After the briefest of introductions, Amos 1, 2 consists mainly of eight judgements foretold against Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah and Israel. In each the solemn repetition sounds in the ear: “for three transgressions and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof.” This doom, against the people of God and against their ancient enemies round about, was spoken “two years before the earthquake” in king Uzziah’s reign, and presumably was to be fulfilled through that cataclysm. This was the proximate or primary fulfilment of the prophecy. At the beginning of his work as prophet, Amos was presenting his credentials — a prophecy soon to be fulfilled. When events turned out just as he said, the people would be ready to take notice of his ensuing prophecies. All this in accordance with Deuteronomy 18: 22: “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”

THE LAST DAYS

This should not be deemed to be the limit of application of Amos’ initial prophecy. There are good Biblical reasons for looking for a further fulfilment in the Last Days:

1. 1: 2: “The Lord shall roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem” is a passage which is repeated verbatim in Joel 3:16, in a context the last-day fulfilment of which none would question. So evidently Joel saw this Amos prophecy as having reference to the time of the end. The similarity of 1 :6, 9 to Joel 3 :4, 6 confirms this conclusion.
2. The language of the prophecy requires an upheaval, which is a final retribution for the evil wrought by the nations listed on four (not seven) separate occasions, which have involved all of them. This is not traceable in ancient history, but presents no difficulty whatever in the twentieth century.
3. Uzziah’s earthquake provides a valuable clue. In Zechariah 14: 4,5 that earthquake is presented as a unique prototype of the earthquake which will happen at the coming of the Lord. Isaiah describes the same earthquake beforehand also (2: 10-22). But this description by Isaiah is appropriated in two places in the New Testament as prophetic of the coming of Christ. Isaiah 2:19 = 2 Thessalonians 1: 9 “… punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints …” Also, Isaiah 2:19 = Revelation 6:12, 16: “and there was a great earthquake and the kings of the earth, and the great men … hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”

THREE WARS — THEN A FOURTH?

If the conclusion based on these Scriptures be accepted, a further conclusion of exceptional interest follows. The nations enumerated in Amos 1, 2 are Judah and Israel together with all the Arab powers round about. On three separate occasions in recent years all these peoples have been involved in transgression together — in 1948, when the state of Israel was established; in 1956, the time of the Suez crisis; and in 1967, the amazing six-days war.

The prophet says explicitly there is to come a fourth involvement, which will lead on inexorably to divine retribution upon them all. This prophecy reads like specific reinforcement of the inferences possible from such Scriptures as Psalm 83, Obadiah, Ezekiel 35,36, Joel 3, that there must be yet another clash between Jews and Arabs, in which, or after which, all will pay the penalty for their cruelty, selfishness and ungodly materialism.

It may be that Amos 1: 1 justifies a further conclusion. Why was the prophecy made public “two years before the earthquake”? Is the vindication of the prophet’s dependability the only reason for mention of this unusual time element? Or is it there to indicate also that after the third (or maybe the fourth) transgression there is to elapse a period of only two years before the great divine intervention that must inevitably ensue?

It may be appropriate to add a further detail. Amos mentions both Judah (2: 4) and Israel (2: 6). Both were in existence in his day. In a sense both are now in existence today. Up to 1967 there was a small very circumscribed Jewish state, very little larger than the old southern kingdom of Judah. Since the six-days war the territory of the state of Israel approximates much more nearly to the dimensions of the combined kingdoms of Judah and Israel. The stage is set for big new developments.

[4] That is, 3 + 1 = 4; not 3 + 4 = 7. Compare Micah 5:5, where 7 + 1 = 8 (Revelation 5:6), not 7 + 8 = 15

To the readers of these words there are few Bible prophecies more familiar than Ezekiel’s vision of the resurrection of Israel. The bones of the nation, which have remained dry, despised, and without decent sepulture over the centuries have been gathered back to the land of their fathers; flesh and sinews have grown on them as the new state of Israel has taken on increasing vigour and efficiency; and today they stand upon their feet an exceeding great army, bursting with confidence after winning the three swiftest wars in all history.

This interpretation, which is so familiar as to have become almost dogma, ignores several significant details and fails to take account of the correct order of development in the vision. The mistake is easily made (it was made repeatedly by the present writer for over thirty years!) because Ezekiel’s record of the vision and prophecy is not given with the tidy logical chronological sequence, which the western mind normally looks for.

THE SEQUENCE IN THE VISION

A careful re-examination of Ezekiel 37 reveals the following as the order in which the prophet saw things happen:

1. The graves where Israel is buried are opened (v. 12).
2. The skeletons are brought into the valley of vision (in the land of Israel), and are left scattered there vv. 2, 12).
3. They say: “our bones are dried, our hope is lost” (v. 11).
4. To this is added confession of their own unworthiness: “We are cut off for our parts” (v. 11).
5. Ezekiel prophesies upon them.
6. There is a noise like thunder, and an earthquake.
7. The bones come together and re-form into skeletons.
8. Flesh and sinews grow on them. They are now corpses.
9. The call to the four winds (spirits) brings the breath (spirit) of life into them.
10. They stand on their feet an exceeding great power.

If this sequence has been assembled correctly then the parable is a prophecy of Israel being brought, in a spiritually dead condition, from their Gentile dispersion back to the land of their fathers. There they become disintegrated and helpless. It is a process, which takes place in the Land. This part of the prophecy has not yet happened. It would seem to correspond to the prophecies in Zechariah 14: 1, 2; Ezekiel 35: 5 and 36: 13-15; Joel 2, 3; Psalm 83; and especially Ezekiel 20: 34-37.

Another prophecy which comes in appropriately here is the familiar Ezekiel 21: 26, 27: “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be on more until he come whose right it is (both mitre and crown: v. 26); and I will give it him.” There must be yet another overturning to be added to that by Nebuchadnezzar and by the Romans in A.D. 70.

HOPELESSNESS

The evil plight to which Israel is reduced causes them to abandon all hope of help or rescue: “our hope is lost.” Through all their chequered history this has never yet happened. Amid all the dire calamities that have come on them, at each Passover they have always said: “Next year in Jerusalem.” But this and other prophecies speak of a time, now achieved in part (by the war of June 1967), when they are in Jerusalem but not yet in a state of utter destitution and despair, with no one but God to turn to for aid.

Because of the calamitous hopelessness of their evil situation, for the first time since they crucified Jesus there will also be a willingness to recognize their own unworthiness and the justice of God’s discipline: “we are cut off for our parts.” Literally this rather mysterious phrase is: “We are cut off for us (or, to us).” Most probably the meaning is: “we are cut off because of ourselves.”

REPENTANCE

It is a noteworthy principle of Bible teaching that only when a man honestly acknowledges his own unworthiness and sin before God can he be forgiven. Concerning Israel this truth is enunciated over and over again: “When thou art in tribulation, and all these things come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice: (for the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them”; Deuteronomy 4:30, 31 (compare also Psalm 81: 13, 14; Jeremiah 3: 14-18 and 4:1, 2; Deuteronomy 30:I-3; Leviticus 26: 41; Zechariah 6: 15; there are many others—see chapter 2 hereof).

