Chapter 4: Do God’s Work
Are you fulfilling the purpose for which God called you?
Much of God’s anger at His people today comes because they have stopped fulfilling the purpose of their calling. In fact, most have entirely forgotten that purpose!
The purpose of our calling is not simply to receive salvation. God calls a select group of people out of this world out of season today because He has a job—a responsibility—for them to do. We are called to do a work. As Herbert W. Armstrong often said, we are not called for our own salvation—we are called to serve the world!
This is such an important truth! And the history of God’s Church shows that it is very easy to lose sight of. We naturally become focused on ourselves, our own desires and ambitions, our own issues and problems. But God is teaching us a way of outgoing love and concern, a way of selfless sacrifice.
The most powerful means God gives us of combating our selfishness and learning that way of love is by doing His Work.
Mr. Armstrong emphasized this powerfully and repeatedly. In a February 21, 1974, member letter, he wrote: “… God has set before us His way of preparing us—by growing in spiritual character, in grace and the knowledge of Christ, ready for our part in the Kingdom, reigning under Christ! And that way is our part in fulfilling the special end-time Work of Matthew 24:14 …!” This is the way we grow and prepare for God’s Kingdom: by doing our part to support God’s Work!
“[T]his great Work of God is the way God has set before us for each to grow and develop spiritually,” Mr. Armstrong continued in that letter. “God’s way—that of His law—is the way of giving, not getting. Those who try to simply get their salvation are in danger of losing it!
“God’s Work is a work of giving—giving the gospel of the Kingdom of God. In 40 years I have observed that only those whose hearts are in this great Work are themselves growing spiritually.”
That was penetrating insight from God’s end-time Elijah!
The tendency to lose this vision has repeatedly plagued God’s people in the New Testament Church. It is at the heart of why the great majority of God’s people have failed in this Laodicean era!
Daniel 8:10-12 is a prophecy of the spiritual destruction within God’s Church wreaked by a demon army. There were men at the top of God’s Church who were actually helping Satan and his demons destroy God’s Work! That is a terrible sin—and the people allowed it to happen! In fact, the members caused it to happen—“by reason of transgression.”
The priority in Daniel 8 is “the daily,” meaning the Work. When Satan destroyed that, he knew everything was destroyed. (Learn more in my free booklet Daniel—Unsealed at Last!)
The devil’s greatest passion is to destroy God’s Work. Christ’s greatest passion is to complete God’s Work.
The Work identifies God’s Church (Revelation 3:7-8). If members don’t do the Work, they will die as a Church. If the Work dies, the Church dies! Doing God’s Work is what keeps true Christians alive! You, individually, must put your heart into the Work, or you will die spiritually!
We must sacrifice for God’s Work the way Christ did (e.g. John 4:34). Even from His youth, Christ was doing His Father’s business (Luke 2:49). Are you about your Father’s business?
The Laodiceans allowed the truth of God to be cast down to the ground—they did not love the truth (Daniel 8:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:10). They did not have their heart in God’s Work; it wasn’t their top priority. But it must be ours—because it is our Father’s top priority!
When we refuse to do our Father’s business, we spurn our spiritual sonship! That is sin of the greatest magnitude!
A Coming Catastrophe
The world needs a warning message from God’s Work more urgently than ever.
Getting this warning message out is of paramount importance in the book of Jeremiah. The book opens with God giving a commission to His prophet—and a commandment to warn.
In verse 13 of the first chapter, Jeremiah receives a vision from God of “a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.” God explains what this signifies: “Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land” (verse 14).
This is a terrifying prophetic image of the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire, a fearsome German-led European war machine! This is explained in detail in many other prophecies, and we will discuss it later in this book. Here God warns that this power will enter the gates of Jerusalem, a type of prophetic Israel, and the cities of Judah (verse 15). It is going to wreak unparalleled destruction on our nations and on the entire Earth.
