ITS SOLUTION. 
 
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 tegional 
 acility 
 
 DAVID BARON.
 
 Jfewtsb Btoblem : 
 
 ITS SOLUTION. 
 
 OR, 
 
 30rael'0 present anfc future. 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID BARON, 
 
 O/ the Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel; 
 
 Author of" Rays of Messiah's Glory " ; 
 
 etc., etc. 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 REV. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D. 
 
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 "Many will welcome with a personal interest and gratitude the volume 
 just issued by David Baron. The earlier part is devoted to Scripture expo- 
 sition ; the latter to a consideration of the ever-present 'Jewish Question." 
 Whether estimated in its sectional purposes, or in its intention as a whole, it 
 is a book which cannot but instruct and help Bible students, and especially 
 such as give attention to ' the sure word of prophecy." 1 Tht Christian. 
 
 LONDON: HODDBR & STOUGHTON, WARWICK SQUARE, E.G.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS is the fifth English edition of this 
 little book, which has also been translated 
 into several other European languages, 
 including Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, 
 and French. 
 
 Dr. Pierson's most kind introduction to the 
 original American Edition, printed when I was 
 in Palestine in 1891, tells its history; and I 
 retain his kind words, not because I think hi3 
 eulogy on myself personally deserving, but as a 
 reminiscence of my visit to America, and of the 
 most happy fellowship it was my privilege to 
 
 2095017
 
 iv ^preface. 
 
 enjoy with some of the choicest of Christ's 
 
 servants in that vast country. 
 
 That it may still speak the praises of Him 
 Who is the " Light to lighten the Gentiles, and 
 the glory of His people Israel," and that a bless- 
 ing may come to every one into whose hands 
 this little book may fall, is the heartfelt prayer 
 of the writer. 
 
 DAVID BARON. 
 
 "Northfield? 
 
 Charley Woody Herts.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THOSE who were present at the summer con- 
 ferences at Northfield, Mass., in the months 
 of July and August, 1890, will not soon 
 forget DAVID BARON and his Bible Readings 
 and Addresses. He is a converted Jew ; and is 
 well named David Baron, for he is a true prince of 
 the Davidic House. 
 
 There was an indescribable charm about the man. 
 His knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures and his 
 deep insight into them ; his keen discernment of 
 the exquisite shades of meaning by which the 
 original words differed and were distinguished, and 
 the perfect familiarity he exhibited with both the 
 original Word of God and all the light which the 
 Jewish customs, manners, and religious and national 
 life cast upon that Word, together with a peculiar 
 unction which qualified his whole manner all 
 these peculiarities contributed to render his ser- 
 vices doubly interesting and helpful. After the 
 Conferences closed, there were still at the hotels 
 and boarding-houses a large number of visitors 
 who clamoured for a continuance of the feast ; and
 
 vi Jftttro&urtimt. 
 
 Mr. Baron gave daily Readings in the Parlour of 
 the large " Northfield," or in the Congregational 
 church. 
 
 At my earnest entreaty, Mr. Baron wrote out 
 one of his best Bible addresses for publication, and 
 it is herewith put into printed form. It lacks only 
 the personal presence of its author to make it a 
 perfect reproduction of one of the most charming 
 and effective addresses I ever heard. It is not too 
 much to say that, to understand this address and 
 to grasp its great expository argument, is to get 
 the key to all Scriptures pertaining to the past, 
 present, or future, of God's ancient people. This 
 little brochure is called the " Jewish Problem " ; it 
 deserves to be called the " Problem Solved " for 
 it is the solution of the historic and prophetic 
 enigma. 
 
 I commend it to every candid student of the 
 Word of God, and especially to all who pray for 
 the restoration of Israel. 
 
 ARTHUR T. PIERSON.
 
 j xzx. 1-17. 
 
 HPHE word that cai^e to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 
 -- Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write 
 thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. 
 For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring 
 again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the 
 Lord : and I will cause them to return to the land that 
 I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. 
 
 And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning 
 Israel and concerning Judah. 
 
 For thus saith the Lord ; 
 We have heard a voice of trembling, 
 Of fear, and not of peace. 
 Ask ye now, and see 
 Whether a man doth travail with child ? 
 Wherefore do I see every man 
 With his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, 
 And all faces are turned into paleness ? 
 Alas ! for that day is great, 
 So that none is like it : 
 It is even the time of Jacob's trouble. 
 
 But he shall be saved out of it. 
 
 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, 
 That I will break his yoke from off thy neck, 
 And will burst thy bonds, 
 
 And strangers shall no more serve themselves of him : 
 But they shall serve the Lord their God, 
 And David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. 
 Therefore fear thou not, O My servant Jacob, saith the Lord ; 
 Neither be dismayed, O Israel : 
 For, lo, I will save thee from afar, 
 And thy seed from the land of their captivity ; 
 And Jacob shall return, 
 And shall be in rest, and be quiet,
 
 viii Jfercntialr 1-17 
 
 And none shall make him afraid. 
 
 For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee : 
 
 Though I make a full end of all nations whither I have 
 
 scattered thee, 
 
 Yet will I not make a full end of thee : 
 But I will correct thee in measure, 
 And will not leave thee altogether unpunished. 
 
 For thus saith the Lord, 
 Thy bruise is incurable, 
 And thy wound is grievous. 
 There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be 
 
 bound up : 
 
 Thou hast no healing medicines. 
 All thy lovers have forgotten thee ; 
 They seek thee not ; 
 
 For I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, 
 With the chastisement of a cruel one. 
 For the multitude of thine iniquity ; 
 Because thy sins were increased. 
 Why criest thou for thine affliction ? 
 
 Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity : 
 Because thy sins were increased, I have done these things 
 
 unto thee. 
 
 Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured ; 
 And all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into 
 
 captivity ; 
 
 And they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, 
 And all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey. 
 For I will restore health unto thee, 
 And I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord j 
 Because they called thee an Outcast, saying, 
 This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.
 
 THE JEWISH PROBLEM. 
 
 I. 
 
 Js tfrm a tt Jute* fUstorattan ? 
 
 'NTIL all the writings of the prophet were 
 compiled in one book as we now have it, 
 Jeremiah xxx. and xxxi. formed a dis- 
 tinct prophecy, and was doubtless in circulation 
 amongst the people in a separate prophetic book ; 
 and in verse 2 we read that it is a " book " 
 dictated by God Himself. The subject, then, with 
 which it deals must be one concerning which He 
 is especially anxious to reveal His thoughts. 
 Whatever man may think of it, He considers this 
 matter of immense importance, so that every word 
 must be preserved. 
 
 "Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto 
 thee in a book." 
 
 This book, dictated by God Himself, is a very 
 remarkable one ; for though it concerns Israel, it 
 is addressed chiefly to the Gentile nations.
 
 ro 3s tljcre a get JFuturc Hestoration ? 
 
 " For thus saith the Lord : Sing with gladness for 
 Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations. 
 Publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save Thy 
 people, the remnant of Israel. . . . Hear the word 
 of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles 
 afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather 
 him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock " 
 (Jeremiah xxxi. 7-10). 
 
 It is a testimony, then, not so much to Israel as 
 to the Gentile nations about Israel. Just as, in 
 the epistle to the Romans, we find, as it were, 
 an epistle within an epistle ; three chapters 
 ix., x., xi. expressly indited by the Spirit of God, 
 for the purpose of enlightening Gentile Christians 
 with regard to God's purposes in Israel. The 
 apostle is most impressed with the importance of 
 the Church having correct views on this subject ; 
 and feels that he cannot leave them ignorant of 
 this mystery, lest, through the erroneous notion 
 that God hath cast away His people Israel which 
 He foreknew, and that the special promises and 
 privileges reserved to Israel nationally in the 
 Word of God have been transferred to the Church, 
 they should fall into the danger of self-conceit. 1 
 
 So here, through the prophet Jeremiah, there is 
 a definite message, a proclamation, a warning, to 
 the chief of the Gentile nations, and to the isles 
 1 Romans xi. 25.
 
 jl ^perial fprodantatton. ti 
 
 afar off, to the same purport, viz., that God is not 
 yet done with Israel that " He that scattereth 
 Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd 
 doth his flock." 
 
 In this special book, written at the express 
 dictation of God, we have the only true solution 
 of the apparently more and more difficult Jewish 
 question. Apart from God's revelation, the Jew 
 is an enigma, a problem beyond the vain attempts 
 of man to solve ; and attempts of the kind, if not 
 based upon the Word of God, are futile and 
 impious. The future of Israel is one of those 
 subjects concerning which the great God has 
 deigned to speak ; and however difficult or im- 
 probable to man that future may appear, it 
 behoves us to believe and receive, and not to 
 speculate or rebel. 
 
 " For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are 
 your ways My ways, saith Jehovah." 
 
 Let us examine this special proclamation ad- 
 dressed to the Gentile nations with regard to 
 Israel. It contains, I believe, a programme of 
 events drawn up in chronological order, with re- 
 gard to the future of that people, so wonderful 
 and " terrible from their beginning hitherto." 1 
 1 Isaiah xviii. 2.
 
 12 <ls tljm a jret JFuture fteataratirm ? 
 The first item in that programme is Restoration. 
 
 " For lo, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will 
 bring again the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, 
 saith Jehovah ; and I will cause them to return to the 
 land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess 
 it" (Jeremiah xxx. 3). 
 
 Note the frequent reiteration of the august and 
 glorious name JEHOVAH in this, as in the other 
 verses of this prophecy ; as if to give credibility 
 to the announcements made, and to test our faith 
 in the accomplishment of those things for which 
 the eternal, unchangeable name, Jehovah, stands 
 pledged. 
 
 Now, what are we to do with this and other 
 prophecies of a Restoration of the people of Israel 
 to the land of their fathers ? 
 
