Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

58

THE UNBELIEVING JEWS HAVE INHERITED

That which embraced the Gospel was, doubtless, the more favoured portion of the Jewish nation,—the true heirs of the promises. Yet, neither are their descendants now known as being of Judah, Benjamin, or Levi. And we may be certain, that if there are peculiar blessings in store for the natural seed of Abraham, in the line of Isaac and of Jacob, those promised blessings would most surely not be forfeited for their children, by their acceptance of Christianity. But the children of these early Jewish converts initiated their children into the faith of their fathers, and gathered up others together with them into the same family of God. And because

they did so, are their children to be disinherited? But what, in the meantime, were the people called the Jews doing? Why the very same thing, in their own way. They, also, were ever receiving disciples. Even in our Saviour's time, they were compassing sea and land to make one proselyte: and just before that, they had been making them wholesale. Thus we read that about the year one hundred and twenty-nine before Christ, a whole nation was introduced into the Jewish church. And what nation should this be? The very people against whom, as the last prophet, Malachi, (i. 4,) declares, "The Lord hath indignation for ever." John Hyrcanus having conquered the Edomites, or Idumeans, 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 leave their idolatry rather than their country; and all became proselytes to the Jewish religion. And when they had thus taken on them the religion of the Jews, they continued united to them ever after: till at length the name of Edomites was lost in that of Jews; and both people became consolidated into one and the same nation together :—so much so, that at the time the true King of the Jews was born, an Idumean swayed the sceptre of Judea, and was the great restorer of the temple to that

[LEC. V.

glory, in which it was so admired by the disciples of our Lord, before its destruction by the Romans. Now, the children of Edom were cursed,and that curse they have not escaped, although they have nominally become Jews. Nay, they must have increased their curse by thirsting after the blood of Christ, as soon as he was born into the world; and by afterwards joining in the cry, "His blood be upon us and our children." who can now tell whether this or that Jew is of Esau, whom the Lord hated? or of Jacob, whom he loved? Nay; have they not all inherited the curse of Edom, by continuing in his spirit and behaviour, as despising the birthright, and persecuting the Son of Promise, as well as by the most intimate intermingling of races? Is it only here that we are to look for the firstborn Israel?

And

But more than this. It would seem that even the Canaanites themselves, who were, emphatically, the children of the curse, were gradually, and at length fully, amalgamated with the Jews, so as to become one people with them. This seems to have been the case in even the capital of the kingdom,—Jerusalem, where was both the throne and the temple; and which, (immediately before these were placed there,) was inhabited by Jebusites, whose king had been the leading king among the Amerites, one of the most accursed nations of Canaan. And we are expressly told that the tribe of Judah could not put out these Jebusites; nor did the tribe of Benjamin put them out: but they remained there, among the children of Judah, and the children of Benjamin, until the time of David, when they were built up in the very midst of the Jews, retaining even their possession of the land there; as is evident in the case of Araunah the Jebusite, over whose threshing-floor the angel stayed his hand, when cutting down the people, because of the sin of David their king. That was literally true, which the Lord said by Ezekiel, (xvi. 3); and which, those that plead

LEC. V.]

THE CURSE OF BOTH CANAAN AND EDOM.

59

for the literal interpretation of Scripture, should not gainsay:—

"Thus saith the Lord God to Jerusalem,
Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land
of Canaan ;

Thy father was an Amorite,
And thy mother an Hittite."

dren, as being the inhabitants of Jerusalem, exposed to shame the Saviour of the world, and that, upon the accursed tree; and as Edom pursued his brother Jacob with constant hatred, so did his descendants among the Jews pursue, with unceasing hatred, not only Christ, the Head, but also his followers, so long as they had the power. But, shall they be excluded? No: Even although the Canaanites, dwelling along the sea coast, were also ultimately taken up into Judah; yet still, even granting that with them is Ashkelon, and Ashdod, and Ekron, -still we have the word of prophecy,

The very first mothers of the Jews;
Shuah, the mother of Judah's first
three children; and also Tamar, mo-
ther of Phares and Zara; were, it
would seem, Canaanites of the children
of Heth. And the men of Jerusalem,
the first stock of its inhabitants, were
Jebusites, belonging to the nation of
the Autorites. But, was that tribe, or (Zech. ix. 7).

that city, therefore, excluded from the
inheritance of Israel? No. Of that
very tribe, although into the line of
his ancestry was brought another Ca-
naanitess, Rahab, of Jericho; and, also,
the Moabitess, Ruth,—of that very
tribe, by this very line, came Christ,
the Saviour, the promised Son of Da-
vid, the rightful King of Israel. And
this very city did he make one of the
principal scenes of his ministry; and
here it was that he commanded his
apostles to commence their ministry,
after his resurrection: here it was that
the Holy Ghost descended in such
power, upon the day of Pentecost; and
hence was the glad sound of salvation,
in the name of Jesus, sent forth unto
the ends of the earth. Say we these
things do we then bring forward these
historical truths—for the purpose of
disparaging the Jew? No: far be it:

