04.04. Part 4.

Part 4. But we must pursue the line of the scarlet thread a little further for, "Glorious things are spoken of Thee, O city of God." Her past tells an awful tale, but, like Job of old, the end of the Lord shall surpass for excellency of glory. The siege and capture of Jerusalem by the Romans is one of the blackest pages in the history of the race, when that nation, dreadful and terrible, devoured and brake in pieces, when she exceeded herself in blood and butchery and made the nations of the world to tremble at her wild ferocity. It had been foretold by Moses and the prophets and by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and some of the darkest parts of Holy Writ describe it (see Deuteronomy 28:49-68; Zechariah 11:1-17; Luke 21:20-24). They had chosen a murderer instead of their King and now murder and carnage embroil them, they had sold their Messiah for thirty pieces of silver, they themselves are sold it is said, thirty of them for one penny, and the very foundations of society trembled in a cataclysm which threatened to decimate the most important nation of mankind. How solemn to think that the worst is still to come (Matthew 24:21). They cried, His blood be upon us and our children. The first part of this sentence was fulfilled in the above, the rest remains for the great tribulation.

Meantime Christendom, that is, the mere outward profession of Christianity without the reality, is going on to judgment, having rejected the revelation of God in His Son; The judgment of the Gentile and the reinstatement of the Jew is at hand and there are not wanting signs, like the rustling of the mulberry trees, which tell us that great things are at the door. That He who changeth times and seasons, removeth kings and setteth up kings, and has determined beforehand both the times and the bound of their habitations, is moving in view of the fulfilment of His thoughts for the glory of His Son. The League of Nations shaping the revival of the Roman Empire, the coming into the political arena of Egypt, and greatest of all, the raising up of Israel as seen in the vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-28). All begins at the right hand of God and the effect is seen here by those who wait upon the Lord. May we have grace to be like Habakkuk upon the watch-tower.

Israel, the people of God, have long been trodden down and even become accustomed to it, like Issacher, who bowed his shoulder to bear and was a tributary servant. But now they are awakening as from the dead and coming into view as a nation, making their presence felt throughout the civilized world. (The careful reader will not need to be reminded here that this is a sure indication that the translation of the Church to her place in heaven is near at hand). The following words from a leading Zionist are worthy of our consideration, spoken about a quarter of a century ago. "It seemed as if we were witnessing a miracle which affected ourselves and all around us. We felt ourselves part and parcel of a fairy tale, in which we saw our brethren, thousands of years buried, again become flesh and blood. We wanted, in the joy of this reunion, to rehearse the sad history of the hundreds of years in which we have been dead and in our tomb, in a grave which lacked the peace of the grave." This raising up of Israel it will be recalled, connects with the feast of trumpets, which shows that we are in the feasts of the seventh month. In Leviticus 23:1-44, we are shown that after the feasts of the first and third months there is a long period elapses till we come to the feast of trumpets in the seventh month and the rising of the new Moon for the resurrection of Israel is in view of her taking her place on earth to reflect the glories of the Sun of righteousness, her glorious Messiah. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed on our solemn feast days (Psalms 80:3). The prophet Joel should be read with this, particularly Joel 2:1-32, as showing the intervention of the King at a time when the peoples are saying, where is their God. But before taking the place of blessing she has yet to pass through the fire. The common saying that the darkest hour of all the night is just the hour before daylight is clearly seen here, for the Israel of the Ishmael type comes into evidence with every desire to assert herself by taking her place among the nations, but without her King. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:2). How clearly this and many other Scriptures are being fulfilled before our eyes. A nation is springing into existence as it were which has been terrible from its beginning, hitherto a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled, with all the marks of youth, energy and virility, and with a determination characteristic only of that people, to play her part in the progress of civilization and in the perfecting of the race. The re-peopling of Palestine by the Jews, the assertion of their national rights, Zionism, which means the claims of the ancient people, her schools and universities, and the proposal to rebuild the temple, all this and much more and unbelief which refused the King is still at work also, and it. is impossible that they can be right without their King. The movement is clearly national and political, the effort being to bring about what Scripture speaks of in man’s way without Christ. How solemn to see, as taught of God, beneath all the present activity with all its promise and apparent success the beginning of a work which, in its full-blown results, will be the most daring and God-defying combination that has ever been upon the earth. The Lord had long ago to say, "I am come in My Father’s name and ye will not receive Me, if another comes in his own name him ye will receive." In the flush of excitement and apparent success they are about to receive a king under whose domination they will reach the lowest and darkest point that it is possible to get; saying in bold defiance, "We have made a covenant with death and with sheol have we made an agreement: when the overflowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come to us." Here we have the fulfilment of the Lord’s words in Matthew 12:1-50, for the unclean spirit comes back and takes with him seven other spirits worse than himself and they enter in and dwell there, and the last condition of the nation is worst of all. Then shall their chosen ruler exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and speak monstrous things against the God of gods, and he shall prosper until the indignation be accomplished.... And he will practice in the strongholds and fortresses with a strange god, whoso acknowledgeth him will he increase with glory and he will cause them to rule over the many and shall divide the land to them for reward. It is then that Jehovah whets His glittering sword and His hand takes hold on judgment, saying, I will render vengeance to Mine enemies and will reward them that hate Me, I will make Mine arrows drunk with blood and My sword shall devour flesh (See Isaiah 28:15-18; Daniel 11:36-39; and Deuteronomy 32:41-42).

