Being a Christian is special; but being a Seventh Day Adventist Christian is a distinct divine calling, and one of the great marvels of my life.
Why is this?
It is because God gave Seventh Day Adventists the gift, the truth and the vision that would save the world. In the context of our calling, there was another person in the Bible to whom gave all three of these, and that person was Joseph, the son of Jacob.
In 2020, the Holy Spirit used Joseph’s story to reveal to me the gravity of being a Seventh Day Adventist Christian, and since then, I have walked in that calling with great solemnity.
From the very beginning, Jacob kissed and set his eyes on the beautiful and well-favored Rachel to become his first and true bride. Instead, Laban deceptively gave Jacob, Leah, the false bride. In the morning, Jacob was greatly disappointed. However, Jacob knew whom he had first covenanted with a kiss. He knew whom he had first set eyes upon, and even though he had to work seven more years for Rachel, to Jacob, it seemed a few days.
From the foundation of the world, Jesus also had His eyes set on His true bride, the commandment keeping church, who have the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:12). Despite the bitter deception Jacob endured, He later united with His first love.
Similarly, the Seventh Day Adventist Church was born out of the bitter disappointment one October morning in 1844.
As time went on, Jacob protested. He fled, the control of Laban’s Catholicism because he yearned for the liberty of God’s everlasting covenant. Since a woman often represents a church, out of Laban, representing Catholicism, came two protestant churches.
The first is Leah. Out of Leah, the false bride, came the Sunday keeping Protestant churches, as dictated by the Sunday Law of Roman Catholicism. The expression “false” used in this context, does not mean that these churches are counterfeit and did not worship God with their whole hearts. Though Leah, is the false bride, let us not forget that out of Leah, came the Levites, priests who were ordained for the most sacred ministry in the sanctuary. Let us not forget that out of her, Judah was born, from whom came the Lion of the tribe Judah, Jesus Christ our High Priest. Interestingly, Leah bore more sons than Rachel, indicating that God immensely blessed Sunday churches. Some of the most devout men of God are genuine commandment keepers, who worshiped on Sundays because that is all they knew.
The second is Rachel. Out of Rachel being the true bride, would come the commandment keeping church of God, but…Rachel was barren. “True” here represents, the remnant Sabbath keeping church that God has in mind as the eternal bride. God never forgets his first love. Some years later, God remembered Rachel and she bore only two sons, Joseph and Benjamin.
The crown and jewel of this story in Genesis, is Joseph. This is where we as the Seventh Day Adventist Church comes in. Joseph, born out of the true bride, represents the gift, the truth and the vision. The corn represents the truth that would feed the world and save the unified remnant church of our last days. Revelation confirms that the true church will have the testimonies of Jesus which is the “the spirit of prophecy,” (Revelation 19:10).
In speaking to his brothers, Joseph said, “God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (Genesis 45: 7). This verse echoes the eternal call of the SDA church. Joseph had the gift of interpretation, so the SDA church through EG White was given the gift of prophecy for events relating to our last days.
Through Joseph, God began the work of redemption to lead his people out of Babylon into the Promised Land. As the story would reveal, the work was filled with conflict, confrontation, separation, sanctification, and eventually purification.
God birthed Joseph with the gift, gave him the corn of truth, and the dream for which he was hated. He was thrown into the pit, and silenced forever, (or so it seems) by his own brothers, not because he was prideful (though he was), but because he had the gift. Then he was thrown into prison because he lived and professed God’s truth. It would seem what God had revealed to him was all a lie.
I believe this place of conflict, separation and purification in Joseph’s story is currently played out in our churches. Confrontations like those of Joseph and his brothers have begun in churches. As Rachel stole and then disguised Laban’s idols, so churches in general have disguised elements of paganism in their worship. As Rueben slept with Bilhah, church leaders are mingling with ecumenism. It seems the gift is useless; that God’s truth is forever entangled with error, and the vision is dead, since some even denounce EG White.
In the backdrop however, God is purifying Joseph. He sits in prison with the gift in his head, the truth in his heart, and the vision clasped betwixt his hands, silent...but praying. Like broken hearted Jacob in a far land, many devoted Adventists are broken over our churches but praying, for Josephs to rise again. Though difficult to bear, conflict, separation and controversies must surface so that the remnant church can rise.
The day would come when Pharoah will call for Joseph, and he must be ready. He must be ready with the gift and the truth, before he can fulfil the vision of dispensing corn to a hungry world plagued by the famine of God’s truth. Therefore, God used the period of Joseph’s silence to purify the gift, so that God’s truth, will usher in the vision and save the world.
Gods mighty hand is purifying a people who will deliver corn to the world. The day is upon us when the world will need corn, and today, there is abundant corn for us to store because the famine is coming soon.
So…, who will come for corn?
Humbly Yours,
Beverly Maitland
****
“They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29).
