The third prophecy fills the cup of Israel's blessing, yea, it overflows. The imagery is earthly and is most appropriate. For their place is the earth; yet their earthly blessings supply images of blessing higher than peace and beauty. The Holy Spirit in few words gives a picture of Israel at rest in their land. The two former prophecies do not speak of visions, but this with the following is prefaced by the words, “He hath said which heard the word of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling, but having his eyes open” —not hearing only, but seeing. And he saw Israel, not merely as they then were, though beyond doubt there was order and beauty, and their tents never before more goodly than at that moment; for they were enjoying anticipatively the result of the work of Christ which had been fully presented to them. But his eyes were open to the future, and he saw, in the vision of the Almighty, a far greater beauty and a more perfect order. The vision was transient, but complete. The repose of the quiet valley, the beauty of gardens by the river side, where the fragrant lign aloes sheds its perfume, or where the magnificent cedar spreads its cool shade. Nor is there need to interpret these as only metaphors for spiritual warfare. No doubt there will be blessings higher than fullness of all earthly prosperity, to which the national well-being will be a fit accompaniment; the temporal and earthly, the complement to the spiritual, when God in that day will pour out of His Spirit upon them. In both, the merely earthly, or the higher, it will be said, “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel.”
Two trees are used as emblems of Israel; the lign aloes in appearance little more than a shrub, and the cedar whose greatness is unsurpassed. But the lign aloes if lowly is fragrant; and it is said of them, “which Jehovah hath planted.” The perfume shed by these trees is emblematical of the praise that will ascend to God in that day. When Jehovah said of an offering that He would smell a sweet savor, it was a token the offering was accepted. Jehovah has planted the lign aloes, and, as it were, makes provision for His praise in the millennial day. This reference to His planting is special and significant.
If the lign aloes, lowly and fragrant, is the emblem of Israel, in whom God will delight and smell a sweet savor from all their offerings, the cedar proclaims their superiority in the world. In scripture its typical use is always to denote power or exaltation, if not pride. When the king of Israel would pour contempt upon the king of Judah, he compared himself to a cedar and Judah's king to a thistle (2 Kings 14:99And Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle. (2 Kings 14:9)). The Psalmist employs it to express the prosperity of the righteous, “He shall grow as the cedar in Lebanon” (Psa. 92:1212The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. (Psalm 92:12)). When judgment comes upon the great of the earth, the prophet Isaiah says it is the day of Jehovah upon the cedars of Lebanon (Isa. 2:1313And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, (Isaiah 2:13)). These mark the cedar as the symbol of dignity and power. There have been powers and empires in the world, which, as trees, have given shelter to the birds, and their branches covered the beasts of the field; but the trees died. Not so when Israel shall be first among the nations: their glory shall not fade, nor their leaf wither; they are as cedars beside the waters.
Material prosperity and spiritual blessing await Israel. They will also be the means of blessing to others; and with no niggardly hand, for “he shall pour water out of his buckets,” a figure which shows the lavish profusion of blessing. Wherever the Israelite goes, be carries blessings; and his seed is by many waters, his king shall be higher than Agag, his kingdom exalted. All the earth will be blessed; but Israel, the fairest portion of the coming kingdom, shall flourish as the garden of Jehovah.
In the midst of this coming glory, the people are reminded of their origin. “God brought them forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn.” This is repeated from the second prophecy (23:22), where it is connected with God not beholding iniquity, and Israel protected from enchantment—there also with power against their enemies; but here in this third prophecy, not only victory over the enemy as in battle but the utter subjugation of the “nations his enemies.” God would not have them forget that He brought them out of Egypt. Whatever height they attain of glory and power, they were once a nation of slaves. God is the source of all good, clothing with beauty and endowing with power.
The 9th verse resumes the picture from the 7th verse, but gives another idea, even that of conscious power, but in repose. “He couched, he lay down as a lion and as a great lion: who shall stir him up?” The metaphor is grand; who dares disturb the repose of a lion? It is taking rest after victory.
How bright the portion of Israel in that day! Beautiful gardens in peaceful valleys; fragrant trees which Jehovah has planted, magnificence and stability as cedars by the waters, the power of a lion that overcomes any rebellions spirit among the nations. Nor is this all. The people that God made as a sharp threshing instrument, with which He judged the nations, shall be in the millennial day the channel and dispenser of blessing to all nations. “He shall pour water out of his buckets.” The prophecy says, “he shall eat up the nations;” but afterward God blesses the nations and the whole earth through them. Is not this a happy solution of Samson's riddle, “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness?” This magnificent prophecy closes with the words which in all the history of Israel shaped and modified God's dealings and judgments upon the nations around them: “Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee.” Even when God used this or that nation as His rod to chasten Israel, they were afterward judged according to the spirit in which they treated Israel (see Isa. 47:66I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst show them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. (Isaiah 47:6); Zech. 1:1515And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. (Zechariah 1:15)). When Israel is grafted in again, it will be life from the dead (Rom. 11:12-1512Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? 13For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: 14If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. 15For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? (Romans 11:12‑15)).
The fourth prophecy is of Christ as God's King in Zion (Psalm the putting forth of His power when seated upon the throne of David. He is the Star out of Jacob, the Scepter out of Israel. “Israel shall do valiantly” but by His power. Christ alone is before God; as He ever was and is. To exalt Him God brought the people out of Egypt, and now He smiths the corners of Moab and destroys the children of Sheth. It is a vision of the Almighty.
