PART II. -
THE JEWS
By G. H. PEMBER*
SCHOETTLE PUBLISHING
CO., INC.
[* From ‘PART II. - THE JEWS’ in the author’s book “The Great Prophecies Concerning
The Gentiles And The Jews
And The
-------
[v]
PREFACE
THE
Supreme God has deigned to give revelations whereby He seeks to communicate His
purposes to men, and thus, by a gentle process, to bend their minds to His
mighty and irresistible will. Nevertheless, myriads of professing Christians
are content to reach the end of life in total ignorance of these gracious
disclosures, while accredited ministers of Christ are too frequently unable to
expound them.
But, since God has thought fit to set them before us, are we
not deliberately charging Him with folly while we neglect them? And is not the
significance of our conduct much the same if we persist in perverting them from
their proper meaning and use - as, for instance, those do who can find little
in the Apocalypse save events that had become history before it was written,
and doctrines that are fully taught in other parts of Scripture; although the
Lord Himself dec1ares that the object of the Book is “to show unto
His servants the things that must shortly come to pass”? *
* Rev. 1: 1. With the future, then, dating from the time
when was written, and with that future alone, the book is concerned. And we do
not violate this rule, as we have been accused of doing, when we interpret the
Travailing Woman, in the twelfth chapter, of the Church in affliction. For
although her sorrows had commenced many years before John saw the vision, yet
they were still going on at the time, and were destined to continue for some
eighteen hundred years afterwards.
[vi]
And again, may we not attribute much of
the apathy of Christendom, the Laodicean spirit with which we are surrounded,
and the worldliness of popular Christianity, to the fact that believers will
not give themselves to those studies and contemplations which God has provided for them.
A passage in the Epistle to the
Hebrews seems to force such a conclusion upon us. The inspired writer complains
of the difficulty of communicating what he wishes to say concerning
Melchizedec, because those to whom he is writing are dull of hearing and
unskilful in the Word of Righteousness; and their condition draws from him a
severe rebuke, followed by the exhortation;-
“Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not laying again a
foundation of repentance from dead works, and of
faith toward God, of baptisms of instruction, and of laying on of hands,
and of resurrection of dead persons, and of
eternal judgment.”*
* Heb. 6:
1.
We may observe that this list of foundations includes nearly
all the doctrines ordinarily heard from our pulpits. And yet the Apostle
compares those who are incessantly occupied with them to one who wastes labour
and time by repeatedly laying down and taking up again the foundation of a
building, when he ought to be raising the superstructure. He, therefore,
solemnly urges the Hebrews to pass on from first principles to perfection, and
presses his exhortation with the words -
“For it is impossible in the case of those who were once
enlightened, and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made
partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the [vii] good word of God and the
powers of the World [‘Age,’
R.V.] to Come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance;
seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put Him to an
open shame.”*
* Heb. 6: 4-6.
Now, without entering into the full meaning of these words of
terror, we must admit that the context leaves us in no doubt as to the manner
of persons who are in danger of the lapse contemplated and the appalling
judgment which must inevitably follow it. They are those who refuse to
look beyond the first principles of Christ; those who
will not study, meditate upon, and suffer the Holy Spirit to mould their
minds by, the revelations which God
has provided for that purpose, and
with which He has bidden us to fill our heart and satisfy our intellect; those who vainly strive to excuse their
indolence, and want of appetite for
heavenly things, by affirming that
the simple Gospel [of God’s grace] is enough for them - as if the effect
of tasting the good things of God were to make us desire no more of them, although His banquet is spread,
and He ceases not to say;- “Eat,
O friends;
drink,
yea, drink abundantly,
O beloved.”
Thus, throughout the whole Christian
dispensation, spiritual apathy and the peril of apostasy have
ever been threatening those who neglect to become acquainted, as accurately as they may,
with the Divine utterances, whereby
alone we are enabled to estimate earthly things aright, and are moved to look for the ‘blessed
hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ’.
What, then, shall we say of ourselves upon whom the end of the
age has come, who seem to be living [viii] in
times when the predictions of old are on the point of fulfilment! How
far more cogent is the word of exhortation to us, who can even see the [Messiah’s Millennial
and Messianic] Day approaching!
Isaac Taylor thought that God would ultimately divide between
those who support and those who oppose the truth by means of the Book of the
Revelation. And undoubtedly his general idea is correct; for a far higher and
absolutely unimpeachable authority has said of the Old Testament Apocalypse;-
“The words are closed up and sealed
until the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly. And none of the
wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand.”*
* Dan. 12:
9-10.
Such, then, will be the distinctive mark of God’s elect in the
world’s last hour of trial; and to the wise of that generation, whether it be
our own or another, the word of prophecy
will seem no matter for slight or neglect, but a revelation of transcendent
importance.
Nor can we tell what mighty issues may be depending upon its
reception even in the case of those who will not live to see it become history.
The great Creator acts upon us during the present life in ways that we know
not, and with results which will not fully appear until this mortal shall have
put on immortality. And surely a patient and prayerful study of revelations
which set forth His purposes must produce a frame of mind favourable to
sanctification and spiritual growth, and likely to affect our eternal condition
in no insignificant degree. God’s prescribed means of education must be the
best, and even those who think that they [ix] have done greater things by labours
of a different kind may find their hopes crushed by the stern rebuke;-
“Behold, to obey is better
than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of
rams!”
But the cause which most powerfully moves men to neglect God’s
revelations of the future is the repugnance of the human mind to anything which
is contrary, either to its experience, or to the aspirations of its fallen
nature. There was a wondrous depth of truth in our Lord’s rebuke when He said;-
“O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken!”* - not slow
of heart to know, or to understand, but to believe. It was an instinctive
aversion to the course of God’s will which led the very disciples to
misunderstand the predictions of the first advent; a similar feeling will cause many [regenerate] Christians to be taken by
surprise at the [time of His] second.
* Luke 24: 25.
Such an aversion is, however, rarely
acknowledged; it is usual to assign its results to unreal causes, of which the
most frequently urged is the great diversity of expositions. But this perplexity
is indefinitely increased by the careless recognition as an interpreter of almost any one who presents himself. In such
circumstances what wonder that we hear of strange and wild interpretations! But
if the Church would awake from her indifference, and be at the pains to apply
proper tests, the mischief would be speedily checked and restricted. And two
obvious tests are these.
No one may claim to be more than a tentative expounder of
prophecy, unless he can formulate a complete and consistent scheme.*
* With permission to manipulate selected passages at will, it
would, of course, be possible to apply prophecy to any given event or events -
just as almost every conceivable doctrine has been already taught from the
Bible by a skilful, but frequently unscrupulous, use of isolated texts.
[x]
And no system can be
the true one, unless all the main
prophecies of the Bible will fall easily and naturally into place in it.
We are well aware that many object to the very mention of a
system of prophecy: but surely it does not require much reflection to discover
that such a sentiment is simply irrational. If the prophecies are all
utterances of one and the selfsame [Holy] Spirit, they must be capable of reduction to an orderly
scheme, and certainly cannot be comprehended in any other way. And unless we
find out what this scheme is, woe to us; for if, as nearly all Christians seem
to agree, we are now on the
borders of the last times, the knowledge of it will soon become the
distinguishing mark of those whom God has chosen. For, at the time of the end,
“none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall
understand.”
The scheme, which commends itself to our mind, is set before
the reader in the present volume, and is constructed with careful reference to
certain clues, which we believe to have been given for the purpose, and which
are explained in the last six chapters of the Prolegomena.*
[* See pp. 3-18.]
The most important of them are a recognition of the three
distinct classes into which mankind are divided, a knowledge of the three
prophetic periods, and an acquaintance with the simple principle upon which God
computes the chronology of Jewish history. A clear apprehension of these points
will, we believe, remove [xi] all difficulty and uncertainty in
regard to general and systematic interpretation.
But when we enter into details, it is no longer possible to
speak with the same confidence; for there are, doubtless, some predictions
which will not be perfectly understood until their fulfilment is actually
impending. None the less, however, must we study and firmly grasp them with our
minds: and if we do so, that which is lacking to us will be revealed in the
hour of need; and at the crisis perplexing to others, or, perhaps, altogether
unperceived by them, we shall have full understanding of what is about to
happen, and of what we ought to do.
The early disciples were probably unable to explain the Lord’s
command, that they should flee to the mountains as soon as the saw
But in due time all became clear to them; and their hearts must,
indeed, have overflowed with gratitude when they perceived that the Lord’s
gracious arrangements had given, not merely the signal, but also the
opportunity, for their flight, and had at the same time removed out of the way
their bigoted countrymen who would have hindered it.*
* For an account of this deeply interesting event, see the note
on p. 241.
“They shall not be ashamed that wait for me.”*
* lsa. 49:
23.
In preparing this work for a second
edition we have [xii] subjected it to careful revision and
correction much explanatory matter and several new chapters have been added;
and it is hoped that the book may now prove useful as a systematic manual for
students of prophecy. It does not, however, include the whole of the subject,
but only such portions of it as seem most nearly to concern those who are
waiting for the summons of their Lord. The detailed events of the Last Week,
the descent of Christ upon the Mount of Olives, the Millennial Age, the Final
judgment, and the
A few replies to adverse criticisms have been embodied in the
text; but we may at once mention three points in regard to which we do not
recognise the need of a defence.
The fact that an event is, so far as we can see, improbable,
is no reason whatever for refusing it a place in God’s revelation of the
future.
We have been repeatedly asked what ground we have for
inserting events between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth of Daniel’s weeks.
Simply that in so doing we follow the prophecy, which makes the
cutting off of Messiah take place after the close of the sixty-ninth week and
then interposes the events in question before it proceeds to the seventieth. It is for those who violate this order to defend their position.
Lastly, we are accused of Pessimism, and have no wish to deny
the charge, but confess to have learnt that distrust in the power of fallen man
to recover himself, which is inculcated in the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.
But our Pessimism, derived from such a source, is not hopeless; though there be
little help in ourselves, we look for the coming of One [xiii] Who is mighty to save. Be the sky never so dark, we know that the Sun is
still shining in His strength behind it, and presently, when the tempestuous clouds of the Great Tribulation shall part
asunder, His light and warmth will be revealed to the rejoicing earth.
The coloured chart prefixed to the present edition will, we
trust, facilitate the reader's acquaintance with the scheme.
* *
*
[185]
THE JEWS
I
THE PURPOSE OF GOD CONCERNING
WE have thus traced out the whole line of Gentile prophecy,
which flows in an unbroken stream from Nebuchadnezzar to the last great head of
the Fourth Empire.
And we have found that we are now in
the clay-iron times of the feet of the image, and that the world is soon to see
the revival of the Roman Empire under the form of ten confederate kingdoms, the
brief but memorable course of which will be cut short by the fall of the stone
from the mountain - that is, by the descent of the Lord Jesus [to this sin-cursed earth] from
the height of His [heavenly] power.
But while earth was bending to the
sway of the Babylonian monarch, or shuddering beneath the tread of Persian
myriads; while men were wondering at the lightning-rapidity and irresistible
bravery of the legions of Alexander, or saluting Caesar as lord of the world
and a present deity; when the crown was placed on the brow of Charlemagne, and
the majesty of Rome again hovered over Europe; while the Eastern Empire being
destroyed by Moslem hordes; or while the armies of Napoleon were spreading like
a prairie-fire the surface of Christendom - what, during these [186] long times of commotion and change, was the counsel of God in regard to
the Jew? Had He cast away His people? God forbid! He had not cast away His
people whom He foreknew.
Through all the turmoil of Gentile times His purpose
concerning
Now the key to the future of
Nor is this all. The closing verses of the chapter, by marking
out the times of God’s dealings with the Jews, instruct us also in regard to
the position of the Church in the grand progress of His purposes; and show us
that, although her [‘accounted worthy’ (Rev.
2: 25; 3: 21; cf.
Luke 20: 35,
R.V.)] members will hereafter reign with Christ, she, nevertheless,
at present occupies a mere parenthesis in the world-history.
Believers often fail to realize this fact practically, even when
they agree to it in theory. They are eager to apply the prophetic Scriptures
directly to themselves; can spare but little for the Israelite; nay, will
sometimes even speak of his history as though the great object of [187] his existence were to supply a type of the Church of this age.
To counteract such views, Paul wrote the eleventh chapter of
the Epistle to the Romans, in which he shows
that the Gentiles are merely as the branches of a wild olive tree which are at
present grafted on the Jewish stock, but shall shortly be broken off to make
way for the restoration of the natural branches. He warns the
Gentiles not to be ignorant of this mystery, lest they
should grow wise in their own conceits; and reminds them that God has a covenant with
The Church has indeed a glorious destiny; but her calling is
heavenly, while the Israelites shall be the Kings of the Earth. *
Since, therefore, prophecy mainly refers to earth, the Israelite has by far the
greatest share of it. For those who are strangers and pilgrims here, and who
are commanded not to mind earthly things, require to know but little of the
world’s history; those whose Saviour, whose home, and whose city, are in
heaven, are not much concerned with the course of events below. Those who are
warned that at any moment, even in an hour when they think not, the King’s
messengers may announce, “The Master is come and calleth for thee,” have no need to know the times and
the seasons.*
[* This teaching is what I would call ‘hyper dispensationalism’. It makes a distinction
between saved Jews and Gentiles; and suggests that resurrected Gentiles will
have a greater blessing during the Millennium than Jews! Not so, for
resurrected saints will have the same ability, being “equal
unto angels; and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Lk. 20: 36, R.V.).
That is, they will then assess both heavenly and earthly spheres of
our Lord’s coming Messianic and
* 1 Thess.
5: 1.
The Lord has, consequently, given but two continuous prophecies
of the Church, while the prophetic [188] Scriptures abound with details of the
time when He will resume His covenant relations with
II
THE PERPLEXITY OF DANIEL
IN the fourth
year of the reign of Jehoiakim, just before Nebuchadnezzar came to
* Jer. 25:
8-14.
