Scripture itself lays down, in a text already referred to, the criterion of its object so clearly as to preclude argument when it is understood. “And we have the prophetic word more sure whereunto ye do well to take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a squalid place, until the day dawn and the daystar arise in your hearts; knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of its, own interpretation. For not by man's will was ever prophecy brought, but men spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:19-21).
Here we learn that the prophetic word was confirmed by the vision on the holy mount, where the King was seen transfigured, the Old Testament saints represented, the chosen witnesses of Israel in their natural bodies, and the Father's voice was heard from the excellent glory pronouncing his complacency in His Son, the center of the whole scene. The apostle, in his making known the transcendent blessings of the gospel, admits the value of taking heed to prophecy. It is like a lamp for those that need one where all is dark wretchedness till the heart appreciated evangelic daylight and, further, the heavenly hope of Christ coming to receive us to Himself, a light higher than the luminaries of heaven exceed a candle. How slow the Christian is to make good practically (and this the apostle urged) his own peculiar privileges! If it is so with us now, it was perhaps more so with those who then labored under Jewish prejudice and were unwilling to admit aught superior to that which Daniel or David, Moses or Abraham, enjoyed. Vain thought! which none would have reproved more sternly than those saints of old. Did not the prophets (and such they were) seek and search diligently who prophesied of the grace toward us, searching to what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ that was in them did point, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ (literally Christward), and the glories after them? To whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they ministered those things which were now announced to us by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven; which things angels desire to look into. Can any words more explicitly assert the peculiar blessing attached to this day of, not promise only, but accomplishment enjoyed in the power of a present Spirit? Among other results is the heavenly light so far surpassing the lamp of prophecy, good as this is. The hope is as much enhanced as the faith; and love proved, tasted, and shed forth as it could not be before, whatever be the reasoning or traditions of men.
But further, we have it laid down as a known first principle, that no prophecy is of its own (i.e., isolated) solution. Local and temporal circumstances give occasion; but it forms part of a great whole, of which Christ the King is the center. Taking it by itself is like severing a bough from a majestic tree, of which it is an integral part. All points to Him in that day. Hence the way in which both advents are connected habitually in the Old Testament, whilst the second is set forth prominently in the New. Hence the habit of the Spirit, when predicting the fall of Nineveh, Babylon, Tire, Egypt, etc., of ever linking them with the day of Jehovah when the Lord will in personal presence inflict vengeance on ungodly Jews and Gentiles. Making these prophecies of their own solution is when men stop short with present fact, and even misuse this to the deeper unbelief of effacing the great unraveling of that day when Jehovah alone shall be exalted, and every word verified indisputably by divine judgment.
Such is the genuine unforced meaning of this scriptural canon. It is not “our,” viz., the readers', any more than “of one's own,” viz., the prophet's, solution; for neither is here in question. Not the prophet but the prophecy had as yet been before us. Nor again does επιλυσις mean production but “interpretation.” The verb γιυεται here translated “is,” does not warrant any such thought. Even if we plead for its primitive force of becoming or coming, the meaning is that no prophecy of scripture becomes a matter of its own solution. It is by its nature such as to exclude isolated interpretation. It belongs to a vast system which has Christ and His kingdom for its object. For though the prophets were men, they “spoke from God” under the power of the Holy Spirit. He who used them to write is the only source of sound interpretation; which views each prophecy of scripture as a component part of God's testimony to Christ, in and by whom only His glory is secured and yet to be displayed.
This, it ought to be evident, excludes the notion that history interprets prophecy. Of course, man's history, as far as it is true, must coincide with prophecy, as far as it is accomplished; but what of the great mass of prophecy which bears on the day of Jehovah? Will it not be too late to get its interpretation then? The very text itself disproves the thought: prophecy was given as a lamp for the dark place all through; and now that Christ is come, a better light—the True Light—shines, at least for the sons of light and day, indeed for all who truly bow to Him. Plainly one must understand or interpret aright the prophecy, before it can be applied save by guesswork to any event of history; but even so, if this e made all, prophecy is made of private solution. In fact, it would be truer to say the converse—that prophecy interprets history; for God's mind is given in prophecy, which ever looks to Christ's glory, anything short of which is at best partial and misleading. The only effectual interpreter of prophecy, as of all scripture, is His Spirit, who deigns to work in the believer.
It is only then, as we seize the association of Christ with each subject coming before us in the prophetic word, that we really understand it as a whole or in detail. For the divine purpose is to display His glory on the earth, not only in a people called to the knowledge of Jehovah as His own, but with all nations yet to be blessed when His own people are blessed (Psalms 67; Isaiah 60).
It is Israel that have the earthly call and purpose of God, the nations then subordinately.
