A Religious War against God's People

 

Palestinians and Hamas have a joint desire of death to the Jews

Hamas is an organization dedicated to the destruction of the Jews so that the land of Israel might be theirs alone, from the river to the sea.  The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank celebrates in Hamas' horrific pogrom against Jews and calls on its people to join in the bloodshed.  The "innocent civilians" have voted these bloodthirsty people into power, and call for the wrath of God to measure out their destruction.  He who touches Israel touches the apple of His eye.  God will soon bring peace to Israel, and when Russia comes with the nations, "to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey..."  God will send his Son to save His people and judge those who have come against them.

And when these things begin to come to pass,then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.  Luke 21:25

As Israel’s existential war enters its fourth week, the world this week is indeed full of turmoil, protest, and violence.  The divide along the north-south alliance of Daniel 11 is ever apparent and the nations of the final battle of Ezekiel 38 are lining up in opposition over events in Israel. Welcome to this week's Bible in the News.

Since the Hamas attack President Biden has shown verbal and tangible support for Israel’s right to protect itself, but still calls for a two-state solution.  The US also has an increasing number of assets in the area, the US is attempting to contain the conflict and warn away the likes of Iran from joining in.  But we must consider that this week the President has also had the Pope on the phone nudging him along to consider “humanitarian relief.”  The Pope has reportedly called for a ceasefire on at least six occasions, but how long the US continues to support what Israel needs to do, remains to be seen. 

Meanwhile in Russia, Putin is taking up his position on the opposite side of the board.  This week also saw him playing the host to both Hamas and Iran in Moscow.  And the nations of the world, wholly unable to jointly condemn Hamas at such a time are following the Arabs at the UN’s General Assembly demanding for a ceasefire.  The will to support Israel was so weak that only 14 nations voted against the resolution.  The whole world is indeed against Israel, as prophesied.

To understand how much the world is against Israel, we must understand that calls for a ceasefire are really calls to preserve Hamas and to maintain the thorn in Israel's side.  There is no way any meaningful peace will come that way as recent history bears out.

Let's consider for a moment some events closer to Israel.  While protests around the world call for Palestine to be free from the river to the sea, is the Palestinian Authority an innocent bystander to these atrocities? 

In fact, no.  Not at all. The Palestinian Authority this week instructed mosques across the area to preach death to the Jews, declaring a religious war against them and celebrating in the sickening brutality of Hamas.  Not only at a governmental level, but even individual "innocent" civilians joined a mass rally in the streets of Tulkarem waving Hamas flags and chanting in support of them.

The conflict, contrary to every rational thought, seems to have raised aggression against the victim.  Jews around the world are facing reprisals for the fact that Israel is fighting for its existence against a cruel, uncivilized enclave mere miles from it's most populous cities.  In the UK alone, antisemitic incidents are up 641.

When we look to the Bible, God says that the Nations of the earth will pay for their hatred.  God judges the nations based on their behaviour.

“9 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant . . . 11 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever . . . 13 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:”
Amos 1:9, 11, 13

If we can imagine the sensitivity of the pupil of our eyes, this describes the very visceral reaction that God will have against those who dare to attack Israel.  It is like a poke in His eye.

“For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” – Zechariah 2:8

God is by no means silent about what will happen to those Incensed Against Israel:

(Isaiah 41:8, 11, 14-15, AV) “8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend . . . 11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish . . . 14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. 15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.”

There is also a unity within Israel that is seen as a feature of the latter days.  They become one in His hand.  We expect this to have a much greater fulfillment, but current events are drawing them together.  The left seems to be beginning to understand that there is no peace to be had with the Palestinan Arabs, the Hareidi Ultra Orthodox Jews are lining up to help in army and other forms of National Service.  In general, the nation is drawing close to each other in this time of bitter trouble.

(Ezekiel 37:19, AV) “19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.”

What does prophecy say will happen from here?  What does the Bible have to say about Gaza?  A place we can find an answer for this is in Zephaniah 2:

“For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up. 5 Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the LORD is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. 6 And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. 7 And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the LORD their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.” 
– Zephaniah 2:4-7

One more verse that makes this clear:

(Jeremiah 30:16, AV) “16 Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.”

How can there ever be peace in the land?  We know it must come, but with such blood-thirsty nieghbours, how will it come about?
The Bible gives us a very descriptive and particular picture of the Israel that Gog comes against at the time of the end,  in Ezekiel 38 

8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.
10 Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 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 them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the 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.
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:

The peace that is achieved in the land is not a peace that makes the world happy.  On the contrary, the verse says that when this peace comes, the reaction is to gather them.  To bring them for judgement into the land of Israel where they will meet their end.  What must we who are living at such a time do?

(Zephaniah 2:3, AV) “3 Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger.

The Olivet Prophecy Parallels

 Part 2 - Parallels 1 We will try to avoid hypotheses in our study of the main features of prophecy. One of the principal tools will be parallelism. 2 Prophetic Parallelism is, in principle, similar to the rugby photos in the Dominion (fable, above). 3 Start with the Olivet Prophecy: (a) To us it is not unnatural to divide the disciples’ questions (Mark 13:4, Matthew 24:3): (i) Herod’s temple was destroyed in AD 70. (ii) Jesus’ return was certainly not to be until after 2000. (iii) These imply that maybe the questions were addressing two different events in two different eras. (b) But: (i) The disciples had no idea that Jesus was going away. OHP 1: Latter-Day Agendas. ¾ The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and … he shall rise the third day. But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him (Mark 9:30-32; see also Luke 9:44, 45, 18:31-34, etc) ¾ The disciples, like other first-century Jews, expected the Messiah to come immediately (Luke 3:15, 19:11, John 10:24, Acts 1:6, etc); Jesus’ departure was simply not on their “latter-day” agenda. ¾ So Jesus’ “coming” in Matt 24:3 must mean his “coming to power” - as in Luke 23:42 - and there is really only one question in Matt 24:3. ¾ Like them, we have trouble adjusting to Bible teaching that is not on our agenda. There is a warning here! (ii) “Thy coming” must have meant “coming to reign” as in the thief’s request (Luke 23:42). So disciples would not have any idea of dividing Jesus’ answer - the Olivet prophecy - into parts. To them the answer was one. Therefore the question is one. (iii) Mark has two questions (Mark 13:4) yet only one subject (“these things”). (c) The Olivet Prophecy has 97 verses; yet it only answers the disciples’ question with three specific prophetic statements contained in 5 verses (Matt 24:15, 21, 29-31). 61 verses (24:37 - 25:46) are lessons for disciples so that they will be prepared - Jesus’ real concern. (d) The prophetic outline begins from the desecration of a temple and ends with the Lord’s triumphant return from heaven. (i) The question is, which temple does he mean? (ii) We usually think of the obvious - Herod’s temple, Israel’s second (Herod’s temple had simply taken over Zerubbabel’s without any hiatus and so is called the second temple). Page 19 (iii) I shall point out that prophecy as a whole indicates a third temple - to be set in operation before the Lord’s return. On that basis, Ezekiel’s temple of the kingdom will be the fourth.

OHP 2: Matthew 24: Christ’s Coming ¾ 4-13: Conditions to be expected and endured as disciples in all ages wait for the Lord to come. ¾ 14: Preliminary sign that the end is near. ¾ 15: Only specific sign of the end - a defiled holy place. ¾ 16-20: How Judean disciples must react to the sign of vs 15 ¾ 21, 22: A never-to-be-repeated time of trouble – greater than any before it since the beginning of the world ¾ 23-28: How disciples should think and act during the time of trouble ¾ 29-31: Christ returns immediately after the tribulation 

OHP 3: Olivet’s Three Main Statements ¾ So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel - let the reader understand - then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (Matthew 24:15, NIV) ¾ For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equaled again. (Matthew 24:21, NIV) ¾ Immediately after the distress of those days ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ [Isaiah 13:10; 34:4] At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth (or land - Zechariah 12:12) will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:29, 30, NIV) 

 

Peace And Safety

1 Thessalonians 5

For many years this familiar passage has been expounded as a prophecy that there will come a time when the nations of the world will either be seized by an overmastering anxiety to get together and rid themselves of the threat of war, or will feel at some political juncture that at last they have actually devised a scheme by which war has been finally abolished. At such a time “sudden destruction cometh upon them”; it will overtake them “as a thief in the night.” This will be the final cataclysm at the coming of the Lord.

