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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
OCTOBER 28, 1923 SOME MISSIONARY TEACHINGS OF THE PROPHETS
Golden Text: “Nations shall come to th y light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” Isa. 60:3. BESSON TEXT Isa. 60:1-3; Jonah 4:10, 11; Micah 4:1-3; Zeph. 3 :9 ; (Read Isa. 25:6-9; 32:1, 2; 49:1-6; 52:13-53; Dan. 2:44) Devotional Reading— Isa. 42:1-9. In tro d u c tio n : If our religion is false we are bound to change it. If our religion is tru e we are bound to propagate it. This makes every Christian a missionary. Owing to th e pro gressive ch aracter of Divine revelation the m issionary teaching of Scripture is found fully BESSON developed in the New Testament. The EXPOSITION germ may be found however in every Dr. F . W. F a r r p a rt of th e Old T estam ent especially in the prophets. ISAIAH’S CONTRIBUTION TO MISSIONS, Is. 60:1-3.' The prophet sees a new day dawning upon the earth. A fter the gross darkness th a t covers th e earth , the promise of coming dawn appears. I t is not a ligh t for Israel only but for all nations and peoples. Is. 9:2. Sin is darkness. Salvation is light. Wherever the Gospel comes it changes rayless night into sun lit day. Israel is besought to arise from th e dust in which she has been lying and' rad iate to others the ligh t th a t has been shining upon her. The glory of Jehovah is the old Shekinah glory th a t evidences th e presence and power of God Himself. This resu lt follows the coming of Israel into th e fulness of h er covenant bless ings. JONAH’S CONTRIBUTION TO MISSIONS, Jon. 4:10-11. Jonah is ta u g h t th e lesson of Divine compassion. He was a p atrio t as well as a prophet. Nineveh was not only a heathen city bu t th e n ational foe of Israel. Jonah though t th a t the tru e religion was lim ited to his own people. He believed th a t th is was the chance to see the foes of his nation destroyed. When Nineveh is spared because of its repentance, Jonah is angry. God had often had mercy upon Israel and here He has mercy upon a heathen city. “His compassions fail not.” His mercy extends not only to the heathen in th e ir ignorance bu t to th e ir innocent children and even to th e ir dumb cattle. Jonah m ight lim it his efforts to home missions b u t God has regard to all people and every individual upon earth. There are no geographical or racial lim its to th e love of God. It is broader th an th e measure of m an’s mind. MICAH’S CONTRIBUTION TO MISSIONS, Mic. 4:1-3. Micah views the fu tu re from the standpoint of Isaiah. He sees a new worship and a new ritu al. H eathen nations will become dissatisfied w ith th e ir idol gods and forms of worship and when they have the Gospel, they will ap preciate its superiority and adaptability to th eir need. They will abandon th eir old worship for th a t of th e tru e and living God. One need only compare the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testam ents w ith the sacred books of other religions to see the difference. The Gospel standards differ from the highest heathen stand ard s by celestial diameters. ZEPHANIAH’S CONTRIBUTION TO MISSIONS, Zeph. 3:9. Conversion affects th e vocabulary. Out of th e abun dance of the h e a rt the mouth speaketh. Missionaries have found g reat difficulty in finding suitable expression for Gospel ideas in heathen languages. The ideas themselves were foreign to the heathen mind and these were no words
to convey them . Sin b rough t poverty of though t and con fusion of speech. The trium ph of Christianity will bring a universal language and a universal worship. The prophetic vision is no t a rem ote and impossible ideal to be approximated through hum an effort b u t a definite prediction of th e trium ph of Christ as K ing when He comes the second tim e to reign upon the earth where He was crucified. Isaiah 60:1-3. The M issionary message of Isaiah—-A glorious picture of th e ideal city of God, which Isaiah saw rising upon the hills of His beloved Jerusalem . It is a vision of th e world as it will be.-^-Peloubet’s Notes. • Jo n a h 4 :10 , 11. Vs. 10-11. Instead of rejoicing a t th e conversion of Ninevah, Jonah was sullen and angry, nay, so vexed as to be weary of life. But Jonah as His servant, w ith his un righteous antipathies and his irratio n al lack of love, is put to shame by the Lord w,hose loving providence and h eart felt sympathy embrace even the countless heathen, so th a t for the sake of th eir many children who have done no wrong, and th e ir cattle which are irresponsible He does not de sire th e ir death, but th a t they may tu rn and live.— Orelli. Micah 4:1-3. In the last days, th e tim e to which all prophecy points, “ the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of th e m ountains,” The fu tu re m illennial temple will no t stand on Mount Moriah, bu t on a magni- ficient table-land, lifted up above all th e surrounding hills, afte r the land has gone through some rem ark ab le changes, caused by a great earthquake, which shall occur when the feet of the Lord Jesus stand again on the Mount of Olives (see Ezek. 40:2 and 48:8-12; Zech. 1 4 :4 ). From th is sanc tu ary th e law will go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem , th e metropolis of the world in th e age to come. At last all delegated ru le shall have ceased in the closing up of the times of the Gentiles. Henceforth our once rejected Lord Jesus shall “ show who is th a t blessed and only P o ten tate, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” W hat men have vainly striven to attain through socialist propaganda, or o ther equally impracticable economic sys tems, will then have been reached, and will be m aintained for a thousand years by the personal presence of Him whose rig h t it is to reign.—H. A. Ironsides. Zephaniah 3 :9 . • The full resto ration of th e ea rth ’s unity of language and of worship is yet fu tu re, and is connected w ith the resto ration of the Jews to be followed by the conversion of the world. . . . W hether Hebrew shall be the one universal language or no t th e God of the Hebrews shall be the only God and only object of worship.— J. F , and B. In a previous lesson it was said th a t Israel could hardly have been called “ a m issionary n ation .” In th is present lesson we have, however, an example of an individual Israelite being sent as a m issionary to a Gentile people— Jon ah sent to Nineveh. The lessons from th e life of Jonah DEVOTIONAL have often been set forth, b u t they COMMENT • are so applicable to people of all ages John A. H ubbard th a t they are never out of date To how many a child of God has th e call come (as in Jonah 1 :2 ) saying: “Arise, go to C entral America, South America, Korea, Africa, or to some o ther needy land? And then, COMMENTS FROM THE COMMENTARIES H. G. Dean An ode of congratulation to Zion on her resto ration , a t th e Lord’s second advent, to her tru e position as th e m other Church from which th e Gospel is to be diffused to the whole Gentile world.— J. F. and B.
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