Ephraim is idolatrous Israel, judged for entrenched idolatry by being left without further deliverance to its consequences in the Assyrian captivity. To be joined to idols is to be fixed in attachment after persistent refusal, when the time for repentance is past, resistance is settled and moral perception is darkened. To be left alone is an irrevocable sentence of justice spoken by Christ in heaven when probation is lost, ordering angels to withdraw care and leaving the person to destroying powers. That sentence comes only after long forbearance, when repeated warnings and the Holy Spirit's last reproving and convicting work have been rejected until the heart is hardened beyond susceptibility to grace. Therefore while mercy still pleads the warning presses for zealous repentance now, laying down self-worship, love of money and possessions, indulged appetite, and friendship with the world, and for pitying forbearance toward the idol-bound until God Himself speaks the word to leave alone.
Words and Historical Setting
Ephraim is idolatrous Israel, whose idolatry had become entrenched and incurable so that judgment was pronounced to leave it to the consequences of its rebellion without further deliverance from its sin. That abandonment was fulfilled in the Assyrian captivity. The chapter portrays the spiritual state of the inhabitants of the land, and its warning calls God's people to prepare for the coming of the Lord.
The same abandonment later fell on the Jewish nation, which had been given every opportunity and privilege but rejected Christ's way and chose selfishness, and was given up as joined to idols to perish in Jerusalem's destruction. Had they kept God's law they would have ministered unselfishly and fulfilled God's purpose for them. To be joined to idols describes a fixed attachment formed after persistent refusal, when moral perception has become darkened by persisting in wrongdoing and repeatedly taking sides against God. The sinner has passed beyond the time for repentance with no chance to redeem the past, becoming fixed in resistance and continuing to sow unbelief, and is left alone in the chosen course.
Let him alone is an irrevocable sentence of justice spoken by Christ in heaven as a final judgment when probation is lost after mercy has been long resisted. It is declared over fallen human beings joined to idols, showing what they deserve, in contrast to Christ's call to come to Him and live, to be pardoned of transgressions, to take hold of His strength and make peace with Him. It follows rejection of light, warnings, entreaties, reproofs and correction brought by God's Spirit and messengers, even after the divine Messenger Himself has pleaded for admittance without wearying of patience. Then the things belonging to peace are hidden from the eyes, the sinner has sealed his own doom, forged his own fetters and loaded his own cloud of wrath, and no tears, no sacrifices and no penitence can alter or prevent the certain doom. The only safe course for those proud in spirit against God's servants is humility, bringing the will into harmony with God's will and submitting to believe and practice the messages God sends, showing respect for God's agencies in reproof and warning, because if that agency is turned from no means is left in reserve to reach them. Conversion and transformation come only by following where Christ leads, denying self and taking up the cross, and as the cross is lifted it lifts the bearer, bringing increasing wisdom and understanding of what Calvary means.
Before that word is spoken in heaven, evil angels press the soul with one temptation after another to compass its ruin by suggesting evil thoughts and exciting worldly desires and carnal lusts, so the heart becomes estranged from God and no longer responds to the Holy Spirit. The heart becomes hard and almost insensible to that influence and less and less susceptible to truth because truth is not brought into the inner sanctuary of the soul, and then heaven declares him joined to his idols and to be left alone, with repentance required before it is too late. Jesus knocks long at the door of the heart with wonderful forbearance, seeking welcome while truth and righteousness are kept in the outer courts, but His forbearance has a limit beyond which it cannot go, and when that point is passed His footsteps turn away and the attendant angel is told to fix the dread mark on the doomed doorway and leave the one joined to idols alone. When professed Christians persistently shut Jesus out and cling to their idols of worldliness, pride, selfish interests, lukewarmness and self-righteousness, He stands at the door and knocks through His messengers offering cleansing blood and grace, but when rebellion and stubbornness are added to unbelief and the heart stays closed, He writes the sentence of abandonment in place of His blood on the doorway. To be joined to idols means to be left to the power of the destroying angels, with guardian angels commanded to let him alone, for God saying to let a person alone means telling His angel to withdraw care and leave him. As long as those words have not been spoken, even one who is in darkness, not standing in the light of truth nor feeling its weight and importance, is not forsaken, for God's eye is still upon him and God still has a message that will take hold of him. Driving him off where that message cannot reach him is not God's work but Satan's work to destroy him, and the church must stand in a position to move understandingly in his case and carry out the mind of Christ, since any impression to treat one as given up and to be left alone where that word has never yet been spoken is not from God.
Reasons for Abandonment
Abandonment follows persistent refusal of mercy, when warnings are repeatedly rejected, restraint is broken away from, what opposes God is deliberately chosen, defiance is persisted in, and every means of correction is turned aside after repeated messages of mercy, warning, reproof and correction. Such attachment to a wrong course is being joined to idols, as when medical missionary work is kept separate from gospel ministry despite repeated warnings, and unless those warnings are heeded the judgment is to be left to the chosen course. Those who resist the messengers sent to them must humble themselves, bring the will into harmony with God, and accept, believe and practice what is sent, for once doom is certain tears, sacrifices and penitence cannot alter or prevent it. The same sentence threatens one whose works increasingly displease God and serve self-exaltation, if persistence in that path continues.
