"The valid and
close parallel to the social custom of the Patriarchs came from documents of
the nineteenth to fifteenth centuries B.C. (agreeing with early-second-millenium
origin for this material in Genesis) ... Likewise for Genesis 23, the closest
parallel comes from the Hittite laws..."!
Indeed attacks
on the Bible's compilation have been rebutted, with such vigour and such
marvellous aid from the enormous and growing body of ratifying archeology,
that they lie like so many snails hurled against a rock. The scale and scope
of it is virtually breath-taking.
The Ebla find, one of many advanced
materials, in the area of 2300 B.C. is some 800 plus years before Moses,
once deemed incapable of writing such things! Well towards 1000 years out of
date, these critics must wear the dunce's cap; and yet it was such as these
who once took theological colleges by storm, and taught this nonsense with an
academic kind of pontifical splendour. Cultural domination from Germany at the
theological level, like so many other modes and fashions, gew-gaws for the
worldlings who love to inhabit and act to destroy churches, has been just one
of the satanic modes. Fair enough: Job was tested, and churches must be
tested. Only what is of faith, and hence will match reason after all the
fan-fare is over, stands. It stands because it is the word of God; and faith
receives it on its own, while reason, like a good hunting dog, comes with the
prey, tail wagging joyously, continually and always afterwards. It IS of
course, afterwards, for otherwise, where would the test be; but it is always,
and thus faith is the most reasonable of entities.
Indeed, it is
Paul who asks God to deliver him from UNREASONABLE men, and those who do not
have faith (II Thessalonians 3:2). Indeed, his formulation from the Lord is
this, that he be delivered from such persons, FOR not all have faith. It
is BECAUSE they do not have faith, that their minds are turned to darkness,
vanity and in the end, the confusion which cannot EVEN meet reason, as much
one of our God-given faculties as are our eyes!
The word of God
stands, as always (I Peter 1:22-25, cf. Isaiah 40:6-8); but they, they
fall as all do who in anything assault the mouth of God. We were MADE by its
operation; and man can be 'undone' in the same way.
The Ebla materials include what appears to be a statement on creation
not unlike that found in Genesis ( incidentally perhaps suggestive of
Wiseman's view of ancient background materials, historical records used by
Moses). Complaints against cultural backgrounds as not fitting Biblical dates
look more than foolish. Though the mot juste seems to be 'obsessive' ,
yet 'obstructionist' would do. The cultural norms and phases of those times
are
so adroitly confirmed both from Hammurabi's time ( in Babylon) and Ebla (in
Syria) and in the time of the Canaanite labourers near Sinai, before Moses, as
well as at Tell-el-Amarna with its incessant official communications about
invasion of the area which was taken with just such irrepressibly force as is
there described, by the Jews, at Ras Shamra with its exposure of the
corruption of the Canaanites whom God sent Joshua to judge, and so forth, that
it is a marvel that even dedicated unbelief dares to speak any more at all in
this field. But then it does: when is a divorcee ever done in her scolding !
On Tel-el-Amarna, see the excellent work in this sphere, as in many
other related ones, of Professor Gleason Archer, in his Bible
Difficulties. This makes a good companion volume, in many aspects, to
that other excellent provision, at the other end of the chronological scale,
J. Barton Payne's Enclycopedia of Prophecy, surely one of the
most precise and voluminous coverages of the topic from an academic point of
view.
Let us however revert to the invasive divisions of Satan, always stalwarts,
like guerrillas in Palestine, for destruction, because of what animates them
(Jude discloses, as does II Peter the mind-set in view, with excellent
edification, which serves as a warning, both to those who attack, and those
who fall to them). Man, says the word of God, is 'alienated from the life of
God' - Ephesians 4:18-19. The ATTITUDES we meet in these things, these ALSO,
verify the word of God
What now of cities and civilisations against which God has spoken ? Again,
archeology has a marvellous feast.
BABYLON as an empire was devastatingly condemned to utter destruction
without recovery of her place and power. This is seen in passages such as
those of Isaiah 13 and Jeremiah chapters 50-51 (esp.51:34-63). It was to go,
to fall, as Jeremiah showed, as a stone falls into a river.
