TESTIMONY. miracles. 300 Why Jesus performed. new study. For the study and defence of the Holy Scripture

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1 Vol. 82 No. 974 August 2012 TESTIMONY For the study and defence of the Holy Scripture 300 Why Jesus performed miracles new study Also in this issue: Ezekiel: Israel s watchman 291 Bible workshop: the seals opened 296 Who is the false prophet? 309 Rejoice! A son at last 318 The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

2 TESTIMONY Editors: DAVID BURGES. 7 Whitehead Drive, Wellesbourne, Warwick, CV35 9PW. Tel ; dburges@btinternet.com Science; Archaeology SHAUN MAHER. 35 Feus, Auchterarder, PH3 1EP. Tel ; shaun4linda@me.com Watchman ERIC MARSHALL. The Pines, Ling Common Road, Castle Rising, King s Lynn, Norfolk, PE31 6AE. Tel ; testimony@marshalle.co.uk Exposition; Principles, preaching, problems (pro tem.) JOHN NICHOLLS. 17 Upper Trinity Road, Halstead, Essex, CO9 1EE. Tel ; jgmnicholls@btinternet.com Reviews JEREMY THOMAS. 22 Kingswood Close, Kings Norton, Birmingham, B30 3NX. Tel ; jeremy.thomas@hotmail.co.uk Assistant Editor; Exhortation GEOFF HENSTOCK. 13 Alpha Crescent, Panorama 5041, S. Australia. Tel ; geoff.henstock@bigpond.com Australia Editor; Prophecy Publishing Editor: ERIC MARSHALL (see above) Testimony website: Publishing Editor s column 285 David the man after God s own heart 31. The hand of Joab 32. The errant son revealed John Mitchell 286 Save thyself and us Paul Wasson 289 The faithful of old studied by the young Ezekiel: the watchman of Israel Matt Davies 291 Your Letters David s sons 295 Bible workshop Revelation 6 & 7 E. Marshall & J. Thomas 296 Why did Jesus perform miracles? 1. The man with divine authority Peter Forbes 300 World watchman Shaun Maher 302 Zionism 5. The rise of Arab nationalism Ray Walker 305 Testimony books Principles of prophecy Unmasking the false prophet Andrew White 309 Lessons from faithful Gentiles for young people (Review) John & Henry Nicholls 312 The Levitical tax Richard Morgan 313 John s First Epistle 8. God is love Mark Allfree 315 The song of Zacharias David Burges 318 The enigma of the healing of the man sick of the palsy David Noakes 320 Reflections Rowing together Margaret Bilton 322 Testimony Book Exchange 323 Scenes of Syria 20. Temple of Bel, Palmyra Jeremy Thomas XIV Articles for publication Articles to be considered for publication are welcome and should be forwarded to the Publishing Editor (in Australia, the local editor) in the first instance. Cover design: Rachel Otter Publication of articles in the Testimony does not presume editorial endorsement except on matters of fundamental doctrine, as defined in the Birmingham Amended Statement of Faith. XIII

3 Publishing Editor s column UK readers, particularly, have been exposed for the past month to blanket media coverage of the Olympic Games. Gold medal successes have been applauded and commiseration offered to those who did not win. In almost every case, whether ultimate gold medallist or not, those who competed gave all they could in physical and mental effort. Individual competitors did not just turn up on the day without prior preparation; they had spent a long time, most for the previous four years, training both individually and with the support of trainers, dieticians, physiotherapists, family members and other helpers. All, also, saw themselves as members of the team representing their country. The Apostle Paul likens our discipleship to contending in the Games. To the Corinthians he wrote, Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible (1 Cor. 9:24,25). The writer to the Hebrews says, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith... (Heb. 12:1,2). Here we have emphasis on the need to focus on our objective with endurance and the idea of support from onlookers cheering on the competitors. Most of us are daunted by the discipline and self-denial that athletes who aim to achieve Olympic victory display. But Paul is insistent that what we seek for a crown of glory that fadeth not away is incomparably greater than the elation and prestige of winning a gold medal and therefore demands full commitment. What we so often lack is a deep appreciation of the love of God manifest in Christ that makes this destiny a possibility. Such appreciation gives us the impetus to choose the way of the cross, the life of self-denial and God-centredness shown to perfection by Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (v. 2). He it is who asks his disciples to do this in remembrance of me. As Paul again says: For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again (2 Cor. 5:14,15). To whatever extent we freely choose God s gracious invitation to pattern ourselves upon Christ Jesus our Lord, it is certain that he will oversee our lives and provide situations of testing. These are not to disqualify us in the race of life, but rather to strengthen and develop our characters. Paul s exhortation confirms this point, for we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). Much of the tribulation that Paul and the disciples experienced at that time was physical abuse. For many of us this is not the case. However, we may well have to make choices in work and lifestyle that cause us difficulty or pressure (which is the basic meaning of the Greek word translated tribulation). But it is also in the ecclesia that such testing can arise. The ecclesia has been provided for the benefit and development of believers. It should be the community where we are each encouraged by our fellow-disciples, where the commands of Christ are valued and put into practice. Where this does not happen, almost always self-interest or selfesteem are the sources of the problems. Our Lord shows us how to deal with such situations: We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves... For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached Thee fell on me (Rom. 15:1-3). While the Olympics are in progress, attention, at least in the UK, to other events in the world is tending to be relaxed. The Middle East situation still remains volatile and threatening, and could rapidly bring the events that will trigger the coming of our Lord. It behoves us to review our commitment, both to personal direction and to the promotion of ecclesial wellbeing. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day... Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober... putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him (1 Thess. 5:5-10). Eric Marshall 285

4 Exhortation David the man after God s own heart John Mitchell 31. The hand of Joab 1 BESIDES BEING the most accomplished general in Israel s army, Joab the son of Zeruiah was, by reason of his blood relationship with the royal family, a keen (and sometimes interfering) spirit in its private affairs. It did not take him long to realise that, once David got over the immediate trauma of Amnon s wicked behaviour and Absalom s murderous revenge, the king would long to have Absalom back from his self-imposed exile in Syria. David was in a dilemma. Amnon was dead, and that was the end of him; but Absalom, though always a favourite with his father (and with the people too, thanks to his good looks and dashing spirit), had by his criminal act enhanced his claims as David s eldest son and heir apparent. However, under the law of the land, which David had done so much to uphold, Absalom, as a murderer, should have been sentenced to death (Num. 35:30-34), a sentence that David s other sons, for various reasons (jealousy among them), were keen to execute hence David s dilemma. Wily, and with more than a touch of this world s wisdom in his make-up, Joab thought he had found a way of squaring the king s problem. For him to have approached David directly, however, would have been construed a monstrous interference in the royal family s business. A softly, softly approach was needed, and for that Joab needed a fellow-conspirator. Living as he did in Bethlehem, only five miles from the hilltop village of Tekoa, he was aware of the existence there of a woman with a reputation for wisdom of the kind he himself favoured. So he sent for her and had her brought to Bethlehem, hoping that she would become his accomplice and be prepared to act out an imitation of David s circumstances as though they were her own. Of the terms agreed between Joab and the woman nothing is revealed, although Joab 286 evidently went ahead to impress on the woman every detail of how she must present herself and what she should say to the king when she was granted an audience. He said to her, Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes, and don t use any cosmetic lotions. Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead. Then go to the king and speak these words to him. And Joab put the words in her mouth. When the Tekoite woman went to the king, she prostrated herself to pay her respects, and she said, Help me, O king! The king asked her, What is troubling you? She said, I am indeed a widow; my husband is dead. I your servant had two sons. They got into a fight with each other in the field, and no-one was there to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant; they say, Hand over the one who struck his brother down, so that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed; then we will get rid of the heir as well. They would put out the only burning coal I have left, leaving my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth. David said to the woman, Go home, and I will issue an order on your behalf. But the woman persisted: My lord the king, let the blame [for evading the Law of Moses] rest on me and on my father s family, and let the king and his throne be without guilt. Too close for comfort By now, the parallels to his own relationship with his erring son and the rest of the family must have begun to arouse suspicions in the mind of David, making him somewhat uncomfortable; the 1. The narrative follows the text of 2 Samuel 14 and 15. Quotations are from the NIV of these chapters unless otherwise noted.

5 widow s tale was cutting too close to the bone. So he temporised. If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he will not bother you again, he said. Having volunteered to take the legal blame, however, the woman was willing to go materially further by asking the king, on his sacred oath, to prevent the authorised avenger of blood from adding to the destruction by slaying her son. She received the reply she wanted when David said, As surely as the LORD lives, not one hair of your son s head will fall to the ground. And now the canny woman decided that the time for the denouement had come. Let your servant speak a word to my lord the king, she said. David, now realising what was coming, replied tersely, Speak. Why then have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? said the woman. When the king says this, does he not convict himself, for the king has not brought back his banished son? Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead, He devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from Him. Yet still pretending that her own case was real, and that her relatives were threatening her and making her afraid, she appealed to the king to deliver her from the hand of men who were trying to cut off both herself and her son from the inheritance God had given them. May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is like an angel of God in discerning good and evil. May the LORD your God be with you, she said. David, his suspicions approaching certainty, charged the woman to tell him the truth: Isn t the hand of Joab with you in all this? And she confessed, Yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me to do this and who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. Your servant Joab did this to change the present situation. My lord has wisdom like that of an angel of God he knows everything that happens in the land. So Joab was summoned to appear before the king. David said to him, Very well, I will do it. Go, bring back the young man Absalom. At this command, Joab fell with his face to the ground, blessing the king and saying, Today your servant knows that he has found favour in your eyes, my lord the king, because the king has granted his servant s request. Thus Joab went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. He had not, however, overcome David s reluctance to see his son, for the king said, He must go to his own house; he must not see my face. So Absalom went to his own house, remaining away from the court a restriction neither Absalom nor Joab had anticipated, and one that could only make for more trouble. 32. The errant son revealed ALTHOUGH David had been persuaded to permit his wayward son to return to Jerusalem, there was still an insurmountable barrier between them, doubtless contributed to by the antagonism of the rest of the royal family towards Absalom. They would not have him at court; so, although David s heart longed for his son s company, he could not allow him so much as to see his face. This state of affairs lasted for two whole years, causing mounting resentment on Absalom s part that ultimately estranged him entirely from his father. If David would not acknowledge him as his heir apparent, then he would work out his own path to the throne. Absalom was a popular prince, very handsome, very manly; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was not a blemish in him. His wonderful head of hair was said to weigh about five pounds when polled, so it must have made him a striking figure when he drove his chariot through the streets of Jerusalem with fifty men to run before him. With three sons and a daughter he commanded additional respect as a family man. The boys are not named, but the girl, named Tamar after her aunt whom Amnon had defiled and humiliated, struck a sympathetic note. Moreover, like her aunt, she was a very beautiful princess. Grieved and irked by King David s continuing refusal to see him, Absalom sought again the help of Joab to send him to the king to plead his cause. But Joab, for reasons unknown, refused to come. Furious at this snub, Absalom said to his servants, Look, Joab s field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire. That brought Joab post-haste to Absalom s house, demanding an explanation. Look, said Absalom, exercising his princely authority, I sent word to you and said, Come 287

6 here so that I can send you to the king to ask, Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me if I was still there! Now then, I want to see the king s face, and if I am guilty of anything, let him put me to death. So Joab returned to the king and explained the situation. Then the king summoned Absalom, and at last he came and made his obeisance to his father. And David kissed Absalom the signal Absalom had been waiting for. From now on, he would be able to act with much greater authority, no matter what the rest of the court thought of him. One thing leads to another From that point it was but a small step in Absalom s arrogant mind for him to begin to demean the king by usurping some of his prerogatives. For example, he would rise early and stand by the road leading to the city gate, such that whenever anyone came with a complaint for the king s decision, Absalom would call out to him, What town are you from? He would answer, Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel. Then Absalom would say to him, Look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you. And Absalom would add, If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that he receives justice. Whenever anyone approached him to bow down before him, too, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him and kiss him. So he behaved toward all the Israelites who came to the king seeking justice, stealing away the hearts of the men of Israel. Such a state of affairs with no obvious response by King David shows how weakened he had been as a result of his family troubles. The apparent laissez-faire approach he adopted may have encouraged the greedy and ambitious Absalom to see a time coming when he could make a bid for the throne itself. For four years he softened up the men of Israel with his artifices to make them amenable to his plans. Now was the time for the bold stroke and his great deception. He approached the king and requested, Let me go to Hebron [where he had been born and brought up] and fulfil a vow that I made to the LORD. While your servant was living at Geshur in Aram, I made this vow: If the LORD takes me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the LORD in Hebron. Happy, and no doubt encouraged by so noble-sounding a request, David said to him, Go in peace. So Absalom departed for Hebron. Accompanying him were two hundred men who had been invited as guests to attend the celebrations at the fulfilment of the vow, men who knew nothing of what was really intended, and who were kept in the dark while Absalom secretly sent messengers throughout the tribes of Israel to warn, As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, then say, Absalom is king in Hebron. Meanwhile, the innocent party from Jerusalem were used as cover while Absalom offered sacrifices in order to provide a similitude of piety while he finalised his plans. Included in those plans was an invitation to one of David s closest advisers to join him in the rebellion. He was Ahithophel, who, though no prophet of the Lord, was regarded by David as a particular friend because of his wisdom and advice, which was regarded by many as the equivalent of inquiring of God Himself. With such a man as Ahithophel by his side, Absalom felt that the conspiracy would gain even greater popularity and acceptance which, indeed, it continued to do until the time came for the trumpets to sound in cities all over Israel and the rebellion to begin. Thus was the lot of man s devising cast into the nation s lap; but the whole disposing of thereof would be the Lord s. (To be continued) Family ties stronger than welfare state The welfare state cannot replace the traditional family, a study has suggested. Researchers looked at children in America and those in Britain to see if social welfare programmes had an effect on behavioural problems. It has been argued that a stronger wel fare state, such as Britain s, could reduce the role of parents, but the researchers said this was not the case. They found that in both societies, boys, children with health problems and those with divorced parents were more likely to have difficulties. However, stronger home environments reduced the risk, research ers from North Carolina State University said. Professor Toby Parcel said: We also found that stronger home environments... decrease the likelihood of behaviour problems in both countries. This study tells us that parents are important in households, regardless of the strength of the welfare state (Daily Telegraph, 18 May 2012). 288

