Having in No. 15 of this series treated of the study of the Scriptures as a whole, we now come to a particular subject of them, one that is largely presented therein and of special importance.
" The prophetic word now made surer," we are (in 2 Peter 1:1919We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (2 Peter 1:19)) exhorted to take heed to, as to "a light which shineth in a dark place." The character of this exhortation instructs us as to the effect and usefulness of prophecy or the prophetic part of the Scriptures. It is a light for a dark place. It was first given when darkness set in; early indeed in man's history, for it was his sin that created the darkness, into which the light of prophecy was sent as a relief from it. To Adam after his fall was the first prophetic word given. It is a word from God to His people to carry them forward into scenes superior to the present. This is its primary object. Times of great tribulation may be shown to intervene, or to be necessary as judgment, before the better thing comes in (man's sin has required this), but the end of prophecy is to spew out the goodness of God, and how He will triumph over all evil and ruin, and bring in His own gracious purposes. Thus it is expressly a " light shining in a dark place." The darkness is in the place, and the prophetic word is given of God as a light in the dark place. The one who yields himself to the prophetic word has got light for himself in the darkness; the one who does not has his eyes blinded, and cleaves to the dust, not knowing whither he goeth. If we examine the Scriptures we shall find how prophecy was given, and what was its effect and usefulness when received.
The first prophecy, as we have said, was given to Adam when he fell. The terms of it were, that " the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's bead." No communication could be more suitable or valuable at such a juncture. Satan had triumphed over man, but now when the gloom of death and distance from God reigned, a light from the prophetic word springs up, and the heart that received it, saw the way according to God out of the thickening darkness.
It is evident that according as Adam and Eve embraced this light, so was each able to rise up and soar beyond the dark clouds now resting on their souls. We know that man in every age, in proportion as he took a lead of his fellows in intelligence, did forecast scenes of a better state. Now this, in the natural mind, was poetry, which carried the mind into imaginations that responded to sentiments and cravings which existed, and which found themselves interpreted and intensified in the poet's words. It was the fact of darkness being felt which provoked the intelligent and reflecting one to forecast scenes and feelings which would give form and strength to the cravings of the natural mind after something better. According to the power with which this was done, so was the man's power as a poet esteemed. Thus man in himself admitted that he needed light to escape from the oppression which weighed on his heart and mind. This felt-need God graciously met in His own people, and in His own way, by presenting to them, not the imaginations or any superior intelligence of the natural mind, but the prophetic word, which necessarily led the soul that received it out of itself and its then condition into dependence on God, carrying it into scenes entirely in contrast to those in which it moved, and fraught with the very relief which at the moment was required. How welcome such a light in a dark place.
Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, by faith being translated that he should not see death. He, too, had the prophetic word when be prophesied, " My Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment," &c. That was the " light" to him, as to the growing confusion and ungodliness of the earth which he was leaving, and it shone in a dark place. Not only was he to be personally removed from the scene, but the prophetic word by which he foresaw the time when the Lord would come and be in the full exercise of His power, gave him a true estimate of the darkness with which he was surrounded and led him to walk more distinctly with God. A " light" indeed it was to him, and, as lie walked in it, it necessarily separated him from the darkness.
The blessing of Melchizedek was a prophetic word to Abram. It revealed to him the Lord God as the " possessor of heaven and earth" in such power that receiving it by faith, and entering into what was yet future, he could refuse the offers of the king of Sodom. Abram's own circumstances in the dark place were an apparent contradiction to this belief (for the Canaanite was in full power in the land), but in the light of prophetic truth he was translated from the darkness of man's day unto the day when the Lord God should rule. Nay more, the Lord says of him, "Abraham rejoiced to see my clay, and he saw it and was glad." The prophetic word always conducted the receiver of it into the scenes of which it spoke. It carried him out of the place where he was, and was given on purpose to set him free from the present confusion and disorder, and to establish him in that order of things which eventually would be.
When Jacob fled from his brother Esau, and, wearied, lay down on a pillow of stone, it is by the prophetic word in a dream that the Lord ministers cheer and hope to His suffering saint. " He dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending upon it." Surely this was a light in a dark place, now made a " Bethel" to him; and in spirit the houseless, homeless, friendless Jacob was transferred to the greatest of all manifestations on earth, even the manifestation of the Son of God in His glory. He saw that which the Lord announced to Nathaniel (John 1) as among the "greater things" to come, when, in the free communication between heaven and earth, the angels of God would be seen in ministry on the Son of man in His millennial glory. Again, in the light of the prophetic word, Jacob when a dying blesses the sons of Joseph and all his sons. He would conduct them in the spirit of their minds into scenes and a condition of things at the moment not existing, and of which there was nothing to indicate their future existence, no more than there was to Joseph that his bones should at a distant day be removed from Egypt to the land of Canaan; but faith carried him forward into that distant moment, and it was thus a light to him in his then circumstances.