But shortly after the departure of the second band of captives
- Jehoiachin and those who were taken with him - the false prophet Hananiah
declared that, within the space of two years, the Lord would break the yoke of
Nebuchadnezzar from off the neck of all nations, and bring back to Jerusalem
the vessels of the Lord’s house which had been carried away to Babylon.* The same strain
was taken up among the captives by Ahab, the son of Kolaiah,
and Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah:** the hope of
the exiles was raised, and many of them contemplated an immediate return to
Judaea.
*Jer. 28: 10-17. ** Jer. 29:
20-23.
But this was forbidden by a letter from Jeremiah, who directed
them to settle in
* Jer. 29:
4-11.
At last, however, the empire of the Chaldeans fell, and in the
first year of the reign of Darius the Mede, Daniel, who had been promoted to
the place of prime minister, became perplexed and anxious, probably from a
twofold cause. He had carefully studied the prophecies of Jeremiah, and found
that permission had been given to return to
And again; he was well aware that there would be a gathering of all
Such seems to have been Daniel’s perplexity, and [190] he was quite unable to solve the enigma. His procedure was, however,
characteristic. The difficulty in regard to the empires he left, not doubting that
God would find a way to accomplish His own purpose; but remembering that, in
the terrible prediction of Moses respecting the captivity,* confession is
mentioned as that which will cause the Lord to return to His people, he set his
face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting and
sackcloth and ashes, and made humble confession for himself and his people,
earnestly entreating the Lord to turn away His anger and fury from them and
from Jerusalem for His great mercies’ sake.
* Levit. 26:
40-42.
III
THE PROPHECY OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS
AN answer was speedily vouchsafed to
the prophet. While he was yet speaking his prayer was interrupted by a gentle
touch, and looking round he saw the man Gabriel [an angel of the Lord, who appearing in that form], who had interpreted his previous
vision, again standing near him. This heavenly messenger had been despatched
from the Throne to assure the greatly beloved one that his petition had been
heard, and should ultimately be granted; but that God must for a while defer
the removal of His anger and fury from
But just as an angel descended to strengthen the Lord in His
agony, just as Paul was told that God’s grace should be sufficient for him, so Gabriel was sent to Daniel to give him skill and understanding, and to reveal the matter to him, and make him know the purposes of God.
Thus the prayer of the prophet opened a
channel of blessing, and called
forth a great revelation upon which all other prophecy appears to hinge,
and without a clear knowledge of which it seems vain to attempt to understand
anything. And intensely concentrated as this wondrous utterance is, it,
nevertheless, presents no great difficulty, provided we begin with a good
translation. The following is a literal rendering;-
Dan. 9: 24. “Seventy Weeks have been severed off upon thy people and upon
thy holy city, to shut up the transgression, and to seal up sins, and to cover iniquity, and to bring in
everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint a Holy
of holies.”
Ver. 25.
“Know,
therefore,
and understand:-
From the going
forth of a command to restore and build Jerusalem unto an Anointed One,
a Prince,
shall be Seven
Weeks, and Sixty and Two Weeks: the street shall be restored and built,
and the wall,
even in the
pressure of the times.”
Ver. 26.
“And after the
Sixty and Two Weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and there shall be
nothing for Him. And the city and the sanctuary shall the people destroy of a
prince that shall come: and his end shall be in the overflowing” (that is,
of God’s wrath), “and until the end there shall be war, that which s
determined for desolations.”
Ver. 27.
“And he” (that is, the prince that shall come [i.e., the coming
antichrist]) “shall confirm a
covenant with the majority” (that is, of the Jewish people) “for One Week: and in the midst of the Week he shall cause sacrifice and
offering to cease: and upon the wing of [192] abominations
shall be the desolater, even until
the consummation, and that which has been determined shall be poured upon the
desolate.”
We must now examine these verses minutely.
Seventy Weeks. Literally, Seventy Sevens. The word “week”
is retained, because we have no exact equivalent for the Hebrew original,* which signifies
a period of seven, but does not decide whether the seven are hours, days,
months, years, or any other measure of time. That point must always be determined by the context; and in the
present passage periods of seven years each are doubtless intended, because Daniel’s mind is
dwelling on the Seventy Years of Jeremiah. ** The meaning of the angel seems to be -
The Seventy Years of probation will not suffice; nay, after them must come
seven times seventy other years. We
should remember that the Sabbatical years and the jubilee made the idea of a
week of years very familiar to Israelites.
* Some commentators use “heptad,”
or “hebdomad”; either of which words would do,
if it could be considered English.
** If Christians be suspected of bias in interpreting “the
sevens” as weeks of years, because the end of the sixty-ninth seven is thus
made to synchronize with the time of Christ’s death, it is impossible to bring
such a charge against Jews. And yet, until the Middle Ages were far advanced,
the Jews invariably adopted the same explanation, although by so doing they
convicted themselves of rejecting the Messiah, and placed a formidable weapon
in the hands of their Christian opponents.
Have been severed off. That is, from the times of the Gentiles, from the age
during which their four World-empires should hold sway.
Upon thy people and upon thy holy city. This prophecy, then,
is concerned with Israelites, and not with Christians. Seven times
seventy, or four hundred [193] and ninety years are to be taken
out of the times of the Gentiles for the special dealings of God with the Jews
and Jerusalem; that is, of course, with the Jews at Jerusalem: for
the people must during the time be dwelling in their own country.
The Four Hundred and Ninety Years of God’s pleadings with His
people shall be made to produce six results, which are named as follows.
I. To
shut up the transgression.
II. To
seal up sins.
III. To
cover iniquity.
IV. To
bring in everlasting righteousness.
V. To
seal up vision and prophet.
VI. To
anoint a Holy of holies.
We may divide these six consequences into two classes: for the
first three are concerned with the taking away of sin, and the last three with
the bringing in of righteousness. And the latter will be found to correspond,
each to each, with the former.
To shut up the
transgression. That is, to arrest and restrain it, so that it can no
longer work and spread. The article probably indicates the whole course of
To seal up sins. The figure of sealing is connected
with that of shutting up in prison or restraining. So Darius seals the stone,
which is put at the mouth of the lions’ den, with his own signet and with that
of his lords.* And in the book of Job, God is said to seal up the stars, so that
they do not shine.** and is also described as sealing up the hand of every
man, when by the frost and rain of winter He prevents the continuance of daily
labour in the fields.*** The sealing [194] up of sins consequently signifies
their restraint under safe custody.
* Dan. 6: 17. ** Job
9: 7.
*** Job 37.
There is a good illustration of both figures, and probably a
clue to the interpretation of the passage, in the twentieth
chapter of the Revelation, where an
angel, after binding Satan and casting him into the abyss, shuts him up and
sets a seal upon him, that he may deceive the nations no more.
To cover iniquity. That is, according to the well-known scriptural figure, to
make atonement for it. While the previous clauses seem to refer to the
two-thirds of the Jewish nation which will perish during the refining process,
and have their part with Satan and his angels, these words speak of another way
of getting rid of sin, and point to the one-third which shall be saved.*
* Zech. 13: 8, 9.
We now come to the second group of results.
To bring in everlasting righteousness. When the
transgression is shut up and sins are sealed, then everlasting righteousness
shall be brought in. This will be done by the [beginning* of His] introduction of the new covenant, in accordance with which God will no longer write upon tables of stone,
but put His law in the inward parts of His people and write it in their
hearts.*
* Jer. 31:
33.
To seal up vision and prophet. When sins are
sealed up, vision and [today’s
non-fulfilled] prophecy shall also be laid aside as being no longer
needed. For it was only after sin had come into the world that prophecy was
introduced as a great instrument of God in the war against it; and so, when sin
is put away, prophecies also shall fail.
To anoint a Holy of holies. Lastly, in the place of the Tabernacle
and former
* Zech. 6:
12, 13.
Such, then, will be the results of God’s dealing with the Jews,
at the close of the Four Hundred and Ninety Years. The transgression will be
restrained and sins scaled up, so as no longer to affect them - for the stumbling-blocks will then have been consumed with the wicked;* their iniquity will be expiated,
and the new covenant of their God will
bring them - [i.e., the resurrected and previously rapt saints (Rev. 20: 5, 6; Rev. 3: 10; cf. Luke
21: 36,ff. R.V.)] - everlasting righteousness; all promises
will then have been fulfilled; the
law of God will be written on the heart of every [remaining] Israelite, so that there will be no further
need of the exhortations, rebukes,
warnings, and threatenings, of the
prophets; and Mount Zion will be crowned with [196] a Temple, of which the building of Solomon was
but a very faint type, and to which - as we are elsewhere
told - the Cherubim and the Glory will return, to be a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night.**
* Zeph. 1: 3. ** Ezek. 43: 1-5; Isa.
4: 5, 6.
But what sign would mark the commencement of the Four Hundred
and Ninety Years? And, when they had commenced, would their course be unbroken
to the end of the period, or would
it be interrupted? These questions the angel now proceeds to answer.
The appointed time would begin at the going forth of a command
to restore and build
The prophecy did not, therefore, take as its commencing date the
decree of Cyrus, which had reference only to the rebuilding of the
But in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, certain men of Judah
came to Shushan, and, in answer to Nehemiah’s inquiries after his brethren at
Jerusalem, replied;- “The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the
province are in great affliction and reproach; the
wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the
gates thereof are burned with fire.”* Over this intelligence Nehemiah
mourned, and, like Daniel, made humble confession before God for the sins of
his people.
* Neh. 1:
3.
[197]
Shortly afterwards, in the month Nisan, he went into the royal
presence to perform his duty as cup-bearer, and the king observed that his
countenance was changed with sorrow. Interrogated as to the reason, Nehemiah
replied;- “Let the king live for ever: why
should not my countenance be sad, when the city,
the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates
thereof are consumed with fire?”* Sympathizing with his distress,
Artaxerxes immediately issued a decree for the rebuilding of the city and the
wall, and sent Nehemiah to
* Neh. 1:
3.
From this date until the appearance of an Anointed One Who
should also be a Prince - that is, a Royal Priest - Seven Weeks and Sixty and Two Weeks were to elapse; or, in other words, there should
be Forty-nine and Four Hundred and Thirty-four, or Four Hundred and Eighty-three Years between the edict and the coming
of Messiah as a Prince.
The Forty-nine Years are
probably separated off as being the period taken up by the restoration of the
city and the wall.* Of the pressure
of the times we may find some account in the book of Nehemiah.
* The wall is said to have been finished in fifty-two days (Neh. 6: 15): but this
must have been merely a temporary work for present exigencies. Moreover, the
city also was to be rebuilt.
The Anointed One, Who should also be [a King and] a Prince, can be none other than the Lord Jesus, of Whom it was said;- “Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of
Melchizedek.”* And again;- “Even He
shall build the
* Psalm 110:
4. ** Zech. 6: 13.
But at what period of our Lord’s
life can He be said to have presented Himself as Priest and King? Not at His birth: for He was then only known as the
carpenter’s son. Not during the
greater part of His ministry: for,
although He was anointed by the [Holy] Spirit, and quickly revealed Himself as
the great Priest by teaching the people, by cleansing lepers, and by forgiving sins, He, nevertheless, would not put
Himself forward as King. On the
contrary, He forbade His disciples
to disclose His real nature; and
when the crowd, excited to
enthusiasm by His wondrous words and works, would have set the crown upon His head, He refused it, and sent
them away.
But at
His entry into Jerusalem, four days
before His death, His manner changed,
and He suffered the whole multitude
which followed Him to break forth into the cry;- “Blessed be the King That cometh in the name of the Lord.”* And when the Pharisees urged Him to rebuke His disciples, He
replied;- “I tell you that, if these should hold
their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”* In other words, He chose at that time
to have Himself openly proclaimed King, and Matthew informs us that He did so to fulfil the prophecy of Zechariah;- “Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an
ass, and
a colt the foal of an ass.”** This prophecy reveals the
significance of the event, and shows us that the day indicated was that of the
appearing of Messiah as the Prince.
* Luke 19: 38.
** Matt. 21:
5.
[199]
Thus, then, the commencing-point of the Four Hundred and
Ninety Years was the promulgation of the edict in the month Nisan of the
twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus; and the Four Hundred and
Eighty-third Year ended on the tenth day of the month Nisan, when Christ
entered Jerusalem as the King of the daughter of Zion. Both starting-point and
goal are so clearly indicated in Scripture that, as believers, we have no need
to trouble ourselves with the uncertainties of human computation, but may at
once assume that the interval was exactly four hundred and eighty-three years.
If, however, the prophecy can be verified chronologically, its
influence will be greatly extended: it will then become a powerful testimony to
unbelievers, as well as a guiding light to the people of God. And of all
attempts so to verify it, the solution lately proposed by Dr. Anderson seems the most satisfactory. We will, therefore,
summarize it, recommending the reader to seek further details in the pages of “The Coming Prince.”
Now the first point to be settled is the length of a prophetic
year. And the Bible furnishes evidence that such a year was not reckoned
according to the Julian system, but contained only 360 days. Even in the
history of the flood we find that the five months, from the seventeenth day of
the second month to the seventeenth of the seventh, are reckoned as 150 days.* And in the
Apocalypse the same period is described as and one half years, as forty-two
months, and as 1,260 days. Evidently, therefore, twelve months of thirty days
each, or 360 days, are assigned to a year.
* Gen. 7: 11, 24; 8: 3, 4.
[200]
Consequently, 483 prophetic years would contain 483 x 360, or
173,880 days.
Again; the starting point of the prophecy, as we have just
shown, is some day of the month Nisan, in “the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the
king,” that is, in
B.C. 445. And by proving that
Nehemiah must have commenced his journey to
On the other hand, the close of the 483rd year is
signalled by the Lord’s entry into
Hence the first Passover of our Lord’s public ministry must
have been in the Nisan of A.D. 29. And since He appears to have kept four, the
last would have been in the Nisan of A.D. 32.
Now the Passover was on the fourteenth of the month: therefore our Lord
must have entered
Thus then -
The edict of Artaxerxes was promulgated, March 14th,
B.C. 445.
