging the supremacy of God and obeying His mandate. Satan wrought to the utmost of his power to counterfeit the work of God and resist His will. The only result was to prepare the way for greater exhibitions of the divine power and glory, and to make more apparent, both to the Israelites and to all Egypt, the existence and sovereignty of the true and living God." Patriarchs and Prophets, 334. "And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle." Exodus 12:29. "A single angel destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians and filled the land with mourning." Great Controversy, 614. "Each visitation from God was more severe than the preceding one, yet they would not release the children of Israel until the angel of the Lord slew the first-born of the Egyptians." 1 Testimonies, 265. PHARAOH AND HIS HOST DESTROYED IN THE RED SEA "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace . . And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea."Exodus 14:14, 27. "Amid the wrath of the elements, in which they hear the voice of an angry God, they endeavor to retrace their steps and fly to the shore they have quitted. But Moses stretched out his rod, and the piled-up waters, hissing and roaring, and eager for their prey, tumble down upon the armies of Egypt. Proud Pharaoh and his legions, gilded chariots and flashing armor, horses and riders, are engulfed beneath a stormy sea. The mighty God of Israel has delivered His people." 4 Testimonies, 25. JUDGMENTS PREDICTED FOR THE AMALEKITES "And the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. "And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi: For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. "Exodus 17:14-16. "The Amalekites were not ignorant of Gods character or of His sovereignty, but instead of fearing before Him, they had set themselves to defy His power. The wonders wrought by Moses before the Egyptians were made a subject of mockery by the people of Amalek, and the fears of surrounding nations were ridiculed. They had taken oath by their gods that they would destroy the Hebrews, so that not one should escape, and they boasted that Israels God would be powerless to resist them. They had not been injured or threatened by the Israelites. Their assault was wholly unprovoked. "It was to manifest their hatred and defiance of God that they sought to destroy His people. The Amalekites had long been high-handed sinners, and their crimes had cried to God for vengeance, yet His mercy had still called them to repentance; but when the men of Amalek fell upon the wearied and defenseless ranks of Israel, they sealed their nations doom. The care of God is over the weakest of His children. No act of cruelty or oppression toward them is unmarked by Heaven. Over all who love and fear Him, His hand extends as a shield; let men beware that they smite not that hand; for it wields the sword of justice."Patriarchs and Prophets, 300. "The Amalekites had been the first to make war upon Israel in the wilderness; and for this sin, together with their defiance of God and their debasing idolatry, the Lord, through Moses, had pronounced sentence upon them. By divine direction the history of their cruelty toward Israel had been recorded, with the command, Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it. Deuteronomy 25:19. For four hundred years the execution of this sentence had been deferred; but the Amalekites had not turned from their sins. The Lord knew that this wicked people would, if it were possible, blot out His people and His worship from the earth. Now the time had come for the sentence, so long delayed, to be executed."Patriarchs and Prophets, 627-628. JUDGMENTS BECAUSE OF THE GOLDEN CALF "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him . . And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves . . "And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people: Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them . . and I will make of thee a great nation . . And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men . . And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made."Exodus 32:1, 7, 9-10, 28, 35. "The Israelites had been guilty of treason, and that against a King who had loaded them with benefits and whose authority they had voluntarily pledged themselves to obey. That the divine government might be maintained justice must be visited upon the traitors. Yet even here Gods mercy was displayed. While He maintained His law, He granted freedom of choice and opportunity for repentance to all. Only those were cut off who persisted in rebellion."Patriarchs and Prophets, 324-325. "Sinful as they were, the people of Israel were not destroyed. While those who stubbornly ranged themselves on the side of Satan were cut off, the people, humbled and repentant, were mercifully pardoned. The history of this sin was to stand as a perpetual testimony to the guilt and punishment of idolatry, and the justice and long-suffering mercy of God."Patriarchs and Prophets, 335. DEATH OF THE BLASPHEMER AND SABBATHBREAKER "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him."Leviticus 24:13-14. "God Himself pronounced the sentence; by the divine direction, the blasphemer was conducted outside the camp, and stoned to death . . "There are those who will question Gods love and His justice in visiting so severe punishment for words spoken in the heat of passion. But both love and justice require it to be shown that utterances prompted by malice against God are a great sin. The retribution visited upon the first offender would be a warning to others, that Gods name is to be held in reverence. But had this mans sin been permitted to pass unpunished, others would have been demoralized; and as the result, many lives must eventually have been sacrificed."Patriarchs and Prophets, 408. "And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness they found a man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day . . And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp."Numbers 15:32, 34-35. "One of the people, angry at being excluded from Canaan and determined to show his defiance of Gods law, ventured upon the open transgression of the fourth commandment, by going out to gather sticks upon the Sabbath . . The act of this man was a willful and deliberate violation of the fourth commandment, a sin not of thoughtlessness or ignorance, but of presumption . . The sins of blasphemy and willful Sabbathbreaking received the same punishment, being equally an expression of contempt for the authority of God."Patriarchs and Prophets, 