It fell, indeed. It was a desert. Saddam Hussein began some reconstruction in
a tourist sense; he fell, is blasted, his income in ... arrears, his capital
in bonds of poverty, deprivation, his wealth in tatters. He arose to dominate,
direct terrorism, pay for Jewish blood in terms of so many thousands of
dollars for each one murdered; tortured thousands of his own people, mad mass
grave yards, elevated the comparison with Nebuchadnezzar, who however had the
privilege of presiding over construction, not making a ruin into a tourist
attractoin. Indeed his own capital , Baghdad was subjected to the ignominy of
selective bombing. Now it has all fallen, and his sons dead, he remains in
hiding, his country under other control, his name detested, his projects in
ruins.
This has
befallen the new Nebuchadnezzar; but nothing has 'befallen' the word of God.
It is simply carried out: verifying the divine claims of Isaiah 55:10-11, Joel
2:11, Isaiah 45:1-7,44:25-26 - of the One who spoke His word through His
servants, the prophets (Jeremiah 7:25), as God calls them.
Similarly NINEVEH was condemned to desolation ( Nahum 1:8-9,14). It
became a desolation
Says Davis in his
DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE:
"So complete
was the desolation that in
classic times the departed Nineveh became like a myth. Yet all the while
part of the city lay buried..."
TYRE was condemned by
the prophet Ezekiel in chapters 26:3‑5,7,12,14,16, 21 - her walls to be
broken down while she was to become like 'the top of a rock' ‑ Alexander the
Great completed the task begun by Nebuchadnezzar, using city ruins to build a
causeway to the island to which the people retreated, fulfilling the word of
God to the letter. Now THESE... they were seats of EMPIRE ! None ‑ of these
were to be restored, nor are they. Lost, curiosities, to be recovered after
centuries from the sand, devastations, they attest the might of God and the
mind of man, when collision occurs.
The Lord is patient, but faithful, both to fulfil what He says of judgment, and of blessing. Indeed, if you study
Jeremiah you will see the almost incredible tenderness and solicitude with
which He, fatherlike and compassionate, seeks the deliverance of His people,
offering, imploring: but when their hardened hearts become set with the
pathology that enshrines their diseased thoughts, then judgment indeed comes,
and it comes with precision.
How Christ sought to deliver
Jerusalem (Matthew 22:37, Luke 19:42ff.), and what He paid for the deliverance
of all who would come; but in the despite of truth, there is no further
atonement; for mercy itself comes from truth, the truth of God's love, and the
passion of its provision does not remove the grounds for its action! Judgment,
in the end, sits.
At the nearer level to the
Jews, the prophecies of Obadiah and Isaiah (34) are fulfilled in a way which
is also awesome in its atmosphere and detail. The city of Petra , featuring
recesses in rocky cliff faces and redoubtable Edom territory, reveals a
startling coincidence in its abandoned scenario ( and this, one predicted to
endure) to the word of the Lord above cited. What it was to be, in detail, it
now is. Abandoned ? yes, to the very wild beast population. To read the
prediction, just this, gives an almost eerie thrill of desolation. How like
the thing itself, when visited now, is this predictive picture in Isaiah!
The treachery of Arabs against
Edom, on the one hand, and again, the Jewish inhabiting of the South
(Negev), following Edom's treachery against Israel (an inhabiting also
predicted, and now famous in modern times ‑ Obadiah 7‑10,19) are fulfilled
before our eyes, just as is the Isaianic detail (34:11 ff.). Here the emphasis
is both
inexorability and detail. Apart from the FEELINGS evoked, there is the FACT
PROVOKED, and it is this which duly come to pass. Indeed, the reflection given
in Isaiah 34:16‑17 is both a declamation and a challenge:
"SEARCH FROM THE BOOK
OF THE LORD, AND READ: NOT ONE OF THESE SHALL FAIL. NOT ONE SHALL LACK HER
MATE. FOR MY MOUTH HAS COMMANDED IT, AND HIS SPIRIT HAS GATHERED THEM.
"
This shows, as does. The wild
things, the birds with their mates, the snakes, the whole of the mutually
accompanying items in the scenario, they were to come; they did; and the
reason - it is this, that the LORD has SPOKEN it. It is as in the creation: He
says, and it is so. Turn this to salvation likewise, and you see the
unspeakably delicious security it provides (cf. Hebrews 13:5-6).
Jesus Christ in Matthew
5:17-19, 24:35 that when God chooses to speak to man, He MEANS EVERY WORD OF
IT (cf. SMR Appendix D). Perhaps it is moral
devastation sweeping the earth which makes so many people seem to find this
hard to grasp.
Perhaps some are surprised a
little that EVEN SOME MEN make their word a matter of honour. They feel
disenchanted, all but cynical. They find they suffer, and wonder WHO is
willing to stand by an agreement, to honour a word. Yes there are some.
