We have already seen that the fruition of our hope as saints, is that the Lord will take up His people to meet Him in the air. He will then present them in His Father’s house. We have also seen the response of His saints, whether of those who are laid in the tombs, or of the living, being raised or changed at the time of the resurrection from among the dead. Then follows the sweeping scourge of judgment, which will search “the four corners of the earth,” and cleanse it of every refuge of lies, at that time named the “Great Tribulation,” which will fall upon the Jews especially, and embrace the world also in its breadth.
If we examine the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation, we shall find a very comprehensive picture, which, in an allegory, shows the two chief companions of the saints—the heavenly and the earthly: the one taken into the glory and set in safety on high; the other left to pass through the troubles of the day which then follows, yet preserved.
These features are presented allegorically in this chapter, but they are the well-known order of events in Scripture, whether seen in doctrine, in illustration, or in type. Thus Enoch (as the Church) is taken away to heaven, “translated” from this earth; while Noah (as the Jew) is left to pass through the waters of judgment, and is reinstated on the renewed earth, after judgment has cleared the scene. Abraham (as the Church) walks in communion with God on the mountain top. He knows prophetically of the judgments which are about to fall on Sodom. He intercedes for others, and does not come into the judgment himself. Lot, on the other hand (as the Jew), becomes involved in the sensual world’s judgment—Sodom. He testifies of its destruction, and escapes, “so as by fire.” He gets into a little “Zoar,” and hides there until the “indignation is over-past.” He is like the saved Jew of the last days, to whom the prophetic voice speaks, “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain” (Isa. 26:20-2120Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. 21For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. (Isaiah 26:20‑21)).
So in this chapter, the “man child” —figure of Christ and the Church, as we shall see—is caught up to God and His throne. Satan is then cast out of the heavens, and the woman which brought forth the man child flees, and is sustained of God in her time of trouble. She is a figure of the Jew, “of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came.”
First then, we have the woman, the Jew, clothed with supreme glory—the sun; her old reflected glory—the moon—under her feet. The twelve stars—complete earthly subordinate power—on her head. Then, in verse second, we find the yearning of the nation for Messiah: “She cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.”
Then, again (v. 3), Satan’s power, as seen in the seven heads, and administered through ten horns, or kingdoms, of the Beast. He stood before the woman, ready to devour the child as soon as it was born. This we see in part in the efforts of Herod to cut off the infant Jesus. (Matt. 2) Still the child is preserved, and caught up into the place of power—the throne of God.
We have not in this His atoning work, but His birth and ascension; as the kingdom and rule are the subjects, not redemption and the church.
Now, like all the prophetic language of Scripture in the Old Testament where the kingdom is treated of, you invariably find the present period omitted, from the sending down of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost till the Lord’s coming for His saints. If we do not see this, we shall never understand the prophetic Scriptures. Time ceases to be counted, and earthly things are dropped (God always secretly watching over all), from the moment that the Lord enters the heavens. Then the Holy Ghost is sent down from heaven, to form His body-the Church. When this is done, He will begin to deal with earthly things and the Jew again; time, meanwhile, is not counted. When the Lord comes it will be taken up again at the same point where He dropped it here before. This present period is not, properly speaking, time at all; it is a heavenly parenthesis in time—an interval.
In Psa. 2 we find this effort of the kings of the earth, and the apostate rulers of the Jews, to frustrate the thoughts and counsels of Jehovah about His Messiah. He that sitteth in the heavens laughs at their impotency. “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” His purposes will not change. But He will take possession of this throne, and have the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth, possessing them with a rod of iron. He will break them in pieces by judgment, and so inherit them. Meanwhile He waits in the heavens, for God is gathering His Church, the Bride of the Lamb, by His Spirit sent down from heaven. The Church formed at Pentecost lapses into ruins, departs from her first love, and sinks into the world, and into corruption. Then the Lord encourages the faithful to overcome, and promises, “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star.”—(Rev. 2:26-2826And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 27And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. 28And I will give him the morning star. (Revelation 2:26‑28). See chapters 2, 3, passim.)
(To be continued.)