THE GOLDEN THREAD.
GOLD is symbolic of glory. A golden thread of glory runs through the whole of the Scriptures. It is the glory of the Kingdom of God which shall come. This thread is woven into the various patterns of the different books of the Bible, and whether they treat of the times before the flood, or picture the patriarchs walking with God in the midst of idolatry's deepening gloom, or describe the nation of Israel in its rise and fall, and the return of its remnant from Babylonian exile, still the gold and the glory are present. The thread shines forth in the four gospels, and in the epistles, and it is displayed in ample beauty in the book of the Revelation. How can the "higher critic" account for the presence of this one thread of gold in the writings of various authors of various ages? Whence comes it, in the books of Moses, the chronicles of the kings, the burdens of the prophets, the narratives of the life of Jesus the Lord, and the teachings of the epistles, unless it comes from heaven?
This earth is pre-eminent amongst the worlds—for here was the Son of God incarnate; and from this earth—which gave Him, instead of its throne, a grave—He has ascended to heaven, where, as Son of Man, He is seated on the right hand of the Divine Majesty.
Science seeks to penetrate, by telescopic power, into the secrets of the worlds around our own; but the far-reaching eye of faith sees into the heavens, and discovers the mind of God in relation to His kingdom, and the destiny of man in relation to the universe. In Christ, man is exalted above angels, principalities, and powers.
The sight of the glorified Jesus sheds a fresh glory over the work of God in rendering this earth a habitation for man. When the Creator fashioned it for our dwelling, the gloom, the death, and the shroud of waters wound about it, gave place to light, and life, and verdure and, when all was finished, the almighty Worker rested in satisfaction in His perfect work. "Behold, it was very good." The habitation, "very good" in God's eye, was suited for the home of man and was ordained to be a brief tarrying-place for the feet of His incarnate Son.
In the mysterious ways of God, sin was allowed entrance into this world. "How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out." We leave the why and wherefore to Himself. Man on earth is called to trust. The story of the habitable earth—even of seven thousand years' duration—is brief, for "with the Lord.... a thousand years are as one day." Millions of years may be traced in rocks and fossils, but the moral history of man carries a term no longer than that span of time the earth has been made his habitation. We are called by God to trust during this brief space of time. The future will answer questions now unanswerable.
The deep importance of this span of time is realized when we consider the infinite glory of God in the incarnation of His Son, and the marvelous position into which God has set the human race, as evidenced by the incarnation. Neither need we be surprised, with the glory of the Son of Man before our eyes, that throughout God's Word, the honor and majesty of His kingdom should have a prominent place. Nor should we forget that God would have the glory of that kingdom obtain a large place in our hearts.
The first great revelation of the coming glory was made to the Serpent, the originator of evil here. The woman's Seed should bruise his head; and the serpent should bruise the heel of the woman's Seed. This word referred not only to man, but to fallen angels; it referred to beings made to dwell upon this earth, and also to those beings who have visited it for thousands of years. The Son of God should by His incarnation, and His death, exalt and bless man, and should cast down Satan. This is the first letting down from heaven of the golden thread to earth.
The advent of the kingdom has ever been presented by God to His people as their hope, and God communicated more respecting it to His servants before the flood than may appear at first sight. We cannot conceive the earth's first families as being indifferent to their origin and to the life which was lost. The very legends of the heathen disallow the idea of such indifference. The gates of Paradise were closed against man, and the earliest legends describe man seeking to obtain entrance—but the Cherubim barred the way. Life so near, yet unattainable! Rest at hand, but out of reach! The Scriptures afford us an insight of the expectations given by God to His people in those days of the coming of the kingdom. "The Lord cometh" prophesied Enoch. "The Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all." The first promise was judgment upon the serpent, the next was judgment upon obdurate men. It would seem that the men before the flood laid the burden of their condition upon God. Instead of repenting of their sins and turning from Satan, they lived in sin and spoke ill of God. Hence, when the Lord came, Enoch said He would "convince all that are ungodly.... of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Such was the testimony of "the seventh from Adam"—the man who saw the perfection of man's wickedness in those early days, who proclaimed the perfection of God's judgment on the ungodly at the coming of the Lord, and was in himself the witness of the perfection of grace on the earth-for he was translated that he should not see death, before the flood of judgment swept away all the sinners of the early world.
Noah took up the testimony. He proclaimed the coming flood, which should cleanse the very earth from its uncleanness—its horrible defilement of the union of man with the sons of God.
The judgment came according to the Word of God by Enoch and Noah. After the judgment, in the earth arising into life out of death, we see again the golden thread. Noah—or Rest, as his name signifies—found satisfaction in a new earth, in an earth purged from iniquity.
Thus the overthrow of Satan's power; the judgment of obdurate man; the cleansing of the defiled earth are before us.
The rest of Noah proclaims the new earth, which shall yet be, and the fulfillment of the promises of God in the power of the sweet savor of the sacrifice of Christ—the Lamb of God who bareth away the sin of the world.
On another occasion this thread of gold, as it shines out from Babel to Egypt blessed under Joseph, shall occupy us.