When Moses was worn out by the continued failure and perverseness of the children of Israel, his cry to God was, " Show me thy glory." He desired a light to shine in the dreariness around him, and the light disclosed, led him in spirit unto the Holy Mount, where he was afterward quite at home. Prophecy, as we have seen, properly belongs to, and is given of, God to relieve the heart here oppressed by the darkness and difficulty of the way; so much so, that the more the darkness increased, and the more man's evil obtained, the more fully and constantly the prophetic word was given to warn the unruly, and cheer the faithful. For while it fully declared the righteousness of God in judgment, it failed not to disclose the purpose of God in His kindness and love to His people, and on this His people could ever rest. Thus the song which Moses taught the children of Israel, while it warned them of the consequences of forsaking the Lord, reminded them also of His love to them, and therefore comforted the faithful and assured them that in the darkest hour of trial and judgment He would be " merciful to his land and unto his people."
When Israel is set in the land, there is at first little or no prophetic word. It was a trial of man, as man, on earth, to be seen again in the millennial day, when the Lord will be present in person to sustain man therein. Until it was proved that man was incompetent to maintain this standing, there was no need, so to speak, for a prophetic word which would carry him in spirit out of, and beyond it. If Israel had acted up to their covenant, all would have gone on cheerfully and blessedly on earth. When failure had fully set in, when the priesthood, represented by Eli's sons, was corrupted, and a new line is adopted by God in the person of Samuel, then the prophet became, as I may say, an institution from God, " For he that is now called a prophet was before time called a seer." (1 Sam. 9:99(Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer.) (1 Samuel 9:9).) From henceforth the prophet is the distinct and peculiar minister of God. He by his word shed a light in a dark place; and though he might tell of intervening sorrows and trials yet he always conducted the believer in hope to the bright day of God's kingdom. 1 repeat, that the prophet became an ordinance of God when man was proved a failure under every trial. " Yea," says the apostle and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, "as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days." (Acts 3:2424Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. (Acts 3:24).) The prophetic word was of the grace of God, to lead His believing but suffering people into the day of blessing, and their hardness of heart was that they had not " believed all that the prophets bad spoken." The Psalms, many of which were indited during Saul's reign and David's rejection, distinctly and vividly look beyond all trouble to the day of Christ's glory; and thus the prophetic word was a light to David. Thus in the prophets, one and all of them, the greater the ruin, as in Ezekiel and Daniel, the more vividly the grace of God traces for His people the times of refreshing which would come from the presence of Christ.
How blessed and animating the prophetic word, in scenes and times when everything of God was marred and defaced; the temple dismantled, the carved work broken down with axes and hammers, a wild boar out of the wood devouring the vine of God, and Jerusalem trodden down of His enemies! Then it was that the prophetic word poured out its helpful and salutary light to the suffering people of God. And so does it now for us, though the character of it is of course varied according to the different times and need. Then the great burden of the prophetic testimony was Christ as " the mighty one on whom God would lay help," the arm of the Lord by which salvation should be wrought. " Behold thy king cometh" was the light which the prophetic word shed into the heart of many a way-worn, afflicted one in Israel. Hence to the shepherds it is announced, " This day is born to you a Savior, which is Christ the Lord;" and Simeon dwells on the fact that it was revealed to him that he should not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. What we have to understand is the effect and usefulness of the prophetic word, and how God in His lovingkindness vouchsafed it to His people in all dark times as a light. He in His grace and tender mercy communicated what would be, in order that the heart of each suffering saint might pass through the present affliction sustained by the future, and therefore reckoning himself of it, and not of the present.
When Christ came prophecy ceased, for He was the fulfillment of it. He was here to make good, if He had been received, all the promises made to the fathers, and all that the prophets had foretold. He was the Light to which they had pointed, and therefore for the interval that elapsed between Christ's coming and His rejection there was no prophecy. But immediately on His rejection prophecy again came in to cheer the hearts of saints, while also depicting to them the terrible sorrows they would have to pass through. The Lord Himself, when virtually rejected and on the eve of His death and departure from the world, announces to His own the " days of vengeance, that all things that are written may be fulfilled." (Luke 21:2222For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. (Luke 21:22).) The prophetic word is a light in a dark place; and, therefore, as light, it sets forth everything as it is, not to discourage and overwhelm but to disclose and forewarn, in order that the souls of the faithful may, while anticipating the glorious end, be prepared for the trial in the way.