Next comes a great thundering (RVm). It is the voice of God (John 12:28, 29) addressed to His repentant people (through the Elijah prophet?). There is also an earthquake. Like that which took place at the crucifixion of His Son, it is the manifestation of the anger of the Almighty at the despoiling of His Land and People (Psalm 18: 7). The result is that the bones move together to become skeletons once again. Flesh and tissue grow on them, so that now they are corpses.

RESURRECTION

When Ezekiel prophesies to the four spirits of the heavens, the Spirit of God comes into this corpse-like Israel so that the spiritually dead come to life and stand up on their feet “an exceeding great company” (the Hebrew here is very emphatic). These four winds or spirits are the manifestation of divine power in the fourfold cherubim chariot, with its fourfold symbol of Israel, which Ezekiel saw: “whither the spirit (wind) was to go, they went … the spirit of life was in the wheels” (1: 20; compare also Zechariah 6: 1-8).

Interpreted in this way, the vision harmonizes very readily with the various other prophecies of Israel’s experiences in the Last Days. But at first sight the next vision of the two sticks, joined into one, appears to have little connection with this. It has to be borne in mind that the political split between Israel and Judah had become final and complete about a hundred and fifty years before the time of Ezekiel, in the days when Shalmanezer V destroyed Sarnaria and took the northern people captive. Since that time Israel (as distinct from Judah) ceased to be identifiable.

It would seem, then, that with reference to the Last Days one must look for a meaning of the joining of the two sticks into one other than that of the re-uniting of the northern and southern kingdoms. Three possibilities present themselves:

1. The uniting of Jewry into one community—the Dispersion actively and wholeheartedly joining with the Yishuv, those who have returned. Hosea 1:11 supports this suggestion.
2. The union of the saints in Christ with that section of the Jews who turn to God in faith in the time of their calamity, thus themselves becoming saints in the higher sense of the term (compare John 10:16).
3. The uniting of Israel to Christ (note the introduction of the name Joseph, the great prototype).
4. The extension of the State of Israel to include all the territory of the ancient kingdom (see end of chapter 4).

The second and third of these are very close in idea, and for this reason one of these is probably to be preferred. But there seems to be little in the context, which is decisive.

THE KINGDOM

The prophecy proceeds to a heart-warming climax. Messiah’s kingdom is now in being. Israel cleansed of sin, dwell happily in their land, ruled over by “David my servant” (the phrase is from the Messianic Psalm 89:20). The land is now theirs forever. In it they “walk in God’s judgements, and observe his statutes, and do them” (v. 24). God’s “covenant of peace” (v. 26 and 34: 25) is now ratified with them for all time. The “evil beasts” and “the beast of the earth” (34: 25, 28; Revelation 13: 11) cease out of the land. God’s tabernacle is now in the midst of His people, a fact that is known (though not yet finally acknowledged and accepted) by all the nations of the world (vv. 27, 28).

All the students of Bible prophecy as having reference to the Last Days recognize the concluding section of this long prophecy. Yet it presents many problems, and accordingly has received many diverse interpretations.

The general shape of the prophecy is this:

Beginning (v. 2) with four kings of Persia (Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius Hystaspes, and Xerxes), it goes on to mention briefly (vv. 3, 4) the Grecian empire of Alexander, and then settles down to give great detail about the ensuing rivalries between the Seleucid kings of Syria (the king of the north) and the Ptolemys who ruled in Egypt (the king of the south). The varied fortunes and interplay of policy of these two powerful neighbours of Israel are traced through a long section, the meaning of which is given in clear detail in the commentaries (and also by Dr. Thomas in “Exposition of Daniel,” pp. 48-55 [1947 edition]).

Then, all at once, the prophecy unmistakably moves to the Last Days. There is a repeated mention of “the time of the end” (vv. 35, 40); and since the prophecy clearly runs on without break into chapter I2 (note 12: 1: “And at that time shall Michael stand up …”), the clear allusion in 12:2 to the resurrection makes imperative the application of the end of chapter 11 to the Last Days. Thus, the characteristic which is discernible in the other prophecies of Daniel (ch. 2, 7, 8, 9) is even more evident here—they all consist of a continuous historic prophecy of some detail, followed by a discontinuity which leaps a great span of years, and the rest relates to the Last Days.

CRUCIAL PROBLEM

Who is the king of the north? The two interpretations most commonly advanced are: (a) Turkey; (b) Russia.

The first of these may have seemed not unreasonable in the time of World War I, but since then Turkey’s role has dwindled away in importance as seen against the backcloth of the momentous events which have transpired since 1917. That Turkey should be given such prominence in the prophetic panorama whilst other happenings of much greater importance in the developing purpose of God should be passed over without mention, is not easy to understand. Briefly, then, this interpretation is not big enough to accord with the vital importance of the prophecy.

Nor is the identification with Russia free from difficulty. It has already been indicated that there is greater probability of Ezekiel 38 finding its fulfilment after, and not before, the coming of the Lord. Also, if the prophecy is about Russia there are two details very difficult to harmonize with the current situation: the defeat (vv.42, 43) of Egypt, which ever since Suez, 1956, has been firmly subordinate to Russia in its economic and foreign policy; and the “escape” of “Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon”— is it possible to imagine a Russia which can sweep through Israel and yet not be able to dominate the feeble state of Jordan also? In any case, is it not obvious that any power, which invades Israel, will, by that very fact, become the dear political ally of all the Arab states, including both Jordan and Egypt?

A further difficulty in the way of both the identifications mentioned is the interpretation of the corresponding role of “king of the south.” Especially is this the case if Russia is the “king of the north,” for the prophecy plainly implies that Egypt is the headquarters of his adversary. Thus to equate “the king of the south” with either Britain or America becomes near-absurdity. Since 1956 they have been almost ceaselessly at loggerheads with Egypt.^[10]

ANOTHER POSSIBILITY

A careful re-examination of Daniel 11:40 brings to light the possibility of a different interpretation of this section of the prophecy which imparts to it an almost startling relevance to modern developments, an interpretation which is now submitted with all diffidence and consciousness of fallibility.

There can be no question whatever that in the earlier part of this prophecy “the king of the south” is the current Pharaoh of Egypt, the ruling Ptolemy, whilst “the king of the north” is the contemporary king of Syria, Antiochus II or Antiochus III (the Great) or—from verse 21—Antiochus IV (Epiphanes). In the

later section, then, the most reasonable interpretation would be to make “the king of the south” Egypt

and “the king of the north” Syria, continuing the earlier meanings unchanged.

“And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind…” What is the picture presented here? Is it that of the two kings pushing at each other, or of both of them pushing at Israel, the buffer state between them? From the language used, either idea would seem to be possible. But if the identification just proposed for the two powers be adopted, then that conclusion becomes decisive in requiring that each be regarded as attacking Israel.^[11] Thus the “him” is identified. Israel’

PROPHECY UP TO DATE?