God wants the world to know about this! He recorded many prophecies about it so we could be forewarned. He gave this vision to Jeremiah so it could be proclaimed. And—this is very important—this is an end-time prophecy—it is for our day! Whether or not you believe it, this deadly machine is rising today! This pot is boiling and is about to break forth!
God sends His modern-day apostle onto the scene with Jeremiah’s message to ensure people receive this warning! That man is backed by a group of supporters to carry out this crucial Work of God.
Billions of people’s lives are about to be shattered and destroyed. God’s Work is trying to prevent that—and to spare as many as will listen. How well we back it will radically affect their lives!
God tells us in 2 Peter 3:12 that God’s people can be “hasting unto the coming of the day of God.” That means that if we are intensely urgent, we can finish God’s Work in less time! Look at the suffering in the world around us—the wars, the sickness, the despair. We can help humanity by ushering in Christ’s return as soon as possible!
Most people are not responding to this Work today, but once this phase of God’s Work is over, the pot will boil over and the greatest time of suffering ever will begin. Faced with irrefutable evidence of mankind’s failure, multitudes will “come to themselves” and repent. How many? God doesn’t tell us. Revelation 7:9 prophesies of this group: It says “no man could number” it—in part because that number depends on us! The more effective we are today in carrying out God’s Work and spreading His truth, the more people will repent in the Tribulation. (Read my May-June 2019 Trumpet article “Learn the Lesson of the ‘Great Multitude.’”)
How much is that worth? Once someone repents, he will be protected from that horrific suffering. He will receive a living hope and get to know his Creator. Your support for God’s Work could save a father from losing a son, or a wife from losing her husband. Your support could help people begin the priceless process of being born into God’s Family!
But the tragic reality is, most of God’s people have turned away from doing this Work! God wants them to have enough love to warn the world about the Great Tribulation. The Laodiceans’ failure to warn the world is costing human lives, and God holds them accountable (Ezekiel 33). No wonder God tells them in Malachi 3:9 that they have robbed the whole world (as it reads in the original Hebrew). By failing to do God’s Work, they have committed a monstrous crime. Because of that grievous sin, those people are going to become victims of the very power they should be warning about!
Jeremiah 1:16 reads, “And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.” These people have forsaken God. That must refer to God’s people, His own Church.
The very people who should be warning the world about this coming Tribulation need themselves to be warned: They are about to be caught in the middle of this nightmare!
Notice three sins highlighted in Jeremiah 1:16: In addition to forsaking God, these people have turned to false gods, and they have worshiped their own works and creations.
The people of God should be passionately obeying God and supporting His Work! But many of them are instead worshiping the trivial work of their own hands! They are self-absorbed and small-minded. What vanity!
‘Go and Cry’
In Jeremiah 1:17-18, God speaks directly to His prophet: “Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee … against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.” This is an intense confrontation God is thrusting him into. Doing God’s Work is never easy. That is another reason why so many people rebel against it. We must love God more than our own comfort and even our lives.
However, God promises to deliver His prophet to enable him to do the job. “… I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee” (verse 19). God has a faithful Work today that is supporting His end-time prophet. We can claim this promise of protection from God!
Jeremiah 2 begins to get into the message God wants His prophet to deliver. God tells him, “Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem …” (verse 2). God instructs His prophet to “Go and cry” this message “in [their] ears.” There is a commission here to God’s faithful people to deliver this message. This is an important theme we must remember throughout these chapters.
There are two groups here. One is supporting the publication of this warning—the other is receiving it. Which group are you in?
Again, the great majority of God’s people in this Church era are not fulfilling their responsibility to do God’s Work. They are failing to warn Israel and the world, and they fail to explain about the beautiful world to come. That is a tragic reality of our day.
In these chapters in Jeremiah, and in many other places in Scripture, you see God correcting those of His people who are failing to do His Work—and commanding those who are doing His Work exactly what He expects from them.
Every one of us has a grave responsibility to find God’s Work and give it our 100 percent, wholehearted support!
