There is an urgency in the way the Scriptures focus to the end time, and on a people who must make haste to complete that which God is doing in the earth. The longer the delay, the more difficult it will be to do it, because the powers of sin are accelerating. The satanic forces are mustering and organizing, and we are coming into the final blow. Every bit of the Living Word we get out this year will be worth twice that much next year; in fact, in time it will be illegal and forbidden. There is such a sense of urgency upon us to do the things which must be done.
Several organizations now are concerned about the population explosion and would seek legislation to reduce the population increase to zero. In most of the countries of the world, I would estimate that within the next few years (if the Lord tarries) it will take a government permit for parents to have a child. We will face problems of population within the next years that will see plagues and waves of death hit the whole world. We are using up the resources so fast—the United States uses almost one half of the available food supply of the world at the present time; and we have an affluent society. Very shortly no nation will sell its surplus because its own survival will depend upon it. While there seems to be untapped resources in many countries, they are nothing compared to the demand that there will be.
We are facing changes so rapid that even a fool can see it. A man in the world with no spiritual perception can understand it. What we do, we will have to do quickly. Since I was a small boy, I have heard, “The Lord is coming.” I know His coming is imminent, but the Lord spoke also that unless these days should be shortened, no flesh will be left alive (Matthew 24:22). We are making preparation. Natural farming is being pursued. We should have havens and refuges for the days that are coming, and if we are going to be bowed under sacrifice and labor, so be it! Better that we prepare now than die later and miss the will of God.
We need people of discernment to read the reports to see what is coming upon the earth and prepare us for it. We need this word: this Living Word is the only answer for people today. I don’t know whether the urgency is hitting you, but there is something within me of a heavy foreboding, and I know that somehow we still must shake off more shackles. We must loose ourselves from the things that have bound us. We must set about with all diligence and all haste to complete that which God sets before us.
There are predictions that atheism will soon become the religion of the United States. Witchcraft is abounding. A major university is having classes to teach people how to die. Being introduced in the world is something we can’t put our finger on, because the sun rises in the morning and shines upon us, and everything seems right. But the sun rose on Sodom that morning, and it looked like a beautiful, pleasant day; but when the sun was risen, the fire fell. What an urgency there was; a haste that Lot couldn’t perceive until the men took hold of him and compelled him to flee out of the city that was doomed (Genesis 19:16).
The earth will be shaken by the time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation (Matthew 24:21), and the Lord tells us it is in our generation. How much time do we have? Our meditation in Exodus is about the Passover. It is fitting to prepare our minds for the sense of urgency. The last things must be shaken off; other things must be appropriated—a putting off the old nature and a putting on of Christ. We must assume with all faith and diligence what God has for us. We haven’t time to grow slowly. We haven’t time to submit slowly to the dealings of the Lord from month to month and year to year, while He whips us into shape through our stupidity, like He would beat a jackass into line. Let us learn righteousness and seek it with all of our heart. We must not be goaded into it, but make haste to possess everything that God has for us.
We must have something within us that drives us into what God has for us in this hour. If we don’t, we will become victims of judgment and tribulation with the rest of the world. On that dark night in Egypt, when death was to be in every house where the blood was not found, the Lord commanded, And ye shall let nothing of it (that is, the lamb) remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. Exodus 12:10. When this new day is fully dawned, the provision of the Lamb no longer will be available. Partake of it as much as you can now, for the judgments are coming and the morning comes, and that will no longer be a valid invitation. It will be too late—for that is the day that dawns in which men cry for the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of God. (Revelation 6:16). They will seek death and not find it (Revelation 9:6).
And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover. Exodus 12:11. Eat the lamb in haste—loins girded, staff in hand, shoes on your feet. Why? You are ready to move, your mind girded as a pilgrim for traveling. Get ready to say good-bye to Egypt; be ready to move out. Be like men waiting for their master’s return: in all readiness of mind and of spirit. Blessed are the people who are so ordering their steps before the Lord and are alert of spirit when the Lord comes. They know not when the Master will come, but they stand in readiness, ready to open the door to Him.
He is already moving. Make haste—eat it in haste. We have to hurry. Time is running out. Nothing will ever be the same from day to day. The scene is passing and changing, and the opportunities you have today, you will see no more, forever. In the days to come, you will labor to recapture the moments of opportunity that you have now. You will look back on these days with a yearning, when you had an opportunity to move in, and an opportunity to learn. It is not a day for the indolence, passivity, laziness, and indifference of the world to creep upon our spirit, because it is coming upon the whole world as a snare. He says to His disciples, “Take heed lest your own hearts be overcharged with surfeiting or drunkeness and the cares of this life, so that day overtake you unaware” (Luke 21:34).
In the Communion, ask the Father to alert us to what we have. Let us partake of our precious Lord. Feed upon the Life; draw the forgiveness and strengthening of the new nature. Strengthen the resolutions and desires born of His Spirit, that there might be the performance of that which God has burdened us to do, and a rapid becoming of that which God has told us to be.
If we had a lifetime to live, we might easily include many things in our schedules, in our personal lives, and in our planning. But this is the time of storm, like the days of storm in which Paul was shipwrecked (Acts 27). As the storm continued, the crew started throwing things overboard. Not just junk or garbage, they threw away extra tackling, provisions and food. They threw away their precious possessions; all of their luggage and baggage. Survival was the issue.
It is time for us to throw everything overboard, even good things. The older people may have more difficulty doing this, because they become attached to things that can make life a little easier, especially in these days of intense responsibility. All we have is the simplest facilities to turn out this word, and a lot of slave labor—love slaves for Jesus. When we run out of good paper and don’t have money to buy it, I’m in favor of having stocks of inexpensive paper and keep on running the press, keep on assembling the literature. There will be people who won’t worry about the grade of paper as long as they can read it! And the issue now is not the pride of life, or to become a church that is esteemed highly in everybody’s opinion. It is time to get the job done. It is time to move into it. It is time to build churches, little groups. Let them meet in homes or wherever they can, and get them started. Don’t worry about building programs or a fancy front, but get to God’s people wherever they are and call them to come out of Babylon while they can. “Be not a partaker of her judgments and sins” (Revelation 18:4).
It is burning in my heart that we don’t have so much time that we can play with it. You elders who have responsibility in the Church at Study, start thinking about the load you can lay upon the little children. We must train them, from the time that they can talk, that the one thing essential is to be servants and handmaidens of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must muster everyone into it. Whatever you are required to do, do it. Whether it is nursery duty, janitor duty, or yard work, do it with all joy! There is no difference, it is labor that has to be done in the name of the Lord; it is all sanctified by God. Whatever God requires of us, labor day and night that we can please Him, so that when He stands before the door, we will open to Him immediately. And He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant—you were giving My people meat in due season” (Matthew 24:45).
We gird our loins and take our staff in hand and put on our shoes like pilgrims ready to move. We come to the passover Lamb to eat His body and to drink His blood, and to have the resurgence of life within us, before we move out. Good-bye, Egypt. Good-bye, Babylon. Good-bye, days of indolence, good-bye to all the things that we had thought we were going to live for. We have found that they are not worthy of our time and effort in these days. Oh, Father, do that work in us. As we come to Your altars with such urgency and faith in our spirits, we yearn and hunger after Thy righteousness; we cry to be found complete in Thee. Let none approach Thine altars casually, let them approach them with a burning within their spirits, an urgency that will reach into something of You. We can hear the silent shuffle of pilgrims that are moving out, enriched by the blood of the Lamb.