Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Israel's Rebelliousness
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Exodus 16:3
Maybe the Israelites should be credited with originating the phrase, "the good old days," because every time things got a little rough, they were ready to stone Moses and Aaron and head back to Egypt. In Exodus 16:3, just weeks after gaining their freedom, they cry: Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. (See also Exodus 17:3.) Did they have selective memory, remembering only the good times and forgetting the oppression and cruelty of the Egyptians? The Israelites came into Egypt when Joseph was vizier of the kingdom. Before they were enslaved, for perhaps nearly two centuries, they lived prosperously in Goshen. Moses writes in Exodus 1:7, "But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them." So these Israelites probably did have "pots of meat" and "bread to the full"! Exodus 1 and 2 reveal that there were faithful Israelites among them. Their midwives, despite being ordered by Pharaoh to kill the newborn males, refused because they feared God (Exodus 1:17). Likewise, Moses' mother ignored the edict and hid Moses for three months (Exodus 2:2). Why, then, did God allow the Israelites to go into bitter slavery at the hands of the Egyptians? Ezekiel 20, which records history while pointing to the future, may provide an answer. It begins with certain elders of Israel coming to Ezekiel to question God. Their questions are never stated, but God does not wait for their questions, nor does He want to hear them. Instead, at least three different times God pleads with Israel to obey Him. For instance, notice verses 5, 7-8: On the day when I chose Israel . . . and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, I raised my hand in an oath to them, saying "I am the LORD your God." . . . Then I said to them, "Each of you, throw away the abominations which are before his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. . . ." But they rebelled against Me and would not obey Me. They did not all cast away the abominations which were before their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said to them, "I will pour out My fury on them and fulfill My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt." God made Himself known to them in the land of Egypt. Then in verses 7-8, God commands them to throw away their Egyptian idols. This was long before they left Egypt, and when they refused, God poured out His anger on them—they were enslaved because of their rebellion. Of course, their descendants also rebelled in the wilderness (verses 10-13). One of Israel's greatest problems was its failure to remember. The greatest thing they forgot is God Himself, which is said six times in this chapter (Ezekiel 20:13, 16, 21, 24, 27-28). God put the children of Israel into slavery because they profaned His holy Sabbaths and forgot His statutes and His laws. They especially despised the fourth commandment, which begins with "remember": "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8). The Israelites had been instructed about the Sabbath, but in their prosperity, they forgot it and paid dearly. Has modern Israel also forgotten God? If we were to ask a random person on the street in an Israelitish nation if it is a sin to kill someone, to steal, to lie, or to commit adultery, chances are he or she will say, "Yes." Then, if we were to ask him or her if it is a sin to break the Sabbath, we would probably get a blank stare in return. Many do not even know what the Sabbath is! In Ezekiel 20:35, 37-38, God prophesies of a future time: I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead my case with you face to face. . . . I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me. Jews and other Israelites will learn that they must not forget God and His instructions. But not all is lost because He says that some will remember their ways and loathe themselves (verse 43), leading to repentance.
Ronny H. Graham
Remember
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Exodus 17:2-4
The Israelites were only too happy to receive liberty from their bondage to Egypt. But were very unwilling to obey God, complaining loudly, even rebelling in the wilderness, accusing Moses, Aaron, and by extension, God Himself, for the hardships in the wilderness despite the liberty they received from God through these men. Being in the church is no different, in that sense. We have become part of a body, a nation, the body of Christ, a royal priesthood. God looks at us both as individuals and as a body, and He leads and guides that entire body. He expects those who are now part of the body through baptism and the receipt of His Holy Spirit to be willing to endure whatever the body goes through. Israel was unwilling to do that.
John W. Ritenbaugh
What Is the Work of God Now? (Part Two)
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Deuteronomy 32:15
Jeshurun, meaning "the upright," is a poetical name for Israel carried over from her earlier uprightness, before she took for granted the physical and spiritual blessings that God provided. The metaphor Moses uses derives from a pampered animal that, instead of being tame and gentle, becomes mischievous and vicious as a result of good living and spoiled treatment. Israel did this in various acts of rebellion, murmuring, and idolatrous apostasy.
