f-^aieôtine, Æt n Sòl ci a n - c i é^zeLief3 9 Seventh in a Series of Prophetic Messages By Louis T. Talbot, D.D. President of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and Pastor of the Church of the Open Door
W E closed our discussion last month with the vivid Scriptural picture of the destruction of Russia and her allies. The army and the land of Gog will be destroyed, which will bring about com plete chaos in the Northern Confed eracy so that one might well reason that the revived Roman Empire, with its ruling man of sin, will lose no time in extending her sway over these tempting lands. Certainly in ternational disorder, desolation, and un principled seizing of wealth and prop erty will be the order of the day at that time. We have had a slight glimpse of what will be rampant as we have wit nessed the happenings of recent years. The occasion for the attack upon and s e i z u r e of smaller countries by the larger nations has been manufactured out of nothing. The modern dictators ruthlessly take whatever their fancy de sires, without the slightest regard for moral principle or right. Let us repeat, for emphasis—this opportunity may be taken by imperial Rome to incorporate the entire world within her boundaries. Glory for God's Name in Israel This judgment will have a wonderful effect upon the Jews of the world, as we note from verses 7 and 8: So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen [ nations ] shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken. The direct intervention of Jehovah when all will seem to be lost, will prove to many of the Jews that the God of Sinai and of the Red Sea is coming to their aid once more. Doubtless there will be a turning to God from the idols of commercialism and materialism, which have so enamored God’s ancient peo ple through the centuries. We know of a surety that Israel will look to Jehovah at this time. Perhaps there will be such a catastrophic judgment upon a bitter and overwhelming enemy that the Jew will realize his own sin and idolatry, and will fall upon his knees in genuine repentance. God has promised that in the seed of Abraham all nations of the earth shall be blessed. Up to this time this prophecy has never been complete ly fulfilled, although Israel has given to the world the greatest of all blessings when she gave Christ and the Bible to a sinning race. But there is coming a M A Y , 1 9 4 8
by the fact that, after the destruction of the army by the hand of Jehovah, all the countless wooden handles of various weapons will remain upon the ground, furnishing firewood for the entire land for seven years. Of course, this is a lit eral interpretation of these verses. But, personally, I do not see any difficulty presented in the use by Ezekiel of terms describing ancient warfare. You well know that, when one person speaks to another, the terms used must be those with which both are familiar. When one has a message to impart to others that is novel or strange, he must use words that are known, and by contrast and comparison describe the new thing. As the prophet had to speak of future methods and machines of warfare to a p e o p l e who knew absolutely nothing about them, he either had to coin words, which were unintelligible to his readers and auditors, or he had to speak of the weapons of future centuries under the symbols of the then present-day weap ons. This is exactly what he did. In de scribing the almost incredible slaughter and destruction of Gog’s army, he made it intelligible to those living in his day by presenting a picture of how such a slaughter would have looked to the Is raelite then—nearly 600' B.C. Had he spoken of airplanes or tanks or heavy artillery, no one would have had the slightest conception what was meant. Rather, he took the picture and trans lated it into language that his own peo ple could understand. A quotation of a familiar passage in Isaiah helps us to understand such a circumstance. Isaiah, in describing the coming day of peace and righteousness, which will be ushered in by our Lord, wrote, saying: And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into prun- inghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more (Isa. 2:b). Here we have the picture presented in words which the people of Isaiah’s day could well understand. Certainly the prophecy foretells the turning from a policy of munition-making to the pur suits of agriculture. Surely we need not suppose that all the weapons in use in that day will be swords and spears; or that all the agricultural implements, into which they will be converted, will be the plows and pruning hooks of the ancients Isaiah was merely setting forth, in language that his immediate audience (Continued on Page 19) Page Thirteen
day when the hearts of unsaved, com mercial, grasping Jews will be changed by the love of God. Then their lives and characters will show forth Christ. May God hasten the day!
Map of present day Palestine, showing the modern names of towns and cities in which strife is going on today.
The Burning of Weapons in That Coming Day Now let us read verses 9 and 10 for yet further details of the coming judg ment upon Gog: And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them■ with fire seven years: so that they shall take do wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord God. There have been those who have main tained that, according to this passage, there would be a reversal of the meth ods of modern warfare, and a return to the more primitive weapons of former centuries. This is supposedly set forth
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