7 Save thyself and us Paul Wasson Exhortation In the New Testament the Lord Jesus is proclaimed as the one who, on his Father s behalf, offers salvation to the world. His birth was announced with the words, he shall save his people from their sins (Mt. 1:21). It is instructive, however, to look at those occasions in the Gospels when men asked the Lord Jesus to save them to exercise his power on their behalf for it then becomes apparent that the word salvation can be used in two senses. There is, on one level, salvation from some destructive threat within this world and, on another level, eternal salvation from sin and death. THE SOCIETY into which Jesus was born was eagerly awaiting someone who could offer it salvation in the first of the two senses of the word one who could bring relief from exploitation by a foreign power, from poverty, sickness and hunger. Indeed, Jesus could, and frequently did, exercise his power to heal the sick, give sight to the blind and feed the hungry. But, of course, this aspect of his work was subservient to something greater and more important. His miracles of healing on men s bodies could, by their very nature, be only temporary. Those whom he fed became hungry again, and the sick whom he healed would become mortally ill and die. Even the dead whom he raised must inevitably return to the grave. Jesus miracles were signs which pointed beyond this world, confirming that he was working on God s behalf. As such he offered forgiveness of sins to the penitent and a new life to those who had turned their back on the sins of the past. His true mission was to work a greater act of healing, not on men s bodies but on their hearts, a healing whose power would last beyond the grave. But the natural man does not readily look beyond the concerns of the present, and the Kingdom which Jesus proclaimed lay beyond the boundary of ordinary human experience and therefore seemed less real, its demands less pressing than questions of food and freedom, health and wealth. The urge to seek those things which minister to security, happiness and prosperity is ingrained in human nature. But Jesus knew that those who concentrated their hearts and minds upon these things were also building barriers between themselves and God, because a preoccupation with them all too easily creates a false sense of security, removing any incentive to trust in God. And when we look at those who turned to Jesus for help and who asked him to exercise his power on their behalf, then broadly speaking such people fall into two categories. There were those who were quite willing to accept him as Messiah but for quite the wrong reasons. Such people wanted him as Messiah on their own terms; his power was a means to their ends. At one point people with this attitude even tried to take him by force to make him king, for no better reason than that he had provided loaves of bread for them to eat (Jno. 6:15), but these same people cared nothing for the true bread... which cometh down from heaven (vv. 32,33). And that was a rejection of all that the Lord really stood for. Spiritual appetite There were others, however, who yearned not for loaves and fishes but for a sustenance which lasts for ever. Many examples could be cited of these contrasting responses, but one of the best examples can be found right at the end of the Lord s earthly life, when, only hours from death, the two malefactors who were crucified with him both spoke to him (Lk. 23:39-42). Perhaps these two men were freedom fighters who had participated in an armed uprising against Rome. They had committed themselves to the cause of national liberation, to the political salvation of their people. Now they were sentenced to death, and that cause was unable to help them. But they were dying beside one who could help them in their need. And the significant thing about these two men is that they both asked Jesus for salvation: If thou be Christ, save thyself and us (v. 39). The first man who spoke, whom ancient tradition has named Gestas, knew enough about Jesus that he was regarded as the Messiah, that 289

8 he had extraordinary powers; and all that mattered to this man was that Jesus should exercise those powers to save the two of them from the predicament in which they found themselves. In the extremity of his agony he looked for nothing beyond that level of salvation. But his companion, whom that same tradition has named Dismas, asked for something which went far beyond this: Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom (vv ). We can only marvel at the strength of this man s faith and the depth of his insight. He did not ask to be delivered from his present suffering. He looked for a more enduring salvation, and that from a man who by all outward appearances was defeated and beaten. And from this man he received the answer he sought: I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise (v. 43). Here was a convicted terrorist, condemned to die a violent death, yet having a degree of faith seldom found in the respectable and the religious. These two men can be seen as typical of those two responses to the power of Jesus and to his offer of salvation. Some, like Gestas, saw in Jesus a solution to their problems, one who could alleviate the miseries of their existence. It represented faith of a sort, but not the fulness of faith to which Jesus sought to call men. We often meet an attitude in the modern world which looks to the problems and the suffering of mankind, or to some upheaval in life, and asks: If God is good and all-powerful, why does He permit this to happen? Why does He not reach down and prevent it? Such questions are asked by people who would never stop to thank God when things are going well. Insofar as they believe in His existence at all, they treat Him as though He were there only to minister to man s material welfare, such that He has fallen down on His job if things are going badly on earth. And this was the attitude Jesus faced time and time again when men clamoured to avail themselves of his God-given powers. Taking up our cross But the Lord Jesus offered no easy solution for those who would be his disciples. True discipleship, he taught, must involve a complete emptying of all preoccupation with selfish concerns, all anxiety for things of the present. In fact, he 290 taught his disciples to expect additional hardships precisely because they were his disciples, as they faced the rejection of a world which had already rejected him: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it (Mt. 16:24,25). We notice in these words the same double meaning to the word save. He who tries to save his life, who clings to the things of the present world, will find death. Only he who dies to the present world and fixes his gaze on what lies beyond it will achieve the salvation worth having. The first malefactor thought only of the present life and tried to enlist the help of Jesus to cling onto it. It is not for us to censure him for this; doubtless we would have done the same had we been in his place. But his companion looked beyond the suffering of the present to a more enduring salvation, and of the two he alone was granted his request. In him we see a type of the true response to the power of Jesus. Many who met the Lord Jesus had spent their lives in circumstances which left them nothing to live for in this world those on the margins of society: tax-collectors whose ill-gotten gains were no compensation for the contempt in which their fellows held them; prostitutes whose profession made them outcasts of respectable society; and the poor who had no hope of any lasting security or happiness. Many from these groups saw in Jesus not just a solution to their material needs, but a power, an authority which could transform them, cleanse them from the guilt of the past and open up a true hope for the future. But the salvation which the Lord Jesus offered to people such as this could be achieved only by his dying at the hands of men who rejected all that he offered. To them it was meaningless, the object of ridicule. As Jesus died, his enemies taunted him with the words, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God (Lk. 23:35). He did indeed save others, but what they thought was his defeat was in fact his victory. Only by refusing to save himself in the sense that they used the term could he achieve a salvation which could be offered to the whole world. It was precisely because he was indeed Christ, the chosen of God that he did not come down from that cross. Jesus, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame (Heb. 12:2). By facing the darkness, the pain and the

9 desolation of Calvary in this spirit he set forth an example for us, his disciples, to follow. It is the spirit by which we too can overcome the darkness when it encompasses us. The darkness around us enables us to see more clearly the light at the end. Discipleship, however, does not mean simply dreaming about the bright future as a kind of escape from the tribulations of the present. Rather, the present circumstances of our lives can also be faced as the arena in which God is dealing with us, the means by which He is educating us and preparing us for citizenship of His Kingdom. God has not promised to make life easy for those who trust in Him. If He had, then disciples would be distinguished from those around them by the The faithful of old studied by the young Ezekiel: the watchman of Israel Matt Davies Ezekiel prophesied in momentous times. The godly days of King David and King Solomon had long gone. The children of Israel had turned from serving Yahweh to serving the gods of the heathen around them. FROM AMONG a depressed and humbled group of His people, captive in Babylon, Yahweh in His mercy chose a man to be a watchman. This man was selected to deliver a message of warning and hope to the captives, to exhort them, uplift them and give them a vision of the future onto which they could hold tightly and so endure the trials and tribulations in which they found themselves. The watchman was to see wonderful visions and terrifying judgements, but he was also to foresee the final restoration of his people under the rulership of Christ and the great temple which is to be built in the Land. That man was Ezekiel. Ezekiel s prophecy opens abruptly with a statement of how Ezekiel in his thirtieth year saw visions of God (1:1). We read that this was absence from their lives of misfortune and trial. That does not happen. But it is through our misfortunes and trials, and for that matter through our successes and joys, that God is working with us if we face all things in the spirit in which the Lord Jesus faced Calvary. We can look to the Lord Jesus as our Saviour. His power has been active on our behalf, in the forgiveness of sins and the preparation for us of a place in his Father s Kingdom. In the light of these truths we should expel from our hearts every false idol, every source of false security which competes with that which Christ has offered, and set our trust and our affection on him alone. Only then can we be confident that he will remember us too when he comes into his Kingdom. Exposition the fifth year of Jehoiachin s captivity and that Ezekiel was amongst the captives by the River Chebar. We know little about his life before this point. However, he was a priest (v. 3), and we may assume that this gave him some status, as we read in 2 Kings 24:14-16 that Ezekiel s deportation consisted mainly of the higher ranks of the people. As he grew up, doubtless he was preparing himself for a role in the temple, but this hope would have long left him as he settled down far away from his homeland. At the age of thirty when, under normal circumstances, he would have begun his work as a priest (Num. 4:3) he was called to another work. After being called and seeing his first vision of the cherubim, Ezekiel sat stunned amongst his fellow-captives for seven days (Ezek. 3:15). Considering that a priest had to be consecrated for seven days before he could start his ministry (Ex. 29:30,35; Lev. 8:33), perhaps here we have Ezekiel s consecration, his preparation for his 291

10 Among the visions that Ezekiel saw were visions of the cherubim... the case of Ezekiel) within our own community. As Jude exhorts us, we should all earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (v. 3). God s exhortations to Ezekiel show that he was a man like any of us, chosen for a high commission but with similar feelings and emotions to us. Bearing this in mind, when we read of some of the things Ezekiel had to do, and how he set about to do them faithfully, it should make us realise how wonderful a brother he was, and what an example he is to each of us. Ezekiel was divinely strengthened for his work. His name means God will strengthen and he was to be the tool which God would use to strengthen the captives that were with him. His book can be split loosely into five parts. chapters 1 3 deal mainly with his call chapters 4 24 deal with prophecies against Judah and Jerusalem chapters deal with prophecies against the nations chapters are prophecies about the restoration of Israel chapters are a prophecy of the future of the Land of Israel and worship in the Millennium. future role amongst the captives, though not as a priest but as a prophet. We can discern a few things about Ezekiel s character from the way God exhorts him for his commission. He is told not to be afraid (2:6), not to rebel (v. 8), and that if he did not warn the people then their blood would be required at his hand (3:18). This seems to indicate that Ezekiel was not naturally courageous, and that his instinct might cause him to rebel against God s commission. If these exhortations apply to a great man like Ezekiel, how much more do they apply to us? We must not be afraid to stand up for the doctrines of the Word of God, both in the world outside and (as in who were bearing the glory of God. The watchman of Israel Ezekiel is told (3:17; 33:1-9) that God has made him a watchman. He had a responsibility to warn the people of danger and to tell them God s message. Repentance had to be forthcoming from the nation to allow them to be restored under the terms of the covenant made to them in Deuteronomy 30:1-3. One of the most remarkable things about Ezekiel is that he knew that the message he had to deliver would not be listened to by the people (Ezek. 3:7). Ezekiel was not to worry about the results of his teachings (2:5). The reason for his ministry is told us here: so that when Israel looked back, they would see that God had indeed warned them through His prophet. Ezekiel had a huge personal responsibility in this role (3:20). He had many restrictions placed on him dumbness,

11 being tied up, being locked away but he still had to be a watchman, and his blood would be required if he did not speak God s warnings to the nation. What a lesson to us! We have to preach to those outside the Brotherhood, and, like Ezekiel, sometimes we need to warn those within, even if those we are speaking to do not want to listen! Being a servant of God does not necessarily mean that we should expect to see great results. God s Word does not return void (Isa. 55:11); people either accept it or reject it. It is our job to ensure that we take to others that Word and the doctrines we believe, and strive to keep them in our lives. We may feel restricted; we may feel that our message will not be heard; but we still have to witness to it (1 Pet. 3:15). Although the way we communicate the message might change according to circumstances we are in, we are not to change the message itself (Gal. 1:8). If we do not witness to the message, then an opportunity might be lost, and the blood of one with whom we were in contact may be required of us. As a man of sign, Ezekiel was a human representative of the whole nation. The man of sign After being commissioned as a watchman, Ezekiel was made dumb by God (Ezek. 3:26). He could speak only when God made him speak. He had to act out a number of the signs and prophecies given to him, and for this reason he is described in the record as a man of sign (4:3; 12:6,11; 24:24,27). He was to remain dumb until Jerusalem fell (24:27; 33:21,22). Another lesson for us: would others still recognise that we were God s people if we couldn t speak? Do we walk the walk as well as talk the talk? The signs Ezekiel had to act out came with burdens so great that it is hard for us to imagine how he coped. He willingly put himself in uncomfortable positions to warn his people, as God had commanded him. Some of these signs were extremely personal to Ezekiel, such as when his wife died and he was not to mourn her loss. Ezekiel often represented either how Yahweh wanted Israel to be (for example, riding with the cherubim and manifesting God s glory in vision) or how Israel actually were (for instance, with the He shaved himself with a razor, weighing and dividing the hair to represent the judgement of Israel. 293

12 tongue cleaving to the roof of the mouth because they had forgotten Jerusalem [Ps. 137:6] and not mourning the death of his wife as the captives would not mourn the destruction of Jerusalem). In this sense Ezekiel was a sign of Israel, a human representative of the whole nation (Ezek. 4:5). The enactment of some of these signs would have been very uncomfortable, especially if those around ridiculed him; so in his commitment to them we see Ezekiel s total dedication to serving God. He put God first, far above personal dignity. Would we do the same? A man with a vision of the future How did Ezekiel get through the trial of these signs that he had to perform? How did he bring a message which would fall upon deaf ears and be aggressively resisted? To get through difficult times there is only one remedy: to have a vision of the future; to know that the burdens of today are of no consequence when compared with the glory promised in the future (Acts 14:22). Other men with a vision of the future include Abraham, who rejoiced, Jesus said, to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad (Jno. 8:56). The writer to the Hebrews, too, tells us that Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God (11:10). This faith in the evidence of things not seen (v. 1) is a hallmark of a man of faith, and such a vision will help him to overcome the everyday trials he finds himself in. We know our Lord Jesus Christ had a very clear vision of the future in his mind s eye, for we are told: for the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (12:2). In a world where visions of sin are pushed into our minds, we must be careful to ensure that our vision of God s Kingdom is bright that His visions are more real to us than anything we see on digital screens or in glossy magazines. This is essential to us, for Where there is no vision, the people perish (Prov. 29:18). Ezekiel was a man with a vision. Son of man Ezekiel is referred to as son of man just over ninety times in the book. As a man of sign to Israel, it is interesting to see his work pointing forward to the Son of man, Jesus Christ. Ezekiel s role was to attempt to bring Israel back to God. In this he was a type of the man Christ Jesus. As Ezekiel represented Israel, so he represented us, having sin-cursed nature (2 Cor. 5:21). He 294 was indeed the son of man whom God would strengthen (Ps. 80:17). The table opposite gives some of the parallels between Ezekiel and the Lord Jesus Christ. The nation s revival From some of the visions God gave him, Ezekiel had to learn very hard lessons as he was shown the wickedness of his people and the consequent departure of God s glory from them. Although this may have been depressing for Ezekiel, one of the most encouraging things revealed to him was the re-establishment of the nation of Israel and the future time when the glory of God would return to His people. We have been privileged in our lifetimes to see some of these restoration prophecies starting to come to pass. When I visited Israel it was exciting to read a verse from Ezekiel s prophecy printed on a monument to Holocaust survivors at the entrance of Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum. The quote is from Ezekiel 37:14: And [I] shall put My breath in you, and you shall live again, and I shall set you on your own soil. We know that the Jews return to their Land is a huge sign to us that the return of Christ is at hand. Israel have to dwell on the mountains of Israel for the invasion of Gog, with his great host coming out of the uttermost parts of the north (38:15, ESV), to take place. They have to be in the Land dwelling in safety (vv. 8-11,14), yet also dwelling in transgression (39:24), rejecting the Messiahship of Jesus, for it is only when the nations which gather against Jerusalem are destroyed that Israel will look on the one whom they pierced and mourn (Zech. 12:10). This will spark the process of the nation s return to Yahweh and their acceptance of Jesus as their Messiah. How wonderful it is for us to see this being fulfilled before our very eyes! How excited Ezekiel was when he saw these things when they were still in the distant future; and yet how much closer they are to us living in these latter days! Surely, then, the exhortation for us is to learn the practical lessons from Ezekiel s experiences and apply them in our lives, remembering that the hardships and pressures of today are nothing compared with what we shall enjoy, in God s mercy, when Jesus returns; and not being ashamed of the Word of God which we speak forth, but doing all we can to manifest the character of the Father in our lives. Let us, then, uphold the hope of Israel, and continue on our way with a vision of the future

