15. THE INTERVAL RECOGNISED BY MATTHEW

A SIMILAR outline may be traced in the dispensational Gospel of Matthew.

For both the Fore-runner and the Lord Himself begin their ministry with the cry, "Repent, for the Kingdom of the Heavens has come nigh." The Four Hundred and Eighty-three Years were drawing to a

¹ Micah v. 1, 3.

² 1 Pet. v. 4.

THE INTERVAL RECOGNISED BY MATTHEW.

close; but the dreary interval would not be necessary if Israel could at that time repent and receive the Anointed Prince.

In the fifth sixth and seventh chapters, the laws of the Kingdom are delivered by the King, Who speaks throughout on the authority of His own word, and finally reveals Himself to the astonished multitude as the future Judge of the quick and the dead.¹

But it was reasonable to expect that such claims should be supported by proofs of no ordinary kind; nor was the expectation disappointed. A leper, hopelessly stricken with the sacred disease which none but Jehovah could heal, was listening at a distance; and, convinced by the wondrous words of the Speaker that He must be the Son of God, ran boldly to Him, and said;—"Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean." This simple faith, and unreserved acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord, soon proved that all things are indeed possible to them that believe.

The Saviour put forth His hand, and, as He touched the pale sufferer, uttered the word of power;—"I do will; be thou clean." In an instant the disease had fled: a warm flow of blood thrilled the stagnant veins of the leper, and flushed into his white face, and he stood healed and sound in the presence of the awe-struck multitude.

Yet this was only the beginning of the mighty works by which the Lord showed that He was in very truth the Son of God: the eighth and ninth chapters contain accounts of other stupendous miracles testifying to His absolute sovereignty over disease, the elements, the spirits of evil, and even death itself.

¹ Matt. vii. 21-23.

The leaders of Israel did not, however, hail Him as the long-expected Messiah, but disliked His teaching, and became more and more determinedly opposed to Him as He multiplied the signs of His power. Consequently, He soon began to hint that there must be delay in the restoration of the Kingdom, and spoke of a future absence of the Bridegroom, during which the children of the Bride-chamber should mourn.¹

Nevertheless, when He looked on the multitude, He was moved with compassion, "because they were harassed and scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd."² And so He renewed His offer, and, by sending out His twelve disciples, again appealed to the hearts of the people with the stirring proclamation, "The Kingdom of the Heavens has drawn nigh."³ But there was no adequate result: for He presently began to complain of the waywardness of His generation, and to upbraid those cities wherein most of His mighty works had been done, because they repented not.⁴

In the twelfth chapter, the malice and opposition of the rulers is still more marked; and, unable to deny His acts of power, they dare to say;—"This fellow doth not cast out demons but by Beelzebub the prince of the demons." Then at length He began to show that His soul also abhorred them: His mouth spoke terrible things, and He declared that their despised privileges should bring down the thunder of God's judgment upon their heads.

He concluded His discourse with the prophetic parable of the man out of whom the unclean spirit

¹ Matt. ix. 15.

² Matt. x.

³ Matt. ix. 36.

⁴ Matt. xi. 16-24.

THE INTERVAL RECOGNISED BY MATTHEW.

had gone, and predicted that their cloak of hypocrisy should yet be torn away, and their real apostasy from God discovered. The spirit of avowed idolatry had indeed been exorcised for the time by the Babylonian captivity, and its grosser manifestations they had swept out of their hearts. Nor was this all: they had also garnished the house; but with a cold and formal religion which, though professing to honour God, was of no avail save for purposes of self-glorification. For the Spirit of God had not taken possession of them; therefore the foul demon should return to the empty dwelling with seven others worse than himself, and the last state of the Jews should be more openly idolatrous than the first. They had rejected the Lord of glory; but they should be moved to worship a man, even that Lawless One who will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped.

The Lord ceased to speak; and immediately there ensued a significant incident, pre-arranged by His power to show that no tie of the flesh, however strong, would be recognised before Him, unless it were accompanied by faith and obedience. His mother and her sons had come to the outskirts of the crowd wishing to see Him, and a bystander said;—"Behold, Thy mother and Thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with Thee." But He replied;—"Who is My mother, and who are My brethren?" Then, stretching forth His hand towards His disciples, He said;—"Behold My mother and My brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of My Father Which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother." The mere earthly relationship could not avail to stay judgment: even the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, and the Lord's kinsmen, must perish if they continued in unbelief: He would mark for mercy only those who did the will of His Father. And this will was that they should believe on Him Whom the Father had sent: but they were rejecting Him, and should, therefore, be also themselves rejected.

Having thus predicted the fate of the Jews, the Lord then proceeded, on the same day,¹ to foretell what should follow; to speak of the branches of the wild olive tree which should be grafted in after the breaking off of the natural branches; to reveal, though as yet only in parable, something of the great mystery which had been hidden from past ages. And by so doing He is said to have fulfilled the prophecy;—"I will open my mouth in parables: I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world."² For until the disposition of the Jews toward the Lord had made it evident that they must be cast off for a season, God would not reveal what should take place during the time of their rejection. It is as though He had left it open to them to decide, by their obedience or disobedience, whether the last of Daniel's Weeks should be fulfilled immediately after the Sixty-ninth, or whether there should be a wearisome interval of discipline.

Henceforth the character of our Lord's preaching was changed, and we find from Luke that, as He drew nigh to Jerusalem for His death, He spoke a parable to show that the first offers were withdrawn, and that the Kingdom of the Heavens could not now immediately appear.³ A little later, probably in the same hour, He was standing on the brow of Olivet, and,

¹ Matt. xiii. 1. ² Matt. xiii. 35. ³ Luke xix. 11.

THE INTERVAL RECOGNISED BY MATTHEW.

while gazing from thence at the fair scene spread out before Him, wept as He uttered the memorable lamentation;—"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."¹ For Messiah was about to be cut off, and afterwards both city and Sanctuary should be destroyed.

Nevertheless, He entered into the city on this last day of the Four Hundred and Eighty-third Year of Daniel's period, and he did so "riding upon an ass and upon a colt the foal of an ass," that, by the simultaneous fulfilment of two great prophecies, He might make a last appeal to the rebel Jews. But it was all in vain: the enthusiasm of the populace was only momentary, while the malice of their rulers was greatly intensified.

Then the covenant was broken, and the barren fig tree cursed as a sign; the parable of the vineyard was uttered with its terrible conclusion—"Therefore, I say unto you, the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof";² and the Temple was given up with the words, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."³

In the prophecy which He immediately afterwards delivered on the Mount of Olives, the Lord fills in that part of Daniel's outline which was yet future,

¹ Luke xix. 42-44. ² Matt. xxi. 43. ³ Matt. xxiii. 38.

even mentioning the prophet by name. He hints at the destruction of the city and Sanctuary after His own decease,¹ and then passes on to notice what should happen in the days immediately preceding the fulfilment of the times of the Gentiles and the simultaneous completion of the last Seven Years of God's dealings with the Jews in Jerusalem. And thus, in the New Testament also, the great interpreting revelation given to Daniel is found to be the key of all prophecy which concerns the Jew.

VI.