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Neither Buy nor SellBy: Joseph H. Murray“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” Revelation 13:16–18 Have you, who know the truth, noticed how hard it is to present the facts of the way of truth to a congregation, a group, or to an individual now? And again, how difficult it is to accept or to buy what is being offered over the religious counters today? Certainly, we are nearing the time mentioned in the above written scripture in Revelation when we can neither buy nor sell. That means to me that the greatest persecution the church has ever known and the return of our Lord is near and even at the door. Take note of Revelation 18 after the fall of Babylon and the calamity that followed. “And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise anymore” (Rev. 18:11). You may say that all this was the buying and selling of natural things. But I would have you to take note of the thirteenth verse of this same chapter, and included in it is as it is written, “slaves, and souls of men” (v. 13). We had better be sure our buying and selling from now on is direct from God, or direct from one sent of God. We have struggled and strived to force the selling of our goods, that is, the word of life, when and where there is no market for it, and we have even tried to buy a false representation of Christianity, and again, there is no buying of it on our part, and no market for it. To have a buying and selling process, we must be of the same mind and common interest of exchange. When we came to God, broken and in despair, we had to conform to His medium of exchange before He could trust His riches in our hands. Then we could do business with Him. And He said, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Rev. 3:18–19). Not only do we establish a business relationship with God but also a state of fellowship and friendship, and we eat and drink with Him and He with us. We hear, at times, preachers expounding on the subject of the mark of the beast as if it were a buying and selling of natural goods and that mothers and children will be crying in the streets for want of food and babies crying for their needed milk but none to be bought because they don’t have the mark of the beast. This is a trick and a deception of the enemy to cause the children of God to worry about these trying times, but the devil is a liar, and there is no need to worry and fret because we are not in fellowship with him and his evil work. God has given us words from the mouth of the prophets before us for our admonition and comfort. The psalmist David gives us these words: “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed” (Ps. 37:1–3). |
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