The Lord God - יהוה אדני Adonai Jehovah . Adonai is omitted by four of Kennicott's MSS., and in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic.
Now therefore - In view of the certain judgment which God will bring upon you.
Be ye not mockers - This was the prevailing sin Isaiah 28:9-14, and on account of this sin in part the judgment of God was about to come upon the guilty nation.
Lest your bands be made strong - Lest your confinement should be more severe and protracted. God would punish them according to their sins, and if they now ceased to mock and deride him it would greatly mitigate the severity of their punishment (compare Isaiah 24:22).
For I have heard - I, the prophet, have heard Yahweh of hosts threaten a consumption.
A consumption - (see this phrase explained in the note at Isaiah 10:23)
Upon the whole earth - The whole land of Judea (see the note at Isaiah 24:1).
Will these warnings be passed by as of no account? The Lord calls upon every teacher, every minister, everyone who has received the light of His truth, to mark well his spiritual standing. They have had great light, and if they would secure eternal life, they must no longer make finite men their dependence, but build upon the sure foundation. TM 384.1
No council of men can with safety remove God's principles, and set up their own; for the word of God declares, “Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.” “For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.” TM 384.2
Read in context »“For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.” Read Deuteronomy 7:6. Read the whole chapter, also chapters 1 and 8. These were presented to me as the words of the Lord. These things are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. TM 420.1
We are to have only those connected with our institutions who will hear the word of the Lord and appreciate and obey His voice. When a man will plead and urge to have his mind and his judgment to be supreme in any one of our institutions, you can have no greater evidence that that man does not know himself and is not qualified to manage. He will make mistakes and injure rather than restore. He does not know what responsibilities are involved in his relation to God or to his fellowmen. TM 420.2
“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be? Those who walk humbly with God will not be striving to obtain greater responsibilities, but will consider that they have a special work to do, and will be faithful to their duty. In our institutions, great good can be done in educating by precept and example, in economy in all lines. If you, my brother, had learned in the school of Christ to be meek and lowly in heart, you would always stand on vantage ground. You have not an evenly balanced character. You cannot safely put confidence in your own judgment in all things. Man's way is to devise and scheme; God implants a principle. Man is striving to make duty soft and accommodating to his own natural character; but life is a battlefield; life is a race which he has to run if he is victor.... TM 420.3
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