We may well ask what does it all mean? See the accumulation of Scriptures setting forth the appeals of longsuffering goodness that the poor besotted people might be brought to see and own their God, listen to the plaint of Jehovah in the book of Jeremiah in highly figurative language when He says, "My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at My very heart, etc. (Jeremiah 4:19-22), and compare the language of the same blessed Person when, in the days of His flesh, He wept over the infatuated people, saying, If thou hadst but known, etc. (Luke 19:41-44). No, no, nothing can be right even among the nations of the earth till Israel is in her proper place of blessing, and certainly she can never be there till she owns her glorious Messiah, in whom all her blessing centres. Jehovah has said long, long ago, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it! This also shall be no more until He come whose right it is and I will give it to Him" (Ezekiel 21:27). But there is another side. The melancholy picture of a nation defying the God whose mercy and long-suffering has so long been towards them is lighted up by the believing class, whose unflinching faithfulness and tenacity for the glory of God in relation to the sins of the whole people is a sight for all creation to behold. They are a people terrible indeed from their existence hitherto, and maintaining their distinctive position through every conceivable character of suffering, marked by ability that puts them in the front rank in every pursuit in life: leaders in science, commerce, politics, and many other things, but alas, blind to the goodness of God, and found in the front rank of the great closing apostasy, which forms so to speak, the closing scene in the great drama of the agree. In the fearful scenes among the nations which have marked these last days, there has not been wanting men from among the Jews who have led in disorder and lawlessness, introducing anarchy and revolution, with all the fearful accompaniments of those things. From that nation came an Ahithophol and a .Judas Iscariot, and from it there is about to arise the Anti-Christ, who surpasses all, "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, etc." Under this last leader the bulk of the nation will be found in league with the Gentiles against Jehovah and His Anointed in a carnage which is beyond expression, and compared to which the French Revolution will indeed be an "innocent idyll," and to which no parallel can be found in the world’s history.