Long slighting of mercy hardens the heart in sin until it is no longer susceptible to the influence of grace. Evil angels then press the soul with temptation after temptation to compass its ruin by suggesting evil thoughts and exciting worldly desires and carnal lusts, so the heart becomes estranged from God and no longer responds to the Holy Spirit. It becomes hard and almost insensible to that influence and less and less susceptible to truth, because truth is not brought into the inner sanctuary of the soul, and then heaven declares the person joined to idols and to be left alone. Although Christ watches for response to His offers of love and forgiveness with more tender compassion than an earthly parent forgiving a wayward son, the erring one who keeps refusing is at last left in darkness, which is a fearful doom, and in the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the cities of the plain than for those who have known the love of Christ and yet turned away to choose the pleasures of a world of sin.
When the sinner finally rejects the reproving and convicting work of the Holy Spirit, God gives the command to let him alone. God works by the manifestation of His Spirit to reprove and convict, and that work is the last resource of divine mercy, with no reserved power behind it by which He can work to convict and convert. The rejection is self-chosen, the transgressor has cut himself off from God, communication with heaven is cut off, the heart is hardened against divine grace, no further means remain, and judgment remains. Sin has no remedy in itself to cure itself.
God does not at once abandon selfish, erring and crooked people who are separated from Him with defects of character, but bears long with them and seeks to inform them, sending message after message of mercy, encouragement, warning, reproof and correction to bring them into a right position before Him that they may have His love, care and blessing abiding upon them. His forbearance has a point beyond which it will not go, yet Christ makes a last, importunate appeal and is reluctant to give people up to be separated from His love and presence forever, still waiting outside the door and pleading for entrance. Only after every means is exhausted, if they choose their own selfish, perverse ways and remain joined to idols, does He finally withdraw and leave them alone, a doom pronounced like a sign registered on the doorway. That joining includes the idol of sensuality, the idol of earthly treasure, and the idolatry of self, and it threatens especially those with great light and privileges not improved, for whom the Sun of righteousness may set this very day, so there is no time to loiter or consult convenience but to be zealous and repent now.
The case becomes hopeless when, after many warnings, a person keeps choosing sin, harbors wrong motives and purposes, hides what would bring censure, persists in falsehood and misrepresentation despite reproof, and refuses to empty the soul in thorough repentance with compunctions of conscience and acknowledgment of error. Unless such a one repents, acknowledges errors and puts them away, he cannot be saved. Then heaven says to let him alone, for he is joined to his idols.
What Abandonment Involves
To be joined to idols is to choose what competes with loyalty to God and then to be left to the consequences of that choice. The abandonment is a leaving to the chosen course, applied to those who persist in refusing change because they feel no need of Christ and do not recognize their need to make the change necessary for salvation. Effort is then not to be exhausted upon those who will not hear, but is to be directed toward those who can still be helped, including the sorrowful and brokenhearted. For the church at Battle Creek this meant preferring friendship with the world to obedience to God's commandments, while temporal prosperity and the world's favor falsely persuaded it that it was rich toward God when its divine character and spiritual strength had departed.
The leaving follows a gradual loss of steadfastness, as people yield step by step to worldly influence and become unaware that heaven's light has withdrawn. God withdraws His Spirit and leaves them with the world without their recognizing any change in their condition. It is the final result of turning from God and joining the world, falling especially upon people once chosen by God who become corrupt through greed, dishonest business, and rejection of God's Word, exchanging God's favor and eternal life for worldly success in a spiritual ruin that may be irreversible.
Those who cling to cherished idols and refuse the truth are left to their sinful traits and the control of evil angels. This applies to professed people of God who reject a testing point because it exposes something they prize above Jesus; they are given time to abandon their idols and heed the True Witness, but if they refuse they are left alone in darkness. Jesus then ceases interceding for them and their names are dropped. Their unsubdued evil traits remain upon them under evil control.
The Lord may also cease guarding the idol-joined from harm and withdraw protection, leaving the person to the choice that has been made. This is applied to people absorbed in selfish plans and worldly pleasures and in selfish ambition and idolatrous pursuit. Sudden death may then come after God withdraws His protection, and their life-work proves a failure. To stay joined to idols is to have incurable written over one, as God draws the separating line between those marked for judgment without pity and the faithful remnant who sigh and cry over abominations, just before His judgment begins at His sanctuary.
Mercy Before the Sentence
Even while a person remains joined to idols, messages of mercy are still sent to him, and those idols are his own supposed wise reasoning and principles held and acted upon at cross-purposes with God and hindering His work. If he lays down that reasoning and listens, he will find pardon, but if he continues to hinder as before, further dealing is withdrawn and he is given up to what he has chosen.