Christ presented Himself in
“The intervening period - according
to the Julian reckoning - was 476 years and 24 days (the days being reckoned
inclusively, as required by the language of the prophecy, and in accordance
with the Jewish practice).
[201]
But 476 x 365 -173,740 days.
Add (14th
March to 6th April, both inclusive) 24 days.
Add for leap years - 116 days
173,880 days.”*
* “The Coming Prince,” 2nd edition,
p. 128.
But it has been shown above that 69 of Daniel’s weeks, or 483
prophetic years, contain just 173,880 days.
Therefore, the first part of this great prophecy was exactly
fulfilled to the very day.
Now the Jews of our Lord’s time doubtless retained a copy of
the famous edict which restored their national existence; or, at least, its
date must have been well known to them. And thus, with very little
trouble, they might have calculated the precise day
on which their Messiah was to present Himself as King; while the prophecy of Zechariah would have instructed them as to the
manner of His entry into the city. With
such exactness, and in so literal a manner, are the predictions of God brought
to their fulfilment!
At the close, then, of the appointed interval, Messiah the
Prince moved towards
And so, after enduring the horrors of that night whose
beginning saw Him basely betrayed by one of His own disciples, and during the
dark watches of which He gave His back to the smiter
and His cheek to them that plucked off the hair, and hid not His face from
shame and spitting; after that mocking trial, in which the judges bribed false
witnesses, but did not even then succeed in obtaining coherent testimony; after
He had been further dragged, once before Herod and twice before Pilate, and
none could find aught against Him - then at length the Anointed One was cut off
And there
was nothing for Him; none of those glories which were to surround the person of
the Messiah. Instead of appearing as
the King of kings and Lord of lords, He was found in the form of a servant.
And so far was He from possessing a
kingdom above all, and an
everlasting dominion, that He had
not, during His life, where to lay His head, and was soon cut off altogether from the
land of the living.
In place of that Divine
beauty and appalling majesty, the first glance of which struck the persecuting Saul
helpless to the ground, and which caused even the beloved disciple John to fall
at His feet as dead, lo! His visage was
marred more than any man, He had no
form nor comeliness, nor was there
any desirable beauty seen in Him.
For His painful mission in those days was to bear our griefs,
and carry our sorrows; to be wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for
our iniquities; to receive the chastisement which should bring peace to us,
that by His stripes we might be healed. He came to make His soul an offering
for sin, to pour out His [203] soul unto death, to be numbered with
the transgressors, to bear the sins of many.
He was cut off, and there was nothing for Him.
But the crucifixion of our Lord took place four days after His
appearance as the Priest-King - that is, four days after the close of the Four Hundred
and Eighty-third Year - and yet it is not said to have happened in the Seven
Years which still remained to be fulfilled. At this point, therefore, it seems
that there is a gap separating the Four Hundred and Eighty-third Year from the
last Seven. For God had given up the sinful nation which rejected His Son: His
covenant was suspended, so that they were no longer His people: and,
consequently, the course of the Four Hundred and Ninety Years had ceased to run
on.*
* For the principle on which this explanation is based, see the
chapter on Mystic Chronology in the Prolegomelia.
The prophecy then speaks of vengeance which should follow for
the cutting off of Messiah: the city and the Sanctuary,
Lastly; we are told that, after the destruction of the city
and Sanctuary, there should be wars and
desolations until the end, during a
period fixed indeed by God, but unknown to man. Terribly has this been
verified; and so frequent have been the captures of Jerusalem by Roman,
Persian, Saracen, and Turk, that the city of our Lord’s time has become deeply
buried beneath successive layers of ruin and debris, and is now found from fifty to
eighty feet below the level of the [204] soil. All these destructions are
included in the words, “And until the end there shall be war, that which is determined for desolations”; and yet there is no mention of the
final Seven Years.
Thus, from the appearing of Messiah the Prince, there occurs
an undefined interval, a great interruption in the progress of the Seventy
Weeks, which, as we shall presently see, is not unnoticed in other parts of
Scripture.
But, to retrace our steps for a moment, the city and Sanctuary
were to be destroyed by the people of a prince that should afterwards come; and
since it is added that this prince will meet his doom in the last great
outpouring of God’s wrath, it is manifest that he cannot have appeared in past
time. Now the Romans destroyed the city and Sanctuary: so far, therefore, we
gather that the prince will be a head of the Fourth Empire; but the time of his
end shows us further that he will be the last head - that is, the Antichrist.
In the final verse of the prophecy we are told that he will
confirm a covenant with the majority of the Jewish people for One Week. And so
at length we find the missing Seven Years, the Seventieth Week.
Now the Jews must by this time have settled again in their own
land, because the prophecy is expressly connected with the people and the city.
Possibly the prince may himself have restored them: but, at any rate, he will
find them in some trouble, or terrified by some impending danger, and will
undertake their protection in
Thus restored and settled in their own land, the Jews will rebuild their
Then, in reference to the sacrifices which are again being
offered, the Lord adds;- “He that killeth the ox is as the slayer of a man;
he that sacrificeth the sheep as one that breaketh the
neck of a dog; he that offereth an oblation,
it is swine’s blood; he
that causeth incense to rise up as a memorial is as one that blesseth an idol.” That is, the offerings will be as offensive to God as
if men were insulting Him by sacrificing what He has declared to be unclean, or
by paying adoration to false gods.
But the Jews will go on in their own ways during the first
half of the Seven Years, and then there will [206] be a change. In the middle of the
Week - that is, at the end of Three Years and a Half - Antichrist will cause
the sacrifices to cease, and transfer the worship of Jehovah to himself,
exalting “himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that
he as God sitteth in the Temple of God, showing
himself that he is God.”*
* 2 Thess. 2: 4.
The words, “upon the wing of abominations shall be the
desolater,” are
difficult; but we must remember that “abomination” was a common term among the Hebrews
for a false god. So, in the first book of Kings,
we find “Milcom, the abomination of the
Ammonites,” “Chemosh, the abomination of
* 1 Kings 11: 5-7. ** See “Earth’s Earliest Ages,” 2nd edition,
pp. 245-9. *** 1 Cor. 10: 20.
If, then, abominations may here be taken to mean demons, the
reference may be to some blasphemous imitation of the chariot of the Cherubim,
produced by Satanic power, and perhaps similar to that on which Satan might
have conveyed our Lord from the pinnacle of the Temple, could he have bent Him
to the temptation. Possibly the appearance of Antichrist thus borne aloft by
the agency of demons may be that which will finally determine the world to
worship him as God; while the apostate Jews may regard it as the expected sign
from heaven, and as the return of [207] the Glory to their Temple. For when
another shall come in his own name, him they will receive. And immediately
after this will commence the terrible persecution of all who refuse to worship
the Beast and his image.
In such a mockery of Godhead the prince will continue, until
the hour allotted to the Powers of Darkness has come to its full end. Then that
which has been decreed will have been poured upon the desolate city of
Such, then, is the great revelation granted, in answer to
Daniel’s confession and prayer, as a key to all Hebrew prophecies. Until he had
received it, he could not understand his own previous visions. After that of
the Four Wild Beasts we find him saying;- “As for me, Daniel, my cogitations much
troubled me, and my countenance changed in me.”* And at the end of the eighth chapter also, he remarks;- “And I Daniel
fainted, and was sick
certain days; afterwards I rose up and did the
king’s business; and I was astonished at the
vision, but none understood it.” **
* Dan. 7:
28. ** Dan. 8:
27.
But the disclosure of the Seventy Weeks, which was vouchsafed to
give him skill and understanding, enabled him to comprehend the purposes of God
and, consequently, in his preface to the next revelation [208] he tells us that “he understood the thing,
and had
understanding of the vision.” Surely that which enlightened Daniel is of the greatest importance to
us also, upon whom the ends of the
ages are come; nor should we forget
those pregnant words;- “And none of the wicked shall understand;
but the wise
shall understand.”*
* Dan. 12:
10.
IV
THE INTERVAL FORETOLD BY ZECHARIAH
FROM the
words of Gabriel we have gathered that the course of the Four Hundred and
Ninety Years was to be interrupted just before the cutting off of Messiah: are
there any other notices in Scripture of the setting aside of His covenant with
the Jews at that time? We shall find one in the eleventh chapter of Zechariah,
of the contents of which the following is a slight sketch.
The prophet begins with a description of terrible destruction,* the reason for
which is given in the subsequent verses.
* Zech. 11: 1-3.
Then
But the Lord undertakes to feed them, especially,
distinguishing the poor of the flock; and as Moses had his rod, so Christ takes
two staves significant of His office, one of which He calls Beauty, or rather
Favour, and the other Bands. By the first the full [209] outpouring of God’s love was secured
to the nation, according to the prayer of Moses;- “And let the
favour of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our hands
upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it.”* By the second, even if they lost for a time the favour of
God, they would still be held together as a covenant people.
* Psalm 90: 17.
Having Himself undertaken to be Shepherd, the Lord proceeds to
cut off in one month three hireling shepherds whom His soul abhorred. These
were probably the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, the silencing of whom we
may find in the twenty-second chapter of Matthew.
Our Lord Himself points them out as false teachers when, on one occasion, He
warns His disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees and Herodians;* on another,
against that of the Pharisees and Sadducees.**
* Mark 8: 15.
** Matt. 16:
6.
Then because their soul abhorred Him, He declared that He would
no longer feed them, and broke His staff called Favour, giving as His reason, “That I might break My covenant which I had made with all the
peoples” -
that is, the covenant which He had made with the Gentiles to restrain them from
injuring the Jewish nation.* This withdrawal of the light of
His countenance was foretold by the Lord on the Mount of Olives, when He wept over the doomed city: and it was speedily carried into effect - as soon as [210] the rulers of the people had refused to recognize Him as the King of the
daughter of Zion - at a time exactly corresponding to the prophecy of the
Seventy Weeks.
* In Hosea 2: 18, God promises to make a similar covenant, in
favour of
Nevertheless, the poor of the flock, as many as believe on
Him, continue to wait on the Lord, and He still feeds them; but of the rest of the nation He demands - [from the apostates] - the wages of His service in anticipation of His betrayal, and is priced at thirty pieces of
silver.
Then the second staff, Bands, is broken; for the Jews go on to
smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek, and can, therefore, no
longer be held together as a covenant nation at Jerusalem, but are given up to
be scattered from their city, until the time that she which travaileth hath
brought forth.*
* Micah 5: 1,
3.
Such is an outline of the prophecy to the end of the
fourteenth verse, after which comes the interval revealed to Daniel; and,
consequently, we are at once carried from the betrayal of the Messiah and the
dispersion of the Jews to the idol shepherd, the Antichrist, who will destroy
the flock in the last Week, and be himself overthrown “when the chief Shepherd shall appear.”*
* 1 Pet. 5: 4.
V
THE INTERVAL RECOGNISED BY MATTHEW
A SIMILAR
outline may be traced in the dispensational Gospel of Matthew.
For both the Fore-runner and the Lord Himself begin their
ministry with the cry, “Repent, for the Kingdom of the
Heavens has come nigh.” The Four Hundred and Eighty-three Years were drawing to a [211] close; but the dreary interval would not be necessary if
In the fifth sixth and seventh chapters, the laws of the [Messianic and Millennial] Kingdom are delivered by the King, Who speaks throughout on the authority of His own word, and finally reveals Himself to the
astonished multitude as the future Judge of the quick, - and the dead - [before the time of their resurrection: (Heb. 9: 27; cf. Acts 2:
34; 2 Tim.
2: 18,ff.
with Luke 20: 35; Phil. 3: 11; Rev. 20: 4-6, R.V.)].*
* Matt. 7: 21-23.
But it was reasonable to expect that such claims should be supported
by proofs of no ordinary kind; nor was the expectation disappointed. A leper,
hopelessly stricken with the sacred disease which none but Jehovah could heal,
was listening at a distance; and, convinced by the wondrous words of the
Speaker that He must be the Son of God, ran boldly to Him, and said;- “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean!” This simple faith, and unreserved
acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord, soon proved that all things are indeed
possible to them that believe.
The Saviour put forth His hand, and, as He touched the pale
sufferer, uttered the word of power;- “I do will be thou clean.” In an instant the disease had fled a
warm flow of blood thrilled the stagnant veins of the leper, and flushed into
his white face, and he stood healed and sound in the presence of the awe-struck
multitude.
Yet this was only the beginning of the mighty works by which the Lord showed that He was in very truth the Son of God: the eighth and ninth chapters contain accounts of other stupendous
miracles testifying to His absolute sovereignty over disease, the elements, the spirits of evil,
and even death
itself.
[212]
The leaders of Israel did not, however, hail Him as the long-expected
Messiah, but disliked His teaching and
became more and more determinedly opposed to Him as He multiplied the signs of
His power: - [which was a foretaste of what will be
manifested: “the
powers of
the age to come” (Heb. 6: 5, R.V.)]. Consequently, He soon began
to hint that there must be delay in the restoration of the [promised] Kingdom,
and spoke of a future absence of the
Bridegroom, during which the
children of the Bride-chamber should mourn.*
* Matt. 9: 15.
Nevertheless, when He looked on the multitude, He was moved
with compassion, “because they were
harassed and scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”* And so He
renewed His offer, and, by sending out His twelve disciples, again appealed to
the hearts of the people with the stirring proclamation, “The Kingdom of the Heavens has drawn nigh.”** But there was no adequate result: for He presently began to complain of the waywardness of His generation,
and to upbraid those cities wherein most
of His mighty works had been done, because
they repented not.***
** Matt. 10.
** Matt. 11:
16-24.
In the twelfth chapter, the malice and opposition of the [religious] rulers is still more marked; and, unable to deny His
acts of power, they dare to say;- “This fellow doth not cast out demons but by Beelzebub the prince
of the demons.”* Then at length He began to show that His soul also abhorred them: His mouth spoke terrible things, and He declared
that their despised privileges should bring down the thunder of God’s judgment
upon their heads.