America Ignorant
How desperately the world needs this warning! They have no idea they are about to be attacked and conquered.
The rest of Jeremiah’s vision here spells out the details of how this attack will come.
“And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life” (Jeremiah 4:30). Remember, the book of Jeremiah was written specifically for this end time (Jeremiah 30:1-9). In this revealing verse, God is addressing Israel (Jeremiah 4:1)—primarily America and Britain today.
Who are our “lovers” today? We must know, because these lovers will seek our life to destroy us! If we have even an ounce of godly fear, verse 30 should strike terror in our hearts!
Other prophecies show which nation God will use to punish modern-day Israel. In Isaiah 10:5-7, God calls the Assyrians “the rod of mine anger,” the weapon He will use to punish a “hypocritical nation,” Israel. Remember, the book of Isaiah was also written precisely for the end time (Isaiah 30:8). Who are the modern-day Assyrians? We have proved for years that Assyria is Germany.
You cannot understand such end-time prophecies if you don’t know the identity of Israel and Assyria today. The fact that God’s Church reveals these keys to prophecy is one indication of where God is working—because these prophecies must be proclaimed now, before all this comes to pass!
Germany is God’s instrument to awaken the nations of Israel and God’s Church. Other prophecies show that Germany will lead a fearsome European empire. We see this building today in Europe!
Yet astoundingly, shamefully, the nations of Israel have chosen Germany as their “lover“! And Germany will betray us, as it has often done in the past. It will “seek your life.” It will destroy the great nations of Israel unless we repent!
God is contemptuous of this relationship! Anciently He chose Israel to lead the world in His way of life. They were not God’s “favorite people”; God is no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11). They were chosen to do a job—the most important job on Earth.
Anciently, the Israelites failed. Today that failure is far worse. Israel has not only scorned God, we have also taken the great wealth and birthright blessings He gave us and used them to teach the world rebellion against God!
Israel was chosen to be God’s wife and to trust Him—not other nations! You can almost feel God’s vehement emotion in Jeremiah 4:30—the same feeling a loving husband has when his beautiful wife commits adultery, but a million times worse!
Blow the Trumpet
God wants a trumpet blast—a loud, dramatic, arresting warning—coming out of His Church! In Old Testament Israel, the blowing of the trumpet often signaled war. The trumpet blast sounds the alarm of war, invasion and captivity! It should cause people to tremble.
“O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction. I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman” (Jeremiah 6:1-2). Jerusalem is a type of all Israel—including Britain and America. The trumpet of warning is to be blown in Tekoa, a town in Israel just outside Jerusalem. Bethhaccerem is a high place in the Tekoa area.
God wants us warning all the nations of Israel in a time of great urgency. Israel and many of God’s own people are asleep! We must do all we can to blow the trumpet and warn people of what is coming very soon on Israel.
What is the warning about? “Great destruction” in this end time coming from the north. This refers to the “king of the north,” mentioned in Daniel 11:40-41, Jeremiah 1:15 and many other prophecies, causing great tribulation—the worst suffering ever on Earth! (Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21-22). The “sign of fire” symbolizes nuclear destruction. This enemy is about to come, unless we repent!
“Misery and desolation comes on you!” this passage warns. “They pitch their tents around you! … They proclaim war against her, they mount and go up to the forts! … They rise up by night and destroy her palaces!” (Jeremiah 6:3-5; Ferrar Fenton).
In verse 6, it is God Himself directing this besiegement. Why? “As a fountain wells up with water, So she wells up with her wickedness. Violence and plundering are heard in her. Before Me continually are grief and wounds” (verse 7; nkjv). Their sins are overwhelming—a never-ending stream!
“Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited” (verse 8). If we do not heed God’s message, He departs from us. That is the worst possible news! Then the land of Israel becomes desolate—“a land not inhabited.” This means nuclear annihilation. After the attack, the remainder of our people will be removed from their own land as slaves.
