ISSACHAR: God's Island Stone
by Dr. Lloyd T. Anderson
W e have looked at Issachar and his tribe in sufficient detail to have an understanding of the back ground against which his identity with the topaz stone must be studied. And we continue now to open the Word as we feel assured that God will bless every moment as we share it. The second stone on the High Priest’s breastplate binds us in good debt to a small island in the Dead Sea for it is from this island that we chiefly get the topaz, a very interesting stone. We would do well to note the fact that the islands are often acknowl edged in various ways in the Word of God. For instance, in the Book of Isaiah, we read “Keep silence before me, O islands . . Isa. 41:1. Then Isaiah again records,’ . . the •isles shall wait upon me . . .” chapter 51:5. Although the islands were silent, it is very clear that God would have Isaiah cry out, “Sing unto the Lord a new song in the isles.” And with a blaze of glory, David brings the people of Tarshish and the isles into prophecy when he writes in Psalm 72:10—“The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.” And then the great crescendo comes when Scripture unfolds the revelation given to a man in prison on an isle: the man was John, and the Isle was Patmos! John was told to write his vision in a book. And here we learn that circum
stances can set all of us on islands of many different kinds, cutting us off from constant activities and from friends, and oft surrounding us by seas of sorrow and the deepest bewilder ment. Daniel knew the meaning of an island experience for he so states in the 10th chapter and verse 8 — “There fore I was left alone, and saw this great vision . . .” But he learned what God would have him do through it all. Jeremiah was brought to understand through the experience of being alone for he tells us in chapter 15, verse 17, “ . . . I sat alone because of thy hand . . .” Paul recalls in II Timothy 4:16 that “. . . no man stood with me” and he said, . . but all men forsook me”— turn to that passage and read what great things came to him in his times of being alone. Transcending all others, our Lord Jesus Christ had His island hours: the Mount of Transfiguration, Gethsem- ane, the wilderness temptations, and the death throes of the Cross. Christ tasted the cup of loneliness to the dregs. But where would we be were it not for the precious sayings that came to Him and through Him to us in His loneliness of life. We must leam this: When God sets us apart, be sure He has some big work that we are to do! It is big in His eyes and in His plans. (continued on next page) 13
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