[NOTE: The following is an extract from the author’s book ‘CHRIST AND ISRAEL,’ pp. 138-191.]

 

 

{Book cover writing}

Although he spent most of his life serving in the context of the Christian Church, Dr. Adolph Saphir never forgot the biblical mandate to reach his own people, the Jews, nor did he lose his deep desire to see them receive salvation through Jesus, their promised Messiah.  This collection of highly charged and focussed lectures challenges the Church to reach out to the Jewish nation with the gospel.

 

 

Not only is the Church commanded to do so, argues Dr. Saphir, but loving and witnessing to the Jews will only bring blessing on their own lives.  Clearly affirming his position as a pre-millennialist, Dr. Saphir provides a detailed Scriptural basis for Jewish evangelism, and with the benefit of his own wide experience he gives the reader practical tools for accomplishing this task.  Perhaps most importantly, the author causes the reader to examine his or her own heart.  Do we see only the sinfulness of the Jews, and none of their own sufferings?  Do we ignore the fact that we are guilty of the same sins?  Christ and Israel is a classic for all times, a must have volume for anyone who has ever considered Jewish evangelism.

 

 

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THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS - A COMPREHENSIVE BIBLE STUDY

OF ISRAEL’S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE*

 

* A lecture delivered at Blackheath, April 26, 1864.

 

 

[Page 138]

The subject upon which I have the great privilege of speaking to you is so vast and comprehensive, and our space so limited, that all I can attempt is to give a very brief and rapid sketch of the views which, from a study of the Word of God, I have been able to form on this most interesting topic, and I trust that this circumstance will be accepted as some slight excuse for what may appear the superficial nature of my remarks.  In giving a short statement of views, it is difficult to avoid what may seem a dogmatic tone, but I beg you to bear in mind that I am merely announcing my personal views, which I have arrived at from the reading of Scripture.

 

 

I shall first state three facts, which I deem fundamental in this inquiry, then give a brief sketch of the teaching of Scripture in reference to the Jews, showing that, from Genesis to the Book of Revelation, they are represented as a peculiar people, chosen for [Page 139] the glory of God and the manifestation of His salvation to all nations.  I shall then bring before you very shortly the present condition of the Jews, from which it is evident that the prophecies concerning them await yet their fulfilment.  I shall, fourthly, give an outline of what appear to me to be the phases of Israel’s restoration indicated in the Bible; fifthly, present a picture of the state of the restored and converted nation, with Jesus Christ as their King, and Jerusalem as the great centre of light and service in the coming age: and after having referred to a few objections frequently brought forward against the literal fulfilment of Jewish prophecies, I shall endeavour to point out the very important practical bearings of the subject.

 

 

I. The three fundamental facts of which I am anxious to remind you are these:-

 

 

1. There is a Book different from all other books - the writings of Moses and the Prophets, Evangelists and Apostles - commonly and justly called the Book, or Bible.

 

 

2. There is a nation different from all other nations, a peculiar people, the Jews, or the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

 

 

3. There is a Man, different from all other men, the Man Christ Jesus, Son of the Virgin Mary, of the seed of Abraham, the King of the Jews and Light of the Gentiles, the Lord from Heaven and the Son of the Most High, Blessed for ever!

 

 

These three - the peculiar Book, the peculiar Nation, and the wonderful and glorious King of the Nation, and sum and substance of the record - must always [Page 140] be viewed together.  Permit me to say a few words with regard to each point.

 

 

1. The Bible we believe to be inspired by the Holy Ghost; and here we make no distinction, and especially none between what is called Old and New Testament.  Genesis is as authoritative as Matthew’s Gospel, the Prophet Isaiah as true a messenger as the Apostle Paul, the pages of Zechariah as truly given by the Most High as the Apocalypse entrusted by Jesus to the beloved disciple.  The Spirit foresaw all things, and all future manifestations and developments of God’s eternal purpose, when He caused the beginnings of the great history to be written in the Pentateuch.

 

 

The very names, Old and New Testament, I believe to be erroneous, and to have been productive of mischief.  For what is meant by calling the writings of Moses and the Prophets “Old Testament”?  Do they not set forth the covenant of grace?  The doctrine of justification by faith: does not Paul in his Epistle to the Romans prove it from Genesis (case of Abraham) and from the Psalms (case of David, Psa. 32.)?  Where is the doctrine of substitution and the vicarious sufferings of the Messiah set forth more clearly than in Leviticus and in the 53rd of Isaiah? The term “Old Testament” leads people to fancy it is an antiquated book; whereas, in many respects, it is newer than the New Testament, referring more fully to the age of glory and blessedness on the earth which is still before us.  The distinctive feature of what is called “Old Testament” is, that its centre is Jehovah as King [Page 141] of the Jews and of all nations,  Theocracy or Christocracy; whereas the peculiarity of the “New Testament” is that it sets forth Jesus as Head and Bridegroom of the Church, referring to the times of the Gentiles, and unfolding the mystery which was not made known until the outpouring of the [Holy] Spirit, viz., the mystery of the Church, the Body of Christ.

 

 

Therefore I would call the writings of Moses and the Prophets - Book of the Kingdom, and the writings of evangelists and apostles - Book of the Church.  However this may be, it was of the Old Testament Scripture that Jesus testified it cannot be broken; out of it He proved His divine dignity to the Pharisees, and the resurrection to the Sadducees; it was out of it He explained to His disciples the mystery of His sufferings and glory; and the apostles, in all their teaching and witnessing, appealed to the Scripture, Moses and the Prophets, as authenticating their declaration of the whole counsel of God.  Another remark on this point, which I feel to be necessary, is that the Bible is simple and perspicuous.  I hold the good old doctrine of the Reformers, that the Bible is given to all men, and that for its understanding we require not the erudition of the Universities, the tradition of the Fathers, the glosses of the scholastics (however valuable these may be in their proper place); to understand God’s Word, all that is needed is a humble, childlike heart, conscious of its ignorance and blindness, and the teaching and illumination of the Holy Spirit.  All Scripture is profitable for all men, who thus read it, and therefore it must be accessible to the understanding of all.

 

[Page 142]

People are often deterred from the reading of the prophetical portions of Scripture by the assertion that it is difficult for unlearned men to distinguish between what is figurative and literal in prophecy.  I do not see the difficulty.  I think a child almost can distinguish between the two.  When we read that we are to have our loins girded and our lamps burning, even a child knows there is no reference to a literal girdle and lamp; but when the author of the Book of Job narrates the appearing of the angels before God, and the presence of Satan among them, it is evidently meant as a statement of fact.  Why doubt for a single moment that when Zechariah speaks of the feet of the Lord standing on the Mount of Olives the Spirit meant to predict a literal event?

 

 

Consider, again, the prophecies already fulfilled.  You argue with a Jew, who does not admit that Jesus is the Messiah; you point out to him the word of Micah concerning Bethlehem, of Isaiah concerning Christ’s miraculous birth, of the 22nd Psalm concerning His crucifixion, the prophecies about the thirty pieces of silver, and the Messiah’s entrance as a meek and lowly king into Jerusalem, &c.  But when the Jew refers to a number of passages in which the coming of the Messiah is connected with the ushering in of a period of universal peace and tranquillity, justice and knowledge, with the glory of Israel in their own land, and the fulfilment of the promise made unto the fathers, how can you attempt to explain such passages “spiritually,” when you insist on the literal interpretation of the other series of predictions?

 

Page 143]

But not merely the unbelieving Jews avail themselves of this inconsistency.  It is out of the arsenal of the orthodox that the weapons have been taken with which the very fundamental truths of the Gospel have been assailed.  Time would fail me, nor is this the place, to show how the spiritualistic interpretation, and subsequent undervaluing, of the Old Testament, paved the way for Rationalism and Neology.  If Jerusalem means not Jerusalem, and Israel not Israel, if it is an Oriental way of clothing abstract ideas into a concrete form, how natural was it for a man like Strauss, tired of the miserable juggleries of the Rationalistic Liliputians examining the giant body of Scripture, to explain the whole history of Jesus Christ as a poetic embodiment of the profound and transcendental idea of the Divine-human?

