In the year 130 B.C., the king of Syria was slain in a battle with the Parthians. Then John Hyrcanus, the high priest of the Jews, “took the advantage of the disturbances and divisions that thenceforth ensued . . . to make himself absolute and wholly independent. For after this, neither he nor any of his descendants owned any further dependence on the kings of Syria; but thenceforth wholly freed themselves from all manner of homage, servitude, or subjection to them.”—Prideaux. And thus the government of the new independent country of Judea was merged in the high priests in succession, the high priest being the head of both religion and the State.
In the year 129 B.C., this same high priest conquered the Idumeans,—Edomites,—and “reduced them to this necessity; either to embrace the Jewish religion or else to leave the country, and seek new dwellings elsewhere.” They chose to adopt the Jewish religion rather than be driven from their country. But under such circumstances they were as much Idumeans as before, except only in the forms of worship. About the year 128 B.C., Hyrcanus sent an embassy to Rome “to renew the league of friendship they had with the Romans.” “And when the Senate had received their epistle, they made a league of friendship with them;” and “decreed” “to renew their league of friendship and mutual assistance with these good men, and who were sent by a good and friendly people.”—Josephus.
In the year 106 B.C., Aristobulus, the eldest son of John Hyrcanus, regularly succeeded to the high-priesthood, and, being also the head of the State, resolved “to change the government into a kingdom;” and “first of all put a diadem on his head, four hundred and eighty-one years and three months after the people had been delivered from Babylonish slavery, and were returned to their own country again.”—Josephus. This piece of worldly ambition opened among the Jews the flood-gates of jealousy, strife, assassination, and domestic war, which evils were, if possible, more indulged than among the nations around.
After Aristobulus, Alexander Janneus reigned; and after him his widow, Alexandra. While Alexandra was queen, Hyrcanus, the eldest son of Janneus, was high priest. At the court there was a shrewd and ambitious Idumean, Antipater by name. He studiously gained the ascendant over Hyrcanus. This he did in the hope that when Hyrcanus should become king at the death of his mother, he himself would virtually rule the kingdom. However, when the time actually came, Antipater saw all his plans upset by the revolt of Aristobulus II., the brother of Hyrcanus. For Hyrcanus was defeated in a battle, and was obliged to resign to Aristobulus the office of high priest and king. Yet Antipater did not despair; he immediately set on foot, and persistently wrought, an intrigue to replace Hyrcanus upon the throne.
Under the Roman Power.
Such was the condition of affairs in Judea when Pompey came into Syria of Damascus. To Pompey at Damascus came ambassadors from both Hyrcanus and Aristobulus—Antipater the Idumean on behalf of Hyrcanus, and more for himself. Also there came ambassadors from the people to make representations against both Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, and to plead that the kingship be abolished, and the governorship be only in the high priest as such. Pompey heard them all; but deferred the decision until he should arrive in Judea. By the time that Pompey reached Judea, Aristobulus had taken a course greatly to offend him. But Pompey coming to Jerusalem, Aristobulus repented, and went out to meet him, and offered to receive him into the city and give him money. But the partisans of Aristobulus would not accept this arrangement. They stationed themselves at the temple, and prepared for a siege.
The siege of the temple was promptly begun by Pompey; but he was obliged to spend three months of hard work and fierce fighting before it was taken. However, when the temple was finally taken, Pompey refrained from plundering it of its wealth or of anything, tho he passed into the most holy place within the veil. Judea was now held in subjection, and was laid under tribute to the Roman power, from which she never escaped except by annihilation.
Now the occasions of this misery which came upon Jerusalem were Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, by raising a sedition one against the other; for now we lost our liberty, and became subject to the Romans, and were deprived of that country which we had gained by our arms from the Syrians, and were compelled to restore it to the Syrians. Moreover, the Romans exacted of us, in a little time, above ten thousand talents [about $12,000,000]; and the royal authority, which was a dignity formerly bestowed on those that were high priests by the right of their family, became the property of private men.—Josephus.
“Pompey committed Cœle-Syria, as far as the river Euphrates and Egypt, to Scaurus, with two Roman legions, and went away to Cilicia, and made haste to Rome.” Joppa, Gaza, and other coast towns were added to the province of Syria, which was the cause of that province’s reaching to Egypt. Thus the Euphrates was made by Pompey the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire.
