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قراءة كتاب Studies in Zechariah

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Studies in Zechariah

Studies in Zechariah

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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in the day time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain. (Isaiah iv.) This glory during the Millennium will no doubt not only hover over the land, but will be visible over the entire earth, and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters the sea.

It is interesting to see how Talmudical literature falls in with these thoughts. A few quotations from these old writings of the Jews will no doubt be acceptable to the reader. Rabbi Isaac Napcha says: The Holy One said, I kindled a fire in Jerusalem (in wrath) Lament. iv: 11, and I am going to build her up again with fire, as it is said, “I will be unto her, saith the Lord, a wall of fire round about. He that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.” The Pesikta Rabethi has this: What is this: “And for a Glory I am in the midst of her.” Is it not the case that the glory of the Holy One is none other than on high, as it is said, “His glory is above the heavens.” The glory is in order to show every creature in the universe the superior excellence of Israel, since it is on their account that the Holy One brings down the Shekinah from the highest heaven and lets it dwell in the earth.

We have now in the vision a continued description of that happy condition of Jerusalem and all that is connected with it. First, we notice the summons for the Jews who are then still in dispersion. Ho, ho, flee from the land of the North, saith the Lord, for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord. Ho, Zion, escape that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.

It is not to be expected that when the glory appears and the King of Glory comes again and His feet stand there on the Mount of Olives, that the entire Jewish nation will then live in the land. This will not be the case; only a part of the nation was restored in unbelief, and in the midst of them a believing remnant, whose faith, suffering and salvation we hope to describe later. Two-thirds of all the inhabitants of the land will be swept away in the great tribulation. After the Lord has come, the others will be restored. It is significant that the land of the North is mentioned here, Late; in the eighth chapter, we read: “I will save my people from the East country and from the West country,” but those living in the land of the North come first. Of course, Babylon was meant as far as this vision had anything to do with the restoration which had taken place in part from the Babylonian captivity. The North country, which figures in the coming restoration, is not Babylon, but another land. Russia is directly north of Palestine, and in this northern land, the territory once inhabited by Gog and Magog, about one half of the Jews now living have their homes. About six millions of Jews are living to-day in European and Asiatic Russia. Their deplorable condition in that land of the North is well known, and there, likewise, the national awakening has been the most marked and Zionism has its most ardent advocates. A large multitude is getting ready in the North country for a mighty exodus. Like their forefathers in Egypt, they will flee from the land of the North, and thus prophecy is literally to be fulfilled.

Zion is to separate from the daughter of Babylon. What is Babylon? We hope to answer this question and give a description of her when we come to consider the seventh night vision, the woman in the Ephah. In this third vision of restoration we hear next what is to take place after the glory. The expression “after the glory” means undoubtedly the glorious appearing of the Lord coming with all His saints, sitting upon the throne of His glory, and His glory thus manifested. After the glory hath He sent Me to the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye. Who is the one who is being sent to the nations? It is without a question He, whom the Father sent. He sent Him once, the only begotten, into the world in the form of a servant, when He made Himself of no reputation, but Jehovah will send Him again. And when He again bringeth in the Firstborn into the inhabited earth He saith, And let all the angels worship Him. (Heb. i: 6, 7.) The Father sends Him again to establish His glory, and after the manifestation He is sent to the nations which spoiled Israel. All Scripture speaks of this. While He will in His coming overcome the armies of nations who are gathered in that day against Jerusalem, He will likewise continue, after His glory, to judge nations. He will rule in the midst of His enemies. He will do that among the nations what the second psalm declares, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. For, behold I will shake Mine hand over them, and they shall be a spoil to those that served them. In this rule and judgment the Lord of glory will be assisted by the saints. Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? (1 Cor. vi: 2.) Israel will likewise be used in that judgment. While He is the lion of the tribe of Judah who now roars to the dismay of all His enemies, Israel, His people, becomes the lioness. “Behold the people riseth up as a lioness, and as a lion does he lift himself up. He shall not lie down till he eat the prey and drink the blood of the slain.” (Numbers xxiii: 24.) Israel will then no longer be the tail but has become the head. The true form of government for the earth has been restored, a Theocracy through His chosen and restored people, the seed of Abraham. Things will then be changed completely. The nations shall take them (the children of Abraham) and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and for handmaids, and they shall take them captive whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors. (Isaiah xiv: 2.) Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks and aliens shall be your vine dressers. (Isaiah lxi: 5.)

We must not overlook the loving words concerning Israel, He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye. Israel is the apple of the eye of God. Through Moses God declared the same truth. He kept him as the apple of His eye. (Deut xxxii: 10.) In Hebrew the pupil of the eye is called the gate, because through it enters the light. Thus Israel is the pupil, the gate, through which the light has come and comes, for salvation is of the Jews. And what is so sensitive, so delicate and easily injured as the apple of the eye? And against this apple of the eye of God the nations and Christendom have sinned. May we believing Gentiles understand more fully that Israel is the beloved one and may we be kept from doing harm to His people.

The overcoming of the enemies of Israel, the spoiling of these nations which spoiled Israel, and all that is connected with it by the sent One of God, the Son of God will be the evidence for Israel that Jehovah has sent Him. And ye shall know that the Lord of Hosts has sent Me. The same statement is repeated in this vision, but we shall see in another connection. It is, so to speak, constitutional with the Jew that he wishes to see and then believe, and surely he will see and believe, or rather know, when the Lord comes.

In the tenth verse of the second chapter of Zechariah we read now that the daughter of Zion will sing and rejoice. The reason of her song and joy is, For lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of thee. To-day orthodox Jews are chanting in Hebrew the magnificent psalms which speak of a coming deliverance and manifestation of God’s glory, but it is only with their lips, and the heart is still hardened and the eye blinded. The dark night is rapidly approaching, the night in which a believing remnant of Jews will fulfill much of that suffering, waiting, and blessed assurance of salvation which is so clearly outlined in the psalms. And after that, the whole nation will break out in mighty songs of joy, and while there, in the Father’s house,

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