It is a relief therefore, to turn to that which, mid all the fearful condition of things, is well-pleasing to God Our Lord Jesus Christ came of that nation and took the place of a Jew, and if we bow and adore Him as our Lord and God, let us not forget to honour those men of God who witnessed a good confession, who were the ornaments of their generation and whose life work has left its mark for good on the history of the whole race. Men "who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." The suffering and service which lies before this remnant in the closing struggle requires picked men. There is a work to be done for the King and He shall choose His workers. If Gideon has thirty-two thousand men for the battle they must be tested, that all who wish to return to their homes may go. But from the ten thousand who wish to go there must yet be a selection that the three hundred fit for the battle may stand alone (Judges 5:1-31). So it is at the end, when many shall seal their testimony with their blood and in that way enter into heavenly blessing. The King shall select and put His own stamp upon His servants. Happy are they of Abraham’s sons who have the stamp of God upon their foreheads and are honoured with the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy. Their experiences are detailed for us in many Scriptures, particularly Psalms 9:1-20, Psalms 10:1-18, Psalms 11:1-7, Psalms 12:1-8, Psalms 13:1-6, Psalms 14:1-7, Psalms 15:1-5, Psalms 44:1-26, Psalms 94:1-23, and the closing chapters of Isaiah. This class began, as we have seen, in those given to Christ out of the nation, who were transferred to church. position. The same class are in evidence and are preparing, under the work of the King, for reverting to the proper position of Israel and the establishing of the Kingdom in glory upon the earth. In the work of God among the Jews in these last days, large numbers have been brought to own the Lord Jesus Christ as the Centre of the nation’s hopes and the cry has arisen from many, Jehovah has forsaken me and the Lord hath forgotten me. This can never bed, listen to His answer. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? even these may forget, but I will not forget thee. Lo, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands: thy walls are continually before Me.... I will lift up My hands to the nations and set up My standard to the people, and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders . . . and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah, for they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me (Isaiah 49:14-22). The idea that all this is merely dispensational has been the cause of much loss since it ignores many of the exercises of the human heart and much of the grace of the Lord. Listen to the yearnings of His heart on their behalf. "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 (Isaiah 42:1). All must begin with Him where He is, and the exercises of the moment tell us that occupation with the Church has not dulled His affections for His earthly people, but that He is raising up intercessors and bringing them into communion with Himself to pray for it. "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, Jerusalem; all the day and all the night they shall never hold their peace: ye that put Jehovah in remembrance keep not silence and give Him no rest till He establish, till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. In the progress of events the darkness deepens till the great siege and sack of the city, spoken of in Zechariah 14:1-21, will have shattered the hopes and dreams connected with present Jewish activities, and drawn forth the agonising cry, "How long, O Lord." The distress of this time is put in words for us in Psalms 74:1-23, Psalms 79:1-13, and linked with what comes out in the close of Isaiah, "Look down from heaven and behold the habitation of Thy holiness," and then, "Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down . . . wilt Thou restrain Thyself for these things, Lord, wilt Thou hold Thy peace and afflict us very sore."

We would remind ourselves that all this is earthly and in relation to the earthly people. The Church as such, is heavenly in hope and character, and is outside of time and prophetic events as far as related to Israel and the earth. There may, however, be a number of that nation converted before the catching away of the heavenly saints, which will form the link between the present and coming age. This seems quite in accord with the ways of God in His dealings at the change of dispensations and indeed, there seems some indication of it by the present action of the Spirit of God among that people. The Scripture already cited in reference to their raising up seem, too, to indicate something of this, for while many of them come forth to everlasting contempt it is to be noted that others of them come forth to everlasting life, and are found turning many to righteousness, which doubtless refers to those who go forth with the testimony of the coming One. A transitional period marked the Church’s beginning, the same may be seen again when she is removed to heaven, when the Jews will come in again to form the link, this time from the Gospel of the glory to that of the kingdom, as was put before their fathers, but with the definite fulfilment in view. The cities of Judah will be visited with this message, for the preachers will be in the midst of their work when the King comes. "Verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come" (Matthew 10:23). These are they who, amidst unprecedented suffering, stand for the testimony of Jesus and the testimony of Jesus we are told, is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). This testimony connects for Israel all the fulness of Messianic prophecy with the One whom their fathers despised and crucified, combining in His glorious Person all that belongs to God with every Israelite desire. The mass of the people however, while crying to Jehovah for deliverance, will in all probability be unable to connect deliverance with the crucified One till they behold Him face to face, but will mercifully find in their Scriptures many portions fitted to give expression to the deep distress through which they are then passing. The dealings of Joseph with his brethren serves to illustrate this period. They came to him in their need and he met it, but while yearning over them he made himself strange to them, holding them at a distance till the time come that he could show himself to them. Like them, these sufferers will be brought through a process of schooling, but maintained in the fiery trial, till at the end they look on Him whom they have pierced. When the appointed moment comes He shall come forth and calm the awful hurricane of persecution raging around them, like as in days of old on the lake of Galilee, bringing salvation to all them that look for Him. Then shall He pay His vows, fulfilling all that He has set Himself to do for His beloved people, and the language of Ruth 3:11, will be fitting, "For the Man will not rest until He has accomplished the matter this day." What a moment will that be when one shall say, What are those wounds in Thy hands? And He will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends. The meeting of Joseph and his brethren can but faintly adumbrate this scene, which shows the people face to face with the One whom their fathers had crucified, as the bearer of all the glory yet with the marks of the cross. Is this our glorious King, our long-looked for Deliverer, the One our fathers treated so ill?

