The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 345

Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher
than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” “I am God, and
there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done.” Job 11:7; Isaiah 55:8, 9;
46:9, 10.
Even the prophets who were favored with the special illumination
of the Spirit did not fully comprehend the import of the revelations
committed to them. The meaning was to be unfolded from age to age, as
the people of God should need the instruction therein contained.
Peter, writing of the salvation brought to light through the gospel,
says: Of this salvation “the prophets have inquired and searched
diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was
in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ,
and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not
unto themselves, but unto us they did minister.” 1 Peter 1:10-12.
Yet while it was not given to the prophets to understand fully the
things revealed to them, they earnestly sought to obtain all the light
which God had been pleased to make manifest. They “inquired and
searched diligently,” “searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit
of Christ which was in them did signify.” What a lesson to the people of
God in the Christian age, for whose benefit these prophecies were given
to His servants! “Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves,
but unto us they did minister.” Witness those holy men of God as they
“inquired and searched diligently” concerning revelations given them
for generations that were yet unborn. Contrast their holy zeal with the
listless unconcern with which the favored ones of later ages treat this gift
of Heaven. What a rebuke to the ease-loving, world-loving indifference
which is content to declare that the prophecies cannot be understood!
Though the finite minds of men are inadequate to enter

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