Jesus pleads for the unfruitful tree to be spared a little longer, watching for a response to His offers of love and forgiveness with more tender compassion than an earthly parent shows in forgiving a wayward son. That pleading calls the money-worshipper to put forth most earnest effort for the kingdom and to rescue himself from the snare of Satan by turning square about at once and resolutely using his willpower in the opposite direction to overcome covetousness. If there is no such earnest turning, Heaven makes no further plea but gives him up to his covetousness, leaving him to go down unready and at last to cry in bitter anguish over selling his soul for the deceitfulness of riches. A heart that has long slighted such mercy becomes hardened in sin and no longer susceptible to the influence of grace, and to be at last left in darkness is a fearful doom.
God leads His professed people step by step to different testing points calculated to manifest what is in the heart, and each advanced point tests the heart more closely. The closer test exposes selfishness, pride and evil passions and whatever shuts out Jesus, requiring purification through obeying the truth and overcoming whatever the cost. Those who shrink back when the test strikes a cherished idol, prizing something higher than the truth and refusing to sacrifice idols and heed the counsel of the True Witness, show hearts unprepared to receive Jesus. After individuals are tested a length of time to see whether they will sacrifice idols, obey the truth, and overcome, those who will not be purified are abandoned to those idols and, by angelic charge, left with unsubdued evil traits to the control of evil angels, while those who come up to every point, stand every test and overcome at any price are fitted by the latter rain for translation.
God’s servants are to forbear until God says to leave alone, and must not hastily abandon and give up those who appear joined to their idols. Those caught in idolatry are to be regarded as poor, deceived, erring mortals and treated with pity, forbearance and great reluctance to give them up, since Christ exercises much pity for weakness and loves erring ones. Ministers are to seek to remove idols and tear them away by presenting God’s truth plainly and tenderly in its solemnity and importance, bearing a pointed testimony that reproves individual wrongs, laying the ax of the truths of God’s word at the root of the tree and pouring out the testimony just as straight as it is found in the word with tenderness and yearning for souls. The truth itself must be allowed to convict and change people and to do the cutting and hewing when it finds its way to the heart, for it accomplishes what nothing else can, while personally attacking, denouncing, bearing down upon and crushing the individual is of no avail if truth spoken in the demonstration of the Spirit does not cut away the idols.
Idols That Enslave Today
Ephraim being joined to idols describes workers in God's cause whose minds are kept constantly on temporal things, for they are changed by what they behold until temporal things absorb and shape character, God's glory is lost from sight and forgotten, opportunities within reach to become conversant with heavenly things are overlooked, and spiritual life dies when they are left to the idols they have joined. Those who cling to what draws mind and heart from God and His service are left to their chosen course, because their idols are whatever takes God's place in attention and devotion.
Love of getting and keeping money makes money a worshiped god that is hoarded, joining the person to his idols, and if the idolatry is not surrendered the time soon comes when striving ceases and he is left alone to his choice. Earthly possessions become idols when people treat as their own what has only been lent for advancing God's work, and when love of the world regains control after truth has begun to lead to sacrifice, they are left to the control of what they have chosen unless watchfulness, prayer, and giving all to Jesus overcome the attachment. This world becomes a man's god through insane preoccupation with property, a dangerous and wrong condition giving cause for fear and sadness over him.
Taste and appetite become a god when light about health is rejected and harmful indulgences are clung to, so that those indifferent and unbelieving about health reform have other gods before the Lord and shrink back because reform restricts lustful appetite. When the ax is laid at the root of the tree and health-destroying indulgences are touched and sin pointed out and idols shown, yet they do not wish to be convinced but still cling to hurtful things they love even while God's voice speaks directly to put them away, they remain joined to what they love and will soon be left alone. This includes persistence in tobacco use and other corrupting habits that keep a person from appreciating the truths of God's Word, and persistence in drinking liquor through appetite and attachment toward the point of being left alone, though present duty is still to bring the light of truth that they may be saved. Unless an individual advance is made in this work that no one else can do for another, they will be unprepared for the loud cry of the third angel.
Pride and self-worship fix a person in a course of turning back from repentance and separating from God, and the end of repeatedly refusing daily conversion and the fresh supply of grace needed to walk humbly with God is to be left to it. The same joining to idols is a man's own supposed wise reasoning and principles held and acted on at cross-purposes with God while hindering God's work, yet mercy is still sent so that if he lays down that reasoning and listens he will find pardon, but if he continues to hinder as before further dealing is withdrawn and he is given up to what he has chosen.
