THE TIME APPOINTMENT

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CHAPTER SEVEN

THE TIME APPOINTMENT ... 'UNTIL'

THE FIRST OF THE UNTIL SERIES IN LINE

In Micah 5:3, as we have seen in the last Chapter, the Lord, whom Israel struck with a rod on the cheek, though it is He who is their God, whether on earth they see fit to kill or delight, had something to say. In fact, He announced two massive events to come: what He would do for the salvation of man (Micah 7:19ff., 4:1ff.), and what Israel would do about it, when He came specifically to them, in the form of one born at a particular place, called ahead of time, Bethlehem.

In so speaking, He reviewed the response to His action, on the part of His people, Israel, chosen to testify of Him (Isaiah 43:21). Such would be their their effrontery and their folly, in assailing His cheek with a rod, such their declension and their rejection even in this work of prodigious grace, that there would be a result. He would give them up.

That was entirely understandable. He, the JUDGE of Israel, stricken was a massive lurch into disorder, with potentially dread consequences. In slapping Him, they slapped all law, all government, all the personal beauty of His holiness, and invited a parallel personal provision. How do you slap a nation ? What was this to be ? After, the slamming of the rod on the cheek was symbolic, to be sure, of aroused rebellion and acidulous rejection; but it also led to death in the completion of the torture chamber tactics, except in this it varied, that it was held in the open, for all to see. That is, the crucial part was, on the Cross. What then would be the result for Israel ? It is not good to be given up by God.

History has shown.

However, it was not only the striking, not indeed even the murder that conted. It was that it was on the cheek, a obvious effrontery compounded with a wilful intolerance of truth which made it all the more sickening. Yet this was a mere beginning. They had to hire a rod to do this, to import to the hand a weapon with which to impinge in their impertinence. When you realise that whether you slap or crucify, show talons or detest truth, rebel with wounds or with words, but in any case depart in spirit from the mercy of God where it MAY be found as in Isaiah 55, you are in poor case. Whether physically or metaphorically, you are smiting in spirit, benighted in mind and restless in your rebellion. Being Jew or Gentile makes little difference IN SPIRIT, and in life, when this is your relationship with your God, whether you care to acknowledge Him or not. Even acknowledgement, it is but one aspect. What SORT of acknowledgement is the other: in faith or in the distant murmur of a mind otherwise set.

Instead, then of boasting as Gentiles, if any have any such predisposition, let us return to the case of Israel, since it is involved in one of the THREE UNTILS, which are found in the word of God, in close association, with a joint message.

The limits of tolerance are fast reached when your Judge is disdained, but when bodily assault and a weapon are added, and the very countenance is the butt, then it is clear that a turmoil and a disaster of revolutionary character is afoot.

It is therefore little short of amazing to read the next word, after the Lord's revelation that He would give them up, as a result of these things, in Micah 5:3. It is UNTIL.

It is not for all time that they are to be given up by their God. It is only for a selected section of time. It is UNTIL something else happens. It is till the time when she gives birth, that she will be given up, or more precisely till she is in labour with birth, as a nation. THEN we are told that the remnant of His brethren will return to the children of Israel. It is clear that there has been a dispersal of Israel in the interim before the until operated, just as much earlier still, some 2000 years before, Leviticus predicted. In that book of Moses, this was in return for a whole inventive series of rebellions and follies which were then predicted to come, on the part of the nation, as Moses foretold. Further than this attack on the incarnate Lord, they could not go. This was a fatal pivot for displacement; and it duly came as pre-announced.

So we wait until the race which once lived in Israel, but were to be dispersed, and in fact have been, comes to the point that once more, she is found coming back into being amid the nations. God gives them up until "in labour has given birth." This of course happened precisely in May, 1948, and a more hostile piece of midwifery for that birth, it would be all but impossible even to imagine, as 7 nations sought to prevent it!

But it happened, so that time of the Lord's action concerning Israel in this restitution, re-constitution, revival, restoration, is at hand. This UNTIL is already satisfied.