"Yes this is He and this is love, love unimagined and unknown.

He left the joys of heaven above, turned from His Kingdom and His throne.

Yea, cast aside His holy crown, a weary wayfarer became.

Bore e’en Jehovah’s bitter frown, endured the cross, despised the shame.

Then conquered hell and burst the grave and rose Omnipotent to save."

Then shall the words of Thomas (who it will be remembered, came in after the church period) spring to their lips, "My Lord and my God," (see John 20:19-23; John 20:26-29).

What follows connects itself with the second feast of the seventh month, or rather, the feast of that date when the people, representative of the whole nation, King, Prophet. Priest, and People, shall be bowed in deepest repentance and shall mourn every family apart, the family 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. If we recall flow these four names were connected at different times in the history with the death of a man we can see how fitting it is that they should be mentioned here as expressive of the nation’s deep contrition regarding the death of their Messiah (see Genesis 49:5-7 and 2 Samuel 12:1-14) But who can conceive what the presence of the King will mean. If for Israel richest blessing, what of the scorching judgment meted out to those nations which had been so long concerned in rebellion against the will of the King. We have heard, and perhaps seen, the tumultuous joy of the ringing of hells. the playing of music, and the beating of drums, and whole nations intoxicated with joy at the close of a war which had steeped such nations in blood for years. The second advent will end wars, because He comes in whose Person in the answer to every question and the solution to every problem, to deliver His people and reign supreme. Some little time is necessary however, in the nature of things, that all enemies may effectually be dealt with and order restored. We find in Jeremiah 31:1-40 the joy of Israel described at that moment when they shall come and sing aloud upon the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness or good things of Jehovah, for corn, and for new wine and for oil, and their soul shall be like a watered garden. Then stall the virgins rejoice in the dance, and the young men and old together? and their mourning shall be turned to gladness, for He will satiate the soul of the priest with fatness and His people will rejoice in His good things. But terrible indeed, must His attitude be towards those nations which were set to resist His coming, when He girds His sword upon His thigh in majesty and splendour, and appears red in His apparel, with garments like him that treadeth the wine vat.

Some time after this comes the entrance of the ten tribes known as Ephraim into the land of their fathers and the blessing of Jehovah, long scattered and lost to view, and not being directly connected with the refusal of Messiah, they had not been in the land when the furnace was heated one seven times more than it had been before. It is God’s way to rehearse, as it were, the history of the nation by bringing these out from among the peoples and the countries with a mighty hand, and causing them to pass under the rod as a shepherd with his sheep, and purging them of the rebels and bringing them into the land that they may know Him (Ezekiel 20:1-49). The long-standing breach is healed, as seen in the symbolic act of joining the two sticks (Ezekiel 37:1-28), and they shall be one nation upon the mountains of Israel, and one King shall be King over them all.