 There are several methods of interpretation 
 which seem alike unsatisfactory, and are perhaps 
 responsible for a great deal of Jewish and Gentile 
 unbelief. There is, first of all, the old-fashioned 
 way of so-called spiritualizing the prophecies 
 making ISRAEL and ZlON to mean the Church, 
 and THE LAND to signify heaven ; but I confess 
 this system of interpretation has no consistency 
 about it, and makes the Word of God the most 
 meaningless and unintelligible book in the world. 
 For instance, we read here :
 
 ^pirtftmU$ittjj tire Jlropljmcs. 13 
 
 " I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel 
 and Judah ; . . . and I will cause them to return to 
 the land that I gave to their fathers." 
 
 If Israel be the Church, who is Judah? If 
 Judah be the Church, who is Israel ? What is 
 the " captivity " the Church has endured ? and 
 where is " the land " from which the Church has 
 been driven out, and to which it will return ? At 
 the end of the prophecy we read : 
 
 " Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the city 
 shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananeel 
 unto the gate of the corner. And the measuring line 
 shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, 
 and shall compass about to Goath. And the whole 
 valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the 
 fields unto the brook of Kedron, unto the corner of the 
 horse-gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord ; 
 it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more 
 for ever" (Jeremiah xxxi. 38-40). 
 
 In what particular locality in heaven are the 
 tower of Hananeel and the corner gate ? And 
 what will our allegorical interpretations make of 
 the hill Gareb, and Goath, and the brook Kedron ? 
 All these are known to me in the environs of 
 the literal Jerusalem in Canaan ; but I confess 
 some difficulty in locating them in heavenly places. 
 If Israel does not mean Israel, and " the land God 
 gave to the fathers " does not mean Palestine, then 
 I do not know what is meant
 
 14 is tfrere a get ^Future fUstorattott ? 
 
 The announcement is : " He that scattereth 
 Israel will gather him." Now, when it comes to 
 scattering of course, this is allowed to refer to 
 literal Israel, to the Jews, " scattered and peeled " ; 
 but when, in the same sentence, a gathering of 
 the same people is mentioned oh, this is the 
 gathering of the spiritual Israel. What con- 
 sistency or honesty, I pray, is there in such 
 interpretations ! 
 
 " To what may we attribute the loose system of 
 interpreting the language of the Psalms and 
 prophets, and the extravagant expectations of 
 the universal conversion of the world by the 
 preaching of the gospel, which may be observed 
 in many Christian writers ? 
 
 "To nothing so much, I believe, as to the habit 
 of inaccurately interpreting the word ' Israel,' and 
 the consequent application of promises to the 
 Gentile churches, with which they have nothing to 
 do. The least errors in theology always bear fruit. 
 Never does man take up an incorrect principle 
 of interpreting Scripture without that principle 
 entailing awkward consequences, and colouring the 
 whole tone of his religion. 
 
 " I do not deny that Israel was a peculiar typical 
 people, and that God's relations to Israel were
 
 3Vtt Incorrett principle. 15 
 
 meant to be a type of relations to His believing 
 people all over the world. I do not forget that it 
 is written, ' As face answereth to face, so the heart 
 of man to man'; 1 and that whatever spiritual 
 truths are taught in prophecy concerning Israelitish 
 hearts, are applicable to the hearts of Gentiles. 
 I would have it most distinctly understood that 
 God's dealings with individual Jews and Gentiles 
 are precisely one and the same. Without repent- 
 ance, faith in Christ, and holiness of heart, no 
 individual Jew or Gentile shall ever be saved. 
 What I protest against is, the habit of allegorizing 
 plain sayings of the Word of God concerning the 
 future history of the nation Israel, and explaining 
 away the fulness of their contents in order to 
 accommodate them to the Gentile Church. I 
 believe the habit to be unwarranted by anything in 
 Scripture, and to draw after it a long train of evil 
 consequences." * 
 
 Like thousands more, the writer has in the 
 infinite grace of God been brought out of the 
 darkness of Rabbinical Judaism into the marvellous 
 light and liberty of the glorious gospel of Christ. 
 He accepted Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of 
 
 1 Proverbs xxvii. 19. 
 
 * " Scattered and Gathered," by the late Dr. Ryle, Bishop 
 of Liverpool.
 
 1 6 Is tljere a get ^Future ftEstoratiott ? 
 
 Israel and Saviour of the world, on the ground of a 
 literal interpretation of the prophecies concerning 
 Him ; and he cannot consistently, without doing 
 outrage to his convictions, accept one principle of 
 interpretation for one set of prophecies which have 
 already been fulfilled, and another principle of 
 interpretation for another set of prophecies not yet 
 fulfilled. Rather, he honestly believes that the 
 manner of fulfilment of those prophecies which are 
 now history, supplies the only sound basis for the 
 interpretation of those prophecies with regard to 
 Israel and the kingdom which yet await their 
 fulfilment. "Though He tarry, wait for Him"; 
 and when the fulness of time is come, it will be 
 seen that though man's systems and principles of 
 interpretation be diverse, God's manner of fulfilling 
 His promises is one. 
 
 Another way of dealing with these prophecies 
 of a Restoration is to make them refer to the 
 gathering of the Jews into the Church. But this 
 position also is untenable. The Jews will not be 
 nationally gathered into the Church ; for even in 
 the New Testament we have the Jews, as well as 
 the Gentiles, as nations, running parallel with, and 
 continuing separate from, the Church throughout 
 all the period of its history on earth ; l and in 
 1 i Corinthians x. 32.
 
 JU (Kherlsstmg possession. 17 
 
 Rom. xi. 25, the inspired apostle is commissioned 
 to announce to the Gentile believers the fact 
 that all Israel will not be saved; that the "hard- 
 ness in part" which has befallen that nation will 
 continue until after the fulness of the Gentiles 
 be come in. 
 
 " He that scattered Israel " : From whence ? 
 from the Church, or gospel blessings ? No, no ; 
 but from Palestine. " Will gather him : " Where 
 to ? why, surely, to the land which He gave to 
 their fathers, from which Israel, on account of dis- 
 obedience, was banished and scattered. 
 
 But perhaps the most plausible way of explaining 
 such predictions is to represent them as having had 
 their fulfilment at the restoration from Babylon, 
 since they were given before the Babylonish 
 captivity. To this I reply that this and other pre- 
 dictions are in terms of which we vainly seek an 
 adequate fulfilment at that period. It may be as 
 well to give here a few reasons in justification of 
 the position that there is a future Restoration of 
 the literal Israel to the land which by uncon- 
 ditional promise and covenant was given to them 
 as an everlasting possession. 1 
 
 1 Genesis xv. 7-21 ; xvii. 7, 8, 19, 21. 
 
 C
 
 1 8 Jg there a jet JFuture -Restoration? 
 
 I. The Restoration promised here is a complete 
 one: 
 
 " I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel 
 and Judah ; " 
 
 and the number who will return shall be "a 
 great company," 1 so that even the whole of the 
 promised land will not be large enough for them.* 
 The same appears in that remarkable prophecy 
 of Isaiah xi., which, on whatever system of inter- 
 pretation we adopt, is admittedly future in its 
 application, where " the outcasts of Israel " and 
 "the dispersed of Judah" are to be gathered to- 
 gether. The same appears again in Ezekiel 
 xxxvii., where there is a future announced for the 
 whole twelve tribes reunited in one kingdom. 
 Many more passages might be cited which speak 
 of a complete Restoration of the entire nation in 
 terms most unequivocal and minute ; which cer- 
 tainly could not be said to have received their 
 fulfilment in the comparatively speaking mere 
 handful who returned from Babylon. 
 
 II. After the Restoration predicted in this and 
 other prophecies, Israel is to enjoy at least national 
 independence, if not supremacy. 
 
 1 Jeremiah xxxi. . a Zech. x. 10 ; Isa. xlix. 19, 20,
 
 Jarad'a jforbitu&e. 19 
 
 11 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah 
 of Hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, 
 and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more 
 serve themselves of him" (Jeremiah xxx. 8). 
 
 Backsliding Israel, because he served not 
 Jehovah with joyfulness and with gladness of 
 heart for the abundance of all things, was to be 
 taught a lesson by comparison ; and was given over 
 by God to be in servitude for a time to the 
 Gentiles. 
 
 "Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies, which 
 Jehovah shall send against thee, in hunger, and in 
 thirst, and in want of all things ; and He shall put a 
 yoke of iron upon thy neck" (Deut. xxviii. 47, 48). 
 
 But this iron yoke of Gentile oppression was not to 
 last for ever. This is clear even from the solemn 
 words of the Lord Jesus, when, after announcing 
 the fact that Israel " shall fall by the edge of the 
 sword, and shall be led away captive into all 
 nations," 1 He suspends in the midst of the dark- 
 ness of threatened judgment the bright star of hope 
 which ultimately shall banish the darkness, and 
 cause judgment to be forgotten in the abundance 
 of mercy ; inasmuch as He announces a limit to the 
 time of Israel's servitude to Gentile oppression : 
 
 "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles 
 until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." 
 
 1 Luke xxi. 24.
 
 20 3 a tljere get Jfuturc fUaioraiimt? 
 
 And when they be fulfilled, the yoke will be 
 broken, and Israel will once more not only be free 
 and independent, but nationally supreme among 
 the nations. 1 
 
 But has this ever yet taken place ? Let those 
 who point to the restoration from Babylon as an 
 exhaustive fulfilment of these prophecies compare, 
 for instance, such a passage as Isaiah xiv. 1-3, 
 where we read that 
 
 "Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet 
 choose Israel, and set them in their own land : and the 
 strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall 
 cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall 
 take them, and bring them to their place : and the 
 house of Israel shall possess them in the land of 
 Jehovah for servants and handmaids : and they shall 
 take them captives whose captives they were ; and they 
 shall rule over their oppressors." 
 
 Let them compare this with Nehemiah ix. 36, 37, 
 which describes the actual condition of the people 
 after their restoration : 
 
 " Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land 
 that Thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit 
 thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in 
 it ; and it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom 
 Thou hast set over us because of our sins ; also they 
 have dominion over our bodies and over our cattle, at 
 their pleasure, and we are in great distress." 
 