If now the pronouns in the succeeding verses are similarly referred to Israel, the relevance of this prophecy to the brilliant Israeli blitzkrieg of June 1967, is positively startling: “he (Israel) shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over (this Hebrew word is “hebrew”).” This describes an overwhelmingly successful campaign. “He shall enter also into the glorious land (the rest of the land of Israel not occupied as yet), and many shall be overthrown; but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.” The Israeli advance against the state of Jordan stopped at the river Jordan (though it need not have done), and the territory formerly occupied by these ancient neighbours has gone untouched.

“He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over … all the precious things of Egypt.” Does the poverty-stricken land of Egypt have anything more precious than the Suez Canal of which that lightning campaign by Israel brought about a long-lasting closure?

“And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas (i.e. the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean) in the glorious holy mountain (that is, in Jerusalem).” This can be nothing else but the capture of the ancient portion of Jerusalem. “Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” Evidently the initial sensational success is to be swallowed up in a crushing defeat of the brittle state of Israel. Everyone knows that whilst the Israelis can mount a more efficient swift-moving attack than any other small nation in the world, they simply do not have the military or economic resources to sustain full-scale war for even a couple of months. So when “tidings out of the east (Jordan) and out of the north (Syria) trouble him,” a last desperate attempt to crush all surrounding enemies will be made, and will fail.

Then will begin for Israel “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a Gentile.” And when the frightful experience of the Jews in the times of Titus and Hitler are considered, this must mean horror past present imagining. The Arab enemy, ever unsympathetic to the softer virtues of mercy and compassion, and smouldering with bitter resentment over three ignominious defeats within twenty years, will give full expression to long pent-up hatred and the sudden savage delight of at last having his superior foe at his mercy. He will sweep into the efficient trim little country, which for a generation has been a standing exposure of Arab sloth and backwardness, not to take it over as a going concern, but to smash, ruin and destroy. This will be done with insatiable ruthlessness and with all the delight of teenage hooligans joyously and destructively flouting the forces of law and order. The Arab locusts will let the desert in. Those of Israel who survive will moan in helpless hopelessness. Now, at last, indomitable Jewish optimism and self-reliance is utterly quenched: “our bones are dried, our hope is lost.”

DELIVERANCE

It is at such a time, when all Jewish self-confidence is gone and when the faith that depends on the God of Israel is being re-born that “Michael shall stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people.”

This divine deliverer with the name: “Who is like God,” is commonly assumed to be Jesus because the name is so apt. Is this adequate reason for such identification? The angels also are like God in their glory and immortality. And why should this approach be adopted regarding Michael and not Gabriel (Daniel 8:16 and 9:21), for his name is the same as El-Gibbor, one of the distinctive titles of Messiah (Mighty God; Isaiah 9: 6)? Also what commentator can be found (Christadelphian or otherwise) who is prepared to interpret the earlier mention of Michael in Daniel 10: 13, 21 as meaning the Lord Jesus Christ? There has been a lack of consistency regarding the exposition of some of these Scriptures. It would seem more reasonable to read the reference to Michael as a reminder that the angel of God’s presence who was with Israel in the wilderness (Exodus 23: 20) and who blessed their conquest of Canaanites (Joshua 5: 13-15) will be with them once again in their greatest hour of need.

It is appropriate to link with this angelic aid brought by Michael a further detail of the prophecy which has been badly mauled by interpreters over the years: “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” All kinds of unworthy guesses have been made as to the Last Day fulfilment of this prophecy. Fast travel—two generations back it was locomotives and automobiles, now it is jet planes and lunar rockets. And the increase of knowledge has been (undeservedly) credited to the scientists. The variations on these unwholesome themes have been many. Interpreting Scripture by Scripture takes the student of these things in a different direction.

Amos 9 is marvellously detailed prophecy of the rejection of Israel. Very briefly:

One basket of summer fruit (v. 1) in the temple court, when there should have been thousands (Deuteronomy 26: 1-11) tells of a nation wholly unacceptable to their God. It means that there is only one Man whose service is approved. Therefore (v. 2) “the end is come upon my people of Israel.” The Hallelujahs of the temple are reduced to howlings (hellilu). The entire Place (Sanctuary) is littered with dead bodies (all this in A.D. 70). The Land trembles, and all the people mourn (v. 8). The sun goes down at noon (v. 9; Mark 15: 33), there is darkness over all the Land, whilst the Passover feast (v. 10) is turned into mourning for The Only Begotten Son (v. 10; Luke 23: 48). From this time on there is a famine among the people of Israel of hearing the Word of the Lord (v. 11). Instead they wander from sea to sea, and from the north to the east (v. 12), and do not find it. They run to and fro seeking the Word of the Lord, yet their young men and maidens faint for thirst (v. 13).

Joel supplies the complement to this last detail with his prophecy (2: 28) of the Last Day outpouring of the Spirit on sons and daughters, young men and handmaids. And Daniel 12 has the complement of their fruitless running to and fro in a picture of many in Israel running to and fro now to experience a vast increase in Knowledge of the Word (and the Logos), which has eluded them for two milleniums. It is another prophetic anticipation of the repentance of Israel in their great time of trouble. When it is realized that “running to and fro” is used to describe Israel gathering heavenly food in the wilderness (Numbers 11: 8 — same word in Hebrew), the seemliness of this interpretation will be more apparent.

“And at that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book.” There may be a distinction here from “the children of thy people” who are saved by Michael. This is made more likely by the phrase: “everyone that shall be found written in the book” — in the Lamb’s book of life, the burgess roll of the New Jerusalem (Isaiah 4: 3). In that case, this Scripture is comparable with the promise in Isaiah (26: 20) of protection for the saints (Gentile or Jew) in that epoch of desperate trouble.

JESUS AND DANIEL

It is noteworthy that Jesus makes no less than four allusions to this block of three verses: Daniel 12: 1-3:

Thus, even if the language itself does not patently require reference to the Last Days, it is not to be denigrated as the symbolic idealism of a crazy mixed-up apocalyptic visionary, for Jesus took it seriously and found an important place for it in his own teaching. The witness of the verses just quoted provides clear demonstration that Daniel 11:4-12:3 refers to the coming of Christ’s kingdom and the events immediately preceding the Lord’s return. If the interpretation suggested here is incorrect, one can only assume that other dramatic events will be set in train very soon to provide a more relevant fulfilment. But those who would learn from Daniel regarding these things must come prepared to be taught.

[10] There is, of course, always the possibility of a dramatic change in the pattern of Middle East politics, which would turn Egypt into an enemy of Russia and a friend of Britain. But the indications of other prophecies and current events hardly support this.

[11] The phrase “with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships” could apply to both invaders.

All diligent Bible readers, and especially those who give much attention to prophecy, are impressed with the frequency and importance of the allusions to the heavenly bodies. Traditionally the sun has been taken to stand for human government and dominion, the moon for ecclesiastical authority, and (somewhat vaguely, it must be admitted) the stars for lesser political lights. It is not to our credit as a community of Bible students that for a century this approach (culled in the first instance from orthodox commentators!) has been uncritically accepted.

