In Life Sketches, page 425, we read —
“‘I have been deeply impressed by scenes that have recently passed before me in the night season. There seemed to be a great movement — a work of revival — going forward in many places. Our people were moving into line, responding to God’s call. My brethren, the Lord is speaking to us….”
Here is a forecast of a great movement, a movement that is to carry on a work of a successful revival in many places. Here it is also seen that the people will respond to God’s call, and that this envisioned work of revival is to be carried by a Divinely organized movement, not by the Denomination though, and not by a man here and a man there. The movement is God-created, not devised by men.
Obviously, this is the long-looked-for “Layman’s Movement”:
“In visions of the night, representations passed before me of a great reformatory movement among God’s people. Many were praising God. The sick were healed, and other miracles were wrought. A spirit of intercession was seen, even as was manifested before the great Day of Pentecost. Hundreds and thousands were seen visiting families and opening before them the word of God. Hearts were convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit, and a spirit of genuine conversion was manifest. On every side doors were thrown open to the proclamation of the truth. The world seemed to be lightened with the heavenly influence. Great blessings were received by the true and humble people of God. I heard voices of thanksgiving and praise, and there seemed to be a reformation such as we witnessed in 1844.
“Yet some refused to be converted. They were not willing to walk in God’s way, and when, in order that the work of God might be advanced, calls were made for freewill offerings, some clung selfishly to their earthly possessions. These covetous ones became separated from the company of believers.” — Testimonies, Vol. 9, pp. 125, 126.
We have through the years seen numerous persons and groups of persons in different parts of the Adventist world who at one time or another did stage what they termed a “revival and reformation,” but not one of them have ever been able to accomplish much, if anything. One by one they end up by quitting in disgust. Rather than being revived and reformed for the better, they after each such effort slid away from God and closer and closer to the level of the world’s standards.
It is useless to agitate revivals and reformations while one knows not what and how actually to revive or to reform. It is commendable to hold up the standard, but it certainly is not in God’s order for one to “work up” something and to call it revival and reformation.
Now let us hear what the Bible Itself has to say on the subject:
Hos. 1:1,2 — “The Word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jereboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
“The beginning of the Word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.”
From the foregoing scriptures, it is seen that Hosea’s wife and children were such in vision only, and were therefore entirely figurative; they were so named as to make a fitting analogy of His people. And being of “whoredoms,” they fittingly prefigure the idolatrous state of His church.
The prophet Hosea was commanded to take a wife of whoredoms for no other reason than to portray the sad and abominable condition which then obtained in Israel, His church — a departing from the Lord.
The Old Testament Period
Some years after the tribes crossed the River Jordan and settled in the “promised land,” their kingdom began to decline from its high spiritual estate. Finally, in the reign of Solomon, the Lord said to Jereboam: “I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee:…because that they have forsaken Me.” 1 Kings 11:31, 33.
This verdict was not executed until after the death of Solomon, when the ten tribes, upon revolting against Rehoboam, called Jereboam and “…made him king over all Israel…” 1 Kings 12: 20. But “…all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin…” (verse 21), remained to Rehoboam, son of Solomon. So it was that the kingdom was divided, the ten tribes, the kingdom of Israel, taking the northern portion of “the promised land,” and the two tribes, the kingdom of Judah, retaining the southern portion.
Hos. 1:3-5 — “So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son. And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel, in the valley of Jezreel.”
The first-born son of the prophet’s visionary marriage, you see, was named Jezreel in order to foreshadow that which was to befall the nation —
- predicting not only the termination of the kingdom,
- but also the very place in which its army was to be defeated — in the valley of Jezreel.
And this destructive evil was to have come upon them for shedding the blood of Jezreel, but obviously not the Jezreel that had just been born and named.
The decree, “…I will break the bow of Israel [the princes of the ten-tribe kingdom] in the valley of Jezreel” (Hos. 1:5), was fulfilled when Jehu “slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in [the valley of] Jezreel, and all his great men and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.” 2 Kings 10:11.
2 Kings 10:28, 31, 32; 17:23; 18:11 — “Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel,… But…took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart:… In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel;…until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away…to Assyria…and in the cities of the Medes.”
Herewith came to pass the forewarning: “I…will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.” Hos. 1:4.
Hos. 1:6 — “And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
This child’s name was to denote the complete destruction of the house of Israel, the ten-tribe kingdom. God was to have no more mercy upon the house of Israel, and its end had already come. The history of this is found in —
2 Kings 18:11 — “And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”
Hos. 1:7 — But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.”
However, He was to have mercy upon the house of Judah, the two-tribe kingdom, and was to deliver it by a miracle. And that is what happened:
2 Kings 19:35 — 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.
The third child was named Lo-ammi to show that God’s mercies were to depart even from the house of Judah:
Hos. 1:8, 9 — “Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not My people, and I will not be your God.”
The Apostle Peter cites this verse of Scripture as referring to the unbelieving Jews, the house of Judah; as a nation they were rejected after the crucifixion of Christ (Matt. 23:37–38), and were thus no longer His people (1 Peter 2:9, 10).
1 Peter 2:10 — Which in time past [were] not a people, but [are] now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
The individuals, though, who did believe in the Lord were reaccepted, and they became “the children of the Living God.”
Rom. 9:26 — And it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [are] not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
Now note that this symbolism has thus far taken us prophetically and historically from the days of the house of Israel to the Christian era.
Hos. 1:10 — “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.”