THE SECOND OF THE UNTIL SERIES IN LINE

Let us now consider the next UNTIL, and find what this adds to our knowledge of history to be, rather like family photos in the album; but in this case it is not of the past, but of the future, snapshots of what is to be.

In Isaiah 32, we see the Messiah of Isaiah 7, 9, 11, 22, 32, 35, 40, 32, 49-55, 59, 61, ruling as King, and being as also seen in Micah and Psalm 45, 72. He is declared to be like the shadow of a mighty rock, a refuge, a shelter. Indeed, He is a hiding place from wind and a shelter from tempest; and lest there be any omission, from Him comes refreshment, for He is as rivers of water in a dry place. What strength and what comfort is there! for it just precisely what one needs to live in this world with its vanity, profanity, diligence to do evil and pulses of pure faintheartedness to do good.

Isaiah 32 proceeds to show results of this time when the Messiah as King will be ruling on the earth, and how vast is the transformation of the ungodly, the deliverance of the troubled, the recreation of the appallingly astray, which will be seen in HIS rule! (32:5ff.).

In contrast, as this Chapter of Isaiah proceeds, we find 32:9ff. traces the ways of 'complacent women', at ease, a sign of an indolent ease with prosperity. The unspeakably wonderful future when God returns, the resurrected Messiah (Isaiah 26:19), is given immediate contrast in the spiritually desolatory and the debased spirit of the times, as Isaiah speaks.

The prophet has already levelled at officials, an enormous condemnation for their stricken and restless, unreliable and corrupt ways notably (Isaiah 1). Now we find, just as in Micah 4, a sudden turning from the blessed future time, when mercy triumphs at last, to the impending ruin of the present. That is the testimony of Isaiah 32:12ff.. The land will produce briars, just as the humans who occupy it have become noxious like them. The bustling city is to be deserted, just as a large portion of the populace have deserted the Lord; and the forts and towers memories, in their ruins, will speak to ears that will not listen. This state of desolation is to continue UNTIL a certain event occurs. So we have the same contrast as in Micah 4, and the parallel and blessed result.

The focus in Micah is the restoration of the nation and the presence of the Messiah; and the first impact in Isaiah, for this parallel, is the outpouring of the Spirit, leading to a condition of grace and understanding of a staggering degree, amid a peace-surrounded land. In each case, it is the millenial exhibition of the victory of the Lord, as in Psalm 72, vindicating righteousness and exhibiting what works. Try to remake what you cannot engineer, and you make much and mess; and history agrees. It is better to rely on the Lord than try to replace Him. Man is replaceable; God is not.

What then do we find after the until word in Isaiah 32. For what are we in this prophecy to wait, amid the desolation which was to befall them, and did befall.

It is this. It is UNTIL "the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field." In Zechariah 12:10, this event is traced out specifically, near the end of the entire Age. Here it is the spirit of grace and of supplication, leading them to focus on this same Messiah stricken, as forecast in Micah 5 (and as shown in detail in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 50-53), but yet victorious and in attaining this victory, Lord over death itself, and site for resurrection (Isaiah 26:19 as in the actual text). Then the results are set in their paramount importance, that is, at the spiritual level.

The SPIRIT it is that is poured out, one giving grace and moving in their hearts to cry to the Lord in supplication. It is in their spirits that the result is fundamental, as informed repentance seizes them like a tempest, and their hearts then rely on the Lord of glory, and no more abstract from Him. Spiritual is the result; but not only so, for this people is at this time surrounded with military, diplomatic and aggressive posturing from amid the nations. Indeed, as in Zechariah 12-14., there are military results which occur at that period, and those of no uncertain character, culminating in the return of the Lord.

But what are these spiritual results ? We are told.JUSTICE will no longer be slighted, let alone the Judge stricken with a ROD on the CHEEK. Righteous rule, the very reality of justice will stretch right out even as far as the wilderness. Indeed righteousness being a pervasive reality, subordinate to none but to Him whose right it is, who is the Truth - as in Ezekiel 21:27, it is integral to His rule. Subterfuge, squandering and theft, these cease. Amid riches, there will be a relish of righteousness, as in Psalm 72. Indeed, as noted in the last Chapter, there is a wonderful work in the field of righteousness. Let us reflect on this.

