Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

tors, following them to the limit of their
knowledge.
There was a regular ritual for the
sanctifying of the priests. It compared
in some measure with our ordination.
This had been neglected for so long
that there were few priests that had
been rightly inducted into their office.
They
needed also to be encouraged for
their work. Josiah provided for this.
Some were discouraged for lack of
knowledge. Some were hopeless because
of the greatness of the task. Others
would fear to become unpopular. Josiah
encouraged them by word and example.
The Levites were the custodians of
the Law, including the Ark of the Cove
nant. The Ark had been removed from
the Temple, probably in some time of
invasion in order to hide it. It would be
a rich prize. Surely, if it had ever been
captured, the fact would have been
mentioned. Where is it now Josiah di
rected the priests to return it to its
place in the Temple.
The Passover a Symbol of Hope
The Passover was instituted when the
Death Angel was about to visit every
family in Egypt. It was provided, how
ever, that God's people might be saved
if they would kill a sacrifice and sprin
kle the blood on their door posts and
stay behind that blood. Death by sin;
Life by blood. But safety depended on
your relation to the blood. The Angel of
Death was not an enemy to the Chil
dren of Israel. It was by his work that
night that the last chain of their slav
ery was broken. So the Passover, in re
membrance of the deliverance from
Egyptian slavery, was a type of the de
liverance from sin. Christ fulfilled the
type, and instituted in its place a com
memoration, not of
a type, but of the
actual deliverance from sin. We are
brought near by the blood of Christ.
The blood on the door did not avail
for those who strayed away. Family re
ligion will not save those who forsake
it. Not by the faith of our fathers, but
by our own faith we are saved. National
religion for the nation; Church creed
and faithfulness for the church; Person
al faith for every individual.
The House of the Lord
"I was glad when they said unto me,
"Let us go into the House of the Lord."
I attended the dedication of a new
church. It was on the location of the
old church. The old church had been
torn down. Beside the new church in
the shade of the trees, the pews from
the old church had been arranged where
the congregation had been meeting in
had no church.
the open air while they
It was a quiet place on the hill top
where there was no traffic to annoy and
June 1, 1955
I wondered if they would not keep
those seats there, where they could
meet outside the church when the
weather was fine.
I wonder if you have not felt that
there is something wrong with the way
this story is told. It's true in every
word, except that in every place the
word church appears, it should read
Church Building. A church may be torn
down by jealousy, hatred, stubbornness
or any other sin, but not with a ham
mer and crowbar. A Church should
have a suitable building in a suitable
place. The Jews and the Samaritans
could not agree on the place where the
building should be. So they hated each
other. Churches have been split wide
open because they could not agree
where the church building should be.
The building sometimes seems to out
rank the Church in importance.
Josiah's Passover "was
the greatest
gathering for the feast since the time of
Samuel. What was done by Josiah was
undone by those who followed him. Ev
ery generation needs to watch the mileposts
and the direction of travel. I have
seen the origin of every new lighting
method since the flat wick kerosene
lamp. I have seen many changes in so
cial and moral standards .We are trav
eling
going
Psalms
at terrific speed. Where are we
PRAYER MEETING TOPIC
For June 15, 1955
THE DAY OF THE LORD
Rev. Roy Blackwood
(Mai. 3:13 through 4:6)
Psalm 105, page 257
Psalm 78, page 189
Psalm 78, page 187
When the Jews returned from Baby
lon, they expected peace and prosperity
but God did not want to bribe them
into loving Him and the only way to sift
the desire for pleasure from their love
of righteousness, was to "try" them for
a few years by famine and persecution.
But instead of standing fast, they grew
sullen and rebellious. They had learned
to fear punishment but most of them
still refused to fear God. Their great
sin was formalism. They only pretend
ed to be doing what God wanted them
to do. They went to church but they
turned their minds off the minute they
sat down in the pew they never al
lowed themselves to reason seriously
with God. They read their Bibles but it
never caused them to change their
habits of life. God sent Malachi (My
Messenger) to reveal them to them
selves, but every time he made an
accusation, they lived their hypocrisy by
making a sullen, self-justifying denial.
Even when Malachi proved his accu
sation with specific illustrations from
their personal lives, they shrugged
their shoulders
apparently untouched.
The form, they thought, was all that
was necessary. This same spirit later
led their descendants to crucify Christ.
Malachi was the last O. T. prophet to
try to stop them; to try to get them
ready to receive Christ. He finished the
messages of the prophets as did the
minister who died in his pulpit
the words of the Gospel on his lips.
with
Malachi made a final accusation and
they sneered again (v. 13) ; Malachi an
swers their sneer wi.th five specific
proofs (vs. 14, 15), each a little more
serious than the last: (1) They
had said
it's impossible to serve God perfectly
and it doesn't "pay" to keep His com
mandments why try to do any better
These people say today; "it really
doesn't matter what you do to serve
God, so long as you do it with sinceri
ty."
(2) They had said we have done
what God wants us to do. We sit
through church services and watch ev
ery act of worship and look serious and
wise when anyone talks about God.
Isn't that religion Even when we
weren't sincere, we "conformed." (3)
They had called all proud people good
people reversing God's reasoning on
the subject
see v. 12 for God's state
ment of the "blessed." (4) They had
even helped along those who worked
against God
perhaps they had insisted
no scripture should be taught in pub
lic schools; or that Anti-Christian
courses should be allowed to be taught
in their state universities, 'in the name
of (5) They had science.'
managed to
find the wisdom to have more mercy
than God had. They kept delivering or
excusing those who "tempted" God.
All evil has its day but finally must
come "The Day of the Lord." And with
this, final proof of their double-mindedness,
Malachi stops instructing and
abandons them to their own self-blinded
fate. He promises that God's day will be
a day of righteous judgment. The more
and the louder the ungodly men had
talked, the more the few God-fearing
men had been thrown together (v. 16),
so God begins the prophecy of Judg
ment by telling us of "the book of re
membrance"; the reward for those who
love God and obey Him (v. 17) and the
distinction to be made between those
who fear God and those who forget
Him (v. 18).
In chapter 4, Malachi closed the O. T.
with the same prophecy
John Baptizer
opens the N. T. (cf. Luke 3:17). No-
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