It is agreed that some sort of case might be made for the sun as a symbol of human political government, although even this result can only be achieved by ignoring a number of inconvenient examples (e.g. Micah 3: 6, Luke 23: 45, Isaiah 30: 26, Revelation 21: 23 etc.). But for the idea that the moon represents the ecclesiastical powers of the Gentile world, no Bible evidence worthy of consideration has yet been advanced. Until it is, the notion should be viewed with mistrust.

CONNECTION WITH ISRAEL

Over against the dearth of evidence in favour of these ideas can be set a group of obviously symbolic passages^[12] where a figure of the people of Israel is clearly intended. Sometimes the symbolism runs on to include the spiritual Israel also. This is only to be expected.

For example, in Joseph’s dream the sun, moon and eleven stars (or constellations? — the signs of the zodiac) offering worship to Joseph’s star were immediately perceived to be symbolic of the family of Israel. Children in the Sunday School do not need to have this meaning explained to them.

Appropriately, the seed of Abraham are compared to the stars of heaven (Genesis 15: 5 and 22: 17) not only in number, but also in glory (Daniel 12: 3). By contrast, those who forsake the Hope of Israel and follow false ideas are called “wandering stars” (Jude 13). When God “causes the sun to go down at noon” (Amos 8: 9) it is because He is bringing judgement on Israel: “I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head.” When, “the sun goeth down over the prophets” (Micah 3: 6), they lose their power of spiritual direction of Israel, not their political authority. If, as seems likely, the Shulamite in the Song of Songs is a type of spiritual Israel, then it is understandable that she should be described as “fair as the moon, clear as the sun,” even when she flees in confusion (Song 6: 10).

JEREMIAH AND THE OLIVET PROPHECY

It is especially in the Olivet prophecy and in the book of Revelation where an accurate understanding of this symbolism is important. What are the “signs in the sun, moon and stars … the sea and the waves roaring,” about which Jesus spoke (Luke 21: 25, 26)? It is a matter of some surprise that the allusion here to Jeremiah 31: 35, 36 has not been either recognized or taken proper account of: “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” (Jeremiah 31: 35, 36). So far as is known, this is the only other place in Scripture where mention of sun, moon and stars is combined with allusion to the roaring of the waves of the sea; and the pointed connection here with Israel will be immediately evident to all readers. By contrast, any attempt to read the more usually received meanings in this passage looks particularly unconvincing.

It surely follows, then, that in the Olivet prophecy Jesus was saying to his disciples: Keep your eye on Israel! When there are sensational developments in Israel as a nation, learn that the time is near.

It may well be that the other familiar phrase there should be read: “and in the land (of Israel) distress of peoples.” The form of the Greek phrase allows of this, but it cannot be insisted on.

EVIDENCE THE OTHER WAY

The nearest approach to Bible support for the more usual view concerning sun, moon and stars comes from a group of three passages (Isaiah 13: 10 and 34: 4; Ezekiel 32: 7), which appear to use these symbols where Israel is not in reference at all. Yet a careful re-examination of these passages suggests the possibility of harmonizing them with the others already considered.

For instance, some details in Isaiah 13 suggest that verses 6-12 (or 6-16, perhaps) are really a prophecy about Babylon’s treatment of Israel, hence the judgement pronounced in turn on Babylon in the rest of the chapter: “the day of the Lord cometh … to lay the Land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.” This structure of the prophecy is not unique. Isaiah 17, the burden of Damascus, has only two verses about Syria, and all the rest is about Israel. Also, Isaiah 18 apostrophizes Egypt in the first two verses, but the rest of that prophecy is about Israel. Similarly in Isaiah 13, the inclusion of a judgement against Israel adds point to the denunciation of destruction upon Babylon, God’s instrument that vaunts itself against the Almighty.

Again, Isaiah 34 is a sombre picture of divine wrath against “all nations” round about Israel, with special reference to the Arab enemy Edom (v. 6). All this is “the controversy of Zion” (v. 8). Appropriately, then, verse 4 gives the reason for this heavenly vengeance—the ruthless destruction of the Chosen Race: “And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll (in Hebrews 1 similar language is used with reference to the passing of the Mosaic order; see John Carter’s “Hebrews”), and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine (another symbol of Israel).”

Ezekiel 32: 7, 8 concerning Egypt is the only remaining problem, and no very great one: “And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God” (Ezekiel 32: 7, 8).

The emphasis here is not so much on the symbolism of sun, moon and stars as on darkness. The plague of darkness with which God afflicted Egypt in the time of Moses is to have its counterpart in the experience of the Egyptian enemies of God’s people in the Last Days. Symbolically, and probably in a very literal sense also, Egypt is to be made to feel the hand of God in the days

to come; compare the allusion to the plague of the slaying of the firstborn, in Zachariah 14: 18, and to the smiting of Egypt’s waters, in Isaiah 19: 5-10.

It is believed that there are no other passages of Scripture, which even remotely appear to offer support to the use of this symbol regarding human governments and ecclesiastical powers. On the other hand, there are several that take on a fresh and much more satisfying meaning when read as symbolic of Israel.

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Joel 2: 10 very plainly refer to the desolation of Israel; “The earth (the Land) shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.” The same is true of the other familiar verses in Joel 2: 31 and 3: 15: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come”; and, “The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.” Peter used the former of these two passages at Pentecost (Acts 2: 20) with evident primary reference to God’s overthrow of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. And the latter is closely associated with the “multitudes in the valley of decision’’ who desolate Israel (sun and moon darkened) and who themselves come to destruction when “the Lord is the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.”

The same ideas can be traced in the Sixth Seal which, whatever its past historic applications, certainly has reference to a day yet future when “the wrath of the Lamb is come”: “The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind” (Revelation 6:12).

The language of the Fourth Trumpet is very similar (Revelation 8:12). The third part of the sun, moon and stars are smitten and darkened. Is this the third and worst of the overturnings of Israel foretold in Ezekiel 21:27 before the coming of “him whose right it is”? Many other Old Testament allusions throughout these Trumpets support this conclusion.

Similarly a very luminous exposition of Revelation 12 with reference to the Last Days becomes possible when the woman “clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, is taken as a figure of Israel who is seen first in heaven (i.e. in covenant relationship with God) but later on the earth, in the wilderness, in fact; persecuted, and yet ultimately saved from her enemies. From this point of view many of the details are very impressive.

There remains the apparent paradox involved in Isaiah’s superb picture of the kingdom: “The sun shall no more be thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.” The meaning here is now seen to be quite simply and appropriately this: Israel is to continue as God’s glorious nation throughout this age of blessing, yet always and in every respect this glory will be subject to, and indeed dependent on, the greater glory of God.

[12] Not all allusions to sun, moon and stars are symbolic.

The prophecy of Zephaniah is very evidently connected closely with the events of the prophet’s own time — the reign of Josiah. Two possibilities present themselves. Either the prophet is foretelling events soon to happen, and the prophecy is so framed as to have reference also to events of the Last Days (much in Jeremiah and the early part of Isaiah is like this); or, recent events are being used (as in the later chapters in Isaiah) to provide prophetic pictures of bigger events in the time of the end. It is difficult to say with any confidence which of these modes of interpretation is correct, but the pointed allusions to Josiah’s Passover in 1: 7, 8, 12 suggest the second.