—but to illustrate the truth respecting Israel; and to show, that those who were taken out of the land cannot be more lost among the Gentiles,than were the people that remained in the land. If there was one people cursed above another, it was Edom, of the children of Abraham: it was Canaan, among the more immediate descendants of Noah: and with both of these the Jews have become most signally mingled, so as to become one people with them, and so as to inherit the curse of both. As Ham, the father of Canaan, exposed Noah, the saviour of his family, to shame, so have his chil

"He that remaineth, even he,—for our God; and he shall be as a governor in Judah; and Ekron as a Jebusite."

—Even Ekron shall be as that portion of the Canaanites, who were built up in the very midst of His people. But, if God will deal thus kindly with the Jews, who are thus so unequivocally one with the children of the curse; it may be expected, that He will deal at least equally, according to promise, with that other house, which comprehends the body of the people, so as to be called all Israel; and which, however mingled among the Gentiles, cannot be worse mingled than the Jews are about whose case, as the subject of prophecy, so little doubt has been generally entertained.

When the great restoration of Israel is referred to in prophecy, let it be again remembered, it is Israel, or Ephraim, that is chiefly spoken of. It is that house of Israel which has been accounted lost, that is ever brought to remembrance. Jerusalem and her daughters shall not return, until they return in the midst of Samaria and her daughters; and also, it would seem, amid the children of Lot: and not by her own covenant, which she has broken, shall Judah be given possession of the land; but in the right of the One Seed, Christ, the true First-born, their crucified Messiah, upon whom they shall look, and mourn their unbelief and ingratitude. Then shall they

60

FUTURE RETURN OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH.

also acknowledge that God has, indeed, been a Father to Israel, and that Ephraim is his first-born, in whose religious privileges, as well as temporal blessings, they shall be glad to participate. Then shall the children of Judah walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north, to the land that the Lord had given unto the fathers, in the name of the promised Messiah. This grand gathering together will, it would seem, take place in the north; and chiefly in the north-west. But it is not alone here, where Antichrist hath his seat, and where Christ hath so much been for a stone of stumbling, and rock of offence, to both houses of Israel, it is not only here that the lost sheep of the house of Israel shall

[LEC. V.

be recovered. The remnant left in all the countries around, shall also be brought back unto their father's house. The prophet Isaiah, besides having mentioned, in the preceding part of chapter xi, the great release from the wicked, here in the north-west, takes, in verse 11, quite a circuit all round the land, mentioning Egypt and Pathros, in the south, Gush and Elam, in the east, Shinar and Hamath, northward, and the Islands of the Sea, in the west.

It is not of Judah, alone, whose captivity was restored from Babylon, and who was not taken captive by Assyria, which Israel was, at the time Isaiah prophesied it was of All Israel, that the prophet foretold as follows, Is. xi. 11—16:—

"And it shall come to pass in that day,
The Lord shall set again his hand the second time.
To recover the remnant of his people,
Which shall be left from Assyria,

And from Egypt, and from Pathros,

And from Cush, and from Elam,

And from Shinar. and from Hamath,

And from the islands of the sea.

And he shall set up an ensign for the nations,
And shall assemble the outcasts of Israel;
And gather together the dispersed of Judah,
From the four corners of the earth.

The envy also of Ephraim shall depart,

And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off:

Ephraim shall not envy Judah,

And Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west;

They shall spoil them of the east together;

They shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab;

And the children of Ammon shall obey them.

And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea;

And with his mighty wind shall He shake his hand over the river,

And shall smite it in the seven streams,

And make men go over dry shod.

And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people,
Which shall be left from Assyria;

Like as it was to Israel,

In the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."

LECTURE VI.

THE PLACE OF ISRAEL'S HIDING.

"For they-a nation void of counsel,
Neither understanding in them.

O that they were wise, they understood this,
-They would consider their latter end!
How should one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Except their Rock had sold them,
And the Lord had shut them up?
For their rock-not as our Rock,
Even our enemies themselves-judges.
For their vine-of the vine of Sodom,

And of the fields of Gomorrah;

Their grapes-grapes of gall, their clusters-bitter.

Their wine-the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps."

DEUT. Xxxii. 28--33.