 

 

Instead of blowing the trumpet of alarm, it were better for us to examine ourselves whether we have truly and sincerely dealt with the “Word of God.”  When a learned Professor criticises the Epistles of Paul, and says that the idea of substitution, of the shedding of blood being necessary for the remission of sins, &c., is Jewish, and must be carefully distinguished from the eternal and divine element in the teaching of the Apostle, can the orthodox theologians find in this argument nothing to remind them of their own mode of treating “Jewish” Scriptures, predictions, and ideas?

 

 

The present great conflict, I feel convinced, will fully and clearly bring out that the Bible is a divine book, and that the Bible (from Genesis to Revelation) is [Page 144] thoroughly Jewish book, and that this union is planned from all eternity, even in Him, who is the God-man Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Son of David and Abraham.

 

 

2. There are about twelve millions of Jews existing at this present time.  That they are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is beyond all doubt and question.  Forty centuries have elapsed since the first promise was given to Abraham, and we may still say of the Jews, as Balaam said, when he beheld them in the fields of Moab, Lo, a people dwelling alone and is not reckoned among the nations.”  Other nations have passed away; proud empires crumbled into dust; but though it may be impossible to point out the descendants of Themistocles and Pericles; though the powerful nations of antiquity have disappeared, the Jews exist.  Though, speaking the various languages of the world, and accommodating themselves to the various usages and customs of the nations among whom they live, they have retained their national peculiarity - not merely their physical, but still more their mental and spiritual features.

 

 

In every country of the world, defying every climate and difficulty, and surviving all persecution, they live to witness to the truthfulness and power of God.  Every effort has been made to destroy them, to take away their energy, their property, their influence; they have been cramped, despised, tortured and massacred, but not only have they outlived their persecutors, but their energy has not been crushed, their intellect not dimmed, their determination not [Page 145] conquered, and their physical and mental vitality not diminished.  That they exist is a miracle; but that they are what they are is still more wonderful.  In the field of abstract thought they produced a Spinoza; in music a Mendelssohn; in poetry and light literature, in politics, in the exact sciences, in finance, in every branch of thought and modern civilisation-life they have shown themselves quite able to compete with any nation.

 

 

The existence of the Jewish nation, associated with the existence of their former land, is the second fundamental fact of which I wished to remind you.

 

 

3. The Son of God, in His infinite, condescension and grace, out of love to the Father and to perishing sinners, according to the eternal counsel and divine purpose, took upon Himself our nature.  The Word was made flesh.  He became man.  He ascended and is now at the right hand of God, the same Jesus who lived upon earth, who died on Golgotha, who appeared after His resurrection to His disciples and showed unto them His pierced hands, and feet.

 

 

Let us not forget the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let us not think of it vaguely, and fall into the heretical fancy that the Son of God became man merely to transact certain things which were necessary to secure the salvation of men, and that after this object was achieved His human nature recedes into the background and impenetrable obscurity.  No, it is not so; all-important as His work on earth was - the only foundation of our hope and blessedness - let us [Page 146] adore the revealed mystery that God gave us His Son, never to recall Him, as it were, and take Him away from us; He spared Him not and gave Him to us, allowing Him to become man, exalting Him as the Son of Man, enthroning Him because of His obedience unto death, and giving unto Him as the Son of Man all power in heaven and earth.  He is now in the highest sanctuary, the Son of Mary and the Son of David and Abraham; He stood up to comfort, uphold, and welcome His martyr Stephen; He appeared as Lord from heaven to Saul of Tarsus, and spoke to him in the Hebrew tongue.  And if this be true, why does it appear impossible or incongruous that Jesus of Nazareth should come again, even so and in like manner as He ascended, and that upon the substratum of the doctrine, or rather the glorious fact of His humanity and His Davidic and Abrahamic genealogy, He should prove Himself to be, what was written over His cross, King of the Jews, as well as King of the whole earth, the Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel?

 

 

I proceed now to my second part.

 

 

II. The Scripture testimony in reference to the position of the Jewish nation.

 

 

1. The first promise which Jehovah gave to fallen man is the most comprehensive; it refers to the whole race, and to the ultimate victory over sin and misery.  Up to the time of Abraham God dealt with mankind in general without limiting Himself to a chosen family.  But the end of it was righteous judgment and fearful [Page 147] destruction.  God saved Noah and his household, and hence begins a new period in the world’s history.  Even at this early stage the election of Shem is revealed, and the future purpose of God - the blessing of all nations through the chosen family - foreshadowed.

 

 

But a second trial of the race is made to prove, as it were, more abundantly, that salvation, if it is to come at all, must be secured by divine election.  The Tower of Babel reveals man’s hatred of God, and man’s inability to contend with the Almighty, and to procure for himself a safe and united existence.  Then God takes the whole cause into His own sovereign, all-powerful, and all-gracious hand.  He chooses Abraham, reveals Himself to him, and makes with him an unconditional covenant.  Unconditional I say, and lay great stress upon it.  The Apostle Paul has taught me so, for it is in reference to this covenant that he says, “God’s gifts and calling are without repentance.”  Unconditional, even as the covenant made with Noah, of which the rainbow is the sign, depends not on man’s obedience or transgression, faithfulness, or apostasy.  God has promised that He will no more destroy the earth with a flood, and that as long as the earth endures, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest shall continue.  Unconditional was the covenant with Abraham, for it embraced the sending forth of the Son of God, born of a woman, made under the law, and it was connected by Divine wisdom and grace with the great salvation, which was planned from all eternity, and is based exclusively on the good pleasure of His will. This covenant was ratified to Isaac and to Jacob.  Here are the words of the Lord:-

 

[Page148]

As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.  Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.  And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.  And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God (Gen. 17: 4-8).

 

 

To Isaac the Lord said: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraharn thy father; And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws (26: 3-8).

 

 

To Jacob the Lord said: I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, - to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed (28: 13-15).

 

 

These promises, confirmed by oath, which are [Page 149] referred to by all the prophets, by the Virgin Mary, and aged Zachariah, - by the Apostle of the Gentiles, as well as the other witnesses of Jesus, contain the following blessings: First, a numerous nation; secondly, a land for an everlasting possession; thirdly, a God-fearing people (“I will be their God”) in a state of grace; and all this, fourthly, through a seed, in whom not merely Israel, but all families of the earth, are to be blessed.  The promise of the Messiah, and the promise of Israel’s conversion and prosperity in their own land, are thus linked together by God Himself in the very beginning of the dispensation, and thus the foundation laid for the subsequent and yet unfinished edifice.

 

 

2. Moses, the servant of the Lord, who brought Israel out of Egypt, foretold the apostasy of the nation, but in the following passages he speaks of a spiritual and of a divine restoration to their own land, which it will be difficult to find fulfilled in the past history of the nation:-

 

LEV. 26: 40 - 46.

 

If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts he humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity, then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.  The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them; and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they despised My judgments, and because their soul abhorred My statutes.  And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor [Page 150] them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them for I am the Lord their God.  But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.  These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.”

 

DEUT. 30: 1-5.

 

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey His voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.  If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee: And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers.”

 

 

Again, in the song commonly called the song of Moses, but which, we are told, was given to Moses by the Lord Himself, we are taught: When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel (Deut. 32: 8).  Here is a leading idea in the divine geography, history, and ethnology.  And, verse 43: Rejoice, O ye nations (Goiim), with His people: for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and will be merciful unto His land and to His people.”  When did the Gentile nations ever yet rejoice with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because [Page 151] God has been merciful to the (now) down-trodden land and to the (now) unbelieving and impenitent people? When?

