2nd Chronicles 36:15 And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: 16 But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. 17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. 20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21 To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
These verses of scripture delineate for us in graphic form, what takes place when the limit of God's forbearance is reached, for we observe in the passages that the king of Babylon was permitted to wreak havoc on those who called themselves the people of God. Men and women old and young, were hewed down in indiscriminate carnage, and the sanctuary system was brought to an abrupt halt, with blood flowing in the streets like water. What is worthy of note in this sad episode, which is a harbinger of things to come, is that the constant violation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is cited by the prophet, as being one of the main reasons why such devastation and destruction was allowed to take place.
The Jews had been trampling on the Sabbath for many years, and God in His great mercy had borne long with them, but the time finally came when the apostasy reached national and epic proportions, to the point where God permitted the king of Babylon to take full control of the ill-fated city of Jerusalem.
In our day the same violations are being repeated, for the Sabbath day has now become one of the busiest days of the week, with sports such as football and baseball usurping the sacred time that was set aside for the worship of Jehovah. Furthermore, it has now become the day when most families go shopping in the malls, while preparation for Saturday night fever is now uppermost in our thoughts and actions. Then again, it is a busy day for air travel, for millions of people board flights for secular reasons, going about their work, or visiting for the holidays as the case might be, all unaware that the Sabbath is being broken over and over again, and some being ignorant of the fact that Christ has warned us of these very things. Let's read:
Mathew 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not".... "on the sabbath day.
Isaiah 58:13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
It is therefore necessary that all Sabbath-keeping Christians, together with those who desire to worship and serve The Living God, pay close attention to the following quotes taken from the pen of inspiration, for what is about to be said is right at our doorsteps, and will certainly be fulfilled in due season. Let's read:
[Last Day Events pp. 132 > 134] Laws enforcing the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath will bring about a national apostasy from the principles of republicanism upon which the government has been founded. The religion of the papacy will be accepted by the rulers, and the law of God will be made void. To secure popularity and patronage, legislators will yield to the demand for a Sunday law By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness.... As the approach of the Roman armies was a sign to the disciples of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, so may this apostasy be a sign to us that the limit of God’s forbearance is reached.
When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land, and national apostasy will be followed by national ruin.
One of the objectives of pope Francis in coming to the United states, was to establish Sunday as a national day of rest for working families and people of all religious creeds. But in so doing he is trying to usurp both God's power and authority, by establishing a day of rest, other than the seventh day Sabbath of the fourth commandment. And as we all know, all of the players are already on the stage, for there are now more Roman Catholics in congress than at any other time in the history of this nation, added to which the majority of judges on the Supreme court are also Catholics, which means that it will not require any heavy lifting to pass Sunday law legislation, since most of the other members of congress are already Sunday-keeping protestants.
But the same God who has stretched out His hands in mercy and loving entreaty to sinners all these years, will be the very same God who will execute judgment against the guilty without mercy, and then it will be that the horrible experiences of the captivity, by the king of Babylon over the ancient Hebrews, will be multiplied more than a hundredfold in our day, when the final straw that breaks the camel's back, is enforced by the law of state. Let's read:
Revelation 14:14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. 19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
It therefore behooves every Christian and every sober person to make certain that whatsoever we do and whatever decisions we may make, that we would not place ourselves on the wrong side of history, for the decision to worship either God or man will be brought home to our own backyard, and then it will be that the daily decisions that were made, either for or against the truth, will culminate into that one great decision either to serve God or mammon. We therefore end with a passage of scripture which confirms this sacred truth, and it is the will of God that we now avail ourselves of His grace and mercy, during the few remaining moments of probationary time we have left. Let's read:
Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. 12 Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. 32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.
May The Lord add His blessing to the study and practice of His every word. God bless!