Friday, September 29, 2023
Many, but not all are unbelievers. Many, but not all reject truth. Many, but not all are faithless. Many, but not all believe their government leaders. Many, but not all are compromised with the culture. Many, but not all in fear bow the knee to government leaders’ mandates. God’s remnant few are those committed to Christ, are Spirit-led, are watchful, are wise, are uncompromised, are discerning, and unafraid. The remnant few, the redeemed of the Lord God, with heart, mind, soul and strength, keep their eyes on the eternal prize of Christ, who said, “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14); and who also said “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7:13–14).
When ancient Israel entered the Babylonian captivity of King Nebuchadnezzar around 597 BC, the number of men and women are estimated to be about 36,000 to 48,000 Jews going into exile. King Nebuchadnezzar had an image erected of himself that was 60 cubits high (88’-6” tall), and 6 cubits wide (8’-10” wide), and he mandated that all people gathered (which included Israelites in captivity) must fall down and worship his image, and anyone who refused would be thrown in a hot furnace of fire and burned to death. All gathered there obeyed the king’s wicked edict, even those of captive Israel, except for three Hebrew men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. Only three, God-fearing, truly believing men of God did not bow the knee to the king’s evil edict; an example that foreshadows the times of the end of this age, when “all the world marveled and followed the beast” (Rev. 13:3), because “He (Antichrist) causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:16–17). Only three men, from an estimated 36,000 to 48,000 Israelites gathered there did not bow the knee to the king’s wicked edict. Read this account from Daniel 3.
Here’s the point: many bowed the knee, even among those who professed to belong to God but lied; showed their loyalty to mandates of the king instead of to God. The three Hebrew men who did not bow the knee represent the few among the many who were called. Today, the organized church is very much like ancient Israel, lukewarm and fearing man more than God, most follow the wicked edicts of government, as already proven by the many who blindly took the untested COVID-19 vaccines. And the elites, seeing their outrageous success, are about to roll out more vaccines to ensnare even more of the non-discerning world to believe them and their mandates. “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11). Only the few will actually believe.
How can we have confidence that all the above is true? By the Word of God: “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, ‘See, this is new?’ It has already been in ancient times before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after” (Eccl. 1:9–11). Also “that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: ‘Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed’” (John 12:38). Be one of the few who believe.
Marlin J. Yoder