Friendship with the world becomes the chosen idol when temporal prosperity and the world's favor falsely persuade God's people that they are rich toward God while divine character and spiritual strength have departed, preferring friendship with the world to obedience to God's commandments and being left to the consequences of that choice. The Protestant churches of this generation are joined to the idols they have chosen, for though professing holiness they permit love of the world to control them and unite in spirit and fellowship with workers of iniquity, choosing to depart from the divine commandment rather than separate from the friendship and customs of the world. Pride, luxury, riches, and popularity are their treasures, and because temporal prosperity and the favor of a sin-loving world are granted them they deem themselves rich and in need of nothing and in spiritual blindness count these as evidence of God's love and favor, in equally great deception as the Romish church in Luther's day. They refuse instruction and reproof, their ministers cry peace, peace, and the people love the soothing message, in willful blindness believing only what will not disturb carnal security, for prosperity and learning and worldly honor are no evidence of God's favor and the true church on earth cannot enjoy the favor of a wicked world. The final word over ministers and doctors and others who depart from the faith, give heed to Satan's presentation, make light of warnings, and defend wrongs that have been done is to be left to their idols unless they repent and are converted, for the more plainly testing truth is brought the more bitter hatred becomes and they grow more bewildered, while Christ as Mediator and Intercessor in the heavenly courts purifies and perfects His tried and tempted saints. The same blindness by error takes words from priests and human lawmakers instead of God, tramples God's law, makes human laws and forces others to accept them on the plea that the whole world keeps Sunday so the few should obey the laws of the land, supposing it does not matter if the law instituted in Eden when the foundations of the earth were laid is not kept, with its memorial honoring the living God who made the world in six days and sanctified and blessed the day of His rest.
Warning and Pastoral Duty
After great light and privilege such as a camp meeting, which becomes a savor of life unto life or of death unto death, the verse stands as a warning not to come under the sentence of abandonment to be left to oneself. That leaving alone is the same final rejection as the word that no fruit grow on the unfruitful fig tree henceforth forever. God's forbearance has a point beyond which it will not go, yet Christ makes a last importunate appeal and is reluctant to give people up to separation from His love and presence forever, still waiting outside the door and pleading for entrance until those who remain joined to idols are finally withdrawn from and left alone. The doom is pronounced like a sign registered on the doorway, and it threatens joining to the idol of sensuality, the idol of earthly treasure, and the idolatry of self. It threatens especially those with great light and privileges not improved, for whom the Sun of Righteousness may set this very day, so there is no time to loiter or consult convenience but to be zealous and repent now before it is too late.
The warning applies to indifferent people within God's own community and to those who have long turned from safe paths and are left alone by the Lord. It applies to people once chosen by God who become corrupt through greed, dishonest business, and rejection of God's Word, exchanging God's favor and eternal life for worldly success, and whose spiritual ruin may be irreversible. Unless such a person repents, God's sentence of abandonment will come, and worldly reputation, wealth, or medical skill cannot avert it.
Even when some appear joined to idols, they must not quickly be given up and left alone, for as long as the word to leave alone has not been spoken God's eye is still upon them and His care is still over them. He still has a message that will take hold of them, and any impression to treat them as given up is not from God. Driving such a one in darkness, not standing in the light of truth nor feeling its weight and importance, off where that message cannot reach him is not God's work but Satan's work to destroy him, and the church must stand in a position to move understandingly in his case and carry out the mind of Christ. There must be great reluctance to give up the poor, deceived ones, since all are erring mortals, Christ exercises much pity for weakness and loves erring ones, and if God dealt with people as people often deal with one another they would be consumed. Ministers of present truth must seek to tear away idols by bearing a pointed testimony that reproves individual wrongs, yet with forbearance, preaching the truth in its solemnity and importance and laying the ax of the truths of God's word at the root of the tree, pouring out the testimony just as straight as it is found in the word of God with tenderness and yearning for souls, and letting the truth itself do the cutting and hewing, for when truth spoken in the demonstration of the Spirit finds its way to the heart it accomplishes what nothing else can, while if it does not cut away the idols, denouncing and bearing down upon the individual is of no avail. Efforts should not be exhausted on those who persist in refusing change and feel no need of Christ and will not hear, but directed toward those who can be helped, including the sorrowful and brokenhearted, for without recognizing their need to change the unwilling will not make the change necessary for salvation, though they are given time to abandon their idols and heed the True Witness before being left to their sinful traits and the control of evil angels.
God leads His professed people step by step to different testing points calculated to manifest what is in the heart, testing closer at every advance to expose selfishness, pride and evil passions and what shuts out Jesus, and requiring purification through obeying the truth and overcoming whatever the cost. Those who shrink back when the test strikes a cherished idol, prizing something higher than truth and refusing to sacrifice idols, obey the truth, overcome, and heed the counsel of the True Witness, show hearts unprepared to receive Jesus. After individuals are tested a length of time, those who will not be purified are given up by angelic charge to remain with unsubdued evil traits under control of evil angels, which is the final word over ministers and doctors and others who depart from the faith, give heed to Satan's presentation, make light of warnings, and stand in defense of wrongs that have been done, becoming more bitter in hatred the more plainly testing truth is brought and more bewildered unless they repent and are converted. Those who come up to every point, stand every test and overcome at any price are purified and perfected by Christ as Mediator and Intercessor in the heavenly courts and fitted by the latter rain for translation. Those who remain indifferent and unbelieving about health reform, with taste and appetite as their god and other gods before the Lord, shrinking back because reform restricts lustful appetite, and who when the ax is laid at the root of the tree and their health-destroying indulgences are touched and their sin pointed out and their idols shown them still cling to the hurtful things they love even though God's voice speaks directly to put them away, will soon be left alone and unprepared for the loud cry of the third angel unless they make the advance move in this individual work that no one can do for another.