When the Almighty speaks,
however, it always happens. Here is the source and indeed meaning of honour.
If we lacked power, if psyches were leaves in the wind, if morality were a
perversity of flesh, if truth could not be obtained, if relativity were
absolutely all, in its own confused and self-contradictory way, then indeed
poor, limping man, to be pitied, might seek to excuse his vagrancies and
dishonour. This however is as far removed from the truth as the eye from
hearing. It is BECAUSE GOD has the power, the justice and the truth, indeed
His word is the truth, since what He declares IS, and becomes so, that His
honour is to be rigorously expected; and when it is found, it is surely not
surprising. What is amazing is the precision which He bestows on it, in our
midst, the love this betokens, for He is so reliable that His love expresses
itself through honour, and His honour through love.
He is not divided into warring
factions, of divergent manufacture, nor is His power limited. His is o
conferred constitution, for it is He on whom all depends, who is necessary to
anything, in His eternity, that anything might be; and what is, it is His
invention. As to Himself, always what He would be, He has no limits.
Resistance has no ground, and invasion no power. Ingredients to not disturb
Him for He is what He would be, and nowhere is the power to intervene.
There is nothing to oppose His
good pleasure, conferred within or created without. Structure succumbs,
constitution conforms. He is in need of nothing from any ( Psalm 50: 10), just
as He receives nothing from any, in Himself: absolute, eternal, He made time
and man in His image, but He Himself does not change. His word endures.
Millenia do not subdue it, nor does passion dismiss it; time does not erode
it, nor does rebellion annul it.
 |
HISTORY IS GOD' S STORY,
AND AS PART OF HIS SOVEREIGN PLAN OF IDENTIFYING HIMSELF,
REBUKING MAN'S SIN AND
VERIFYING HIS UNMITIGATED POWER,
HE TELLS NOT ONLY ITEMS
SUCH AS THESE,
BUT ALSO THE COMING
OF CHRIST,
OF THE GOSPEL,
OF
THE REJECTION OF HIS SON BY
THE JEWS. |
|
|
HE FORETELLS HIS EXILING OF
THE JEWS FROM THEIR LAND FOLLOWING THIS,
THEIR DEGRADATION BY MEN,
THEIR DEVASTATING,
THEIR RETURN BY HIS GRACE TO THEIR LAND,
THEIR VICTORIES WHEN ASSAULTED IN THIS LAND AND
THEIR EVENTUAL RETURN, MOURNING FOR THE CRUCIFIXION OF THE CHRIST
WHOM THEY DESPISED. |
|
|
THE RENEWED FERTILITY OF
THEIR LAND, THIS ALSO HE FORETELLS, AS THE TERRIBLE PLAGUE WHICH JERUSALEM
WILL CONSTITUTE TO ALL THOSE WHO ( LIKE SADDAM HUSSEIN AND THE ARABS IN
THE 1948,1967,1973 wars as well) WILL SEEK TO ATTACK IT.
|
This includes those who would determine HIS LAND for HIS people by their road
maps and plans, their interventions as with the UN in 1947 and thereafter,
seeking to internationalise Jerusalem, and to devastate once again the Jews,
giving them mere pockets of the land. This was to be. It has not come to be.
God has other ideas. For all these predictions, see SMR Chs.
8 and
9, Galloping Events Ch. 4, SMR
pp. 502ff., Red Heart ...
Ch. 10, Regal Rays of Revelation
Ch. 1 , Great Execrations ...
Ch. 4, The Biblical Workman Ch.
1, *3 and Ch. 3,
*1 , with Ch. 8
where linked, and
indexes, biblical and topical.
All this is prophecy, while we
are in archeological survey; but the principle is the same. The past can
provide nothing but what conforms to God's word, and the future (from the
prophecies of 1400 B.C. to now, som.3400 years for testing) provides nothing
but what confirms itl What was prophecy continually becomes history. This
outdistances modern science, which is old in a few years in much; for this is
old in nothing ever, except that it happens, and its work lies exposed,
unalterable, assured.
This is not the stuff of myths.
The myth is this: that man can tell the truth about himself, measuring himself
by himself ( as Paul puts it in II Corinthians 10:12); and that he creates his
gods and that is all the gods there are. THAT myth is surely the best in
arbitrary irrationalism that could be: the creature, with his programmed
systems alive and alight, attributes 'sacredness' to his productions and
ignores the source of his own limited power to construct
(or misconstruct), to mini‑create and to err, as to have a responsibility
correlative to this freedom and to have a body written in a language which
embodies a brilliance beyond his thoughts ...