But there is blessing for none apart from Christ, the object, center, and security of all the promises of God. And this, in varied form and fullness, the Old Testament demonstrates. Of old a curse came, not the blessing, as the law was violated, God's witnesses were despised, and idolatry more and more prevailed, first in Ephraim, then in Judah, “till there was no remedy.” God's people not only vanished from the land of promise, but were pronounced Lo-ammi (not-My-people). The return from Babylon, important as it may be, was but provisional, and in no way the restoration of God's people, according to patriarchal promises or early and later prophets. It was only a remnant of Judah and Benjamin, with individuals of other tribes, especially of Levi, who were in time appointed to have their King, Messiah, presented to them, and alas! rejected disdainfully to death, but in that death glorifying God and atoning for sin, as He had already glorified the Father in a life that bespoke the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth. When the Jew rejected the testimony of the Spirit to the Messiah exalted in heaven, whom they had crucified on earth by the hand of lawless men, it was all over with the returned remnant, as before with the nation. The same evil heart of unbelief which gave up Jehovah for idols, rejected Jehovah-Messiah in Jesus, as well as the gospel through His blood; and “wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.” The King was wroth; and He sent His armies, and destroyed those murderers and burned their city, as the rejected Messiah forewarned.
Then God began a new call above, believers from among Jews and Gentiles united to Christ on high, as the one body, wherein is neither Jew nor Greek: all the distinctions blotted out, Christ all and in all. They are not of the world, as Christ is not; they are heavenly, as He is heavenly, though they be on the earth for the little while that God is calling them out. This explains why the church of God is not properly an object of prophecy, for prophecy regards the earth and living man upon it. But the members of Christ have died with Him, and belong to Him for heaven, being warned against “all that is in the world,” and exhorted to set their minds on things above; a state not at all contemplated by the prophetic word, which is, we saw, a lamp shining in a squalid place. This lamp we can use, and do well to heed; but we have by grace already a better light in our hearts, and are waiting for Him to take us where He is, the constant hope of the church, wholly independent of prophecy with its earthly times and seasons, its judgments and blessings under Messiah's government here below.
But has God cast away His people? This the apostle has answered elaborately in the Epistle to the Romans (chap. 11). To the saints in the metropolitan city of the world that then was, the Holy Spirit has declared on the contrary that the day is coming when “all Israel shall be saved” (Rom. 11:26), that is, all Israel who survive the tremendous judgments of that day. He, Paul, was himself a pledge of it; as in Elijah's time there was a remnant, so there was in the apostle's day. No doubt the men now, yet more than then, are blinded, and salvation is for the Gentiles, not to cast off the Jews but to provoke them to jealousy, as Moses predicted (Deuteronomy 32). Now, if their fall be the world's wealth, what will be their future rise? Life from the dead. After all, the Gentile was but a wild olive grafted into the olive tree of promise, and is warned not to be high-minded but to fear, seeing how God spared not the natural branches. It is only Gentile pride and delusion that Israel are gone forever to make themselves “the Israel of God," and abide till time melts into eternity. Not so! Assuredly, if the Gentile abide not in God's goodness (and who will dare to affirm this?), be will be cut off, and the Jews will be grafted into their own olive tree. Then the apostle drops argument and figure, declaring in plain terms that a hardening in part (it has never been complete) has befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in; “and so all Israel shall be saved,” according to the prophet (Isaiah 59:20). This will be the true restoration of Israel in the day of Jehovah, when the Gentiles meet with condign judgment at His hand. It is only fleshly Israel that can be said to be “enemies for your sake as touching the gospel.” It is only they who are “beloved for the fathers' sake, as touching the election.” What theologians call “the spiritual people,” “the Israel of God,” or believers, cannot answer to this language. It is the same people, enemies as regards the gospel yet beloved as regards election, who shall be saved. For, adds the apostle, the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance—they are subject to no change of mind on His part. God will assuredly restore is people yet.
Then does the great prophet join the great apostle. “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In overflowing wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith Jehovah thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith Jehovah that hath mercy on thee” (Isaiah 54:7-10). So perfectly coincides the teaching of Paul with the prophecy of Isaiah; as both are set aside by the figment that it is henceforth only a question of the church, in which merge all that believe, whether Jew or Gentile: as if God had cast away His people according to Gentile conceit!
Without full credit to God's purpose in this respect, the prophets are unintelligible. Given the restoration of Israel, not only to their land, but to Jehovah their God, whom they will own and see in their manifested Messiah, the field of prophecy begins to be truly discerned. Jerusalem is the city of the great King. “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced.” More than carnage may open “that day” when the garments, rolled in blood, shall even be for burning, for fuel of fire. But how blessed when they say, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given! And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon the kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with judgment and with righteousness henceforth even forever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6, 7).