As the cause of Hyrcanus had been represented throughout by Antipater the Idumean, he succeeded in so gaining the favor of Pompey and the Romans that he sustained confidential relations with them and with Pompey’s successor in the East, Gabinius, who “settled the affairs which belonged to the city of Jerusalem, as was agreeable to Antipater’s inclination.”—Josephus.
Mark Antony and Herod.
When Gabinius “came from Rome to Syria as commander of the Roman forces,” there was in his army a young officer named Mark Antony. In Judea young Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, had “suddenly got together ten thousand armed footmen and fifteen hundred horsemen, and fortified Alexandrium, a fortress near Coreæ, and Macherus, near the mountains of Arabia.” In subduing the revolt of Alexander, Antony and Antipater were brought into such relationship that a firm friendship was established between them, which in after years, out of a curious combination of events wholly undreamed of by either of them, had a positive bearing upon one of the most significant occurrences in the world’s history.
In the Roman civil war, 49-47 B.C., Cæsar was obliged to follow Pompey to Egypt, and to war in Egypt and the East. While Cæsar was in Egypt, Antipater the Idumean became of great service to him; for he and Mithridates, king of Pergamus, were chiefly instrumental in bringing Egypt into complete subjection to Cæsar. And when they had taken Pelusium, and in a severe engagement had subdued “the whole Delta,” “Mithridates sent an account of this battle to Cæsar, and openly declared that Antipater was the author of this victory and of his own preservation, insomuch that Cæsar commended Antipater then, and made use of him all the rest of that war in the most hazardous undertakings; he also happened to be wounded in one of these engagements. However, when Cæsar, after some time, had finished that war and was sailed away from Syria, he honored Antipater greatly, and confirmed Hyrcanus in the high-priesthood, and bestowed on Antipater the privilege of a citizen of Rome, and freedom from taxes everywhere.”—Josephus.
The Decree of the Roman Senate.
And when one came to Cæsar with accusations against Hyrcanus and Antipater, hoping to have himself put in their places, again “Cæsar appointed Hyrcanus to be high priest, and gave Antipater what principally he himself should choose, leaving the determination to himself; so he made him procurator of Judea. He also gave Hyrcanus leave to raise up the walls of his own city, upon his asking that favor of him; for they had been demolished by Pompey. And this grant he sent to the consuls of Rome, to be engraven in the capitol. The decree of the Senate was this that follows:”
“Cajus Cæsar, consul the fifth time, hath decreed: That the Jews shall possess Jerusalem, and may compass that city with walls; and that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, retain it, in the manner he himself pleases; and the Jews be allowed to deduct out of their tribute, every second year the land is let (in the sabbatic), a corus of that tribute; and that the tribute they pay be not let to farm, nor that they pay always the same tribute.”
Antipater the Idumean “was in great repute with the Idumeans also; out of which nation he married a wife, who was the daughter of one of their eminent men, and her name was Cypros, by whom he had four sons—Phasael, and Herod, who was afterward made king, and Joseph, and Pheroras, and a daughter named Salome.”
Antipater made Phasaelus, his eldest son, governor of Jerusalem and the places that were about it, but committed Galilee to Herod, his next son, who was then a very young man; for he was but twenty-five years of age. But as he was a youth of great mind, he presently met with an opportunity of signalizing his courage. For, finding there was one Hezekiah, a captain of a band of robbers, who overran the neighboring parts of Syria with a great troop of them, he seized him and slew him, as well as a great number of the other robbers who were with him, for which action he was greatly beloved by the Syrians. For when they were very desirous to have their country freed from this nest of robbers, he purged it of them; so they sang songs in his commendation in their villages and cities, as having procured5them peace and the secure enjoyment of their possessions. And on this account it was that he became known to Sextus Cæsar, who was a relative of the great Cæsar, and was now president of Syria.
Cæsar spent the time till the autumn of 47 setting things in order in Egypt and the East, then he returned to Rome, where, in 44, he was murdered. Then within two years Octavius Cæsar and Mark Antony held the world under their power; and to Antony there fell the task of gathering from the wealth of Asia the enormous sum of $170,000,000 for the payment of the troops.