Yet while
seeing this, man immersed in his cultural glue, bound in its bonds, wilfully
ignorant and ignorantly wilful, brilliant in confusion, alert in apathy,
continues to use a brilliance which, though infinitely less than what appears
in his own construction, is both akin to it and gained by the operation of an
instrument which he did not create.
To do that is to live a myth.
All these multiplied billions
of deft connections of cells in just one of the bodies of mankind, each one of
them with the significance of highly organised cities, have allegedly no
source but a CHANCE: a chance which has laws it could not cause in the first
place, and which though wholly unintelligent constructs the most intelligent
designs (cf. SMR pp. 211ff.) ever
inspected on earth, leaving behind the greatest intelligence of man in the
process... and does this with a language of the most concentrated and constant
character, and that in what is to man still an unachievably minute format for
its storage, a language and an engineering to match it, building ever anew the
same prodigious constructions by a copying mechanism we have no way of
pakalleling.
These things, they occur,
all in all living cells, under the direction of the code of one sole language,
and the Speaker is denied ? ALL the ingredients of intelligence, ALL the
facilities of speech, ALL the coherence of manufacture, ALL the brilliance of
prodigious mind, ALL the integration of design, ALL the control of destiny as
in the word of God which explodes into existence as did man in the first
place: ALL this and CHANCE did it ?
Did chance even make a sandal on the beach
? Would you conceive it for one moment ? No ? Why not ? It is because in
practice, the achievement of highly integrated, unity in apparent purpose is
NEVER found as a current performance of inanimate 'nature', but must be laboured to come into being. The sandal therefore means man, since he is the
only known agent on this earth: short of course of a divine miracle, which
seems quite unnecessary to imagine, since man is well able to make the sandal,
though it is not able to make itself! Man, however,
himself ?
Matter has its little ways; so
does mind, and so does spirit. The combination called man, each phase in its
own integrity, and the thought and use of all coherent in the trilogy's
outcome, he knows these things, the process of designing, the articulation of
action, the direction of achievement to the end of the design, the promotion
of purpose, the use of coherent but diverse systems: for he constantly does
them. He invents.
Yet that he himself should be
the product of One in whom NO LESS power than his own is demonstrated, in ways
which are akin to, have affianced themselves to, have affinity with his own,
explain all things and at least, are logically required as a sufficient cause:
that this should be so is no obnoxious to his pride, ruinous to is autonomy,
that he would rather ... die ? He would rather with a sort of infantility of
intellect, define himself in the absence of truth, as the only truth, while
declaring that of course, scientifically we cannot be sure; but of one thing
he is very sure, this secular man, that he is right! Past all his
methodological purity, when it does occur, is this philosophical impurity.
Knowing little, he yet knows that what he knows is unassailable, his ignorance
a mandate, his lack a lordliness.
THIS, he declares, ever so
humbly, is it. But is it, which assumes what invalidates its very possibility,
any other 'it' than the id, the pleasure of man to be himself, in the midst of
marvels which constitute him, and to deny all but himself, the imaginary crest
of a wave which he cannot even form, but foaming, follow. Follow where ?
wherever it is going. And where is it going ? Never upward, for there is no
provision for new information in 'nature', the god of many, at all: it does
not occur. Exchanges may do so; creation does not. Where then is it going ? It
is going down as the second law of thermodynamics, so kindly advises us (cf.
TMR Ch. 1), and it is wearing out,
as designs in this world, and of this world, do. And what then ? Then the
Designer must be faced; but man now seeks to outface Him, even if he loses his
own face, psychically truant, pathologically more and more advanced, in the
grip of increasing madnesses of those who invent gods, ignore God and follow
the fault lines of society, not conspicuously hard to discover!
That of course is what the race is currently doing. That is what Christ
indicated would be the outcome of such things (cf. Matthew 24, esp. v. 22). If
HE did not intervene, He declared from of old, NO FLESH COULD BE SPARED. How
man frets and fulminates, seeking to avoid this; but the more he is brilliant,
the more he is unmoved. His environment arises to indict him, the lost arise
to hate him, the technicalities arise in the hands even of individuals, to
loathe and to destroy him, his towers dwindle, his heights reach the depths,
and yet he does not repent ? Man was created like all the other designs, and
this one in trilogy of mind, matter and spirit, and this creation is long
past, magnificently attested, knowledge unable to hide the wonders of his
araticulation, the glory of his commands, written into every cell in his body,
telling matter what it is to do, by the articulation of code. Man is walking
archeology, having become the joint attestation of the word of God concerning
his creation, and his defilement, alike!