 1 Isaiah Ix. 9-16.
 
 , 
 
 fan* of fromis*." 21 
 
 III. According to the express declaration of the 
 prophet Isaiah, there is to be a " second " Restor- 
 ation, which is to be universal in its character. 
 
 " And it shall to come to pass in that day, that the 
 Lord shall set His hand again 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 " 
 (Isaiah xi. n, 12). 
 
 Now, there has been no second Restoration as 
 yet ; neither could the return from Babylon be 
 said to be a gathering from the " four corners of 
 the earth " ; that captivity having been local in 
 its character, and of short duration. Never before 
 the dispersion inaugurated by Titus, could the 
 scattering of the people be said to have been 
 universal ; hence they could never before have 
 been gathered from the four corners of the earth. 
 
 IV. Israel has never yet in all its fulness pos- 
 sessed the land which God has promised them ; 
 and Palestine may still be said to be " the land of 
 promise." Its boundaries are given in Gen. xv. 18 ; 
 Ezek. xlvii. 13 ; and xlviii. I. Dr. Alex. Keith, 
 author of " Evidences of Prophecy," has given us
 
 22 3fs tfrm a get Juture iUstoraiion ? 
 
 the results of his personal investigations and 
 measurements in his book called " The Land of 
 Israel," according to which the extent of the 
 promised land is 300,000 square miles. 
 
 The infidel Voltaire is said to have scoffingly 
 remarked on Exod. iii. 8, where God says that He 
 has come down to deliver Israel from the hand of 
 the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that 
 land into a " good land and a large," that the God 
 of the Jews must have been a petty God, because 
 He gave them a land not larger in size than 
 Wales, and called it a " large land." But this is 
 only in keeping with the style of infidel scoffers in 
 general, who find it easy to ridicule things about 
 which they know very little. It is only ignorance 
 that could represent the land called in Exod. iii. 8, 
 a " large land " as being no larger in size than 
 Wales. Why, it is twice and a half as large as 
 Great Britain and Ireland. And yet Christians 
 who do not believe in a future possession by Israel 
 of the whole land which God has promised them, 
 really give occasion to the enemies of God to 
 blaspheme ; for if there be no future occupation 
 of the land by Israel, the solemn word of God, 
 on which His oath is staked, would fail of ful- 
 filment 1 
 
 1 Genesis xv. 8-18.
 
 (Boil's promise Cannot JFatl. 23 
 
 What though generations may pass, and instead 
 of the fathers may be the children : " heaven and 
 earth shall pass away," but God's oath and promise 
 cannot fail. 
 
 It is very remarkable that when we come to the 
 future re-division of the land in the last chapters of 
 Ezekiel, it is no longer merely from Dan to Beer- 
 sheba with which the prophet deals ; but faith and 
 inspiration combine to claim all the promised land 
 contained within the boundaries of the original 
 covenant in Gen. xv. This, by the way, is a sufficient 
 answer to those who ask whether there is room 
 enough in Palestine for the 12,000,000 Jews at 
 present in the world. Note also that according to 
 these same last chapters of Ezekiel, there is to 
 be a different location of the twelve tribes at the 
 re-division of the land. What can we make of this, 
 if there be no future Restoration of Israel to the 
 promised land? 
 
 V. Leaving out for the moment the brief ordeal 
 and baptism of suffering which awaits Israel im- 
 mediately on their return to their land, with which 
 we shall deal presently, the Restoration announced 
 in this and other prophecies is to be followed by a 
 National Conversion (Jer. xxx. 8-10). Israel nation- 
 ally is then to enter into the blessing of the New
 
 24 3fs tfrm a get future Hcatoratton ? 
 
 Covenant announced in this very prophecy j 1 which 
 the election of individuals from all nations now 
 enjoy, as it were, by anticipation. The same is 
 clearly announced in Ezek. xxxvi. 24-28 : 
 
 " For I will take you from among the heathen, and 
 gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into 
 your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon 
 you, and ye shall be clean ; from all your filthiness, and 
 from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also 
 will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ; 
 and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, 
 and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My 
 spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, 
 and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them. And ye 
 shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers ; and 
 ye shall be My people, and I will be your God." 
 
 And by the same prophet in the following 
 chapter xxxvii. 21-23 5 an d in many other pas- 
 sages of Scripture. Now, such a national conver- 
 sion has surely never yet taken place. The 
 restoration from Babylon was followed by the 
 most appalling and universal national apostasy, 
 which culminated in the rejection of the Son of 
 God, and the consequent dispersion of the people 
 into all the four corners of the earth. 
 
 VI. There is to be a gathering of Israel to the 
 land of their fathers, which is to be final. This is 
 1 Jeremiah xxxi. 31-34.
 
 2V JFinal (Battering. 25 
 
 announced in this very prophecy, where, at the end 
 of chapter xxxi., after describing with the greatest 
 minuteness and geographical exactness the rebuild- 
 ing of the Holy City, it closes with the declaration 
 " it shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any 
 more for ever." The same is again emphatically 
 proclaimed by the prophet Amos : 
 
 " I will bring again the captivity of My people of 
 Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit 
 them ; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the 
 wine thereof ; they shall also make gardens, and eat the 
 fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, 
 and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land 
 which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God " 
 (Amos ix. 14, 15). 
 
 Now, supposing that since these inspired an- 
 nouncements by Amos and Jeremiah there had 
 already taken place a hundred dispersions and a 
 hundred restorations, we would still be justified in 
 believing in yet another gathering, after which 
 there should be no more scattering.
 
 II. 
 
 of Israd's 
 
 second item in the Divine programme of 
 the future of Israel, as given in this 
 divinely dictated " book," is, to use the 
 
 language of inspiration, the " time of Jacob's 
 
 trouble." 
 
 " And these are the words that the Lord spake con- 
 cerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith 
 Jehovah : We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, 
 and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man 
 doth travail with child ? wherefore do I see every man 
 with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and 
 all faces are turned into paleness ? Alas ! for that day 
 is great, so that none is like it : it is even the time of 
 Jacob's trouble ; but he shall be saved out of it " 
 (Jeremiah xxx. 4-7). 
 
 " What ! " you say, " will not all the sufferings of 
 Israel through all these centuries suffice? Is there 
 a yet future baptism of fire, through which they 
 must pass ? " Yes, this is clear from this prophecy, 
 as well as from many others. Listen to this 
 declaration of the prophet Ezekiel :
 
 JFierg Ifurttaw. a 7 
 
 "And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying: 
 Son of man, the house of Israel is to Me become dross ; 
 all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the 
 midst of the furnace ; they are even the dross of silver. 
 Therefore thus saith the Lord God : Because ye are all 
 become dross, behold therefore, I will gather you into 
 the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver, and 
 brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the 
 furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it ; so will I 
 gather you in Mine anger and in My fury, and I will 
 leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, 
 and blow upon you in the fire of My wrath, and ye shall 
 be melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in 
 the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the 
 midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord have 
 poured out My fury upon you" (Ezek. xxii. 17-22). 
 
 Here, too, the terrible fiery furnace immediately 
 succeeds the gathering into the midst of Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 But may not this "time of Jacob's trouble" 
 refer to the awful calamity which befell the nation 
 at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, which 
 was repeated with perhaps still greater severity 
 about sixty-five years later in the time of Bar 
 Cochba and Hadrian ? No ! The ordeal announced 
 here through which Israel is to pass is terribly 
 sharp, but brief in its duration, as suggested by the 
 very figure employed which is that of a woman 
 in travail ; and it ends in their salvation : while the 
 sufferings at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus 
 only inaugurated a long series of dispersions,
 
 28 "grje tme of 8araeFs trouble." 
 
 massacres, spoliations, and oppressions, which has 
 already continued for more than eighteen centuries. 
 Of course, it is not denied that these long-enduring 
 sufferings were predicted in the Word of God, and 
 have their place and relation to Israel's apostasy 
 and future glory ; and, in one sense, " the time of 
 Jacob's trouble" may be only a summing up, a 
 culmination, of all that has preceded : but it is 
 clear that there is a time of purging by fiery 
 judgment awaiting Israel after the return to their 
 land, which will immediately precede their national 
 conversion and the revelation to them of the 
 Messiah, whom, as a nation, they have so long 
 rejected. 
 
 What have we in the last chapters of Zechariah ? 
 Israel in their land ; not necessarily the entire 
 nation, but the bulk of it, evidently restored in a 
 state of unbelief. Then comes this awful announce- 
 ment: 
 
 " Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, and thy spoil 
 shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather 
 all nations against Jerusalem to battle ; the city shall 
 be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ra- 
 vished ; and half of the city shall go forth into cap- 
 tivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off 
 from the city. And it shall come to pass, that in all the 
 land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut oft 
 and die ; but the third shall be left therein. And I will 
 bring the third part through the fire, and will refine
 
 Cimca ^entcft." 29 
 
 them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is 
 tried. They shall call on My name, and I will hear 
 them : I will say, It is My people ; and they shall say, 
 Jehovah is my God" (Zech. xiv. I, 2 ; xiii. 8, 9). 
 
 " This is the immediate prospect after restoration 
 to Palestine of the people who rebelled against the 
 Most High, and rejected His Son, and always 
 resisted the Holy Spirit a furnace seven times 
 heated, and anguish as acute as are the pangs of 
 a woman in travail. Alas ! poor Israel, who desire 
 the day of the Lord, to what end is it for you ? 
 Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and 
 not light, even very dark and no brightness in it ? l 
 But, blessed be God, His anger will not endure 
 for ever ; ' though weeping may endure for a 
 night, joy will come in the morning.' And even 
 when Israel sits in darkness a deeper darkness 
 than they have ever been in yet 'the Lord 
 shall be a light unto them;' 2 and, although their 
 tribulation and anguish shall be so great that there 
 has been none like it, in the midst of wrath God 
 will remember mercy ; and, according to His 
 promise, He will not utterly destroy the house of 
 Jacob. 3 
 
 " Suddenly, when the cloud will be thickest, and 
 1 Amos v. 1 8, 20. a Micah vii. 8. ' Amos ix. 8.
 