[* NOTE: When an ordained
minister, or any other regenerate believer, rejects biblical proof of an
unfulfilled prophecy; and then immediately, casts
a slur upon the character of the person seeking to show
it to him, his unchristian
behaviour is form Satan himself, and
originates from the depths of Hell! Beware of all apostates!]
He concluded His discourse with the prophetic parable of the
man out of whom the unclean spirit [213] had gone, and predicted that their cloak of hypocrisy should yet be torn
away, and their real apostasy from God discovered. The spirit of avowed idolatry had
indeed been exorcised for the time by the Babylonian captivity, and its grosser manifestations they had
swept out of their hearts. Nor was
this all: they had also garnished
the house; but with a cold and
formal religion which, though
professing to honour God, was of no
avail save for purposes of self-glorification. For the [Holy] Spirit of God had not - [remained in them (see 1
Sam. 16: 14
and 1 Sam. 18:
8-10. Cf.
Acts 5: 32
and 1 John 3: 24,ff., R.V.), or] - taken possession of them; therefore the foul demon should
return to the empty dwelling with seven others worse than himself, and the last
state of the Jews should be more openly idolatrous than the first. They had rejected the Lord of
glory ; but they should be moved to worship a man, even that Lawless One who
will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped.
The Lord ceased to speak; and immediately there ensued a significant
incident, pre-arranged by His power
to show that no tie of the flesh,
however strong, would be recognised
before Him, unless it were
accompanied by [repentance,] faith and obedience. His mother and her sons had come to the outskirts of the crowd wishing
to see Him, and a bystander said;-
“Behold, Thy mother and Thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak
with Thee.” But
He replied;- “Who is My mother, and who are My brethren?” Then, stretching forth
His hand towards His disciples, He said;- “Behold My mother and MY brethren! For whosoever shall
do the will of My Father Which is in heaven, the same is My
brother, and sister, and mother.” The mere earthly relationship could not avail to stay judgment: even the seed of Abraham according to the [214] flesh, and the Lord’s kinsmen, must perish if they continued in unbelief: He would mark for mercy only those who did
the will of His Father. And this
will was that they should believe on Him Whom the Father had sent: but they were rejecting Him [and His prophetic claims - (as all
Anti-millennialist’s are doing today!)], and should, therefore, [at the time of His exaltation and return as ‘King
of kings’] be also themselves rejected.
Having thus predicted the fate of the Jews, the Lord then
proceeded, on the same day,* to foretell what should follow; to
speak of the branches of the wild olive tree which should be grafted in after
the breaking off of the natural branches; to reveal, though as yet only in
parable, something of the great mystery which had been hidden from past ages.
And by so doing He is said to have fulfilled the prophecy;- “I will open my mouth in parables: I will utter things
which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.”** For until the disposition of the Jews toward the Lord had
made it evident that they must be cast off for a season, God would not reveal
what should take place during the time of their rejection. It is as though He
had left it open to them to decide, by their obedience or disobedience, whether
the last of Daniel’s Weeks should be fulfilled immediately after the
Sixty-ninth, or whether there should be
a wearisome interval of discipline.
* Matt. 13: 1. ** Matt. 13:
35.
Henceforth the character of our Lord’s preaching was changed,
and we find from Luke that, as He drew nigh to Jerusalem for His death, He spoke a parable to show that the first
offers were withdrawn, and that the Kingdom of the Heavens could not now
immediately appear.* A little later, probably in the same hour, He was
standing on the brow of Olivet, and, [215] while gazing from thence at the fair
scene spread out before Him, wept as He uttered the memorable lamentation;- “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which
belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall
come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee
round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee
even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon
another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”** For Messiah was about to be cut off, and afterwards both city and Sanctuary should be destroyed.
* Luke
19: 11. ** Luke 19: 42 -44.
Nevertheless, He entered into the city on this last day of the
Four Hundred and Eighty-third Year of Daniel’s period, and he did so “riding upon an ass and upon a colt the foal of an ass,” that, by the simultaneous fulfilment
of two great prophecies, He might make a last appeal to the rebel Jews. But it
was all in vain: the enthusiasm of the populace was only momentary, while the malice of their [religious] rulers was greatly intensified.
Then the covenant was broken, and the barren fig tree cursed as
a sign; the parable of the vineyard was uttered with its terrible conclusion - “Therefore, I say unto you, the Kingdom of God
shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the
fruits thereof”;* and the Temple was given up with the
words, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”**
* Matt. 21: 43. ** Matt. 23:
38.
In the prophecy which He immediately afterwards delivered on
the Mount of Olives, the Lord fills in that part of Daniel’s outline which was
yet future, [216] even mentioning the prophet by name.
He hints at the destruction of the city and Sanctuary after His own decease,* and then passes
on to notice what should happen in the days immediately preceding the
fulfilment of the times of the Gentiles and the simultaneous completion of the
last Seven Years of God’s dealings with the Jews in Jerusalem. And thus, in the
New Testament also, the great interpreting revelation given to Daniel is found
to be the key of all prophecy which concerns the Jew.
* Matt. 24:
6.
VI
THE INTERVAL IN OTHER VISIONS OF DANIEL
WE will
now endeavour to trace the scheme of the Seventy Weeks in the other visions of
Daniel: for, in accordance with our previous conclusions, we expect to find
these also concerned at first with events not later than the destruction of the
city and Sanctuary, and then passing over the interval in silence, and resuming
their detail in the last Week.
But of course this expectation does not extend to the vision
of the image: for that was granted, not to the Hebrew prophet, but to the first
head of Gentile dominion. Naturally, therefore, it takes in the whole period of
that dominion, revealing its condition during the cessation, as well as during
the progress, of God’s dealings with the Jews. Hence, in the two legs of the
image, it discloses the division of the fourth World-power into two Empires, an
event which is not mentioned in Hebrew prophecy, because it was to take place
during the interval.
[217]
On the other hand, the first of the visions seen by Daniel,
that of the Four Wild Beasts, entirely ignores the events of the interval. For
the Fourth Beast represents the Roman Empire in unity, as it was at the time of
the destruction of Jerusalem, and the first part of the description well
applies to it up to that period of its history. Then follows the clause, “And it had ten horns,” referring to the Ten Kingdoms in
which it will ultimately be arranged. Thus the division of the Empire into two
parts is omitted, and we are carried on from the destruction of
Again; the vision of the Ram and the He-goat begins to find its fulfilment in the days of the
prophet, although the angel affirms that its main reference is to “the time of the end” - a fact which seems to identify the little horn of
this revelation with that of the Ten-horned Beast. The horn of the He-goat, we
are told, is Alexander the Great; while the four, which spring up after it has
been broken, are the four kingdoms into which the Macedonian Empire was
subsequently divided, and the last survivor of which - that is, Egypt - was
absorbed into Rome after the battle of Actium, in B.C. 31. The interval, therefore, occurs between the four horns and the
little one, and is plainly intimated by the angel, who prefaces his description
of the king of fierce countenance with the words, “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the
transgressors are come to the full.” Thus the prediction passes on at once from about B.C.
31, which is within the Sixty-nine weeks, to the appearance of Antichrist in
the Seventieth.
The last revelation to Daniel, contained in the tenth, [218] eleventh, and twelfth chapters, also begins its disclosures from the times
of the prophet, and notices the reigns of Cambyses,
Pseudo-Smerdis, Darius Hystaspes, and Xerxes.* From the last-mentioned king it
passes on to Alexander, and speaks of his great dominion; but at the same time
predicts that none of his posterity should retain his power, and that his
empire should be divided into four kingdoms.** Then it traces out the fortunes of
two of these kingdoms, Syria and Egypt, because their policies and wars
affected Palestine which lay between them. With occasional detail of wonderful
minuteness it foretells the conflicts of the Seleucidea
and Lagidae, especially dwelling upon the doings of
Antiochus Epiphanes, Afterwards there is an evident reference to the Maccabees
in the words, “But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” ***
* Dan. 11: 2. ** Dan. 11: 3, 4. *** Dan. 11: 5-32.
In the next verse it mentions the rise of a very different
class of agents, “they that understand among the people,” who do no exploits, but “instruct many.” This is a description in which we cannot
fail to recognize the appearance and work of the Lord Jesus and His disciples.
But the instruction would be rejected by the mass of the people, and would not,
therefore, avail to forefend the approaching judgment; for the prophecy
continues;- “Yet they shall fall by the sword and by
flame, by captivity and by spoil, many days.”*
* Dan. 11: 32.
This is an evident reference to the destruction of the city
and Sanctuary by Titus, and the consequent [219] dispersion of the Jews; and our Lord
uses similar language in foretelling the same events.* He expresses
the “many days” of Daniel by saying that “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of
the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be
fulfilled.”
* Luke 21: 24.
Thus we are again brought down to the same crisis as in the
prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, and then immediately carried on to the doings of
Antichrist: for the thirty-sixth verse introduces the Wilful King. And so the
same scheme may be detected in all the great revelations given to Daniel.
VII
THE SCHEME OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS IS THE
KEY TO ALL PROPHECY.
WE have
thus found from the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks - as well as from other parts
of Scripture, in which the Lord is represented as breaking His covenant with
And during the interval between the true Messiah [220] and the false, Hebrew prophecy is almost entirely in abeyance, and there
remain in present operation only one or two fearful utterances which stretch,
as it were, here and there across the whole width of the chasm.
Such is the cry of Hosea, which startled the prosperous and
haughty times of Uzziah with the fateful words;- “For the children of
* Hosea 3: 4.
Such is the mournful burden of Micah that, because of the
smiting of the Judge of Israel upon the cheek, God would give up His people,
until the travailing woman should bring forth.*
* Micah 5: 1, 3.
And such, especially, are the terrible fulminations in Leviticus and Deuteronomy,
those words of fear;- “And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. And among
those nations shalt thou find no case, neither
shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the
Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and
failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou
shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear,
and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.”*
* Deut. 28: 64-67.
[221]
With the exception of such passages as these, and the few
predictions respecting the Gentiles, all Old Testament prophecy - which
invariably refers to the literal
* 1 Pet. 1:
11.
The knowledge of this fact is indispensable to a right
understanding of prophecy; for events connected with the two great, but now
widely separated eras, are often mentioned together, even in the same sentence.
Nor is there any confusion in such an arrangement: for had the Jews received
Christ at His first coming, John the Baptist would have been Elijah to them,* the [222] its last Seven Years would have followed immediately, and then the Kingdom
would have been restored to
*It has been supposed by many that John
exhausted the prophecy in Mal. 4: 5. But
nothing less than the personal appearance of “Elijah
the prophet” - or “Elijah the Tishbite,” as the Septuagint has it - can fulfil
that utterance. Moreover, his coming must be just before the second advent, “the
great and dreadful day of the Lord.” When the Saviour speaks of this
subject it is with an ambiguity which can only be dispelled by a knowledge of
the Seventy Weeks. On one occasion He says of John;- “And
if ye are willing to receive him, this is Elijah
which is to come” (Matt. 11: 14). That is, “If
you will allow John to do the work of Elijah, he shall be Elijah to you; the
Seventieth Week shall follow immediately upon the Sixty-ninth, and then the Kingdom
shall be restored to
Lest, however, we should feel any perplexity in regard to the
interpretation of Old Testament prophecy, the Lord Himself has given us a clue.
In the fourth chapter of Luke we may find an account of His visit to the
synagogue at
* Luke 4: 18,
19; Isa. 61: 1, 2.
Before, however, we deduce a canon of interpretation from our
Lords method of procedure, we should be careful to notice that prophecy must always,
when it is possible, be taken literally. The Bible is not a riddle, but a
revelation. Written to suit the mean capacities of our race while still in the
flesh, it is easily intelligible to those who surrender themselves to the
guidance of the [Holy] Spirit.
It presents but few difficulties, if we are willing to receive it just as it
has been delivered to us, and do not wish to avoid that which is supernatural.
And with a few avowed exceptions - such as when the mind that hath wisdom is
challenged, or when he that hath ears to hear is bidden to hear - if it does
speak figuratively, it employs plain and obvious figures, the purpose of which
is to illustrate and make clear, and not to mystify.
That what we affirm is true may be seen by the prophecies of
the first advent, which, fulfilled as they were with a wonderful literality,
should make us wise in regard to the future. Let the following serve as
examples.
The messenger: - Mal. 3: 1; Mark 1: 2-8.
The virgin mother: - Gen. 3:
15; Isa. 7: 14; Matt. 1: 12-23*
* In the prophecy of Isa. 7: 14, the Authorized Version obscures the meaning by
omitting the article; for we should read, “Behold,
the virgin conceiving.” The same mistake occurs
in the quotation in Matt. 1: 23, but is
corrected in the Revised Version. We scarcely need to say that the article is
of [224] the utmost importance, since it
points back to some particular virgin who must have been indicated by a
previous revelation, and so connects Isaiah’s words with the primeval utterance
respecting “the seed of the woman.” For that
unusual expression evidently implies that just as sin came into the world
through the woman alone, so far as earthly agencies were concerned, so the
Deliverer should be introduced by the woman alone; in other words, that our
Lord should be born of a virgin.
The other children of
the Lord’s mother: - Ps. 69: 8*; Matt. 12: 46; John 7: 5.
* In this prophecy - the next verse of
which is applied to Christ in the New Testament (John
2: 17; Rom.
15: 3) -
the expression, “My mother’s children,”
precludes all attempts to show that the Lord’s brethren were either His cousins
or His half-brothers. Without doubt James and Joses
and Simon and Judas (Matt. 13: 55) were
the literal brethren of the Lord, and it would never have occurred to any one
to deny so plain a fact, had it not been for the wish to substantiate
idolatrous theories respecting His mother, and to identify her with Isis, the
mother of Horus, and yet the ever-virgin. See the
note at the end of the present chapter.
The riding into
The thirty pieces of
silver: - Zech. 11: 12; Matt. 26: 15.
The potter’s field: - Zech. 11:
13; Matt.
27: 7.