13 Feature Ezekiel Jesus Christ Called Son of man 2:1 and throughout the book Mt. 8:20; Mk. 8:31; Lk. 5:24; Jno. 1:51 and throughout the Gospels Divinely strengthened Name means God will strengthen ; strengthened by visions (1:3) A priest 1:3 Heb. 4:15; 6:20 Began ministry at the age of thirty 1:1 Lk. 3:23 Despised by men Son of Buzi (1:3) meaning despised Ps. 80:17: God would strengthen the man of His right hand (Christ), the Son of man Isa. 53:3 Message unpopular 2:3; 3:7 Jno. 1:11 Man of sign 4:3 Lk. 2:34; Jno. 14:9; 17:6 The Spirit of God was with him 2:2 and at other times Lk. 3:22; the Holy Spirit remained with him Prophesied to Jews who associated themselves with Abraham 33:24 Jno. 8:33 God s representative to Israel 3:7,27 Mt. 1:23 Israel sins laid on him, suffering on behalf of the people as their representative 4:5 Isa. 53:6 Spoke God s word 1:3; 3:4 Jno. 3:34: Jesus was the Word made flesh (1:14) Noted for speaking in parables 20:49 Mt. 13:10-13 Had a vision of the future burning brightly before us. Let us be conscious of the hope that we share with Ezekiel, who concludes his wonderful prophecy concerning Chapters 33 48; other prophetic visions throughout his ministry Mt. 16:28 17:2; Heb. 12:2 the future position of Zion with the words: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there (48:35). Your Letters David s sons I am greatly enjoying Brother John Mitchell s series David the man after God s own heart. In instalment 29 ( Judgement and mercy, Jul. 2012, p. 246) he suggests that Solomon was the second son whom Bathsheba bore to David following the death of her first son as recorded in 2 Samuel 12. In 1 Chronicles 3:5, however, Solomon is listed as the fourth son of their marriage. If we follow Chronicles, it would seem that Shobab was the second son and that Solomon came later. This could to some extent explain the resentment, by the other sons of David, of Solomon being named as successor to the throne of Israel, because he was in fact the younger son. John Nicholls Chelmsford 295

14 Exposition Bible Workshop: Revelation 6 and 7 WHEN THE LAMB takes the book from the One seated on the throne, a paean of praise for the Lamb in his role as God s appointed Saviour is sung (Rev. 5:9-14). Following this, our attention is directed to what happens when the Lamb unseals the scroll he was given in verse 7. The breaking of the first six seals and the opening of the scroll to reveal what is written therein is the subject matter of chapters 6 and 7. What might we expect the sealed scroll to contain? What might be recorded there in the writing within and on the backside (5:1)? This phrase gives us a helpful Old Testament connection. Ezekiel, at the start of his prophetic ministry, was handed a scroll: And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; and he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe (Ezek. 2:9,10). Like the scroll described in Revelation 5, this one was written within and without. So we may expect that, as the Lamb opens each seal to discover what is written on the scroll, he too will reveal words of lamentations, and mourning, and woe. It is very clear, from the opening of the second, third and fourth seals in particular, that this is the case. The scroll that Ezekiel was given spoke of judgements upon Israel for its unfaithfulness. These judgements would be carried out by the surrounding powers of their world and bring about the temporary demise of the nation. But upon whom were the corresponding judgements in Revelation, revealed by the opening of each seal, to be poured out? Even with an early date for the writing of the Revelation, the judgements upon Israel spoken of by Jesus were imminent, and within a very short time the nation would be dispersed. Jesus prophecy that The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof (Mt. 21:43) would then be a reality. Furthermore, as already pointed out in the notes on chapters 2 and 3, the focus of the book has moved from Jerusalem and the land of Israel to the seven ecclesias in Asia. These would be comprised largely of Gentile believers. We take it, therefore, that the judgements revealed by the opening of the seals apply to the 296 Roman world of the believers in Christ in the first century onwards. God rules in the kingdom of men It may be helpful at this point to consider the work of God with the nations as presented by Daniel. The book of Daniel answers the unspoken question, Now that Babylon, the kingdom of men, has been overthrown by another human power, does that mean that the kingdom of men will always be triumphant? Both Daniel 2 and Daniel 4 make abundantly clear that the Kingdom of God will prevail because the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom He will, and sets over it the lowliest of men (4:17, RSV). The fate of the colossus of the kingdom of men is its destruction and replacement by the stone cut out without hands (2:34). The various phases of the image as depicted in Daniel 7 and 8 are removed by the execution of God s judgements on the nations involved. We can reasonably expect the same scenario to be worked out in the book of Revelation, even though, at the time of its writing, the Roman legs phase of the image was in control of the kingdom of men. It is on this arena that God s judgements are poured out. Sadly, the ecclesia of God did not maintain the faith in its purity, but, as predicted by Peter, Paul and Jude, became corrupt, so that only a remnant, described as the 144,000, are available to start their pilgrimage in the next era of the kingdom of men and the next section of the book of Revelation. Some readers may be concerned that there will be a need to know a lot about ancient history, and question why this should be necessary. We have already noted that Daniel speaks of a succession of kingdoms heading up the kingdom of men. From his perspective the events he spoke of had not yet happened. Once they had, the events would be history. We do not generally have a problem seeing the succession of empires in the image, largely because Daniel explains it for the reader. Looking back from our day we can see their identity and what for us is history, yet history from a divine perspective. In a similar way God spoke about His purpose with Israel so that the outcome could not be attributed to idol gods: I have declared the former

15 things from the beginning; and they went forth out of My mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass... I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them (Isa. 48:3,5). In an earlier challenge to the nations God says: Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth (43:9). The former things were history, and only God can produce the real meaning of history as evidence of His power and wisdom. Prophecy therefore explains the history that has happened and how what is yet to happen will turn out. For the readers of the Revelation in John s day, much was yet to happen, but the prophecies would help them understand their world as the judgements foretold took place. They would be assured that God was in control and could be relied on to fulfil His assurances of salvation for the faithful. For us today, most of the events spoken of will be history, but the effort to understand the symbols used and how the prophecies have been fulfilled, particularly in the big patterns of history, will help us to appreciate how the purpose of God has progressed and what big events and trends are yet to come. Interpreting the symbols with Old Testament guidance How, then, are we to understand the symbols used in the seal judgements of Revelation 6? God has assured His servants, Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). Prophecies given by means of symbols are often explained when they first occur. This is made very clear in Daniel 7 and 8, where the beasts from the sea (7:3) are identified as four kings, which shall arise out of the earth (v. 17). The two beasts of chapter 8 are also identified, the ram being Medo-Persia and the goat Greece (vv. 20,21). All in their time are kingdoms that dominate the world of their day for a fixed period of time. Since God declares Himself to be consistent For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed (Mal. 3:6) it is reasonable to suppose that the symbols used in Revelation will have their basis in earlier scriptures, and that it is to these pages that we should look for the interpretation of a symbol. Visual symbols have the advantage of conveying a lot of detail concisely; thus, when it is said of Nebuchadnezzar, Thou art this head of gold (Dan. 2:38), clearly it refers to more than the man himself: it incorporates the whole Babylonian system, with its philosophies, religion and form of government, from its inception to its fall, all of which was epitomised in the king. Two features come to our attention in the seal judgements. They are the pattern of the judgements and the symbol of horses. In the whole book there are three judgement episodes initiated in heaven and carried out in seven stages each on the earth. They are the seals, the trumpets and the bowls (vials). In each case the seven steps divide into an initial four followed by three more. When we consider the trumpet and bowl judgements it is clear that the first four judgements are directed to specific locations in the same order, namely; earth, sea, rivers and fountains of waters, and heavenly bodies. Is it reasonable therefore to expect that the judgements released by the opening of the first four seals also occur in these same locations? An answer to this question is found by considering the horses that are called into action as each of the first four seals is opened. Four horsemen Some expositors have looked at the horse as a symbol of the Roman state, on the basis that animals are used in Scripture to represent political powers. The dominant power at the time of John s receiving of the Revelation was the Roman state, and the horse is sometimes depicted as a symbol of that state on Roman coins. However, there is no scriptural precedent for seeing the horse as a symbol of a political power. The Old Testament use of horses as symbols is derived from Zechariah s prophecy. They are first seen in chapter 1 and, like those in Revelation 6, are coloured: red, white, and speckled (otherwise translated as bay or sorrel ). The red horse is ridden by a man (Zech. 1:8); and an angel explains to Zechariah, These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth (v. 10). Since these horses and riders are sent out by God, we may take it that the man on the red horse is an angel carrying out God s purpose in the earth. When we next see the horses in chapter 6 they are pulling chariots, which again reminds us of divine activity through angels (see Ps. 68:17; 297

16 2 Kgs. 6:17; Hab. 3:8). The meaning of these horses is again explained by an angel: And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four winds of heaven, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth (Zech. 6:5, RV). These agents of divine activity go out in different directions, just as literal winds blow directionally. The directions in which three of the coloured horses go are stated: The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go toward the west country, and the dappled ones go toward the south country (v. 6, RSV). In Zechariah the red horses are not stated as being sent in a particular direction, but if they were it would be reasonable to suggest that they went toward the east. If we think of the horses as winds then the black horse would be a south wind (blowing towards the north), the white horse an east wind, the dappled horse a north wind and the red horse a west wind. In this context it is significant that, after the sixth seal of Revelation is opened, angels are seen (Rev. 7:1) holding back the four winds from blowing in judgement (v. 3). If we understand the horses symbology from Zechariah correctly, then the four winds of divine judgement blow on the four quarters of the Roman empire thus: 1st seal (6:1,2) White horse Judgement from the east 2nd seal (6:3,4) Red horse Judgement from the west 3rd seal (6:5,6) Black horse Judgement from the south 4th seal (6:7,8) Pale horse Judgement from the north It remains for the student to determine what pressures came upon the Roman Empire from each direction, which, with the prayers of the Outline 6:1,2 First seal opened white horse judgement 6:3,4 Second seal opened red horse judgement 6:5,6 Third seal opened black horse judgement 6:7,8 Fourth seal opened pale horse judgement 6:9-11 Fifth seal opened souls under the altar 6:12-17 Sixth seal opened the great day of wrath described 7:1-8 The sealing of the 144,000 7:9-17 The great multitude before the throne 298 martyred saints under the altar, brought about the eclipse of Rome as a pagan power under the sixth seal. Exhortation There remain, of course, many interesting questions, some of which are raised under Discussion points and Tasks listed in the workshop section. But what exhortation can we derive today from what could otherwise be enigmatic chapters that found their fulfilment nearly two millennia ago? First, God is in control in the world. He manipulates the nations so that of their own will they perform His will. In the process they are judged, and the power and arrogance of man ultimately rebuked and removed. The demise of any phase of the kingdom of men takes place in stages, but it is also the arena within which the faithful are tested and developed. Secondly, God does hear the cry of the faithful. Those who remain faithful unto death whether they experience this naturally or are slain for the word of God (6:9) belong to the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6), depicted in Revelation, we suggest, as the temple in heaven. They are at rest until the day of resurrection when their faith will be vindicated, yet alive unto God (see Lk. 20:38). Thirdly, while the kingdom of men is in power, and even when it passes from one phase to another, there is always a faithful remnant, as shown by the 144,000 at the end of the seal period, who go through their pilgrimage under the trumpet period (cp. 7:3,4 with 14:1). Eric Marshall & Jeremy Thomas Discussion points 1 Remember that it is the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is unsealing the scroll in chapter 6, suggesting intimate involvement with and control of the events of history. What other New Testament passages support this teaching concerning the work of our Lord now? 2 The souls under the altar in the fifth seal (6:9,10) cry out for vengeance. How do we reconcile this with Jesus meek demeanour when done to death, and the requirement on disciples to follow his example (1 Pet. 2:21-23)? 3 The symbology of those suffering under the