 

 

3. Passing now on to David, we see the shepherd-king, himself an eminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the meek and lowly one, chosen from out of the people; the man of suffering and humiliation, who is strong in faith, achieves the victory with weapons from the spiritual armoury, who rules over Israel in sympathy and brotherly tenderness, and praises God in the midst of the congregation.  But wonderful as David is, when viewed as a type of Christ, and wonderful as is the analogy between the experiences of David and David’s Lord, we know that, according to the divine promise, David saw in the spirit the Lord of Glory, the true Solomon, in whose reign peace and justice were to flourish, and under whose sceptre Israel and the Gentiles were to glorify God.  Throughout the whole Book of Psalms we have descriptions of this golden future, in which we behold the fairest among the sons of men, the King in His meekness, righteousness, crowned on account of His sufferings, His obedience, and his dearly bought victory ; and the city of the great King, Jerusalem, beautiful and adorned, with thrones of judgment and services of joy and praise ; and the nation rejoicing in the glad tidings, and obeying the Lord God Almighty as their King; and the people and tribes of the earth acknowledging and glorifying the Lord, even the revealed God of Israel, whose Name shall endure for ever, and whose praise shall be established in all the earth.  Brief was [Page 152] the period of Israel’s prosperity; the reign of David and, Solomon became the type of the future of Israel; and while in other nations we find that poets, philosophers, and orators always look back to the golden past, and in a period of decay have no idea of looking to the East, in the expectation of sunrise, in Israel we notice, that even in its darkest and most forlorn state, the prophets [of God] speak of the future, and hopefully and joyously look forward; for though David and Solomon appear to be Israel’s zenith, yet on account of the oath and promise given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Israel’s sun can never set, and though apparently on his death-bed, the nation is waiting for the Lord’s salvation.  Therefore, we find -

 

 

4. In the Prophets:-

 

ISA. 62: 1-7.

 

For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.  And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.  Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.  Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate; but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.  For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee; and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.  I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, And give Him no rest till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

 

ISA. 11: 1 - 12: 1-3.

 

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel [Page 153] and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.  And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.  The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cocatrice’ den.  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.  And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious.  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.  And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.  The envy also of Ephraim shall depart and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.  But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the cast together; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.  And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.  And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.  And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise Thee; though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortedst me.  Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.  Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

 

 

 

This is evidently future.  Universal peace has not come yet. “That day,” described here associates the [Page 154] times of universal peace, knowledge, and the manifestation of Jesus in Israel, as centre of the nations, as well as a restored, united, and converted nation.

 

 

Listen to the testimony of Jeremiah:-

 

JER. 23: 5-8.

 

Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.  In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTFOUSNIESS.  Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.”

 

JER. 31: 31-40.

 

Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt: which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts: and will be their God, and they shall be My people.  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of hosts is His name.  If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever.  Thus saith the Lord: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner.  And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath.  And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields [Page 155] unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.”

 

 

Can anything be more explicit?  I ask, When was the covenant of grace made with the Jews?  When were they [as a nation] converted?  When was their iniquity forgiven and their sin remembered no more?  During the last eighteen centuries has [the nation, and all of] Israel been God’s people, knowing and loving Him whom they crucified?  You say, They are to be absorbed into the Church.  God says, No, they shall never cease from being a NATION before Me.  You say, They have forfeited their privileges.  Ah! where would you be, but for an unconditional covenant and a gracious God, who deals with you in mercy?  But the Lord says, for all they have done He will not cast them off.

 

 

5. During the captivity we hear the testimony of Ezekiel the priest, living among his co-patriots and speaking from the national Jewish point of view; and of Daniel, the statesman, living at the court of the world-power, and describing the course of the world’s history.  The passages in which God declares, through Ezekiel, His unchanging love for His chosen people, His gracious promise of renewal and pardon and favour - not on account of any merit in them, but for His own name’s sake - are well known and justly dwelt on as illustrations of the faithfulness, the love, the power of God in the conversion and preservation of unworthy and dead sinners.  But because Israel’s history is so perfect and obvious an illustration of spiritual truth, let us not forget the primary literal significance of these [Page 156] words to the dispersed and afflicted seed of Abraham. Judah and Israel are to be united, and are to be a loving and God-glorifying nation.

 

 

EZEK. 37: 20-28.

 

And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.  And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land.  And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be My people, and I will be their God.  And David My servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes and do them.  And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever; and My servant David shall be their prince for ever.  Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall he an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.  My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.”

 

 

Daniel, when describing the end and consummation of things, refers to the Jews, to Jerusalem, and to the sanctuary.  The desolation of abomination is to precede the great deliverance of the nation.

 

 

6. But was not the restoration from the Babylonian captivity the fulfilment of these predictions?  From many considerations this is evidently not the case; but let us listen to the testimony, of the Prophet Zechariah, living after the return from Babylon:- 

 

[Page 157]

ZECH. 14: 11.

 

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.  For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.  Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle.  And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.  And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.  And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summner and in winter shall it be.  And the Lord shall be king over all thi earth: in that day shall there he one Lord, and His name one.  All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate, unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses.  And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.”

 

 

ZECH. 12: 9-14.

 

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 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.  In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Harladrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.  And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the farnily of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.”

 

[Page 158]

These solemn events have not yet taken place, neither the great battle, nor the physical changes in and about Jerusalem, nor the spiritual change in the hearts of the people.

 

 

7. For centuries silence reigned in Israel, and a period of great trial and darkness seemed uncheered by heavenly rays of comfort and renewals of the divine promise.  The silence is broken at last, but not by the lips of a human messenger, not by the mouth of a son of Jacob, but by one of those glorious ones, that excel in strength, and hearken to the voice of His commandments; by an angel, who speaks the language of the heavenly sanctuary, whose thoughts are not limited by national prejudice or brief experience, but who is sent from the very presence of the Ancient of Days and Lord of Hosts.  And what is his message?  He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.”  Is not this in harmony with all the other witnesses?  But is it fulfilled?  Partly, and that literally.  He is called great, and the Son of the Highest; He was born of the Virgin in a miraculous way: but the throne of His father David - where is it?  Christ is now on His Father’s throne.  As son of David, He does not rule [from David’s throne] yet.  The house of Jacob acknowledges Him not, nay, they neither know His glorious person nor enjoy His gracious blessings.

 

 

Mary herself thought immediately of the promise made unto the fathers, and so did Zachariah and the [Page 159] faithful who were waiting for the coming of the great King.  And thus we have arrived at the so-called New Testament; and here, passing over John the Baptist, who announced to the Jewish nation the approaching fulfilment of the prophecies concerning the kingdom, beholding the advents unto salvation and unto judgment as coincident, let me direct your attention to the true and faithful witness, the Messiah Himself.  I speak of Him now, as the Heir sent to the Jewish people, to visit and warn them, “peradventure they will reverence My Son.”  He came as a Jewish Prophet to the Jewish people.  He came to seek and to save that which was lost; He came to be the Light of the world, and the Redeemer and Bridegroom of His Church.  But I limit myself now to one aspect of His mission - the national one - to the house of Israel; and in the inspired words of the Apostle Paul, I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers (Romans 15: 8).  Without entering into the exposition of His prophetical discourses (in Matthew and Luke) concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and the final great tribulation before His second coming, it is sufficient for my purpose at present to quote the following remarkable words: And Jesus said unto them (His disciples), Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory ye shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel(Matt. 19: 27, 28).

 

 

Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, [Page 160] until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21: 24).  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!  Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.  For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord (Matt. 22: 37).

 

 

From these passages, it is almost impossible to avoid the inference that Jerusalem, called by Jesus Himself “The City of the Great King,” is to be restored, that the times of the Gentiles are to be fulfilled and give way to the period of Israel’s pre-eminence, that in the regeneration and kingdom of Christ’s glory, the twelve tribes are to exist under the government of the apostles, and that the blindness and obstinacy of Israel are not to continue for ever, but that the loving and compassionate King David is to be seen and welcomed after many days by the people of God’s election.