God is correcting the nations of Israel for their sins. If they do not heed, they are heading toward captivity and death. That makes this message crucial for their survival! They must know why God is sending this correction.
No Shame
The trumpet-blowing work isn’t just warning about impending armies. “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1).
God is sending Germany “against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath” (Isaiah 10:6). God is full of wrath against the modern-day Israelites because of their flagrant hypocrisy. They think of themselves as godly and righteous—while they lead the world into the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah! Never has the world seen such gross, inexplicable immorality as in the nations of Israel—the very people who were chosen to lead the world to God! We act righteous—instead of being righteous. Unless we repent, God will tread us down like the mire of the streets!
“Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush …” (Jeremiah 6:15). Morally and spiritually, the modern nations of Israel are steeped in sexual sin. They have glutted themselves on perversion, pornography and filth, and they are unashamed. In fact, America broadcasts and spreads that trash around the world far more than any other nation! We promote same-sex “marriage” and transgenderism and push other nations to embrace these perversions. You cannot make these people blush!
Many people think God is happy with our nations today. Even God’s faithful people, who can clearly see that this world is evil, sometimes lack the intensity of feeling that God has. We need to wake up and recognize what He thinks of our sins! He chose us to lead the world in keeping His Word and law. Instead we lead the world in rejecting God’s Word and breaking His law!
Strong marriages and families are the foundational strength of any nation. Drugs and pornography shatter the family and destroy our nations’ godly values. Our people are on the brink of sudden destruction.
Consider God’s view of our society expressed in Jeremiah 7. The Valley of Hinnom is infamous as the biblical location of child sacrifice. Jeremiah recorded that the Jews “built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart” (verse 31). God strongly condemns this horrific practice.
God said modern Israel is as bad as pagans ripping out their own children’s hearts and offering them on an idolatrous altar! We think of ourselves as civilized and sophisticated. But look at the reality, and you see God’s view: Our nations are guilty of monstrous child sacrifice!
America aborts roughly 1 million babies every year! That is an average of nearly 1 baby every 30 seconds. Ancient Israel never came close to murder on that scale!
Our children face a society saturated with perverse sex. Most of them will encounter pornography before they enter their teenage years. When we give them no moral instruction, no uplifting vision, we sacrifice them to sexual lust and fornication. We give them unlimited, unfiltered access to the Internet, where they can stumble upon some of the worst perversion mankind has ever created! We also sacrifice our children to demoniacal music and drugs. In the nations of Israel, this happens before our youth are taught to use their minds!
We teach that homosexual relationships and same-sex “marriage” are normal. Hundreds of American teens mutilate and castrate themselves in the name of “woke” ideology. God calls this an abomination! (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13). He is passionate about protecting families and children, and He is deeply angered by influences that undermine and degrade them. Marriage and family are tremendous gifts from God that illuminate His inspiring master plan for human beings! The homosexual and transgender movements are an all-out attack on the gospel of the Kingdom of God! That is why we must not be indifferent about this important subject. We must come to see God’s view.
In the world today, God’s perspective is ignored, even ridiculed. The contempt that people have for truth, goodness, morality, biblical values and revelation—even history, human experience, tradition and simple facts—is shocking and shameful!
The result is an entire generation of sick young people. In America, over 40 percent of Gen Z have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. In a 2023 survey, 40 percent of U.S. high schoolers said they were persistently sad or hopeless. A quarter of America’s teenage girls have a suicide plan. Around the same number have deliberately cut or harmed themselves!
Do you see why God has to urgently and forcefully intervene? Do you see why a trumpet message must go out?
Yet who is sending out this warning? In many cases, the churches of this world celebrate this destructive perversion!
Right after condemning the activities that occurred anciently in the Valley of Hinnom, Jeremiah wrote, “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place” (Jeremiah 7:32). The last prophetic clause in this verse has been fulfilled. Today, the sides of the valley are dotted with graves. But this is only a small foretaste of the global upheaval and suffering that lie just ahead, in this time just before Jesus Christ returns.