Interpreted in this fashion, the Peace and Safety cry has been regarded as one of the outstanding signs of our times. U.N.O. and, before it, the League of Nations and also nearly every other twentieth century effort to patch up the quarrels and bickerings of the nations have in turn been hailed as the fulfilment of Paul’s prophecy, with the logical (sic!) conclusion that the coming of the Lord is just round the corner.

It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the value of this long-standing interpretation is only in direct proportion to its degree of Biblical support. For too long interpretation of these Bible signs has been by means of politics instead of by means of Bible. Thus the elucidation of Bible prophecy has been brought down to the level of a semi-political game, valid for those who are forbidden to take part in politics in any other way.

A FRESH APPROACH

The present approach will be on somewhat different lines.

A not unimportant feature of Paul’s two letters to Thessalonica is the number of allusions, which it contains to the Lord’s Olivet prophecy. This is specially true in the section 1 Thessalonians 4: 15-5:10 (the chapter division here is unfortunate):

1 Thessalonians	Matthew
4: 15 This we say unto you in a word of the Lord (i.e. what I am now reminding you of is what Jesus himself said).
4: 16 the Lord himself shall des- cend from heaven with a shout,	24: 30 they shall see the Son of man coming ... with power and great glory.
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God.	24: 31 he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
4: 17 we which are alive and re- main	shall gather together his elect.
shall be caught up in clouds to meet the Lord.	24: 30 coming in the clouds of heaven.
	Luke
5: 1 the times and seasons,	21: 24 the times of the Gentiles.
	Matthew
5: 2 the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.	24: 43 if the good man of the house had known in what hour the thief would come.
5: 3 when they shall say, Peace and safety,	24: 48 my lord delayeth his coming.
then sudden destruction cometh upon them,	24: 43, 51 his house broken up ... shall cut him asunder.
as travail upon a woman with child .	24: 8 these are the beginning of travail.
5: 5 Ye are all children of light.	25: 1-13 the wise virgins with lamps lit.
5: 6 let us not sleep, but	25: 5 they all slumbered and slept.
let us watch,	24: 42; 25: 13 Watch therefore.
and be sober.	24: 49 eat and drink with the drunken.
5: 9 God hath not appointed us to wrath.	24: 51 appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.
5 :10 whether we wake or sleep ... ... live together with him.	25: 1-13 the virgins.

It is doubtless true that several of these correspondences occurring by themselves could hardly be recognizable as allusions to the Lord’s discourse, but the fact that they come together in the space of a few verses makes the probability of close connection a near-certainty. Those accustomed to tracing this kind of allusiveness in the inspired writers of Scripture will more readily perceive the character of this paragraph in 1 Thessalonians.

SLUMBERING VIRGINS

Once the fore-going parallel is recognized the conclusion becomes inevitable that those assuring themselves of peace and safety are not the nations of the world but the Lord’s own unprepared servants. It is to them that the Lord comes as a thief in the night.

A further argument, readily educible from this passage, leads to the same conclusion. Paul continues: “sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child.” This figure of speech needs to be pondered. A pregnant woman knows that her travail is inevitable. Also, she knows roughly when it will come. But she never knows the precise time. Almost always she is at length taken by surprise.

All these aspects of Paul’s simile are marvellously appropriate to the waiting church. She knows that the Lord will come. From the signs of the times she has a fair idea that the present epoch will see his coming. But “of that day and hour knoweth no man.”

On the other hand, to attempt to apply Paul’s figure to the nations of the world is to make nonsense of it. They do not know that the day of crisis is inevitable. All their planning is based on the assumption that it can be staved off by their own scheming. In any case the entire context of Paul’s exhortation disallows the possibility of reference to godless nations. In this epistle the apostle is concerned first and last with the well-being of this newly-founded ecclesia in Thessalonica.

A SECRET ADVENT?

A further conclusion to be drawn from this re-examination of 1 Thessalonians is that the idea of a preliminary secret thief-like advent of Christ before his open manifestation in glory to the nations of the world loses all its Biblical support.

Not only here but also in every other place where the same figure is used; it has reference to the condition of the Lord’s servants. It is to certain of the7n that the manifestation of the Lord will be like the stealthy depredations of a thief: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments ... “ (Revelation 16: 15). “If therefore thou (Sardis) shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief ...” (Revelation 3: 3). “The Lord is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But (to some who are unrepentant) the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (2 Peter 3: 9, 10).

On the other hand Christ himself warned pointedly against being misled by those who teach that the second coming will be stealthy and secret. In effect the churches teach this when they try to persuade that the Lord’s coming is to the heart of the believer, or mystically in the “Real Presence” in the sacramental bread. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach the same thing when they affirm an invisible “spiritual” presence of the Lord since 1914.

“BELIEVE IT NOT”

To all these the answer of Scripture is: “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24: 23-27). This passage is so clear and emphatic, it should make those pause and consider who have been in the habit of thinking (and teaching) in terms of a secret coming of Christ to his people assembled to meet him in some remote uninhabited part of the world.

It is not in this sense that the Lord comes as a thief. The point of this simile is different. When a burglar has broken into a home and slipped away with all the money and the choicest items of wealth it contains, the householder suddenly awakes to the fact that what he deemed to be his most treasured possessions are gone, they are his no longer.

The Lord’s coming will be like that. For all, and especially for the unprepared, there will suddenly dawn a day of stark self-awareness when with a flash of honest insight such as is rare even with the most mature and spiritual, it is realized that those things which have counted for so much in life — cars, clothes, homes, gardens, holidays, social standing, professional or business status —are seen to be of very little value in the presence of the Lord. It will be as though they have all been suddenly snatched away by a thief.

The Day Of The Lord

 

15) The Day Of The Lord

Zephaniah 1-3

The prophecy of Zephaniah is very evidently connected closely with the events of the prophet’s own time — the reign of Josiah. Two possibilities present themselves. Either the prophet is foretelling events soon to happen, and the prophecy is so framed as to have reference also to events of the Last Days (much in Jeremiah and the early part of Isaiah is like this); or, recent events are being used (as in the later chapters in Isaiah) to provide prophetic pictures of bigger events in the time of the end. It is difficult to say with any confidence which of these modes of interpretation is correct, but the pointed allusions to Josiah’s Passover in 1: 7, 8, 12 suggest the second.

A FUTURE FULFILMENT

Apart from the language of the prophecy itself, there seem to be two clear reasons for a Last-Day application of it. First, there are the quotations from the prophecy of Joel: “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near ... a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm” (1: 14-16). This is Joel 2: 1, 2. Some of the phrases are quoted word for word. If Joel may be applied with confidence to the Last Days, then surely Zephaniah also.

The concluding section of the prophecy (3: 14 20) reads very convincingly as a picture of events still future. But there is also this: in John’s account of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the familiar quotation from Zechariah 9:9 is prefaced with two phrases from Zephaniah: “Fear not, daughter of Zion” (3: 16, 14)—the words are not found in Zechariah. And the context in Zephaniah 3 is: “the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee ... The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will Jesus thee” (vv. 15,17). The triumphal entry of Jesus was, of course, a kind of dress-rehearsal of the kingdom. The Lord was asserting his right to come to Jerusalem one day as its eternal king.