17 altar during the time of the fifth seal may be taken from Leviticus 4, where the blood of the burnt offering was poured out at the bottom of the altar (vv. 7,18,25,30,34). Bearing in mind that souls and blood are connected, scripturally speaking, with the idea of life, what may this be telling us about the manner of their death and how it is seen by God? 4 The seals are opened in sequence. Did the effect of one seal have to be completed before the next one started? Or is it possible that, once opened, the effect of the judgement continues, like the wind, while the next starts, and so on? What would each possibility mean in practice, and what would we expect to find in the historical situation? 5 Are the 144,000 sealed in chapter 7 natural or spiritual Israelites? Give reasons for and against, taking into account the language used to describe events during the period in which they live (chs. 8 and 9). 6 Where have the great multitude described in 7:9-17 come from? Notice the link between 6:11 and 7:9,13,14. Given the clear evidence from the rest of Scripture that the redeemed sleep until the resurrection and do not find eternal bliss in heaven, in what sense can they be said to be before the throne of God (7:15)? 7 Chapter 7 closes with a number of paradoxes that would be difficult to understand if we were meant to take them literally: v. 14: the great multitude have made their garments white in the blood of the Lamb v. 15: God is enthroned in the heavenly temple but will at the same time dwell among them ( spread His tabernacle over them, NASB) v. 17: the Lamb will feed them ( be their shepherd, ESV). There are other such contradictions (humanly speaking) in Revelation. Why does Scripture use language in this way? Tasks 1 Insights into the temple in heaven run throughout the book of Revelation. As John describes it in chapter 5, the slain Lamb has just been presented before the throne, suggesting that a Passover is taking place. This seems to be confirmed by the description of the great multitude in 7:9,10. With palms in their hands they cry out, Salvation to our God ( Hosanna ), as occurred at Passover (see Mt. 21:8,9; Ps. 118:25). Using Old Testament information about the feasts of the Lord (for example, Lev. 23), look at the other descriptions of events in the temple in heaven to see how closely the cycle of feasts observed by Israel each year is being followed in this temple. If this is so, what implications might it have for our understanding of the book? 2 The living creatures described in chapter 4 are cherubim. In chapter 6 these call, in turn, to the horses to Come (most translations prefer Come to Come and see, which makes sense as it is the horses that respond to the call). The cherubim are described in considerable detail in Ezekiel 1. Use this information with the detail given in chapter 4 to determine in which direction each face looks. Compare the orientation of each of the cherubim in chapter 6 with that of the horse being called into action. What do you notice? 3 Much has been made, by some expositors of Revelation, of the links between the language of the sixth seal (6:12-17) and that of the Lord s Olivet Prophecy. This would support a view of Revelation which sees the sixth seal as speaking of the same events. Yet similar language is used in other prophecies which are not to do with Israel. Find as many of these links as you can. How can the symbols used be interpreted consistently, whether the prophecies in question concern Israel or Gentile nations? 4 A careful reading of chapter 7 makes it clear that the 144,000 (vv. 4-8) and the great multitude (vv. 9-17) are two distinct groups of people. List the details of the text which demonstrate this. Information The four winds that are initially held back by the four angels (7:1-3) seem to be identical with the first four trumpet blasts of chapter 8. This can be determined from the fact that the earth, the sea and the trees, which are for a time spared God s judgements, are the very things which suffer those judgements when they are finally poured out (see 8:7-12). It is at once fascinating and humbling to appreciate that these winds were delayed from blowing, and God s judgements therefore deferred, until His angels had sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads (7:3). 299

18 It is as if the God of heaven and earth is holding up history until He has identified who His people are, and has taken their physical and spiritual needs fully into account before the rest of the prophecy can proceed. Truly, Revelation is a book to encourage God s servants (1:1) as they watch the unfolding of His purpose in the world. Take-home point The Lord s response to those in the days of the fifth seal, suffering for their faith and calling out to him for vengeance, is perhaps unexpected, as he does not provide them with immediate relief. Indeed, his response is that they must endure further suffering, and be joined by others who will suffer similarly. Yet, along with this expectation of further tribulation until deliverance comes, he gives them white robes symbols of their righteousness in his sight, a tremendous assurance of his love and concern for them while they await his return. Such is the experience of all Christ s followers through the ages. In the overarching purpose of God, our Saviour is not always able to spare us the trouble which comes our way for his sake; but, while we wait for him, we need have no doubt of his feelings towards us, or of the wonderful reward which awaits us if we hold fast till he comes. Comments are welcome and will be considered for publication. Please send them to the Publishing Editor or the Assistant Editor addresses inside front cover. Exposition Why did Jesus perform miracles? 1. The man with divine authority Peter Forbes One aspect of Jesus ministry is that he performed miracles. Mostly he healed individuals and in so doing removed their suffering. We have to ask, Does Jesus performing miracles teach us that we must be involved in good works? Why did Jesus perform miracles? JOHN, AT THE END of his Gospel record, provides an explanation as to why he included by inspiration the signs that he did, saying, And many other signs truly did Jesus... but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ (Jno. 20:30,31). So John gives a very clear and concise reason for Jesus miracles. They were performed to demonstrate his Messiahship. Whilst John restricts his explanation to the signs he records, it is reasonable to conclude that this is part of the explanation for all the miracles that Jesus performed. 300 Jesus as Lord over creation In John 17:2 (RV) Jesus says,... as Thou gavest him authority over all flesh. Here he is alluding to Psalm 8:6: Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands. This shows that his role was to have authority over the whole of creation. The seemingly casual comment at the end of the record of Jesus temptations in the wilderness, that he was there in the wilderness... with the wild beasts (Mk. 1:13), is in fact another indication of his position. Preparations for his entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of the last week of his ministry further highlight Jesus authority over creation, when his disciples were advised, regarding the colt he rode into Jerusalem, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat (11:2). After healing the man at the pool of Bethesda, as recorded in John 5, Jesus was confronted by

19 the Jewish leaders. His response to their criticism and implied questioning as to why he had performed the miracle was that God had given him authority... because he is the Son of man (v. 27). The authority that Jesus had was actually an element of the responsibilities given to Adam at Creation, when God said, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth (Gen. 1:26). That privilege was lost when Adam and Eve sinned. However, it was not forgotten by God. It was conferred on Jesus, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). Although this authority was not acknowledged by the Jewish leaders of Jesus day, others did recognise it. The centurion whose servant was sick was one such individual. He understood that all Jesus needed to do was to speak the word (Mt. 8:8). He used his own experience as a centurion I am a man under authority... I say to this man, Go, and he goeth (v. 9) to perceive that God had given Jesus authority to perform miracles. In the saying of the centurion that all Jesus needed to do in order to heal was to speak, we are being reminded of the description of God s healing power for Israel: He sent His word, and healed them (Ps. 107:20). Taking by the hand There are a number of miracles recorded where, while performing the miracle, Jesus took the one being healed by the hand: Peter s mother-in-law (Mk. 1:31) Jairus daughter (Mt. 9:25; Mk. 5:41; Lk. 8:54) a blind man (Mk. 8:23) after the transfiguration, the epileptic child (9:27). Whilst it is no doubt true that these were the actions of a compassionate man, we must realise that Jesus actions were a further demonstration that he was the one whom God had provided to take away sins and heal the nation. Isaiah 51 prophesies of just this action. Isaiah shows that Israel was unable to provide a deliverer. The prophet says, the LORD shall comfort Zion (v. 3). However, the prophet is moved to ask, by whom shall I comfort thee? (v. 19). This was because There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up (v. 18). Jesus, in taking by the hand some of those he healed, demonstrated that he was the one who would comfort Zion. Israel was a sick nation When Israel came out of Egypt, there was not one feeble person among their tribes (Ps. 105:37). Further, God assured them that, if they were faithful to Him, He would take sickness away from the midst of [them] (Ex. 23:25). However, if they were rebellious, God would bring upon them all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee (Deut. 28:60). Matthew 8 and 9 block together ten miracles in which Jesus healed sick people. In the middle of this section Matthew is moved to inform us that the miracles were a fulfilment of Old Testament scripture, for he quotes Isaiah 53:4:... that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses (Mt. 8:17). Matthew records more miracles in these two chapters than in the rest of his Gospel put together. This focus (which does not give us a chronological list of miracles) is to demonstrate that Jesus was the one spoken of in the prophets who would heal Israel of her sickness. The miracles are not merely acts of kindness from a compassionate man; they are the very proof that he is the Messiah, the one who would save Israel from her sins. Who can forgive sin but God? The room was full of people, including Jewish religious leaders. Four enterprising men made a hole in the roof and lowered their paralysed friend into the room. Clearly they were aware that Jesus had been known to heal sick people. Jesus first words to the paralysed man were, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee (Mk. 2:5); which prompted some of the seated scribes to think to themselves, who can forgive sins but God only? (v. 7). Their presumption had a Scriptural basis, for God had said, I... am He That blotteth out thy transgressions... and will not remember thy sins (Isa. 43:25). Again, speaking of the implementation of the New Covenant, God said, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (Jer. 31:34). In order to validate his claim to have the ability and right to forgive sins, Jesus healed the man, saying, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way (Mk. 2:11). So the healing of the man was the evidence that showed that Jesus had power on earth to forgive sins (v. 10). Jesus representing God Jesus is showing that he is the Christ, God s representative. As such, he had the authority and 301

20 power to forgive sins. We must see the miracles against this background. They were not simply compassionate acts; they were a demonstration of the authority and status of Jesus. Any acts of kindness that we perform are good and right. However, it is not because Jesus performed miracles that we are required to do such acts. They must stem from an appreciation of our obligation to show forth the character of God. Compassion is but one element of that character. The second and third articles in this series will examine specific miracles and highlight the careful way that, by inspiration, Old Testament passages are woven into the narrative of the miracles. In so doing we shall see how the Scripture record of Jesus miracles, as well as being a historical account of actual events, shows Jesus as the one whom God had appointed to deliver the world from sin, sickness and death. (To be continued) World watchman Shaun Maher We cannot fail to have noticed reports in the news of the rising global tensions resulting from the ongoing unrest in Syria. Whilst the news stories focus on the appalling human suffering that always accompanies such brutal power struggles, we should be aware that we may be observing a key moment in the struggle for wider power and influence in the Middle East. Syria: caught in a struggle between Sunni and Shia THE CIVIL WAR in Syria has escalated in recent weeks following skirmishes with Turkey on her northern border, a bomb attack on the heart of the Syrian government that killed a number of senior officials in President Assad s inner circle, and another Russo-Chinese veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution. Relations between Syria and Turkey have become more hostile following the shooting down of a Turkish military aircraft in the border region. The Turks, who have one of the largest standing armies in the world (800,000 troops) have deployed forces to the Syrian border. As the unrest in Syria has continued, Russia continues to supply significant amounts of weaponry to Mr Assad s forces. It is important to recognise that the power struggle taking place in Syria is not just about Syrian freedom fighters who want a new government; it runs much deeper than that, and has far wider implications for the region. Syria is eighty per cent comprised of Sunni Muslims, yet is ruled by a powerful Alawite minority of Shia Muslims, and therefore strongly linked, ideologically, to the ayatollahs of Iran and the new Shia-dominated government in Iraq. The Shia Muslims of Iran and Syria support Hezbollah in Lebanon and have for years been fighting a proxy war with Israel by this means. A recent article in The Times newspaper, 1 written by Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who served as UK Defence Secretary and Foreign Secretary in the 1990s, pointed out that King Abdullah of Jordan (a Sunni) has referred to this grouping as the Shia Crescent that runs from Iran to Lebanon. King Abdullah views it as a threat to his country; and he is not alone. The southern Sunni nations of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the other Gulf states have been increasingly concerned by Iran s nuclear ambitions and the growth of her influence in the north, which now extends round to the Mediterranean. Saudi Arabia and Qatar in particular have been supplying arms and financial support to the Free Syrian Army to aid their efforts to depose the Assad régime and thereby deal a significant blow to Iran s axis of power in the north of the region. We cannot be certain where all of this will lead, but Syria seems to be noticeably absent from prophecies concerning 1. columnists/article ece (requires subscription). 302

21 Above and left: Aleppo in Syria, the scene of recent fierce fighting between rebel forces and government troops. Pictures: Jeremy Thomas events of the last days. The implosion of law and order and the outbreak of civil war that we are witnessing will, if unchecked, certainly weaken or perhaps even terminate Syrian influence in the region altogether and thereby remove a key ally of Iran. If the Assad government falls, then almost certainly a Sunni dominated government will take its place. Russian support ANOTHER issue worth noting is the way this conflict is intertwined with, and contributing to, the deterioration of relations between Russia and the USA and Britain. The Russians are keen to support the Syrian régime because Syria is to Russia what Israel is to the USA, as has been reported by some media outlets. In other words, Syria is the main conduit for Russian influence in the Middle East. If Syria descends into anarchy, Russia loses a key ally and significant influence in the region. It might be remembered that it is predominantly Russian know-how and protection that has facilitated Iran s nuclear programme and contributed to the tension between northern Shias and southern Sunnis. President Putin s trip to Israel at the end of June, when he met separately with the Palestinian Authority leader Mr Abbas and the Jewish Prime Minister Mr Netanyahu, reveals a clear intention to take a leading role in the affairs of the region. On the eve of the trip Mr Putin s top foreign-policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said that the visit would highlight the importance of this region for us and is designed to further strengthen Russia s position here. We are witnessing highly significant shifts in the politics of the Middle East and wider Arab world, with key regional and global powers involved in this power struggle that reaches the very borders of the Promised Land. We can be certain that these events are leading us ever closer to the great day of our Lord s appearing, for which we earnestly pray and patiently wait. The Bible is really beginning to come alive THE heading is quoted from an interview with Alistair Moffat, a historian with the Britain s DNA project ( com), during a recent interview on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. 2 This project is ex day/newsid_ / stm Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on his visit to Israel in June this year. In visiting Israel, the West Bank and Jordan in June, Mr Putin was signalling Russia s intention to take a leading role in the affairs of the region. Picture: Russian Presidential Press and Information Office 303

22 Alistair Moffat, Rector of the University of St Andrews and historian with the Britain s DNA project. ploring the ancestry of the British people by examining samples of DNA offered by members of the public. It has led to some interesting discoveries. The scientific evidence for a single female ancestor for the entire human race (commonly referred to as Eve ) has been widely reported in the scientific community for a number of years. Genetic evidence for an Adam has also been discovered more recently, but the scientists claim that the two lived thousands of years apart and could never have met. Of course, we have to remember that these conclusions are reached from an a priori assumption, based on flawed dating methods, 3 that humankind is hundreds of thousands of years old. One of the highlights shared in the radio interview related to a gentleman from Caithness in Scotland who was only two genetic mutations removed from the Eve DNA, effectively making him a genetic grandson of the first woman! Yet the project has also found nine people in Britain who have very close links in their DNA to the ancient realm and people of Sheba (vide the queen of Sheba mentioned in 1 Kings). Mr Moffat also enthusiastically shared the findings which a similar Canadian project had discovered when it examined DNA from men with the name Cohen. What was striking was that these men had very pure genetic material that had not been mixed up like the DNA that most of us have as a result of our varied ancestry. What is the reason that these Jewish men have such pure DNA? the interviewer asked. The reply was, They are the descendants of Aaron, and their forebears were the Levitical priests. Why should this lead to a very pure line of DNA? We know from the Law of Moses that there were strict rules regarding whom the priests were permitted to marry. Perhaps this explains the pure line of genetic material. This is fascinating information, and although it does not prove anything it is certainly another piece of interesting evidence to be taken into account alongside all the other scientific and archaeological discoveries of recent years that speak to us of the reliability and truth of God s Word. Never has there been more supplementary evidence that corroborates the historical veracity of Scripture; yet arguably there has never been a more godless age! Such things bring to mind the words that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:... always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 3:7, NKJV). Similarly, Paul s words in the opening section of his letter to the Roman ecclesia concerning the depravity of the world of his time are equally applicable to these last days (Rom. 1:18-32). Despite their knowledge, clever men and woman become as fools because they fail to give honour and glory to the Almighty Creator, and thus they become futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts are darkened. We thank our heavenly Father that He has revealed these things to those of simple heart and steadfast faith. 3. The commonly used dating methods are flawed for a number of reasons, primarily because of the assumption that all things particularly the rates of atomic decay caused by the sun s radiation have remained constant over many millennia. If we accept the biblical world-view, which incorporates the upheaval of Creation and the cataclysm of the Flood, then we appreciate that conditions on earth and in the atmosphere may have varied very significantly in early history. These biblical facts are disregarded by modern science. It is an axiom that the Word of God will stand true in every situation. If, therefore, a scientific theory seems to contradict or conflict with its teaching, either the Scripture has been misunderstood or misinterpreted, or else the scientific theory in question will eventually have to be abandoned or revised... God s Word stands true for all time because it is God s Word, and the Almighty does not need the services of our feeble intellects to contrive to make it true. Our simple duty is to open up the Word in such style that it will speak its own message convincingly enough not to need the support of the subtleties of human arguments based on a theory. Edward Whittaker, For the Study and Defence of the Holy Scripture, pp