A FUTURE FULFILMENT

Apart from the language of the prophecy itself, there seem to be two clear reasons for a Last-Day application of it. First, there are the quotations from the prophecy of Joel: “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near … a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm” (1: 14-16). This is Joel 2: 1, 2. Some of the phrases are quoted word for word. If Joel may be applied with confidence to the Last Days, then surely Zephaniah also.

The concluding section of the prophecy (3: 14 20) reads very convincingly as a picture of events still future. But there is also this: in John’s account of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the familiar quotation from Zechariah 9:9 is prefaced with two phrases from Zephaniah: “Fear not, daughter of Zion” (3: 16, 14)—the words are not found in Zechariah. And the context in Zephaniah 3 is: “the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee … The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will Jesus thee” (vv. 15,17). The triumphal entry of Jesus was, of course, a kind of dress-rehearsal of the kingdom. The Lord was asserting his right to come to Jerusalem one day as its eternal king.

The shape of Zephaniah’s picture of judgement and blessing in the Last Days is worth noting. Chapters 1, 3 are, in the main, pronouncements of wrath against “Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Chapter 2: 4-13 is against neighbouring enemies: the Philistines, Moab, Ethiopia, Assyria. The prophecy ends with the lovely picture of the kingdom, already referred to.

HEEDLESS ISRAEL

The prophet describes Israel as given over to idolatry and the pursuit of material prosperity. They have no mind for anything else. Making due allowance for the fact that Zephaniah necessarily has to use the language of his own day, the description is appropriate to the Jews now in the Land: “them that are turned back from the Lord, and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for him … that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.” Today the Jews in Israel are, for the most part, godless in outlook. There is little acknowledgement of the blessing of God in the building of their vigorous new state, and little thankfulness to Him for the victories they have won. Instead, there is a rather cocksure dependence on their own powers and a glorifying of their own admittedly remarkable achievements. “She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God” (3: 2). Princes, judges, prophets, priests are all castigated as unworthy of their office (3: 3, 4). Yet “the just Lord is in the midst thereof,” unrecognised; “morning by morning (through the signs of the times?) doth he bring his judgement to light” (3 :5), but these men who are skilful in “discerning the face of the (political) sky, cannot discern the signs of the times.”

Soon God will rise up early, sending His prophet Elijah among them, but the nation will continue to “rise early, and corrupt their doings” (3: 7). The appeal is made, therefore, to the faithful remnant “before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you” (2: 2); “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgement; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger” (2: 3).

Appeal is made to the nation to see God’s hand in the events of their own time: “I have cut off the nations (Egypt, Jordan, Syria): their towers are desolate; I have made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man” (3: 6). Yet still the lesson that God controls the affairs of His ancient people goes unlearned: “I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction” (3: 7). But no! Israel appears impervious to true wisdom.

However, inexorably the day draws near when the lesson will be learned: “In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings…for then I will take away out of the midst of thee thy proudly exulting ones, and thou shalt no more be haughty upon my holy mountain,” as Israel has certainly been since June 1967.

The enemy nations round about will also be involved in this dramatic transformation. Judgement and desolation will come upon them who have been used to bring desolation and judgement on Israel (2: 4, 9, 13-15; 1:17,18). All this because “they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts” (2: 10). Up to the present day there has been “reproach” in plenty. But until Arab utterly defeats Jew in battle, there is little ground for “magnifying themselves.”

A GREAT TRANSFORMATION

During the evil time referred to here, “the time of Jacob’s trouble,” when the Arabs—with formidable Russian help—are able to gloat in triumph over a people they know to be their superiors in everything except barbarism, there will be a faithful remnant who will be saved through their repentance and faith in God: “I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the name of the Lord” (3: 12).

Then the Lord will “take away thy judgements” and “cast out thine enemy”; from this time on “the king of Israel, even Jehovah, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more” (3: 15). Retribution will be visited on the enemies of this nation beloved for their fathers’ sakes. Jews who have endured affliction and dispersion yet again will once more be gathered to their homeland. Now for the last time in all their fantastic history they will come from all parts to inherit the Land, this time forever. No contempt, opposition or hatred now, for God has “made them a name and a praise among all the people of the earth” (3: 20). Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in person will beckon them back to a Land lately associated in their minds with fear and horror. “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem” (3: 14). The exhortation to indulge in unrestrained gladness will be needed, for the startling change which will then come over the fortunes of this stricken people will surely reduce them to stupefied silence and awe.

“Then will I turn to the peoples a pure lip, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent” (3: 9). The words have often been interpreted as a prophecy of the reversal of Babel, the institution of one common language (Hebrew?) in the kingdom of God. That this will assuredly happen may be taken as axiomatic. But whether that language will be Hebrew and whether this passage is a prophecy of that much-to-be-desired achievement is doubtful.

This famous Zephaniah passage is more fundamental than any of these considerations. Here, as in a great many other Old Testament passages “the peoples” are the tribes of Israel; and the “pure lip” is not so much the language they will speak as the ideas they will express — “calling upon the name of the Lord” and “serving him with one consent” — a condition which has never been achieved in Hebrew history since the days of Abraham. Now, at last, Israel will not only say: “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do,” but they will do what they say.

The last chapter of Zechariah has many powerful details of the consummation of the Lord’s work among His people, some of which are by no means easy to understand. Nor is it altogether clear how this prophecy is to be pieced together chronologically.

It begins with a successful attack on Jerusalem by “all nations.” Clearly this phrase is not to be taken literally. It puts too big a strain on the imagination to picture the Fiji Islanders and the Eskimos, the pygmies of Africa and the Communist Chinese, all combining together in a savage onslaught on the city

Some have sought a way out of the difficulty by calling in the United Nations. But even then a solution to the problem is still far away, for the aim of any such activity by that effete hypocritical organization is to separate combatants by means of a peace-keeping task force. But these attackers in Zechariah ravage and spoil without mercy.

As soon as the Bible idiom of “all nations round about Israel” (compare 1 Chronicles 14: 17, 2 Chronicles 32: 23; Ezekiel 32: 12) is recognized, the difficulty ceases to exist. These, as in so many other prophecies already considered, are the Arab enemies of Israel who will never rest content until they have ground their Jewish neighbours into the dust. These Arab invaders may be confidently depended on to rifle houses and ravish women. In the third Arab-Israeli war a Jewish citizen stated in a newspaper article that if the Arabs had won he would have shot his own wife and family and then

himself. “There would have been another Masada.” This, at least, shews what the Jews expect when they lose the struggle against these inveterate foes.

That they will lose is plainly intimated in one Scripture after another. “The city shall be taken … half the city shall go forth into captivity.” This must mean slavery for a big proportion of the population, as Joel 3 and Isaiah 19 have already been seen to require.