 30 " $fre t*me of Israel's trouble." 
 
 the anguish most acute ; when even the small 
 remnant that shall be left of Israel shall despair of 
 hope, and Israel's enemies be most certain in their 
 own minds of accomplishing their purpose of utterly 
 exterminating that people whom they will think 
 has been given over to them as a prey ; when the 
 proud spirit of the haughty Jew shall be broken, 
 and humility and penitence take the place of stub- 
 bornness and pride ; when the priests, the ministers 
 of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, 
 saying, ' Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not 
 Thine heritage to reproach ' ; and when the whole 
 people, brought to such extremities that they will 
 be willing to receive help from whatsoever quarter 
 it may come, cry ' Oh that Thou wouldest rend the 
 heavens, that Thou wouldest come down, that the 
 mountains might flow down at Thy presence ! Be 
 not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember 
 iniquity for ever : behold, see, we beseech Thee, 
 we are all Thy people I' 1 then, suddenly, with 
 the speed of lightning, and attended by all His 
 saints and hosts of angels, shall the same Jesus, 
 who ascended bodily and visibly on a cloud from 
 the Mount of Olivet, so and in like manner, be 
 revealed again ; but this time in a special and 
 peculiar manner, as Israel's King and Deliverer. 
 1 Isaiah Ixiv. I, 9.
 
 of Israel." 3' 
 
 'And His feet shall stand in that day upon the 
 Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the 
 east,' and from thence He shall ' go forth and fight- 
 against those nations (Israel's enemies) as in the 
 day of battle.' 1 'And the Lord shall utter His 
 voice before His army ' and He will go forth 
 
 4 with fire and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to 
 render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames 
 of fire. For by fire and by His sword will the Lord 
 plead with all flesh j and the slain of the Lord shall be 
 many' (Joel ii. 11 ; Isa. Ixvi. 15, 16). 
 
 "Just as that shepherd of Bethlehem himself 
 one of the most perfect and beautiful types of Him 
 who is his great Son, as well as Lord ' slew both 
 the lion and the bear,' and saved from their jaws 
 the lamb which was taken possession of by them 
 as their prey : so will the Shepherd of Israel 
 4 save' the remnant of His people from the hands 
 and jaws of those who are stronger than they ; 
 and slay them who devoured, broke in pieces, and 
 stamped with their feet, His chosen, with a fierce- 
 ness exceeding even that of the bear and the 
 lion." 2 
 
 1 Zechariah xiv. 3, 4. 
 
 1 4< Rays of Messiah's Glory," by David Baron.
 
 III. 
 
 THE third item with regard to Israel's future 
 as given in this chapter, is Israel's Con- 
 version and the establishment of the throne 
 of David. 
 
 " I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will 
 burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve 
 themselves of him ; but they shall serve Jehovah their 
 God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto 
 them." 
 
 It is unnecessary to prove that by " David their 
 King," is here meant their Messiah. Even the 
 Talmud says, " David their King, whom / will 
 raise up unto them" ; and not "whom I have raised 
 up unto them " showing that it is not king David, 
 who reigned in Jerusalem some four hundred years 
 before, who is meant, but the Messiah who is to 
 be "of David's seed." 1 In truth, He is tho true 
 David, the Beloved ; the King after God's own 
 heart, in whom the promises of God centre. 
 
 There are a number of passages where the name 
 
 David is applied to the King Messiah in the Old 
 
 Testament ; but two are especially remarkable. 
 
 In Hosea iii., after that wonderful prophecy 
 
 1 Jeremiah xxiii. 5, 6.
 
 44 gairiir irjetr |iht0." 33 
 
 delivered nearly eight hundred years before Christ, 
 and which answers exactly to the present state of 
 Israel, it is stated, " afterward " that is, when their 
 present condition of banishment from their land 
 and apostasy from God shall come to an end 
 
 " shall the children of Israel return, and seek Jehovah 
 their God, and David their king, and shall fear Jehovah 
 and His goodness in the latter days." 
 
 " They shall seek Jehovah their God, and David 
 their King." "They shall serve Jehovah their 
 God, and David their King " : so that there is 
 neither true seeking nor true serving of Jehovah 
 God, if we do not also seek and serve David 
 (Messiah) the King, notwithstanding all that poor 
 Israel now thinks to the contrary. 
 
 And note the more than human character and 
 dignity of this great David. He claims equal 
 allegiance with God ; for whatever is implied by 
 "they shall serve Jehovah their God," must be 
 meant also in the words "and they shall serve 
 David their King." But there is a glorious truth 
 wrapped up in these two passages, which must not 
 be overlooked. In foretelling their state during 
 the time when Israel shall neither serve God nor 
 yet fall into idolatry, the prophet says that "the 
 children of Israel shall abide many days" the 
 Hebrew idiomatic expression meaning a long> 
 
 E
 
 34 Israel's dottberaiott. 
 
 indefinite period "without a king and without a 
 prince." How wonderfully true has this proved ; 
 and with what wonderful accuracy has the inspired 
 announcement been fulfilled ! 
 
 Just about the time of Zedekiah, the last prince 
 who ever sat on the throne of David, the prophet 
 Ezekiel came with this startling announcement : 
 " Remove the mitre and take off the crown ; it 
 shall not be (or, this is no more it} : exalt the 
 low, abase the high (or, let anarchy and usurpa- 
 tion of the throne of David continue}. I will 
 overturn, overturn, overturn it ; this shall be no 
 more until He come whose right it is ; to Him it 
 shall be given." x And so it has proved. For all 
 those centuries before Christ, and for all these 
 nearly nineteen centuries since Christ a fact 
 which only inspiration could have foreseen in 
 spite of every effort and Jewish ambition, there 
 has been no re-establishment of the throne of 
 David. 
 
 It is true that in the second century B.C. a 
 kingdom existed for a short time in Judea ; but 
 the kings were not of the house of David, nor even 
 of the tribe of Judah, and are not recognised as 
 kings by God, who by oath appointed David and 
 his seed to be the only legitimate kings in Zion. 
 1 Lit. Hebrew, Ezek. xxi.
 
 "ffifje ffrrane of |H JFaiber iatrtfr." 35 
 
 " Until He come, whose right it is : to Him it shall 
 be given." 
 
 Who is this but Jesus of Nazareth? "the 
 King of the Jews," concerning whom it was 
 announced at His birth : " He shall be great, and 
 shall be called the Son of the Highest ; and the 
 Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His 
 father David ; and He shall reign over the house of 
 Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be 
 no end." According to the commonly-received 
 view, there is indeed no importance in the title 
 " Son of David " as belonging to Christ ; except, 
 perhaps, as proving that He descended from 
 David, and enabling us to trace His genealogy. 
 But it is evident that the announcement of the 
 angel attaches to it far greater importance than 
 this, inasmuch as it asserts for Him, as Son of 
 David, " the throne of His father David." " And 
 what throne is that? Not the throne of heaven, 
 nor yet the throne of God's spiritual kingdom ; for 
 neither of these was, or could have been, occupied 
 by David, or could be inherited by Christ as ' Son 
 of David.' The throne intended, then, must be 
 the throne of the kingdom of Israel, and that it is 
 so, the words of the angel testify ; for having said, 
 'The Lord God shall give to Him the throne of
 
 36 Israel's (Sonireraitm. 
 
 His father David/ he adds : ' And He shall reign 
 over the house of Jacob for ever.' " 
 
 The idea now generally entertained is that the 
 throne on which Christ now sits at the right hand 
 of the Majesty on high is that meant by the angel 
 in this announcement to Mary ; but this view is 
 not based on a comprehensive and mature study 
 of the Word of God. Take, for instance, Rev. 
 iii. 21 : 
 
 " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me 
 in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down 
 with My Father in His throne." 
 
 Here the Lord Himself tells us that the throne 
 over which He now sits is not His, but the 
 Father's, who invited Him to share it with Him as 
 a token of His perfect satisfaction with the finished 
 work of His beloved Son ; and that He only 
 occupies this place until He takes possession of 
 His own throne, on which He will grant the 
 privilege of sitting with Him to all those who have 
 been faithful to Him in this rebellious world. When 
 Christ appeared for the first time, had Israel but 
 known the day of His visitation, the kingdom 
 might have at that time been restored to them ; 
 but " His own received Him not." They rejected 
 Him, and sent a messenger after Him, saying: 
 " We will not have this man to reign over us."
 
 of dbfc. 37 
 
 But did Israel's unbelief and rejection of their 
 King frustrate the purposes of God ? Did it for 
 ever rob Christ of that to which He has a right as 
 the Son of David, and which is pre-eminently the 
 reward of His humiliation and pouring out His 
 soul unto death ? " Yet have I anointed My king 
 on the holy hill of Zion." Man's unbelief and 
 disobedience may defer, to his own hurt, the 
 accomplishment of the purposes of God ; but 
 man's unbelief and the very gates of hell cannot 
 frustrate tJiem. 
 
 " There is an old saying which Bengel was very 
 fond of: ' Deus habet horas et moms' God has 
 His own times and ways. There are pauses in 
 history ; but during those pauses, which are 
 occasioned by the unbelief, the ignorance, and the 
 disobedience of His own people, and are made 
 subservient to the wisdom of God, the great 
 Musician does not forget the melody, and at the 
 proper time it is continued." 1 
 
 The King whom Israel insulted and delivered 
 over to the cross, departed for a season with the 
 awful words : 
 
 " Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I 
 
 say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth till ye 
 
 shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the 
 
 Lord" (Matthew xxiii. 38, 39). 
 
 1 Dr. A. Saphir.
 
 38 Israel's Conbcrsion. 
 
 Or, as we have it in Hosea v. 1 5 : 
 
 " I will go and return unto My place, till they ac- 
 knowledge their offence, and seek My face ; in their 
 affliction they shall seek Me early." 
 
