Read the tenth verse again, and then read Deut. 18:10: “There shall not
be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or
an enchanter, or a witch.” Now read what the Lord says to the heathen
who would shield themselves from just judgment that is about to come
upon them: “Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now
the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up,
and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.” Isa. 47:13.
Here we see that the very things to which the Galatians were returning,
were forbidden by the Lord when He brought Israel out of Egypt. Now we
might as well say that when God forbade these things He was warning the
Israelites against keeping the Sabbath, as to say that Paul was
upbraiding the Galatians for keeping it, or that he had any reference to
it whatever. God forbade these things at the very time when He gave the
commandment concerning Sabbath-keeping. So far back into their old ways
had the Galatians gone that Paul was afraid lest all his labor on them
had been in vain. They were forsaking God and returning to “the weak and
beggarly elements of the world,” which no reverent person can think of
as ever having had any connection with God. They were changing their
glory for “that which doth not profit” (Jer. 2:11); for “the customs of
the heathen are vain.”
There is just as much danger for us in this respect as there ever was
for any people. Whoever trusts in himself, having any confidence
whatever in the flesh, is worshiping the works of his own hands instead
of God, just as truly as does any one who makes and bows down to a
graven image. It is so easy for a man to trust to his own supposed
shrewdness, to his ability to “take care of himself,” and to forget that
the thoughts even of the wise are vain, and that there is no power but
of God. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the
mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches;
but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and
knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment,
and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith
the Lord.” Jer. 9:23, 24.
[Sidenote: The Messenger Not Personally Affronted.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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