Nor is this all. As grace called Gentiles when the Jews rejected the Messiah, so prophecy shows us Him in glory the Head of Israel and the Gentiles here below. “And it shall come to pass in that day [not in this], that the root of Jesse which standeth for an ensign of the peoples, unto him shall the nations seek, and his resting-place shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10). “And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him [the Son of man]; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:14). “And Jehovah shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall Jehovah be one, and his name one.” (Zechariah 14:9).
The key of all is Christ seen in His various glory, not alone Only-begotten Son of God in personal right, but Christ Jesus a Man, dead, risen, and glorified in virtue of His work as well as person; Son of David, Son of Man, and withal, Head over all things to His church, the body of Him that filleth all in all. It is this fact which emerges with heavenly brightness in Ephesians and Colossians, as well as partially, elsewhere. It is the omission of it (the mystery, hid in God from the ages, now revealed), which enfeebles alike Fathers, Greeks, Orientals, Copts, Abyssinians, Romanists, Anglicans, Lutherans, Reformed, Moravians, Methodists, etc. Yet the proper character even of Christianity cannot be intelligently apprehended without it. Thus it is a far larger question than prophecy; for it affects all things spiritual, individual and corporate, inasmuch as we ought to be now on earth, as by and by in heaven, the answer and witness to Christ at God's right hand.
Hence also we need not disparage in the least the Old Testament saints, but can allow ungrudgingly their future and heavenly glory in reigning with Christ. Hence we can leave adequate room and time for the displayed Kingdom of Christ over the habitable world to come, which is therefore neither the present age nor yet eternity, but between the two. Then the Jews and the Gentiles shall be blessed under Christ's reign—Jehovah King over all the earth, the peoples all suitably and sovereignly blessed, none confounded one with another, still less with the bride the Lamb's wife, the new Jerusalem metropolis not of earth only but of the universe in heavenly glory, yet specially connected with the earth. Even now on earth is neither Jew nor Gentile in that body of Christ, but He is all and in all.
Now there ought to be not the smallest hesitation about this great truth; for it is no question of prophecy as to its full revelation, but of the weightiest and plainest dogmatic scripture, as in Ephesians 1:9-10: “Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself for the administration of the fullness of the times, to sum (or head) up all things in the Christ, the things in the heaven, and the things on the earth—in him, in whom also we were allotted (or obtained) inheritance, being fore-ordained according to the purpose of him that worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will.” Thus it is sure that God's purpose in the coming economy is to put all the universe, heavenly and earthly, under Christ as head, we who believe (whether Jews or Gentiles) being His joint-heirs in this unbounded and glorious inheritance; of which, as the apostle proceeds to explain, the Holy Spirit, who has sealed us unto that day of redemption, is meanwhile the earnest in our hearts. The latter part of Colossians 1 may be compared in proof of the general purpose grounded on the work of the cross, and of the church's special relationship with Christ as the head of His body. Hence we shall reign in that day with Christ, not certainly giving up our characteristic blessings in heavenly places, and therefore, as Revelation 5 10 says “over” rather than “on” the earth, where the Jews shall have the central place and first dominion (Micah 4), and the Gentiles willingly bow, even their kings and queens, to Jehovah's disposal and ordering (Isaiah 11; 49; 60; 66).
It is thus the special relationship with Christ that makes all clear in scripture, and assigns the just place to each, whether to Israel, or to the Gentiles. As the church was part of “the mystery,” which is expressly declared to be hid from ages and generations and hid in God, it is never as such the subject matter of the prophets, though principles of the glorious future are already verified in and applied to the gospel now. We may regard it as bound up with, and eclipsed in, Christ (comp. Isaiah 1:8, 9, with Rom. 8:33, 34). But when the day is come for the display of His glory before the universe, Rev. 21 shows the bride, the Lamb's wife, as the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, the witness of grace, even then with healing for the nations (22:2); as the earthly Jerusalem will be the witness still of earthly righteousness. “For that nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted” (Isaiah 60:12). She, in the heavenly places, will reign with Christ over the earth; Israel will be reigned over, but the inner circle on earth, as the Gentiles also more distantly but blessed indeed.
What throws all prophecy into confusion, darkness, and error, is making ourselves, the church, its object. This the church is not. Give Christ, the true center, His place; then everything falls into order, and shines in the light of God before our souls. Such is the effect of God's word intelligently enjoyed by His spiritual power. Without it all vision becomes “as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee, and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed. And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned” (Isaiah 29 2, 12). “By faith we understand.” There is no other way, nor ought there to be.
W. K.