 Meanwhile, another underlying parallel purpose 
 of God, even the mystery of the Church, has been 
 revealed, which more than ever makes manifest the 
 manifold wisdom of God. But what about the 
 " Tabernacle of David " ? What about Christ's 
 relation to Israel? Did He renounce? Did He 
 say to Israel, " I have done with you ? Behold, 
 your house is left unto you desolate. For I say 
 unto you, ye shall not see Me henceforth and 
 for ever." Oh, no ! Behold here too the glorious 
 star of hope suspended right in the midst of the 
 gloom of impending judgment and desolation. 
 
 The King's departure, however long its duration, 
 is but for a limited time : " Until ye shall say, 
 Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the 
 Lord." Till they acknowledge their offence and 
 seek My face ; and then, corresponding with what 
 was said above, it is added : " In their affliction 
 in the time of Jacob's trouble (the same word in 
 the original being used in both places) they shall 
 seek Me early." And when once they seek Him, 
 that face, which " in a little wrath has been hid
 
 " tSRithont a ftm0 anit ^ritue." 39 
 
 from them for a moment," 1 will be lifted upon 
 them in full splendour. " I will return and build 
 again the tabernacle of David which is fallen 
 down, and I will build again the ruins thereof, 
 and I will set it up ; " 2 " and the Lord shall yet 
 reign in Mount Zion, and before His ancients 
 gloriously." 3 Till then, and for these many days, 
 " the children of Israel abide without a king and 
 without a prince." 4 Note that they are not only 
 without a king, but also without a prince. 
 
 Now, compare this with Ezekiel xxxvii., and see 
 a most beautiful truth about the Lord Jesus in 
 relation to Israel's future. 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord God : Behold, I will take the 
 children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they 
 be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring 
 them into their own land. And I will make them one 
 nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel ; and 
 one king shall be king to them all : and they shall be 
 no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into 
 two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile 
 themselves any more with their idols, nor with their 
 detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions ; 
 but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, 
 wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them ; so 
 shall they be My people, and I will be their God. And 
 David My servant shall be king over them ; and they 
 all shall have one shepherd ; they shall also walk in My 
 judgments, and observe My statutes and do them. 
 
 1 Isa. liv. 8. 2 Amos ix. n, 12. 3 Isa. xxiv. 23. 4 Hosea iii. i
 
 4 Israel's Conbersbtt. 
 
 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given 
 unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers have 
 dwelt : and they shall dwell therein, even they, and 
 their children, and their children's children for ever : 
 and My servant David shall be their Prince for ever " 
 (Ezekiel xxxvii. 21-25). 
 
 "And David My servant shall be king over 
 them ; . . . and My servant David shall be their 
 prince for ever" Here is both Israel's King and 
 Prince in the same person. 
 
 But, you say, do not the two terms substantially 
 mean the same thing ? No ; the word in the 
 original translated "prince" in this passage, does 
 not mean prince in an hereditary sense of the 
 word. " Nassi," the term used, signifies one exalted, 
 or elected by tJie free will of the people. What a 
 glimpse we get here of the change that will come 
 over Israel at the appearing of Jesus Christ ! At 
 His first coming, Israel, as a nation, deliberately 
 rejected Him. " Not this man, but Barabbas ! " 
 they said : and as to Christ, " Crucify Him ! 
 Crucify Him ! " " We will not have this man to 
 reign over us," was their cry. But the national 
 verdict with regard to Jesus of Nazareth will be 
 revoked ; the grand mistake of the Jewish people 
 shall yet be acknowledged and repented of. In- 
 stead of " Crucify Him ! " they will cry " Hosanna ! 
 Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the
 
 gairifc ^.ttohttefc Iting. 4 1 
 
 Lord." They will recognise His claims, not only 
 as "the King," the one whose right it is to reign 
 over them ; but they will deliberately declare Him 
 their " Nassi," their elected or exalted one. 
 
 This simply means that Israel will ratify God's 
 choice. David himself, whose name Messiah bears, 
 is a beautiful type of Christ in this as in many 
 other respects. In i Samuel xvi. we read of his 
 being chosen and anointed as king over Israel by 
 the command of God. But what followed ? Did 
 he at once commence his reign ? For fifteen 
 years he was a fugitive ; his claims were unrecog- 
 nised ; his home was the Cave of Adullam, or the 
 wilderness of Judah. There was another king, who 
 hated David, and disputed his sovereignty. 
 
 Meanwhile, instead of a throne on Mount Zion 
 and the hosts of Israel, his court was outside the 
 camp, and his following consisted of his brethren 
 and all his father's house : " And every one 
 that was in distress, and every one that was in 
 debt, and every one that was discontented" a 
 strange, typical lot, not numbering altogether more 
 than about "four hundred men." 1 But at last, 
 after those years of rejection, the people's heart 
 turned toward him, "and the men of Judah came 
 and " as if he had never been anointed king 
 1 I Samuel xxii. I, 2.
 
 42 Sarad'a dottijerstott. 
 
 before " there " (in Hebron) " they anointed 
 David king over the house of Judah." 1 
 
 The rest of the tribes of Israel still opposed 
 David, and ranged themselves under the banner of 
 Ishbosheth ; until about seven years later the 
 heart of all the people turned toward him, and " all 
 the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, 
 and king David made a league with them in 
 Hebron before Jehovah, and they anointed David 
 king over Israel." 8 
 
 Thus it is with Christ. From His incarnation 
 He was designated King of the Jews. Jehovah 
 Himself has anointed Him as His King on the 
 holy hill of Zion ; and it was even then announced 
 that "the Lord God shall give unto Him the 
 throne of His father David, and He shall reign 
 over the house of Jacob for ever ; and of His 
 kingdom there shall be no end." But my people 
 knew not the day of their visitation ; and for all 
 these centuries have resolutely, as a nation, refused 
 to acknowledge His claims. Meanwhile, also, the 
 god of this world, " the prince of the power of the 
 air," is permitted in the infinite wisdom of God to 
 usurp Christ's sovereignty over the nations ; and 
 the followers of our blessed, glorious Master are 
 a mere handful of individuals from all nations who 
 1 2 Samuel ii. 4. a 2 Samuel v. 3.
 
 te Camp." 43 
 
 spiritually are like that motley crowd in the cave 
 of Adullam, "in distress, in debts, and discon- 
 tented, or bitter of soul " because of a sense of sin 
 and sorrow. These are painfully conscious that 
 Jesus Christ is not yet accepted King over the 
 earth ; for instead of a crown which will come by 
 and by, we have to take up His cross and follow 
 Him, " without the camp bearing His reproach." 1 
 But as sure as there was a cross planted for 
 Him on that Golgotha, outside the walls of 
 Jerusalem, so surely, if the word and oath of our 
 God stand for anything, is there yet to be a glorious 
 throne for our Redeemer and Master on Mount 
 Zion. " The stone which the builders have rejected 
 has become the headstone of the corner " ; and, 
 however marvellous and improbable in our eyes, 
 Israel shall yet "serve Jehovah their God, and 
 David their King," and deliberately elect Him, 
 whom during centuries of unbelief they have 
 despised and rejected, as their " Nassi " their 
 freely chosen ruler and prince. 
 
 1 Hebrews xiii. 13.
 
 IV. 
 present (te&ition of Israel. 
 
 ISRAEL'S present state, and the miracle of their 
 preservation. This is the next item in the 
 divinely dictated message through the prophet 
 Jeremiah. 
 
 After proclaiming the fact of their restoration, 
 and describing the glad day when the remnant of 
 Israel, after passing through the purging ordeal, 
 shall " call on the name of Jehovah, to serve Him 
 with one consent," x we read in the tenth verse : 
 
 " Therefore fear thou not, O My servant Jacob, saith 
 Jehovah ; neither be dismayed, O Israel : for lo, I will 
 save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their 
 captivity ; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, 
 and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid." 
 
 It is beautiful to note how the people are 
 encouraged to draw consolation and hope in their 
 present desolation and sufferings, from the bright- 
 ness and glory which is yet to break upon them. 
 " Therefore " in view of the glorious prospect just 
 dilated on " fear thou not, O My servant Jacob." 
 1 Zephaniah iii. 9.
 
 Consolation ana Hope. 45 
 
 " I had fainted unless I had believed to see the 
 goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." 
 Gloomy indeed is the prospect of the present state 
 of the Jewish people in its dispersion and unbelief, 
 if viewed apart from the bright morn of promise so 
 clearly foretold in the Word of God ; but, in the 
 light of the bright future, even the present darkness 
 and gloom become less intense. How full of 
 consolation is the assurance that "Jacob shall 
 return, and shall be in rest and be quiet, and none 
 shall make him afraid" \ 
 
 The present state of the peculiar people has been 
 foretold with minute exactness in predictions like 
 the following : 
 
 " For lo, I will command, and I will sift (lit. toss or 
 shake about} the house of Israel among all nations, like 
 as corn is tossed about in a sieve " (Amos ix. 9). 
 
 Or, in the words of Jeremiah : 
 
 " I will even give them up to be tossed to and fro 
 among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil ; to be a 
 reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all 
 places whither I shall drive them" (xxiv. 9, R.V.). 
 
