Part 9 (1/2)
We have seen that the feasts and the names of Jehovah are prophetic.
They reveal the great redemption and tell us of the cross, the work accomplished there, how G.o.d made provision and redeems unto Himself.
We traced in them His resurrection and the victory; the coming of the Holy Spirit, the formation and completion of the church; the regathering and the restoration of Israel, their spiritual blessing and the millennium. His Name is blessedly linked with these feasts. How wonderful is the blessed Word of G.o.d! And how we may find His gracious purposes in every portion of this Book of books. Soon the last three feasts may be ushered in. Let us therefore as His heavenly people, with a heavenly hope and destiny, wait daily for the promised home-call, the gathering shout.
”WHEN THE SHADOWS FLEE AWAY”
”Until the day break and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense” (Sol. Song iv:6).
For nearly 6,000 years the shadows of sin and death and all which goes with it have been upon the human race. It has been a long and dreary night. Nor has that night become less as centuries pa.s.sed by. Never before have the shadows of the night, the shadows of sin, been so dark and horrifying as now. Never before has there been so much sorrow, so much weeping and suffering in the earth as during our generation. That it will not be always so G.o.d's holy Word a.s.sures us. The night will end some day. ”Watchman what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The morning cometh.” What morning did the watchman mean? It is that morning which all the great prophets of G.o.d beheld in holy vision. The morning when the day breaks and the shadows flee away.
Then that which has been shall be again and peace on earth as well as glory to G.o.d in the highest will follow.
How and when will that long-promised morning come? Not through man's efforts. Not even through the preaching of the Gospel or the activities of the church. Not through a progressive civilization or through great reforms. Many expect in our days a better time for this earth as the result of the great struggle of nations. One of the slogans has been; ”We fight to make the earth a decent place to live in;” while others believe that after the war a perfect and permanent peace with world-wide brotherhood and prosperity will solve all the problems of the human race. The complete overthrow of autocracy with its horrible crimes is in sight. Democracy will be victorious.
Nations, we doubt not, will be brought together in a great league of nations, and all we have been fighting for as a nation to maintain justice and righteousness will be accomplished. But is this going to end sin? Will this mean that all the world turns now to G.o.d and to His Son? Will this victory end human suffering and wipe away all tears?
Will it bring back the lost paradise? Will famines and pestilences, earthquakes now be stopped? Will as a result of the victory of democracy groaning creation be delivered from its groans by the removal of the curse which has rested upon it so long? Has the perfect day come when all strife ceases forever and the sword can never again be unsheathed?
With all the achievements of our times and the realization of our human hopes the age is still ”this present evil age,” Satan is not yet dethroned, but he is still the ruler and the G.o.d of the age. The night is still on. The promised daybreak has not yet come when the shadows flee away. May G.o.d's people remember this now when a wave of optimism no doubt will soon sweep this world, when everywhere the message of ”peace and safety” will be preached, when the rush for world betterment will become almost irresistible.
Not Till He Comes
Not till the Lord Jesus Christ comes again and is enthroned as King over this earth will that day break when the shadows flee away. He alone can bring that longed for better day for the earth. His is the power and the glory to do it. He came from heaven down into this night of sin to purchase back His alienated creation. He paid the price so wonderfully great which only G.o.d can rightly value. The crown of thorns He wore because the thorns are the emblems of the curse which rests now upon creation as the result of man's sin. He tasted death for everything. On the cross He accomplished the mighty work, procured salvation for believing sinners, sealed Satan's doom, and that work is furthermore the pledge and guarantee of the victory for G.o.d in bringing back creation to its former perfect condition, only with greater glory added.
The once thorn-crowned Christ is in glory yonder. There faith's eye sees Him, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor. But some day He will get the many crowns of which He is worthy, and when that glorious day comes, the shadows flee away.
”Come then, and, added to thy many crowns, Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, Thou who alone art worthy! It was thine By ancient covenant, ere Nature's birth; And Thou hast made it thine by purchase since, And overpaid its value with Thy blood.”[1]
Let us see then what shadows will flee away when He comes back to earth again and claims His blood-bought inheritance. Let us see what glories are in store for this earth when the Son of Man receives that kingdom which will extend from sea to sea unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
+I. As to His Redeemed People+. The breaking of the day is heralded by the Morningstar, followed by the rising of the Sun in all his glory.