Ephraim is idolatrous Israel, judged for entrenched idolatry by being left without further deliverance to its consequences in the Assyrian captivity. To be joined to idols is to be fixed in attachment after persistent refusal, when the time for repentance is past, resistance is settled and moral perception is darkened. To be left alone is an irrevocable sentence of justice spoken by Christ in heaven when probation is lost, ordering angels to withdraw care and leaving the person to destroying powers. That sentence comes only after long forbearance, when repeated warnings and the Holy Spirit's last reproving and convicting work have been rejected until the heart is hardened beyond susceptibility to grace. Therefore while mercy still pleads the warning presses for zealous repentance now, laying down self-worship, love of money and possessions, indulged appetite, and friendship with the world, and for pitying forbearance toward the idol-bound until God Himself speaks the word to leave alone.
Words and Historical Setting
Ephraim is idolatrous Israel, whose idolatry had become entrenched and incurable so that judgment was pronounced to leave it to the consequences of its rebellion without further deliverance from its sin. That abandonment was fulfilled in the Assyrian captivity. The chapter portrays the spiritual state of the inhabitants of the land, and its warning calls God's people to prepare for the coming of the Lord.
The same abandonment later fell on the Jewish nation, which had been given every opportunity and privilege but rejected Christ's way and chose selfishness, and was given up as joined to idols to perish in Jerusalem's destruction. Had they kept God's law they would have ministered unselfishly and fulfilled God's purpose for them. To be joined to idols describes a fixed attachment formed after persistent refusal, when moral perception has become darkened by persisting in wrongdoing and repeatedly taking sides against God. The sinner has passed beyond the time for repentance with no chance to redeem the past, becoming fixed in resistance and continuing to sow unbelief, and is left alone in the chosen course.
Let him alone is an irrevocable sentence of justice spoken by Christ in heaven as a final judgment when probation is lost after mercy has been long resisted. It is declared over fallen human beings joined to idols, showing what they deserve, in contrast to Christ's call to come to Him and live, to be pardoned of transgressions, to take hold of His strength and make peace with Him. It follows rejection of light, warnings, entreaties, reproofs and correction brought by God's Spirit and messengers, even after the divine Messenger Himself has pleaded for admittance without wearying of patience. Then the things belonging to peace are hidden from the eyes, the sinner has sealed his own doom, forged his own fetters and loaded his own cloud of wrath, and no tears, no sacrifices and no penitence can alter or prevent the certain doom. The only safe course for those proud in spirit against God's servants is humility, bringing the will into harmony with God's will and submitting to believe and practice the messages God sends, showing respect for God's agencies in reproof and warning, because if that agency is turned from no means is left in reserve to reach them. Conversion and transformation come only by following where Christ leads, denying self and taking up the cross, and as the cross is lifted it lifts the bearer, bringing increasing wisdom and understanding of what Calvary means.
Before that word is spoken in heaven, evil angels press the soul with one temptation after another to compass its ruin by suggesting evil thoughts and exciting worldly desires and carnal lusts, so the heart becomes estranged from God and no longer responds to the Holy Spirit. The heart becomes hard and almost insensible to that influence and less and less susceptible to truth because truth is not brought into the inner sanctuary of the soul, and then heaven declares him joined to his idols and to be left alone, with repentance required before it is too late. Jesus knocks long at the door of the heart with wonderful forbearance, seeking welcome while truth and righteousness are kept in the outer courts, but His forbearance has a limit beyond which it cannot go, and when that point is passed His footsteps turn away and the attendant angel is told to fix the dread mark on the doomed doorway and leave the one joined to idols alone. When professed Christians persistently shut Jesus out and cling to their idols of worldliness, pride, selfish interests, lukewarmness and self-righteousness, He stands at the door and knocks through His messengers offering cleansing blood and grace, but when rebellion and stubbornness are added to unbelief and the heart stays closed, He writes the sentence of abandonment in place of His blood on the doorway. To be joined to idols means to be left to the power of the destroying angels, with guardian angels commanded to let him alone, for God saying to let a person alone means telling His angel to withdraw care and leave him. As long as those words have not been spoken, even one who is in darkness, not standing in the light of truth nor feeling its weight and importance, is not forsaken, for God's eye is still upon him and God still has a message that will take hold of him. Driving him off where that message cannot reach him is not God's work but Satan's work to destroy him, and the church must stand in a position to move understandingly in his case and carry out the mind of Christ, since any impression to treat one as given up and to be left alone where that word has never yet been spoken is not from God.
Reasons for Abandonment
Abandonment follows persistent refusal of mercy, when warnings are repeatedly rejected, restraint is broken away from, what opposes God is deliberately chosen, defiance is persisted in, and every means of correction is turned aside after repeated messages of mercy, warning, reproof and correction. Such attachment to a wrong course is being joined to idols, as when medical missionary work is kept separate from gospel ministry despite repeated warnings, and unless those warnings are heeded the judgment is to be left to the chosen course. Those who resist the messengers sent to them must humble themselves, bring the will into harmony with God, and accept, believe and practice what is sent, for once doom is certain tears, sacrifices and penitence cannot alter or prevent it. The same sentence threatens one whose works increasingly displease God and serve self-exaltation, if persistence in that path continues.