 

 

But did not the crucifixion of Christ change all this?  Guilty of the greatest crime, and burdened with the enormous sin of shedding the blood of the Holy Child of God, may God not justly cast off Israel and remember them no more?  I reply, what is the testimony of the risen Saviour?  Forty days after His resurrection He appeared to His disciples, and spoke to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”  He opened to them the Scriptures, and from Moses and the Prophets showed to them [Page 161] the divine plan of His suffering and glory.  The last day has arrived, and He is about to part from them, and leave His disciples to begin a great and arduous work.  But before He ascends, the question, most deeply engraven on their heart, is uttered: Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Now, it has been said, they asked in ignorance, in Jewish prejudice, in the carnal blindness of their heart.  But what right has any one to say so?  Think you, that after witnessing the death of the Lord, and after receiving His blessed instructions for forty days, and listening to His infallible exegesis, and that with regard to this very point of the kingdom - that in this most solemn moment, when the Lord was to be taken from them, and the fullness of their loving souls urged them to ask Him the last question - they would speak of a restoration of Israel if it was a childish, carnal, and deceptive fancy?  I say it is preposterous to assert it.  How natural the question: We understand now, that the cross had to precede the crown, that Israel had first to reject the corner-stone before God the Father could make Him the head corner-stone; but now, that Thy sufferings are past, Thy agony endured, the cup emptied, the grave conquered, wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?  Wilt Thou now appear as King Solomon in his glory, after Thy manifestation as the meek and lowly Shepherd, King David?

 

 

And what does the Lord answer?  Does He correct their question?  Does He deny their [Page 162] supposition and expectation of a Jewish kingdom?  Does He say to them, O fools and slow of heart, how long am I to be with you and bear with you?  No; but He confirms the [promised (Ps. 2: 8)] kingdom, by speaking of the times and seasons not being revealed to man, and telling them the divine order - first, the Church and testimony [of His kingdom] among all nations, then the [manifestation of the] kingdom of God and of His Christ.  A Jewish idea, indeed! and how could it be otherwise?  For by a Jewish Messiah (who was of the seed of Abraham) and out of the Jewish Scriptures they had been taught to believe the truth of God, and to adore the wonderful salvation of the Lord.

 

 

But it may possibly be said, all this is before the outpouring of the Spirit on [the disciples] Pentecost.  Well, let us pursue the sequence of testimony of the infallible and all-consistent Word.  What does Peter preach after the glorious day of the effusion of the Holy Ghost?  Acts 3: 19-21: Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached to you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.”

 

 

And Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, in the 11th chapter to the Romans, teaches as clearly the great future national conversion and restoration of Israel, as connected with Christ’s coming and the commencement of a new era.  Read the whole [Page 163] chapter, as a most instructive exposition of the relation between Israel and the [Gentile] Church.  I quote from verse 22 : Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee [Gentile believers at Rome], goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shall be cut off.  And they [Jews] also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graff them in again.  For if thou [Gentiles] wert cut out of the olive-tree, which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive-tree; how much more shall these [Jews], which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive-tree?  For I would not, brethren, that ye [Gentiles (Rom. 1: 13)] should be ignorant of this mystery (lest ye should be wise in your own conceits), that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.  And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is My covenant unto them [the Jews], when I shall take away their sins.  As concerning the gospel [i.e., the good news of “the kingdom (Matt. 13: 19)], they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.  For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

 

 

What Paul dreaded has come to pass. The Gentile Church, to a large extent, became ignorant of this mystery, and the consequence was they became conceited, arrogating to themselves titles and excellences, rights and powers, which they did not possess.  But the great Apostle of the Gentiles declares here, that the covenant with Abraham stands firm and cannot [Page 164] be moved through Israel’s unbelief; that the nation, as a whole, a totality (as distinguished from individual conversions), would be saved, and that in connection with the coming of the Lord, and appearing of the great God our Saviour.  In strict accordance with the teaching of Christ, and with his own teaching in the Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul shows us how that the Church, composed of Jews and Gentiles, is to be succeeded by the [Messianic] kingdom, in which a restored and converted [nation of] Israel shall hold a central position.

 

 

I have only a few moments time to refer to that wonderful concluding Book of the Scriptures, the Book of Revelation, and it may suffice to state, that here also the Jews are regarded as occupying a peculiar place in the counsel of God to the end of time.  When Christ’s second coming is mentioned in the first chapter, the Jews, “they that pierced Him,” are spoken of separately, and the reference to Zechariah is unmistakable.  In the 7th  chapter we have again the twelve tribes enumerated, and distinguished from the great multitude, consisting of men from all other nations, and peoples, and tongues.* Further on, we read of the beloved city and of the temple.  And thus, from Genesis to the Apocalypse, there in an unbroken chain of evidence, declaring that, according to the [Page 165] divine plan, in Abraham’s seed all nations of the earth shall be blessed, and that the Jewish people are chosen to occupy a peculiar and central position in the future [millennial] kingdom of the Messiah.

 

* How often is this passage quoted to prove that in the Church there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile.  But people must surely not have read the whole chapter.  It is after this, viz., after the sealing of the 144,000 in the twelve tribes, that he beheld the multitude.  Notice the same usus loquendi in the Gospel of the same author, John 10: 16, and especially 11: 52, where he contrasts the nation (the Jews) and the other children of God scattered abroad.

 

[Page 165]

III. Condition of the Jews since the first Advent.

 

 

And now, supposing for a moment the history of the Jews as a nation had arrived at its termination, I ask, whereunto have they been chosen, and wherein consists their glory and pre-eminence?  Four hundred years in Egypt; forty in the wilderness; a long, dark, and terrible period of warfare, backsliding, and idolatry; a brief gleam of sunshine in the reigns of David and Solomon, a rapid downward career of apostasy, discord, and sin, to the time of the Babylonish captivity; seventy years’ exile; a long interval of darkness and oppression; the great rejection of the Lord of Glory, the frightful sufferings and downfall of Jerusalem, and nineteen centuries of shame, oppression, dispersion, and above all, above all, unbelief, blindness, hatred to God’s dear Son, the only Saviour! - behold this, as yet, is the history of the great favoured nation!  And is this all?  Impossible, and a thousand times impossible!  God’s gifts and calling are without repentance; He will yet be glorified in a converted and restored Israel!

 

 

I allude chiefly to Israel’s spiritual condition, as a proof that the prophecies have not yet been fulfilled.  There are, I think, three parties among the Jews.

 

 

1. The Rabbinical; among them we find much zeal, diligent reading of the Scriptures, and especially the [Page 166] Talmud; firm, almost fanatical cleaving to the national customs and hopes.  But the law is to them no schoolmaster, convincing of sin and driving to a Redeemer; the ideas of sin and atonement have almost disappeared, spiritual religion is most rare, and the opinions of celebrated rabbis eclipse the truths of the Inspired Word.  This party existed already (in substance) in the days of Jeremiah and Christ.

 

 

2. The modern or Neologian (a large proportion in Central Europe and rapidly increasing even in Poland and the Danubian Principalities, &c.); they are, the best of them, Deists; the worst, pantheists.  They do not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures; in miracles; in short, their system is, Love thy neighbour and do thy duty.  This party tries to denationalise itself, and is sometimes brought forward as a difficulty in the future restoration of the Jews.

 

 

But it may be interesting to compare this present time with the period of the Greco-Macedonian Empire, the Antichrist of the latter days being foreshadowed by Antiochus Epiphanes.  From the Books of the Maccabees we learn that at that time the Jews began to adopt the manners and customs of the Gentiles.  They erected in Jerusalem heathenish theatres, in which voluptuous and entertaining plays were performed.  There were priests who neglected the sacrifice and the temple, but went into the theatres to see the spectacles there exhibited.  Many apostatised, gave up circumcision and the law of Moses.  Some of the priests sacrificed at Jerusalem, because such was the custom, but they sent also money to bring sacrifices to [Page 167] Hercules, to gain the king’s favour (1 Macc. 1: 12-4; 2 Macc. 4: 19).  They were exactly what our modern latitudinarians of the worst stamp are.