Thus nature teaches us Scripture truths. Christ comes first for His own Saints; that is the Morningstar. And then He comes in fullest glory with all His Saints as the sun of righteousness with healing in His wings; that is the sunrise when all shadows of the night will flee away.
The Saints of G.o.d wait now for the breaking of the day, for His coming as the Morningstar. And when He comes and opens with His triumphant shout the graves of the righteous dead, and calls the living Saints for the unspeakable change, in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, to put on immortality--then the shadows for His people are forever, yes forever, gone. No more bodies then of humiliation, but glorified bodies; no more separation from loved ones and from saints, but a blessed eternal reunion and fellows.h.i.+p; no more sorrow, but everlasting joy; no more crying and tears, but all tears wiped away; no more sinning, but perfect holiness; no more troubles, but perfect rest. What a glory time it will be when for us, His own beloved people the day breaks, and the shadows flee away. As shadows now increase, because the night is far spent and the day is at hand, the Saints of G.o.d should daily think of the soon coming day-break, that blessed, happy moment when we shall see Him as He is and shall be like Him.
+II. The Shadows Will Flee Away from Israel and Israel's Land+. No pen can describe the history of this people and the dark shadows which have been upon them. As the homeless nation they have wandered throughout this age, in fulfillment of the predictions of their own prophets, among the nations of the earth. Awful have been their persecutions, and tribulations upon tribulations have been their lot.
Suffering and sorrow, the meat and drink of every generation since they were driven from their G.o.d-given land. How dark are the shadows which have come upon that people once more as the result of the world conflict. Millions have lost their all. Hundreds of thousands are homeless wanderers in eastern Europe. Perhaps the story of their suffering in connection with the war will never be written. And the end is not yet.
On the other hand their national hope has been revived as never before in their history. Regiments of Jews have gone forth into the war with their own flags, with David's s.h.i.+eld in the center and the Hebrew word ”Immanuel.” They have been fighting like the Maccabees of old.
Jerusalem has been captured from the Turks; all Palestine has pa.s.sed into the hands of the Allies; never again can Turkey have dominion over the land she has so horribly misruled. What is to become of Palestine and Jerusalem? Let the answer be given through the letter which A. J.
Balfour wrote in behalf of the British Government to Baron Rothschild: ”The Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing will be done that may prejudice the civil or religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”
Here is the answer of the French Government. ”M. Sokolow, representing the Zionist organizations, was received by Monsieur Pichon, Minister for Foreign Affairs, who was happy to inform him that there is complete argeement between the French and English Governments in all matters which concern the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.” Our own country has fallen in line and pledged itself to see that at last the Jew is going to be treated with justice and that Palestine will become an independent Jewish state. No wonder there is great joy among the ma.s.ses of Jews and that they too see a better day looming up for their people.
But do these tremendous events in the East mean that the day has come when the shadows flee away from the seed of Abraham? Not by any means.
The time of Jacob's trouble has not yet been. The last siege of Jerusalem, prewritten in Zechariah's prophecy (chapter xiv) still awaits its fulfillment. To deliver that nation and that land completely and bring about the glories promised in G.o.d's infallible Word needs more than the conquest of the land. The flag of the British lion now flies over Jerusalem. Some day another flag will be raised above that city--the flag of the Son of Man, the Son of David, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
Only when He comes again and His blessed feet stand once more upon the Mount of Olives, will that day of blessing and glory break for Israel with all shadows fleeing away. What it all will mean is fully written in prophecy. Much of what is written in the Book of Isaiah from chapter xl to the end of the vision of Isaiah refers to that glory time, when the King comes back, and when for Jerusalem the shadows flee away. Read especially chapters liv and lv; lxvi. In the other Prophets read the following chapters: Jeremiah x.x.x and x.x.xi; Ezekiel x.x.xiv-xlviii; Daniel vii:13-28 and chapter xii; Hosea iii:5, v:15, vi:1-3, xiv; Joel iii; Amos ix:11-15; Obadiah, verses 17-21; Micah iv-v; Habakkuk iii; Zephaniah iii:8-20; Haggai ii:6-9; Zechariah ii:6-13, viii, ix:9-11, xii-xiv. Here we have unfailing predictions of what will be when the day breaks and the shadows flee away from Israel.
+III. The Shadows for All the Nations of the World Will Flee Away+.