The shape of Zephaniah’s picture of judgement and blessing in the Last Days is worth noting. Chapters 1, 3 are, in the main, pronouncements of wrath against “Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Chapter 2: 4-13 is against neighbouring enemies: the Philistines, Moab, Ethiopia, Assyria. The prophecy ends with the lovely picture of the kingdom, already referred to.

HEEDLESS ISRAEL

The prophet describes Israel as given over to idolatry and the pursuit of material prosperity. They have no mind for anything else. Making due allowance for the fact that Zephaniah necessarily has to use the language of his own day, the description is appropriate to the Jews now in the Land: “them that are turned back from the Lord, and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for him ... that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.” Today the Jews in Israel are, for the most part, godless in outlook. There is little acknowledgement of the blessing of God in the building of their vigorous new state, and little thankfulness to Him for the victories they have won. Instead, there is a rather cocksure dependence on their own powers and a glorifying of their own admittedly remarkable achievements. “She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God” (3: 2). Princes, judges, prophets, priests are all castigated as unworthy of their office (3: 3, 4). Yet “the just Lord is in the midst thereof,” unrecognised; “morning by morning (through the signs of the times?) doth he bring his judgement to light” (3 :5), but these men who are skilful in “discerning the face of the (political) sky, cannot discern the signs of the times.”

Soon God will rise up early, sending His prophet Elijah among them, but the nation will continue to “rise early, and corrupt their doings” (3: 7). The appeal is made, therefore, to the faithful remnant “before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you” (2: 2); “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgement; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger” (2: 3).

Appeal is made to the nation to see God’s hand in the events of their own time: “I have cut off the nations (Egypt, Jordan, Syria): their towers are desolate; I have made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man” (3: 6). Yet still the lesson that God controls the affairs of His ancient people goes unlearned: “I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction” (3: 7). But no! Israel appears impervious to true wisdom.

However, inexorably the day draws near when the lesson will be learned: “In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings...for then I will take away out of the midst of thee thy proudly exulting ones, and thou shalt no more be haughty upon my holy mountain,” as Israel has certainly been since June 1967.

The enemy nations round about will also be involved in this dramatic transformation. Judgement and desolation will come upon them who have been used to bring desolation and judgement on Israel (2: 4, 9, 13-15; 1:17,18). All this because “they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts” (2: 10). Up to the present day there has been “reproach” in plenty. But until Arab utterly defeats Jew in battle, there is little ground for “magnifying themselves.”

A GREAT TRANSFORMATION

During the evil time referred to here, “the time of Jacob’s trouble,” when the Arabs—with formidable Russian help—are able to gloat in triumph over a people they know to be their superiors in everything except barbarism, there will be a faithful remnant who will be saved through their repentance and faith in God: “I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the name of the Lord” (3: 12).

Then the Lord will “take away thy judgements” and “cast out thine enemy”; from this time on “the king of Israel, even Jehovah, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more” (3: 15). Retribution will be visited on the enemies of this nation beloved for their fathers’ sakes. Jews who have endured affliction and dispersion yet again will once more be gathered to their homeland. Now for the last time in all their fantastic history they will come from all parts to inherit the Land, this time forever. No contempt, opposition or hatred now, for God has “made them a name and a praise among all the people of the earth” (3: 20). Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in person will beckon them back to a Land lately associated in their minds with fear and horror. “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem” (3: 14). The exhortation to indulge in unrestrained gladness will be needed, for the startling change which will then come over the fortunes of this stricken people will surely reduce them to stupefied silence and awe.

“Then will I turn to the peoples a pure lip, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent” (3: 9). The words have often been interpreted as a prophecy of the reversal of Babel, the institution of one common language (Hebrew?) in the kingdom of God. That this will assuredly happen may be taken as axiomatic. But whether that language will be Hebrew and whether this passage is a prophecy of that much-to-be-desired achievement is doubtful.

This famous Zephaniah passage is more fundamental than any of these considerations. Here, as in a great many other Old Testament passages “the peoples” are the tribes of Israel; and the “pure lip” is not so much the language they will speak as the ideas they will express — “calling upon the name of the Lord” and “serving him with one consent” — a condition which has never been achieved in Hebrew history since the days of Abraham. Now, at last, Israel will not only say: “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do,” but they will do what they say.

The Olivet Prophecy

 

14) The Olivet Prophecy

Matthew 24

On the face of it the Lord’s Olivet prophecy is in three easily separable sections: (a) concerning the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 — this in response to the question: “When shall these things be,” when not one stone of the temple is to be left upon another? (b) the Last Days, the time of the Lord’s return—in answer to the question: What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (c) exhortation to preparedness, and warning regarding the day of judgement.

Such an analysis of Christ’s discourse actually over-simplifies it. There is fair reason for believing that the A.D. 70 section of the prophecy will also find another fulfilment in the Last Days. In other words, the brethren of the first century saw the fulfilment of the first part of this prophecy in their day, and were able to profit from the knowledge of it; the brethren of the twentieth century will see the entire prophecy fulfilled from start to finish.

Even apart from the Bible evidence, which is available, pointing to such a conclusion, this may be deemed reasonably possible or even probable, because this is the character of such a big proportion of Bible prophecy. The idea is familiar, to the point of obviousness, that the prophets were inspired to utter words which mostly had some kind of fulfilment in their own time or soon after, but which were also prophecies of the consummation of the age. Psalms written by David about his own experiences were also Psalms about the Messiah (Acts 2:30, 31). Isaiah based many of his prophecies on the suffering and glory of good king Hezekiah, but these were also prophecies of Messiah (John 12: 41). So it would be strange indeed if the greatest prophecy of the greatest prophet of all time did not have a similar double application.

A SECOND FULFILMENT

Here, then, are six more reasons educed from the text itself why the first section of the Lord’s Olivet prophecy should be re-studied with reference to the Last Days:

1. “Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes” (Matthew 24: 17, 18). In Luke 17: 31 Jesus had already used almost identical words concerning “the days of the Son of man.” If this fact stood by itself there might be some (though not much) justification for the assumption that the Lord used the same language because there was the same urgency about the occasions. Those who have really absorbed the spirit of Bible prophecy will know how inadequate such a view is. But in any case there are corroborative reasons.
2. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew. 24: 21). Yet the Old Testament prophets had already made the same portentous declaration over and over again regarding the Last Days! One recalls Daniel’s “time of trouble such as never was” (Daniel 12: 1) and the extreme emphasis of the words of Joel: “there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations” (2: 2). Either the words do not mean what they say, or they are to be reconciled by being applied to the same occasion.
3. It is in this section of the prophecy also that the words come: “But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved” (24: 13). There is more innate difficulty in this saying than has generally been conceded. If “the end” is A.D. 70, was Jesus saying: He who keeps the faith till the temple is destroyed shall be saved? Or did he mean: He who keeps the faith to the end of his life shall be saved? But this is a truism valid for every disciple in every age. Had Jesus said: “He that shall endure in the time of the end (of the Mosaic dispensation), the same shall be saved,” there would have been little difficulty. But he did not say that. On the other hand, reference to the Last Days allows the words to be taken literally, at their face value.^[19]
4. Verse 29 begins: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days ...” This word “immediately,” the meaning of which has been evaded by a variety of tortuous or inaccurate devices (e.g. by suggesting that it does not mean “immediately” but “suddenly”) requires a very close connection between the tribulation Jesus has already foretold and the time of his second coming.
5. “Then let them which be in Judæa flee to the mountains” (v. 16). This is the experience of Lot over again: “Escape for thy life ... escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed” (Genesis 19: 17). In Luke 17: 28, 29, 32 Jesus pointed to an emphatic parallel between the Last Days and the deliverance of Lot. So it is hard to believe that here also in his Olivet prophecy he used similar language without intending a similar idea.
6. “And the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all the nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24: 14). In the first century these words had their fulfilment in the matchless work of Paul who in humble truth was able to write about “the hope of the gospel ... which was preached to every creature under heaven” (Colossians 1: 23). “And then shall the end come”—about a year after Paul was beheaded, the three and a half year’s Jewish War began in Judæa. Yet as the words of Jesus are read and pondered, there is a finality about them that suggests a grander fulfilment. In this twentieth century, in spite of the blameworthy lethargy of God’s elect, the message of the imminent return of Christ goes out from scores of radio stations. Today in a much more universal fashion than was true in Paul’s day the gospel is being preached in all the world, even though it be mixed with error.

