TEN SERMONS on the SECOND ADVENT
VII. THE SECOND ADVENT IN RELATION TO "THE JEW."
"For I would not, brethren, that ye 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 fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And
so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out from Zion
a deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant
with them, when I shall takw away their sins. As concerning the gospel, 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." -
Rom. xi. 25-29.
We have before us in these words a large and important
subject. So large, that volumes have been written upon it without exhausting
it; and so important, that it forms the very warp and woof of this blessed
Book. It is impossible to do more than glance at its outlines in one brief
address. But no consideration of the subject can be satisfactory that does not
go back to the beginning, and lay its foundations deep in the "everlasting
covenant" referred to so pointedly in our text, "This is My covenant." All
God's dealings with Israel, past, present, and future, spring from this
covenant. All are based upon it. Israel is beloved "for the fathers' sakes;"
for what God has given He does not take back, and "the gifts and calling of God
are without repentance" (R.V. margin, "Gr. not repented of"). A pre-ordained
plan lies at the foundation of the history of Israel.
Immediately
before Abram received these "gifts and calling of God," in Gen. xi., God had
divided the nations, and had given them their inheritance in the earth, with
special reference to Israel. We read in Deut. xxxii. 8, 9. "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. For the Lord's portion is His people; Israel is the lot of His
inheritance."
The judgment of the Flood was unheeded by the nations,
and the people soon gave themselves over to idolatry. Abram's family formed no
exception as we learn from Joshua xxiv. 2, where Joshua reminds the people of
the fact, saying "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old
time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they
served other gods." Well may the Spirit lay such stress on the grace that
called Abraham, and the promise that was freely given to him; for surely it was
all of pure and free grace, when "the God of glory appeared" to him, put his
idols to confusion, and called him to Himself, saying "I have severed you from
the other people, that ye should be mine" (Lev. xx. 26). The seven-fold promise
in Gen. xii. 2, 3 tells us that when Abram was called, it was not merely from
idolatry but to blessing, God was the performer of all things for him (Ps.
lvii. 2).
1 "I will make of thee a great nation, and
2 I will bless
thee, and
3 Make thy name great: and
4 Thou shalt be a blessing:
and
5 I will bless them that bless thee, and
6 Curse him that curseth
thee, and
7 In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
You have the same from of seven-fold, or perfect blessing when God
"established" His covenant in Exodus vi. 4-8.
1 "I will bring you
out...
2 I will rid you of their bondage, and
3 I will redeem you....
and
4 I will take you to me for a people, and
5 I will be to you a
God... and
6 I will bring you in unto the land ... and
7 I will give it
for an heritage."
And this it is solemnly signed, "I, Jehovah!"
But now let us look at the significant scene, when this wondrous
covenant was first made. It is most important and full of the deepest
instruction. We all know that a Covenant is usually made between two parties,
with certain conditions to be observed on each side. When both parties are
human these conditions may or may not be kept, and when they are broken by
either side the Covenant is null and void.
Now, all such conditional
Covenants which man has ever made with God, have been shamefully broken.
Whenever he who is "conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity" has entered into
covenant with the Eternal and Holy God, he has "turned aside like a broken
bow," and the Covenant has failed. But there is such a thing as an
Unconditional Covenant, which is really a free-grace promise, but formally made
by the one contracting party. And when this one is Jehovah Himself, then it
cannot fail, and it must stand for ever- "ordered in all things and sure."
There are three such unconditional Covenants in the Bible. One with
NOAH concerning the earth, in virtue of which we to-day enjoy "seed-time and
harvest and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night" and
immunity from a flood of waters. This Covenant is seven times mentioned in Gen.
ix. 8-17. The second, with ABRAHAM concerning the Land (Gen. xv. 8-21). And the
third, with DAVID concerning the Throne. (2 Sam. vii. 4-29. xxiii. 5; Ps.
lxxxix.)
The Covenant that was made with Israel at Sinai was a
conditional Covenant. God covenanted to give them life and blessing, and peace
and prosperity in the Land, and Israel covenanted to obey the Law. "All the
people answered and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do....
And Moses took the book of the Covenant, and read in the audience of all the
people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient.