23 Zionism* 5. The rise of Arab nationalism History Ray Walker In the years between the two World Wars, Arab hostility in the Land and the rise of Nazism in Germany combined to bring the Zionist movement and Jewish hopes to the brink of disaster. WE ENDED our last article with an apparent triumph for Zionism: the publishing of the Balfour Declaration. Dr Weizmann, always a realist, knew that paper promises counted for less than political realities, and that the Declaration was no more than a blueprint which would have to be implemented largely by the efforts of the Jews themselves. However, it was hailed by world Jewry as the great turning point of Zionism. Perhaps it was a turning point, but of a different kind from that expected by Jewry. For from this point hard political facts, those almost unforeseeable forces which shape the course of the history of nations, began to line themselves up against the fulfilment of Zionist hopes. Palestine now lay in British hands. During the war with Turkey Britain had been encouraging some of the Arab people to help the war effort by rebelling against the Turks. One of the people concerned in this movement was the extraordinary Englishman T. E. Lawrence. Under King Hussein of the Hijaz, these Arabs did rebel, and in return the British made them promises of territory. It is a much disputed point whether or not the same tracts of land were promised to the Arabs by the British right hand and to the Jews by the left. Be that as it may, when the war ended the Palestinian Arabs (who had played no part in the rebellion) expected Palestine to be given to them by right. In this way the Jew-Arab hostility was born. The third power in this uneasy land, Britain, was faced with conflicting obligations and competing interests. On the one hand were the Jews, with dollar-ridden American Jewry behind them; on the other, the Arabs, in possession of a commodity which was to become increasingly important: oil. Thus began the schizophrenic British involvement in Palestine. The words of Zechariah come to mind: And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it (12:3). If two small boys lay claim to the same toy, and father refuses to make a judgement in the matter, one thing will inevitably happen: the two boys will fight it out. In this case, however, the Jewish boy was considerably smaller than the Arab one, and therefore suffered grave disadvantage. Not only this, but the Jews in the Land had mainly come from Europe, and had a background of acceptance of law and of patience under persecution. On the other hand, the Arabs were a tribal people who were used to settling difference by blood feud. The time was to come when the Jews would rise and fight for themselves; but the first Arab attacks to fall in the Land brought mainly shock and bewilderment. Riots in Jerusalem in 1920 resulted in the death of six Jews, though many more were injured. This may seem a small total, compared with Jewish losses in pogroms before and after; but the shock and anger was greater because Palestine was the land they had sought as a haven from persecution; because this pogrom had happened under British administration, only three years after the Balfour Declaration; and because the British military authorities had appeared callously indifferent throughout the whole incident. In fact, rioting Arabs had been massing ominously at the Jaffa gate in Jerusalem as the Chief of Staff and the Chief Military Administrator had the left the city for a trip to Jericho. Afterwards there were enquiries and trials, and the British administrators began the process of blaming Jew and Arab alike for the riots an * First published in the Bible Student, Vol. 1 No. 5, Nov.- Dec

24 action repeated time and again under British rule. Yet only Jewish bodies lay in the streets of Jerusalem. In the later trials a young Jew, Captain Ze ev Jabotinsky, who had gathered a small band in hope of trying to defend the Jewish quarter in Jerusalem (and who had been promptly arrested by the British) was given the savage sentence of fifteen years of hard labour. Later riots in 1929 were more bloody, and showed how the problem was becoming daily more intractable. During these riots 133 Jews were killed and 339 injured. The inevitable Commission which followed made the comments that a national home for the Jews, in the sense in which it was widely understood, was inconsistent with the demands of Arab Nationalists, while the claims of Arab Nationalism, if admitted, would have rendered impossible the fulfilment of the pledge to the Jews. This was to be the conclusion of Commission after Commission and the final cause of the breakdown of Mandatory authority, leading to the withdrawal of Britain from Palestine. Thus the hard, unbending facts proved more and more hostile to the growth of a Jewish home in Palestine. Roses in the desert However grim the political situation might be, in the land actual growth continued. Ten thousand settlers a year a very small number were being permitted to enter the Land. Nevertheless, the growth of the agricultural settlements continued, most of the earlier communities being kibbutzim, run on communal lines by idealists who had perhaps been influenced by Marxism; later 306 Many settlements were built with watchtowers and stockades as defence against marauding and rioting Arabs, as in this model at the Museum of Kibbutz El Amal (Nir David) in the Beth-shean valley. Picture: Zoltan Kluger/Israeli Government Press Office settlements were often set up on more traditional peasant lines to suit a different kind of immigrant who did not take kindly to community life. These cooperative settlements were called moshavim. All types of settlers brought enthusiasm, and often a good deal of technical and scientific knowledge, into the development of these settlements. Under the loving care of its own people, land which had been desolate for centuries began to undergo an extraordinary transformation. Out of the stony and barren hills, out of the desert sands, Jews were coaxing green, fertile growth. Engineers designed irrigation works which brought life to areas which had lain barren for a millennium or more. One might have thought that the Arabs living in the Land would have benefited from this winning of lands from the desert. Like many unsophisticated people, however, they were afraid of modern developments. They saw the vigour and devotion of the small body of Jews as a terrifying thing, which, if its fervour was not quenched, would eventually swallow up all the land and property belonging to them. From this point of view, the clash between Arab and Jew can be seen as the opposition of two kinds of people with different cultures, who cannot understand each other, and are therefore afraid. The Jews were European in culture and organisation, progressive, able and technologically minded. The Arabs were eastern in thought, fatalistic, and subject to irrational fears. Like oil and water, the two peoples could not mix. And the third kind of people in the Land, the British administrators, like so many civilised people, were more favourably inclined toward the picturesque and

25 unsophisticated Arabs than to the aggressively modern Jews. During these inter-war years the greater part of the work of Chaim Weizmann was done. Apart from his dedicated work in organising the transformation of town Jews into rugged farmers, so avoiding to a degree the suburban development which was so vulnerable to Arab attack, he laid the foundation stone, built, and raised to international repute the great Hebrew University and the Weizmann Institute of Science. The foundation stone of the university was laid in 1918, while guns could still be heard booming in the north. In 1925 the university on Mount Scopus was officially opened by Lord Balfour. Thus, in Palestine, science walked hand in hand with the spade; either of these two, without the other, might never have succeeded in building the Jewish state of the kind which eventually came into being. The betrayal The riots of 1929, again instigated by Arabs, which began in Jerusalem, spread throughout the country, and six remote settlements were virtually destroyed. The insecurity felt by all Jews in the Land was intensified by the White Paper issued by the British Government in This apportioned blame for the riots equally on Jews and Arabs (in spite of the mute testimony of 150 Jewish dead), but recommended the application of restrictions on Jews only. Immigration should be suspended, land purchase restricted. To the Jews this not only appeared grossly unfair, but a direct encouragement to the Arabs to continue their attacks in the hope of winning more concessions. Above all, it was to some degree a betrayal by the British Government of the promise given in the Balfour Declaration. Successive governments were to complete the betrayal, a step at a time. White Paper was to follow White Paper, each more hostile to the Jews than the previous one; each was to be greeted by Jewry with growing bitterness, disillusionment and resentment. Dr Weizmann, a patient, restrained man, was moved to anger by the publishing of the 1930 White Paper, with its breach of faith. One thing the Jews will never forgive, he said to Lord Passfield, and that is having been fooled. Weizmann s attacks, and the attacks of world Jewry, eventually forced the prime minister, Ramsay Macdonald, to retract most of the White Paper in a letter sent to Weizmann. This action produced predictable results: the Arabs were enraged and claimed that the British Government had gone back on its word; the Zionist movement, which wanted a complete retraction in another White Paper, voted Weizmann out of his presidency of the Jewish Congress. Under strain, and mistrustful of the British, the Jews began to forsake the course of law and to organise illegal immigration into the Land. The rise of the crooked cross In 1933 Hitler and the Nazi party seized power in Germany. There followed perhaps the worst persecution that the Jews had ever known. This is not the place to chronicle the cruelty and horror of those days. What happened in Germany, however, had a violent effect on the Zionist movement. For large numbers of Jews were fleeing daily from Germany, and many tried to enter Palestine. Pressure to increase immigration into Palestine grew urgent. Driven by the fear that unlimited immigration of Jews would result in a Jewish majority in Palestine, the Arabs launched a frenzied campaign of terror. A great riot broke out in 1936; the British Government produced another White Paper. If the White Paper of 1930 had been a shock to Jewry, the paper of 1937 came as a disaster. These were the days of appeasement, and the Jews were not the only minority to be sacrificed on the altar of a hope for peace at any cost. With German Jewry crying to enter the Land, and with Arabs murdering within it, the solution Britain offered the Jews was to reduce still further the numbers permitted to enter the Land and to curtail the purchase of land. This White Paper, issued during the critical year of 1939, was the final, complete betrayal of Hitler at a rally in Germany. 307

26 the Balfour Declaration. It proposed that Palestine within ten years should become an independent state in treaty relations with Britain. Jewish immigration was to be restricted for the next five years; thereafter there would be no Jewish immigration without the consent of the Palestine Arabs and this virtually meant none at all. The British had no mandate from the League of Nations to hand over the Land to Arab control in this way; they certainly had no mandate from God, Whose Land this was. The effect of the Paper was to intensify what was know as illegal immigration. Hopeless refugees with nowhere to go, and no country which would take them in, made agonising attempts to reach Palestine. Large numbers of them hired old, unseaworthy vessels and packed them with as many refugees as they would hold. Some of the ships foundered and were lost without even reaching land. Others came within sight of the Palestinian shores, and were turned back by the British. No port in the Mediterranean would take them; they were turned away from one land after another. These ships came to be called coffin boats ; no catastrophe to these could move the government from its unbending attitude in the matter of immigration. It is said that the foreign secretary refused to read reports of the slaughter taking place in Germany, and insisted that the case of German Jews was not nearly so bad as it had been painted. For the record, it is worth remembering that among the few who opposed the White Paper in Parliament was Mr Winston Churchill. World war and its sequel The declaration of war brought the problem of Palestine onto a large canvas. The twenty-first Zionist Congress, held after the outbreak of war in 1939, pledged its support for Britain and the allies. It might be thought incredible that Zionist Jews should publicly demonstrate their support for Britain after the White Paper of 1939, at a time when Britain s callous treatment of Jewish refugees from Germany was angering Jews all over the world. Yet Zionists have always been realists, in spite of the apparent fantasy of their aims. Germany was showing her fanatical hostility to all Jews in the concentrations camps and extermination chambers; the Jews of Palestine, a small group in a hostile world, could do no other than support the friends they had, though they knew those friends had every intention of betraying them. 308 Zionists therefore offered to form a Jewish corps; eventually they were permitted to form a battalion; and so Jews fought side by side with the British during the war. In 1942 the German forces in Africa under Rommel began their victorious advance eastwards. The Allied forces were pressed backwards to the borders of Egypt. The possibility of a German advance into Palestine became a near certainty. The Allied troops were woefully short of supplies and equipment. Tanks and planes were urgently needed, and the Allied nations could not produce them. The consequences of a German occupation of Palestine were understood by the Jewish settlers there in stark reality. Britain had already informed them that she was not prepared to defend Palestine. If Egypt fell, Britain would fall back on India. Those who had found in the Land a haven from German persecution knew that a German advance must mean the brutal annihilation of all Jews in Palestine, the final end of all the work built up over the long years. Plans were made. All the elderly Jews were to commit suicide; the young were to take to the hills and fight to the last man. The only hope for the Jews lay in massive American help for the Allies in order to halt the German armies, and the Americans were not yet psychologically geared to total war. The Allies put in a desperate plea for tanks and planes; the Zionists added their voices as from men ready to perish. The story of the halt of Rommel is written in some of the most dramatic history of the war. The Americans responded magnificently; supplies were rushed urgently across the Atlantic; and the battle of Alamein brought the Allies their first real victory of the war. Was this again coincidence? Or was it the working of the hand of God? Does this tale not impress how often, again and again, the Zionist movement has been in extreme danger of extinction? Yet, time and again, on the brink of disaster, the movement has been dragged back to a place among the living. Can the history of any other nation match these events? With the close of the war some relief from danger might have been expected. Yet the climax of the story was not yet reached. Events move faster now to the final struggle for nationhood which the Jews faced, in the end, entirely alone. (To be concluded)

27 Principles of prophecy Unmasking the false prophet Prophecy Andrew White Scripture is its own best guide to its interpretation, teaching us to [compare] spiritual things with spiritual (1 Cor. 2:13). In the case of prophecy, there is often Old Testament guidance as to the meaning of New Testament symbology. A QUICK TOUR of the Internet will reveal a variety of opinions on the identity of the false prophet of Revelation. From the current US president to Iran s President Ahmadinejad, there is a wide spectrum of ideas that might bewilder even the most earnest enquirer. So how can we, knee-deep in this welter of opinions, make sense of the passages in Revelation which mention this false prophet and correctly identify him? And does it matter anyway? The title false prophet first appears in Revelation during the time of the sixth vial, immediately prior to Christ s warning of his second coming: And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame (Rev. 16:13-15). Deceptive unclean and frog-like teachings are propagated by the false prophet working in alliance with the beast and the dragon. Given that this is the final sign before the appearing of Christ, it is of vital importance to our generation. Logically we would expect it to rank very highly among the prophetic signs given by our Lord Jesus to shew [us] things which must shortly come to pass (1:1). Yet, somewhat mysteriously, the false prophet appears in the text with no special introduction as though we should instantly recognise him. Some commentators have therefore identified the false prophet as Mohammed, citing as prima facie evidence Islam s emphasis on the status of the founder of its religion as a prophet. The link is no stronger than this, however, so may it not be a step too far to claim that he is the false prophet of Revelation? Any confidence we have in interpreting the sign must be founded on sound biblical analysis. As the phrase appears in Revelation 16 without any introduction, it is prudent to ask whether there is any prior biblical usage to guide our understanding. The biblical theme of Babylon versus Zion from Genesis onward (Nimrod, the first king of Babylon, and Melchizedek king of Salem standing in antithesis) suggests that Babylon, rather than Islam, would be a more promising place to look for the origins of such a prominent false prophet. Today, mystical Babylon continues the traditions and philosophies of ancient Babylon, and the bishop of Rome may therefore be seen as a candidate for one fulfilling the role of a supposed prophet. In suggesting this connection, however, it is not unreasonable to ask why in the book of Revelation Christ would use the symbols of both the harlot (ch. 17) and the false prophet in connection with the Roman church. We find an answer if we note that the harlot stands for the apostate system as a whole, whereas the false prophet like the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians 2 refers rather to the leader of that system. False prophets and a falling away In the broad scope of Scripture there is a substantial collection of references to false prophets, which assists in identifying the false prophet of the Apocalypse: In Deuteronomy Moses directed Israel regarding their response to the false prophet who hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God (13:5). In a sense, the arrival of false prophets was providential, for by this means the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God 309