Blood on Your Hands
“Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken,” God says in Jeremiah 6:17. When God sets a watchman over us to blow the trumpet of warning, we had better heed! You are reading a watchman’s message right now! Today the Philadelphia Church of God warns God’s own Laodicean Church, the nations of Israel and the world. That is our work. But our people said, “We will not hearken.” This is why, if we do not repent, God will punish us as no other nation has been punished.
What happens to those God has called to support His watchman Work if they do not warn?
Ezekiel describes a watchman warning going out to Israel. “When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand” (Ezekiel 33:8).
If the people God called out of this world and gave this vision to do not proclaim His message to the world, they will lose their own blood. On top of that, they will be guilty of the blood of those they should have warned!
Stop and think about that! Did God call you to support His warning message? Are you supporting that message? If not, God holds you responsible for the blood of all those people! God will judge His people for that failure—and “[I]t is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:30-31).
God is merciful. Even those Laodiceans who enter the Tribulation because of their failure to warn will have the opportunity to repent. But they must get back to this warning message! They will have to warn their captors about the destruction coming to them (Psalm 137:3; Ezekiel 12:15-16).
If you have been called today and you want to be in God’s Family, there is no escaping your obligation to support this warning Work. It is far, far easier to publicize this warning message today than it will be in the Tribulation!
Will Anyone Else Warn?
Some Laodiceans still claim to be doing God’s Work. In reality, they are doing their own work. Even Revelation 3:15 confirms that.
God doesn’t have five or six different works. He has one work that anybody can find if they know the true God!
Where is the one Church that God governs? Where is the one and only Work God is doing?
Other churches claim to be publishing a warning message, but are they really?
I know of three other groups that emerged from the Worldwide Church of God that produce regular magazines. Looking over their issues of the past year as I was finishing this book, it is clear that none of them have much interest in a warning message.
One group has written nothing in their magazines about these prophecies in at least 12 months. There is no mention of Germany’s identity as Assyria. The closest they come is an article on a speech by the Danish prime minister saying Europe has five years to rearm. But it contains no Bible verses, no prophecy, no warning!
Another group mentions Germany’s biblical identity almost in passing among a list of things to watch.
The third group is even worse. They tell their readers that Assyria “may prophetically represent the end-time northern power in Europe”—but they are not sure.
The same issue declares “for the present, U.S. power in the world remains at the forefront by far, with other nations and international power blocs, including the European Union, significantly behind.
“That lets us know that, though there are warning signs, the end is not yet. … [I]t looks like things will continue with the United States on top for a while.”
The same magazine issue contains an article on the Great Tribulation and the return of Christ: “With the vast power of the United States on the world scene today relative to other nations, this calamity seems yet a ways off,” it says. Meanwhile, for Europe, “It seems that it will take some time to swing back to a church-state partnership.” Yet another article states, “[I]t appears that U.S. dominance on the world stage will yet continue a good while longer.”
That is not warning the world—it is putting people to sleep!
Over the same time frame, we have featured two cover articles in the Philadelphia Trumpet warning about the imminent threat from Germany, along with many feature articles. My son brings up this threat many times a week on his news program, the Trumpet Daily. Even the Atlantic published an article, “The New German War Machine,” which was stronger than anything produced by these Laodicean groups!
Members of these groups routinely tell our ministers that they like the prophetic message coming from the pcg. Yet they are not in the pcg, and they are not supporting this Work. Why? They see the need for such a message, and they see that their organization is not sending one out—but they don’t see that need urgently enough! If they did, they would support this message!
The Laodiceans will be plunged into the Tribulation because they are not doing God’s Work. Few sins are more serious than God’s own Church failing to do His Work. The Laodiceans will be penalized by having to give their lives in the Great Tribulation.