And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the
blood of the Covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these
words." (Ex. xxiv. 3, 7, 8. Heb. ix. 18-20). In contrast with all this, it is
expressly recorded that when God re-instates Israel in the blessing it will be
on the ground of grace and not of Law; on the ground of a "new" and
unconditional Covenant and not on the conditional Covenant of Sinai. Jer. xxxi.
31, "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"!
Now let
us turn to Genesis xv. and see how this original, unconditional, covenant was
made by Jehovah with Abraham. Abraham was fully instructed how he was to
proceed, and what preparations he was to make (verses 9, 10): and he divided
the heifer, the goat, and the ram, and "laid each piece one against the other,"
that when the time came he might pass between the pieces. For this was, or
became, the manner of making a Covenant, as we learn from Jer. xxxiv. 18, 19,
where Jehovah says, "I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant,
which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before
me, when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof. The
princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the Eunuchs and the priests,
and all the people of the land which passed between the parts of the calf."
But here, in this case, just at the critical moment, when Abram was ready to
pass between the parts of the victims, and be a party to the Covenant, God put
him to sleep, for "when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram,
and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him" (verse 12), and he saw " a
smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the
same day the Lord made a Covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I
given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river
Euphrates" (verse 17, 18). Here then we have the great unconditional Covenant,
because made by only ONE contracting party, and that one the Lord God Himself.
In this fact we have the simple explanation of that difficult verse
(Gal. iii. 20), of which a University Professor recently stated he had counted
430 interpretations! The apostle is speaking of two things, the Covenant, or
"Promise" made with Abraham, and the Covenant, or the "Law," made with Israel;
and he says (verse 17) that "the covenant that was confirmed before of God in
Christ, the Law which was 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should make
the promise of none effect." The Law was given he says "in the hand of the
mediator." That shows there were two contracting parties. But when there is
only one covenanting party there is no mediator; and when the Covenant was made
with Abram there was only one, and that one God! "Now a mediator is not a
mediator of one, but God is one," i.e. when He gave Abram the promise. Hence
the covenant was unconditional, and cannot be disannulled by a conditional
covenant made 430 years after by Israel with God. "Wherefore then serveth the
Law? It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom
the promise was made" (verse 19). For the Covenant ran "Unto thy seed" (Gen.
xv. 18) "which is Christ" (Gal. iii. 16). We all know, however, that Abraham
never possessed the land. Then this covenant was ratified in Isaac "Unto thee
and unto thy seed" (Gen. xxvi. 3), but he possessed it not! for "Isaac gave up
the ghost and died.... and Jacob buried him" (Gen. xxxv. 29). And then it was
ratified in Jacob "to thee will I give it and to thy seed" (Gen. xxviii. 13),
but he possessed it not, for "Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a
stranger" (Gen. xxxvii. 1), he died in Egypt (xlix. 33) and all the he
possessed in the land was a burying place!
Nevertheless, the covenant
is "sure." All blessing is based upon it, and referred to it. When God heard
the groaning of Israel in Egypt, it was because "God remembered His covenant"
(Ex. ii. 24). When He came down to deliver them, we read "I have established my
Covenant with them" (Ex. vi. 4). When He would comfort them, He says, "He will
not forget the Covenant of thy fathers which He made with them" (Deut. iv. 31).
When, again and again, He had compassion on them in their rebellion and
foolishness, we read "he remembered His holy promise and Abraham His servant"
(Ps. cv. 42). "They remembered not ... they soon forgat... they forgat God
their Saviour... Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, when He heard their
cry; and He remembered for them His covenant" (Ps. cvi. 7, 13, 21, 44, 45).
Hence David sings "He will ever be mindful of His Covenant" (Ps. cxi. 5), and
Jehovah declares "My Covenant will I not break, neither alter the thing that is
gone out of my lips" (Ps. lxxxix. 34).