MEANING FOR THE LAST DAYS

The foregoing assembly of Bible arguments will surely predispose any earnest student of prophecy towards re-examining this part of the Lord’s discourse with a view to learning more concerning the time of his coming. The following are some of the details specially worthy of re-consideration.

1. Verses 9, 10 speak of persecution and bitter hatred of the faithful. At the time of writing there is no sign of this. Would God there were, for the Household of God needs the bracing influence of external adversity to save it from the eroding effects of a soft materialistic civilization and to provide it with new and better opportunities of evangelism. This could well come.
2. “And then shall many be offended ... and many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24: 10a, 11, 12). The words plainly mean that many will openly renounce the Faith, many others will pervert it, but many (most) will just drift. To the modern mind these seem to be incompatible with what has just been mentioned. Yet Jesus saw no incompatibility.
3. An “abomination of desolation” is to stand in the holy place (v. 15). This means: an abomination which desolates the holy city, Jerusalem. Such a conclusion is indicated by the parallel in Luke 21: 20: “And when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies ...” Since Jesus adds: “whoso readeth, let him understand,” it is a reasonable inference that the great sign of the imminence of the Lord’s return will be the desolation of Jerusalem, lately freed from nineteen centuries of Gentile domination. In Daniel 12 the prophecy already quoted continues: “And from the time that ... the abomination that maketh desolate is set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days;” whilst in Luke 21 the prophecy already quoted continues: “and Jerusalem shall be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” This suggests that “the times of the Gentiles” which Jesus had in mind were not the long centuries of Gentile mastery of the city but the “time, times and a half,” a period of literally three and a half years when the city is laid desolate just before the coming of the Lord.
4. “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24: 22). There are several impressive examples to be found in Scripture of a divine fore-shortening of evil days. The three days’ pestilence in which David preferred to fall into the hand of God was shortened, by grace, to less than a day—again, for the sake of the elect. David prayed for the people and took the guilt upon himself (2 Samuel 24: 13, 15, 16, 17). The siege of A.D. 70 was shortened, in the mercy of God, to five months precisely (Nebuchadnezzar’s siege lasted the whole of a terrible year). This also was for the elect’s sake: Revelation 9: 5 and 8: 3, 4. Similarly it may well be that the times of the Gentiles which are still future will be shortened through the faith and prayers of the saints who discern the pattern of God’s working and influence it by their intercession as Abraham did in the days of Lot.

Tentative conclusions such as these may be momentous. The possibility of such sensational developments has perhaps not been ventilated and discussed as fully as it might be.

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[19] Readers may like to probe further and seek an answer to the question why Jesus chose to include these words here and not in a later section of his discourse where they seem to be so much more appropriate.

Then Shall The Lord Go Forth”

 

13) “Then Shall The Lord Go Forth”

Zechariah 14

The last chapter of Zechariah has many powerful details of the consummation of the Lord’s work among His people, some of which are by no means easy to understand. Nor is it altogether clear how this prophecy is to be pieced together chronologically.

It begins with a successful attack on Jerusalem by “all nations.” Clearly this phrase is not to be taken literally. It puts too big a strain on the imagination to picture the Fiji Islanders and the Eskimos, the pygmies of Africa and the Communist Chinese, all combining together in a savage onslaught on the city

Some have sought a way out of the difficulty by calling in the United Nations. But even then a solution to the problem is still far away, for the aim of any such activity by that effete hypocritical organization is to separate combatants by means of a peace-keeping task force. But these attackers in Zechariah ravage and spoil without mercy.

As soon as the Bible idiom of “all nations round about Israel” (compare 1 Chronicles 14: 17, 2 Chronicles 32: 23; Ezekiel 32: 12) is recognized, the difficulty ceases to exist. These, as in so many other prophecies already considered, are the Arab enemies of Israel who will never rest content until they have ground their Jewish neighbours into the dust. These Arab invaders may be confidently depended on to rifle houses and ravish women. In the third Arab-Israeli war a Jewish citizen stated in a newspaper article that if the Arabs had won he would have shot his own wife and family and then

himself. “There would have been another Masada.” This, at least, shews what the Jews expect when they lose the struggle against these inveterate foes.

That they will lose is plainly intimated in one Scripture after another. “The city shall be taken ... half the city shall go forth into captivity.” This must mean slavery for a big proportion of the population, as Joel 3 and Isaiah 19 have already been seen to require.

THE MESSIAH

“Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.” In the time of crisis and despair, and because Israel turn in their helplessness to the God of their fathers, deliverance will come in a way to amaze the world. How the Lord will fight is explicitly stated: “And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour” (v. 13).

The great plague with which these enemies will be smitten is described in language which makes the blood run cold: “Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth” (v. 12). All kinds of suggestions have been made as to how this might come about. Bubonic plague, the deadly incurable aftermath of nuclear radiation such as is caused by hydrogen bombs, some hitherto unused secret weapon of germ or chemical warfare perfected by the back-room scientists — many guesses of this sort have been ventilated. One thing seems to be clear: the words indicate an escalation of the attack on Jerusalem into war on a massive scale involving much more than the tiny Holy Land.

At such a time the Messiah himself will appear. It was promised by the angels “he shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Since he went away in a cloud of divine glory (Acts 1: 9), it may be confidently expected that he will be manifested accompanied by that same Shekinah majesty. This is implied in Zechariah: “and the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee.” Here the “saints” or “holy ones” coming with (and not to) the Messiah are the angels (see Matthew 24: 31, 1 Thessalonians 4: 16; Jude 14)^[16] Also, the Messiah will return to the same place from which he ascended: “his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.”

EARTH QUAKE

At that time this Mount of Olives will be split in two by a mighty earthquake (v. 4), which will create a great valley running east and west. It is only in recent times that geologists have discovered the existence of a great geological east-west fault in the structure of the Mount of Olives. It is as though ages ago the Almighty prepared the ground for the vast changes soon to take place.

The result will be a formation similar to that, which already exists at Shechem (Nablus), where mount Ebal and mount Gerizim flank a deep east west valley. It was here where Joshua assembled the people of Israel with the ark, the symbol of God’s presence, in the midst, to hear recited the blessings and the cursings which would come upon them (Joshua 8: 33, 34). Apparently, then, the mount of Olives will be prepared that it might be the scene of a similar declaration of the divine will concerning the saints in Christ. They will be assembled in the divine presence of a more glorious Jesus-Joshua, and set either on his right hand to hear the wondrous invitation: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom,” or to be thrust away to the left: “Depart from me ye cursed.”^[17]

At the time of the earthquake men will flee “as from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah” — fleeing “from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth” (Isaiah 2: 19—a passage based initially on the experience of Uzziah’s earthquake, but appropriated in the New Testament to describe the terror of the coming of Christ: 2 Thessalonians 1: 19; Revelation 6: 16).

This “valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel,” a place no one can identify. Perhaps once again the allusion is not geographical but spiritual intended to recall Azazel, the scapegoat, which, with sin laid upon it, was for utter dismissal (see RVm in Leviticus 16: 8) from the presence of the Lord.