 

 

3. A third party among the Jews is neither so much trammelled by Rabbinical tradition, nor so far gone in doubt and worldliness.  Among them there is a spirit of inquiry and a more open field for the proclamation of the truth.*  But I must beg you to remember that the Jewish nation have never yet acknowledged their sin and humbled themselves before God.  Though admitting in general terms that their long exile is in consequence of their sin, there is no true and deep mourning over their iniquity, no humility and contrition of heart, no real prostration of the soul on account of their transgression.  And as for the great sin which they committed in crucifying Jesus, not one of the various Jewish parties has as yet made the slightest approach in the way of confessing and lamenting it.  The orthodox still maintain that Jesus was a blasphemer, and deserved death; the rationalistic Jews admit it was unjust and cruel, but attribute the crime to a fanatical and unenlightened party, such as may and does exist at all times and among all nations; but that the rejection and crucifixion of the Lord is their great national sin, and the rejection [Page 168] of Jehovah.  Himself, they have never yet seen.  Truth compels me to add that the Jews, instead of being humbled by their sufferings and the divine punishment, rather boast of the unparalleled patience and fortitude which they have manifested and of their faithfulness to God and His law during all this period.  Truly, they are without king, priest, temple, and land, and without the knowledge of the true God and their king David.

 

* I regret very much that I had not time to enlarge on this topic.  I should have dwelt with joy on the many excellent features of Jewish character, specially in their domestic life and charitable labours.  The necessary development of Monotheism without a Mediator into Deism and pantheism, as strikingly illustrated in the Jewish nation, is an important point.  Also the phenomenon of orthodoxy, cleaving to Bible, temple, and Sabbath, rejecting a living Saviour.

 

 

I must not forget, however, to remind you that though this is the state of the nation, many individuals have been brought to the knowledge and love of Jesus, and that at all periods of the Church’s history.  In the apostolic time, many myriads of Jews believed, and we read of whole districts who received the gospel; and within the last fifty years many sons of Abraham have, by the grace of God, been converted to the only Redeemer of men and manifestation of the Father.  But the nation is still in darkness, in ignorance of God’s righteousness, unenlightened in mind, unbroken in heart, unconvinced in conscience, and the time when they behold the open Fountain, and glorify God as their Saviour in the new covenant, has not yet arrived.

 

 

 

IV. The Phases of the Restoration, culminating in the Coming of the Great King, form the fourth point in our consideration.

 

 

The Jews return in an unconverted state.  This is evident from the following Scripture statements:-

 

 

1. They are to be brought to Jerusalem, in order to be judged.

 

[Page 169]

EZEK. 22: 17.

 

 

And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace they are even the dross of silver.  Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.  As they 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, so will I gather you in Mine anger and My fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of My wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.  As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out My fury upon you.”

 

 

If they had returned to their own land in a converted state, it is impossible that God would pour out upon them His wrath.

 

 

2. It is in Judea that, according to the prophet Zechariah, the Spirit shall be poured out upon the nation, and their hearts be turned unto the Redeemer (Zech. 12.).

 

 

3. A second restoration is spoken of in Isaiah.

 

 

ISA. 11: 11, 12, 15, 16.

 

 

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall he left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.  And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah, from the four corners of the earth.”

 

 

ISA. 66: 19, 20.

 

 

And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles.  And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of [Page 170] all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.”

 

 

Here it is declared that there shall be a second and more general ingathering of Israel out of all nations, and that after the light of Israel is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon her, and after the great judgments on the ungodly.  There are thus two restorations - one before, the other after the great crisis; one partial, the other complete; one which provokes the enmity of the nations, the other in which the nations rejoice and even co-operate.

 

 

Returned to their own land in unbelief, a remnant of God-fearing people still among them, it is more than probable that they will rebuild the temple and restore the sacrifices.  And this probability is converted into certainty, when we read in Joel that the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; in Isaiah (66: 5, 6), that the great decision, the birth of the nation, is preceded by a voice of noise from the city - a voice from the temple; and in Ezekiel, we find a most minute description of its dimensions and arrangements.  Equally explicit is the testimony of Daniel, who speaks of the abominations which are to be set up in the temple, until the consummation, and of the daily sacrifices, abolished by the great enemy of God and of the nation (the same events are expressly pointed out by the Saviour).

 

 

The second phase in the future history of the Jews is, their connection with Antichrist and subsequent conflict [Page 171] with him.  I can only express here my opinion, that Antichrist is a person yet to come.  He is described as the man of sin and son of perdition, whom the Lord Himself will destroy with the breath of His mouth and the brightness of His personal presence.  Compare Dan. 11: 36-45, 7: 21-25; Isa. 14.; 2 Thess. 2: 3-9; Rev. 19: 11-21.  Antichrist is in every respect the opposite of the Messiah.  Antichrist is from below, comes in his own name, speaks flatteries and lies, seeks his own aggrandisement, and aims to destroy the glory of God; our blessed Christ is from above, comes in His Father’s name, speaks the truth, seeks the salvation of men, and sacrifices all to the glory of God.  The Lord humbled Himself, and the Father exalted Him.  Antichrist exalts himself, and his judgment is instantaneous, fearful, and irrevocable.  Yet shall he deceive many.  Jesus foretold that another would come in His own name; him would the Jews receive.  But soon the enemy shows his true character: he defiles the temple of God, he sets himself up in God’s temple as God, he persecutes the children of the Lord, and the great majority of the Jews worship him.

 

 

Still there shall be a godly remnant, praying for deliverance; a poor and afflicted people trusting in the name of the Lord and crying, Avenge me of my adversary!  Oh, that Thou wouldest rend the heavens and come down!” They shall then, I imagine, study the Book of Daniel especially, “which is shut up to the time of the end” (Dan. 12: 4), and the whole prophetic word.  They tremble at the Word of the Lord, and resemble the brothers of Joseph, when first convinced of their great guilt and longing for help.

 

[Page 172]

In the great and final conflicts between the nations, headed by Antichrist and Jerusalem, there are several stages, which it is difficult to arrange; but the great outstanding facts are these:-

 

 

A terrible destruction of many of Israel, even two thirds of the whole (“And it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third part shall be left therein,” Zech. 13: 8); the deep humiliation and repentance of the remnant, prepared to receive the Lord; the pride of Antichrist, and his fierce determination to exalt his throne above the stars of God, to sit upon the mount of the congregation, and be like the Most High (Isa. 14.).  Then shall be fulfilled the memorable prediction in Zechariah, to which we have already referred (14: 2-11).  All nations are to be gathered against Jerusalem to battle; the Lord shall go forth to fight against them; after the victory, the Lord is to be King over the whole earth, and recognised as such: certain physical changes are to take place with regard to the Mount of Olives and the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and the city shall be safely inhabited.  Not in one single feature does this correspond to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.  Only one nation came then against the city.

 

 

God did not defend His ancient people, much less conquer their enemies.  A period of universal submission to Jehovah did not succeed.  The Mount of Olives did not cleave in the midst, and the waters did not go out of Jerusalem, and the city has not since been safely and gloriously inhabited.  No, but it shall yet be so, for the Lord shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives.

 

[Page 173]

Even as He ascended, so shall He come again, Himself, personally, and His saints with Him, and shall appear to deliver and save Israel; to destroy Antichrist, to bind Satan, and to take possession of the throne of His father David.  This is the great crisis in the history of Israel and the world; in the history of Satan, and Antichrist, the enemies of the truth; in the history of the earth and groaning creation.  But our subject is Israel, and therefore let us consider -

 

 

V. The condition of the nation after the second Advent.  And here the first and most important thing is their conversion.  God’s covenant is unconditional but He Himself causes all conditions to be fulfilled that is, He converts and renews His people.  For the outward possession and glory, the outward restoration and national life would be of no avail, would neither glorify God nor benefit the people, were it not the external manifestation and accompaniment of an inward state.  God promised not merely to restore, but to renew and quicken His people.  Pardon of sin, the outpouring of the Spirit, faith in the crucified Redeemer, are the covenant blessings.  We are told that the Jews shall see Him whom they have pierced.  Expecting Jehovah to arise for their help, the godly remnant shall look for His appearing, but they look for the Lion, the Conqueror, the Mighty God.