But besides this Covenant with
Abram to give him the Land, there was that other Covenant (also unconditional)
that was made with David, concerning the Throne (2 Sam. vii), which is also to
be confirmed and fulfilled only in David's seed. The promises of this Covenant
are referred to in the expression "the sure mercies of David."* "Sure" because
they rest on God's faithfulness and holiness. See Ps. lxxxix. 28, "Once have I
sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David." It is interesting to
note, that both these unconditional Covenants are linked with the first to
Noah, in one Scripture. Jeremiah xxxiii. "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... Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David my
servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return and have
mercy upon them" (verses 20, 21, 26). It is on the strength of this Everlasting
Covenant made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that Jesus based His proof of the
Resurrection. For if the blessing and glory in the land was made to the
individual Patriarch as well as to the nation, saying "to thee and to thy seed"
in the case of each Patriarch, then there must be a Resurrection. The
Patriarchs never had any possession in the land except "a Sepulchre," for which
they paid the Canaanites.
Hence when the question about Resurrection
was put to Jesus, He refers to this very fact which depends on, and arises out
of, the Covenant. The Lord's answer to the Sadducees is generally interpreted
as referring to a condition of things, which renders a Resurrection
unnecessary, and makes the whole argument meaningless. Notice the words. Matt.
xxii. 31, "But as touching the Resurrection of the dead, have ye not read,"
etc.; Mark xii. 26, "And as touching the dead that they rise, have ye not
read," etc; and Luke xx. 37, "Now that the dead are raised even Moses showed at
the Bush, when He calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," etc.
The whole point is concerning Resurrection, and the argument is contained in
the fact that as this unconditional Covenant was made with the Patriarchs and
cannot be broken, so likewise it cannot be fulfilled unless they rise from the
dead.
* Isa. lv. 3. Acts xiii. 34.
We are all aware however of
the present sad and scattered condition of the nation of Israel. But all their
sufferings - without a country, without a king, without the knowledge of the
saving truth - all is the consequence of their own conditional Covenant at
Sinai. God gave them a law, holy just, and good. He gave it to prove to them
their own impotence, and to lead them to the omnipotence of the Saviour He had
provided. The prophets spake of His glory, but they also predicted his
rejection. He became the "Hope" of those who believed in Him; "the consolation
of Israel" to those who waited for Him; and "Redemption" to those who looked
for Him. At length He came to His own inheritance, as the seed of Abraham; and
to His own Throne, as the seed of David; but His own people received Him not.
(John i. 11). He was despised, rejected, and crucified. "This is the heir,"
they said. Yes, the heir of the Land, and the heir of the Crown! But they said,
"let us kill Him," and "in ignorance" they did it (Acts ii. 17). They "knew Him
not" (Acts xiii. 27). "They knew not what they did" (Luke xxiii. 34). And yet
they were guilty, for though they did it in ignorance as to His person, they
did it not in innocence as to His blood. They had full proof of Jesus'
innocence. One of the malefactors said, "This man hath done nothing amiss (Luke
xxiii. 41). His judge said, "I find no fault in Him" (Luke xxiii. 4). Pilate's
wife said, "that just man" (Matt. xxvii. 19); the heathen soldier when he saw
Him expire, said, "This was a righteous man" (Luke xxiii. 47); and when he saw
the signs that followed, he cried out "Truly this was the Son of God" (Mark xv.
39). In spite of all this testimony they bribed false witnesses and put Him to
death.
They did not "believe ALL that the prophets had spoken" (Luke
xxiv. 25), and thus a portion of truth separated from the rest, blinded them to
their ruin. But according to the typical illustration in 2 Kings xi., the King
has been rescued from among the slain; He is hid in the heavenly Temple above.
The king has "sat down" because His redemption work is done, but He is
"expecting" because the years have not yet run their course. Here comes in the
"mystery" of the Church. Like Jehosheba her "life is hid with Christ in God"
(verse 2, Col. iii. 3), like Jehoiada she goes out in testimony for the king
whom all else think to be dead. She can have no sympathy, part, or lot, with
Athaliah the usurper. Here and there some are let into the secret of the
covenant and the oath (verse 4) and many a loyal heart beats for the rejected
king, and longs for the day of His manifestation. But meantime the usurper
holds the rule, and "Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles until the times
of the Gentiles be fulfilled." There can be no hope for Jerusalem and no hope
for Israel except as based on the everlasting Covenant. And the claims of the
Heir can be met only in and by Christ's coming again in virtue of that
covenant, to receive "the throne of His father David," and to "reign over the
house of Jacob for ever" (Luke i. 33). Here is the secret of all future
blessing for Israel.