28 with all your heart and with all your soul (v. 3). An infallible test was provided whereby they could differentiate between false and true prophets: namely, whether the prophet s words came to pass (18:22). Later, the contest between Jeremiah and the false prophet Hananiah was a similar trial for Israel. Jeremiah quotes from the test appointed in Deuteronomy 18: The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him (Jer. 28:9). Hananiah s deceptive words of peace were powerfully appealing: thou makest this people to trust in a lie (v. 15). Specifically, Hananiah taught rebellion against the LORD (v. 16). In Ezekiel 13, false prophets are likened to those who whitewash over the imperfections in an unstable wall. They seduced [God s] people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace (v. 10). In all these Old Testament examples we see a false prophet operating among Israel and seducing the nation away from a belief of the truth with appealing, deceptive words. The result was catastrophic, as God s people turned away to false religion. The words of the false prophets were believed, and the hearers lapsed into rebellion, refusing to hear the true prophets God sent them (2 Chron. 36:15,16). Here again is the close connection between false prophets and rebellion or falling away. In a similar vein the Lord Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, warns of false prophets who would operate like ravening wolves to devour the flock (Mt. 24:11,24). Their motivation would be to gain a following, like the false brethren of Acts 20:30, appearing outwardly the very epitome of true disciples, having donned sheep s clothing. Again the threat was for believers. Paul, in his famous prophecy of the rise of the man of sin, predicts a falling away (Gk. apostasia) because certain disciples received not the love of the truth (2 Thess. 2:10). Peter, in his Second Epistle, warns of false prophets who would employ covetousness and feigned words (Gk. plastic words words that could be squeezed into the minds of believers on the grounds of convenience, in preference to the harsh realities of truth) to make merchandise of believers (2:3). They would speak great swelling words of vanity, using artful seduction to allure through the 310 lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error (v. 18). Biblical usage of false prophet Throughout Scripture, then, the term false prophet refers to a teacher who seduces the people of God away from truth to error. Therefore, when the New Testament warned of an apostasy so great as to constitute a sign, developing into a rival system of worship headed by a man of sin, and when that system is symbolised in Revelation as a harlot, we discern that the pure ecclesia has been seduced and turned away from the truth. Those responsible were just what Paul had feared: such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ (2 Cor. 11:13). Given this consistent biblical usage, the phrase false prophet can be seen to refer not merely to any false teacher, but specifically to false teachers linked to the system which drew away early believers into apostasy. This has been fulfilled in the Church of Rome. Islam, by comparison, has never had such an influence. Its origins are not Christian and it has never caused a systematic falling away of true believers. Mohammed, too, has no last-days representative such as the one adopted in Christendom on the grounds of the so-called apostolic succession. By contrast, as the head of an apostate system the bishop of Rome is a teacher of heresy par excellence. Since 1870 he has claimed the ability to speak infallibly ex cathedra. 1 This is indeed a prophet to be reckoned with. The title false prophet puts emphasis on the words spoken, and his appearance in Revelation during the sixth-vial period is appropriate given the changes observable in the development of the modern papacy. The thousand-year tradition of coronation for elected popes has been dispensed with in favour of the more mundane inauguration. This symbol of the visible loss of the pope s temporal power over the Papal States shows the appropriateness of the false-prophet title for the latter days. (The earlier symbol for the same character, the image of the beast [Revelation 13], which 1. Latin: from the chair, referring to occasions when the pope invokes his claim that he speaks from the throne of, and consequently with the authority of, St Peter, from whom he claims succession. The Catholic Church alleges that statements made ex cathedra are infallible.

29 exercised temporal power, will be discussed in a future article, God willing.) So is there any prophecy relating to Europe where there is an emphasis on teaching or a verbally delivered message in the last days? The answer is an emphatic Yes. Daniel, in his vision of the beasts, hears the little horn of the Roman fourth beast speaking great words immediately prior to the beast s destruction: I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake (7:11). From this we gather that the words were so audible and the message so stirring ( great words ) that it caused Daniel to look even more intently ( I beheld then ). The historical consolidation of papal power in the eighth century by means of the conquests of Pepin and Charlemagne have been well matched to the section of Daniel s vision concerning the uprooting of three horns to make way for the little horn with eyes and mouth. 2 Daniel and John are referring to the same power using different symbols, but both place emphasis upon its mouth and therefore its teaching at the end times. The spirit of antichrist as a means of identifying the false prophet The Greek word for false prophet in Revelation 16:13, pseudoprophētēs, occurs also in 1 John 4, where we discover a connection between the false prophets and the spirit of antichrist : Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world (vv. 1-3). The spirit of antichrist is used by John as a means of identifying the false prophets he speaks of. The word antichrist means in place of Christ. 3 The Latin equivalent is vicar (from which we get the word vicarious acting or serving in the place of another). This has resonance in the development of false Christianity but not of Islam. Over time the Roman bishop has come to be seen as the pre-eminent example of the spirit of antichrist: The leader of the Catholic Church is defined by the faith as the Vicar of Jesus Christ (and is accepted by such as believers). The Pope is considered the man on earth who represents the Son of God, who takes the place of Second Person of the omnipotent God of the Trinity. 4 A further test is given concerning the question of whether or not Christ came in the flesh: For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist (2 Jno. v. 7). This early error has developed significantly within the Catholic Church, where the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception places Mary, in effect, above ordinary women, a unique status which (according to the Church) enables Christ to have been born with a nature higher than that of other men. Again, there is no equivalent teaching concerning the nature of Christ in Islam. New Testament usage of the Greek word pseudoprophētēs therefore indicates that we are to look for an interpretation within Christendom rather than in a non-christian religion. The false prophet in the first century and in the latter days Another important consideration in the identification of the false prophet of Revelation is that the apostate system spoken of had its origins in the first century. The antichrist passages in the letters of John and Paul s prophecy of the rise of the man of sin (2 Thess. 2) emphasise this: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world (1 Jno. 4:3); For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way (2 Thess. 2:7). This important detail is inconsistent with Islam, a religion founded in the seventh century. Furthermore, the false prophet is linked with the beast system at the end times, as a teacher propagating unclean, frog-like spirits alongside the beast and the dragon (Rev. 16:13), and as a powerful deceiver working among the beast s adherents: And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he 2. See, for example, chapter VII of The Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse by Sir Isaac Newton. 3. See Strong s no. G473 for New Testament evidence of anti meaning instead of. J.D.T. 4. Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope,

30 deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone (19:20). This connection with the Roman beast better links the false prophet with the papacy than with Islam, as Islam has never operated as the dominant religion of Roman Europe. The false prophet of Revelation can be seen, then, as the pre-eminent example of a system of false prophets dating back to the first century. Its teaching has led to innumerable numbers of people falling away from the truth, and it continues to deceive its adherents into error today. Thus, although Mohammed is called a prophet, and is clearly a false one, the title false prophet biblically defined is an inappropriate label for him. Review 312 Difficult as it is to grapple with some of the details of prophecy in our attempt to piece together clues as to the identity of the false prophet, it is not an insurmountable task. The Lord Jesus gave his servants the Apocalypse to shew (1:1) to reveal things that would happen. The importance of understanding the main elements of the vision should not be dismissed. The Lord Jesus command concerning mystical Babylon is, Come out of her, my people (18:4) a command which cannot be obeyed if we remain uncertain as to its interpretation. The false prophet operating in the end times is a significant element of Jesus prophecy. As hearers of Christ s words we should devote time to seeking to understand the message he gave, especially that part of the prophecy which specifically relates to our times. Lessons from faithful Gentiles for young people John Nicholls The Whole Armor of God. Ryan Mutter, pages, paperback. Published by The Christadelphian Tidings Publishing Company (www. tidings.org). ISBN UK Price: 5. Obtainable in the UK from Sister (Mrs) Muriel Whittaker, 9 Stock Lane, Shavington, CREWE, Cheshire, CW2 5ED (murielwhittaker@ googl .com; tel ). THIS BOOK is a work of fiction, written for teenagers as an alternative to the abundant supply of worldly books that is so readily available for our young people today. The author has young children and wants them, and the children of the Brotherhood, to have access to books that impart spiritual lessons by means of stories. Much of Scripture is in this format, and this is why it is so easy to capture the imaginations of young children by simply telling them Bible stories. The same is true for teenagers, undergoing the transition from childhood to adulthood. The author, Brother Ryan Mutter, sees a need for more literature of this kind, and The Whole Armor of God is designed to help fill this perceived gap in Christadelphian publishing. Having a grandson who has just become a teenager, I gave him my copy and asked him to read it and write down his impressions. I was pleased to receive a short review from him, and I reproduce it in full: My review of The Whole Armor of God by Ryan Mutter This book is about the journey of a boy who is still learning about God, or Yahweh as He is referred to in this book, and about the rights and wrongs of the Law of Moses. Malchiah is a young teenager living during the reign of King Jotham. His clan, the house of Rechab, is threatened both by the moral decay of its neighbours, and by foreign raiders who pillage the land. Malchiah faces challenges that test his resolve to stick to the principles of truth he has learned. But even though he is only a poor young shepherd,

31 the decisions he makes have consequences that impact his entire community. His choices matter. I found this book an interesting insight into how other nations and clans also followed God, but did so more thoroughly than the children of Israel. The book allowed me to explore the history of Israel, but in a simpler manner with less detail, yet more scriptural input than in some other books. We can learn a lot from this book: to look beyond the first meaning of the Scriptures; that faith and trust in God pay off; and that, when the world around us is crumbling down, becoming full of idols and new temptations, we have to stay strong in our faith in the Truth and put our trust, belief and hope in God. Henry Nicholls The conclusion of the story is a great victory for Malchiah and the Rechabites over the Ammonites. The author includes a short epilogue on the Rechabites and the lessons that these Gentile believers provide for Christadelphians, who, like them, are predominantly Gentiles who have embraced the Hope of Israel. Some endnotes and scriptural references complete the book, which is illustrated with a few nice line drawings. Buy a copy for your children and grandchildren, and perhaps you, like me, will enjoy reading it for yourself before you give it to them! And maybe you will think about writing something similar to help fill the gap in Christadelphian books for the up-and-coming youngsters of our community. The Levitical tax Richard Morgan Exhortation The bread and cup, which we share together each week in memory of our Lord Jesus Christ, speak to us of a life devoted in service to God: first, the life of Jesus himself, given freely for our sake, and then our own life, as we measure our individual response to our Lord s sacrifice. There is no material gain we can hope to obtain from this kind of service. Rather, we serve God in faith and hope, knowing that our reward awaits us at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. IN OLD TESTAMENT times the tribe of Levi was called on to perform spiritual service in the tabernacle. Numbers 18 describes the role of the Levites, who (as we shall see) were given as a gift to the high priest. They were the workers in the tabernacle, taking charge of organising the sacrifices, trimming the lamps and making other practical arrangements. This was their life; the chapter states that they had no inheritance in the Land of Israel. They serve as an example for us, who are to become spiritual Levites, labouring not for the shallow rewards of this life but instead giving our whole lives as gifts of service to our Lord Jesus Christ. The symbolism of the relationship between the Levites and the high priest of Israel parallels the marriage between Christ and his ecclesia. God tells Aaron that the Levites were to be joined unto thee (Num. 18:2,4), and joined is the very meaning of the name Levi. Thus they became, as it were, a help meet for their spiritual husband for all the service of the tabernacle (v. 4). The fact that they were given as a gift for the LORD (v. 6) reinforces the marriage symbology. As part of their responsibilities the Levites were commanded to devote their lives as a service of gift (v. 7) in all aspects of the tabernacle worship, speaking to us of our need to give ourselves as gifts of service in the ecclesia. Yet the tribe of Levi had no physical inheritance in the Land of Promise. The high priest was told, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them (v. 20). In order to live, the Levites were given a tenth the tithe, or tax from the rest of the nation of Israel: And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance (v. 21). There is, within the pages of Scripture, a record of a Levite man whose name means gift of Yahweh and who is connected with such taxes. 1 Chronicles 9 lists some of the Levites and the duties they were to perform in the house of God, and there is one particular Levite singled 313

32 out in verse 31: Mattithiah, one of the Levites... had the set office over the things that were made in the pans. Here is Mattithiah engaged in offering his gift of service to Yahweh. The main use of the frying pan in tabernacle worship was for the grain offering, or mincah. Leviticus 2, for example, talks of a meat [RV, grain] offering baken in the fryingpan (v. 7). How appropriate that Mattithiah, gift of Yahweh, should have the charge over this offering, since the word mincah also means gift! What does the grain offering symbolise? Our own gift of service to God. Note the ingredients listed in Leviticus 2: his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon (v. 1). The recipe for the mincah consisted of flour, oil and incense, and on these ingredients tabernacle worship centred: flour for the table of shewbread, oil for the lampstand, incense for the altar of incense. These ingredients in the holy place of the tabernacle become symbolic of our own worship in the house of God. The first-century Jerusalem ecclesia continued stedfastly in the apostles doctrine [represented by the lampstand] and fellowship, and breaking of bread [the table of shewbread], and in prayers [the altar of incense] (Acts 2:42). This is our ecclesial pattern too; so how can our ecclesias operate without spiritual Levites offering their spiritual mincahs? For our own house of God to operate effectively we each need to be bringing our spiritual flour, oil and incense after the example of the Levites. The name Mattithiah is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek name Matthew. We are introduced to New Testament Matthew, the disciple of the Master, in Matthew 9:9, where Jesus invites him to give himself as a gift to Yahweh to serve God s High Priest. Luke introduces him (5:27) by his other name, Levi. Here again is a spiritual Levite, joining himself to his Lord. It is quite remarkable that Matthew left all, rose up, and followed him (v. 28). His life as a tax collector may have made him very wealthy indeed, verse 29 reveals that he owned a large house where he had wined and dined with other rich men. Now he was going to leave this inheritance for Christ. Leaving all and following meant abandoning a life of luxury and wealth for a very different kind of life. Matthew truly became a spiritual Levite and a gift of Yahweh given in service to Jesus, the High Priest. Mark 2:14 tells us that Matthew was the son of Alphæus, whose name, of Hebrew origin, means to exchange in the sense of giving something in exchange for services rendered. Today we might use the words remuneration or compensation. Doubtless Matthew the tax collector s remuneration was considerable before he came to Christ. But Matthew left his exchange, and by becoming a disciple of Christ his reward of service as a tax collector was gone. The Hebrew word cheleph, from where the name Alphæus is derived, is found in only one chapter in the Old Testament: Numbers 18, where we began. In verse 21 the Levites are given the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for [Heb. cheleph] their service which they serve. Similarly in verse 31, the Levites are instructed to eat of the produce tithed to them, for it is your reward for [Heb. cheleph] your service in the tabernacle of the congregation. Here was God s provision for them in lieu of any other remuneration, His gift to the Levites in exchange for giving their lives as a gift to Him. In the same passage, in the increase of the threshingfloor, and... the increase of the winepress (v. 30), we see foreshadowed the bread and cup by which we keep in memory our High Priest, remembering that we have been given as a gift to him. By serving him in the spiritual tabernacle, the ecclesia, we shall receive from God an amazing gift, inheritance in the Kingdom of God something that far outweighs any reward this world has to offer. Goodbye take care! Take care. It has become the standard form of parting, but I can t say I care for it. Fine, if it were a genuine warning of unseen danger ( What? Is there a wolf loose in Westbourne Grove? ). But it isn t. It s a secular version of Goodbye (God be with you), the implication being that human concern is an effective replacement for divine benevolence. Yet one has only to examine the dire status of care for the elderly, community care and children in care terms which all imply much the same to realise that secular society isn t very good at caring. In their assault on religion, god-slayers and ghost-busters like Richard Dawkins gloss this point. But if you need someone to care for the lonely, the sick, the brutalised, who you goin to call... Mother Theresa or Christopher Hitchens? Jeremy O Grady, The Week, 19 May