 

 

When they behold that Jehovah, the Deliverer, the Hope and Help of Israel is none other than the once rejected and crucified Jesus, then doubtless shame, confusion, terror, and grief shall take hold of them, even as [Page 174] the brothers of Joseph stood amazed and appalled when the great prince on whom their safety depended revealed himself as their brother, whom they had sold into Egypt.  But Joseph had pity and compassion; he spoke to them, nay, embraced them and kissed them; he fell on the neck of his brother Benjamin and wept.  Then, we are told, his brethren talked with him.  And thus, when Jesus shall reveal to them His love and mercy, His pardoning grace and overflowing tenderness, fear and awe shall give way to deep, unutterable self-loathing and contrition; repentance and faith, self-abasement and joy shall burst forth out of the new hearts of flesh, renewed and gained for ever by their Lord and God.

 

 

How can any one say that the Jews would - if all this be true - become proud?  Does God’s favour make us proud?  When, sitting at the Lord’s Table, you hear the wonderful declaration, This is My body, broken for you, and you are assured that Christ gives you His body, which is meat indeed, and His blood, which is drink indeed; do you then think of your worthiness or your sin, of your greatness or your insignificance, of your merits or of God’s grace?  The Jews shall be bowed down to the very dust by the exceeding great weight of grace and glory bestowed on them.  Like the Apostle Paul, they shall say most emphatically, “By grace we are what we are.  Where is boasting?  It is excluded.  We are the monuments of His wonderful love. Salvation is of the Lord!”

 

 

God’s Spirit shall be poured out upon them, and they shall be cleansed from all filthiness and [Page 175] backsliding.  They shall remain faithful to God throughout the whole period of the [millennial] kingdom, and “look back no more.”  Such being their spiritual condition, we notice -

 

 

1. That after the conversion of Judah, the remnant of Israel, all the tribes shall be restored, partly through the agency of the Gentiles.

 

 

ISA. 49: 18.

 

 

Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee.  As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.  For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.  The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.  Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these?  Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?  Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up Mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.  And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me.”

 

 

ZECH. 1: 6.

 

 

And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them; and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will bear them.  And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.  I will hiss for them, and gather them, for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.  And I will sow them among the people, and they shall remember Me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again.”

 

[Page 176]

Judah and Israel shall be united, and live together in peace and unity (Ezek. 37: 15-28).  The territory shall be again divided among the twelve tribes, and Joseph possess a double portion (Ezek. 47: 13).

 

 

2. Jerusalem shall be rebuilt, the name of the city shall be Jehovah-Shammah; there the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and thrones of judgment set.

 

 

ZECH. 8: 4.

 

 

Thus saith the Lord of hosts: There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age.  And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.  Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in Mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts.  Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will save My people from the east country, and from the west country; And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and in righteousness.” (Compare Ezek. 43: 7; Isa. 4: 5, 24: 23; 60: 13, 14; Psa. 48: 1, 2; Joel 3: 17, 20, 21, &c.)

 

 

3. The great fertility of the land, and the prolonged period of human life.

 

 

Amos 9: 13-15.

 

 

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.  And I will bring again the captivity of My people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink of the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.  And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.”

 

 

JER. 33: 12-16.

 

 

Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.  In the [Page 177] cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth them, saith the Lord.  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.  In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.  In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall he called, The Lord our Righteousness.”

 

 

JER. 31: 27, 28.

 

 

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.  And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord.” (Compare Isa. 65: 19-22.)

 

 

4. The original territory, extending from the shores of the Mediterranean to the borders of the Euphrates, and from the entrance of Hamath, and the river shall be given to the nation.  (Num. 34: 8; Ezek. 47: 15-20.)

 

 

5. The Church of Christ, the Bride of the Lamb, consisting of both Jews and Gentiles, will be associated [afterthe First Resurrection’ (Rev. 20: 4-6, cf. Luke 20: 35 and Phil. 3: 11ff, R.V.)] with Christ in the heavenly Jerusalem, which must be distinguished from the earthly Jerusalem.  In the one, the Jewish city, there is marrying and giving in marriage, imperfection, sin, and death; in the other, the saints of the most high places are the children of the resurrection, who neither marry nor die; they are free from all earthly imperfections, and in a state of glory.  In the Jewish city there is a temple; in the heavenly Jerusalem there is no temple, for the Lord is the Temple [Page 178] thereof.*  The temple of the earthly Jerusalem is fully described in Ezekiel, and it will be difficult even for the greatest ingenuity to see a spiritual meaning in the minute topographical detail and measurements.  Moreover, we are told in Isaiah that the Lord will take of re-gathered Israel for priests and Levites (66: 21), and in Zechariah (14: 16) that the nations shall go up to Jerusalem from year to year, to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Strange as it may seem, nothing can be more explicit than the word of the Lord through the [His] prophets.

 

* What Jacob saw in his dream, and what took place on the Mount of Transfiguration and during the forty days after the Resurrection, when the glorified Saviour lived, not on the earth, yet with His disciples, explains to some extent the communication between the two Jerusalems.

 

 

JER. 33: 17.

 

 

David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.  And the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord: If ye can break My covenant of the day, and My covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also My covenant be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, My ministers.”

 

 

EZEK. 20: 40.

 

 

For in Mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve Me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things.  I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.  And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to your fathers.”

 

[Page179]

6. While the glory of the Lord shall be made manifest on His chosen Zion, where He will dwell, because He hath desired it as His habitation (Psa. 132: 13), Israel shall be made a blessing to all the earth; * Jerusalem shall be called the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 60: 11, 12, 14); they will be made a name and a praise among the people of the earth (Zeph. 3: 20); “All nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts” (Mal. 3: 12).  Then shall be fulfilled passages like the 2nd of Isaiah: Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more (2: 3, 4).  Then shall all nations call the Son of David blessed, and all shall unite in saying, Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone doeth wondrous things, and blessed be His glorious name for ever, and let the whole earth be filled with His glory.  Amen and amen.  The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.”  The praises of the Solomonic period of glory commenced.  Jesus Christ, King of the Jews, was written over the cross.  Jesus Christ, King of the Jews, is manifested now in power.

 

* Rom. 11: 15; Psa. 102: 13-15.  Israel shall blossom, and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

 

I notice briefly -

 

[Page 180]

VI.  Some objections.

 

 

1. ‘The whole scheme is designated as carnal, and implying retrogression instead of a progressive development.’

 

 

My reply is twofold.

 

 

(a) The word “carnal” is ambiguous.  Flesh means sin and corruption, and is opposed to the Spirit; but embodiment, outward manifestation, concrete, form, is not opposed, to the Spirit.  Carnal means sinful and hostile to God; the evil spirits, who we suppose possess no bodies, are carnal, but the Son of God became man, the Word was made flesh, He took upon Him a human body as well as a reasonable soul.  God’s ways and thoughts are not ours.  While the abstract and ethereal imaginations of human reason create a god, who is not spirit, and whom they do not worship in spirit and truth, the God of the Bible is God manifest in the flesh - Immanuel.  Metaphysics may not find out a god like the God of Israel.  Did not Abraham welcome three strangers; and did he not stand by and see them eat?  And yet one of them was the Lord.  Did not Jesus, after His resurrection, eat before His disciples, who gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and honey?  Is not the [i.e., this restored sin-cursed (Rom. 8: 19-21)] earth to be the scene of God’s triumph and manifestation?  Whatever is revealed is spiritual, whatever man imagines is carnal; the end of the ways of God is embodiment.  The Son of God became man.