The smiting and
spitting: - Isa. 1: 6; Matt. 26: 67.
The piercing with nails:* - Psa. 22: 16; Matt. 27: 35.
* In the passage of the twenty-second Psalm - “They pierced My hands and My feet” - the word… (akin
to …) is found, which signifies to dig or bore through, and is, therefore, most
appropriately used of nails. But in Zech. 12: 10, the
verb is …, which means to pierce with a sword or spear.
The piercing with the spear:- * - Zech. 12: 10; John 19: 34, 37.
[* as described above - see the Hebrew words not shown above by the ellipsis …]
The garments and
vesture: - Psa. 22: 18; John 19: 23, 24.
The vinegar and the
gall: - Psa. 69: 21; Matt. 27: 34.
The unbroken bones: - Psa. 34: 20; John 19: 33, 36.
The list might be greatly extended, and there is no reason
to doubt that the prophecies of the second advent will be fulfilled as literally as
those of the first.
From this consideration, and from the example given [225] above of our Lord’s way of dealing
with Scripture, we would suggest the following method of interpretation.
In any prediction of the Old Testament, regard that which has
been exactly fulfilled at the first advent as already past.
Apply all else to the times of the second advent, as literally
as the case will allow.
By way of example we may cite the words of Isaiah; - “For unto us a
Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government
shall be upon His shoulder.” Now the Child was born, and the Son was given, at
the first advent; but the government
did not then devolve upon Him, for
He was cut off and there was nothing for Him. He left our world as a nobleman going into a far country to receive for
himself a kingdom and to return. At
the second advent, therefore, will the government be placed upon His
shoulder. It is only after the
Fourth Beast has been slain, and his
body destroyed and given to the burning flame, that the Son of man shall be brought to the Ancient of days, and invested with dominion, and glory, and a Kingdom.*
* Dan. 7:
11-14.
So in the thirteenth chapter of Zechariah, the seventh
verse refers to the first advent,* but the eighth
and ninth to the second; for the destruction of
* Matt. 26: 31.
If, then, we apply this process, of which our Lord Himself gives us an example, the Bible
becomes a plain revelation, and is no longer a tissue of enigmas. Its every
page sparkles with glory, and it is found to be filled with disclosures and
instructions which Paul might well compare to gold, silver, and precious
stones.
[226]
NOTE ON THE BRETHREN OF THE LORD
The
actual blood-relationship of our Lord to those persons who in the New Testament
are called “His brethren,” and are usually mentioned in connection with His mother, is a
truth of great importance. It bars the way against that doctrine of Paganism
which has ever corrupted the nominal Church more powerfully, perhaps, or, at
least, more persistently, than any other. And just as it was vehemently
assailed in the early centuries of our era, so now it is either ignored or
opposed by many, because the causes which first rendered it distasteful are
once more working actively among us.
For Mariolatry is gaining ground in those countries which have
hitherto been termed Protestant; while that which it really represents, namely,
the worship of the female principle in nature, has of late found favour with
many Secularists - such as Strauss, Cornte, and John
Stuart Mill - and prevails extensively among Spiritualists and Theosophists.
Now this wide-spread error, which may, ultimately, prove a
bond of union to men of very diverse opinions, is at once deprived of all the
support which it pretends to draw from Christianity if the Lord’s brethren can
be shown to be the veritable sons of His mother. For the universal Heathen
goddess of many names, with which men have ever sought to identify her, was the
mother of a divine son, and yet a virgin. Hence the importance of the question.
But to an unprejudiced mind there could be no question at all.
Were we without interest in the controversy, we should, upon reading of the
Lord’s [227] “mother and His brethren,” instinctively understand the brethren
to be related to Him in the flesh in the same literal sense in which His mother
was. And if any feeling within us forbids so obvious a conclusion, it certainly
does not spring from the Scriptures, which contain nothing that could possibly
suggest it.
On the contrary, the simple command to Joseph, “Fear not to
take unto thee Mary thy wife,”* is sufficient to show that the usual
conjugal relations subsisted between the pair after our Lord’ birth. And the
plain narration, that Joseph “took unto him his wife, and knew her not till
she had brought forth her firstborn Son,”** affords conclusive evidence that Matthew, at least, had no wish to guard against the legitimate meaning of his words.
* Matt. 1: 20.
** Matt. 1: 24, 25.
Again; the significant but much
neglected fact that, in Scripture, Mary is never called a virgin after the
birth of her firstborn Son, is in
itself fatal to the purely Heathen doctrine of her perpetual virginity.
And lastly; it cannot have been
without design that, in a Psalm repeatedly applied to Christ in the New
Testament, and immediately preceding a verse both the clauses of which are
cited by inspired writers as referring to Him. * we should find the words;-
* Psa. 69:
9. Compare John
2: 17 and
“I am become a
stranger unto My brethren,
And an alien unto My mother’s
children.”*
* Psa. 69:
8.
It is unnecessary to say more: the Bible certainly assumes the
brethren of the Lord to be the actual sons of His mother, upon whom - with two
memorable [228] exceptions, of which we shall speak presently - it always
represents them as being in attendance. So carefully did He Who knows the end
from the beginning anticipate the attempt to identify the Saviour’s earthly
parent with Isis the ever-virgin mother of Horus -
just as also, in the plans of the Tabernacle and the Temple, He directed that
the Holy of holies should be set in the West, and so at once distinguished His
worshippers from the multitudinous votaries of nature and the sun, who turned
towards the East.
But in this case, as in many others, human corruption quickly
made the Word of God of none effect. In very early times the wish to assimilate
Christianity to Paganism by furnishing it with a virgin-goddess, together with
the prevailing tendency to asceticism, resulted in a theory that Joseph was a
widower when he espoused Mary, and that the “brethren” were his sons by his first wife.
The origin of this theory is betrayed by the sentiments of its
supporters. Not a particle of evidence can be adduced in its favour: for there
is no historical mention of a previous marriage of Joseph, nor do the
fictitious elder half-brothers appear in the few incidents of the Lord’s birth
and childhood which are revealed to us. Even Jerome taunts those who believe in
it with “following the Apocryphal writings, and
inventing a wretched little woman, Melcha, or Escha.”
But, in order to Paganise Christianity, it was not enough to
dispose of these brethren: it was also necessary to show that Mary could have
had no other children besides her Firstborn. Accordingly, about the middle of
the second century, the Protevangelium Jacobi represented Joseph as being, at the time of [229] his second marriage, a very old man with adult children. Unfortunately,
however, for the reputation of that work, it allowed him no daughters, although
the New Testament mentions the Lord’s sisters* as well as His brothers. But the idea
of Joseph’s extreme age became very popular in Apocryphal writings, and is
worked out from them, with grotesque extravagance, in the Coventry Miracle
Plays which are preserved in the
* Matt. 13: 56.
Towards the close of the fourth century, a number of female
devotees, who had migrated from
* From the Paganised Christian point
of view this would, of course, be a transfer of the Lord’s Supper to the
worship of Mary.
Of course so open a deification of the Lord’s human mother was
not carried on without considerable opposition. It was, however, defended with
fanatical violence by Epiphanius, Bishop of the
Cyprian
Among those who objected to the new goddess was one Helvidius, a
lawyer of
To this statement Jerome, who was greatly the superior of Helvidius in learning and dialectics, and who either
disliked or distrusted the theory of Joseph’s previous marriage, replied that
the brethren of the Lord were not the sons of His mother, but merely His cousins. The spirit in which he put
forth this opinion may be gathered from his boast that he claimed virginity,
not for Mary only, but also for Joseph. The argument by which he supported it
is a worthless tissue of errors, and may be stated as follows:-
In the list of the Twelve there are two apostles bearing the
name of James. And we also read of James the Lord’s brother.
This last must, however, have been one of the Twelve, or,
otherwise, there would have been three persons of the same name.
And in such a case how could one of them be called [231] “James the less,” a term which implies that there was
but one other?
Moreover, in writing to the Galatians Paul narrates, “But other of
the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's
brother,”* thus classing the latter with the
Twelve.
* Gal. 1: 19.
This argument, the basis of Jerome’s whole theory, may be
disposed of without much trouble.
For such an expression as “James the less” is not to be found in the original of
the New Testament: the apostle is called “James the little” - [see Greek …] *
* Mark 15:
40.
And the words of Paul may be rendered, “I saw no other apostle - that is, no other save Peter who
has just been mentioned - but only James, the Lord’s brother.” Moreover,
even if we admit that this James was an apostle, it by no means follows that he
was one of the Twelve. For the title was conferred upon others also, as for
instance upon Barnabas.* Indeed in
one passage Paul appears to distinguish between “the Twelve” and “all the apostles.” **
* Acts 14:
4, 14. ** 1 Cor.
15: 5, 7.
Such, then, was the false foundation upon which Jerome was content
to build the subjoined theory.
Since James the Lord’s brother is mentioned after the death of
James the son of Zebedee, he must be identified with James the son of Alphaeus.
Now the latter had a brother named Joses,
and, in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark,* there is record of a Mary the mother
of James and Joses being present at the crucifixion.
She must, therefore, have been the wife of Alphaeus.**
* Matt. 27:
56. **Mark
15: 40.
[232]
But in the fourth Gospel, in place of the mother of James and Joses we read of a Mary of Clopas, the sister of the Lord’s
mother, standing by the cross.* This must, therefore, be the same as the wife of
Alphaeus,** who is thus proved to be the sister of the Lord’s mother.
** John 19: 25.
** The two names Clopas and Alphaeus might be identified, since
both forms could be derived from the same Aramaean
original. Jerome was not, however, aware of this fact.
Hence her children were His cousins, and they are called His brethren merely because that term is often applied to
any near relations.
This elaborate superstructure is as worthless as its
foundation, and a single fact will suffice to prove our assertion. James the
Lord’s brother could not have been the son of Alphaeus, for the latter was one
of the Twelve; whereas of the Lord’s brethren we are told, without reserve,
that they did not believe on Him.* But although there is no necessity for further
discussion, we will, nevertheless, add one or two remarks which will help the
reader to a still clearer view of the standing of Jerome as a teacher.
* John 7: 5.
And, first, Mary the wife of Clopas is not to be identified
with the sister of the Lord’s mother. For the passage in John should be read as
follows:- “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His
mother and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of
Clopas and Mary Magdalene.” Not three only, but four women are
mentioned, and they are arranged in couples, just as the apostles are in lists
of the Twelve.* And by so understanding the passage, we avoid an
absurdity: for, according to Jerome, both the Lord’s mother and [233] her sister must have borne the same name of Mary. Indeed, some supporters
of his theory are bold enough to affirm that the Jews frequently gave the same
name to sisters; but, so far as we are aware, they offer no evidence of the
prevalence of so irrational a custom.
* Matt. 10:
2-4; Luke 6: 14-16.
The argument from the names James and Joses
is also valueless; since there were but few names in common use among the Jews
at that time, as indeed we might gather from the frequent recurrence of certain
appellations in the New Testament. Hence it is probable that many women in
Lastly; the assertion that “cousins”
may be styled “brothers” is scarcely true, in an absolute sense at least. The
instances adduced by Jerome* occur in affectionate or rhetorical appeals: he is
unable to cite any from plain matter of fact history such as that of the
Gospels. His theory is rendered still more improbable by the mention of the
Lord’s sisters, and there is yet another difficulty. If the “brethren” were the cousins of the Lord, why are
they found in continual attendance upon His mother while their own parent was
still alive? It could not have been from any feeling of veneration on account
of her Son; for in Him they did not believe.
* Gen. 13: 8; 29: 15.
Such, then, is Jerome’s attempted explanation, the most remarkable
fact in connection with which is that learned men should ever have admitted so
faulty and preposterous a theory within the range of their theology. Its author
was less tenacious of it than some of his disciples; and in the Epistle to Hedibia, which belongs to his later years, he evinces a
complete change of [232] mind by disowning the identification
of the mother of James and Joses with the sister of
Mary. Since this is the citadel of his position, it is clear that he must have
discovered its untenableness, and so have deliberately abandoned it.
Bishop Lightfoot, in the essay appended to his
Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, decides peremptorily against
Jerome; but, after wavering between the literal theory and that of the
half-brothers, finally inclines, like Hilary
of Poltiers,
to the latter for the subjoined reason. He conceives it to be impossible that
our Lord, when on the cross, “would have snapped
asunder the most sacred ties of natural affection” by commending His
mother to the care of John if she had had four sons of her own living at the
time.
But while it is always dangerous to
substitute our own theories for the plain and literal sense of Scripture,
there is in this case no reason whatever for such a
course. Provided we be content to waive tradition
and hold to revelation, the alleged difficulty may be very easily removed.
In the single passage of the Gospels
in which our Lord’s brethren appear without their mother,* they display a strong spirit of opposition, and we are told that
they did not believe on Him. Hence the reason why the mother is no longer with
them: she had kept the sayings of Jesus in her heart, and, therefore, had faith
to follow Him to the cross; she had once attempted to interfere with His
actions, and had learnt** her lesson from the rebuke which she received.
* John 7: 3,
9.
** Thus our latest glimpse of the brethren, before the
crucifixion reveals them separated for the first time from their mother and
casting reproaches upon the Lord; whereas at the cross the mother is seen
deserted by her sons. It is impossible to deny the significance of such a fact.
[235]
But if the brethren were unbelievers, and were even then angry
with the Lord because He refused to seek popularity, what must have
been their feelings as they saw His ministry becoming more and more opposed to
the prejudices of their nation, and perceived
that the consequent hatred to His person was increasing every day? Is it not more than probable that their
growing dislike to Him, now heightened
by the fear of family disgrace, would
alienate them from His mother who persisted in her faith? And thus, neglected by her own sons in her time of deepest trouble, she would be in sore need of temporary
protection, which the Lord
graciously provided.
So far there is surely no difficulty; but at this point tradition steps in and adds a story, opposed
to all reasonable inference from Scripture, that Mary remained under the protection of the apostle John for the rest
of her life. There can be no doubt that this is a pure fiction devised to
support the theory of her virginity; for
the Bible plainly indicates that she returned to her sons after their
conversion.*
* Acts 1: 14.