Martin G. Collins
Gluttony: A Lack of Self-Control (Part Two)
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Jeremiah 3:1-5
Jeremiah wrote this over 400 years after Israel's rejection of God as King and about 840 years after making the covenant at Mount Sinai. Even though by the time of this writing God had divorced the Great Harlot Israel, He still continued to have a fractious relationship with her in order to continue the outworking of His purpose and to fulfill His promises to Abraham, including all the end-time prophecies. In other words, He was not yet finished with Israel.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Beast and Babylon (Part Eight): God, Israel, and the Bible
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Ezekiel 20:1-7
Ezekiel 20:1 reveals that while the Jews were in their captivity, the elders came to seek answers from God. What were their questions? They can be ascertained only by God's reply. Overall, the questions seem to have been something similar to, "Why are we having all this trouble?" "What is the problem?" "When can we expect to return to Jerusalem?" God's answer begins to take shape in verse 7, "Each of you, throw away the abominations which are before his eyes." The last phrase literally means "the delight of the eyes." "His eyes" must refer to the typical Israelite's eyes. Recall that the Israelites did what seemed right or pleasurable to them but not necessarily what was delightful to God. Since God commanded them to throw away what was a delight to them, we must understand, then, that "the delight of their eyes" was to God idolatry and rebellion. That brief phrase contains two contrasting perspectives. It identifies what God had against them: their idolatry. The delight of their eyes was the idol that they looked at and gave their devotion to.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Fourth Commandment
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Hosea 1:2
The book of Hosea's dominant theme is Israel's faithlessness. Hosea is especially creative in his use of metaphors to describe the relationship between Israel and God, but the two dominant ones are suggested in this verse. The primary one is Israel as a faithless wife, and the secondary one is Israel as a rebellious child (rebelling against God's law). Harlotry indicates sexual wantonness. If the person committing harlotry were married, it would suggest extreme faithlessness to his or her vows of marriage. In a spiritual covenant relationship with God, however, it indicates idolatry. In tandem with the metaphors regarding Israel, the prophet uses two main family-relationship themes. In the first, God is shown as a faithful Husband, and in the second, as a loving and longsuffering Parent. In each case, Israel is faithless in carrying out responsibilities within the relationship, which God calls adultery and harlotry. God's judgment was occasioned by Israel departing from duties agreed to in a contract, the Covenant.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Seventh Commandment
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Romans 15:4
If we see things happening within the body of Christ, the Old Testament is a great reservoir of instruction regarding God's relationship with those who have made a covenant with Him. God faithfully recorded the way the Israelites acted and reacted to Him, as well as the way He reacted to them. He had people like Moses, Samuel, David, and Ezra to write these things down. When the time came for His Son to come, die for the sins of the world, and start the church, His people had at their fingertips all the instruction they needed to find out what was happening, why, and what to do about it.