Thus, with both the unworthy in the ecclesia of Christ and the wicked among the nations purged out, the kingdom of Messiah will come in with glory and righteousness: “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one,” that is, “the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.”

MESSIAH’S KINGDOM

The prophecy is rounded off with two vivid pictures of the transformations brought by Messiah’s reign. “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left, of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.”

That which in ancient days was a unique combination of national holiday, Bible School, and re-dedication for the people of Israel, will be extended to take in all the nations of the world. The feast will be held all the year round, members of all the diverse peoples going up to the Holy City in rotation, for instruction and guidance in the ways of God (Isaiah 19: 23-25).

The phrase: “every one that is left of all the nations” is ominous. The implication is unmistakable that a big proportion of the world’s teeming millions, now presenting such a problem to scientists and world planners, will not survive to see the wonders of the coming age.^[18] But for those whom the grace of God preserves there will be opportunities of blessing past imagining.

Yet, such is human nature, even under the benign conditions which Christ’s reign will bring, some stubbornness and recalcitrance is bound to happen. Those unwilling to be integrated in the divine family of nations will find themselves without rain: and in particular Egypt, if rebellious, will be visited once again with the plague which broke the spirit of that nation in the days of Moses. Jeremiah indicates that where there is persistent stubbornness, the plague will not stop at the firstborn: “And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The Lord liveth ... then shall they be built in the midst of my people (here is a true UNO, built round and in Israel, the people of God’s choice; see also Isaiah 2: 3). But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 12: 16, 17).

In contrast to this picture of intransigence, so characteristic of human nature, is another of Jerusalem and its people utterly transformed in character: “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holy to the Lord.” The very bridles which have been bathed in blood (Revelation 14: 10) will now be as holy in the work of the city of peace as the garments of the High Priest (Exodus 28: 33, 36). “And the (earthenware) pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the (golden) bowls before the altar.” Here is further symbolism too instructive to be neglected. Those who are earthen vessels filled with the treasure of the Lord’s message (2 Corinthians 4: 7) will themselves become as valuable and permanent in God’s service as the treasure itself.

“And there shall no more be the Canaanite in the house of the Lord.” Not only is this an assurance that the centuries-long Moslem sway over the holy city shall be swept away for ever, but also it is an indirect but yet emphatic way of insisting that the promises God made to Abraham will be finally and completely fulfilled. For, when ‘‘Abram passed through the land ... the Canaanite was then in the land;” but when “the Lord made covenant with Abram,” he promised: “Unto thy seed have I given this land ... Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaims, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites” (Genesis 12: 6 and 15: 18-21). Abraham himself will see it fulfilled.

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[16] It has to be remembered that in Scripture the word “saints” may describe three separate groups of people:

1. the angels, God’s holy messengers;
2. Israel, God’s holy nation
3. those sanctified in Christ, God’s holy remnant.

[17] Each occurrence of the word has to be judged on its merits, in the light of the context. ~ Compare the way in which the travail of Jesus in the garden on the mount of Olives led to men being set on his right hand and his left, blessing and cursing, blessed and cursed.
[18] On this question see also Jeremiah 25: 33, 44: 14, 27; Isaiah 24: 5, 6; 66: 16, 19; Matthew 24: 22.

Sun, Moon And Stars

 

11) Sun, Moon And Stars

All diligent Bible readers, and especially those who give much attention to prophecy, are impressed with the frequency and importance of the allusions to the heavenly bodies. Traditionally the sun has been taken to stand for human government and dominion, the moon for ecclesiastical authority, and (somewhat vaguely, it must be admitted) the stars for lesser political lights. It is not to our credit as a community of Bible students that for a century this approach (culled in the first instance from orthodox commentators!) has been uncritically accepted.

It is agreed that some sort of case might be made for the sun as a symbol of human political government, although even this result can only be achieved by ignoring a number of inconvenient examples (e.g. Micah 3: 6, Luke 23: 45, Isaiah 30: 26, Revelation 21: 23 etc.). But for the idea that the moon represents the ecclesiastical powers of the Gentile world, no Bible evidence worthy of consideration has yet been advanced. Until it is, the notion should be viewed with mistrust.

CONNECTION WITH ISRAEL

Over against the dearth of evidence in favour of these ideas can be set a group of obviously symbolic passages^[12] where a figure of the people of Israel is clearly intended. Sometimes the symbolism runs on to include the spiritual Israel also. This is only to be expected.

For example, in Joseph’s dream the sun, moon and eleven stars (or constellations? — the signs of the zodiac) offering worship to Joseph’s star were immediately perceived to be symbolic of the family of Israel. Children in the Sunday School do not need to have this meaning explained to them.

Appropriately, the seed of Abraham are compared to the stars of heaven (Genesis 15: 5 and 22: 17) not only in number, but also in glory (Daniel 12: 3). By contrast, those who forsake the Hope of Israel and follow false ideas are called “wandering stars” (Jude 13). When God “causes the sun to go down at noon” (Amos 8: 9) it is because He is bringing judgement on Israel: “I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head.” When, “the sun goeth down over the prophets” (Micah 3: 6), they lose their power of spiritual direction of Israel, not their political authority. If, as seems likely, the Shulamite in the Song of Songs is a type of spiritual Israel, then it is understandable that she should be described as “fair as the moon, clear as the sun,” even when she flees in confusion (Song 6: 10).

JEREMIAH AND THE OLIVET PROPHECY

It is especially in the Olivet prophecy and in the book of Revelation where an accurate understanding of this symbolism is important. What are the “signs in the sun, moon and stars ... the sea and the waves roaring,” about which Jesus spoke (Luke 21: 25, 26)? It is a matter of some surprise that the allusion here to Jeremiah 31: 35, 36 has not been either recognized or taken proper account of: “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” (Jeremiah 31: 35, 36). So far as is known, this is the only other place in Scripture where mention of sun, moon and stars is combined with allusion to the roaring of the waves of the sea; and the pointed connection here with Israel will be immediately evident to all readers. By contrast, any attempt to read the more usually received meanings in this passage looks particularly unconvincing.

It surely follows, then, that in the Olivet prophecy Jesus was saying to his disciples: Keep your eye on Israel! When there are sensational developments in Israel as a nation, learn that the time is near.

It may well be that the other familiar phrase there should be read: “and in the land (of Israel) distress of peoples.” The form of the Greek phrase allows of this, but it cannot be insisted on.

EVIDENCE THE OTHER WAY

The nearest approach to Bible support for the more usual view concerning sun, moon and stars comes from a group of three passages (Isaiah 13: 10 and 34: 4; Ezekiel 32: 7), which appear to use these symbols where Israel is not in reference at all. Yet a careful re-examination of these passages suggests the possibility of harmonizing them with the others already considered.

For instance, some details in Isaiah 13 suggest that verses 6-12 (or 6-16, perhaps) are really a prophecy about Babylon’s treatment of Israel, hence the judgement pronounced in turn on Babylon in the rest of the chapter: “the day of the Lord cometh ... to lay the Land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.” This structure of the prophecy is not unique. Isaiah 17, the burden of Damascus, has only two verses about Syria, and all the rest is about Israel. Also, Isaiah 18 apostrophizes Egypt in the first two verses, but the rest of that prophecy is about Israel. Similarly in Isaiah 13, the inclusion of a judgement against Israel adds point to the denunciation of destruction upon Babylon, God’s instrument that vaunts itself against the Almighty.

Again, Isaiah 34 is a sombre picture of divine wrath against “all nations” round about Israel, with special reference to the Arab enemy Edom (v. 6). All this is “the controversy of Zion” (v. 8). Appropriately, then, verse 4 gives the reason for this heavenly vengeance—the ruthless destruction of the Chosen Race: “And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll (in Hebrews 1 similar language is used with reference to the passing of the Mosaic order; see John Carter’s “Hebrews”), and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine (another symbol of Israel).”

