In nothing, perhaps, is the perfect accuracy of Scripture more manifest than in the present state of the children of Israel; not but that the word of Jehovah as to the Gentile nations is also very solemnly being fulfilled, “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is” (Ezek. 21:27). But as to Israel, the ten tribes are scattered to the four winds – “outcasts,” no man knows where; a few of them were not carried away in the Assyrian captivity, and that is why we read of Anna, who was of the tribe of Asher, and now and then we meet with one of the remnant of these ten tribes which were left behind. (See 2 Chron. 34:9). But most of the Israelites with whom we have intercourse are of Judah and Benjamin. This distinction is kept up in the prophets, and is important; for our Lord taught, that the ten tribes would not be gathered till He appears in manifested glory. Isaiah remarkably distinguishes them by speaking of the “outcasts of Israel,” and of the “dispersed of Judah,” instead of preserving their own nationality.
But though one here and there repents, receives Christ as his Savior, and openly confesses Him, and is really born anew and saved, “according to the election of grace,” as the apostle tells us, yet, as a people, they are still in unbelief; some are pious Jews, and others openly infidel, yet at this moment fulfilling the words of the prophet Hosea. “The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image [or pillar, margin], and without an ephod, and without teraphim.” Thus it is to this day, though they have much of the wealth of the world, the Word of God must be fulfilled, for it endures forever; so the Jews have no king, no prince, no proper sacrifice, no pillar, no high priest with ephod, and no teraphim or idol. How appalling are these facts, and how the eternal verity of the written Word should be endeared to our hearts! It is a serious blunder to suppose that the Jews, as a people, are to be converted by the present ministry of the gospel, for both Old and New Testaments assure us, that it will be by seeing their Savior, and not like us by believing in one whom we have not seen, but for whom we look and wait. Hence Hosea goes on to say, “Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek Jehovah their God, and David their king, and shall fear Jehovah and His goodness in the latter days” (Chapter 3:4, 5). Nothing is more plainly stated in Scripture than Israel’s future blessing, and that by the Lord’s personal coming. The prophet Isaiah said, “The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith Jehovah” (Chapter 59:20); and an apostle taught that, “all Israel [that is, all the twelve tribes] shall be saved, as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Rom. 11:26-27).
The faithfulness of God to His own Word in all these ways is very precious to our souls. A story is published of two Rabbis approaching Jerusalem, who observed a fox running on the hill of Zion, when Rabbi Joshua wept, and Rabbi Eliezer laughed. “Wherefore dost thou laugh?” said he who wept. “Nay, wherefore dost thou weep?” demanded Eliezer. “I weep,” replied the Rabbi Joshua, “because I see what is written in the Lamentations fulfilled, ‘because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.’” (Chapter 5:18). “And therefore,” said Rabbi Eliezer, “do I laugh, for when I see with mine own eyes that God has fulfilled His threatenings to the very letter, I have thereby a pledge that not one of His promises shall fail, for He is ever more ready to show mercy than judgment.”
In nothing, however, is the perfection of the Scriptures more strikingly seen than in the use of the divine titles. As we have before noticed, God’s creatorial title is simply God-Elohim; but when man and God’s relationship to him are brought in, it is then Lord God, or Jehovah Elohim. Afterward when Abraham is called out from idolatry to trust God, He then is revealed to him as “the Almighty God” (Gen. 17:1). It is also remarked, that in the brief account of King Melchisedec he is also spoken of as priest of the Most High God – king and priest; and he was, as we learn from Heb. 7, eminently typical of the Lord Jesus in a future day, when He will “be a Priest upon His throne;” and there God is spoken of as “the Most High God,” and also that He is “possessor of heaven and earth.” These titles will be asserted by our Lord in the millennial age, when He comes forth wearing His many crowns, and reigns in power and great glory (Gen. 14:18,22).
(Continued from page 171).
(To be Continued).