On the ascension of our Lord, and consequent on His rejection, two subjects of prophecy were committed to the servants of Christ: the one as touching His coming glory and kingdom which simply was " things to come;" the other, a disclosure of the secret of God, the Church, as not of the world but given to Christ out of the world. This structure He had Himself announced in Matt. 16:1818And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18), that He would build. But it was not till after His final rejection, and after the rejection by the Jew of the testimony of the Holy Ghost about Him, that it was fully disclosed; the disclosure being especially committed to Paul, who announces that the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, " now is made manifest, and by the prophetic scriptures according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known," &c. (Rom. 16) The Church he also tells us, is " built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets." " And he gave some apostles and some prophets." This at first sight may not appear to be prophecy, but it is of the same nature, and effects the same as prophecy proper. It is a light, nay, how great a light, shining in a. dark place. The Lord being absent, rejected from the earth, the Holy Ghost down here revealeth the deep things of God-the great mystery, the secret of His heart, determined on before the world began, but never divulged until now. It was the subject for the new prophets to divulge, and in doing so they did not declare a thing manifested, but a position which had not entered into the heart of man, now to be occupied by faith, and therefore in a marvelous way to be a light to them in the darkness of this world. The Lord saying, " I go to prepare a place for you," and the Spirit's desire that we may " Know the hope of his calling, and the riches of the glory of his inheritance," both conspire to show the nature and the usefulness of the prophetic word, which carried the saints forward from the scene of misrule and sorrow, in a world which the Lord was waiting to judge. And this was the light peculiarly needed in their circumstances and ours. Who can understand his true and divine place here, if he have not this light in his soul and on his pathway? In one sense it is not so much a matter of prophecy now, but in another it is; for prophecy, by presenting how God will place and order things, must always be a light, because it makes manifest what is opposed to this order. The secrets of the hearts are made manifest by one speaking with a prophet's power. But, not only this, the prophetic word is to carry souls forward, and connect them with the mind and purpose of God, and set them in it apart from and above the actual circumstances in which they are found. Surely no prophetic word more perfectly effects this than the truth of my place with Christ in heaven. Yea, the moment I receive it, I know how great a light it is to me in this dark place; that is, it carries me by faith, outside it altogether. It is however revealed and known, though not yet manifested. The marriage of the Lamb is not yet celebrated, but it has been revealed by the prophets, and we know, as we enter into the light of it, the momentous value it is to us.
Now while this subject, this mystery is of the nature of a prophetic word because it discloses to us at the present moment what we shall be in by and by, and therefore now by faith sets us in; the other subject of prophecy relates to the earth, and sets before us what will transpire on it, the great and wondrous events which shall take place here; how different and how according to God, this earth shall yet he. It must first be swept by the besom of destruction, and then the Lord will reign. The one subject carries me in spirit into my place with Christ; so that now through the light of the prophetic word I am out the darkness here. The other shows me the glorious alterations which God will effect here; and in the light of it, I pass through the wreck and confusion around me. My mind imbued and carried forward by the power and intelligence of the prophetic word which is to me a light in a dark place. The one relates peculiarly to the status of the saint himself; the other, to the earth, as the sphere of God's glory. Both are God's light to us, and the souls which are not enlightened by the prophetic word have really no true light to guide them in the darkness. Thus is it explained why so many earnest souls know so little where their path is, amid the confusion so increasingly pressing now from every side. It is the light, as we have seen that God has given from the beginning; and now in the consummation of ages, He vouchsafes to the Church, the body of Christ, a two-fold prophetic word. By the one, the word of God is fulfilled (Col. 1:2525Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; (Colossians 1:25)), and the saints are now by faith therein placed in heaven with Christ, a fact absolutely future, but now by the Spirit through the prophetic word known to faith; and the light of this sets the saints free as to spirit and position front this evil world. By the other, which is also fully declared, so that " blessed are they that hear the word of this prophecy," the nature of God's purposes on the earth are disclosed, and the saint in the power and intelligence of it walks through it, instructed in the judgment of God about it. Apart from it in spirit he views it in fellowship with God's mind, and is empowered to do so, because he knows and rests in what God is about to do with it.
How blessed and gracious of our God thus to enlighten us! May we indeed take heed unto the prophetic word, now made surer, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in our hearts!
The force of the word "until" I shall hope to examine in a future paper.