This need and greed of Antony for money stood Herod of Judea in good stead. For when ambassadors from all parts met Antony in Bithynia, among them “the principal men of the Jews came to accuse” Herod and his brother Phaseolus, and to charge that tho “Hyrcanus had indeed the appearance of reigning, these men had all the power. But Antony paid great respect to Herod, who was come to him to make his defense against his accusers, on which account his adversaries could not so much as obtain a hearing, which favor Herod had gained of Antony by money.”—Josephus.
To Antony in Cilicia there came again “a hundred of the most potent of the Jews to accuse Herod and those about him, and set the men of the greatest eloquence among them to speak.” But “when Antony had heard both sides at Daphne, he asked Hyrcanus who they were that governed the nation best. Hyrcanus replied, ‘Herod and his friends.’ Hereupon Antony, by reason of the old hospitable friendship he had made with his father [Antipater], . . . made both Herod and Phaseolus tetrarchs, and committed the public affairs of the Jews to them, and wrote letters to that purpose.”—Josephus.
Antony went with Cleopatra to Alexandria, B.C. 41. Fulvia, his wife, died in the spring of 40. Antony’s giddy infatuation with the voluptuous queen of Egypt was fast estranging him from Octavius and the Roman people. The matter was patched up for a little while by the marriage of Antony and Octavia, the sister of Octavius, B.C. 40; and “the triumvirs returned to Rome to celebrate this union.”—Duruy.
Troubles of Herod.
In the same year, at the instance of a certain Antigonus, the Parthians made an incursion into Judea, gained possession of Jerusalem, and captured Hyrcanus and Phaseolus, with many of their friends. But Herod, with his betrothed, with some of his family and a number of his friends, accompanied by a strong guard, all escaped and made their way to Petra in Idumea. Thus, by means of the Parthians, Antigonus obtained the power in Judea. He cut off the ears of Hyrcanus so that, being maimed, he could not, according to the law, hold the high-priesthood. Phaseolus being imprisoned, and knowing he was devoted to death, “since he had not his hands at liberty,—for the bonds he was in prevented him from killing himself thereby,—he dashed his head against a great stone, and thereby took away his own life.”
Herod shortly went from Idumea to the king of Arabia, and from there to Egypt, stopping first at Pelusium. There the captains of the ships befriended him, and took him to Alexandria, where Cleopatra received him, and entertained him; “yet was she not able to prevail with him to stay there, because he was making haste to Rome, even tho the weather was stormy, and he was informed that the affairs of Italy were very tumultuous and in great disorder.”
Having through violent storms, severe reverses, and much expense, reached Rome, Herod “first related to Antony what had befallen him in Judea,” and how “that he had sailed through a storm, and contemned all these terrible dangers, in order to come, as soon as possible, to him who was his hope and only succor at this time.”
This account made Antony commiserate the change that had happened in Herod’s condition. And, reasoning with himself that this was a common case among those that were placed in such great dignities, and that they are liable to the mutations that come from fortune, he was very ready to give him the assistance that he desired; and this because he called to mind the friendship he had had with Antipater; because Herod offered him money to make him king, as he had formerly given it to him to make him tetrarch; and chiefly because of his hatred to Antigonus, for he took him to be a seditious person, and an enemy to the Romans.
Cæsar [Octavius] was also the forwarder to raise Herod’s dignity, and to give him his assistance in what he desired, on account of the toils of war which he had himself undergone with Antipater, his father, in Egypt, and of the hospitality he had treated him withal, and the kindness he had always shown him, as also to gratify Antony, who was very zealous for Herod.
So the Senate was convocated; and Messala first, and then Atratinus, introduced Herod into it, and enlarged upon the benefits they had received from his father; and put them in mind of the good-will he had borne to the Romans. At the same time they accused Antigonus, and declared him an enemy, not only because of his former opposition to them, but that he had now overlooked the Romans, and taken the government from the Parthians. Upon this the Senate was irritated; and Antony informed them further that it was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod should be king. This seemed good to all the senators, and so they made a decree accordingly.