THE MESSIAH

“Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.” In the time of crisis and despair, and because Israel turn in their helplessness to the God of their fathers, deliverance will come in a way to amaze the world. How the Lord will fight is explicitly stated: “And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour” (v. 13).

The great plague with which these enemies will be smitten is described in language which makes the blood run cold: “Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth” (v. 12). All kinds of suggestions have been made as to how this might come about. Bubonic plague, the deadly incurable aftermath of nuclear radiation such as is caused by hydrogen bombs, some hitherto unused secret weapon of germ or chemical warfare perfected by the back-room scientists — many guesses of this sort have been ventilated. One thing seems to be clear: the words indicate an escalation of the attack on Jerusalem into war on a massive scale involving much more than the tiny Holy Land.

At such a time the Messiah himself will appear. It was promised by the angels “he shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Since he went away in a cloud of divine glory (Acts 1: 9), it may be confidently expected that he will be manifested accompanied by that same Shekinah majesty. This is implied in Zechariah: “and the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee.” Here the “saints” or “holy ones” coming with (and not to) the Messiah are the angels (see Matthew 24: 31, 1 Thessalonians 4: 16; Jude 14)^[16] Also, the Messiah will return to the same place from which he ascended: “his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.”

EARTH QUAKE

At that time this Mount of Olives will be split in two by a mighty earthquake (v. 4), which will create a great valley running east and west. It is only in recent times that geologists have discovered the existence of a great geological east-west fault in the structure of the Mount of Olives. It is as though ages ago the Almighty prepared the ground for the vast changes soon to take place.

The result will be a formation similar to that, which already exists at Shechem (Nablus), where mount Ebal and mount Gerizim flank a deep east west valley. It was here where Joshua assembled the people of Israel with the ark, the symbol of God’s presence, in the midst, to hear recited the blessings and the cursings which would come upon them (Joshua 8: 33, 34). Apparently, then, the mount of Olives will be prepared that it might be the scene of a similar declaration of the divine will concerning the saints in Christ. They will be assembled in the divine presence of a more glorious Jesus-Joshua, and set either on his right hand to hear the wondrous invitation: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom,” or to be thrust away to the left: “Depart from me ye cursed.”^[17]

At the time of the earthquake men will flee “as from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah” — fleeing “from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth” (Isaiah 2: 19—a passage based initially on the experience of Uzziah’s earthquake, but appropriated in the New Testament to describe the terror of the coming of Christ: 2 Thessalonians 1: 19; Revelation 6: 16).

This “valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel,” a place no one can identify. Perhaps once again the allusion is not geographical but spiritual intended to recall Azazel, the scapegoat, which, with sin laid upon it, was for utter dismissal (see RVm in Leviticus 16: 8) from the presence of the Lord.

Thus, with both the unworthy in the ecclesia of Christ and the wicked among the nations purged out, the kingdom of Messiah will come in with glory and righteousness: “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one,” that is, “the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.”

MESSIAH’S KINGDOM

The prophecy is rounded off with two vivid pictures of the transformations brought by Messiah’s reign. “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left, of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.”

That which in ancient days was a unique combination of national holiday, Bible School, and re-dedication for the people of Israel, will be extended to take in all the nations of the world. The feast will be held all the year round, members of all the diverse peoples going up to the Holy City in rotation, for instruction and guidance in the ways of God (Isaiah 19: 23-25).

The phrase: “every one that is left of all the nations” is ominous. The implication is unmistakable that a big proportion of the world’s teeming millions, now presenting such a problem to scientists and world planners, will not survive to see the wonders of the coming age.^[18] But for those whom the grace of God preserves there will be opportunities of blessing past imagining.

Yet, such is human nature, even under the benign conditions which Christ’s reign will bring, some stubbornness and recalcitrance is bound to happen. Those unwilling to be integrated in the divine family of nations will find themselves without rain: and in particular Egypt, if rebellious, will be visited once again with the plague which broke the spirit of that nation in the days of Moses. Jeremiah indicates that where there is persistent stubbornness, the plague will not stop at the firstborn: “And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The Lord liveth … then shall they be built in the midst of my people (here is a true UNO, built round and in Israel, the people of God’s choice; see also Isaiah 2: 3). But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 12: 16, 17).

In contrast to this picture of intransigence, so characteristic of human nature, is another of Jerusalem and its people utterly transformed in character: “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holy to the Lord.” The very bridles which have been bathed in blood (Revelation 14: 10) will now be as holy in the work of the city of peace as the garments of the High Priest (Exodus 28: 33, 36). “And the (earthenware) pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the (golden) bowls before the altar.” Here is further symbolism too instructive to be neglected. Those who are earthen vessels filled with the treasure of the Lord’s message (2 Corinthians 4: 7) will themselves become as valuable and permanent in God’s service as the treasure itself.

“And there shall no more be the Canaanite in the house of the Lord.” Not only is this an assurance that the centuries-long Moslem sway over the holy city shall be swept away for ever, but also it is an indirect but yet emphatic way of insisting that the promises God made to Abraham will be finally and completely fulfilled. For, when ‘‘Abram passed through the land … the Canaanite was then in the land;” but when “the Lord made covenant with Abram,” he promised: “Unto thy seed have I given this land … Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaims, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites” (Genesis 12: 6 and 15: 18-21). Abraham himself will see it fulfilled.

[16] It has to be remembered that in Scripture the word “saints” may describe three separate groups of people:

1. the angels, God’s holy messengers;
2. Israel, God’s holy nation
3. those sanctified in Christ, God’s holy remnant.

[17] Each occurrence of the word has to be judged on its merits, in the light of the context. ~ Compare the way in which the travail of Jesus in the garden on the mount of Olives led to men being set on his right hand and his left, blessing and cursing, blessed and cursed.

[18] On this question see also Jeremiah 25: 33, 44: 14, 27; Isaiah 24: 5, 6; 66: 16, 19; Matthew 24: 22.

The concluding section of Joel’s prophecy is mainly concerned with a more detailed expansion of the threat of divine judgement against the inveterate enemies of Israel, a judgement that has already been pronounced in chapter 2: 20, 30, 31. The reason for this anger is given with detail and indignant emphasis. Israel has been ravished by a host of enemies—Tyre and Zidon, Philistia, Egypt, Edom (vv. 4, 19). Neither the mighty Assyrian nor the barbarian northern tribes are hinted at, but only those names, which represent the Arab nations, round the state of Israel in the twentieth century.

The picture is one of savage inhuman treatment meted out to Land and people alike. The Land is divided up amongst the invaders (v. 2) and ruthlessly plundered (v. 5), the people are exported to far-off lands as slave labour1^[9] (vv. 6, 8) and are even used as currency to purchase self-indulgence (“they have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine”)—and all this to work off a grudge and a spite against the Jews. Yet this sanctification of a Holy War (v. 9) is really an attempt at reprisal against God: “will ye repay a deed of mine?”(v. 4) It was God who brought Israel back to their land. Then how can Arabs hope to set themselves against the plan of the Almighty?

