|
July-August 2011
Part II—from our November-December issue. We have described to some degree the first phase of Jacob’s Trouble; that it was the beginning of the Zionist Movement working toward the obtaining of a homeland for Israel. The efforts put forth in seeking to accomplish that work have actually been accomplished in large measure as Pastor Russell indicated from prophetic Scripture. In the first part of this series we discussed the prophetic fishermen (Jer. 16: 16), and we could give more as to the “fishers,” but now we turn to the hunters of the same verse. You will notice when we read the account, that the fishermen in the Scripture are given first, and the hunters described follow after. It is not that the one finished when the other began, but they were in that order. We come to the hunters and The Scriptural account reads this way: “And you [the anarchistic remnants] will say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, that live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates, to capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world” (Ezek. 38: 11, 12, nasb). This is described as in the day of battle and it is interesting to see from the Scriptural standpoint how God refers to this in the following quotation: “Behold the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem; . . . Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle” (Zech. 14: 1-4). This has not yet occurred. The Arabs have tried repeatedly to take Jerusalem, and have not succeeded. The Lord has indicated that, in this future episode, God is going to eventually deliver Israel out of this difficulty. Another quotation describing these events begins: “And in that day”—when in the Old Testament, concerning the prophecies, it says: “in that day,” “that day,” or “at that day,” it always refers to some time during the Millennial age; either the Parousia, the Parousia and Epiphany, or the Basileia—the Kingdom—as a whole. It reads this way: “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples” (Zech 12: 3 , 10). Is not Israel, that people in the Middle East, a burdensome stone even now—to all nations? The nations do not know what to do. “All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” Many armed forces are going to be involved in that onslaught against this tiny nation. We continue (v. 10); “And I will pour upon the house of David, [symbolic David, Israel, and the Jewish people] and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications.” So God is going to bless them amid and following this great catastrophe that comes upon them. “And they [the Jewish people], shall look upon me whom they have pierced....” Oh! Somebody is going to say that is not right! The Jews did not pierce our Lord! It was the Roman soldiers that put the spear in Jesus’ side and the nails to His hands and feet! While that is true, God puts the blame where it belongs—on Israel more than with the Romans. You know Pilate washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it” (Matt. 27: 24 nkjv). He did not really wash away his responsibility, for although he had the power to save Jesus’ life, he failed to do it. He did not exercise it. He feared the people—that there would be an insurrection. While he had the power and the soldiers, he no doubt felt that it would look bad for him in the Roman emperor’s view and so he declined to step in and save Jesus’ life. We know why that was; because Jesus had to die as the ransom price, but in this little experience, Pilate was also responsible. It is easy to get out the bowl of water and to wash your hands and say, “take you note of it, I am not responsible for the blood of this righteous man”—nevertheless he was, somewhat responsible. However, the Jewish people were also implicated in this sin, for we read: “they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced.” God is putting the blame right where it belongs, as Israel was responsible more than any other people for our Lord’s death. The Scriptures declare it; because it is describing the future, that there is going to be a change of heart among the Jewish people and that change of heart is expressed right here. “Then they will look on Me whom they have pierced” shall mourn for Him as one mourns for His only son, and grieve as one grieves for His firstborn.” The Jewish people are going to discern their accountability for Jesus’ death and with repentant hearts, the experience will result in their eventual blessing. Let us consider that this experience with Israel is the main sign of the times in the world today. The We have a saying today, “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.” Jesus was in effect reciting this very principle in different words. On the other hand, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were seeking to trap our Lord by saying, “We want a sign! Show us a sign, that you are the spoken one from God!” Can you imagine how they said it? “Show us a sign, we want a sign.” The signs that the Pharisees were probably thinking of were how it was back in Old Testament times, for instance, as it was in regards to Elijah with the priests of Baal and how he assembled 450 priests of Baal to sacrifice. Elijah invited them to bring their sacrifices. These priests sought manifested approval from their heathen Gods, and after they had gone through all kinds of gyrations to get their heathen gods to consume their sacrifice and manifest their power, without success, it was Elijah’s turn. Elijah then had his sacrifice put on the altar and he had a trench dug around the altar and filled 12 barrels of water and had all of his helpers pour water on his sacrifice (1 Kings 18: 21-35). He wanted to show it was not going to be a fluke. It was going to be something real. He then prayed to Jehovah and fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice and licked up all the water, even that in the trench. The Lord’s consuming of Elijah’s sacrifice manifested not only God’s approval of the sacrifice, but particularly the endorsement of Elijah as the one true prophet for Israel (1 Kings 18: 38, 39).