33 John s First Epistle 8. God is love Mark Allfree In the first part of 1 John 4 the apostle seeks to warn the brethren against the false teaching of antichrist, and he provides detailed information regarding the identity of this apostasy. When we reach 1 John 4:7 we find John returning once again to the subject of love, one of the key themes of his First Epistle. Exposition the atonement. Those who held to this false doctrine were denying the Lord who had bought them, and in so doing they were denying the love of God. That was a very serious thing to do, because they were placing themselves outside of the scope of God s salvation. WE HAVE SEEN previously that the commandment to love one another was enshrined in the Word of life that was from the beginning, back in Leviticus 19. But now, John s exhortation that his readers should love one another is based on the fact that God is love : Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love (1 Jno. 4:7,8). If God is love, and if we profess to be children of God, then we too should love one another. This is the essence of John s teaching here. What we must do now is to consider, with John, the nature and the extent of the love of God. 1. Related to the atonement John first points out that the love of God for us has to do with the atonement: Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (v. 10). We again meet the word propitiation that we considered in the third part of this series. 1 It is closely related to the word translated mercyseat in Hebrews 9:5, and John is directing us once again to consider the great Day of Atonement when the iniquities, transgressions and sins of the nation of Israel were forgiven when the high priest went into the most holy place, not without blood, which was sprinkled on the mercy seat. For us, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 Jno. 1:7), and we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement (Rom. 5:11). The spirit of antichrist of which John has been warning his readers had to do with a denial of 2. Through no merit on our part John very carefully points out that love originated from God, not from us: Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins... We love Him, because He first loved us (1 Jno. 4:10,19). God first loved us. He was the prime mover. Furthermore, the love of God has been declared unto us through no merit on our part. We are completely undeserving of God s love. God does not change, and the way He has chosen to bestow His love upon His children is consistent with the way He acted in times past in relation to His people Israel: The LORD did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: but because the LORD loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt (Deut. 7:7,8). This was what God said to His people in the wilderness. If they were to ask why God had bestowed His love upon them, in delivering them out of Egypt, and bringing them to the land of promise, the answer was this: Yahweh set his love upon you... because Yahweh loved you simply this. God loved them; not because they were better or greater than any other nation, but just because God loved them, and because He had sworn with an oath to the fathers of old. But as the recipients of God s love there were responsibilities imposed upon them, as we can 1. Jan. 2012, p

34 see from Deuteronomy 10:15,18,19: Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day... He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. God loved Israel when they were strangers in a strange land; they were therefore to love the stranger likewise. This is the essence of what John is also saying to us in his epistle. God has seen fit to bestow His love upon us; ours is not to question why, simply to accept with thanksgiving. But if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 3. Related to the world What John has to say about the love of God is very much connected with the world: In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him... And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world (1 Jno. 4:9,14). Our minds go immediately to that most well known and most misunderstood verse, John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The general opinion is that this verse is talking about God loving the world generally, but what we have seen in these studies is that when John speaks about the world, the kosmos, he is using the term in a specific sense to denote the Jewish world, which in his days was about to pass away. If this is true, and John 3:16 is therefore speaking about God s love for His people Israel, how are we involved in God s love? How is it the case that In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world? We must begin from first principles. God does not love the world generally To maintain that God loves the entire world of mankind and that He wishes to save the human race generally contradicts the teaching of Scripture that the purpose of God is being worked out according to election (Rom. 9:11) in other words, God chooses to whom the message of salvation will be offered. Never in Scripture does God declare His love for the pagan Gentile world. He did not love the Canaanite world, the Egyptian world, the Babylonian world or the Roman world 316 of the New Testament period. There is no evidence that He loves our world any more than He loved the pagan world of bygone days. There is, however, abundant testimony to the fact that He loved Israel, and He frequently places this on record: I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau (Mal. 1:2,3); The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee (Jer. 31:3). Thus John 3:16 is not talking about the human race as a whole, but of the nation that God had separated to be His peculiar treasure and to which He specifically sent His Son. It was of Israel the nation among whom Jesus conducted his ministry that it was said: God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The context requires this understanding because, concerning those in Jewry who rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, John said, And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (v. 19). The world in question was the world that was offered salvation by the one who called himself the light of the world (Jno. 9:5), and that rejected it because their deeds were evil. This can apply only to the Jewish people. Jesus himself said that salvation is of the Jews (4:22), and that he was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Mt. 15:24). The Bible hope is the hope of Israel (Acts 28:20). But, of course, there is room within God s plan of salvation for Gentiles who come to Him in faith there always has been. So we return to the question, If the world in John s writings is the Jewish world, how do the Gentiles figure in John 3:16? Serpent on the pole The context of John 3:16 is the incident of the serpent on the pole that we have recorded in Numbers 21: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life (Jno. 3:14,15). The answer to the difficulty lies in Numbers 21. Moses was commanded to make a serpent of brass and set it on a pole. Any man who looked upon that brazen serpent was healed. Note that the record is very specific that the opportunity of deliverance from the sting of the serpents

35 was available to every man in the encampment of Israel: And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived (Num. 21:8,9). Clearly this reference to any man did not include any one outside the encampment of Israel this was an incident relating specifically to the children of Israel. But it did provide salvation to any man within the encampment of Israel; and within that encampment there were Gentiles. We know this because Exodus 12:38 indicates that when Israel left Egypt a mixed multitude went up also with them. As a result of their association with the children of Israel, those Gentiles received the benefit of salvation if they gazed in faith on the serpent on the pole. This thought is faithfully reflected in John 3. Here John says that, although God sent His only begotten Son because He so loved the world, yet whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The word translated whosoever is used by the Apostle Paul in reference to the bringing in of the Gentiles into the purpose of God, when he says in Romans 10 that there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek... For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (vv. 12,13). The lesson for us is simply this: if we are to come within the orbit of God s salvation through His Son, we must be incorporated into Israel like the mixed multitude in the wilderness. As Paul says in Romans 11:25-27, we must be grafted into the olive tree, because when the Deliverer comes out of Zion, it will be all Israel who will be saved. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world; and so shall he be. If we are to share in that salvation, we must be a part of that world the new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Pet. 3:13). Boldness in the day of judgement John now highlights the fact that one of the consequences of our coming to appreciate the love of God is that we can have boldness, or (as the word really means) confidence, in the day of judgement: Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world (1 Jno. 4:17). Love is a two-way process as John puts it in verse 19, We love Him, because He first loved us. If it is true that we love Him, and if it is true that He first loved us, then we have no need to fear the day of judgement. Fear and love are mutually exclusive; they are foreign to one another. True enough, the Scriptures tell us that we must Fear God, and keep His commandments (Eccl. 12:13), but what this means is that we must reverence Him and give Him the respect that is His due. We must serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (Heb. 12:28). But that is not the fear of which John speaks in his First Epistle; rather, he is speaking of a certain fearful looking for of judgment (Heb. 10:27). The Scriptures tell us that at the judgement seat every one of us shall give account of himself to God (Rom. 14:12), hence it is right and proper that we should look to that day with a sense of awe and wonder. Yet Jesus said, Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Lk. 12:32). God wants us to be in His Kingdom so much so that He gave His only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins. If we are fearful, the implication is that our love is not complete, and that we are not confident that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 Jno. 1:7). Let us, then, remember that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him (4:9) and be thankful that we have been called to experience the love of God. Let us, then, show our thanks and appreciation by extending that love to our brother, as John says in 4:21: And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. (To be continued) Law and grace We shall not enter the kingdom of God by law. If the question at the gates of the kingdom were; Is it lawful to let them in? the answer would be, No. May I let them in by grace and compassion? Yes, if we are people of faith seeking to do His will. Harry Tennant, Comfort of the Scriptures, p

36 Exposition The song of Zacharias David Burges THE RECORD of the events surrounding the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ in the first chapters of Luke s Gospel is so familiar that we may easily lose the extraordinary sense of wonder in those incidents that only Luke records. There is the fascinating impression of a group of pious Jews, going about their normal daily lives, suddenly caught up in the pivotal event of human history, the birth of the Son of God. Six individuals in particular are brought to our attention by the Gospel writer: Zacharias and Elisabeth, Joseph and Mary, and the aged Simeon and Anna; and they are described in such terms as righteous, devout, serving God night and day. And it is Zacharias who is the first to be introduced and who we learn will be privileged to utter a song of rejoicing, the culminating prophecy of the first coming of the Messiah of Israel. Elderly priest Luke s account begins in the temple (1:9,10) at the time of prayer, while Zacharias, the elderly priest, is performing the duty of offering incense in the sanctuary. This association between incense and prayer was long before established by David: Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice (Ps. 141:2). Here was an activity performed hundreds of times, day after day, although it is likely that any individual priest such as Zacharias only had one opportunity in a lifetime to perform the service. 1 But now, suddenly, after four hundred years of silence, the voice of God was heard! In the holy place, where only the priest himself should have been, appeared the Angel Gabriel, standing beside the golden altar of incense. The same angel who 550 years before had given Daniel the divine timetable for the coming of Messiah (Dan. 9:21-27) announces the birth of his forerunner, as foretold by the prophets. It is truly remarkable that the very first spoken words recorded in the New Testament era, those of Gabriel, echo the very last recorded words in the Old Testament: 318 Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John... And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Lk. 1:13-17); Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple... Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse (Mal. 3:1; 4:5,6). It is as though the four hundred years of silence from heaven are merely the tick of a clock with the Almighty! For Zacharias the experience was clearly over - whelming, compounded by his being struck dumb by the angel because of his inability to believe his words. It seems significant that this Levitical priest should have been silenced at the announcement of the forthcoming appearance of the King of Israel who would usher in a new and superior priesthood. Yet the fulfilment of the angel s words still depended upon the faithful response of the aged priest in returning home to sleep with his wife, so that John the forerunner could be conceived. 1. Interestingly, Zacharias was of the course of Abijah, the eighth course of the priests (1 Chron. 24:10). Each of the twenty-four courses served for one week, twice a year (9:25; 2 Chron. 23:8), so Zacharias service would have occurred approximately 8 weeks after the beginning of the month Nisan (March/April), that is, in May/ June. From this it is possible to compute that John would have been born during Nisan the following year, and therefore Jesus, six months later, in Tishri, the seventh month (September/October).

37 The structure of the song A Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, B And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David; C As He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began: D That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; E To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; E The oath which He sware to our father Abraham, D That He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life. C And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; B To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, A Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Filled with the Holy Spirit Zacharias must have endured the frustration of dumbness for around ten months, until the promised child was born. But on the day of John s naming and circumcision, Zacharias tongue was promptly loosed to confirm the name given by the angel and to pour forth an inspired song of praise to God. 2 The song or psalm is in fact a prophecy of the coming of Messiah, an event which was now only six months away (Lk. 1:36), and so is the very last Messianic prophecy. It was spoken to the infant John (v. 76) to advise him of his role as the forerunner; no doubt these words were written down and would have been read and pondered by John when he came to the age of understanding. The song itself (vv ) is constructed in two mirror-image halves, in the form ABCDE/ EDCBA, known as introversion (see box above). 3 Notice the key words: A verses 68 and 78, visited B verses 69 and 77, salvation C verses 70 and 76, prophet(s) D verses 71 and 74, enemies E verses 72 and 73, covenant / oath This impressive construction is clearly designed to aid memorisation and assuredly bears the stamp of divine inspiration. The two halves of the song hinge about verses 72 and 73, which recall the promises made to Abraham and the covenant confirmed by oath, which are the basis of the gospel. There is a delightful personal touch, in that these two verses incorporate allusions to the names of the three characters privileged to be caught up in this divinely appointed ministry to prepare the way of the Lord : John (mercy or grace of Yah), Zacharias (Yah is remembered) and Elisabeth (oath of my God). Old Testament echoes The Song of Zacharias is constructed from multiple Old Testament quotations and allusions. Here is the mind of a servant of God thoroughly familiar with the pages of Scripture and the hope of Israel. The song opens by quoting David s blessing upon the Lord God of Israel (v. 68), which closes the first book of Psalms (41:13) and was repeated at the coronation of Solomon (1 Kgs. 1:48). God is the One Who visited and redeemed His people in the Exodus from Egypt, and is preparing a greater redemption (vv. 68,78; Gen. 50:24,25; Ex. 3:16; 4:31; Ps. 111:9). The coming Messiah from the house of David, fulfilling the promises made to him, will be a horn of salvation (Lk. 1:69,77; 2 Sam. 7:11-17; Ps. 18:2,50; 132:17), and this has been the message of all of the prophets (v. 70; so Peter in Acts 3:21). He will save Israel from their enemies, alluding to the words of Melchizedek to Abraham when he had 2. Notice how Luke records five inspired prophecies or songs of rejoicing in his account of the coming of Messiah and his forerunner: those of Elisabeth (1:42-45), Mary (vv ), Zacharias (vv ), the angel host (2:13,14; cf. Job 38:7) and Simeon (vv ). Here is ample Scriptural precedent for us to celebrate our Saviour s birth in song. 3. Bullinger, The Companion Bible. 319