 

 

But (b) it must be borne in mind that the glorified Church, the saints of the most high places, the transfigured children of the first resurrection, are in a [Page 181] heavenly inheritance, and they rule over Israel and the nations.  They need no temple and no commemorative services, no discipline and no earthly trial.  But it is different with the Jews and the nations on earth.  A righteous and peaceful reign, instead of injustice, cruelty and war; truth and equity, purity and devotion, love to God and to man, instead of the abominations of idolatry, selfishness, lust, and avarice, which characterise now so many of the nations of the earth - is this no progress, no blessedness, no miracle, which God alone can bring about?  On earth God has been denied and forgotten; His commandments were transgressed, and His honour disregarded; in nations and kingdoms the human race has disregarded His will, and failed to glorify Him; but the kingdoms of the earth, as such, are to become subject to Christ, and after the four kingdoms of the beasts (in which humanity is degraded, and power and cunning and selfishness rule) then shall be the kingdom of the Son of Man, when men will live (nationally and individually) under the influence of spiritual motives, and the rule of righteousness and love.  Then shall all earthly things be spiritual, all secular things be done in the light of eternity; holiness unto the Lord shall be written on the minutest detail of everyday life.  And this is neither carnal nor retrograde; but spiritual and the fulfilment.

 

 

2. ‘But, it is urged, how can the Levites, the sacrifices and the festivals ever be restored?  Does not this contradict the teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews?

 

 

Wherever we have express statements in Scripture, it is ours to believe them, even though we should not [Page  182] be able to understand them, and to harmonise them with other declarations of the divine Word.  We know that all the words of the Lord are true, and that all apparent contradictions shall disappear, when the fulfilment has come; but with regard to the Levites, and the revival of the festivals and sacrifices, may we not suppose that what was typical before the first coming of Christ, pointing to the great salvation which was to come, may in the kingdom be commemorative of the great redemption accomplished?

 

 

In the Lord’s Supper we commemorate Christ’s death; we altogether repudiate the Popish doctrine of a repetition of the offering of Christ; we do not believe in any such renewal of the sacrifice, but we gratefully, obey the command of Christ to commemorate His death in such a way that both an external memorial is presented to the world, and an outward and visible sign and seal given to the believing partaker.  May not a similar plan succeed the Lord’s Supper, which we know shall cease at Christ’s coming?  It is also possible that both the glorified saints in heaven and the nations on earth will contemplate during the millennium the full and minute harmony between type and reality.  Even the Church has as yet only a superficial knowledge of the treasures of wisdom in the Levitical institutions and its symbols.

 

 

It is evident, moreover, that the old institutions, festivals, and offerings shall be modified and adapted to the new covenant time.  It seems probable from Ezekiel that the seventh day will be changed to the eighth (Ezek. 13: 26, 27).  The commemoration of [Page 183] the great final deliverance of the nation shall eclipse that of the exodus from Egypt.  No doubt this point, from the very nature of the case, is obscure; but our true wisdom is implicit faith in the Scripture, and humble acceptance of all its declarations.

 

 

3. “The Apostle Paul teaches that in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Gentile; but you are building up again the wall of separation which has been abolished!

 

 

It is true that in the Church of Christ Jew and Gentile are one; it is true that in the kingdom also Jew and Gentile shall have one way of access to God, one fountain of pardon and renewal, one Spirit to enlighten, guide, and strengthen.  But it by no means follows that the position of Jew and Gentile must be the same, or that their distinctive positions in the kingdom militate against their oneness in the Lord Jesus Christ.  In Christ there is neither male nor female, yet man and woman continue to hold different positions, and even in the Church, though equal in privilege, a woman is not allowed to speak.*

 

* It must be remembered also that all distinctions relate only to this earth and to time. In the millennial period the condition of Israel will be distinct and unique among the nations of the earth, but in the eternal Day which is to follow the saved of Israel and of the nations will form the one great body of the Redeemed: one House of the living God, the one completed Church of which Christ shall eternally be the Head. 

 

 

4. ‘Christ says: “This generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled!”  Now, although it might be thought that the predictions of Christ concerning the first destruction of Jerusalem were witnessed by Christ’s cotemporaries, there are other prophecies evidently not fulfilled yet, in connection [Page 184] with which the Saviour uses the same expression (for instance, Matt. 24: 29-39).”’

 

 

Generation” refers not to the individuals as such, but to the race in their peculiarity, character, views (as evil and adulterous generation, generation of vipers, &c.).  And, in this sense, how true is the prediction!  The Jews of the nineteenth century [and the apostate A-millennial believers today] are truly this generation of which and to which the Saviour spoke.  The identity in character, temperament, tone of feeling, is most striking.  Thus this expression confirms the view that the Jews remain unconverted till the great crisis.

 

 

5. ‘If this be so, why send missionaries to the Jews? 

 

 

First, because Christ commands us to preach the gospel to all nations and every creature.  Secondly, because during the last fifty years God has blessed Jewish missions in a very marked manner, so that, notwithstanding all the peculiar difficulties and discouragements of this work a very considerable number have been converted to Christ, and have become useful and energetic labourers in His vineyard.  Thirdly, because it is of great importance to testify to the nation, and to disseminate among them Scriptural views, in the hope that the seed may spring up in the future, when God’s providential dealings with them shall break up the hard ground.  The mission to the Jews, while it has a most beneficial and blessed influence on the Church, has produced already much fruit, and several hundred converted Jews are preaching at the present time the Gospel of grace.

 

[Page 185]

VII, -Practical Inferences.

 

 

Though many regard this whole subject as at best a theoretical problem, a speculation which has no bearing on our spiritual welfare, I feel convinced that it is of the utmost practical importance, and especially in the present day.  The spirit of worldliness and unbelief, the loose and shallow views which are gaining ground on the inspiration of Scripture, the uncertain sound which the trumpet nowadays so frequently gives on the great doctrines of grace - the whole disease of the present day [disbelief in, and rejection of God’s unfulfilled prophesies and accountability truths] seems to me to be connected with ignorance and unbelief of the great central fact which we have been considering, God’s purpose with regard to Israel.

 

 

1. As regards the Scripture.  Holding the view I have endeavoured to announce, what vitality and unity of purpose do we perceive in this Record? The genealogies, topographical and historical detail, and minute statements, which appear to so many superfluous and without any vital or necessary connection with the whole, are all of importance, and instead of being antiquated, await yet at once their full illustration and perfect fulfilment.  If the Bible is viewed as the Book of the Kingdom and the Church (and not as a text-book for systematic theology, exclusively or chiefly), such questions as - Are the tables of genealogy, names of districts, &c., also inspired by the Holy Ghost? - have no meaning at all.  The sum and substance of Scripture is Christ - but Christ is of the seed of Abraham; to be King of the Jews as well as Bridegroom of the Church and King of the Gentiles, [Page 186] and therefore everything that is connected with this [coming Messianic and Millennial] kingdom is connected with Christ and [promised to Him and His overcomers - (Ps. 2: 8; 72 &110; Rev. 2: 25; 3: 21, R.V.) - as] revealed by the Holy Ghost.

 

 

The feeble pulse in Christendom regarding the Scripture is chiefly owing - to our ignorance of the Word.  Outwardly professing to believe the canonicity, inspiration, and whatever other abstract technical words, what are Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel - I may say two-thirds of the Bible - to many of our people?  Do they read them? understand them?  Here and there a verse is singled out and spiritualised, but the Gospel they find in Ezekiel they would find equally in any other book of the Scriptures; the peculiar messages of the Prophets are not regarded.  It is not AUTHORITY, but LIFE, that the Scriptures want to many; and the Book becomes a living Book when we regard it in connection with the nation and the King, when we remember that from Genesis to the Apocalypse there is the witness for the great purpose of God, which shall be made manifest at the coming of Christ and His kingdom.  And then the living, animated body of Scripture, seen in its unity, will be Admired and respected - it requires no defence; but of a dead mass people - [including multitudes of Bible Teachers (so called), who think they know it all!] - venture to clip and cut, they are tempted to [and do] take all kinds of liberties with it; it is their servant and not their master.  The Scriptures cannot be broken; not a single link can be taken out, for it is living, sensitive, Spirit-breathed and Spirit-breathing; and, like the blessed Saviour, not a bone of that body [of truth and all prophecy] shall be broken.