The past speaks; the word of God speaks; the Gospel speaks; the answer is
spoken; the remedy as sure as God is, in the face of this ruin of His
creation, this denial of His truth, it continues for the time. It is time
therefore not only to ensure that it is yours, but to seek to make it clear to
others. The Titanic of man is sinking. There is a life boat after all, and it
is near. It is called Jesus Christ. That too, it was predicted, and even here,
archeology has things to say!
 |
Man, he is in much also
WRITTEN,
|
|
|
but not his spirit, which
is smitten so often and in so much
|
|
|
because he refuses
absolutely to find his place,
and mourns for his meaninglessness with a meaning nevertheless assumed,
which pre-supposes the divinity he rejects,
|
|
|
that his griefs are both
predictable and indubitable, irremediable and ruinous...
They are so in himself and in themselves;
yet it is when he accepts the word which endures past a myriad of
sciences,
never changes, never has to, the word of God, verified in the past,
impending in the future,
that the DIVINE REMEDY, foreseen by Job, provided in Christ,
attested to this day through His words: it is then that his relief is
unbounded. |
NOTE
For further on archeology, and
the testimony of things past, see
Biblical Blessings Ch. 15,
The Pitter-Patter of Prophetic Feet Ch.
4,
SMR
68ff.,
377-378,
712ff.,
1004-1007,
1180-1181,
1185-1186C,
Appendix C;
Ancient Words, Modern Deeds
Ch. 2 (including some recent finds) and
Deliverance from Disorientation Ch.
10, esp. *1.
An excerpt from
Ancient Words, Modern Deeds follows.
Meanwhile,
there is also the attestation of what He has done already. Thus in Israel
in its new tenure since 1948, archeology has been a focus, a feature and
a wonder to many. It has grown and triumphs in it have appeared.
Thus
in Reader's Digest, for example, April 2001, a few recent finds are noted.
That these are notable for their expression of Biblical truth is intriguing,
as if God were giving to Israel, which for all its sufferings, and indeed
suffering as it does ULTIMATELY because of this, is still in formal rebellion
against its own Messiah, who is also for the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6, 42:6
cf. SMR Ch. 9).
In
1993, one named Cook called the attention of archeologist Avraham Biran
of Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, to look at an inscription on the exposed
section of a basalt wall. The stone, identified as part of a stele from
the ninth century B.C., when in fact Israel in its lusts and sins suffered
considerable reverses, was from a Syrian king. He was concerned to commemorate
some victories over "the house of David".
Several results accrue from
this. Why was he so keen to make this record ? We do not know, but one
prominent possibility is that it was very much worth recording, like the
Battle of Britain, where against a huge force, victory was tenuously and
later triumphantly obtained. David hundreds of years before, had been great;
the kingdom divided, and people like Joram were in jeopardy (II Kings 9),
this one, having fought Syria, being wounded before his execution,
while later, Joash, of child rescue fame, when a man did appalling things,
like killing the son of his benefactor, and had to pay a huge ransom to
the King of Syria. Defeats were far from uncommon as the kingdom regressed
to eventual ruin, idolatrous, and even at times sending children to the
blazing arms of brazen idols, it appears, as part of some form of 'worship'
borrowed from the people they were supposed in purity, to replace!
This then fits precisely.
Secondly, it is direct attestation
from the stones of the past, of the David of history, and his "house".
Thirdly, it attests military
interaction between Israel, in the Southern portion, known as Judah, or
the House of David, and Syria.
Again, in 1968 the "skeletal
remains of a crucified man" were found in a Jerusalem burial cave. It is
relevant since 1) it was a cave so serving 2) it was a crucified victim
who inhabited it 3) the bones of the victim show one iron nail through
both ankles, the shin bones broken, with the wrists probably pierced by
nails. All this is in direct agreement with the tomb of Joseph of Arithmathea,
as something that could happen for a victim, with the crucifixion procedure,
with the breaking of shins (John 19:32-33). This was evidently the first
such victim uncovered. It fits precisely with the Biblical record.