38 defeated his enemies and rescued Lot (vv. 71,74; Gen. 14:19,20), and to God s promise to David to deliver him from all his enemies (1 Chron. 17:9,10). These passages anticipate both the Lord s victory over sin and his future deliverance of the nation. And so God will surely perform the promises made to faithful Abraham and to all those who follow his example of faith in holiness and righteousness (Lk. 1:72-75; Gen. 22:15-18). Thus Zacharias is able to exult that his son John, child of miraculous conception, will himself be a prophet of the Highest, to go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way, as foretold by the Old Testament prophets (v. 76; Isa. 40:3; Mal. 3:1). The Lord will bring salvation and remission of sins, and will be known as the dayspring from on high (vv. 77,78; Job 38:12; Jer. 23:5, LXX AV, branch ; Mal. 4:2). He will give light in the darkness (Isa. 9:2; cf. Jno. 1:4,5) and lead his people in the way of peace (Isa. 9:6,7; 55:12; cf. 59:8,9). The passing years The effect of these words on the faithful in Israel must have been dramatic. Luke records that fear came on all... and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judæa (1:65). No doubt these things were a hot topic of conversation in the streets and market places for some time. But inevitably memories fade. It would be nearly thirty years before John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth would emerge from obscurity to call the people of Israel to repentance. By then many of those who witnessed these things would have fallen on sleep, and others would have forgotten. Only those in whom the hope of Israel burned brightly and who looked for redemption in Jerusalem (2:38) would remember and rejoice. And Luke has recorded for us this inspired song of an elderly priest to reassure us that God s promises cannot fail, and to enable us to share in that joy. Principles, preaching and problems The enigma of the healing of the man sick of the palsy David Noakes As we read the synoptic Gospels account of this miracle, there is a puzzle in what the Master says. Why did he heal the man when he saw the faith of the four who carried him, rather than the faith of the man himself? And why, when the man was so obviously paralysed, did the Master forgive his sins first? THE SETTING of the miracle is the city of Capernaum, which the Lord made his home after moving from Nazareth. Apparently he had here at his disposal a house; and the Lord having returned to it, several days passed before people realised he was in town. The Master had been in their local synagogue to cure the man with the unclean spirit, who shouted out in public what everyone else was talking about but which the Pharisees refused to accept: What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God (Mk. 1:24).* 320 The moment of embarrassment was dissolved when the Lord healed him with the command, Be silent, and come out of him! (v. 25). His actions amazed those present, and that sabbath his fame went out into all the country around. The Lord retired to the house of Peter s mother-in-law to heal her too, and she looked after him and his disciples until the sabbath was over. But the knocks on the door did not stop for long, for, although the law of the sabbath had for a few hours prevented the crowds from coming to Jesus, as soon as the sabbath had ended the whole city was there, bringing those possessed with devils that he might cast out evil spirits and heal the sick. Everyone, it seemed, was there or, if they were not, they were hurrying to fetch * Scripture quotations from the ESV.

39 friends and relatives. With the excitement of it all, perhaps no one in Capernaum slept that night. Mark is so enthusiastic in his record of events. But in their excitement there was one sick man they had forgotten. Why so, when everyone for miles around seemed to have been remembered? Was it because he needed four to carry him, and in the heat of the moment four willing men could not be found? Yet he was on their conscience; so the moment the Master reappeared they did too, this time with their friend. The problem is that the record says, Jesus saw their faith (2:5) the faith of the four, not the faith of the man on the stretcher. Why should this be? Was it perhaps because of some sin on his part that they had initially left him behind on that magical evening when so many others had been healed in Capernaum? Had he hurt his friends, or behaved badly, or broken the rules and disobeyed a commandment? Had he been sent to Coventry, as we would say, for some such fault as they perceived it? Maybe they had taken an overly hard line with him, refusing to have anything to do with him until he acknowledged his error. How easy it is to behave like this within the ecclesia! Sometimes we are affronted by thoughtless actions or hard words, and we turn off our charity forgetting that if our heavenly Father turned off His charity we would be in a bad way indeed. All too often we allow things to get out of balance, focusing on minor issues of life rather than on the great blessings that daily flow from the Almighty. Evidently the four had by now thought better of any harshness on their part. What were such unimportant offences compared with the opportunity to be healed by the Son of God, that the man might be able to walk as they could? So they forgive their friend, and promise him that at the first opportunity they will bring him to Jesus the Healer. Yet what a surprise, when they reach the Master, to hear what he said: not first the healing; no walking or running or jumping as they had hoped for; but rather, unexpected words: My son, your sins are forgiven (v. 5). The Master knew! Here was the Father s foreknowledge, in that He had instructed His Son in what to expect that day. The Master knew that, before all else, there was an impediment in the relationship between this man and God. Whilst the impediment in his relationship with his friends had been addressed, such that they had been willing to bring him to Jesus, his position in his Father s sight needed resolving more than anything. How careful we must be to guard against any hardheartedness towards our brothers and sisters, cutting off them and ourselves from access to our Father s grace! When a little imagination is applied, this familiar incident in the Gospels acquires new colour and provides us a useful lesson to guide us in our relationships with one another. Books available from the Testimony As well as the books listed on the back cover, the following publications are available from the Testimony (all books postage extra): People Jesus Knew. John Mitchell The Patriarchal Family. John Mitchell Simon Peter. John Mitchell The Pilgrimage of Jesus Part 2. John Mitchell Paul: The Apostle by Grace. John Mitchell One Man s Pilgrimage Under God s Good Hand. John Mitchell. 88 pages Brother John Mitchell s books are available from Brother Peter and Sister Norma Forbes (for contact details please see back cover.) Humanism The Subtle Delusion. Various. 130 pages Romans in the Light of John s Gospel. Geoff & Ray Walker. 224 pages The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Geoff & Ray Walker. 242 pages The above three books are published by the Bible Student Press and are available from Sister (Mrs) Mary Benson, 26 Tiercel Avenue, Norwich, NR7 8JN, UK. Tel ; emb.testimony@googl .com 321

40 Reflections Rowing together AS I WRITE, there is an advert on BBC television for the annual University Boat Race, which has for its background music this childhood action song: Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream. I don t know if the producers of the advert picked this tune simply because of the connection with rowing, or whether they chose the song to catch people s ears to encourage them to watch the event, or even whether there is something subliminal about the words merrily and dreaming which might persuade us to place a bet on the outcome of the Oxford versus Cambridge, Putneyto-Mortlake Boat Race. For the teams involved, much practice has been taking place for at a least a year, I imagine to hone their skills and maximise their chances of winning. Inside my Bible case I have a programme from a fraternal gathering last year. On it are written the words, Rowing together. It is a reminder of the literal meaning of the word translated ministers in 1 Corinthians 4:1, under-rowers, and of the fact that we do not row our boat alone, but with Christ on board. Rowing together referring either to both the hands of a single rower, or to a number of rowers working in harmony is a very skilful operation, not only for the propulsion of the boat, but also for controlling its direction, since water goes round bends or from shore to shore across a river. It unifies the actions of all those involved, and guards against the danger of losing a rower, or an oar, which might spell disaster if the boat fills with water, or threatens to capsize into crocodile-infested depths (thankfully not much of a worry in the Thames!). Gently down the stream going with the flow towards our destination, not fighting the current, not worrying about the white water or the rapids but trusting the still waters. Does this describe our journey through life? Merrily are we rejoicing in prospect of the joy to come, just as on the day when Jesus was returned, [and] the people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him (Lk. 8:40)? Life is not a day-dream; but there is much comfort for us in maintaining 322 a confident vision of our Lord s return. Speaking of crocodiles, an alternative version of our song goes as follows: Rock, rock, rock your boat, Rock it on the stream. If you see a crocodile, Don t forget to scream. It s nonsense, of course, but spiritually speaking rocking the boat has consequences for all who are in on board, and if we re ever tempted to try it in ecclesial life, perhaps we might stop and remember some of those who did so in the past. Hymenaeus and Alexander, for instance did they rock the boat? They certainly made shipwreck of the faith of some (1 Tim. 1:19). Screaming a warning in that scenario might be a good idea, so that everybody is aware of the peril they are in. In a literal shipwreck scenario, Jesus disciples were able to call on him for help: Lord, save us: we perish (Mt. 8:25). Sometimes we may feel called on to go to the Master doing rare, unusual things that take vast courage, but with success not always being the outcome. Peter said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus (Mt. 14:28,29). Trying is sometimes all the success there is, and there is no condemnation of those who never thought to ask the Lord Jesus to bid them come out of the boat. Here s another made-up verse: Stay, stay, in the boat, Stay in to the end. If you but row patiently, The Kingdom soon He ll send. Whatever we meditate on (even TV adverts), let us be reassured that we all have much better prospects than any rower in the Boat Race, no matter how hard they practise their training programme, because unlike them we are guaranteed a safe haven and a successful outcome. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38.39) Margaret Bilton

41 Testimony Book Exchange Enquiries to the Testimony Book Exchange, Gerry Cox, Flat 1, 3 Vine Street, Evesham, WR11 4RE. Tel Knight, A. Gleanings from Bible Lands. HB. F. 1 Drewery, B. & Bauckham, R. Scripture, Tradition and Reason. HB. G Sharman, D. Why Are We Here? HB. G. 1 Jonsson, C. The Gentile Times Considered. PB. G. 1 Carter, M. Walking in Wisdom s Way. PB. G. 50p Allen, S. On Reading the Bible. HB. G Holy Bible. NIV. HB. VG. 4 Norris, D. The Big Picture. PB. VG. 3 Joyce, K. Before Whom I Stand. HB. F. 1 Hathaway, H. Evolution, Science, and the Bible. HB. G. 1 Vos, H. Genesis and Archaeology. PB. G. 50p Francis Glasson, T. The Second Advent. HB. G. 1 Pinnock, C. The Scripture Principle. PB. G. 1 Jannaway, F. Satan s Biography. PB. G. 4 Barnett, R. Illustrations of Old Testament History. PB. VG. 1 Aldred, C. Tutankhamun s Egypt. PB. G. 1 The New Testament in Greek. HB. VG. 3 Danke. Annotated Reference Bible. SB. VG. 10 Carter, J. The Gospel of John. HB. G. 1 Roberts, R. The Visible Hand of God. HB. G Tennant, H. Moses My Servant. HB. G. 1 Nairne, A. Everyman s Story of the Old Testament. HB. G. 1 Josephus. The Jewish War. PB. G. 50p Epp, T. Job: A Man Tried as Gold. PB. G. 1 Ramm, B. The Christian View of Science and Scripture. PB. G. 50p The Good News Bible Topical Concordance. PB. G. 1 Mazar, A. & Trone, A. Voices From the Past. HB. G. 1 Clark, R. The Universe: Plan or Accident? HB. G. 1 Handcock, P. The Latest Light on Bible Lands. HB. G. 1 Brown, J. The Epistle to the Hebrews. HB. G. 2 Geisler, N. & Bocchino, P. Unshakable Foundations. PB. G Craig, W. The Existence of God. HB. G Smith, J. One Nation Under God or Man? HB. G. 1 Findlay, G. The Epistle to the Galatians. HB. F. Unless stated, books are hardback with postage extra. No reply means book(s) already sold. No endorsement is made of the content of any book for sale. Prompt payment on receipt of books, please. For overseas orders, payment in advance may be required. Lists of books wanted, and books for sale, are sought by Brother Gerry Cox. Any readers who have the task of disposing of brethren and sisters books are encouraged to make use of this service; libraries, small collections and individual books are purchased. Collection can be arranged for reasonable quantities. Key: HB, Hardback; PB, Paperback; P, Poor; F, Fair; G, Good; VG, Very Good p Smith, D. The Days of his Flesh. HB. G. 1 Howe, F. Challenge and Response. HB. G. 1 Keller, W. The Bible as History. HB. VG Roberts, R. Nazareth Revisited. HB. G Watkins, P. The Devil The Great Deceiver. HB. VG. 1.50

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43 Scenes of Syria 20. Temple of Bel, Palmyra The Palmyrene kingdom had a unique culture of its own, being neither Roman, Persian nor truly Arab, but was rather a melting pot of influences from surrounding nations. This was clearly reflected in its art, and particularly in its religion, where there were several borrowings of biblical idols we recognise. The main temple in the city of Palmyra was dedicated to Bel, originally a Babylonian god familiar to us in names like Belshazzar ( Bel protect the king ), visible too in the names of two of the gods of Palmyra, Yarhibol and Aglibol (who with Bel formed the Palmyrene trinity ), and presumably also the equivalent of the Canaanite Baal. The temple was built in stages over many centuries, being completed in the second century A.D., and is vast, dominating one end of the city the outer courtyard measures more than 200 metres (650 feet) along each side. In terms of the site s layout, archaeologists have invited comparison with God s temple in Jerusalem; both temples consist of an outer court with a place to wash and an altar for sacrifice, and then an inner sanctuary with a central shrine for worship. However, the similarity ends there, given the idolatrous practices to which the Palmyra temple was put. Smoke from the sacrifices is still visible on the temple ceiling. Rome had no difficulty in assimilating foreign gods into its own pantheon, and as Palmyra came under Roman dominance Bel was easily identified with Jupiter or Jove, Rome s own supreme deity. It s an interesting characteristic of human religions that they re often extremely flexible in accommodating other beliefs as a way of extending their own influence humanly speaking it s much easier to find similarities with other religions and philosophies than to speak out against them, something which the corrupt Christianity of our own day has not been averse to. Disturbing though we might find this, there s a valuable exhortation here for us to earnestly contend for the faith which was once [once and for all] delivered unto the saints (Jude v. 3). On this timeless note, our journey through Syria comes to its end. Jeremy Thomas XIV Picture: Jeremy Thomas

44 TESTIMONY BOOKS The Testimony Handbook of Bible Principles. The contents of this Handbook were first published as an occasional series of inserts in this magazine. Written by members of the Promoting Committee, the 52 inserts each dealt with a single Bible principle in the space of about 1,000 words, providing readers with a handy overview of key aspects of Bible teaching, complete with supporting Bible quotations and references. In republishing this material it is hoped that this book will serve as a ready reference to some of the most important teachings of the Word of God, presenting basic Bible truths in a standard, easy-to-read format Moses: Earth s Meekest Man. 172 pages The Pen of a Ready Writer. 272 pages Which Translation? 124 pages A Goodly Heritage. 210 pages Man and Woman. 122 pages God s Purpose with Israel. 112 pages Spirit in the New Testament. 185 pages Creation, Evolution and Science. 140 pages The Exodus A Commentary on Exodus pages For the Study and Defence of the Holy Scripture. 236 pages All titles postage extra. Available from Peter and Norma Forbes, 16 Mountfields Drive, Loughborough, LE11 3JE; tel ; peterf@thebiblesite.co.uk; or from