 O ye who doubt the inspiration of the Book of 
 books, compare these prophecies of thousands of 
 years ago with what is going on before your very 
 eyes ! How can we account for the repeated dis- 
 persions, and the continued, unceasing wanderings
 
 46 flljs fjrmnt Hanbitim of Israel. 
 
 and strange restlessness of the Jew, apart from 
 these ancient inspired utterances ? That Palestine 
 should be vanquished, and that Israel should be 
 cast out of their own land, or even be dispersed 
 among the nations, was within the range of human 
 possibility, and mayhap within the power of a 
 shrewd observer to forecast ; but, that for centuries 
 and centuries, a people, vanquished and scattered 
 out of their own country, instead of becoming 
 absorbed among the nations as has been the case 
 with other peoples ; and instead of taking root and 
 finding rest in the new soil to which they have been 
 transplanted, should retain a separate existence, 
 everywhere dwelling alone, and not reckoned 
 among the nations, yet in all places kept in a state 
 of unrest, and continually agitated or tossed about : 
 who, but He whose hand has kept up this standing 
 miracle as His witness among the nations could 
 have foreseen or foretold than 
 
 Before even their first settlement in Palestine, 
 Moses predicted that, if Israel sinned, and was 
 disobedient, "Jehovah shall scatter thee among 
 all people, from the one end of the earth even unto 
 the other ; . . . and among all these nations shalt 
 thou find no ease, neitJur shall the sole of thy foot 
 find rest? And as the mouth of the Lord has 
 spoken, so it has been all these centuries. What is
 
 t&tatttrering f Bin." 47 
 
 the monkish legend of the " Wandering Jew " but 
 a parable of the whole Jewish nation? The 
 original version of the legend is as follows : 
 
 Joseph Cartophilus, a Jew, was door-keeper at 
 the Praetorium of Pontius Pilate when Jesus was 
 led away to be crucified. As Jesus halted upon 
 the threshold of the Praetorium, Cartophilus struck 
 Him on the loins, and said, " Move faster. Why 
 do you stop here?" Jesus turned round to him, 
 and said : " I go, but you will wait till My return." 
 Cartophilus, who was then thirty years old, and 
 who has always returned to that age when he has 
 completed a hundred years, has ever since been 
 awaiting the coming of the Lord and the end of 
 the world. This wretched man, who must exist 
 in spite of his longing for death, and desperate 
 efforts at self-destruction, is further said to be 
 possessed with a spirit of restlessness which makes 
 him ceaselessly wander over the face of the earth. 
 
 Who cannot see the application of this legend to 
 the whole tribe of the " wandering foot and weary 
 breast " ? More than eighteen hundred years ago, 
 when Israel insulted their Messiah, and hastened 
 Him to the cross, Jesus, with a pitiful but dis- 
 appointed look, turned to them, and said : " The 
 Son of Man goeth as it is written of Him ; but this 
 generation shall not pass away until all these
 
 48 h IJrmttt C0ttbtfiatt 0f Israel. 
 
 things be fulfilled ; for I say unto you, ye shall 
 not see Me henceforth till ye shall say: Blessed 
 be He that cometh in the name of the Lord." 
 Forthwith Israel, taken possession of by a spirit 
 of restlessness, had to take staff in hand, and gird 
 his loins, and commence his wanderings amongst 
 the nations. 1 Still they are on their weary march, 
 which has already extended over a period of nearly 
 two millenniums. 
 
 How often has not my people built a nest for 
 itself, and said : " Here let us rest ! " But, as 
 often has God put His hand under the nest and 
 said : " Arise and depart, for this is not your rest- 
 ing-place ! " 
 
 " That which cometh into your mind shall not be at 
 all, that ye say : We will be as the nations, as the 
 families of the countries" (Ezekiel xx. 32). 
 
 If God had cast away His people which He 
 foreknew, He would have let them alone to go to 
 national destruction and amalgamation, which 
 they courted ; but no, even in these repeated dis- 
 persions and long - continued wanderings and 
 chastisements, we see God's faithfulness to His 
 covenants, and love for His people. Israel gives 
 us the picture, on a national scale, of God's dealings 
 1 Hosea ix. 17.
 
 & (Kail from (Soft. 49 
 
 with a backslider. And surely it is in love and 
 mercy that rest and peace are taken from those 
 that wander from God. If the prodigal in the 
 far country had found what his heart desired, he 
 might never have turned his thoughts to his father 
 and his home. 
 
 " Thou turnest man to the very dust, and sayest, 
 Turn, O children of men !" (Psalm xc. 3, Heb.). 
 
 Each stroke, each separate edict of banishment 
 from one country or the other, which has, as it 
 were, been God's word of command to the nation 
 to resume its long march, each calamity and wrong 
 which has befallen the dispersed people, has been a 
 call from God : " Turn ye ! turn ye ! from your 
 evil ways ; for why will ye die, O house of Israel ? " 
 
 " If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and 
 they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity : 
 then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also 
 My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with 
 Abraham will I remember ; and I will remember the 
 land" (Leviticus xxvi. 41, 42). 
 
 But the day is not far distant when God will 
 heal their backslidings j 1 and then at the cross, 
 where they commenced, Israel's wanderings and 
 dispersions will cease. "Jacob shall return, and be 
 in rest, and be quiet ; and none shall make him 
 afraid." Meanwhile, though scattered and peeled, 
 
 1 Hosea xiv. 4. 
 
 G
 
 SQ hc $ resent Contrition of Israel. 
 
 tossed about among the nations, and finding no 
 rest for the sole of their feet, Israel's preservation 
 is guaranteed. 
 
 " For I am \vith thee, saith Jehovah, to save thee : 
 for I will make a full end of all the nations whither 
 I have scattered thee, but I will not make a full end of 
 thee ; but I will correct thee with judgment, and will in 
 no wise leave thee unpunished" (Jer. xxx. II, R.V.). 
 
 This agrees with what the same prophet says in 
 another place : 
 
 "Thus hath Jehovah said, The whole land shall be 
 desolate, yet will I not make a full end " (Jer. iv. 27). 
 
 And again, in giving His mandate to the nations 
 to " go up upon her walls and destroy," He is care- 
 ful to put in the reservation clause, " but make not 
 a full end." 1 We also read in Amos ix. 8 : 
 
 "Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the 
 sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of 
 the earth ; saving that I will not utterly destroy the 
 house of Jacob, saith Jehovah." 
 
 Let the miracle of the continued existence of 
 the Jewish people bear witness to Jehovah's 
 faithfulness to His promises, as well as to His 
 threatenings. By the word of God was this 
 nation first brought into existence ; and by the 
 word of God it continues to exist, and nothing can 
 
 move it. 
 
 1 Jeremiah v. 10.
 
 JUtitiitre of (Unttiles. 51 
 
 It surely is not necessary to remind the world 
 that there are no thanks due to the Gentile 
 nations especially not to professed Christendom 
 that there is such a being as a Jew now left on the 
 face of the earth. What force or influence is there, 
 which might be supposed to tend .to the utter 
 extermination of the people, which has not been 
 brought to bear upon them with terrible severity 
 for many centuries ? On whatever else the nations 
 of the earth were divided, they were at one on this 
 point ; and, to use the language of Psalm Ixxxiii. 4, 
 which will be the war cry of the final great con- 
 federacy of the nations who will assemble against 
 Jerusalem, they have said : 
 
 " Come, let us cut them off from being a nation ; 
 That the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance/' 
 
 Popes, councils, bishops, monks, kings, and 
 peoples, seemed equally enraged against them, and 
 equally determined on their extermination. To 
 effect this, every expedient has been tried, but all 
 have equally failed. Let me remind the reader of 
 a few typical actions on the part of the great 
 representatives of the Gentile world, to illustrate 
 their attitude to Israel. 
 
 Pharaoh, the head of the Gentile world of 
 his time, conceived the idea of a policy of
 
 52 Ije present Condition of Israel. 
 
 extermination against the chosen people, and he 
 tried the expedient of water. " Every son that is 
 born ye shall cast into the river," was the stern 
 edict. But what was the result ? Israel ultimately 
 passed the water ordeal in safety ; not only the 
 River Nile, but also the Red Sea. But note the 
 retributive justice of God : the very means which 
 he had planned for the extermination of God's 
 people were chosen for his own destruction. Pha- 
 raoh and his hosts were drowned ! 
 
 Once again Israel was in bondage, though for a 
 short period ; and the great head of the Gentile 
 world at that time, Nebuchadnezzar with whom 
 pre-eminently began the " times of the Gentiles " 
 tried how it would do to destroy these Jews by 
 fire. Three Hebrew youths, because they would 
 not serve his gods, nor worship the golden image 
 which he had set up, were cast into the " burning 
 fiery furnace," heated one seven times more than it 
 was wont ; however, the fire had no power over 
 the bodies of these Jewish men, nor was a hair of 
 their head singed, but the flames slew those men 
 who threw them into the furnace. 
 
 Darius, another great monarch of the Gentile 
 world, tried the expedient of throwing one Jew, 
 the representative of his people, to wild beasts. 
 But God sent His angel and shut the lions'
 
 JHotortt fperaemtions. 53 
 
 mouths, so that they did not hurt him ; although 
 these same lions had the mastery of Daniel's 
 enemies, and brake all their bones in pieces, or 
 ever they came at the bottom of the den. 
 
 Were these occurrences mere chance ? Oh no ! 
 they were in fulfilment of that wonderful promise, 
 primarily given to Israel as a nation : 
 
 "When thou passest through the waters, I will be 
 with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not over- 
 flow thee ; when thou walkest through the fire, thou 
 shalt not be burned ; neither shall the flame kindle 
 upon thee" (Isaiah xliii. 2). 
 
 Coming to more modern times, it may well be 
 said that no weapon that was forged against Israel 
 prospered, and every tongue that rose up against 
 them in judgment was contemned. Whenever 
 there arose a Haman, who planned their destruc- 
 tion, there was an Esther or a Mordecai fore- 
 ordained. Behold, He that keepeth Israel did 
 neither slumber nor sleep. Hence it comes to 
 pass, that after nearly two thousand years of dis- 
 persion, untold and unheard-of sufferings, confisca- 
 tions, violence, tortures, massacres, banishments, 
 and systematic oppressions, the Jewish nation has 
 proved indestructible ; and not only exists, but 
 exists in larger numbers to-day than in the most 
 palmy days of David and Solomon, and shows no
 
 54 &!JE present Condition of Israel. 
 
 symptoms of an exhaustion of the early vigour of 
 their national life. 
 