“Yet,” that is, in spite of the fact that the children of Israel were to be scattered throughout the nations, and rejected, be no longer God’s people, yet in spite of all these, both the descendants of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah (all the children of Jacob) were to be multiplied as the sand of the sea by the time they are reaccepted and thus become the sons of the living God through the Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Continuing with the prophecy, we hear the Lord command Jezreel:
Hos. 2:1-3 — “Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not My wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.”
Let us remember that the first chapter brought us down through the stream of time, down to the Christian era.
Now, in chapter two, our attention is again directed to Hosea’s visionary children, but the prefix “Lo” has been omitted from the names Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi so as to change the meaning from no-mercy, and not-My people, to “mercy,” and “My people.”
Here in this unique symbolism, fashioned years before the Christian dispensation, Inspiration foreshadowed the grace that was to be given to the people in the Christian era, and that rather than continue to be called Jews, they were to be called by another title — Christians: Mercy, and My people.
The command, “Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah,” in itself explains that God is speaking to Jezreel, (Ammi’s and Ruhamah’s brother), and that Jezreel in turn is to speak to Ammi and to Ruhamah.
And the fact that God calls Hosea’s visionary wife His Own wife, the subject becomes still clearer:
- Hosea, you see, represents God;
- Hosea’s wife represents God’s church;
- Jezreel, the one God speaks to, represents His mouth piece, a prophet;
- Jezreel’s brethren, Ammi and Ruhamah, represent the members of the church, both male and female.
- Now, as Ammi and Ruhamah represent the laity, it is obvious that the mother represents the ministry, those who bring forth converts into the church.
Here we have a complete representation of the household of God.
The Jezreel of whose blood ancient Israel was charged guilty, you see, was figurative of the prophets whom Israel rejected and killed. Thus it is that the prophet-hating house of Israel met defeat in the Valley of Jezreel, which by interpretation is the valley of the slain prophets.
From the fact that Jezreel is to urge his brethren, the laity, to plead with the mother (with the ministry, to those who bring forth converts), that she put away her whoredoms, the truth clearly stands out that this revival and reformation does not come to the laity through the ministry, but to the ministry through the laity — a layman’s movement.
The laity is to explain that if the ministers fail to reform, God is to strip them naked — as naked as in the day they were born.
Hos. 2:4, 5 — “And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.”
The church is charged with the terrible sin of whoredom, — intermingling with the world, — and that while she is thus playing the harlot, she is bringing forth illegitimate children, untrue converts.
When these unlawful children are told of the straight testimony, which would compel them to give up the world and accept the whole truth, they quickly reveal themselves as not of the seed of God. Let dress and health reform and a thorough acceptance of the Spirit of Prophecy, without any mention of either worldly pleasures or sins of morality, be urged upon them, and thousands of so-called good Christians in unexceptionable standing in the church, will abandon their membership.
“Only when the church is composed of pure, unselfish members, can it fulfill God’s purpose. Too much hasty work is done in adding names to the church roll. Serious defects are seen in the characters of some who join the church. Those who admit them say, We will first get them into the church, and then reform them. But this is a mistake. The very first work to be done is the work of reform. Pray with them, talk with them, but do not allow them to unite with God’s people in church relationship until they give decided evidences that the Spirit of God is working upon their hearts.” — Review and Herald, May 21, 1901, par. 7, Vol. 78, №21.
Hos. 2:6–13 explain God’s way and power to save: Before He calls for reformation He prepares the way: He brings His church to trying and perplexing circumstances from which she can not easily disengage herself. He brings her to a situation similar to which He brought the prodigal.
He does this in order that she might be brought to realize where her support in reality comes from, to know for certain that it does not come from her lovers. Then, and then only, may she do the very thing the prodigal did when he came to himself.
Hos. 2:14, 15 — “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.”
It was in the Valley of Achor that Joshua stoned the last of the sinners in Israel — Achan and his household. Then it was that the Israelite nation was permitted to take the promised land, the vineyard.
Just such a purging as this is the church’s only “door of hope,” says Inspiration, her only escape from her present plight. Then she is to return to her former position and grace.
5. The Purification Of The Church - But the days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place, we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord… When the Church is thus purged of all her idols, then will she find eternal peace (Hos. 2:16–22). God’s presence will in that day be in His church, even the heavens will be listening to God’s voice while He speaks to His people here on earth.
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Now that the whole truth of these chapters is disclosed for the first time since the prophet wrote them, and since no prophecy of the Scriptures is of any private interpretation, not by the will of man, but by the will of the Spirit (2 Pet. 1:20, 21), the fact is that God had us in mind (us to whom these chapters are unfolded) when he caused these things to be written.
Moreover, since the first verses of the second chapter bring us down to the time of a revival and reformation taking place in our own time, sponsored by God Himself and brought to light through Jezreel, then carried to the church by the laity, it is a work that fulfills itself only in this layman’s movement that is now sweeping throughout the Seventh-day Adventist world.
This Truth, therefore, stands as high as a mountain that God is now at work, that things are to move according to His Divine purpose. So it is that “they shall hear Jezreel,” and that God Himself shall say to them, “Thou art My people,” and they, too, shall say, “Thou art our God.”
You must, therefore, not fail to whole-heartedly and actually join this mighty layman’s movement for revival and reformation throughout Laodicea and to finish the gospel work with a church —
“‘…Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners,’ she is to go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer.” — “Prophets and Kings,” p. 725.
You cannot afford to lose out.