Further, in 1990, about 3
km south of the Temple Mount, a hidden burial chamber was found, with 12
limestone ossuaries, dating to the first century. One, apparently relating
to a man who had been 60 years of age, bore the inscription, 'Yehosel bar
Qayafa' - Joseph, son of Caiaphas. It is reported that this is taken by
experts to refer to the Caiaphas, high priest of Jerusalem, and thus fits
precisely with the Biblical indications concerning the time and the man.
As if this were not enough:
years earlier, at Caesarea Maritima, ancient base of the Roman government
in Judea, a stone slab was found. Though damaged, it is believed the message
is this: Pontius Pilate, the prefect of Judea, has dedicated to the
people of Caesarea a temple in honour of Tiberius. It is allegedly
the first inscription bearing Pilate's name!
Of course, in the 1990's
we have had also the remarkable confirmations of the fall of Jericho in
the 15th century B.C., by the renowned world expert on pottery, Dr Bryant
Wood, fully confirming the dating of Professor Garstung of Oxford, whose
systematic researches were so well attested from the first. (Cf. SMR
pp. 1185).
In the twenty first century
it is not only archeology, however, but contemporary paper 'tablets' which
record in this way and in that, and not always with sympathy: the ongoing
saga of Israel's selection, rejection of Christ, dispersion from the land
on schedule, as arranged (cf. Luke 19:42ff.), the Gospel's confirmation
by works from Christ (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms
17), its spread over the globe, its continued rejection by the Jewish
nation, the constant wars about Jerusalem, its cutting in two (1948), its
amazing victories in 1948, 67, 73, and the protective war of 1991 (as it
was in effect for Israel!), in the same genre, together with the
downfall increasingly of all morality among the Gentiles, while false prophets
abound, and Islam is a very present case, for Israel; and all the other
criteria of the opera program, the notations for the works of God. (See
on such topics, SMR pp. 647ff.,
717ff.,
755ff.,
816-829,
Galloping
Events Ch. 1,
Ch.
4,
Barbs, Arrows and Balms
13,
Divine
Agenda Ch. 8.)
29.
P R 0 P H E C Y
Now really we
have covered some of the same ground for archeology, as is apt for prophecy.
When we find what WAS prophesied, already long past, then archeology may dig
it up, reveal it, expose it; so bringing in the topic of prophecy. We have
therefore in fact, though not for direct purpose, included elements of
prophecy already ...
However, it is
time now to address it more directly. This subject receives a valuable short
coverage for our present purpose in THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE by Dr Henry
M. Morris; and it is recommended that this be carefully studied. It is also at
length given address in SMR Chs. 8
and 9 with Answers to
Questions Ch. 5, and many other chapters on
this site, for which see PROPHECY in the
indexes. You may wish to see now, rather than in the next Section,
word on this topic, but it is
recommended you complete this section first.
It is remarkable
that although masses of Scriptural prophecies have been made, and historical
statements given; whether backwards in time or forwards we move, we find that
on the one hand archeology keeps on confirming the truth and living history
keeps on confirming the prediction presented in the Biblical statement.
History conforms, archeology confirms as indeed do our newspapers.
Whether it be of
cities or civilisation, or the whole human race, FULFILMENT AND FACT are the
keynote when we examine the accuracy of the Scriptural words; and the sharpest
notes of prophecy come to equally sharp fulfilment (cf. Isaiah 48:3‑5, 34:16).
Indeed, in Isaiah
41,43,48 we find God denouncing the practice of pretending, or failing to
perceive what is so obvious, that He and He alone has told them, confronted
them, surveyed the scene in advance, predicted it; and He makes it clear that
this verification is what does, will and must occur with an impact and
reliability and security which only God can have. We recall here (Deuteronomy
18:20‑22) that if a 'prophet' claimed things, being merely pretentious, and
they did not happen, that prophet would die. God was not playing, but
pronouncing. Man's life was at stake. Interference here could cost life!
It all happens to
plan: whether it be the taking of HALF of Jerusalem (1948) or the
multi-sourced return of the Jews, coming from many lands in accord with the
prediction, as we have seen, the nation still unconverted, but many soon to
repent of the piercing of the Christ, the incarnate Son of God‑ (Zechariah
11:9‑13, 12:10‑14,14:1‑3), who have come back after a prolonged dispersion (
Deuteronomy 32:23-43, Hosea 3:1‑5, Leviticus 26:27-46, Ezekiel 37:21-26,
36:24-38 cf. SMR Appendix A). How amazing,
that half a millenium before Christ was rejected by Israel and murdered, the
much later repentance in Israel for that act, is prophesied, following their
return from long exile (as in Ezekiel 36-39). How previous can you be, in
prophecy, when repentance for an act not to occur for about 500 years is noted
for the coming time, when they will return after long exile, and returning,
still lack faith in Christ, and find war their milieu, with mighty and
disproportionate victories, as arresting as anything in military history.