AN ANCIENT DFLIVERANCE

God in His indignation will bring these adversaries into “the valley of Jehoshaphat,” the valley where Jehovah is One who metes out judgement. It is a mistake to seek a geographical identification of this valley, even though there are plenty of maps, which confidently, though for no good reason, place it to the east or south of Jerusalem. The allusion is to God’s marvellous deliverance of His people in the days of king Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20). On that occasion a great confederacy from Ammon, Moab and Edom (v. 22) came against a king and people who abandoned all trust in themselves and who instead leaned for help on the God of their fathers. So the “Lord sent liers in wait” against the enemy, and there was a great overthrow. These “liers in wait” were evidently angels who, unseen, set the invaders against one another (v. 23), as in the day of Midian (Judges 7: 22; Isaiah 9: 4).

This will happen again. In response to the prayer: “Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord,” God will send not only His Gabriel (the Mighty One of God) but also His Messiah—El Gibbor (Isaiah 9: 6).

The ensuing judgement of the nations is pictured in graphic language. There are “multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.” This Hebrew word translated “decision” is the same as “consumption” in Isaiah 28: 21, 22 which foretells a time of divine intervention when God will “do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act … for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.”

GRIM HARVEST

The Isaiah and Joel passages have another link, for the word “act” is used in the same context to signify “labour in agriculture.” Accordingly the Joel prophecy proceeds: “Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down (or, perhaps, tread ye the grapes), for the winepress is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.” The Septuagint version here suggests that two separate harvests of judgement are foretold, for the word “sickle” is plural. This is the interpretation given in Revelation 14 where “one like unto the Son of man” (that is, according to a familiar Bible idiom, one who is the Son of man), wearing a golden crown and carrying a sharp sickle, is seen coming on a white cloud—the radiant Cloud of the Shekinah Glory. This divine Being—the Messiah—is urged by an eager angel of glory to begin his work of judgement: “Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” Immediately after this an angel similarly equipped with a sickle, is bidden: “Thrust in thy sharp sickle (as the Son of man has done), and gather the clusters of the vine of the land.” When this is done, and the winepress is trodden “without the city (of Jerusalem),” the blood flows forth “even unto the horse bridles” which are “holy to the Lord” (Zechariah 14: 20, 21), “as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” Here is a ghastly River of Death, to contrast with the loveliness of the River of Water of Life, which is to proceed from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1 and Joel 3:18). Its dire effects carry through a distance of two hundred miles, almost exactly the length of the land from Lebanon to Kadesh, as it is described in a powerful Psalm of Judgement (29: 6, 8; compare also Ezekiel 47: 15, 19).

It is a time not only of wrath but also of deliverance. “The Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem”—the judgements of Revelation 14 are the seven thunders, each introduced by “an angel with a great voice” whose shout is “as a lion roareth”; “and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people (the saints), and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.”

PUNISHMENT AND BLESSING

This double element of retribution and redemption is well suggested also by the promise: “a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.” Here, once again, it would be a mistake to seek a merely geographical meaning. The valley of Shittim was where Israel committed fornication with the women of Moab to the honour of Baal-peor (Numbers 25). That iniquity — and all such sins of apostasy in Israel — is to be washed away, as it was by the water that came from the smitten rock after the idolatry of the golden calf (Deuteronomy 9:21). Shittim was also the scene of vengeance against these Moabite (Arab) enemies of Israel. The Land will be washed clean of all the defilement, which they have brought in.

And not only Moab: “Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.” It is impossible to believe that in the last days Egypt and Edom will be punished for their spiteful treatment of Israel thousands of years earlier. This “violence against the children of Judah” must be something recent and specially vile. It is not clear whether the words: “because they have shed innocent blood in their land” refers to what these Arab enemies have done or to what the Jews have done. If the latter—and all Biblical associations of the phrase “innocent blood” point to this interpretation—then the sin referred to is the crucifixion of Jesus. “His blood be upon us and upon our children” is a prophecy, which must continue to be fulfilled until Jewry acknowledges its guilt. But as soon as that repentance is shewn (compare the parable of the prodigal son), “I will cleanse (hold as innocent: RVm) their blood that I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.”

The prophecy could have no finer climax.

[9] Compare here the comment made on page 24, on Isaiah 19:18, 20.

There are certain chapters in Isaiah, which clearly had primary reference to the stirring political events in the prophet’s own day. The Assyrian was marching through the Land. Unusual political alliances came into being and dissolved again almost overnight. The Jews themselves were in a state of fragmentation. The more wholesome part of the nation put their faith in Hezekiah, their stricken king, a man whose character and experiences marvellously typify the main aspects of the work of Jesus. Because of this close correspondence between two who were each a Suffering and Glorified Servant of Jehovah, many of these prophetic chapters can be conned afresh with reference to the Last Days and the time of Christ’s Kingdom.^[5] There are difficulties galore, but is this adequate reason for not making the attempt to understand?

A REMNANT

Isaiah 17 is headed: “The burden of Damascus,” but nearly all the chapter is about Israel (one suspects that the same may be true in chapter 13: “The burden of Babylon”). It describes a time when “the glory of Jacob shall be made thin.” The prophecy continues (v. 5): “And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim” (ominous word! “Rephaim” means “the dead”). “Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches thereof, saith the Lord God of Israel.” One is immediately reminded of the double harvest symbolically described in Revelation 14: 15-19. Perhaps the “gleaning of grapes” and the “two or three berries” of the olive tree represent the faithful remnant of Israel for whom God has regard. These only are worthy of His care in Israel’s final experience of tribulation and destruction.

The hopelessness of the situation will drive those who hitherto have depended on “the work of their own hands” (Isaiah 17: 8) to “look to their Maker, and their eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel” (v. 7).

RETRIBUTION

Nevertheless, first (as in Jeremiah 16: 18) there must come recompense on the godless nation: “And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his own hands (this is what the Jews worship today!)… In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken places of the Amorites and the Hivites, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel” (RVm and Septuagint). In the time of Joshua Israel rapidly took over the cities built by their Canaanite predecessors. In the time of Ben Gurion (1948), they did the same again. But in the time of Sennacherib the reverse process took place just as rapidly (2 Kings 18:13). So also must it be in the time of the end: “And there shall be desolation. Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength … in the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to flourish (the vigorous beginnings of modern Israel?), but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and desperate sorrow.” It is a picture of divine discipline exercised against an ungodly nation. This is inevitable. How can God bless that which ignores Him and glorifies man?

However, ultimately — because the people of Israel are “beloved for the fathers’ sakes” — the Land will be swept clean of all enemies: “And behold at eveningtide trouble: and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.”

The next chapter apostrophizes “the land which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,” that is, Egypt whose chief asset is in the rivers which flow down from Ethiopia. It is the nation, which sends its messengers “in vessels of papyrus”—a nation which is a paper tiger and which is lavish in both paper threats and paper promises. These ambassadors are given, in place of the message in their diplomatic bag, a revelation from the Lord of hosts of Israel, to “a nation scattered and peeled … a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers (that is, the nations, see 17: 13 and 8: 7, 8) have spoiled.”