This prophecy is in four parts marked by the words, “took up his parable.” The judgment begins with those nations who are by descent more or less related to Israel. Edom and Moab were also close neighbors. Edom as the son of Isaac was the nearest of all; Moab could not count Abraham as an. ancestor. These two are named together, and named first, for there was a specialty in their enmity. Edom refused to let his “brother” pass through his land, Moab invoked the power of Satan. God resented the enmity of Edom: it is the special charge against them (Amos 1:1111Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever: (Amos 1:11) and Obadiah). Moab knew that human power could not avail, and he sought that of Satan; virtually a denial of God. The enmity of Edom is unnatural; of Moab, Satanic. They are the first to feel the vengeance of God.
Then he looks upon Amalek. In this “parable” Amalek appears, and we see in each “parable” that the sin judged differs in its moral features. Amalek was the grandson of Esau (Gen. 36:1212And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau's son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau's wife. (Genesis 36:12)), and nearer in descent to Israel than Moab. But his was the fatal preeminence to be the first of the nations in open antagonism to Israel after they had passed through the Red sea. And. his judgment is given separate from all others. His kingdom may have been the most powerful on the Canaan side of the Red sea; for it is said of Israel “his kingdom shall be higher than Agag's.” But the words “first of the nations” refer, I apprehend, specially to the fact that Amalek was the first nation that fought against the redeemed people.
He looks on the Kenites and again takes up his parable. They will be wasted. They appear to be a branch of the Midianites, and therefore descendants of Abraham. Midian was a son of Abraham (Gen. 25:22And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. (Genesis 25:2)). Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was priest of Midian, and we read (Jude 11Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: (Jude 1), 16) the children of the Kenite Moses' father-in-law: what is recorded of the Kenites betokens amity. Not a few dwelt among the Israelites, though the greater part remained with the Midianites. And there were those who boasted of their strong dwelling places and put their nest in a rock. They thought themselves secure from Him who must reign over all, and that the gift of the land to Abraham (Gen. 15:1919The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, (Genesis 15:19)) could not be made good to his children. The sin of the Kenites was self-confidence, they boasted in their fastnesses. Nevertheless they should be wasted until Asshur carried them away captive.
Again he takes up his parable and with a cry of dismay, “Alas! who shall live when God doeth this?” The vision reaches on to the last days, and there is seen that the nations, who at one time were a rod in God's hand for others, are themselves the objects of God's judgment, so that there is escape for not one. And this being so, he might well cry out, “Who shall live when God doeth this?” Asshur might be used to carry the Kenite away captive; but their turn would come. Ships would come from Chittim and afflict Asshur. Asshur, or Assyria, was the power that carried Israel captive, and the, turn of Asshur to feel God's judgment comes. The ships of Chittim afflict Eber as well as Asshur. It is the Western powers that become the instrument of God's wrath against Eber, that is, Israel, or the Jew; but not as Israel, they are “Lo-ammi” and are no more than the children of Eber, Hebrews. They are not acknowledged, their title and name of power is for the time lost. But when the Star out of Jacob comes, and the Scepter from Israel, this name of power shall be given them again, and “Lo-ammi” reversed forever. Then of the ships of Chittim, of the great leader of the West, it is said, “And he also shall perish forever.”
Is not this a wonderful sketch of the history of the no less wonderful people? Who would have foretold of those groaning under the grinding burdens of Pharaoh that they would be the highest and most blessed nation in the world, that every other nation would be proud to do them homage? “In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you” (Zech. 8:28). There is the secret of their power and supremacy: God is with them; their own King, the Son of David, is King over the whole earth, but His portion is His people; Zion is the choice place of all His earthly domain.
Remark that, of the objects of judgment in this prophecy, only two have their evil recorded. Other prophecies declare the sin of Edom and of Moab; here, of Amalek and the Kenites: Amalek, foremost in his hatred of God; the Kenites, strong in self-confidence putting their trust in nature—in man. These are common traits of the natural man; and when the Lord Jesus' appears to take the kingdom, these two characteristics will be most prominent. After the church is gone, hatred against the godly remnant will be more intense than ever before. Satan in his rage will lead on man and urge him to shed the blood of saints in that day, which will be pre-eminently the day of martyrs. Joined with this will be the extreme of confidence in man, in his boasted progress; like the Kenites of old, they will put their trust in the rocks. In their delusion—that awful judgment of God—they will wonder after the Beast (Rev. 17:88The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. (Revelation 17:8).) and exalt him, saying, “Who is able to make war with him”? (Rev. 13:44And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (Revelation 13:4)) and this joined with the scoffing spirit against the true king, haying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter until at the close their hearts will fail them for fear. The latter day will be marked by sevenfold hatred against the godly remnant, and by the extreme of pride in all things human as opposed to the things of God.
But there are sweeter thoughts—though not more true—we may gather up. In some of these prophecies we can read our portion in a more blessed way, and we can rejoice in all. God's people are separated from the nations by ordinances, our separation is after the pattern of our Lord, “they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world:” a more complete separation, and with higher associations. If God would not behold iniquity in them, for us it is not a mere negative declaration—marvelous as this is—but He adds the positive side that we are “justified freely by His race through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:2424Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24)). And if the habitations of Israel are goodly, how much more to be in Christ. How much greater the beauty to be clothed with the best robe, and the honor to be chief guests at the Father's table. This is the portion of the church. There is no beauty like hers. But we can also rejoice in that which is the special portion of Israel; for He who leads them to victory, the Star out of Jacob, the scepter out of Israel, who when He reigns over the world, will be God's king in Zion, is the One who has obtained victory for us and who gives us to participate in His glory, and has prepared a place for us in the mansions of the Father's house above. It is our joy, to know that every tongue shall confess Him, and every knee shall bow to Him. “And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are on the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped [Him that liveth forever and ever].”