The tender heart of the Lord yearned for His brethren in the
flesh, and, accordingly, after He had appeared in His resurrected body to
Peter, to the Twelve, and to the five hundred brethren, He presented Himself to
his brother James. Who can doubt the effect of the glorious sight? The eyes of
James were opened, and he beheld no longer the carpenter’s son of
We can readily understand how such a change of mind would
affect them in regard to their neglected mother, who seems to have been at once
removed from the temporary protection of John to the loving care of her own
family. And so it happens that in the list of those who continued in prayer in
the upper room, waiting for the promised power from on high, we find the mother
of Jesus and His now believing brethren again united.*
* Acts 1: 14.
VIII
THE RETURN OF THE JEWS TO
SUCH,
then, is the outline of God's dealings with the Jews, as it was revealed to
Daniel. For four hundred and eighty‑three years His Spirit strove with
them in their own land, and, at the close of that appointed time, Messiah the
Prince appeared, and they rejected Him. He came unto His own, and His own
received Him not. Then He also rejected them, and cast them out to endure the
curse uttered by Moses.
Anon they will return, and place
themselves under the protection of the last head of the Fourth Gentile Empire.
And when he makes his covenant with them, then may the world and Satan know
that but seven short years remain for the indulgence of unbridled sin. At that
time the great body of the nation will be in [237] unbelief, and will, therefore, share
in the madness of the world, and wonder after and worship the Beast. And of the
small number who do fear Jehovah, few, if any, will know the Lord Jesus as the
Lamb of God, however they may recognise Him as their Messiah and King; for,
according to Zechariah, neither the house of David, nor the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, will find out the fountain that is opened for sin and for
uncleanness, until they have actually beheld the face of Him Whom they pierced.*
* Zech.
12: 9 -
13: 1.
That they will rebuild the
At the same time there is a recognition of some few who will
tremble at the word of the Lord, and whose brethren will hate them and cast
them out for His name’s sake, while they hypocritically say;- “Let the Lord be glorified.” These afflicted ones are
strengthened for their brief trial by the significant words;- “But He shall
appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.”*
* Isa. 66:
5.
When the
IX
THE SERMON ON THE
CAREFUL
readers will have noticed considerable variation in the reports of this
memorable discourse as given by Matthew and Luke. Such differences are,
however, perplexing only at first view: to those who can search out their
meaning, they are not merely intelligible, but deeply instructive; for we have
but to keep in mind the main object of each Evangelist, and all will be clear.
Now Matthew wrote his Gospel especially for Jews, and to set forth the Lord
Jesus as their King; while Luke points out Christ as the Son of man, and is the
Evangelist of all converts who, being in Christ, are neither Jews nor Greeks.
Many traces of these diverse aims may be discovered. For
instance, the object of the genealogy in Matthew is to prove our Lord’s title
to the crown of
*This consideration, together with two
others, will be found explain all the apparent discrepancies in the genealogies
ci Matthew and Luke, which, it must be remembered,
are both [239] expressly said to be pedigrees of
Joseph. See Matt. 1:
16, and Luke 3:
23. The other two points are - (1) that, if
a man’s direct line became extinct, the Jews were accustomed to enter his heir
upon the record as his son; and (2) that they were in the habit of abbreviating
genealogies by the simple process of striking out names; so that a man would
often appear as the son of an ancestor who had died a century or more before he
was born.
Keeping these facts in mind, we will glance at the lists of
the two Evangelists, which, although they agree from Abraham to David, are
entirely different from David to Jeconiah. The reason is, however, very simple.
David was succeeded by Solomon, whose line occupied the throne until it became
extinct in the childless Jeconiah (Jer. 22: 30). Then the right of the succession passed over
to the family of Nathan - another Son of David, from whom our Lord was actually
descended - and Salathiel, the son of Neri, became heir to the throne, and,
according to Jewish custom, was transferred to the royal genealogical tables as
“the son of Jeconiah.” After Jeconiah the lists
appear to coincide for four generations: for each of them has Salathiel and
Zorobabel; Rliesa (…the prince) is merely a title of Zorobabel, which seems to
have slipped into the text from the margin; Joanna is omitted by Matthew,
according to the practice mentioned above; and Abiud and Juda are identical.
Abiud had two sons, Eliakim and Joseph. The line of the former ceased with
Eleazer, and, consequently, Matthat, of the house of Joseph, became heir to the
crown. Matthat had two sons, Jacob and Heli. Jacob died without issue - or, at
least, without male issue; for it is very probable that Mary was his daughter -
and so Joseph, the son of his younger brother, Heli, became his heir, and was
placed on the official genealogy as “the son of Jacob.”
It may easily be proved that names are omitted from the record
Matthew in order to square the numbers, and this is a sufficient explanation of
the fact that he only mentions twenty-eight generations from David to Christ,
while Luke has forty-two. If Mary was Joseph’s cousin, married by him,
according to Jewish custom, because he was his uncle’s heir, the genealogies
will of course belong to her as much as to her husband.
Again: our Lord’s description of the
evil spirit going out of a man is in Matthew concluded with the special
application, “Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” For, as the context itself shows, it
is there to be taken as a prophecy of the Jewish people. But Luke gives an
entirely different context, [240] and omits the concluding words,
because in his Gospel the warning is
written for general and individual application.
It is just so with regard to the
prophecy on the
* Zech. 14: 2.
On the other hand, Luke is writing for
Jews [and Gentiles], who might indeed be concerned in the
siege by Titus, but who ought to be standing [in obedience (Acts 5: 32; 1 John 3: 7, 24; cf. Jude
5, R.V.)] before the Son of man when Antichrist is revealed,
and, consequently, require to know but little of the last Week.
In his Gospel the question put to our Lord is simple, When
shall this Temple, [soon to be built at
Jerusalem,] upon which we are now gazing, be destroyed; and what shall be
the signs accompanying its destruction? Therefore his report of the answer
enters into particulars of the times immediately following the ascension - [of
those ‘accounted worthy to escape’ (Luke 21: 34-36; cf. Rev.
3: 10,
R.V.)] - and speaks of the temptations,
persecutions, and sorrows, which [regenerate] believers would then have to endure; nor does he forget
to note that the synagogue would be a principal cause of their trouble.* He also gives
them a sign by which they might know when to leave Jerusalem, and so escape the
horrors of her supreme agony.** Then
he [242] describes the days of vengeance in which she should be
destroyed, and adds that from thenceforth should be trodden down of the
Gentiles, until times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. The close this long
period should be announced by signs in the sun and in the moon, and by
convulsions of nature and distress of nations upon the earth; and then Son of
Man should come with power and great glory.
* Luke 21: 12. Compare Matt. 2: 9.
** Luke 21: 20, 21. The sign was, “When ye see
It is worthy of notice that, while the sign promised in Luke
so plainly given before the legions of Titus closed in upon the devoted city,
the same cannot be said of that which is mentioned in Matthew. For the idea
that the Roman eagles, and not the image of the Beast, are “the Abomination of
Desolation," is untenable and if it were not so, the Roman eagles never
stood in the
[242]
Nothing could be clearer, or more easy of comprehension, than
the grand utterance of the Lord as thus presented to us; but since we are
considering the future of the Jewish nation, we are just now more nearly
concerned with the account given by Matthew.
X
THE TWENTY-FOURTH CHAPTER OF MATTHEW
THE
sermon on the Mount of Olives, as it appears in the Gospel of Matthew, is
closely connected with the preceding chapter, the contents of which are,
therefore, included in the question, “Tell us, when shall these things be?” We must understand the disciples - [both Jews and Gentiles] - to be asking, How shall the Jews
fill up the measure of their fathers? When will prophets and wise men and
scribes be sent, and be persecuted to the death? At what time will all the
righteous blood shed upon the earth come upon this generation? When will the [soon to be built]
[*
For regenerate believers to imagine, on the basis of conversion and
regeneration alone, there will be no disobedient Christians ‘left’ upon this earth after the first rapture of those
who “may prevail to escape
all these things” (Luke 21: 36,ff. cf. Rev.
3: 10,R.V.)
- is to allow ones self, and deceive others, that God’s accountability truths and
conditional
promises will never have any effect upon them! Beware of today’s hyper
dispensational teachers, who are so popular amongst the Lord’s redeemed
people today, by neglecting these divine statements and promising something
which is not true!]
But the disciples go on to ask, “And what shall be the sign of
Thy presence, and of the end of the age?” Now the taking up [members] of the Church will be the sign that
Christ is present in the air; while His judgment of the living Gentile nations
will be the closing act of the age. Hence the answer to the three questions
involves the fate of the Jews, the Church, and the Gentiles respectively; and
the Lord accordingly proceeds to unfold the manner in which the present state
of things will end to each of these three great divisions of the world.*
* The
whole discourse may be simply divided into three parts, corresponding to the
three questions asked by the disciples. The first part (24: 4-35) concerns the Jews, and answers the question, “When shall these things be.” The second (24: 36 - 25: 30)
discloses the sign which will make known [the pre-tribulation rapture, and] the
presence of Christ in the air; and since it is to be the sudden removal of
those who are looking for Him, He adds some instructions and warnings
respecting this solemn subject. The concluding section (25: 31-46) is a response to the inquiry, “What will be the sign of the consummation of the age?”
And the Lord replies that His last act in regard to it will be the judgment of
the quick, of those nations which, being without the circle of Christendom,
have not heard His fame nor seen His glory (Isa. 66:
19), and which will, therefore, be judged with regard to the way in which they
have obeyed the law of mercy written upon their hearts in their treatment of
the dispersed Jews.
Beginning with the Jews, He shows, in response to the first
question, that these things shall not be finally accomplished until the last
Week, just before His appearing;* and adds that, when He appears, He will send forth His
angels to gather together His elect of the Jews.**
* Matt. 24: 4-30.
** Matt. 24: 31. The remnant of the Church will have been previously removed at the
sounding of the Seventh Trumpet. On this subject the reader will find a chapter
in Part III.
We will, then, attempt a slight sketch of this part [244] of our Lord’s discourse, which wholly belongs to our present subject.
The first words, to the close of the sixth verse, refer to the
immediate future. There would shortly be events and signs and troubles in
connection with
By the significant words, “the end is not yet,” the Lord indicates the interval so
invariably marked in Jewish prophecy, and then passes on to the Seventieth
Week. He had spoken of the signs which would make some think that the end had
come, when God’s purpose was merely the dispersion of the Jews, that they might
undergo a long sifting among the nations: now He reveals what will be the
beginning of the actual end,* the throes or birth-pangs - for so the [245] word translated “sorrows” should be rendered - of earth just before the appearing of
the King.**
* The following paraphrase
may, perhaps, explain the connecting force of “for”
at the commencement of the seventh verse. “These
disturbances, caused by false Messiahs in
** Matt. 24:
8.
At this time the Jews will, of course, be again in possession
of their own land, having been restored, it may be, by Antichrist, or, perhaps,
by some other power. Or, possibly, they will return gradually, and fill their
country as they are driven out from among the nations by a hatred which seems
to have already commenced in
The first birth-pang is war; but war universal, and no longer
local: for “nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”* This
corresponds to the opening of the second seal in the Apocalypse, when the red
horse went forth, “and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace
from the earth, and that they should kill one
another; and there was given unto him a great
sword.”** While our Lord deals solely with the
visible events, John appears to have seen the spiritual agency which will cause
them. And who that considers the present state of the world, teeming as it is
with ever-increasing hosts of armed millions, can fail to see on all sides a
preparation for this beginning of sorrows?
* Matt. 24:
7. ** Rev. 6: 4.
The second sign will manifest itself
in local famines. [246] This corresponds to the black horse
of the third seal, whose rider causes scarcity in the necessaries of life, the
wheat and the barley; but not in its luxuries, the oil and the wine.* Do we not seem
to have already had a rehearsal of this sorrow in the late severe famines in
various parts of the world - famines which have impoverished many countries,
and rendered them less able to face the severer troubles which may be close at
hand?
* Rev. 6: 5, 6.
The third sign is pestilence, which is also the woe inflicted
by the rider on the livid horse, who appears when the fourth seal is broken,
and whose name is Death.* This would most certainly be the result of universal war
and local famines: and indeed all these earlier throes are troubles which have
frequently occurred in the world’s previous history; but they will shortly be
repeated with unusual and appalling severity.
* Rev. 6: 7, 8.
Then follow earthquakes, the most terrible of which will
doubtless be the great shock at the opening of the sixth seal.* The increasing
frequency and ubiquity of earthquakes during the last few years must have been
noticed by every one. And although thus far the majority of the shocks have
been comparatively slight,** yet their great number has caused many to suppose that
we are entering on a period of terrestrial commotion, a time, possibly, of
terrific physical [247] convulsions similar to those which by
their traces seem to have ended some of the geological ages.
* Rev. 6: 12.
** We have remarked in a previous note that this was written
before the occurrence of the earthquakes at Agram, Casamicciola, Chios, Ischia, Java, Colchester, and
The succeeding verses, to the end of the thirteenth, describe
to us the condition of God’s people during these times of wrath and trouble.
Probably the faithful Jews, who will be afflicted and killed by their own
people, and hated of all nations, will be, in great part, those who have been
roused by the preaching of the Two Witnesses; and if so, this would account for
their persecution. For the world will regard the Witnesses as its tormentors,
and, in its anger and excitement against them will be likely to show but little
love to their followers.
This persecution is doubtless the same as that which is
indicated at the opening of the fifth seal.* And the martyrs there mentioned are
clearly distinguished as belonging to the last Week, and not to the present in
the spirit of the old dispensation, they cry for vengeance, a thing which no
Christian of this age may dare to do.
* Rev. 6:
9-11.
The effects of the persecution will not, however, be confined
to the true worshippers; it will also bring the whole Jewish nation to the
test. Those who are not sincere will be offended by it, and will hate and
betray their faithful relations and friends: for to this time belongs the
counsel of Micah;- “Trust ye not a friend, put ye
not confidence in a guide: keep doors of thy
mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.”*
* Micah 7: 5.