Certainty of the Recovery of Israel.-Objections.-Israel have become mingled among the Gentiles.-What is to become of the Gentiles?-The literal and spiritual Israel, one. ---Abraham's Three Families, correspondent to the Three Sons of Noah.-Ishmael and Ham. -Children of Keturah and Shem.-Jacob and Japhet. The word of Prophecy points northward, to the place whither Israel had gone, and whence they are yet to be brought.-The great Prophetic line of Empires running north-west.--Antichrist, the consummation of the Tyrant Empires in the north-west; Is. xi. 1-5, 6--10.-Four songs of fourteeen lines each, (Is. ix. 8-21; x. 1-4,) describing the progress of Israel's Punishment.-First: Israel, immediately before their Removal from the Land.-Second: Israel, as being removed by the Assyrian.-Third: Israel, after removal, in the same place with Judah.---Fourth: Israel, before the Great Judgment.-Our Saviour's Ministry went out northward. That of the Apostles proceeded north-westward.--The Epistles all sent to places in the same direction-The Apocalypse carries our view onward to our own part of the World.--Conclusion of the Argument: Here are to be found the Sheep of God's pasture.

NOTWITHSTANDING the clearness of the prophetic word, respecting the recovery of Israel, in the latter time, their very existence has, like the birth of a son to Sarah, appeared to many, all but impossible. Just as sure, however, as Isaac was born, shall the nations that were to come of Jacob, be forthcoming. We have the word of God for the one, as well as for the other; and, if this may avail any thing, we have it far more frequently. The prophets ex

patiate greatly upon this; and the New Testament has very explicit information upon the point. But, let us, for a moment, turn aside, to hear what man has to say upon the matter, that so we may the better be prepared to see the value of that mass of evidence, which has been provided in the kind providence of God, to remove his objections, and confirm him in the truth of God's most holy Word.

Some have supposed, that Israel, if

58

THE UNBELIEVING JEWS HAVE INHERITED

That which embraced the Gospel was, doubtless, the more favoured portion of the Jewish nation,—the true heirs of the promises. Yet, neither are their descendants now known as being of Judah, Benjamin, or Levi. And we may be certain, that if there are peculiar blessings in store for the natural seed of Abraham, in the line of Isaac and of Jacob, those promised blessings would most surely not be forfeited for their children, by their acceptance of Christianity. But the children of these early Jewish converts initiated their children into the faith of their fathers, and gathered up others together with them into the same family of God. And because they did so, are their children to be disinherited? But what, in the meantime, were the people called the Jews doing? Why the very same thing, in their own way. They, also, were ever receiving disciples. Even in our Saviour's time, they were compassing sea and land to make one proselyte: and just before that, they had been making them wholesale. Thus we read that about the year one hundred and twenty-nine before Christ, a whole nation was introduced into the Jewish church. And what nation should this be? The very people against whom, as the last prophet, Malachi, (i. 4,) declares, "The Lord hath indignation for ever." John Hyrcanus having conquered the Edomites, or Idumeans, 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 leave their idolatry rather than their country; and all became proselytes to the Jewish religion. when they had thus taken on them the religion of the Jews, they continued united to them ever after: till at length the name of Edomites was lost in that of Jews; and both people became consolidated into one and the same nation together::-so much so, that at the time the true King of the Jews was born, an Idumean swayed the sceptre of Judea, and was the great restorer of the temple to that

And

[LEC. V.

glory, in which it was so admired by the disciples of our Lord, before its destruction by the Romans. Now, the children of Edom were cursed,and that curse they have not escaped, although they have nominally become Jews. Nay, they must have increased their curse by thirsting after the blood of Christ, as soon as he was born into the world; and by afterwards joining in the cry, "His blood be upon us and our children." who can now tell whether this or that Jew is of Esau, whom the Lord hated? or of Jacob, whom he loved? Nay; have they not all inherited the curse of Edom, by continuing in his spirit and behaviour, as despising the birthright, and persecuting the Son of Promise, as well as by the most intimate intermingling of races? Is it only here that we are to look for the firstborn Israel?

And

But more than this. It would seem that even the Canaanites themselves, who were, emphatically, the children of the curse, were gradually, and at length fully, amalgamated with the Jews, so as to become one people with them. This seems to have been the case in even the capital of the kingdom, Jerusalem, where was both the throne and the temple; and which, (immediately before these were placed there,) was inhabited by Jebusites, whose king had been the leading king among the Amorites, one of the most accursed nations of Canaan. And we are expressly told that the tribe of Judah could not put out these Jebusites; nor did the tribe of Benjamin put them out: but they remained there, among the children of Judah, and the children of Benjamin, until the time of David, when they were built up in the very midst of the Jews, retaining even their possession of the land there; as is evident in the case of Araunah the Jebusite, over whose threshing-floor the angel stayed his hand, when cutting down the people, because of the sin of David their king. That was literally true, which the Lord said by Ezekiel, (xvi. 3); and which, those that plead

« AnteriorContinuar »