Separation to God

From: Samuel: God's Emergency Man By: William Woldridge Fereday

• 1 min. read • grade level: 10

“Like all the nations” (verse 5) were really painful words to have come from the lips of the Lord's chosen people. It was their glory, could they have appreciated it, that they were not like the nations. Remember what Balaam said concerning them in the first of his four parables: “The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations” (Num. 23:9⁹For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. (Numbers 23:9)). The people of God have always found it difficult to maintain the position of separation to God. The church has failed as signally in this as Israel. What is now called Christendom is a sorry compound of paganism, Judaism and Christianity. The arrangements and practices of the religious mass are modeled after the world's pattern and are as unlike the charming simplicity of the days of the apostles as they could possibly be. Happy are they who have learned the true nature and character of the church of God and who seek to walk apart from all that is of the world, the flesh and the devil. How blessed it will be at the last if the Lord is able to say to any of us, “Thou hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name” (Rev. 3:8⁸I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. (Revelation 3:8)).