This world was formed into its present fashion of beauty some six thousand years gone by, but when the foundation of the world was laid no man can tell. No mind can conceive aright, the lapse of time since that great day when the Eternal God thought fit to lay in space, as it were, the corner stone upon which this earth is built, and to hang the earth in its place amongst the countless orbs of heaven, there to be fixed firm till He shall remove it. But before the foundation of this world, the mind of God was occupied with the sacrifice of His Son as a Man for men; and with the value of that sacrifice. God formed the marvelous plan of our blessing and His glory.
The purpose of God existed before the foundation of the world, but the display of that purpose was made in time: He “was manifest in these last times"—or at the end of the times—"for you, who by Him do believe in God."
What are the times here spoken of, which have reached their end, or of which the last may be reckoned? God has marked off the history of this world in times or ages. Even as each day has its hours, each week its days, each year its months, so has the history of the world its times. We speak of the eleventh hour, the end of the week, the close of the year, and a peculiar significance attaches to the expressions. The day of law and prophets reached its end when Christ died, and more, the end of man's history as dealt with by God in order that man should be thoroughly tried and tested then came; besides which the close of the times of this world's history is in view as we regard the death of Christ. The believer is not looking for any improvement of the world, he is looking for Christ's coming and the world's judgment. The end is reached. In a most solemn way we can say, therefore, “these last times."
Let us review briefly some of the times of this world's history, and reckon, as it were, some of its hours in the light of the sacrifice of Christ. When sin entered into this world, and death by sin, when, instead of paradise to live in, man had a world in which to die, God took the skins of animals and clothed disobedient man. God covered man with robes made from slain victims. In the first blood thus shed on this earth, the first death on account of sin, can we not mark the beginning of God's ways of mercy for man? And do not we see in the garments of God's own making a figure of that fair beauty in which He robes those for whom Christ died? From the very first, where sin abounded grace did much more abound. As Adam and Eve turned their backs on paradise, they entered the world clothed in garments made from victims slain in their stead. The first hour in the time of sin chronicles the type of the eternally purposed work of God's Son for sinners.
As time began to roll on, Adam and Eve saw their own sinful natures reproduced in their children. They saw, too, God-given faith in their son Abel. Cain, the man of earth, brought of earth's fruits and cultivation to Jehovah; Abel brought death and the “fat” of the victim instead to his altar.
When righteous Abel for the first time went to his flock, and took therefrom the fairest lamb he could find, and brought it in its innocence to the altar, and then plunged the knife into the creature's breast, and the blood of the lamb crimsoned the altar of the man of faith, God from heaven accepted Abel, and Abel's offering. In the death of the sacrifice for the sinner, God and the sinner could meet. The cross of Christ is the meeting-place for God and man. We come in our sins to God, and find God's provision for our sins. God has set Him forth a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. And in the way of Abel's approach to God in the very earliest hours of the world's history, we in these last times have holy witness to the precious blood of Christ.
As the days of the patriarchs passed by, the holy men of old brought sacrifices and blood to God. Without shedding of blood there is no remission. This truth the altars of Noah, Abraham, and the fathers proclaim. Beloved reader, living in these last days, have you, by faith, learned of God the lesson of the needs-be for Christ's death in order to the salvation of your soul?
Passing on in the world's history, God called out a nation to be His people. He redeemed them by blood. Neither silver nor gold bought Israel out of Egypt; the price of their redemption was the blood of a lamb. "Take you a lamb," said Jehovah to them, and they believed, and did as the Lord commanded. The sprinkled blood freed them. The blood sprinkled on door-posts and lintels declared the faith of the families within doors. By their obedience they owned the need of death for them, and the Lord saw the blood, and passed over, and judgment entered not their houses. How is it with the reader of these lines? The ransom price of our souls is Christ's blood; we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Can we each one say, “Christ has redeemed me?"
Again, when God established the order of sacrifices for His redeemed people, He ordained that death should be before Him daily. Morning by morning a sweet savor rose up continually to Him (Lev.6:9-13). Thus did the obedience and faith of His people Israel, as it were, daily witness to the coming sacrifice of Christ.
If we consider the individual faith of the people of God's choice, who shall count the myriads of sacrifices, or measure the rivers of blood offered to God during the four thousand years prior to the advent of the Redeemer! Burnt offerings—peace offerings—trespass offerings, sin offerings. Offerings of sweet savor to God, offerings of peace and communion of His people with God—offerings for sin when burdens lay heavy on the conscience because of known offense and trespass against God's laws, and offerings for sin where sin could not be precisely explained by the offerer, nor its depths measured in the sight of God! Consider it, beloved reader, worshippers ever coming to God by sacrifice, sacrifices innumerable, rivers of blood, and all in the presence of Jehovah, uttering of that of which they all foretold—" the precious blood of Christ."
As we read the testimony of the Old Testament, and consider God's ways with His people for four thousand years before His on came to the earth, from Genesis to Malachi, to individuals, to families, to the nation, one constant voice is heard, speaking to God by the will of God, of the precious blood of Christ.
And now the last times have come! The early ages have rolled by, and have gone. Jesus has been manifested; the Lamb of God has appeared. He has died and risen again. By Him we "believe in God that raised Him from the dead, and gave Him glory that our faith and hope might be in God." He is the joy of His believing people. They rejoice in Him with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and as the present joy of His presence is theirs, and the future glory of being with Him is their contemplation, the past suffering of His cross is their most treasured remembrance.
“My soul looks back to see
The burden Thou didst bear
When hanging on the accursed tree,
For all my guilt was there."