Well, no doubt, that is what the Sadducees and Pharisees had in mind and they figured Jesus would not be able to do that. We know that the Lord knew that it was not the time for that kind of a manifestation to come from God. This was because they then had the Old Testament Scriptures which they did not have in Elijah’s time. They did not need any miraculous thing from heaven. All they had to do was read the Scriptures which pointed to the signs of the times, that Jesus their Messiah was present in their midst. So it is that we have been able to do just that and to look into the Sacred writings and to the prophetic teachings, to discern the time when the First and Second Advents were indicated to occur. The Bible’s prophetic message has been pointing not only to the presence of Jesus in His Second Coming, but also to the completion of the Bride of Christ, here in the end of the age. The prominent event that burst on the scene was the World War of 1914 as the indication that the Great Time of Trouble had then commenced (Dan. 12: 1; Matt. 24: 21). Closely associated with the onset of the War was the sealing of the elect for their position as members of the Bride of Christ (Rev. 7: 3). It was there in 1914 that we have discerned the end of the High Calling as another one of the signs of the times. God’s plan marches on and it is by the recognition of these events of tribulation that we can discern exactly where we are in the stream of time. I think of Billy Graham now; it is too bad in a way that his health is failing him and he is not able to discern as well. But about 15 years ago he made the statement concerning the signs of the times, although he did not call it that. “I wonder,” he said, “if possibly we are in the great tribulation that our Lord spoke of.” His mind thinking that way, is throwing out much of the erroneous beliefs, such as when our Lord comes, the world will all be then converted; that Jesus is going to come down to His Church and all the faithful are going to be taken to heaven. If Billy Graham has thought that the Time of Trouble is here, then apparently he has come to see that they had some wrong views to begin with. They are not going to go to heaven before the Trouble—when Armageddon breaks—as many previously had believed, for they are still here. We have come to the sealing of the Little Flock as each nation entered the war, beginning in 1914, and our United states being the last of the countries entering the war indicating that all of the saints had been sealed in the forehead at that time (Rev. 7: 3, 4). There is something to say about the word salt. you ask what has that got to do with this? Oh! It has something to do with it, for our Lord said to the Church in His lifetime, and I think in a secondary sense it applies to all the consecrated, even today: “You are the salt of the earth.” You ask, “What do you mean?” When I was a boy, we brothers had to do certain things around the home This is what our Lord refers to in regards to the Church. Christian people were fi ne characters throughout the world and they had a preserving effect among the human race. If you wonder why the trouble is getting more severe, by leaps and bounds, with revolution and anarchy interspersed in society, it is because the primary salt (the Church of the fi rstborn) has left the earth. * * *
|
we find their fulfillment at different times in Russia in the time of their great revolution, amid which there was great persecution put upon the Jewish people, especially in WWII under the Axis powers, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, where the Jews were carted off by the millions to various places in Europe, Poland and other countries, to the gas chambers; by the millions they were executed. All of this destruction, as unseemly as it was, has been allowed by the Lord to cause them as a people to take hold of the blessings God has for them in their land—Palestine. Even though these events were a severe trial, some survived and migrated to the Holy Land. If wewere speaking to a group of Jewish people, they would be outraged by such talk; that their God allowed these judgments to be brought to them for their sins and misconduct. Sooner or later however, the Lord is going to do away with their blindness and they will recognize their Messiah (Rom 11: 25, 26). We have observed all of this trouble coming upon Israel, yet in due time there will not be any more persecution of the Jews—no more trouble on the Jews. After all of this, however, according to the Scriptures there is yet another great catastrophe looming on their horizon. Still coming as a further part of Jacob’s Trouble as the Bible describes it, a mighty army assembled from many nations will seek a prey to destroy and will go up to Jerusalem to accomplish this. They are called in the Scriptures among other terminology, Gog and Magog. This describes the leaders and the led ones of this great army coming against Israel.
means by which certain food items were preserved. We had ham and salt pork that needed treatment. so in the winter, you know we did not have refrigerators. It was not until about late 1939 or so that refrigerators came into general use. We purchased our fi rst refrigerator for home. It was a Sears, “Coldspot.” Every time somebody opened the door my father worried. It was taking too much electricity. anyway, we also had another big crock and this was down in our vegetable cellar and was kept cold; we left a window open a crack in the winter so it kept this big crock cold, that held sauerkraut. the salt pork was preserved by the salt, sifted among its pieces. I can remember my brothers having the task of using the cabbage slicer; it was a box with knives underneath that attached, and you put cabbage there and it was cut in fourths. We put the cabbage in the box and pushed it back and forth over the knives which shredded it courser than coleslaw. We would put about 4 inches of cabbage around the inside of the crock, and then my father would sprinkle some salt on it. He would say, “Let us shred some more,” and we would repeat the process with more cabbage and more salt. No refrigerators— the only way we could preserve items of food was by using ice from the ice-man and salt for extended storage time.