 Note the eloquent appeal of a Jew : " Braving 
 all kinds of torments the pangs of death, and 
 still more terrible pangs of life we have withstood 
 the impetuous storm of time, sweeping indis- 
 criminately in its course nations, religions, and 
 countries. What has become of those celebrated 
 empires, whose very name still excites our ad- 
 miration by the idea of splendid greatness attached 
 to them, and whose power embraced the whole 
 surface of the known globe ? They are only 
 remembered as monuments of the vanity of human 
 greatness. Rome and Greece are no more ; their 
 descendants, mixed with other nations, have lost 
 even the traces of their origin ; while a population 
 of a few millions of men, so often subjugated, 
 stands the test of revolving ages, and the fiery 
 ordeal of eighteen centuries of persecution. We 
 still preserve laws that were given to us in the first 
 days of the world, in the infancy of nature. The 
 last followers of a religion which had embraced 
 the universe have disappeared these eighteen cen- 
 turies, and our temples are still standing. We 
 alone have been spared by the indiscriminating 
 hand of time, like a column left standing amid the 
 wreck of worlds and the ruins of nature. The
 
 JV Ration for (Ebcr. 55 
 
 history of our people connects present times with 
 the first ages of the world, by the testimony it 
 bears to the existence of those early periods. It 
 begins at the cradle of mankind ; it is likely to 
 be preserved to the very day of universal de- 
 struction." l 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a 
 light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the 
 stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when 
 the waves thereof roar ; the Lord of Hosts is His 
 name : if those ordinances depart from before Me, 
 saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease 
 from being a nation before Me for ever. Thus saith 
 Jehovah, If heaven above can be measured, and the 
 foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will 
 also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have 
 done, saith Jehovah" (Jeremiah xxxi. 35-37). 
 
 1 Michael Beers, Appeal to the Justice of Kings.
 
 V. 
 31 lark future: 
 
 r, a Contrast ffJEthrcett thx pitman attb tire $ thine 
 of tlje Jfetoislr fjrnblem. 
 
 OR thus saith Jehovah, Thy bruise is incurable, 
 and thy wound is grievous. There is none to 
 plead thy cause that thou mayest be bound up : 
 thou hast no healing medicines. All thy lovers 
 have forgotten thee ; they seek thee not ; for I have 
 wounded thee with a wound of an enemy, with the 
 chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine 
 iniquity ; because thy sins were increased. Why criest 
 thou for thine affliction ? Thy sorrow is incurable for 
 the multitude of thine iniquity : because thy sins were 
 increased, I have done these things unto thee " 
 (Jeremiah xxx. 12-15). 
 
 But, lest the Gentiles should mix themselves in 
 God's controversy with His people, and say, as 
 they have done : " God hath cast them off ; come, 
 let us destroy Israel from being a nation," there is 
 put in, as a parenthesis, the warning : 
 
 "Therefore, all they that devour thee shall be de- 
 voured ; and all thine adversaries, every one of them 
 shall go into captivity ; and they that spoil thee shall be 
 a spoil, and all they that prey upon thee will I give for
 
 s anir Hopeless." 57 
 
 a prey. For I will restore health unto thee, and I will 
 heal thee of thy wounds, saith Jehovah ; because they 
 called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no 
 man seeketh after" (Jeremiah xxx. 16, 17). - 
 
 What a picture of Israel ! Some people are 
 fond of drawing gloomy outlines of the present 
 state of the Jews ; and this may suit their tastes, 
 for surely they could not present a darker one than 
 what is here portrayed by God's own hand. The 
 Jew is represented here as in a fielpless and hopeless 
 condition. He is helpless. The figure is that of a 
 sick man lying, bruised and wounded, and having 
 no remedy within reach. I say, "a sick man 
 lying," because the words translated, " thou hast no 
 healing medicines," may literally be rendered : 
 " Thou hast no medicines to raise thee up." 
 
 Behold this bruised and wounded man, O church 
 of Christ ; and may God give you the heart of the 
 Good Samaritan and the compassion of Jesus ! 
 Do you realize the present helplessness of poor 
 Israel ? We sometimes hear the Jews spoken of 
 by Christians of a certain stamp, after this manner : 
 " After all, they are not so badly off as the heathen. 
 They are a moral, God-fearing people ; they have 
 the Old Testament Scriptures in their possession. 
 They are intelligent, clever, influential, and cer- 
 tainly not so low and degraded as the heathen." 
 
 H
 
 5S Jl gnrJk fjidturi. 
 
 The answer of God to all this is : " Thou hast no 
 healing medicines." The Jew has the Scriptures ; 
 but what if they testify not to him of Jesus Christ, 
 in whom alone, and not in the letter of the 
 Scriptures, is eternal life ? 
 
 And, think of it, whoever you are, who have 
 some such thoughts as the above in your mind ! 
 Is not the Jew a sinner? Has not God said: 
 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die?" Has not 
 Jesus Christ said : " If ye believe not that I am 
 He, ye shall die in your sins ? " Must the Son of 
 God come down from heaven to die on the cross in 
 order to save you, and can the Jew be saved by 
 morality? Must you have a Saviour to comfort 
 you in your sorrow and in the hour of death, and 
 can the Jew do without Him ? 
 
 Out of Christ, it is not a question what a man 
 has ; but what he has not. If a sick man were 
 lying in a room fitted up with shelves full of 
 bottles of all sorts of drugs, what avail would it be 
 to him if the only remedy which could alone save 
 him were wanting ? " He that hath the Son, hath 
 life ; and he that hath not the Son " (be he never 
 so moral, wise, and influential), " hath not life." 
 
 You say : " Granted Israel's case is helpless ; 
 but have you not just said that it is also hopeless f" 
 Does not God say : " Thy bruise is incurable ; thy
 
 44 3fs 2Utst&tnjj too fjarfr for i&e forfc ? " 59 
 
 wound is grievous " : and again, in the fifteenth 
 verse : " Thy sorroiv is incurable for the multitude 
 of thine iniquity ! " 
 
 Yes, altogether hopeless, as well as helpless, from 
 the human standpoint ; but search and see : you 
 will not find either of these words in the vocabulary 
 of God. Helpless ! Hopeless ! " Is the arm of 
 Jehovah shortened at all that it cannot save?" 
 " Behold," says God, through Jeremiah, in relation 
 to this very subject, " I am Jehovah, the God of 
 all flesh ; is there anything too hard for Me ? " 1 
 " Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show 
 thee great and mighty (or " hidden," " fortified," 
 or "inaccessible") things, which thou knowest 
 not." 2 "Thy bruise is incurable, thy wound is 
 grievous," says man. " I will restore health unto 
 thee, and will heal thee of thy wounds," says 
 Jehovah. 
 
 Is not the Church of Christ guilty in this matter 
 of limiting the " Holy One of Israel " ? Has it not 
 been guilty of scepticism and unbelief in the 
 declaration of the inspired Apostle to the Gentiles, 
 that " the gospel is the power of God unto salva- 
 tion . . to the Jew first"? 3 Who speaks of 
 hopelessness on God's part in the matter of a 
 
 1 Jer. xxxii. 27. * Jer. xxxiii. 3. 8 Romans i. 16.
 
 60 JL arfe picture. 
 
 sinner's salvation ? Search and see ! Has Christ 
 ever sent away any case because it was beyond 
 His power to cure? There were many hopeless 
 incurables who came to Jesus when He was on 
 earth. There were many such at the Pool of 
 Bethesda. I suppose that poor woman who had 
 an issue of blood for twelve years, and who spent 
 all her living upon physicians, neither could be 
 healed of any, was as hopeless a case as you might 
 wish ; but she only touched the hem of His 
 garment, and immediately she was healed. 
 
 Look again at Israel. In this chapter which we 
 are considering, he is likened to a hopelessly sick 
 man. When you come to Ezekiel xxxvii., the sick 
 man has died ; and, like Lazarus fn the' grave, by 
 this time he not only stinketh, but his flesh has 
 rotted away and all there is left of him is a heap 
 of dry bones strewn over the open valley. 
 
 " Son of man, can these dry bones live ? ... So 
 I prophesied as He commanded me ; and the breath 
 came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon 
 their feet, an exceeding great army " 
 
 Look at another figure of unbelieving Israel, 
 in Romans xi. They are compared to broken- 
 off branches of the brittle olive-tree. Can these 
 broken-off fragments be made once again to live 
 and bear fruit ? Yes,
 
 6 1 
 
 " God is able to graft them in again. For if thou 
 (Gentile) wert cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by 
 nature, and wert grafted, contrary to nature, into a good 
 olive tree, how much more shall these (Israelites) which 
 be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive 
 tree !" (Romans xi. 23, 24). 
 
 " For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal 
 thee of thy wounds, saith Jehovah. Because they called 
 thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man 
 seeketh after" (Jeremiah xxx. 17). 
 
 Those not acquainted with the original lose 
 very much of the force of this last verse. Some 
 Christians are very fond of the term " Zion " 
 as a name for the Church, and they speak of 
 " our Zion." They may be surprised to learn 
 that " Zion " in the Hebrew means a " desert," 
 " barrenness," or, as it is translated in Isaiah 
 (xxv. 5) "a dry place." Now, note the force of 
 this taunting reproach. " They," (the Gentiles), 
 " called thee Zion " a barren desert, good for 
 nothing, and which therefore, " no man seeketh 
 after." Now, just because it is so unpromising 
 a plot of ground, God is going to take it in hand, 
 and once again " the desert shall rej'oice and 
 blossom as the rose." Blessed be God, it is just like 
 Him ! He always takes the most unpromising 
 materials to accomplish most glorious ends. 
 
 Look at Israel in the past. Why did God
 
 62 Jl g ark 
 
 choose them ? Was it because they were more 
 in number than other peoples ? Was it be- 
 cause of their goodness or righteousness ? No : 
 they were the fewest of all people ; and as Moses 
 solemnly testifies to them : 
 
 " Understand therefore, that Jehovah thy God giveth 
 thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteous- 
 ness ; for thou art a stiff-necked people" (Deut. ix. 6). 
 