All this was foreshown in Ps. lxxxix. 30-37.
Speaking of David it was written, "If his children forsake my law; and walk not
in my judgments; it they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then
will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with
stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindess will I not utterly take from Him, nor
suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the
thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will
not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun
before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon and as a faithful
witness in Heaven. Selah"!
Part of this has literally come to pass.
David's children did forsake God's law. Their transgression has been visited
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Then the rest of this prophecy
shall also literally be fulfilled, and God will not break His covenant, though
Israel brake His statutes. For though "the children of Israel shall abide many
days without a king, and without a prince and without a sacrifice... afterward,
shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David
their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days" (Hosea
iii. 4, 5). In Amos ix. we have another powerful description of this. "For, lo,
I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as
corn is sifted in a sieve, YET shall not the least grain fall to the ground"!
(verse 9). Why? For what purpose are they preserved? See verses 14, 15, "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 the
wine thereof; and 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."
But before they
can rejoice in the blessings of the glorious and peaceful reign of "David their
King" the Lord Jesus Christ, they will experience the tribulation under the
Anti-Christ. This is spoken of in many of the Prophets, but at greater length
in Daniel and Revelation. It appears from many prophecies that the nation is
not to be gathered all at once, or all at one and the same time. The first
thing that transpires is that before the appearing of Christ in glory and
before the great ingathering of Israel, which will then take place, a smaller,
and partial, and informal assembling, such as we see, it may be, the beginnings
of, at the present moment, will take place. We read Zech. xiv. 2-4, "I will
gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle: and the city shall be taken,
and the houses rifled... 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 the
day upon the Mount of Olives." Thus, it is against Israel that this battle
shall be waged, and it is in connection with this battle that the Lord comes.
When He thus comes, Israel, in part at least, are already in Jerusalem. The
Tribes of Judah and Levi are mentioned by name in Zech. xii., where the same
events are spoken of. "Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all
people round about, when they shall be in the siege, both against Judah and
against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for
all people," etc. (Zech. xii. 2, 3, etc.).
Joel also speaks of the same
siege. "For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again
the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations and will
bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat," etc. (Joel iii). Ezekiel
describes the Land as at this time partially and sparsely inhabited. Speaking
to the Anti-Christ Jehovah says, "And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land
of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely,
all of the dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take a
spoil and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon desolate places that are now
inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have
gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land... and thou shalt
come up against my people of Israel as a cloud to cover the land: it shall be
in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may
know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes" (Ezek.
xxxviii. 11, 12, 16).
From Zech. xii. 9, 10 it is also clear that
repentance is then bestowed upon Israel by the true Joseph who then makes
himself known to his brethren. "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 supplication: and they shall look upon me whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son," etc.
From Matt. xxiv. 15 and 2 Thess. ii. 4 it also appears that the Temple
will be, in some measure at least, rebuilt; for "the abomination of desolation*
spoken of by Daniel the prophet" in connection with this time of "Jacob's
trouble," when his (Daniel's) people shall be delivered, is seen, set up and
standing in the holy place. (Dan. xii. 11, R.V.)
* Abomination is a common
term for an idol (I Kings xi. 5-7; 2 Kings xxiii. 13.) In the R.V., Daniel ix.
27 reads, "Upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate,"
i.e., unborne by demoniacal power shall the Anti-christ come. With this agrees
2 Thess. ii. 9; Rev. xiii. 2, 13, 14, 15.
This preliminary, and
partial gathering, if we may so speak of it, seems designed for the great
purpose of chastisement (Jer. xxx. 7-9), ending in Israel's repentance and
conversion. "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 fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger, and in 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" (Ezek. xxii. 19-22). Zechariah also speaks of this "elect remnant" when
God says "And I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them
as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: and they shall call
on my name, and I will hear them; and I will say, it is my people: and they
shall say, The Lord is my God" (Zech. xiii. 9).
This "elect remnant"* is
doubtless the 144,000 of Rev. vii. sealed, and preserved through, the great
Tribulation; thus refined, and purified.