John W. Ritenbaugh
What Is the Work of God Now? (Part Two)
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Revelation 17:5
In the past, we have been taught that this refers to the Roman Catholic Church. Yet, does this truly refer only to a church, or is it something more politically, economically, and militarily powerful and influential? Notice her identification contains the name "Mystery." (I Corinthians 2:7-9 also uses this term.) A biblical mystery is something that God must reveal for one to understand. It is not something right on the surface that anybody looking into Revelation can stumble across and quickly understand. This Woman's identification is not something easily seen. Of "mystery," William Barclay's The Letters to the Corinthians says: "The Greek word musterion means something whose meaning is hidden from those who have not been initiated, but crystal clear to those who have" (p. 26). Thus, commentaries are of virtually no help in identifying the Woman of these chapters. Protestant biblical commentators pay little or no attention to the end-time twelve tribes of Israel. To them, that Israel does not exist! Conversely, evangelical writers and a few mainstream groups focus exclusively on the tiny nation of Israel in the Middle East. However, the Mystery Woman of Revelation 17 and 18 is much more than what that nation displays. Commentators wholly disregard God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to make Israel into a populous, powerhouse nation both physically and spiritually—promises that affect both race and grace. Ignoring the race aspect altogether, they teach that the promises of grace were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. However, God, as a blessing to His church, revealed the knowledge of the end-time location of Israel to Herbert Armstrong through other men who were seeking to find the "lost ten tribes." God did this so the church can make better sense of what is happening regarding the fulfillment of prophecy as the return of Christ approaches. In Daniel 12:10, God promises that the wise would understand, and the wise are those who keep the ways of the Lord (Hosea 14:9). Almost all Protestants claim, as Herbert Armstrong did, that the Woman is the Roman Catholic Church, against which they have a prejudice. But Revelation 17 and 18 are a continued revelation of the same Woman, Israel, who appears in chapter 12!
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Beast and Babylon (Part Five): The Great Harlot
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Revelation 17:5
Is it really wild, unjust, and perhaps outright wrong that God could refer to Israel as a great prostitute, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots? Notice, however, Revelation 11:8: "And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." In the same book, He calls Jerusalem "Sodom and Egypt"! Both were despicable places. God is providing evidence to solve the identity of the prostitute by comparing Jerusalem—representing all Israel—to Sodom, noted in history for its sexual sins, and Egypt, known to biblical students for its harsh slavery of the Israelites and as a type of the anti-God world we must come out of. These are two stunning and dramatic comparisons of Israel's immoral characteristics! Why should God not also compare her to Babylon? God reserves His harshest judgments for those who should know better but waste their gifts on prideful self-indulgence. Jesus says, "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more" (Luke 12:48; see Amos 3:1-2). In Ezekiel 16:46-51,56, God not only compares Jerusalem to both Samaria and Sodom, but He judges it to be more immorally vile than even those two well-publicized examples of ancient sin run wild! God portrays them as sisters under the skin! We all know the perversity of Sodom's sins. God goes so far as to say that Samaria had not committed half the sins that Jerusalem had. These verses put Israel's conduct into a perspective that we find difficult to accept, but it is true nonetheless—it is God's own judgment and testimony! That God calls Israel "Babylon" gives evidence of the magnitude of Israel's unfaithfulness to her Husband and Benefactor, God.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Beast and Babylon (Part Five): The Great Harlot
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Revelation 17:5
The phrase "mother of harlots" in Revelation 17:5 might be misleading and therefore misinterpreted because of the Bible's peculiar practice of frequently using terms such as daughters, sons, harlots, thieves, adulterers, and idolaters collectively, fully intending both genders. In other words, sin is not limited to one gender. In collective usage, the term "daughters" includes males; the word "sons" includes females; and words like "harlots," "adulterers," "idolaters," and "thieves" include both males and females. This practice is what the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery calls a "double metaphor": one word, which may have a specific gender because the context demands it take that gender, but which actually includes both genders. Thus in Revelation 17:5, "harlots" is to be understood as including men involved in what the Bible specifies as harlotry. Therefore, "mother of harlots," in Revelation 17:5 specifically refers to unfaithfulness within a covenant relationship with God, not a specific, human, sexual sin. The Protestant churches that revolted from the Catholic Church were certainly not unfaithful to God as His churches. They never made the Old Covenant with God, entering into a figurative marriage; they, as an entire nation, had never vowed to keep His laws. Nor were the Protestant and Catholic churches unfaithful to God as a church because neither ever had a New Covenant relationship with God as churches. However, the citizens of the nations of Israel were certainly unfaithful to God within a covenant relationship. Revelation 17 and 18 are describing a city/nation, not a church.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Beast and Babylon (Part Five): The Great Harlot
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