Ezekiel 32: 7, 8 concerning Egypt is the only remaining problem, and no very great one: “And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God” (Ezekiel 32: 7, 8).

The emphasis here is not so much on the symbolism of sun, moon and stars as on darkness. The plague of darkness with which God afflicted Egypt in the time of Moses is to have its counterpart in the experience of the Egyptian enemies of God’s people in the Last Days. Symbolically, and probably in a very literal sense also, Egypt is to be made to feel the hand of God in the days

to come; compare the allusion to the plague of the slaying of the firstborn, in Zachariah 14: 18, and to the smiting of Egypt’s waters, in Isaiah 19: 5-10.

It is believed that there are no other passages of Scripture, which even remotely appear to offer support to the use of this symbol regarding human governments and ecclesiastical powers. On the other hand, there are several that take on a fresh and much more satisfying meaning when read as symbolic of Israel.

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Joel 2: 10 very plainly refer to the desolation of Israel; “The earth (the Land) shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.” The same is true of the other familiar verses in Joel 2: 31 and 3: 15: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come”; and, “The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.” Peter used the former of these two passages at Pentecost (Acts 2: 20) with evident primary reference to God’s overthrow of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. And the latter is closely associated with the “multitudes in the valley of decision’’ who desolate Israel (sun and moon darkened) and who themselves come to destruction when “the Lord is the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.”

The same ideas can be traced in the Sixth Seal which, whatever its past historic applications, certainly has reference to a day yet future when “the wrath of the Lamb is come”: “The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind” (Revelation 6:12).

The language of the Fourth Trumpet is very similar (Revelation 8:12). The third part of the sun, moon and stars are smitten and darkened. Is this the third and worst of the overturnings of Israel foretold in Ezekiel 21:27 before the coming of “him whose right it is”? Many other Old Testament allusions throughout these Trumpets support this conclusion.

Similarly a very luminous exposition of Revelation 12 with reference to the Last Days becomes possible when the woman “clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, is taken as a figure of Israel who is seen first in heaven (i.e. in covenant relationship with God) but later on the earth, in the wilderness, in fact; persecuted, and yet ultimately saved from her enemies. From this point of view many of the details are very impressive.

There remains the apparent paradox involved in Isaiah’s superb picture of the kingdom: “The sun shall no more be thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.” The meaning here is now seen to be quite simply and appropriately this: Israel is to continue as God’s glorious nation throughout this age of blessing, yet always and in every respect this glory will be subject to, and indeed dependent on, the greater glory of God.

 

Daniel and the Glorious Angel (Daniel 10)

The prophet was fasting in the first month. There is some ambiguity about this, for; reckoning Nisan (Passover) as the first month, the civil year came in in the seventh month—Rosh Hashanah, in modern Jewish observance.

This latter is probably the correct identification, for it began with the Feast of Trumpets, it included the fast of the Day of Atonement (the 10th), and also there was the great annual holiday, the Feast of Tabernacles. Thus, it seems likely that Daniel’s fast began immediately after the Feast of Trumpets and included the entire Tabernacles celebration. Whilst his fellow-Jews in captivity were, no doubt, enjoying the holiday, Daniel afflicted his soul. Evidently a vision had already been made known to him, and the details of it written down (“the scripture of truth”), and in his eagerness to learn the meaning of it all, he bombarded heaven with his prayers and reinforced his pleas with this rigorous fasting.

It is commonly assumed that the mysterious vision elucidated for him was the long detailed complexity of chapter 11. This is an unlikely conclusion for the angelic appearance was “to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days” (v.14). Put chapter 11 is mostly about Egypt and Syria and the squabbles of the fragments of the Greek empire, and very little about the well-being of Daniel’s people. Nor is chapter 11 about “the latter days” (except, possibly its last few verses). Nor is there anything in ch. 11, 12 to indicate, “the time was long” (10:1).

The angel was almost certainly Gabriel, for as in ch. 9:23 Gabriel was sent as soon as Daniel began his prayer, so here also: “from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand...thy words were heard (this was his prayer for fuller comprehension), and I am come for thy words” (v.12). Also, in v.16-19 there is such emphatic repetition as to make the Gabriel identification virtually certain: “I retained no strength...no strength...he strengthened me...be strong, yea, be strong...I was strengthened...thou hast strengthened me.” Does not this language tell the reader that the angel was Gabriel, the Strong One of God?

There follows an elaborate explanation as to why it took this angel of glory three weeks to achieve manifestation to this man “greatly beloved”. Paraphrased, the message intimated that behind the scenes a great tussle had been going on because of the conflicting activities of various angels charged with the responsibility of shaping the affairs of the nations involved.

The princes of Persia and Greece, that is, the angels controlling these international affairs had apparently made things difficult for Gabriel to work out the most suitable answer to Daniel’s prayer. It had needed the “reinforcement” of Michael, the “chief prince”, i.e. archangel, who had special charge of the heavenly ministry of Israelitish affairs, before ever Gabriel could achieve a proper response.

In the awe-inspiring description of these behind-the-scenes activities there is no doubt a certain “accommodation” of language to the limitations of human comprehension, but even so certain essential, if bewildering, ideas stand out in this remarkable chapter:

1. Michael is the “watcher” over Israel. This is his special work (12:1; 10:21).
2. The angels, although immortal sinless servants of God, are limited in their physical and intellectual powers. A great number of Scriptures state or imply these truths: Mt. 24:36; 1 Peter 1:12; Ex. 23:20ff; 31:17; Lk. 19:38; Gen. 32:24, 26; 22:12; 18:21.

When incredulity has given way to believing the truth of this Bible witness, it becomes the more impressive, and bewildering, to read the detailed description of Gabriel; “girt with fine gold, his body as a beryl, his countenance like lightning, his limbs like burnished brass, his voice as the voice of a multitude” (v.5, 6).

That last characteristic especially seems to have exercised a fatal fascination over many readers. The voice, like the voice of a multitude, has imparted to this phrase the dogmatic notion that here is a symbolic representation of a multitudinous Christ. However, in this instance, vox populi vox non dei. For otherwise there is the decidedly awkward concept of a Christ-multitude somehow dispensing wisdom to a prophet of the Lord some five centuries or more before there ever was a Christ. Ezekiel 1:24 have been accorded the same slovenly treatment. Yet the identical imagery in Rev. 1:15 describes the glorious Being who walks in the midst of the candlesticks. Does the multitudinous Christ do that? The rainbowed angel of Revelation 10:1-3 has suffered from similar uncritical treatment. He — an angel, and certainly not a multitude — “cries with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth”. The Greek word for “roareth” means literally “he mooed or lowed like a cow.” Are not all these variant phrases different ways of conveying the idea of a loud impressive voice? (so also in Rev. 19:6).

Daniel’s “deep sleep” before the angel of the Lord is rightly seen as suggesting the appropriate fate of mortal man when in the presence of Immortal Power. Put again there has to be caution against pressing the symbolism of death and resurrection too far. Death and resurrection — yes! (See the passages cited on Dan. 8:18). Put is one at liberty to infer from v.9-11 that in the great Day when the dead hear the voice of the Son of God the saints will pass by stages from death to Life? The idea needs reinforcement from plainer Scriptures than this.

 

The Ram and the He-Goat (Daniel 8)

In no other vision revealed to Daniel is there anything to compare with the emphatic repetition here; ‘a vision appeared...appeared...and I saw...and I saw...’ The six-fold repetition underlines the impressiveness and importance of what is now recorded.

The contest between the ram and the he-goat is explicitly expounded in v.20, 21: the two horns of the ram are the kings of Media and Persia; the rough goat is the king of Greece, and its prominent horn is Alexander, the builder of that empire; the four ‘notable horns’ that came up in his place clearly represent the four-fold division of Alexander’s empire (see on 7:6).