* We must distinguished between
this "Elect remnant" (Joel ii. 32, &c.), saved through and out of the
Tribulation; and the "Elect nation" (Isaiah lxv. 9, 22, &c.), which is All
Israel as chosen out of, and distinguished from all other nations; and "the
Remnant according to the Election of Grace" (Rom. xi. 5), which is the company
of Israelites saved now by grace, and made members of Christ's body of the
Church.
Thus while this first instalment of the Restoration of Israel
is in anger and judgment; there is another, stage - a larger and final
gathering spoken of, after the Lord has appeared in glory. Isaiah xi. seems to
clearly point to this when he calls it the "second": "And it shall come to pass
in that day." What day? The day when, according to verse 4, He has destroyed
Anti-christ with the breath of His lips and the glory of His coming. (2 Thess.
ii. 8). "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 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... 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"
(Isaiah xi. 11-16).
Again "and they shall bring all your brethren for
an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and
in litters, (margin coaches), and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy
mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord," (Isaiah lxvi. 20). When shall this
gathering be? After the judgment and war already referred to, for verses 15,
16, says: "Behold the Lord will come with fire, and with His chariots like a
whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.
For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain
of the Lord shall be many." And then, after verse 19 shall have been fulfilled
(where the Lord says: "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
among the Gentiles") THEN we come to the gathering described in verse 20.
The means employed in this gathering will be partly instrumental, as
we learn from this Scripture (Is. lxvi. 19, 20, and from others, such as Is.
xlix, 22, 23), "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 queens thy nursing mothers, &c."
But we have just seen that the means shall be also miraculous; God's own act
(Is. xi. 15, 16). It is in this respect, that this second part of the
ingathering, differs from the first, of which nothing is said about the means
beyond ordinary natural causes such as we now see going on around us. Further
we learn from Ezekiel that when the nation is thus fully gathered, it will be
in an unconverted state. "For I will take you from among the heathen and gather
you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. THEN will I
sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness,
and from all your idols will I cleanse you" (see Ezek. xxxiv. 24-38). Jeremiah
likewise shows that this conversion and cleansing will follow immediately upon
this restoration (Jer. xxxi. 27-34).
And now only a few references
which speak (1) of the Physical blessings which will be experienced by the
land; blessings which can never be produced by any increase of holiness in the
Church, but only by the miraculous acts of God himself. Isa. xi. 6-9. xxv. 1,
2, 6. lv. 13. Amos ix. 13. (2) of the Spiritual blessings which will be enjoyed
by the people. Hosea i. 10. Jer. xxx. 31. xxiii.6, and (3) of the Millenial
blessing experienced by the whole earth. Micah iv. 8. Isa. ii. 1-3. xxvii. 6.
lx. 20-22. lxii. 3. lxv. 12. Jer. iii. 17. Ps. xlv. 16, 17. lxxii. When we
think of these circles of blessing, may we not ask with the Apostle, "Now if
the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing (margin, decay
or loss) of them, the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness? For
if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the
receiving of them be, but life from the dead? If the twelve Apostles and one
hundred and twenty Disciples have sent the "message of reconciliation" to the
uttermost parts of the earth, what will not "all Israel" do when saved and
filled with this "fulness" of blessing and power from on high? The Spirit's
answer is that it will be like "life from the dead," nothing less than like a
Resurrection for Israel, the World and the Creation! The analogy is most
wonderful, the comparison is divine; and it is given and revealed to us by Him,
who alone knows what it will be.
Dear brethren, when we think of God's
wondrous purposes concerning Israel, and the blessing that is bound up in
Israel, and the blessing that is bound up in Israel for the whole world, Well
may we "pray for the peace of Jerusalem": Well may we heed the words of the
Prophet:- "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... 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" (Is. lxii. 1, 6, 7). Well might David end the
seventy-second Psalm, which sets forth the glory, when in Israel "all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed," "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of
Israel, who only doeth wondrous things, and blessed be His glorious name for
ever; and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen, and Amen." And
well might he add, "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended," for when
the whole earth shall be filled with His glory, prayer will indeed be turned to
praise!