The essential part of the divine message to such a nation is contained in the words: “For afore the harvest, when the blossom is perfected, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he shall cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches” (18: 5).

A NEEDED DISCIPLINE

This figure appears to describe the exercise of God’s discipline against the vine of Israel at a time when it is beginning to shew all the signs of luxurious growth. There is as yet no fruit for God when the heavenly vinedresser acts drastically against it, suddenly cutting off what looks so fair.

“They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them” (v. 6). Possibly these words may be interpreted as meaning that the final time of tribulation for Israel is to last a summer and a winter, and not the longer period of three and a half years hinted at in certain other prophecies. “But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened”—this principle probably has more than one application.

The prophecy concludes with a drastic change of tone: “In that time (why not “in that day,” as in 19: 18, 19, 23, and so frequently in other prophets?) shall a present be brought unto the Lord of hosts (consisting) of a people scattered and peeled (66: 20), and from a people terrible from their beginning (the divine deliverance from Egypt under Moses) hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden underfoot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place (the word also means temple) of the Lord of hosts, the mount of Zion.”

Here is a final picture of Israel chastened and changed, and now gladly and humbly submitting themselves before the God of Abraham. The time of true blessing for Israel can only come when they turn to Him in repentance and cease to glory in the work of their own hands.

[5] Here is a wonderfully fruitful topic of Bible study for those who have not already attempted it’

In 1967 the writer of this collection of studies in Bible prophecy published an earlier series, written in 1964, under the title: “The Last Days.” They were little more than brief summaries, to suggest lines of investigation. The present compilation, written in the Fall of 1967, is an attempt to dot a few i’s and cross a few t’s.

In recent years there are certain distinctive attitudes discernible regarding the study of Bible prophecy. One school of thought saves itself from thinking and from hard personal Bible study by nailing its colours to the mast and refusing to consider any interpretation more recent than the nineteenth century.

Another trend, also to be deplored, is the picking up of isolated verses here and there from prophetic passages in order to weave them together, with a confidence altogether unwarranted, into a detailed prophetic time-table. Anything, which is attempted in this direction, should always be done with great diffidence. One foresees the possibility of serious strains on personal faith when over-confident schemes of interpretation are turned topsy-turvy by the hard facts of a year or two.

Yet another fashion, understandable but not to be encouraged, is the rambling political commentary, decorated with an occasional knowing allusion to some prophecy or other. This tendency to turn Bible prophecy into a kind of political game — the only kind of politics valid to Christadelphians — is of little spiritual profit. It is especially undesirable when it steers the attention of the Lord’s watchers to the Far East or Africa or Western Europe or the Papacy, and away from Israel. There is no single lesson to be learned by the student of Bible prophecy of more importance than the almost self evident: Watch Israel! By comparison all the rest is negligible.

The present series of studies is a rather miscellaneous sequence of brief expositions of more or less familiar chapters in the prophets. They are essentially Biblical studies. Allusions to current politics are few. Many of the conclusions reached — especially in considering such chapters as Daniel I1, Amos 1, 2 — are very tentative. The writer is prepared to see some of his expectations proved to be mistaken by the events of the next few years. In that case he will be in good company.

Two themes, both of which have suffered unwarranted neglect over the years, were given some prominence in “The Last Days”: the repentance of Israel, and Arab hostility. It will be observed that in these further excursions into prophetic fields, the same motifs (deliberately recapitulated in chapter 2) constantly recur — not because they have been sought, but because they are inescapable.

It is, of course, well recognized that most, if not all, of the prophecies considered here have already had some kind of fulfilment in or soon after the prophet’s own time. But this is not to say that further fulfilment in days yet future must be ruled out. Almost no allusion is made in these pages to any primary fulfilment, but the reader is assured that where such application of the prophecy has been known, it has been borne in mind in order to help towards a harmonious exposition of the later, and now more important, fulfilment.

Some will be disappointed at the paucity of references in these pages to the Book of Revelation. Such readers are assured that there has been no culpable negligence. The present writer has a complete commentary on that remarkable book in manuscript. Perhaps one day it may be possible to make this available for perusal, but it is fervently hoped that the rapid development of events in these Last Days will soon make the further study of the Apocalypse unnecessary.

The phrase (Jeremiah 30: 7) is a familiar one to all students of prophecy. It turns out to be the key to the understanding of a remarkably complete picture of the day of Messiah.

“Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it (a time of trouble such as never was! Daniel 12: 1); for it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.” Clearly this is intended to be the last great deliverance. And how? By the coming of Israel’s Messiah. The Hebrew text here almost clamours to be translated: “the time of Jacob’s trouble, but out of it Jesus”!

A further specially significant detail is that this keyword “trouble” is the same Hebrew root which is used to describe how Jacob trembled at his impending encounter with Esau: “Then Jacob was exceedingly afraid and distressed … Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children” (Genesis 32:7, 11).

JACOB PRE-FIGURES ISRAEL

The phraseology in Jeremiah 30 seems to imply that Jacob’s experience when he returned from his arduous life with Laban only to encounter Esau near the river Jabbok will be re-enacted in the Last Days experience of his nation.

This conclusion is surely put beyond doubt by the remarkable series of allusions in Jeremiah 31 to that period in Jacob’s life:

Those accustomed to this kind of allusiveness in the writings of the prophets will have no difficulty in recognizing that here the final return of Israel is being described in terms of the return of Jacob from Syria. The entire picture in Genesis is marvellously apposite.

Because he sought the heavenly blessing by his own devices, Jacob was compelled to leave the Land of Promise. He spent many years in a Gentile land enduring hardship and oppression. At last God brought him away from persecution to dwell in the Land, which was his by right. No sooner was he returned than he had to encounter his brother Esau, “which is Edom,” coming against him with a great force of men. In the night, which followed, Jacob wrestled — against Esau, so he thought! — for the safety of his family. If they were to survive, everything depended on his self-reliance, prowess and ultimate victory. Yet all the time he was actually pitting his puny strength against angelic powers who, unseen, controlled and directed his life. All his days this had been Jacob’s fault. Now, wrestling at Jabbok, the lesson was learned. It meant subjection to Esau (see Genesis 33, especially v. 3), and the outcome — all unexpected — was that he was left unmolested in the Land. God appeared to him at Bethel, and the great Promise was ratified.

A TYPE FULFILLED

The teaching of Jeremiah 30, 31 is that all these events, pregnant with meaning, are to be re-enacted in the Last Days. Already Jacob has returned from the land of his oppressor where he has borne long and arduous task work. In the Land of Promise he has encountered Esau soon to prove mightier than he. With little reliance on God but with confidence in his own powers he now wrestles for national survival. All this is according to the unerring counsel of God, but the divine Providence in these momentous developments goes unrecognised. So there must ensue a time when Jacob, lame and disabled, shall acknowledge the superior might of Esau — but, now acknowledging also the over-ruling power and wisdom of God, Jacob becomes Israel, a people of destiny, freed from all adversaries and oppressors and rejoicing in inheritance of the Land and in a glorious vision of God:

And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord (Jeremiah 31: 28).