‘One of a City’
God tells the Laodiceans, “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you …” (Jeremiah 3:14). He has not forgotten. Jeremiah is addressing Christ’s “backsliding” wife, the Church. The only Israel God is married to today is spiritual Israel, the Church (see Revelation 19:7). This relationship is extremely important to Him!
Jeremiah 3:14 continues, “and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion,” speaking of God’s Church.
This verse beautifully describes how the Philadelphia Church of God has been built: God has taken “one of a city, and two of a family.” This is how God is accomplishing His end-time Work.
This Church has members in this situation all over the world, including many cities with only one person. That is a tough challenge. But we must be strong enough to do whatever we can to help God’s Work even if we are alone—only one in a city! If God calls one person from a city, He knows that individual can stand alone. And in a family where He calls two, that can be an even bigger challenge because it can cause a family split.
Can you walk alone—with God? Each person must walk by his faith, then build more faith. How precious to God is a man of faith—a person who can follow God while his whole city is rebelling! These saints can stand alone as they serve God. They are God’s most noble end-time warriors.
You may be “one person from a city,” but know that God is behind you and you are going to have an impact in God’s Work! When God calls you, He will give you power—real power!—and a certain authority to rule yourself and to help His Work.
We need every member. Every member must realize God has called you to contribute to the Work and to give and serve wherever you can! Maybe it is just by your intense prayers and fasting for this Work. Whatever your contribution, you can be a precious member with all the power of God backing you.
This is the ultimate test for Christ’s end-time wife: Will she follow her Husband when most of God’s Church is rebelling? She must respond to Christ and warn the Laodiceans for her Husband. This is a small remnant, God’s voice crying out in a wilderness of religious confusion. It is a “little flock”—a fraction of the size it would be if not for the betrayal and spiritual failure of most of God’s people! This greatest of all tragedies reveals how difficult it is to do God’s Work.
Can you face the trials and difficulties of doing Christ’s Work and know that your Husband will protect you? Remember, the reward for doing so is glorious beyond words! God is now preparing His Bride to rule over and unite the nations of Israel. Then Israel will be used to lead the world—“all the nations”—to God (verse 17). After that, David’s throne will rule over the whole universe (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Christ’s Bride will be king-priests in His world headquarters! (Revelation 3:12; 5:10). She is to share David’s throne with Him. “One of a city, and two of a family” is leading to this magnificent future! Now is the time to prepare.
God is calling you and me to do great things. Let Him lead you wherever you need to go!
‘I Will Give You Pastors’
Amid all the failure in His Church during this age, look at this encouraging promise from God: “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:15).
The great majority of God’s people have fallen away. But for those who accept God’s correction and respond to Him, He promises to take care of them! There will be a Work. There will be faithful ministers to pastor and feed them!
This prophecy is being fulfilled right now in the Philadelphia Church of God. This little remnant has godly pastors who supply the knowledge and understanding of God. Thank God for His faithful ministers!
In the middle of this extremely corrective passage, verses 16-18 give a beautiful millennial scenario. At that time, the physical ark of the covenant that represented God’s presence in Israel anciently will be forgotten, because Jesus Christ will be here, in glory, ruling from Jerusalem!
“At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart” (verse 17). Think of the context! This vision is achingly poignant, as a contrast with the condemnation of the faithlessness of God’s people today. God pauses from His correction and thinks longingly on this utopian vision. “I thought how I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beauteous of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me” (verse 19; rsv). Again—this passage reveals so much about God and His emotions toward His Family!
Sadly, Jeremiah’s prophecy abruptly returns to the bitter reality of what most of His people have actually done to Him: “Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord” (verse 20).
Again you see two groups God is addressing here: One He is directing to do His Work, the other He is correcting for failing to do His Work. God’s love for both groups is evident throughout—though He is also deeply disappointed in and angered by the second group.
God holds you, individually, responsible for the message you back, or fail to back. Each one of us needs to examine ourselves to make sure we are throwing our passionate support behind God’s Work. Are you supporting a warning message? Your physical life—and your eternal life—depends on the answer!