When the Senate was dissolved, Antony and Cæsar went out of the Senate house with Herod between them, and with the consuls and other magistrates before them, in order to offer sacrifices, and to lay up their decrees in the capitol. Antony also feasted Herod the first day of his reign. And thus did this man receive the kingdom, having obtained it on the one hundred and eighty-fourth Olympiad [July, 40 B.C.], when Cneius Domitius Calvinus was consul the second time, and Caius Asinius Pollio the first time.—Josephus.
And thus when Herod, a full-blooded Idumean, had become king of Judea, the scepter had departed from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet; and the time was at hand when Shiloh should come, to whom the gathering of the people should be.
(The End.)
SIGNS OF THE COMING KING IN THE STARS.
By Augusta W. Heald
“And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Rev. 6:13.
This prophecy was literally fulfilled in the morning of Nov. 13, 1833. The Christian Advocate and Journal of Dec. 13, 1833, describes the event as follows:—
“The meteoric phenomenon which occurred on the morning of the 13th of November last, was of so extraordinary and interesting a character as to be entitled to more than a mere passing notice. The lively and graphic descriptions which have appeared in various public journals do not exceed the reality. No language, indeed, can come up to the splendor of that magnificent display; and I hesitate not to say that no one who did not witness it can form an adequate conception of its glory. It seemed as if the whole starry heavens had congregated at one point near the zenith, and were simultaneously shooting forth, with the velocity of lightning, to every part of the horizon; and yet they were not exhausted —thousands swiftly followed in the track of thousands, as if created for the occasion.”
Prof. Olmstead, the celebrated astronomer and meteorologist of Yale College, says of this event:—
“In nearly all places, the meteors began to attract notice by their unusual frequency as early as eleven o’clock, and increased in numbers and splendor until about four o’clock, from which time they gradually declined, but were visible until lost in the light of day. The meteors did not fly at random over all parts of the sky, but appeared to emanate from a point in the Constellation Leo, near a star called Gamma Leonis, in the bend of the sickle. The extent of the shower of 1833 was such as to cover no inconsiderable part of the earth’s surface; from the middle of the Atlantic on the east to the Pacific on the west, and from the northern coast of South America to undefined regions among the British possessions on the north, the exhibition was visible, and everywhere presented nearly the same appearance.”
The following is from the pen of Henry Dana Ward. In regard to the falling of the stars, he says:—
“At the cry, ‘Look out of the window,’ I sprang from a deep sleep, and with wonder saw the east lighted up with the dawn and meteors. The zenith, the north, and the west also, showed the falling stars. . . . And how did they fall? Neither myself, nor one of the family, heard any report; and were I to hunt through nature for a simile, I could not find one so apt to illustrate the appearance of the heavens, as that which St. John used in the prophecy: ‘The stars of heaven fell unto the earth even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.’”
Thus accurately is the Saviour’s prophecy fulfilled; sun, moon and stars have borne witness to the truth of His word. The Saviour declares as the next event in this prophetic chain, “The powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” Mark 13:25, 26. He then relates the parable of the fig-tree, and its application: “So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.” V. 29. And then says the Saviour, “Verily I say unto you, that this generation [which sees these things] shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but My words shall not pass away.” Mark 13:30, 31. Nearly sixty years have elapsed since the last sign appeared in the heavens. We are of the generation who see all these things accomplished. Those who witnessed the actual events are fast approaching the limits of man’s allotted span; their footsteps halt; their locks are bleached with the frost of many winters. They are not long for earth, but some among them will live to see the Saviour come in glory; for His divine word is pledged, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” Matt. 24:34, 35.
“The Lord is coming! herald, cry;
For our redemption draweth nigh:
The great, glad day of sin’s eclipse
Is trembling on heaven’s finger-tips.
“The trumpet sounds o’er land and sea,
And heaven rolls back the melody;
The sleeping nations of the dead
Awake, and leave their earth-dark bed.
“The Lord, our Saviour, Prince of heaven,
Descends ’mid clouds all thunder-riven;
Look up, ye saints, behold your King,
He comes deliverance to bring.”
AUGUSTA W. HEALD.
Religion and God's Sunshine
“PETTY does not mean a sour face. If there is any one thing more than another that religion ought to typify, it is God's sunshine.”