 But Israel's very stiff-neckedness and barrenness 
 gave occasion for the greater display of God's 
 power and the infinitude of His grace. All the 
 greater glory and credit to the great Husbandman, 
 that the unpromising vine which He brought out 
 of Egypt flourished so wonderfully, that 
 
 " She sent out her boughs unto the sea, 
 And her branches unto the river. 
 The hills were covered with the shadow of it ; 
 And the boughs thereof were like cedars of God." 
 (Psalm Ixxx. 10, n.) 
 
 Can any good thing come out of Zion ? Yes : 
 an Abraham, a Moses, a David, an Isaiah, a Paul 
 a CHRIST ! 
 
 Alas ! in a moment of God's righteous anger, 
 this garden of the Lord has become withered, as if 
 smitten by some sirocco blast. " The boar out of 
 the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the 
 field doth devour it" They called thee " an
 
 Eton's H0pe. 63 
 
 outcast," saying, "This is Zion, whom no man 
 seeketh after ; " but the miracle of the past will 
 yet be repeated and intensified. Zion, in God's 
 hand, is yet to be turned into the very " perfection 
 of beauty ; " l and the barren fig-tree shall again 
 "bud and blossom, and fill the face of the earth 
 with fruit." 
 
 " But," some will say, " Israel's restoration and 
 conversion, according to your own showing, is a 
 work which can only be accomplished by the 
 power of God. What then ought to be the 
 attitude of the Church in relation to this matter ? 
 What can we do?" True, Israel's restoration 
 depends not on anything man can do, " He that 
 scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a 
 shepherd doth his flock." We may well leave this 
 in the hands of Him in whose power alone are 
 the times and seasons, and whose counsels and 
 purposes shall stand for ever, and are inde- 
 pendent of all human strength and human means. 
 Although God specially proclaims the fact of 
 Israel's restoration to the Gentile nations, and in 
 the isles afar off, 2 showing that it is most im- 
 portant for them to know it, yet He nowhere 
 commands them to bring it about. 
 
 1 Psalm 1. 2. * Jeremiah xxxi. 10.
 
 64 JV ark picture. 
 
 Again, the work of conversion whether of 
 individuals or of nations, whether of Jews or of 
 Gentiles is always a work which only the power 
 of God can accomplish ; but that does not mean 
 that the Church of Christ is to fold her hands as 
 she has done for many centuries, and do next to 
 nothing. What your attitude to Israel should be, 
 is plainly shown in the Word of God. 
 
 (l) It should be an attitude of prayer. Do you 
 aspire to be one of Jehovah's remembrancers ? 
 Then hark to His command : 
 
 " Ye that make mention of the Lord [or, ye that are 
 Jehovah's remembrancers} keep not silence, and give 
 Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jeru- 
 salem a praise in the earth" (Isaiah Ixii. 6, 7). 
 
 Let there be the heart's desire and believing 
 prayer unto God for Israel that they may be 
 saved. 1 
 
 And lest you should not know how to pray 
 about this matter, God Himself has condescended 
 to supply you with a form of prayer for Israel : 
 
 " For thus saith Jehovah, Sing with gladness for 
 Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations ; 
 publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Jehovah, save Thy 
 people, the remnant of Israel" (Jeremiah xxxi. 7). 
 
 Has compassion, has gratitude for the wonderful 
 blessings which you have received through them as 
 1 Romans x. I,
 
 65 
 
 the channel, yea, has God's clear word of command, 
 ever made your heart to go out after this manner 
 in the prayer of faith for poor sick Israel ? 
 
 (2) // sJtould be an attitude of service. When 
 Ezekiel was made by the Spirit of God to pass 
 through and round about the " dry bones " in the 
 valley of vision, the Lord put the question to him, 
 " Son of man, can these dry bones live ? " And the 
 prophet's answer was : " O Lord God, Thou 
 knowest ! " as much as to say : " It is certainly 
 beyond the power of man to do anything in such 
 a case. The giving of life, whether physical or 
 spiritual, is Thy prerogative and in Thy power ; 
 Thou alone must do it O Lord God, Thou 
 knowest ! " 
 
 But there followed a command from the great 
 God which must have seemed strange to the 
 prophet. " Yes," said Jehovah, " life is My prero- 
 gative, and I am going to bestow it : ' Thus saith 
 the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open 
 your graves, and cause you to come up out of your 
 graves, . . and will put My spirit in you, and 
 ye shall live.' But, son of man, there is sometliing 
 which you must do, so that the life which I alone 
 can give may come to these dead bones. 'Prophesy 
 unto these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones y 
 hear tJie word of Jeliovah! "
 
 66 31 gark picture 
 
 Now, this is precisely what the Church has 
 neglected to do ; and yet it wonders that there 
 has been no noise, no mighty shaking, or many 
 signs of life among the dry bones. 
 
 O ye Christians who are fond of speaking of 
 "Jewish unbelief," and have a pious aversion to 
 poor Israel, because he calls not on the name of 
 Christ, " How shall they call on Him in whom 
 they have not believed ? And how shall they 
 believe on Him of whom they have not heard ? 
 And how shall they hear without a preacher"? 
 Know ye not that faith cometh by hearing, and 
 hearing by the Word of God ? And know ye not 
 that for centuries and centuries the gospel of their 
 own Messiah has been withheld from them ; and 
 the name of the Blessed Saviour was made to be 
 blasphemed among them by the terrible cruelties 
 which have been perpetrated on them, and the 
 awful caricature of Christ which has been presented 
 to them by those who have professed His name ; 
 and that to this day, in spite of a few recent, 
 inadequate, and not always wisely-directed efforts, 
 the great mass of the Jewish nation is left in 
 perfect ignorance of the holy name of Christ, and 
 of the very existence of such a book as the New 
 Testament ? 
 
 You believe that Gentiles can only be born
 
 of Jtehrisfr ^Jtisstons. 67 
 
 again by the Spirit of God : yet you do not expect 
 those to whom the gospel has not been preached 
 to believe and call on the name of Christ ! Those 
 among Israel who have heard the glad tidings of 
 salvation through their crucified and risen Messiah 
 have not all disbelieved it ; and it is a matter of 
 fact which, however, those not informed on this 
 subject may be surprised to hear that, in spite of 
 difficulties and terrible disappointments, there is no 
 modern mission so hopeful, or which has produced 
 such glorious results in conversion, or the converts 
 from which have, by their usefulness and service to 
 the Church universal, so abundantly rewarded all 
 the efforts put forth, as the Jewish field. 
 
 But how, some may ask, does this advocacy of 
 the evangelization of the Jews tally with what has 
 been shown in an earlier chapter that Israel, as a 
 nation, will not be converted until after their 
 restoration and the re-appearance of their Messiah 
 upon whom they shall look and mourn ? 
 
 Why, in the same manner as the evangelization 
 of all the Gentile nations is consistent with the 
 plain teaching of the Word of God : that not one 
 of them, as a nation, will be converted before 
 Christ's return, and the conversion of Israel. 
 
 Our commission is not to convert any one people 
 or nation, but to evangelize all to " go into all the
 
 68 31 ark 
 
 world, and preach the gospel to every creature " ; 
 and the results of this work of universal evangeli- 
 zation have been already foretold. As far as 
 Israel is concerned, " a remnant according to the 
 election of grace" will be called out to call Jesus 
 " blessed " now ; while all Israel shall be saved by 
 and by, when the Redeemer comes out of Zion to 
 turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 1 And, as re- 
 gards the Gentiles, God has visited them in this dis- 
 pensation by the preaching of the gospel, " to take 
 out of them a people for His name " ; while " all 'the 
 Gentiles " are left over to the time when the same 
 Jesus who was taken up into heaven shall so, and 
 in like manner, come back from heaven. 
 
 Oh, fellow Christian, time is short! Already 
 there are abundant signs that long scattered and 
 long neglected Israel is hastening back to his land 
 to pass through ere long that fiery ordeal and 
 furnace awaiting him in Zion. Perhaps the most 
 significant fact in this connection, is the now almost 
 universally known, and rapidly spreading, Zionist 
 Movement, which seems destined, after centuries of 
 dispersion, to bind all the scattered fragments of the 
 people into one national force, with the ostensible 
 aim of regaining possession of the land of their 
 1 Romans xi. 5, 26.
 
 fattb " attfc " (Efre o0k." 69 
 
 fathers. 1 " The Land " also is now being rapidly 
 opened up, after all these many centuries, during 
 which it was kept locked, and in its desolate condi- 
 tion as a stereotyped Commentary on " The Book." 
 The distant sounds of our Master's chariots are 
 already heard, and Jesus Christ is coming quickly 
 to render to every man according to his work. 
 
 " If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto 
 death, and those that are ready to be slain ; if thou 
 sayest, Behold we knew it not ; doth not He that pon- 
 dereth the heart consider it ? and He that keepeth thy 
 soul, doth not He know it ? and shall not He render to 
 every man according to his works ?" (Prov. xxiv. 1 1, 12.) 
 
 Who will be up and doing? Who will rise to 
 the Lord's help against the mighty ? Who by 
 their prayers and substance will help to carry the 
 gospel message to poor scattered Israel ? " This 
 gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the 
 world for a witness unto all nations ; and then 
 shall the end come." 
 
 " Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and 
 knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are His judg- 
 ments, and His ways past finding out ! For who hath 
 known the mind of the Lord ? or who hath been His 
 counsellor ? Or who hath first given to Him, and it 
 shall be recompensed unto him again ? For of Him, 
 and through Him, and to Him, are all things : to whom 
 be glory for ever. Amen." (Romans xi. 33-36.) 
 
 i For a full account and examination of Zionism, Anti- 
 Semitism, &c., see my "ANCIENT SCRIPTURES AND THE 
 MODERN JEW" (Hodder & Stoughton, 1901). 
 
 LONDON : MORGAN AND SCOTT Ltd., 12, Paternoster Buildings, E.G.
 
 A 000109056 2
 
 Unive: 
 
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