And in the midst of the prevailing
excitement, while the pure worship of Jehovah is hated, many false
prophets will arise, and by their lying suggestions
lead [248] multitudes astray. Nor
will this be all: for, owing to the dreadful immorality and
lawlessness which will everywhere abound, the love of many, who bid
fair to run well, will gradually
lose its light and warmth, and grow
cold even as that of other men.
These, however, will not be the elect: for only he who is enabled to withstand all the trials and
temptations, and to endure till the end, shall be saved.
But by what means will faith be nourished and strengthened
during this time of terror, so that it shall finally
overcome? Evidently in that way in which it always is
both manifested and sustained, by
works. If any man have not the
Spirit of Christ he is none of His; but
he that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit, and is, therefore, constrained, in however humble a way, to
co-operate with his Saviour in letting the new light which is placed in him
shine before men, and in offering
salvation to the world. That which
avails is the faith which worketh by love, and the command to all believers is, “Ye are My witnesses saith the Lord.”
Accordingly, in the present passage, the mention of those who
shall endure to the end, and be saved is at once followed by an account of
their work. “This Gospel of the
Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for
a witness unto all nations.” What zeal and energy, what a spending and being spent, do
these words imply! But the servants of Christ will all learn to be earnest when
they know by the promised sign that He has come out of His place, that His
presence is an actual fact, that human society has assumed its last form of
evil, and that the pillars of the world arc trembling for their fall. Happy are
[249] those who, through the favour of the Lord, will not require the stimulus of that fearful time, but whose simple faith is sufficient to
rouse them from sloth, so that they
shall be accounted worthy to escape all the things that shall come to pass, and
to stand before the Son of Man. To them in a special sense do those words apply;- “Blessed are they
that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
The Gospel of the Kingdom is not, of course, the same as the Gospel of grace; for, while the latter is the good news that Christ Jesus has died for
sinners, the former is the glad
tidings that His Kingdom of peace and joy is just about to be manifested upon
earth, so that His servants will no
longer need to pray, “Thy Kingdom come.” Such a Gospel could, be preached [effectively] only on the eve of the Lord’s
appearing.
But not even this thrilling proclamation will draw men to God. It
will indeed be made known throughout the habitable, or at least the civilized,
world; but will for the most part serve only as a witness to the nations, and
vindicate God’s righteousness in the judgments which must immediately follow.
Possibly the Two Witnesses will be the
leaders of this preaching; and, from the next sentence of our Lord’s discourse,
it seems not unlikely that Antichrist will strive to wrest it to his own
advantage by giving out that he is the great King Who is to sit on the throne
of His father David.
For the Lord seems to suggest some
such connection by immediately passing on to speak of the setting up of the
Abomination of Desolation in the
* Acts 6: 13;
21: 28. ** I Kings 11: 5-7; 2 Kings 23: 13.
In his eleventh chapter,* it had been
declared that “the Abomination that maketh desolate” should be set up in the Sanctuary by
Antiochus Epiphanes, and the fulfilment of the prophecy may be found in the
first book of Maccabees,** and in the history of Josephus.*** For Antiochus
himself entered into the Sanctuary, and, after carrying away the sacred
furniture and treasures, built an idol altar upon the altar of God - doubtless
setting up the idol also in its proper place - and sacrificed swine upon it.
This gives us a hint of what the future Abomination of Desolation will be.
* Dan. 11: 31.
** 1 Macc, 1: 54. ***Joseph. Antiq. 12: 5. 4.
Whose image will then be set up we may
learn from the second passage of Daniel, which we have already considered, and
in which it is said of Antichrist, that “upon the wing of abominations shall
be the Desolator.”*
* Dan. 9: 27. See pp. 206-7.
Lastly, in the twelfth chapter,* the taking away of the daily sacrifice, and the setting up
of the Abomination that maketh desolate, are mentioned as marking the
commencement of the Great Tribulation.
* Dan. 12: 11.
Subsequent utterances of Paul and John throw a stronger light upon our Lord’s words,
and confirm [251] their allusion to the placing of the
image of the Beast in the Temple, to the middle of the last Week, when the
Lawless One shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and publicly deny
the Father and the Son by exalting himself “above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that
he, as God, sitteth
in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is
God.”*
* 2 Thess. 2: 4.
It is possible, as we have already remarked, that this new era
will be inaugurated by a travesty of the return of the Cherubim as foretold by
Ezekiel, and that the prophecy in the ninth of Daniel refers to the blasphemous
scene. If so, the pretended descent from heaven would explain the fact that the
sign will be seen from the housetops and the fields.
But, however this may be, the people of God who are in the
neighbourhood of Jerusalem will be able to recognize the signal, and will know
that it is a warning to betake themselves to instant flight. For an imperial
edict will be quickly issued, compelling all men on pain of death to worship
the Beast and his image. And this will be Satan’s scheme for the destruction of
the elect, the Dragon’s endeavour to devour the Woman, after her Child has been
transported far beyond his reach.
Without a moment’s delay, then, all those inhabitants of
This flight will be the commencement of the Great Tribulation,
in which judgment must begin at the house of God, and will then fall upon the
renegade Jews, who have consented to worship the Beast and his image, and upon
the world. It is described as “great tribulation, such
as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” These words show that there can be
but one such time of distress; therefore, it must be the same as that which is
also mentioned in the last chapter of Daniel, where the prophet says;- “There shall
be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that
same time; and at that time thy people shall be
delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”*
* Dan. 12: 1.
[253]
Since, then, both the prophet and the evangelist must be
speaking of the same tribulation, the latter clause of the verse from Daniel proves
that we are right in referring the passage under our consideration to the times
of Antichrist, and not to the overthrow of
And it is remarkable that Luke,
in describing the trouble of the immediate future, avoids the stronger expressions
of Matthew and Daniel, and merely says, “There shall be great distress upon
the land, and wrath unto this people.”* For the tribulation of which he speaks, though great, was not
unparalleled, and was only local; but this which is to come will be universal,
and more terrible than any which ever has been, or ever shall be; so that,
unless its days should be shortened, no flesh would be saved. Its details may
be found in many a passage of the prophets and in the Apocalypse, and should be
carefully studied, that we may learn what shall be the end of this present age
and all who cast in their lot with it.
* Luke 21: 23.
In times of distress which baffle their own powers of
foresight and calculation, men have ever been prone to turn to the
supernatural. It was so with the polished Athenians, and other Greeks, at the
commencement of the Peloponnesian war, when, as Thucyides tells us;-
“Many
prophecies were being continually repeated, [254] and
oracle-mongers ceased not to recite them, both in those states which were on
the point of engaging in war and in the others.”*
* Thuc. 2:
8.
And so, in our own days of uncertainty, perplexity, and fear, when all old faiths are disappearing, and not merely one kingdom, but the whole world is filled with rumours
of war, and seems to be on the eve
of a revolutionary explosion, the
result of which no one can forecast - at
this time of excitement, a craving
for the supernatural is once more returning in the forms of Spiritualism and
Theosophy, and in the revival of what
was supposed to be an ancient superstition, the art of astrology.*
* There are at the present time millions of Spiritualists who,
with the aid of a copious literature, are everywhere influencing society, and
preparing it for the leadership of an avowed spirit from the dead. Of their
apostasy, important as it is, but little is said in this volume, since it is
very fully discussed in another of the author’s works, “Earth’s Earliest Ages, and Their Connection with Modern Spiritualism and
Theosophy,” published by, Messrs. Hodder and
These movements will probably continue to spread and extend
their influence, and from the twenty-fourth verse we find
that they will powerfully affect the Jews in the Great Tribulation, when their minds have become excited by the general distress, the strange plagues, and the fear of what may be coming next.*
Perhaps, too, they will by that time
have [apostatised from ‘the faith,’ and] begun to distrust the prince with whom they made their covenant, and to [255] feel his tyrannous oppression. And so they will be longing for
deliverance; not, however, in a spirit of meekness and submission toward God, but that they may be avenged of their
enemies, and be exalted in the world.
Satan will not fail to take advantage of
this temper, and will raise up false
Messiahs to deceive still further the miserable people who would not have the
Lord Jesus to reign over them.
* Hence we may understand the meaning of Zech. 13: 2;-
“And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of Hosts, that
I will cut off the names of the idols
out of the land, and they shall no more be
remembered; and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the
land.”
But there will be a notable difference between the false
Christs of the last days and those which clustered around the first advent. The
latter were supported only by their own testimony, and could display no
supernatural marvels; but the former will have their prophets to testify to
them, be filled with Satanic power, and show forth great signs and wonders; so
great, indeed, that, were it not for the special grace of God, the very elect
themselves would be deceived.
Their adherents will be vigorous in their endeavours to make
disciples, and will be continually saying, “Christ is in the wilderness,” or, “He is in the chambers”; that is, He is in the solitary
wastes, in the secret places far away from the haunts of men; or, He is hidden
somewhere in the great cities where only His disciples may see Him. But neither
of these statements can ever be true of the Lord Jesus. For instead of appearing
in secret to a few,
the manifestation of His presence will
be as the lightning flash which in a
moment sweeps the heavens from East to West. Nor will He seek the desert places; but wherever the great crowd of them which are corrupting the earth is
to be found, thither will He descend
with the ministers of His vengeance,
even as the eagles swoop down from the sky upon the fallen carcase.
[256]
Immediately following upon the Great Tribulation - toward the
close of which, if not earlier, all nations will come up against
The word “immediately” contrasts strongly with what follows the account of
the days of trouble in Luke. There, after the [former] destruction of
The sun, then, shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from heaven, and all
the celestial machinery be deranged:
and at this awful
moment the sign of the Son of man will appear.* What this sign will be does not seem
to be distinctly revealed; nor is much light thrown upon the obscurity by the
conjecture of a flaming cross, in which ancient and modern writers have
delighted. Apparently our only Scriptural basis lies in the Lord’s
previous saying,
that the manifestation of His
presence will be as the lightning which flashes from the one end of heaven to the other. It may be that this will [257] occur while men are horrified with the
unnatural darkness, and that it will
be caused by a sudden and momentary cleaving of the black heavens, so that the glory of the Lord will break through, and He will for an instant be revealed in close proximity to
earth. Thus the Jew
may at last receive his sign from heaven.
* Matt. 24: 30.
That which follows, and which should be rendered, “Then shall all
the tribes of the land mourn,” points to the connection of this verse with Zechariah’s
prophecy;- “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him,
as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be
in bitterness for Him, as one that is in
bitterness for his firstborn.”*
* Zech. 12: 10.
And again; the manner in which Zechariah’s prophecy is quoted in
the Apocalypse may, perhaps, afford some slight argument in favour of the
explanation suggested above, that the
sign of the Son of Man is Christ Himself seen for a moment through a rift in
the clouds. For John says;- “Behold He cometh with the clouds
: and every eye
shall see Him, and also which pierced Him:
and all the
tribes of the and shall mourn because of Him.”*
* Rev. 1: 7.
Thus the Jews, although they may not as yet understand all,
will at least know that it was the Messenger of Jehovah Whom they slew, and
that in so doing they pierced Himself. And they will mourn with no feigned
lamentation, but as one mourns for his firstborn, nay, his only son. All their
pride will have [258] broken down; for the word will then
have been fulfilled, “I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice
in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of My holy mountain. I
will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they
shall trust in the name of the Lord.”*
* Zeph. 3:
11, 12.
And so God will look down upon the stiff-necked and rebellious
people, whom long centuries of chastisement could not subdue, and lo! a
remnant, broken-hearted and contrite, humbly confessing that they are all as an
unclean thing, that all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags, that they are
all fading as a leaf, and that their iniquities like the wind have carried them
away. They long for the personal interposition of God their Father, and cry, “Oh that Thou
wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest
come down.”* They are ready at last for their
Messiah. Christ has become precious to them: there is no need that He should
longer refrain Himself. He had indeed said. “Ye shall not see Me henceforth till
ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the
name of the Lord.”*
* Matt. 23: 39.
But that word withholds Him no longer; for now their eyes are
waiting for the Lord their God, until that He have mercy upon them: their souls
- [even disembodied souls, - (who are presently
in ‘Sheol’ or ‘Hades’
Psa. 16: 10; cf.
Acts 2: 34,
R.V.) - are awaiting their resurrection, out from dead ones, and] - are watching for Him more than they
that watch for the morning. And, as we find from the last chapter of Zechariah, they
are also in evil plight, and are all but swallowed up by their enemies.
At this crisis He will suddenly come forth from His pavilion
of clouds, the whole earth will be lighted with His glory, and the sons of Abraham, looking
up, will behold the despised Jesus
of
The manner in which He will preserve the Jews, while He is
destroying the myriads of Antichrist, is foretold by the prophets. Isaiah gives a hint of it in the words,
“Come, My people, enter thou into
thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of
His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall
disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”* Zephaniah, again,
says, “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek
of the land which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be
hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.”** And by comparing Zech. 14: 5, with Mal.
4: 1-3, we may, perhaps, see what these mysterious utterances mean. For in the former passage we find that,
when the Lord descends, the
* Isa. 26:
20, 21. ** Zeph.
2: 3.
*** Rev. 19:
20, 21.
**** Mal. 4: 2.
So will He preserve the people that remain in the all but
captured city. And then, with a great sounding of a trumpet, He will send forth
His angels, and they will gather to Him at Jerusalem the elect of Israel* from all places
whither they have been scattered; and He will make Himself known to them, as
Joseph made himself known to his brethren, forgive them, comfort them, and
say;- “God sent Me before you to preserve you a posterity in the
earth, and to save your lives by a great
deliverance.” **
* The elect will probably be those Israelites who will at the
time have turned to Christ, so far as to be expecting Him as the Deliverer.
Possibly the formation of this body has already commenced in the wonderful
movement in
** Gen. 45:
7.