Long slighting of mercy hardens the heart in sin until it is no longer susceptible to the influence of grace. Evil angels then press the soul with temptation after temptation to compass its ruin by suggesting evil thoughts and exciting worldly desires and carnal lusts, so the heart becomes estranged from God and no longer responds to the Holy Spirit. It becomes hard and almost insensible to that influence and less and less susceptible to truth, because truth is not brought into the inner sanctuary of the soul, and then heaven declares the person joined to idols and to be left alone. Although Christ watches for response to His offers of love and forgiveness with more tender compassion than an earthly parent forgiving a wayward son, the erring one who keeps refusing is at last left in darkness, which is a fearful doom, and in the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the cities of the plain than for those who have known the love of Christ and yet turned away to choose the pleasures of a world of sin.
When the sinner finally rejects the reproving and convicting work of the Holy Spirit, God gives the command to let him alone. God works by the manifestation of His Spirit to reprove and convict, and that work is the last resource of divine mercy, with no reserved power behind it by which He can work to convict and convert. The rejection is self-chosen, the transgressor has cut himself off from God, communication with heaven is cut off, the heart is hardened against divine grace, no further means remain, and judgment remains. Sin has no remedy in itself to cure itself.
God does not at once abandon selfish, erring and crooked people who are separated from Him with defects of character, but bears long with them and seeks to inform them, sending message after message of mercy, encouragement, warning, reproof and correction to bring them into a right position before Him that they may have His love, care and blessing abiding upon them. His forbearance has a point beyond which it will not go, yet Christ makes a last, importunate appeal and is reluctant to give people up to be separated from His love and presence forever, still waiting outside the door and pleading for entrance. Only after every means is exhausted, if they choose their own selfish, perverse ways and remain joined to idols, does He finally withdraw and leave them alone, a doom pronounced like a sign registered on the doorway. That joining includes the idol of sensuality, the idol of earthly treasure, and the idolatry of self, and it threatens especially those with great light and privileges not improved, for whom the Sun of righteousness may set this very day, so there is no time to loiter or consult convenience but to be zealous and repent now.
The case becomes hopeless when, after many warnings, a person keeps choosing sin, harbors wrong motives and purposes, hides what would bring censure, persists in falsehood and misrepresentation despite reproof, and refuses to empty the soul in thorough repentance with compunctions of conscience and acknowledgment of error. Unless such a one repents, acknowledges errors and puts them away, he cannot be saved. Then heaven says to let him alone, for he is joined to his idols.
What Abandonment Involves
To be joined to idols is to choose what competes with loyalty to God and then to be left to the consequences of that choice. The abandonment is a leaving to the chosen course, applied to those who persist in refusing change because they feel no need of Christ and do not recognize their need to make the change necessary for salvation. Effort is then not to be exhausted upon those who will not hear, but is to be directed toward those who can still be helped, including the sorrowful and brokenhearted. For the church at Battle Creek this meant preferring friendship with the world to obedience to God's commandments, while temporal prosperity and the world's favor falsely persuaded it that it was rich toward God when its divine character and spiritual strength had departed.
The leaving follows a gradual loss of steadfastness, as people yield step by step to worldly influence and become unaware that heaven's light has withdrawn. God withdraws His Spirit and leaves them with the world without their recognizing any change in their condition. It is the final result of turning from God and joining the world, falling especially upon people once chosen by God who become corrupt through greed, dishonest business, and rejection of God's Word, exchanging God's favor and eternal life for worldly success in a spiritual ruin that may be irreversible.
Those who cling to cherished idols and refuse the truth are left to their sinful traits and the control of evil angels. This applies to professed people of God who reject a testing point because it exposes something they prize above Jesus; they are given time to abandon their idols and heed the True Witness, but if they refuse they are left alone in darkness. Jesus then ceases interceding for them and their names are dropped. Their unsubdued evil traits remain upon them under evil control.
The Lord may also cease guarding the idol-joined from harm and withdraw protection, leaving the person to the choice that has been made. This is applied to people absorbed in selfish plans and worldly pleasures and in selfish ambition and idolatrous pursuit. Sudden death may then come after God withdraws His protection, and their life-work proves a failure. To stay joined to idols is to have incurable written over one, as God draws the separating line between those marked for judgment without pity and the faithful remnant who sigh and cry over abominations, just before His judgment begins at His sanctuary.
Mercy Before the Sentence
Even while a person remains joined to idols, messages of mercy are still sent to him, and those idols are his own supposed wise reasoning and principles held and acted upon at cross-purposes with God and hindering His work. If he lays down that reasoning and listens, he will find pardon, but if he continues to hinder as before, further dealing is withdrawn and he is given up to what he has chosen.