So it was to be,
before the killing of Christ even happened; and so it is, now that that murder
is long past, their exile and return has happened, and as to that, this last
chapter of their amazing return, planting of millions of trees and being
abundant in flowers, as in triumphantly staggering victories against massed
forces, gaining first half of Jerusalem and then all of it, this has happened
after so long a time, within this author's own life-time. What a staggeringly
blessed time, to see such things!
Here it is we find that ISRAEL is cited:
i) as a people of God.
ii) as one
which rebelled against God.
iii) as
one who would be geographically scattered in exile as a result (Deuteronomy
301‑3 and 32:18‑44, Leviticus 26, Hosea 3:1‑3 show the scope and stages of
discipline!).
iv) as a
nation which, despite their shameful dealings ( Ezekiel 36:32) God
would restore to the land which they had formerly possessed (called then
as it is NOW, Israel!)‑ giving them a vast and decisive assurance (Jeremiah
31:37‑40) in which astronomy would founder before this would fail,
v) as a people to
whom the land restored would recover fertility and blossom (as has happened
with amazing world advancement in afforestation and flower marketing ‑ world
number three in the latter, notable indeed for a tiny country, recently
recovered from wastage and foes).
vi) as those to
whom new insight would come, in terms of the New Covenant in Christ, which
they had formerly rejected (Zechariah 12:9‑10, 13:1 & 6,11:1‑14, Jeremiah
31:31, Isaiah 49:7).
Ezekiel 37 shows
that their return at last, leading to a time when they will in large numbers
(cf. Romans 11:22‑33) ... receive Christ with repentance and conform to Him
(Zechariah 12:10 ff., Ezekiel 37:21‑24) has a special feature. It is this. It
is a coming to a final blessing, from which those who come will not again be
wrested (Ezekiel 37:26). There is one and one only people in the whole of
history wh o thus were outside God, came to Him via Abraham, breached and left
the covenant, killed the Lord, and come back at His invitation to Him; none
other body may universally have such things said of them, has this identikit,
or may be substituted for Israel in this: they are unique and are indicated
with certainty. With just the same certainty, these things have come to be
(cf. No Clone for Israel).
Moreover,
we are told of this:
vii) the successful turning of
assault into retreat, as Israel's multiple enemies come, as it were, on all
sides, IN THIS PERIOD, IS MADE SO CLEAR, this time
when their repentance to an already murdered Christ is in the offing, and is a
criterion for their deliverance to come, In this, one will be like a thousand,
and a 'burdensome stone' will Jerusalem be to her
assailants. In OUR generation we have already seen all but the final element
of these things (Zechariah 12:1‑8,13:1,14:1‑2). The 'burden' has been most
impressive... in the wars of 1948,'56 '67,'73 and '91 ! MANY have those
nations been who have felt it, when seeking to lift it away, and oppress
Jerusalem.
It is also denoted that:
viii) On their return they
will be a nation still unbelieving,
still needing a fundamental washing, still a matter of shame and disgrace for
all they had done (Ezekiel 36:24‑38), still needing and coming to gain, after
they are back, a new heart. The former part has happened;
for to this day Israel is still 'its own', nor yet has it as a nation repented
of the days when many cried in its streets:
"HIS BLOOD BE ON US AND ON OUR CHILDREN" (Matthew 27:25),
No solution appears but the
repentance predicted; and it will surely come; for in despising Christ, they
despised God's mercy; and there is
no other mercy available (Acts 4:11‑12), for there is no ...
"SALVATION IN
ANY OTHER, FOR THERE IS NO OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN GIVEN AMONG MEN BY WHICH WE
MUST BE SAVED"
(Acts 4:12).
As to
their future from this time, then, it is predicted that Israel will suffer
vicious attack and be given magnificent deliverance (Zechariah 12). Indeed,
God says
"IT SHALL BE
IN THAT DAY THAT I WILL SEEK TO DESTROY ALL THE
NATIONS THAT
COME AGAINST JERUSALEM,"
this being
immediately, in the prophetic sequence that is, followed by the account of
their repentance and salvation. Indeed the LORD'S OWN RETURN is set in
Zechariah 14 shortly after such things; while Micah 7:15 ff. gives the
enormous power and effect of the divine intervention, likening it in scope and
power, indeed to the days of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt!