Once more as in Micah 5:3, the UNTIL arises. He will bear the indignation of the Lord UNTIL ... It is here

"until He pleads my case,
and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me forth to the light."

So there is admission of sin, even of just deserts; but hope also is there, willingness to bear judgment. In this way, we see the presence of conviction of sin, of righteousness and of judgment (John 16); for the Lord has done right, and the remnant of Israel looks for a judicial dismissal of genuine sin by the Lord, when He pleads for these (as in Isaiah 53, Hosea 13:14, and in terms of Micah 5:1)! Now the personified remnant exults, "I will see His righteousness."

It is the divine righteousness itself, directly viewed as in Job 19, that of the One whom Job would see for himself, his Redeemer, of the perfect and spotless Lamb of God: it is this which is to be seen. The Bible does not change; nor does God; nor is there any indent in HIS righteousness on which, in Him, one must depend. This is shown as in Romans 4:25 - 5:10, and Psalm 71:15-16, for example. In the latter, it is this DIVINE righteousness, that of God not man, which David is to focus ALWAYS, ONLY, and it is limitless! This only is the source of saving merit! Of THY righteousness ONLY, he declares, will I speak. As in Psalm 32, this is his very cover, a gift of grace.

Indeed, in Psalm 32, it is a justifying righteousness, to be received only by faith in the One to be smitten with a rod on the cheek. That is part of the way, the sacrificial way, in which He will plead "my case," as in Micah 5:3. It comes, the God of grace in the Lord of glory, casketed in a babe, as in Micah 5:1, He fresh from eternity to anoint the eyes of readers on earth, in this lavish exposure of salvation.

In other words, to revert to Isaiah 32, righteousness has a work to do, that man might have peace, and not ruin because

	of his failure to live to the divine standards of truth and equity and understanding in it,
	of his sins of aggression or recession or retrogression, or cowardice or braggadocio, or of whatever kind.

That work is specified in Isaiah 52-53, and its results in the free salvation of Isaiah 55 and its merciful beauty, even to eternity, in Isaiah 54.

This work brings peace as in Ephesians 2. Its effect is eminently personal, namely "quietness and assurance for ever," and this we find in Isaiah 32:17, as in John 5:24. In the former, it is one effect of the work of divine righteousness to come, a diligence of duty derived from lovingkindness and mercy. That work involves a transmission of pardon, an evacuation of guilt, a dominion of grace, and as Micah 7 puts it, sin carried off into the depths of the sea, while the Lord while He subdues our iniquities (cf. Romans 6).

Reverting to Micah 5, we find that the UNTIL time, the end of the giving up of Israel by her butchered Lord (cf. Isaiah 24:16, amid the judgments on the earth, and Zechariah 11 on what led to this), is associated with a rebirth of Israel as a nation, many returning to their own territory at last (cf. Hosea 1, 3, Ezekiel 36-37), led by a way they had not known (Isaiah 49:19-26, 42:16ff.)., and the spiritual blessing overflows and is rampant to the Gentiles (42:6, 49:6), as to Israel; but the restoration to their land, is part of the particularity of Israel, removed from it for a purpose ... UNTIL things both natural and supernatural, all in the wisdom of God, came to pass.

What great Messianic chapters are 42 and 49 in Isaiah, filled with mercy and deliverance in His terms. Now His people will abide, and He, the Lord, will be powerful to the ends of the earth (as in Psalm 72 and 89). HE in Himself in this direct rule on earth, in the millenium (Revelation 20, Isaiah 65), will BE the peace, like a tap in the house, when before one had to go to a well.

So the first two untils have their joint testimony.

THE THIRD OF THE UNTIL SERIES IN LINE

Thus a justifying revelation, that is an exposure of the way to justification wrought and available from God, It comes with the outpouring of the Spirit, as in Isaiah 32:15, and indeed as in Zechariah 12:10, and through this. Royal results flow as the work of the Messiah in His righteousness, His only, is made available, as noted in Ch. 2, concerning Psalm 32.