So far the interpretation is simple, almost obvious. Put, in verse 9, uncertainties begin to arise. Here there is the appearance of another little horn, which expands its greatness ‘towards the south (Egypt) and the east (Syria) and towards the pleasant Land (of Israel)’.

Here interpretation hesitates between identification with Antiochus Epiphanes, the mad Syrian persecutor of the Jews, and the unexpected expansion of Roman aggrandizement as far east as the Euphrates. The modernists are

stoutly in favour of the first of these (assuming, for their own convenience, a third century B.C. date for the composition of ‘Daniel’).

The details of verse 10 are not decisive; ‘it waxed great even to the host of heaven (see Is. 14:13), and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground (see v.13d here), and stamped upon them.’

However, the details of verse 11 are much more pointed: ‘Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down’. This was ‘by reason of transgression...it cast down the truth to the ground’ (v.12).

In this passage the following details are to be noted:

1. The word ‘place’ means ‘a holy place, the sanctuary.’ This is a very common usage.
   
   
2. The prince of the host is Michael the archangel to whom was specially committed the direction of the affairs of Israel (see 12: 1; 10: 13,21; Josh. 5: 14; Ex. 23:20ff).
   
   
3. ‘Truth’ refers to the Covenants of Promise, set aside with the casting-off of Israel.
   
   
4. The sanctuary was not trodden under foot (see Lk. 21:24) until A.D.70.
   
   
5. This destroying power is called ‘the transgression of desolation’; Jesus himself identified this when foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem: ‘When ye see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place...’ (Mt. 24:15).

All these details are linked with a mysterious time-period: ‘How long...to give both the sanctuary and the host (temple and people) to be trodden under foot?... ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days, and (thus) shall the sanctuary be cleansed’ (v.13, 14).

As one man the commentators have made a sorry mess of their understanding of this time period—through failure to give full value to two important details:

1. ‘Days’ is at best only a paraphrase of ‘evening-mornings’, the daily sacrifices (two in every 24 hours).
2. The reading: ‘two thousand...’ depends entirely on the Hebrew pointing inserted by the scribes long centuries after the time of Daniel. They arbitrarily chose to read the key word ‘thousands’ as AL’PaIM, the dual form (= two thousand), instead of AL’PIM, the indefinite plural (thousands).

With this valid, and almost certainly correct, alternative, the time-period now reads: ‘unto thousands (unspecified) and one hundred and fifty days (two sacrifices, in every 24 hours), i.e. a long indeterminate period concluding with a very special five months.

Then can it be regarded as a remarkable coincidence that Josephus, with no understanding of Daniel 8, records that the A.D.70 siege of Jerusalem lasted exactly five months from the Passover when it began? And before that Jewish War started, the Book of Revelation already had this detail in one of its prophecies: Rev. 9:5,10 (see ‘Revelation’, HAW, ch.20).

But this is only half the story.

In the explanation given to Daniel, it was made clear that the prophecy belongs to ‘the last end of the indignation...the time of the end’ (v.17,19); and this was emphasized by the prophet being cast into ‘a deep sleep’ (a fairly obvious figure of death and resurrection: Gen. 15:12; 2:21; Jer. 31:26; Lk. 9:32; Rev. 1:17).

Indeed, the expanded explanation now added reaches well beyond any reference to the Roman destruction: ‘a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences (what does this mean?), shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty but not by his own power (cp. Rev. 17:13)...he shall destroy the mighty and the holy people...by peace he shall destroy many; he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes (the Messiah), but he shall be broken without hand (i.e. by divine power; v.23, 25. Rev. 17:14).’

So, as is stated explicitly in verse 26, ‘the vision of the evening-mornings...shall be for many days.’ This (and the details of v.23-25 just quoted) requires a further fulfilment of the time-period in the Last Days. Accordingly, the Fifth Trumpet (Revelation 9:5,10) repeats its ‘five months’ declaration of judgment against Israel in a context even more relevant to the Last Days than it was to A.D.70.

It is called (v.19) ‘the time appointed’. This Hebrew word mo’ed always refers to one of the outstanding Jewish religious festivals—here, either to Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles (see ‘Passover’, HAW, Ch.14).

Even such considerations as these can hardly be treated as ‘cast-iron’, for there is the assurance of the Lord Jesus that ‘for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened’ (Mt. 24:22). How, or why? He did not explain, but 2 Peter 3:11,12 will be relevant here, if only the elect rise to their spiritual responsibilities with prayers of conviction (Is. 62:6,7).

One other highly important detail bears on what has just been said: the explanation vouchsafed to Daniel was imparted to him by the angel Gabriel (v.16). This was granted because he ‘sought for the meaning’, praying about it. A case of no small impressiveness can be made for believing that, for outstanding saints of God, Gabriel is the angel of answered prayer (Lk. 1:26, 30, 13; 22:43, 44; Dan. 9:21; 10:12; 6:11, 22; Acts 10:30, 31; Jer. 32:16,18—‘Gabriel’ means God’s Mighty One’).

 

The Little Horn (Daniel 7)

Just as the four beasts correspond to the four empires of Nebuchadnezzar’s metallic image, so also the ten horns of the fourth beast repeat the idea of the ten toes of the image. And since good reason has been found for seeking a ten-toe fulfilment in the Last Days, so also with the ten horns. The evidence for such a conclusion becomes insuperable.

It is a matter of first-rate importance to observe that the details in Daniel 7 about the Little Horn are repeated in Revelation 13 about the Beast described there in v.1-13.

1. a mouth speaking great things (v.25; 13:5)
2. it continued “forty and two months”—”a time, times and dividing of time” (v.25; 13:5).
3. made war with “the saints” (v.25; 13:7).
4. destroyed “unto the end” (v.26; 17:14).
5. with the characteristics of the four preceding oppressors of “the saints” (13:2).

Thus, if the principle of interpretation of Scripture by Scripture is worth anything at all, the conclusion follows that the Beast of Revelation is a kind of blown-up version of the Little Horn.

The old commentators saw this conclusion clearly, but in their admirable anti-papal campaign, and misled by the utterly unfounded year-for-a-day interpretation of time periods, they sought an artificial reference to a ‘continuous historic’ fulfilment spread over long centuries.

But there are too many difficulties against acceptance of this view:

1. the three uprooted horns have to be equated with the three papal states and the pope’s temporal power.
   
   But this is a ‘fulfilment’ just too trivial, so unimportant, in fact, that most of the history books do not even mention it.
   
   
2. “saints” has to be read as meaning ‘the true believers’, especially in the time of the Reformation. But this is against all Old Testament usage of “saints”, where in Psalms (many) and Daniel especially, the reference is to Israel, the holy people; e.g. Daniel 12:7 (s.w.); 8:24.
   
   
3. this persecution lasts “until the Ancient of days comes” (the final divine intervention). But papal persecution of Protestants ceased two hundred years ago, and still no heavenly kingdom. (It is ironic that most of the persecution of true believers in Reformation times came from bigoted Protestants and not from the Catholic Church).
   
   
4. “Until a time, times, and the dividing of time.” Traditionally this has been turned into 3½ x 360 days (years!), and applied to the long drawn-out period of papal “dominion”. All these 1260 year computations gave out a long time ago, yet still the “Ancient of days” is not manifest. What has gone wrong with the calculation?
   
   

It is high time to start again with a more convincing (Biblical) interpretation.

All the details in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13, 17 call for reference to the Last Days and to a political power oppressing Israel, “the saints”, God’s holy people, in the last 3½-years of their tribulation. Daniel 12:7 is surely decisive on this point: “It shall be for a time, times, and a half, when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”

This harmonizes with all the other details—ten toes in the Last Days destroyed by the Stone, three horns uprooted by one which arises after the others, the final oppression of Israel, ten kings giving their power and strength to the Beast to enable him to make war with the Lamb who overcomes as King of kings and Lord of lords.