Ezekiel
38‑39 also provide an interesting parallel of great interest, to the words of
Zechariah, helping us to identify some of the of Israel in the dénouement
... and their motives!
Romans 11:13‑26 covers the scope of Israel's
history and the Gentile world's involvement, those who for a time were
receiving the gospel which the Jews rejected: and it spreads out this history
for us in a magnificent panorama, covering that which was to be (and now is)
and that which is to be. God knows it all, and declares His will in His word,
which is a witness to all.
It is
forecast also, we must rigorously note, that the Gentiles, the non‑Jewish
people of the world, also will as a whole inhabit an increasingly 'hot' world,
where wars are rife, peace is progressively shattered, conditions are
increasingly dangerous mentally, psychologically and physically, while
spiritual conditions deteriorate grossly (Matthew 24, II Thessalonians 2:1‑12,
II Timothy 3:1‑7,I Timothy 4, II Peter 3).
The
GENTILES will as a whole do as disastrously as the Jews. Even in I Timothy 4,
you see the doctrines of devils which were to come, including those who would
forbid to marry and eat meat, for which of course Romanism is justly famous,
and infamous alike. Jew and Gentile, alike, each will have an innings as it
were (Romans 11), and neither set will adorn 'the game'! The tendency to
suppress what the Jews did is quite unnecessary and highly ungodly; it is NOT
to cover up, as at Watergate that is needed, but to gain for them, as for all,
the cover of the blood of Christ, the propitiation (Romans 3:23ff.). It is NOT
a matter of whitewashing Jews as a people but of JEW and GENTILE ALIKE
accepting the depth and depravity of their sin. It is not a racial matter;
rather the different races have failed in the race: all alike have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and may be redeemed
ONLY
WITHOUT WORKS BY FAITH
in CHRIST'S BLOOD (
Romans 3:23‑28, 5:1‑11)
Prophecy then, brings us
quite back to the gospel; it is fixed in gospel terms.
It DIVIDES Jew from Gentile
and then brings back Jew and
Gentile to THAT SAME JESUS,
THAT SAME GOSPEL WITHOUT
WHOM, WITHOUT WHICH (for it is HIS gospel)
none can be saved (Acts
1:7‑10,2:36, Galatians 1:6‑9,3:1‑13).
It is the gospel of a cursed
Christ who bore the sins of all who receive Him and who redeemed such and such
alone (Romans 8:32), from the curse of sin, its guilt and its eternal reward
...
THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY, then,
IS THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS (Revelation 19:10). That is its crux and focus. The
testimony concerning Jesus the Christ, this is the very spirit of the
prophecies of the Father who sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world (I
John 4:14), that we might live by Him (I John 4:9): to be the propitiation for
our sins (I John 4:10) and so that we might love one another (I John 4:11),
rather than meaninglessly affirm various isolated selves, insulated societies
or vexatious ideologies, reeking with the corruption of asinine power,
pretentious glory and rebellious irrationality.
In all the multitudes of
divine predictions, of course, not one has failed (cf. Isaiah 34:16), and
seeking from the book of the Lord has but one result: it happens and projects
still further, what is to be; which then happens ... on and on, for millenia
as it has already been. ONE MISTAKE is all it would have taken to disestablish
the book; thousands are its predictions; one error would have throw all out,
if God had not known all, for one small thing can change history, nations and
plans for millenia, in the concourse of throbbing events and ever new
mutilations of morals, severances of spirits and absurdities of thought.
ONLY omniscience can prevent
that one mistake, and all its concourse of consequent errors, if God were
subject to error. It is there; it is shown; it is operational, and man needs
to know Him, without whose knowledge his very world is close to seizing, like
an over-hot engine. That too of course was also predicted (Matthew
24:22), as is His return in royal mode (I Thessalonians 4, Revelation 1:7-8,
Acts 1:7ff., 3:19ff.), now the obtaining of salvation is complete
(Hebrews 9:12-28, 10:10-13).
In this spirit therefore, let
us live and love and believe; for this is the will of God concerning all His
children, and let us witness to the lost world of being found in Christ, and
how to find Him, and that we love Him because He first loved us, that He IS
love, and no other life that is designed, sufficient and holy for humans, and
in the end, even operable, is ‑or can be available.