 

 

2. But, secondly, as regards the whole view of the [Page 187] world’s history.  The present time has a great dislike to miracles.  The evidence from miracle has become quite unfashionable, and is not congenial to the present thought.  And why?  Let me ask - Is it congenial to the Church of the present day?  The way in which most of us divide history is this: 1st Period of miracle and direct interference of God; it ends with the apostolic time. 2nd  Period of no miracles, extending to the end of time.  Now, the Bible division I believe to be this: 1st Period. - Miracle; the Theocracy, ending with Christ and the apostles.  2nd Period. - Times of the Gentiles: pause or parenthesis; no miracles.  3rd Period. - The coming of Christ and His [millennial] kingdom; miraculous, i.e., direct interference of God in the history of the earth; communication between heaven and earth restored.  Now, how different are these two views!  In the first, miracles seem to be without analogy; there is something unsymmetrical about the whole plan; it seems anomalous, and, I must confess, difficult to believe.  In the second, it is easy for me to believe the God that was, and is, and is to come.  The music has ceased; no, not to me, for the very pause is full of rhythm, and the great Musician, I know, lives, and at the right time He shall continue the mighty strain, and the perfect harmony and beauty of His thought become manifest to all.  The pause is that of centuries; but the thought is the thought of the Eternal, and its fulfilment stretches into the ages to come.

 

 

Here we behold -

 

 

3. The unworldly character of the Christian Church; [Page 188] or, rather, I would say, “other worldly,” not of this world or age.  To wait for the Lord from heaven; to have our affections set on the things above; to understand, condemn and shun the spirit of ungodliness and self-worship; to trust only God and depend only on His Spirit; in short, to be a chaste virgin, who lives only for the Heavenly Bridegroom - this ought to be the attitude of the people of Christ, who are guided by the sure word of prophecy.

 

 

4. Let us adore the faithfulness of God!  What He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He fulfils; not a word shall fail, and all will be accomplished though Israel sinned against Him, and crucified the Lord of Glory, nevertheless, He cannot deny Himself, His truth must stand for ever - behold the wisdom of God!  Even their unbelief and falling away He overruled, and the Gentiles were grafted in, and the [regenerate, Spirit filled (see Acts 7: 4, 5, R.V.)] Jews have been His witnesses throughout these centuries, proving the truth of Scripture and preaching the very gospel they reject.

 

 

And above all, see the love of God!  He forgives his enemies; their sin has abounded unto death, but His grace doth much more abound unto eternal life.  What can exceed the guilt of the Jews!  Their ingratitude, their unbelief, their hatred of the most loving and gentle Redeemer, who visited them and sought to gather them, with unspeakable tenderness!  But the Father’s love, the Saviour’s love, the love of the Holy Ghost, are greater than their sin - infinite depths of mercy and compassion are here revealed to us.

 

[Page 189]

Last of all, what is still more important, see here the [future, manifested, millennial, and eternal] glory of God.  This is the end and purpose of all things; all the history of the world and all the manifestations of God’s love and power are to the praise of the glory of His grace, that His Name be exalted, and that His supremacy be acknowledged and adored.  When the Jewish nation is restored, then shall it be made manifest before all angels and principalities, and all the ends of the earth, that salvation is of the Lord; that He has mercy on whom He will have mercy; that His gifts and calling are without repentance; that man’s unfaithfulness cannot change the purpose of His love and the counsel of His compassion, and that He gives deliverance, pardon, renewal, strength and glory to His chosen [and obedient]* people.  That it is of grace, and of grace alone, by God’s power and might, and unto His glory and praise - Israel shall declare, not merely by word, but by their very existence.  Salvation is of the Jews.”

 

[* Acts 5: 23, R.V.]

 

 

Rome may represent the idea of power, Greece of wisdom, and, the various nations of the earth may illustrate and embody various ideas, but the idea of which Israel is the embodiment and the illustration is this: “We have destroyed ourselves, but in Jehovah is our help found.  We are saved by grace, not by works, not by our own merit, or by our own strength, but by grace alone, according to the good pleasure of His will and to the praise of the glory of His grace.”  Their history, from its commencement in Abraham to its consummation, “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord,” will [Page 190] be the most striking, lucid, and incontrovertible embodiment of the great truths of election, redemption, renewal, of the love of the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost.

 

 

And the centre of all is, and will be, Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the Lord from heaven, the King of the whole earth; and the foundation of all - the cross on Golgotha, where the “King of the Jews” was crucified; and throughout the whole period of the [coming messianic] kingdom, all tribes and peoples of the earth, united with Israel, shall ascribe glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the God of Salvation - His manifold wisdom, His infinite love, His all-conquering power, shall then appear to all.  The Church of the heavenly inheritance, associated with Christ in His reign, the chosen nation on earth with its centre, the city of the Great King, and all the kingdoms of the earth walking in the light and peace of God’s love, according to the testimony of the Book of the Kingdom and the Book of the Church, shall praise Him and show forth His glory, until after the brief conflict of the end and the final condemnation of Satan, all things are again made new, and the whole family of God enter into the everlasting state of blessedness; the consummation, when God shall be all in all, and the kingdom of the Son be delivered to God, even the Father.

 

[Page 191]

NOTES

 

 

A. PAGE 140.  OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT

 

 

The expressions “Old” and “New Testament” have been so long and universally in use, that my view may appear fanciful and eccentric.  But I request the reader to weigh the argument.  I may add, that Christ and the apostles never use the expression “Old Testament,” but the Scriptures, Moses, and the Prophets.”  They based all their teaching on the Jewish Scriptures; and if they had designated them old, would not this have implied that their doctrine was now?  If the doctrines of grace are in Moses and the Prophets, it is most illogical to call their writings Old Testament, or Covenant of Works!  Think of Genesis, where the law is never even mentioned, of Isaiah and of the Psalms, which you, Christians, sing on the Lord’s day!  Christ died and rose according to the Scripture, saith Paul; that is, according to what is called the Old Testament; but according to the Old Covenant it is not Christ, but the sinner who dies.  When Paul (2 Cor. 3.) speaks of our being ministers of the New Testament, he does not refer to books, most of which were not yet written, but to the gospel, which he found in the Scripture he possessed.   The Jews could only see “Old Testament” in Moses and the prophets, because they were [spiritually] blind.  To the spiritual all Scripture is gospel, or New Testament (the Law being the schoolmaster, bringing us to Christ), but to the natural and self-righteous, as we ought to know from experience and observation, all Scripture (gospels and epistles included) is Old Testament, or Covenant of Works.  The subject seems to me both important and clear.

 

 

B. PAGE 174.

 

 

Zinzendorf says:-

 

 

The simple preaching of the Gospel will be able, under God’s blessing, to bring back to Him the first-fruits of the people - one from a city, and two from a family, according to the expression of the prophet; but who but the Lord appearing in person could convert the whole nation, and humble them at His feet as one man?  Who but He could take away the thick veil, which until this day remains on their heart, when Moses is read?  What other hand but His could open their sepulchres, and raise them up, living with the life of God, to sing eternally of His love?  Can these bones live?’ No, Lord, if Thou dost not display Thy sovereign power in them, they will not live!  But at Thy appearing, and under the life-giving breath of Thy Spirit, so soon as they are re-animated, ‘they will stand on their feet, an exceeding great army; regathered in holy pomp in the day of Thy power, they will publish Thy glory throughout all ages!’

 

 

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