Jesus pleads for the unfruitful tree to be spared a little longer, watching for a response to His offers of love and forgiveness with more tender compassion than an earthly parent shows in forgiving a wayward son. That pleading calls the money-worshipper to put forth most earnest effort for the kingdom and to rescue himself from the snare of Satan by turning square about at once and resolutely using his willpower in the opposite direction to overcome covetousness. If there is no such earnest turning, Heaven makes no further plea but gives him up to his covetousness, leaving him to go down unready and at last to cry in bitter anguish over selling his soul for the deceitfulness of riches. A heart that has long slighted such mercy becomes hardened in sin and no longer susceptible to the influence of grace, and to be at last left in darkness is a fearful doom.
God leads His professed people step by step to different testing points calculated to manifest what is in the heart, and each advanced point tests the heart more closely. The closer test exposes selfishness, pride and evil passions and whatever shuts out Jesus, requiring purification through obeying the truth and overcoming whatever the cost. Those who shrink back when the test strikes a cherished idol, prizing something higher than the truth and refusing to sacrifice idols and heed the counsel of the True Witness, show hearts unprepared to receive Jesus. After individuals are tested a length of time to see whether they will sacrifice idols, obey the truth, and overcome, those who will not be purified are abandoned to those idols and, by angelic charge, left with unsubdued evil traits to the control of evil angels, while those who come up to every point, stand every test and overcome at any price are fitted by the latter rain for translation.
God’s servants are to forbear until God says to leave alone, and must not hastily abandon and give up those who appear joined to their idols. Those caught in idolatry are to be regarded as poor, deceived, erring mortals and treated with pity, forbearance and great reluctance to give them up, since Christ exercises much pity for weakness and loves erring ones. Ministers are to seek to remove idols and tear them away by presenting God’s truth plainly and tenderly in its solemnity and importance, bearing a pointed testimony that reproves individual wrongs, laying the ax of the truths of God’s word at the root of the tree and pouring out the testimony just as straight as it is found in the word with tenderness and yearning for souls. The truth itself must be allowed to convict and change people and to do the cutting and hewing when it finds its way to the heart, for it accomplishes what nothing else can, while personally attacking, denouncing, bearing down upon and crushing the individual is of no avail if truth spoken in the demonstration of the Spirit does not cut away the idols.
Idols That Enslave Today
Ephraim being joined to idols describes workers in God's cause whose minds are kept constantly on temporal things, for they are changed by what they behold until temporal things absorb and shape character, God's glory is lost from sight and forgotten, opportunities within reach to become conversant with heavenly things are overlooked, and spiritual life dies when they are left to the idols they have joined. Those who cling to what draws mind and heart from God and His service are left to their chosen course, because their idols are whatever takes God's place in attention and devotion.
Love of getting and keeping money makes money a worshiped god that is hoarded, joining the person to his idols, and if the idolatry is not surrendered the time soon comes when striving ceases and he is left alone to his choice. Earthly possessions become idols when people treat as their own what has only been lent for advancing God's work, and when love of the world regains control after truth has begun to lead to sacrifice, they are left to the control of what they have chosen unless watchfulness, prayer, and giving all to Jesus overcome the attachment. This world becomes a man's god through insane preoccupation with property, a dangerous and wrong condition giving cause for fear and sadness over him.
Taste and appetite become a god when light about health is rejected and harmful indulgences are clung to, so that those indifferent and unbelieving about health reform have other gods before the Lord and shrink back because reform restricts lustful appetite. When the ax is laid at the root of the tree and health-destroying indulgences are touched and sin pointed out and idols shown, yet they do not wish to be convinced but still cling to hurtful things they love even while God's voice speaks directly to put them away, they remain joined to what they love and will soon be left alone. This includes persistence in tobacco use and other corrupting habits that keep a person from appreciating the truths of God's Word, and persistence in drinking liquor through appetite and attachment toward the point of being left alone, though present duty is still to bring the light of truth that they may be saved. Unless an individual advance is made in this work that no one else can do for another, they will be unprepared for the loud cry of the third angel.
Pride and self-worship fix a person in a course of turning back from repentance and separating from God, and the end of repeatedly refusing daily conversion and the fresh supply of grace needed to walk humbly with God is to be left to it. The same joining to idols is a man's own supposed wise reasoning and principles held and acted on at cross-purposes with God while hindering God's work, yet mercy is still sent so that if he lays down that reasoning and listens he will find pardon, but if he continues to hinder as before further dealing is withdrawn and he is given up to what he has chosen.