It is probably at this time that the Throne of Glory will be set
up, before which the angels will gather the nations for the judgment of the
sheep and the goats, while the Lord’s Jewish brethren stand by.
Then will follow the establishment of the [Messianic
and Millennial] Kingdom at
* Isa. 14: 7. ** Isa. 25: 7, 8. *** Isa. 11: 9.
XI
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE JEWISH NATION
AND LAND
SUCH,
then, is a bare sketch of the line of prophecy which concerns the Jew up to the
time when the Lord will restore the Kingdom to
It is clear that the first great sign of the end
must be the return of the exiles in considerable numbers to their own country,
and the subsequent rebuilding of the
And, in the first place, we may
mention that Jerusalem itself is gradually becoming a centre of civilization,
and is assuming the appearance of a modern city: villas are being erected in
its neighbourhood, and no [262] less than three exclusively Jewish
building societies have been for some time carrying on their work.
Again: during the last ten years the Jewish population has
doubled itself, so that at the present time it outnumbers the remainder of the
inhabitants. Such a condition of things has not previously been known in
Various causes have contributed to bring about this result,
and seem likely to extend it. Among them are the following:
In 1840, at the request of Sir Moses Montefiore,
the Sultan issued a firman for the relief of his
Jewish subjects. After stating in the preface that the various accusations -
such as that of sacrificing a human being; to make use of his blood at the
Passover - which were popularly brought against the Jews were pure calumnies,
he declared that thenceforth the Israelitish nation should be protected and
defended, and should possess the same advantages, and enjoy the same
privileges, as the numerous other nations under his sway. Thus one great
obstacle to the return of the Jews to
In 1867, the Turkish Government made an important concession
in regard to their land laws, and gave permission to the subjects of foreign
powers to purchase land in their own name. It is easy to see how favourable
this change is, indirectly, to immigration, since any rich European Jew can now
buy up property in Palestine, and let it as he chooses to families of his own
nation. And not a few have availed themselves of the opportunity.
In 1874,
In the latter country, however, they find no ease, neither rest for the sole of
their foot; but seem likely to be driven on to seek possibly even to cause the
departure of their brethren who had previously settled there. For, within the
last few years, the ancient hatred of the Jews has been revived in
Just now there is a lull in the violence of the persecution,
interrupted, however, now and then by local outbreaks, more especially in
“This feeling is not, of course,
expressed in the same crude manner among ourselves, nor in anything like the
same measure; but we know from our own correspondence that it would be going
too far to say that Englishmen themselves have got rid of it completely. ... The truth undoubtedly is, that the Jews are more or less an
object of jealousy in every country in
* St. James’s
Gazette, Nov. 19th, 1880.
Such is a competent opinion upon the state of European feeling
toward the Jews. And
* Dated Aug. 20th, 1880.
“The troubles which the Jews of
Roumania are compelled to suffer are well known to you. It is a land whose
princes are like the wolves of the forest in their endeavours to annihilate the
children of
* “I have never had the opportunity of
speaking to Roumanians about their feelings in
reference to the Jews. Though I would fain hope that they have some
conscientious reasons for doing what they do, it is very hard to understand
them. With a finesse worthy of a better cause, they pass law after law to
deprive Jews in Roumania of the means
of making a livelihood, and the result is
ever-increasing emigration.”- H. FRIEDLANDER, Oct. 15th. 1884.
“God,” says Mr. Friedldnder,* “has sent a feeling
homelessness into the hearts of many thousands of Jews, and that feeling is
spreading far and wide. The handful of well-to-do Jews in
* In his interesting report of Oct. 15th, 1884.
Even so: for who can withstand the will of the Almighty, or who
shall change His purposes? And the set time for their fulfilment seems now to
have come.
[267]
Just before the commencement of the anti-Semitic agitation in
At last, then, the thought had arisen in the hearts of the
children of Abraham, that they would forget their own land, and be as the
nations; and at the same time the hour for God’s interference was approaching.
A furious persecution was being arranged in
Could there be a more signal and literal fulfilment, in its
first stage, of the vivid words of Ezekiel?
“And that which rises up in your mind
shall not be at all, in that ye say, We will be as the nations, as
the families of the countries, to serve wood and
stone.
As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely with a mighty hand, and
with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out,
will I rule over you.
And I will bring you out from the peoples, and will
gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a
stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out.
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there
will I plead with you face to face.”*
* Ezek. 20: 32, 35.
The last verse contains a terrible threat which may be now in
process of fulfilment, but is not yet completely realised. We sometimes speak
of the solitude of
But the jealousy and hatred of those among whom they sojourn
will be God’s means of driving them back to the place where He will deal with
them; just as, in [269] the days of old, their hard bondage
made them glad to leave the flesh-pots of
And it may be that He is already beginning to set His seal
upon the elect remnant of which the prophets so often speak, the one-third
which He will guide safely through the time of trouble into the Millennial
glory: for a very startling and significant movement is now going on among a
portion of the Jews.
During the persecution in South Russia, a lawyer of
Had he been imbued with the spirit of
the Nineteenth Century, he would have quickly solved his difficulties by giving
the lie to revelation. But he believed in the God Who made the heavens and the
earth and the sea and the fountains of waters, and, therefore, proceeded, on
the spot, to inquire how those things could be, by diligently searching the Old
Testament Scriptures. His faith was rewarded by the discovery that Jesus of
Nazareth was the Messiah and only hope of
[270]
Having so far apprehended the truth, from an exclusively
Jewish point of view, he returned to
Thus, then, it would seem that the cry, “Blessed is He
that cometh in the name of the Lord,” is at last beginning to ascend from Jewish hearts; and, if it
continue and increase, the separation between themselves and their King will be
removed, and He will fulfil His promise by coming to them again without fear of
a second rejection. Truly the purposes of God are speeding to their end!
And while the Jews are harassed in many other lands, the
finger of God seems to be revealed in the comparatively friendly attitude of
the present owners of
It is not unlikely that these friendly relations may continue,
and that the Jews may be re-settled in their land with the approval and
good-will of the Turks, who have once before received them as outcasts from
Christendom, and who have never exhibited toward them that systematic hatred
which has at all times characterized the Catholic Churches.
But even if the Turkish empire should have fallen apart into
its four ancient divisions - as it must do at the time of the end - before
* Ezek. 38.
and 39. ** Ezek. 38:
11, 12.
Such are some of the influences which are powerfully affecting
the exiles of the Two Tribes. Their operation may continue, or may not; but
certainly, so far as we can read the present signs of the times, God seems to
have cast up a highway for the return of the Jews, and [272] to be both driving and alluring them toward their own land.
Meanwhile, the general interest - and especially that of
British Christians - which is awakened in regard to Palestine, the frequent journeyings
of Europeans and Americans through the length and breadth of it, the exploring
and surveying expeditions, and the exertions of Sir Moses Montefiore
and other Jews, have done much to ameliorate the condition of the country, and
remind us of the prophecy -
“Thou wilt
arise, and have mercy upon
For it is time to favour her;
For the set time is come.
For Thy servants take
pleasure in her stones,
And favour the dust thereof.”*
* Psa. 102: 13, 14.
Among the many striking incidents of the last few years, we
may mention the proposal for the colonization of Eastern Palestine suggested by
Mr. Lawrence Oliphant,* who, in common with the majority of thoughtful and
unprejudiced Englishmen, has viewed with alarm the rapid southward advance of
Russia, and felt the necessity of checking it before the British route to India
becomes seriously endangered. For the results of the late war have placed some
important military positions in the hands of the Czar, and have extended the
Russian empire into Armenia; while Turkey, owing to her continued
mal-administration, which is ceaselessly fostered by Russia, can no longer be
regarded as a reliable barrier, and indeed, unless reforms be introduced, must
soon collapse, and leave [273] for the Muscovites an open road to
Jerusalem and to the Suez Canal.
* This scheme is explained in Mr.
Oliphant’s interesting book, “The Land of Gilead.”
With such a prospect into the future, it occurred to Mr. Oliphant
that, by placing a large colony of Jews in the land of Gilead, the finances of
Turkey might be increased, and an example of good government displayed which
would probably be imitated by other provinces of Asia Minor; while, if the
colony could be developed, a powerful Hebrew community, with all the influence
of the race, might in course of time be interposed between Russia and the Red
Sea.
Accordingly, he drew up the outline of a scheme which received
the private approval of Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury, and also of M.
Waddington, who was at that time French Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in
which the Prince of Wales and the Prince and Princess of Schleswig-Holstein
evinced a warm interest. Shortly afterwards he started for Syria, and made a
careful survey of the country in which he proposed to establish the colony, and
which he found to be fertile, admirably adapted for cultivation, and at the
same time practically uninhabited.
He received the cordial support of Midhat
Pasha, the governor of
[274]
All hope of an immediate carrying out of the plan was therefore checked: but the delay may be merely temporary;
for the political importance of
But although the command of two seas and
the interception of British communication with
* “
Should the English discover - before their opportunity has
passed - the necessity of opposing a barrier to Russian advance into
When, however, we consider the present
condition of this country, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that she may
be in the decrepitude of old age: for on every side we see a waning of
patriotism, a preference of party to imperial interests, a general indifference
to an unsteadiness in foreign policy and neglect of allies, and a false
security which insists that the empire
can be defended by thousands, though her ambitious neighbours are beginning to
reckon their armies by millions. Unless all this be quickly changed,
Possibly, therefore, we may now be able to discern in dim
outline, the manner in which the nations will unconsciously work out the will
of Him Who knows the end from the beginning; but whether this be the case or not, certainly the progress of events has at last
made
Nor are signs wanting that its soil
is destined before long to be the battle-field of the nations, though not,
probably, until the Jews have been settled in it. Then the conflicts of
opposing armies, like the ancient struggle
of the kings of
“It is
probable that the power which, from the date of the inroads of Thothmes III. to the present time,
has made the most advance towards a permanent acquisition of
* St. Jamess Gazette, Sept. 15th, 1880.
It would seem, then, that we may be very near to the times of
which it is written, “And it shall come to pass in that day that I will make
Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all the peoples;
all that lift it shall be wounded; and all the
nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it.”*
* Zech. 12:
3.
The grand swoop of the Russian eagle appears to be described
in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel,
in which it is now almost universally admitted that the name and titles of the Northern
king should be rendered, “Gog of the land of Magog,
prince of Rosh, Meshech,
and Tubal.” The [278] kingdom of this leader can be
identified in no dubious manner with the present dominions of the Czar, and, as
Dean Stanley remarks, “this early Biblical notice of
so great an empire is doubly interesting from its being a solitary instance. No
other name of any modern nation occurs in the Scriptures.”
The Scythian, or Tartar, tribe of Ros - mentioned by Byzantine writers of the tenth century
as being located to the north of Taurus, and by Ibn
Foszlan, an Arabian of the same age, as dwelling on
the banks of the Rha, or Volga - has been recently
acknowledged by a consent of Russian ethnologists to be the origen
of their name and people.
Meshech was another Scythian tribe, known to Classical writers
as the Moschi. Of these Rawlinson says;- “They are frequently mentioned
in Scripture under the name of Meshech, and occur as Muskai
in many of the Assyrian inscriptions. ... There is reason to believe that they
ultimately took refuge in the Steppe country, where they became known as Muscovs, and gave their name to (
* Rawl. “Herod,” vol. iv. p. 180.
The clans of Tubal, a third Scythian tribe, are, under the
name of Tuplai, associated with the Muskai in Assyrian inscriptions; while in Classical authors
they are called Tibareni, or
the people of Tubal, and are usually coupled with the Moschi. The Assyrian records place them in Lower Cappadocia, on the
Southern flanks of the Taurus; but, after a few centuries, we find them driven
up to the South-eastern coast of the Black Sea; and they secm
to have subsequently continued their Northward wanderings [279] until they
settled in Western Siberia, where they have given their names to the river Tobol, and also to the city and government of Tobolsk.
Thus these three Scythian tribes of
Asia Minor, which appear in olden time to have lived in close proximity, and
two of them at least on terms of friendship and alliance, were gradually forced
away from their pleasant habitations and fertile lands into the cold and
inhospitable region of the Steppes, and are now united as Russians, Muscovites,
and the people of Tobolsk, in the great empire of the Czars. And if we keep
their history in mind, it will, perhaps, give a peculiar significance to the
words addressed to Gog, “I will cause thee to return,”*
which may have meant that in the latter times these Scythians should make their
way back again to the country from whence they came: that they should burst the
“Iron Gates,” which they did when they annexed
the Trans-Caucasian provinces, and should stream on through Armenia, which they
have already begun to do, until, having re-crossed the ridge of Taurus, they
have reached the plains of Mesopotamia and the banks of the Euphrates, where we
first hear of them in the times of the old Assyrian empire. And then
they will not be very far from the borders of the Holy Land, upon which they
shall come as a storm, and shall cover it like a cloud.**
* Ezek. 38:
4. This rendering is better than that of the
English Version, “I will turn thee back.”
** Ezek. 38: 9.
There is, then, bitter tribulation
awaiting the sons of Abraham in the immediate future. The
curse which the miserable people called down upon their own heads is not yet
exhausted: the blood of Him Whom the [280] Father sent is still upon
them and upon their children: there is no fountain as yet opened to the house of
David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness; they are
still bearing every one his iniquity. But the hour of
decision is approaching when that which can be saved shall be saved, and that which
will perish shall perish: the time is near when the people shall be gathered in
unbelief into their own country, as men “gather silver, and brass,
and iron, and lead,
and tin, into the midst
of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it,
to melt it:”*
the day is not far distant in which the inhabitant of Jerusalem shall indeed
say, “I am sick,”
and all the cities and fields of the devoted land shall be anguished with pain,
and sorrow, and crying, and death. For the last end of the indignation,
like the closing trouble of Joseph’s brethren, shall be the worst suffering of
all. But its fruit will be the broken and contrite
heart; and then mercy will take the place of judgment, and He shall appear Who
is able to save to the uttermost, and Who “turneth the shadow of death into the
morning.” **
* Ezek. 22:
20. **Amos
5: 8.
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