“YE SHALL BE AS GOD.”
Older than the history of man is the purpose of man's enemy to be “like the Most High;” and the fall of man dates from the day when he believed Satan's story that by disobedience to God's command he could be as God. It was the angels' deception in heaven; it was man's deception in the earth. That was a generic falsehood; from it have sprung a great swarm of falsehoods and false systems of worship. It was the fountain-head of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul; for it was coupled with, and had in it the essence of, that other statement, “Ye shall not surely die.” That seed-lie sprang into a great tree, whose branches have ever since been dropping down fruit whose flesh had in it the essence of death; for Christ has declared, “Every plant which My Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” This doctrine is certainly one such plant; for from the mouth of God's enemy it sprung. And all the false systems and beliefs that owe their origin to it and are based upon it will be uprooted with it. They who base their hopes upon it are doomed to have them blasted. No error will have part in the triumph of God's truth; for the triumph of His truth means victory over error. Those, then, who propagate error and cling to it will go down in its overthrow.
There is a very powerful tendency in the world to-day to cling to and to propagate that very error which came to man in Eden—“ye shall be as God.” Altho it is the basis of much of the religious teaching of ancient heathenism, it is not confined to the ancients—it is with us yet.
A modern teacher of this ancient false system of religion, in pretending to send healing power by silent thought-force to two correspondents, declares,7“My words are spirit and life, and go where I send them. I will speak to you both at once. You will hear me and profit by this answer.” This teacher's declaration is an attempt to take to herself the attributes and power of God. Christ said: “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life;” and this teacher has, in that which is practically a quotation from Christ, attempted to put herself in His place. She seeks to justify this by declaring that all have in them a “Christ principle” “either latent or active”—not the idea of “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” but divinity inherent in the flesh. He who has yielded his mind and will to the mind and will of Christ, consecrating himself to the service of Christ, having forsaken sin and obtained pardon, has Christ enthroned within. Christ is reigning in his mind and heart. That is what the apostle means by having “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” There is a vast difference between that and the idea that we are a part of Him who made us; that we are part human and part divine; and that, having divinity in us, we must therefore be immortal.
That philosophy is the philosophy with which Satan overthrew man in Eden; and through that philosophy he proposes to perpetuate that overthrow. Its remarkable revival at this time in so many different quarters of the earth is a sign of the times. It is one of Satan's last strenuous efforts to blind the eyes of the race.
Before me is a journal called The Sun Worshiper—not printed in Persia, India, Egypt, or the islands of the South Sea, but in the center of the United States of America. In that journal the same heathen and Satanic philosophy is expounded; man is his own saviour; to become free, he must learn to liberate himself; he must find in himself the power to cure himself of sickness and sin; everything has within itself the power of creation; and “man is the highest expression of God.”
In this not only is God's Word utterly discredited; but the plan of redemption, all that God has done for man, is flatly denied, cast aside, trampled under foot; and man is put in the place of God, to do for man that which only God can do. Some time ago we called attention to a society started in one of the Middle States for the express purpose of exalting man, parading his divinity, and setting forth man's all-sufficiency in himself. That society has many supporters now in the multitude of journals that are devoting their strength and influence to the propagation of that very idea. The whole thing works toward the exaltation of self and the worship of self. It is man's attempt to do in the earth what Satan attempted to do in the heavens—exalt self. Satan said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. . . . I will be like the Most High.” Isa. 14:13, 14. And man, to-day, is allowing himself to be actuated by the same terrible ambition. The primal author of that disastrous purpose is the same in both cases.