Friendship with the world becomes the chosen idol when temporal prosperity and the world's favor falsely persuade God's people that they are rich toward God while divine character and spiritual strength have departed, preferring friendship with the world to obedience to God's commandments and being left to the consequences of that choice. The Protestant churches of this generation are joined to the idols they have chosen, for though professing holiness they permit love of the world to control them and unite in spirit and fellowship with workers of iniquity, choosing to depart from the divine commandment rather than separate from the friendship and customs of the world. Pride, luxury, riches, and popularity are their treasures, and because temporal prosperity and the favor of a sin-loving world are granted them they deem themselves rich and in need of nothing and in spiritual blindness count these as evidence of God's love and favor, in equally great deception as the Romish church in Luther's day. They refuse instruction and reproof, their ministers cry peace, peace, and the people love the soothing message, in willful blindness believing only what will not disturb carnal security, for prosperity and learning and worldly honor are no evidence of God's favor and the true church on earth cannot enjoy the favor of a wicked world. The final word over ministers and doctors and others who depart from the faith, give heed to Satan's presentation, make light of warnings, and defend wrongs that have been done is to be left to their idols unless they repent and are converted, for the more plainly testing truth is brought the more bitter hatred becomes and they grow more bewildered, while Christ as Mediator and Intercessor in the heavenly courts purifies and perfects His tried and tempted saints. The same blindness by error takes words from priests and human lawmakers instead of God, tramples God's law, makes human laws and forces others to accept them on the plea that the whole world keeps Sunday so the few should obey the laws of the land, supposing it does not matter if the law instituted in Eden when the foundations of the earth were laid is not kept, with its memorial honoring the living God who made the world in six days and sanctified and blessed the day of His rest.
Warning and Pastoral Duty
After great light and privilege such as a camp meeting, which becomes a savor of life unto life or of death unto death, the verse stands as a warning not to come under the sentence of abandonment to be left to oneself. That leaving alone is the same final rejection as the word that no fruit grow on the unfruitful fig tree henceforth forever. God's forbearance has a point beyond which it will not go, yet Christ makes a last importunate appeal and is reluctant to give people up to separation from His love and presence forever, still waiting outside the door and pleading for entrance until those who remain joined to idols are finally withdrawn from and left alone. The doom is pronounced like a sign registered on the doorway, and it threatens joining to the idol of sensuality, the idol of earthly treasure, and the idolatry of self. It threatens especially those with great light and privileges not improved, for whom the Sun of Righteousness may set this very day, so there is no time to loiter or consult convenience but to be zealous and repent now before it is too late.
The warning applies to indifferent people within God's own community and to those who have long turned from safe paths and are left alone by the Lord. It applies to people once chosen by God who become corrupt through greed, dishonest business, and rejection of God's Word, exchanging God's favor and eternal life for worldly success, and whose spiritual ruin may be irreversible. Unless such a person repents, God's sentence of abandonment will come, and worldly reputation, wealth, or medical skill cannot avert it.
Even when some appear joined to idols, they must not quickly be given up and left alone, for as long as the word to leave alone has not been spoken God's eye is still upon them and His care is still over them. He still has a message that will take hold of them, and any impression to treat them as given up is not from God. Driving such a one in darkness, not standing in the light of truth nor feeling its weight and importance, off where that message cannot reach him is not God's work but Satan's work to destroy him, and the church must stand in a position to move understandingly in his case and carry out the mind of Christ. There must be great reluctance to give up the poor, deceived ones, since all are erring mortals, Christ exercises much pity for weakness and loves erring ones, and if God dealt with people as people often deal with one another they would be consumed. Ministers of present truth must seek to tear away idols by bearing a pointed testimony that reproves individual wrongs, yet with forbearance, preaching the truth in its solemnity and importance and laying the ax of the truths of God's word at the root of the tree, pouring out the testimony just as straight as it is found in the word of God with tenderness and yearning for souls, and letting the truth itself do the cutting and hewing, for when truth spoken in the demonstration of the Spirit finds its way to the heart it accomplishes what nothing else can, while if it does not cut away the idols, denouncing and bearing down upon the individual is of no avail. Efforts should not be exhausted on those who persist in refusing change and feel no need of Christ and will not hear, but directed toward those who can be helped, including the sorrowful and brokenhearted, for without recognizing their need to change the unwilling will not make the change necessary for salvation, though they are given time to abandon their idols and heed the True Witness before being left to their sinful traits and the control of evil angels.
God leads His professed people step by step to different testing points calculated to manifest what is in the heart, testing closer at every advance to expose selfishness, pride and evil passions and what shuts out Jesus, and requiring purification through obeying the truth and overcoming whatever the cost. Those who shrink back when the test strikes a cherished idol, prizing something higher than truth and refusing to sacrifice idols, obey the truth, overcome, and heed the counsel of the True Witness, show hearts unprepared to receive Jesus. After individuals are tested a length of time, those who will not be purified are given up by angelic charge to remain with unsubdued evil traits under control of evil angels, which is the final word over ministers and doctors and others who depart from the faith, give heed to Satan's presentation, make light of warnings, and stand in defense of wrongs that have been done, becoming more bitter in hatred the more plainly testing truth is brought and more bewildered unless they repent and are converted. Those who come up to every point, stand every test and overcome at any price are purified and perfected by Christ as Mediator and Intercessor in the heavenly courts and fitted by the latter rain for translation. Those who remain indifferent and unbelieving about health reform, with taste and appetite as their god and other gods before the Lord, shrinking back because reform restricts lustful appetite, and who when the ax is laid at the root of the tree and their health-destroying indulgences are touched and their sin pointed out and their idols shown them still cling to the hurtful things they love even though God's voice speaks directly to put them away, will soon be left alone and unprepared for the loud cry of the third angel unless they make the advance move in this individual work that no one can do for another.