All the 3½-year references in Daniel and Revelation fit neatly into this scenario. So also does the Elijah prophecy in Malachi 4; for twice the New Testament emphasizes that the significant part of the ministry of that prophet lasted for “three years and six months” (Lk. 4:25; Jas. 5:17), a feature to be repeated in the Last Days. More on this in connection with the ‘Seventy Weeks’ prophecy).

Then “the Beast is slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame” (7:11; Rev. 19:20).

 

Four Beasts (Daniel ch. 7:1-7; 17-23)

Here, there can be little doubt, is the counterpart to the four empires foretold through the symbolism of Nebuchadnezzar’s image. But a prophet of the Lord saw this vision; so, whereas the king saw bright impressive metals as symbols of human might, Daniel saw them as four horrible beasts. The reason for the repetition in a different form is simply explained by Genesis 41:32.

These four beasts are described as coming up from the sea. Accordingly, attempts have been made to interpret this detail as indicating their origination in the Mediterranean, the Great Sea. This will not do, for concerning Babylon and Persia it is simply not true.

More probably the “sea” is the fiery stream (Dan. 7: 10), the firmament (Ez. 1:25,26), the paved work of a sapphire stone (Ex. 24:10), the sea of glass (Rev. 4:6; 15:2) before the throne of the Almighty. In other words, these empires only rose to power through the design and control of heaven. Some would go even further, and suggest that the four foul beasts are representations of four angels of evil doing God’s inscrutable work among the nations of the world.

Verse 3 neatly introduces a quote from God’s promise to Abraham (Gen. 22:17): “the sand of the sea”; a subtle hint that the prophecy is about Israel, the natural seed of Abraham and their enemies (cp. Rev. 13:1).

Confirmation of this conclusion, that the four empires are the oppressors of Israel comes from recognition that this vision was anticipated in Hosea 13:7,8, where note especially: “they (Israel) have forgotten me... “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself” (v.6,9).

The lion with eagle’s wings was already familiar to Daniel as a symbol of Assyria and Babylon, for in both countries such figures guarded temple and palace entrances. (For a Biblical interpretation see Jeremiah 49: 19; 50: 17). Cyrus’s bas-relief at Persepolis shows Babylon like a lion and his sword in its guts. Jeremiah’s writings, documents in Daniel’s library (9:2), had the same idea.

This beast was “made to stand upon its feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it” (7:4). This was not prophecy, but history, recalling the remarkable experience of Nebuchadnezzar’s recovery from animal madness (ch.4).

The bear, a mountain beast, was an easy figure of the threatening power of Persia. Its being raised up on one side anticipated the greater exaltation of the Persians over the earlier threat of the Medes.

All kinds of interpretations have been advanced to explain the “three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it” (v.5):

1. The northern conquests specified in Jeremiah 51:27.
2. The three much more important conquests: Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt.
3. Three directions of territorial expansion: NW/W/SW.

The third beast, a fast-moving winged leopard, is a fitting symbol of the Greek empire. It took Alexander the Great only ten years to extend his conquests as far as India. The four wings and four heads suggest the sub-division of the empire into four territories, each ruled by one of Alexander’s generals.

The fourth beast, “dreadful and terrible”, is unquestionably Rome. The emphasis on its “great iron teeth” suggests a correspondence with the legs of iron in the image. And “brake in pieces” is the very phrase used about the fourth empire in Daniel 2:40.

The fate of these four beasts is summed up succinctly: “they had their dominion taken away, yet (before that transpired) their lives were prolonged for a season and a time” (7:12). Possibly, but not certainly this last phrase refers to the Passover (“time”) when the Roman siege of Jerusalem began, and the “season” was the five month’s duration of the siege when the Gentile down-treading of the holy city brought all to an end. (On this, see commentary on Daniel 8).

 

The Ancient of Days and the Son of Man (Daniel 7:9-10,13-14)

Before embarking on a detailed study of the Four Beasts of chapter 7, it is convenient to examine with some care the verses about the heavenly Being described here.

There is a commonly held theory that:

the Ancient of Days	= the glorified Christ
the Son of Man	= the community of the saints.

This is quite wrong, as will be seen by and by. Apart from all the mass of Bible evidence, the two titles, when so applied, are hopeless misnomers. Who could ‘the Ancient of Days’ be but the Almighty Himself? and ‘Son of Man’ is, of course, the Lord Jesus.

To settle this last identification first:

1. Jesus applied the title ‘Son of Man’ to himself some 80? times. Attempts have been made, with little convincingness, to link this Name with (i) Ezekiel, also called ‘son of man’, and (ii) Psalm 8:4. The second of these might have a certain relevance, but it dwindles away to near-zero importance when compared with the subjoined passages:
2. “The sign of the Son of man in heaven...and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mt. 24:30). This is the language of Dan. 7:13. The next verse also has multitudes of angels, as in Dan. 7:10.
3. “Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power (the Ancient of Days?), and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Mt. 26:64).
4. “Upon the cloud one like unto the Son of man...a golden crown and...a sharp sickle” (Rev. 14:14). Compare also: “One like unto the Son of man...he cometh with the clouds” (Rev. 1:13,7).
5. “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56).

He would be a brave (foolhardy?) man who would deny the connection between the foregoing passages and Daniel 7:13. But this is only a beginning. There is much more Bible witness to equate the Daniel Vision with the Father and His glorified Son.

For example, there is much correspondence between the vision of the Ancient of days and the remarkable descriptions of the Almighty enthroned, in Ezekiel 1:16-20,27 and in Revelation 4:3,5,6; 5:6,7. Other appropriate Scriptures, all about the Glory of Jehovah, and the radiance, the fire, and the wheels, are: Ps. 104:2; 18:8- 13; 50: 1-4; 1 Chr. 28:18. The multitude of angels round the throne in Daniel 7:10 is matched by Rev. 5:11; Dt. 33:2; Ps. 68:17. And the “fiery stream issuing forth from the throne” has its probable counterpart in the “firmament”, the “paved work of a sapphire stone”, the “sea of glass” (Ez. 1: 25,26; Ex. 24: 10; Rev. 4:6; 15:2).

If it be argued that the very expression: “the hair of his head like pure wool” (v.9) is identical with the symbolic description of the glorified “Son of man” in Rev. 1: 14, this does not prove identity, for Jesus himself declared that “the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father” (Mt. 16:27), so of course such resemblances are to be expected.

It is a similar misreading of the prophecy, which led to the mistaken identification of ‘the Son of Man’ with ‘the saints, the true believers.’ “There was given him (the Son of man) dominion, and glory, and a kingdom...that all people should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion...”(7:14). Put “the kingdom and dominion and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High” (7:27). Therefore, it has been erroneously concluded: ‘Son of man’ = ‘the saints (true believers)’. This is short-sighted. If the kingdom is given to Messiah, will it not also be given to Messiah’s men? What sort of “proof” is this?

Amid all these resemblances there is one important difference, which calls for explanation. The first group of passages cited describes the Son of man as “coming” i.e. returning to the earth (a re-reading of them will leave no other possibility), whereas Daniel 7 and Revelation 5:6,7 show the Son of man being presented before the throne of his Father.

A simple explanation is available: The last two passages (like Acts 1:11: ascension in a cloud) describe the glorious reception of the risen Lord in the presence of his Father. It is perhaps possible to go further and read the Daniel 7:13 scenario as the heavenly counterpart to the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies with clouds of incense and the atoning blood of an acceptable Sacrifice. This need not be insisted on, but in view of the Leviticus 16 prototype it seems not unlikely.