409. THE DEATH OF NADAB AND ABIHU "And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commandeth them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them and they died before the Lord."Leviticus 10:1-2. "For burning the incense they took common instead of the sacred fire which God Himself had kindled, and which He had commanded to be used for this purpose. For this sin, a fire went out from the Lord and devoured them in the sight of the people."Patriarchs and Prophets, 359. "Contrary to Gods express direction, they dishonored Him by offering common instead of sacred fire. God visited them with His wrath; fire went forth from His presence and destroyed them." 3 Testimonies, 295. THE REBELLION OF KORAH, DATHAN, AND ABIRAM "And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them; and they perished from among the congregation."Numbers 16:32-33. "The eyes of all Israel were fixed upon Moses, as they stood, in terror and expectation, awaiting the event. As he ceased speaking, the solid earth parted, and the rebels went down alive into the pit, with all that pertained to them, and they perished from among the congregation . . But the judgments were not ended. Fire flashing from the cloud consumed the two hundred and fifty princes who had offered incense."Patriarchs and Prophets, 400-401. "But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord . . And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment. And they fell upon their faces . . "Now they which died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, besides them that died about the matter of Korah."Numbers 16:41, 44-45, 49. "God had given overwhelming evidence that He was leading Israel. But Korah and his companions rejected light until they became so blinded that the most striking manifestations of His power were not sufficient to convince them; they attributed them all to human or satanic agency. The same thing was done by the people, who the day after the destruction of Korah and his company came to Moses and Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord. Notwithstanding they had the most convincing evidence of Gods displeasure at their course, in the destruction of the men who had deceived them, they dared to attribute His judgments to Satan, declaring that through the power of the evil one, Moses and Aaron had caused the death of good and holy men. It was this act that sealed their doom. They committed the sin against the Holy Spirit, a sin by which mans heart is effectually hardened against the influence of divine grace."Patriarchs and Prophets, 404-405 (see 3 Testimonies, 358). 24,000 DESTROYED AT BAAL-PEOR "Moses commanded the men of war to destroy the women and male children. Balaam had sold the children of Israel for a reward, and he perished with the people whose favor he had attained at the sacrifice of twenty-four thousand of the Israelites. The Lord is regarded as cruel by many in requiring His people to make war with other nations. They say that it is contrary to His benevolent character. But He who made the world, and formed man to dwell upon the earth, has unlimited control over all the works of His hands, and it is His right to do as He pleases, and what He pleases with the work of His hands. Man has no right to say to his Maker, Why doest Thou thus? There is no injustice in His character. He is the Ruler of the world, and a large portion of His subjects have rebelled against His authority, and have trampled upon His law . . He has used His people as instruments of His wrath, to punish wicked nations, who have vexed them, and seduced them into idolatry." 1 Bible Commentary, 1117. "And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor . . And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand."Numbers 25:3-5, 9. "By swift-coming judgments the people were awakened to the enormity of their sin. A terrible pestilence broke out in the camp, to which tens of thousands speedily fell a prey. God commanded that the leaders in this apostasy be put to death by the magistrates. This order was promptly obeyed. The offenders were slain, then their bodies were hung up in sight of all Israel, that the congregation, seeing the leaders so severely dealt with, might have a deep sense of Gods abhorrence of their sin, and the terror of His wrath against them."Patriarchs and Prophets, 455. GODS STRANGE ACT AT GIBEON "For the Lord will rise up as in mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do His strange work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act."Isaiah 28:21. "And the Lord discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. And it came to pass, as they fled from Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died; they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword."Joshua 10:10-11. "At His own will, God summons the forces of nature to overthrow the might of His enemies fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind fulfilling His word. When the heathen Amorites had set themselves to resist His purposes, God interposed, casting down great stones from heaven upon the enemies of Israel."Patriarchs and Prophets, 509. THE PLAGUES UPON THE PHILISTINES "And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod . . But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and He destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof . . Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither. And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction . . Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron . . for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there." 1 Samuel 5:1, 6, 8-11. "But the Lord had not wholly cast aside His people, nor would He long suffer the exultation of the heathen. He had used the Philistines as the instrument to punish Israel, and He employed the ark to punish the Philistines. In time past the divine Presence had attended it, to be the strength and glory of His obedient people. That invisible Presence would still attend it, to bring terror and destruction to the transgressors of His holy law."Patriarchs and Prophets, 585. THE DEATH OF THE 185,000 ASSYRIANS "And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses." 2 Kings 19:35. "When Sennacherib, the haughty Assyrian, reproached and blasphemed God, and threatened Israel with destruction, it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and fourscore and five thousand. "Great Controversy, 512. "The God of the Hebrews had prevailed over the proud Assyrian. The honor of Jehovah was vindicated in the eyes of the surrounding nations."Prophets and Kings, 361. |