Just before the King appeared there had been, in the providential judgments of Revelation 6-19, the break-up of all ordered life among the nations: the complete convulsions of the whole frame-work of society in all its various departments. This had in view divine construction, viz., an entirely new order of things affecting the very land itself. Not only will the social conditions of life be changed, taking in what is social, commercial, and political, but there will be changes by the word of His power which will affect the land both physically and geographically. The Mount of Olives we are told, shall cleave in the midst, half going towards the north and half towards the south, so that a deep valley is formed from east to west, wherein flows those living waters which go to the Dead Sea in the east and to the Mediterranean in the west. The waters have their source in the Sanctuary and are marked by life and healing, so that the part of the land so long known as lying in death and barrenness is now marked by fertility and beauty. The river itself abounds with fish and its banks with trees, both for food and medicine. The mighty power of the King, which was seen in the days of His flesh, is again in evidence and all nature hastens to obey His blessed command now in the day of His glory. The new Temple from which the water flows shall be built on a scale far surpassing anything known before. The glory which the prophet saw reluctantly departing returns again when Jehovah beautifies the house of His magnificence and the latter glory of the house transcends all our greatest thoughts (Haggai 2:7). Jerusalem, the City of the great King, is raised to a height which could be but faintly fore-shadowed in the days of David and Solomon. The resources of the various kingdoms of nature will be brought to it by the Gentiles for beauty and for glory, and her magnificence, as becomes the metropolis of the whole earth, will shine out in an unprecedented way. They of the nations shall flow unto it, and many people shall go and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob.... For out of Zion shall go forth the law and Jehovah’s word from Jerusalem. She is become a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, her people are all righteous, for Jehovah is her everlasting light. Great is Jehovah. and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. Not only did the shaking of the earth precede this, but the shaking of the heavens also, for well we know that there must be a sweeping out of all the hidden forces of evil that are there. The host of the high ones on high must be put down as well as the evil upon the earth, that the whole arena may be made suitable for the King. Such is the general state that it is characterized by the Spirit as new heavens and new earth, not that this will be literally till later, at the introduction of the day of God, for that creation which has witnessed the humiliation of the King must be purged to behold the greatness of His glory. This brings us to the Jerusalem above, through which Israel and Zion receive all their greatness and joins together in beauty, order, and symmetry, the whole grand system which we call a universe of bliss in our Lord Jesus Christ as the glorious Administrator of all.

We have seen that Israel’s refusal of the Messiah brought about the call of the Church, that company called the Body of Christ, around which the purposes of eternity revolve and for which creation came to exist, and noted, too, how that divine wisdom makes that same company serviceable for carrying through all His ways in time, so that all that belongs to Israel as the covenant people was carried through these. This is that company that appears in the heavens as the city of gold, fitted to be the medium through her long course of disciplinary education, for the administration of heaven’s richest blessing not only to Israel, but to all that dwell upon the earth. Jerusalem on earth is well fitted, after her long course of training, to express Jehovah God to the whole wide earth, but the City above is the Metropolis of the vast universe of God. The new covenant, reconciliation, and eternal life will then be known and enjoyed, but let us note how it comes about. In the course of her training, the nation had been the scene of heavenly visitors, those glorious beings which are His servants in Providential government, now a new thing comes to pass for those, who are the ministers, are the witnesses of redemption. The glorified saints of the Church take the place of the heavenly beings, inasmuch as the lesson to be taught could only be known by those whom Christ had died to redeem. Then, indeed, Jehovah shall hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel, for great shall be the day of Jezreel (Hosea 2:22 and Hosea 1:11). The Church must go in before she comes out, and having no dates, she waits the assembling shout which we know is at the door. She goes into the Father’s house just at the time that the Jews are entering the frightful scenes of the great tribulation, and when the fiery trial is over, will come out in the company of her Head to teach Israel all the preciousness of the thoughts of God. This surely is a consummation worthy of our good and gracious God, and surely the education connected with it is well fitted for beings such as we are. While opening out before the adoring hears all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, He deals with us so as to impart to us an appreciation and a capacity for them, which fits the soul for long-suffering with joyfulness. Where in all creation can we find language to give expression to the thoughts which flood the soul at the contemplation of such a climax as this, where the Scarlet of earthly, Jewish glory is seen in all its beauty and majesty centred in the Lion of the tribe of Judah, where every thought of God seen in the honoured witnesses raised up from time to time, but marked by weakness and failure, is carried through to the glory of God and the richest blessing of His people, by Him who became the Son of David.

If, through grace, we are permitted to trace a little the thoughts connected with the Purple we may have to look at this grand climax again, but from a different standpoint. As we said at the beginning, we may take the telescope of the Spirit and by divine permission, range through the heights and depths of the creation, and with delighted hearts, see every part of it controlled and bearing the stamp of our glorious Head, the Man Christ Jesus, Son of David, Son of Man, Immanuel, God with us. Shall we not then, beloved reader, in the light of all this, set ourselves more for entrance into the deep things of our God and be more fitted to witness here for Him till the coming of our adorable Lord.