It is right to worship God; it is our duty so to do. If God is inherently in us, if any part of us is God, then it would be right to worship self; for in doing that we would be worshiping God. That false doctrine teaches, first, that God is in us inherently; that we are part divine, and therefore immortal. Then in exalting and worshiping self, we are exalting and worshiping God. By that subtle falsehood—God inherently in us—the worship of self takes the place of the true worship of God, and all that false and fatal system comes trailing after, overthrowing (in the minds of those blinded by it) the whole divine plan, making Christ's life and sacrifice for us superfluous, and the Word of God “of none effect.” That one subtle purpose has run through the work of Satan from the day he conspired against his Maker even to this present day, and will so continue until his last victim has been ensnared. His power over the minds of those who have not the mind of Christ will increase to the end. The subtlety of his sophistry will continue to grow keener to the end. The rapid increase in the teachings of the philosophy of heathenism now proves that this is so. There has been an awakening among those false systems in the lands of their origin, and they have been rapidly spreading in lands that had not known them hitherto. They are even permeating the pulpit orations of so-called Christian churches, and are winning their disastrous way wherever the power of God has not come in to dominate the life. The harvest of the earth is ready for the sickle—the weeds as well as the wheat. It is a time to seek God, to “watch unto prayer,” that the over-spreading delusions of these last days may not reckon us among their victims.
The Law, the Sabbath, and Redemption.
By G.
The Lord repeated His law to the children of Israel at Sinai, because He had delivered them from Egyptian servitude in order that they might serve Him. Ex. 4:22, 23. It was therefore necessary that they know His law, if they were to serve Him intelligently. Their long bondage under the heathen had well-nigh obliterated the knowledge of the law of God. But from the time Moses returned from Midian on his mission of deliverance, he had been instructing them as fast as possible.
One of the signs that the Lord had given Moses at the burning bush was, “When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain” (Horeb, or Sinai). Ex. 3:12. It was meet then that the people should be fully informed as to the law they should obey. So the Lord, as He always does in due time, gave them needful information.
The law, as enunciated from Sinai, contained the Sabbath commandment expressed in very explicit terms. It plainly states the day of the Sabbath—the seventh day—and the reason why it was blessed and hallowed. The day, and the reason for its hallowing, or sanctification, are the same as mentioned in Gen. 2:2, 3, and are therefore the same. Connecting this with the fact that Abraham kept the commandments of God (Gen. 26:5), we have the proof that neither the law nor the Sabbath originated at Sinai. This is also shown by the fact that some weeks previous the people had been reminded of the Sabbath in the giving of the manna, and it was made a test as to whether they would walk in the law or not. Ex. 16:4, 5.
Out of Egypt to Serve.
The preamble, or introductory statement, to the law has an important significance that is too generally overlooked: “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Ex. 20:2. Now note the statement in Deut. 5:15: “Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.” This is another emphasis on the fact that God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt that they might have liberty to serve Him, and their remembrance and observance of the Sabbath day was to be the test of their willingness to be obedient.
This point, the prominence of the Sabbath in the law, is shown by comparison of a few other texts of Scripture. In Ex. 19:5 the Lord says to Israel, “Now therefore [because He had brought them out of Egypt], if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.” Obeying God’s voice as heard by the people on Sinai, was obeying His law of ten commandments, for that was all that He spoke audibly to the people. Deut. 5:22, 23.
Now practically the same promise is made for faithful Sabbath observance as for the observance of the whole law: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isa. 58:13, 14.
Unchangeable.
Of this law, to whose observance so much importance and blessing is attached, Jesus said to the people, in His great Sermon on the Mount: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:17, 18. It is not enough that Christ Himself fulfil the law; for He died that “the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” See Rom. 8:3, 4.
All men are under obligation to keep the Sabbath; for “the Sabbath was made for man” in the beginning. But, as we have shown, Israel was placed under added obligation, because of their deliverance from Egypt, just as the pardoned criminal is deemed under renewed obligation to become a law-abiding citizen. Now Israel was typical of God’s people all through the Gospel dispensation, or probationary time. God called Israel His son (Ex. 4:22, 23; Hosea 11:1); so He said of the child Jesus, when He was taken to Egypt for a time to escape the treachery of Herod, “Out of Egypt have I called My Son.” Matt. 2:15. The children of Israel were the children of Abraham, and the disciples of Christ are the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29). “We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Phil. 3:3.
What Egypt Means.
