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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
April, 1938
twelve thousand from the tribe of Judah; and twelve thousand from the tribe of Reu ben; and from Gad, and from Aser, and from Nephthalim, and from Mannasses, and from ' Simeon, - and from Levi, and from Issachar, and from Zabulon, and from Joseph, and from Benjamin (Rev. 7:4-8). When the hour arrives for that last great Pentecost, even as foretold by Joel (2:28- 32), they will be found. Verily, "What shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? . . . And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the De liverer, and shall turn away ungodli ness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Rom. 11:15, 26, 27). The Vision of the "Two Sticks" Furthermore, the fulfillment of the sign of the two sticks (Ezek. 37:15-28) absolutely demands the resurrection of “ the whole house of Israel.” “ The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying . . . son of man, take thee one stick and write upon it, For Judah . . . then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim . . . and join them one to an- . other into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, W ilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these? . . . Say , unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will take the children of Israel [Continued on Page 177]
(Lk.
kingdom there shall be no end” 1:30-33). I
Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord G o d ; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord” (Ezek. 37:11-14). Now, unless words are without meaning, and the Bible itself a fabrication, there must come to “ the whole house of Israel” a day of resurrection: and, once again, “ the shekinah o f Yahweh” shall indwell that resurrected “house” as in the ancient days. Then, in Abraham and his seed “shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Indeed, it is when “ the house of Israel” beholds the first streaks of resurrec tion dawn that the church herself shall have completed her mission on earth, and shall fold her robes and steal away from the earth while it is yet dark, into her “ house not made with hands.” The fullness o f the one resurrection will bring on the fullness o f the other. When “ the first resurrection” comes to its fullness, then the reign of the Messiah for a thousand years on earth begins (cf. Rev. 20:4-6). That reign, of course, cannot begin until “the house of Jacob” is raised from its “ graves.” The promise of God made through the angel Gabriel to Mary cannot fail: “ And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt con ceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name J esus . He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his The Close Relation Between Two Resurrections
The Vision of Ezekiel Involves "The W H O L E House of Israel" But let us return to the vision of the prophet and its interpretation: “These bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts” (Ezek. 37:11). This voice of hopeless despair from the soul of Israel resounds throughout the Gen tile world today. A national resurrection of all Israel is an idle dream, they say. Ten and a half “ parts”-^-“the ten tribes”— are lost. Jews out of “the house of Judah” there are who may return to the homeland— but never “the whole house of Israel.” The reply of the eternal God rings clear: “ Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. . . . and shall put my ‘ Spirit in you, and ye shall live, . . . Then shall ye know that I thé Lord have spoken it, and performed it” (vs. 12, 14). Asleep in the bosom of “Mother Earth” are the bodies of countless millions of men and women. The modern world builds its houses and plows its fields above them, and knows them not. But the God who does not permit a single sparrow in all the earth to fall without His notice, knows where each and every human being in all the world “fell on sleep,” and where the burying place
for the body is. He loses, no, not one ! Even so, the infinite God knows just where the lost “ parts” of “ the whole house of Israel” are buried in the persons of living descendants of Jacob scattered through the nations— “ dead” as far as any national life is concerned. Ancestral lines are never lost to the omniscience of God. In His own good time, the mighty God shall call, “ Israel, come forth!” And at His command a nation will appear. And there will be enough to provide for a “Pentecost” of
• Today's amazing ingathering of a nation, a movement whose prophetic significance Dr. Bauman discusses on these pages, is accompanied by striking developments in mod ern architecture and commerce. Workmen shown below are blasting rock at the entrance channel to the port of Tel Aviv in Palestine, the first Jewish harbor since the days of the ancient Phoenicians. The new port, located on the beach outside the all-Jewish city of Tel Aviv, was created during the 1936 disturbances as an expression of Jewish faith in the future of Palestine.
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