This is given further illustration and addition in our third UNTIL, which is to be found in Romans 11:25. In his imagery of the olive tree, in that Chapter, Paul shows Israel as at first securely in that tree, expressing the very living relationship to God and His ways, Spirit, truth and abiding. Then it is removed as in Micah 5:3, given up. Next in line, the Gentiles are grafted in, although theirs had been no such tree, or covenantal relationship with the Lord; for they were without hope, without God and without Christ, with no Mediator or even redemption (Ephesians 2:12). Nevertheless in squential divine grace, Israel first received in the series from Abraham, and then Gentiles. One from in to out, the other from out to in.

The Gentiles, however, being brought in by grace, are warned not to make hay while the sun of opportunity shines, by becoming spiritual braggarts. Had not Israel been removed because of highminded folly, replacing faith in the generation of cumulative and culminating failure (Matthew 23:34-36); and would not God remove Gentiles just the same, as He is indeed drawing near to do, as the world approaches war with Him quite explicitly, as in Revelation 19:19. That to come, it is the Gentile equivalent of Micah 3:5, where they even "make war with Him."

Moreover, the Gentiles are advised by the apostle in this Ch. 11 of Romans, that although it is indeed true that Israel the nation is still blind, this is not to be forever. It is to be their spiritual pathology UNTIL, and ONLY UNTIL ... Until what ?

It is most pointedly made clear here, in Romans 11. The spiritual blindness attributed to Israel is to last, relative to the nation as such, UNTIL the time of the Gentiles has come in, in with its fulness. It is in short, until the FULNESS OF THE GENTILES HAS COME IN. In other words, Israel had its opportunity, and while doing much, in the end in multiple rebellions ruined its abiding and was given up; but not for ever. It was only until the space set aside for the Gentiles, THEIR 2000 years or so, in apparent balance of some kind with the period of Israel, was totally fulfilled.

How total can you get ? What revivals, establishments, modes, methods, aversions, perversions of religion, admirations, in so many for so long, till invention of syncretic substitutes for the actual Christ have become legion, have arrived. What connivances, what distortions, what subtleties, what lupine teeth have been bared (as in Micah 3)! At all events, the time of the Gentiles is being given notice, for Israel is back, as in our other until notices. There is more to come, but there is no other available power reliable and ready, for Israel, and we are reminded of Deuteronomy 32, where God acts to deliver the nation WHEN He perceives that their power is gone. It is then that the Exodus parallel is predicted as in Micah 7:15, with results instructive even to the belligerent nations as in Micah 7!

Israel is back. but the massive and predicted onset of conversion to the crucified Christ is yet to come. We are at the edge.

We know that blindness is to cease for Israel the nation, precisely as in Zechariah 12:10-13:1, prior to the return of the Lord as in Zechariah 14.

The outpouring of the Spirit, the opening of the eyes, the gazing upon the Lord, as crucified, in repentance and new-found faith in God, in reality and in truth, the restoration confirmed in their land, all these things occur in one bunch, like a brilliant bouquet, where you examine now one flower, now another. They have begun.

UNTIL man is ready to return to the Lord, in this nation or that, in this person or that, from this culture or that, ceasing to make 'culture' sacred, virtual self-worship which is spiritually inane as well as provocative to the Maker (cf. Jeremiah 50-51, and Ezekiel 26), he waits in increasing darkness, light coming from guns more than from God, who is remade to taste by many, so that many become as deluded in mind as dynamic in militancy. It is already as in II Thessalonians 2:10. This virtual or even actual self-worship, worship of one's own idols lodged in the heart (as in Ezekiel 14), is a practice not by any means unknown, as undesirable as unlovely. It will proceed to its culmination (II Thess. 2:4ff.).

In the interim, now on a short leash, thus exclusion of God being extensively the case, as with Israel before the fulness of the Gentiles should arrive, so will the wars and the anguish and the agony remain; for that sort of blindness simply does not work. It is voluntary, and a near relation to suicide.

From this may the good Lord deliver many; and may this deliverance, all you who read, include you.