Egypt stands for the lowest depths, the blackest darkness, of sin. Christ’s going into Egypt was typical of His stooping to redeem the sinner of the lowest degree. Therefore all who are redeemed from sin by faith in His redeeming blood are brought out of Egyptian darkness, “out of the house of bondage.” So just as Christ brought literal Israel out of literal Egypt by the hand of Moses, He has brought the spiritual seed out of spiritual darkness by His Holy Spirit. And just as the literal seed (who were also spiritual when truly converted) were under added obligation to keep the law of God, including His Sabbath which He blessed and sanctified in the beginning, so the spiritual seed, which He has redeemed from spiritual Egypt, are under a like special obligation. In either case the law and the Sabbath are spiritual institutions. Paul says, “The law is spiritual” (Rom. 7:14); and the Sabbath is a memorial of God’s rest, which was a spiritual rest, for “God is a Spirit.” John 4:24.
The Lord is saying to His people to-day, as verily as He did of old, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;” “thou shalt keep therefore His statutes, and His commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, forever.” Deut. 4:40. Now “the earth” which the Lord gives to the spiritual seed “forever” is the “new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13); and in that new earth, to the kingdom of which “there shall be no end” (Luke 1:31–33), all flesh shall worship God on the Sabbath day (Isa. 66:22, 23), just as was designed in the beginning, when “the Sabbath was made for man.”
G.
THE LIFE OF GOD.
THE life of God is the bond of the universe. It is not a conceivable thing to the believer in God that He ever did or ever could create a dead or even lifeless thing. “He is the living God.” Life is an essential attribute of Deity. Nay, more, He is life itself. “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.”
God created the universe. By this we mean not alone this earth or this solar system; but the whole stellar concourse of satellites, planets, suns, groups of suns, clusters of groups, nebulae, within and beyond telescopic vision. They are of God’s speaking. When they came from Him, they throbbed with His life. The entire correlation pulsed in harmony with the great Heart of creation. In its perfect oneness and exquisitely adjusted harmony, every movement was felt through all its parts. There was flow and interflow between sun and sun, between planet and sun, between satellite and planet. No nebula glittered so far out on “the black bosom of eternal nothingness” that it was not in communication with every nebula or body in the great stellar sphere.
The law of that life-bond was love—including in its comprehensive scope, justice, righteousness, purity, truth, and every other quality of goodness. Every pulse beat of life was in harmony with that law. All flow and interflow of life was in concord with love’s rhythmic beat. Every sound of life, from the growing of the corn to the deep bass of the rolling of the spheres, helped to round out the sweet music of life’s triumphant oratorio. Every gladness and joy which came to the hearts of God’s creatures quickened with fresh glad impulse of life all other hearts. Every impulse of the universe would forever have ministered to the good and joy of all. Such would have been the ever-growing glory of God’s universe, bound up in “the bundle of His life” if a foreign element had not entered.
That foreign element was sin; and sin is “missing the mark.” It is missing the mark by turning to selfish purposes the blessings designed for all. It intercepted love, and selfishness and hatred were the result. It perverted righteousness, and it became sin. Under its blasting perversion equity became iniquity, truth became a lie, good became evil, the straight became crooked, peace became war, joy became sorrow, and life became death.
We now see God’s creation under perverted law. Nowhere is it perfect as it came from His hand. The most beautiful flowers, the loveliest foliage, the sweetest blossoms, are all touched by death. We get glimpses of perfect forms; some parts and portions do not wholly belie the divine originals, but none are perfect. God is the God of nature, but not perverted nature. Once He reigned in every part, with every law and pulsation willingly obedient to His mind. The Lord God Omnipotent still reigns in nature; but He does it despite of sin, does it in such a way that man may see the sad lesson of sin’s working if he will, and so learn to hate it with all his heart, and to long for that time when the perfect shall come. Is it coming? This earth is a part of the universe marred by sin’s blasting. God’s pledge for it is His pledge for all: “For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens; He is God; that formed the earth and made it; He established it, He created it not a waste, He formed it to be inhabited. I am Jehovah, and there is none else.” Isa. 45:18. In and through Jesus Christ God will restore all things. Who can thwart His will? Do you wish a part in the eternal harmony to come? Then yield to the law of His life in Christ Jesus.
A Poor Anchor.
An occult magazine says, “My hope is in myself.” What would we think of a ship which thought itself anchored when anchor chain was coiled and anchor laid on the deck? Whatever is thought, it would drift in time of shoreward storm to certain destruction. The Christian’s anchor—hope—is Jesus Christ.
