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The primary purpose of The Shepherd's Rod is to unlock the long-concealed mystery concerning the ever-challenging and much discussed subject of the 144,000 (Rev. 14:1), with the central object in view of bringing about among God's people that "thorough reformation" foretold by the Spirit of Prophecy (Testimonies, Vol. 8, p. 251).
These truths, Divinely revealed, are of supreme importance to the church just now because of the trying, sifting circumstances through which God's people are soon to pass. Being vital concerns to salvation, they call for decided action from ministry and laity alike to separate themselves from all worldliness and to anchor themselves on the Solid Rock by obedience to all the truth known to the church, if they would escape the forthcoming ruin that is to take every sinner.
Its dominant doctrinal concern being the truth of the 144,000, and a correct understanding of it being a life-and-death matter to all, the Rod unfolds it from several different angles, each urging the Denomination to prepare for the glorious deliverance
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of the saints and against the inglorious destruction of the sinners as foretokened by the marking and slaying recorded in Ezekiel 9.
No new denomination is advocated, on the contrary, such is unmitigatedly opposed. And finally, irrefutable proof is brought forth that the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination has been the instrumentality of God since 1844 to carry on His work on earth, and that the Rod adds "power and force" "to the third message." -- Early Writings, p. 277.
Purporting to be the antitype of the first exodus, The Shepherd's Rod takes its name from Moses' rod, the instrument through which the Lord manifested His power in the deliverance of the children of Israel. The Shepherd's Rod, the only Rod that has ever spoken, is predicted and recommended in Micah 6:9: "Hear ye the Rod and [Him] Who hath appointed It."
(This is the first revised edition of The Shepherd's Rod, Vol. 1, originally published in 1930. To make it a handy pocket-sized book, points since dealt with in other numbers of these series of publications have been omitted, and its subject matter condensed.)
In compliance with the Lord's command, we should now with open ears hear the Rod's message
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"And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
"Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
"And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel." Rev. 7:2-4.
The mystery concerning the sealing of the 144,000 is probably peer to any vexed Bible subject. Theory has crowded theory, only the more to mystify and confuse the truth of it. No Christian denomination seems to have escaped the controversy which, in giving rise to many divergent views, has only increased the rift in the Protestant lute.
This has been exceedingly regrettable, and very much the more so among us as Seventh-day Adventists, for long ago the messenger of the Lord admonished us to "strive with all the power God has given us to be among the 144,000" (The Review and Herald, March 9, 1905), and then graciously placed in our hands the necessary knowledge for the time then present as to when and where, why and what, the sealing is.
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"This sealing of the servants of God," the Lord revealed, "is the same that was shown to Ezekiel in vision." -- Testimonies To Ministers, p. 445. (Read Ezekiel 9).
And in amplification of the subject the messenger wrote: "Especially in the closing work for the church, in the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are to stand without fault before the throne of God, will they feel most deeply the wrongs of God's professed people." -- Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 266.
Accordingly, the marking takes place in the church because of "the abominations" practiced in her midst. Hence, the removal of those who foster the abominations is her closing work, not the world's.
With this key knowledge in hand, the church was to have gone on enlightenedly with the progress of Truth and at the appointed time be enabled to unlock the mystery. But failing to obey the voice of the Lord and thus to walk in the Light and to advance from knowledge to knowledge, she lost her way and consequently has for years wandered in the wilderness of theory, so to speak.
And while she was in confusion on the subject, the Spirit of Truth pronounced silence on it then to be "eloquence." But eloquence for how long? Forever? -- Obviously not, but only until the Lord Himself should unroll the scroll, the sealing commence,
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and the subject become present truth. Then silence could no longer be eloquence; in fact, not even possible -- not if there are ever to be 144,000 sealed and made ready to stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion (Rev. 14:1).
A thoroughgoing knowledge of the subject must necessarily be of as great importance as is a comprehensive knowledge of Daniel 7, Revelation 13 and 17, the Three Angels' Messages of Revelation 14, or any other revealed Bible mystery or prophecy. And how can one escape the slaughter unless one knows what the sealing, marking, is, when it is, and where it is to be?
So while on the one hand is seen the utter necessity and hence the absolute certainty of Inspiration's fully unfolding the subject at the time of the closing work for the church, on the other hand is seen the consequent utter impossibility of anyone's discovering the whole truth beforehand.
Any thinker knows that to have made known the truth of it before time, would have left it as vain, valueless, and ineffective as would making known the truth about the image of the beast years before or a minute after it does its deceptive work. But at the striking of the foreordained hour, the time Inspiration unlocks the mystery, all can behold the truth and profit by it. Happily, we can then intelligently
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strive to be among this guileless company, and can be sealed with them, if we sincerely and steadfastly follow on to know the truth on time.
"When," someone asks, "will this closing work for the church begin?" -- Obviously, it is already in progress. Light is pouring in upon the subject, dispelling the darkness which has long enveloped it. Having consequently become present truth to lighten the way in which the 144,000 are to "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth" (Rev. 14:4), it must be proclaimed as from the housetops.
In 1844, as all Seventh-day Adventists know, Sister White was given a vision of the 144,000 signalizing the sealing angel's starting his ascent from the east (Rev. 7:2-4). From then on he was ascending, and the saints were awaiting his arrival. Finally, in 1929, through the Sabbath School Lessons the Lord announced throughout the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination that the angel had arrived. Then the scroll began to unroll and the angel's presence to be felt by many of those who were agonizing for truth and righteousness.
"But how can we know for sure," another questions, "that this and companion publications are the genuine fruit of the unrolling of the scroll and of the sealing angel's arrival?" -- Simply if the claimant herein
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on trial is vindicated by all relevant Scripture and other inspired testimony. And if it is, then the only admissible conclusion is that the Divinely appointed and long-awaited hour has struck, and that this literature is the instrument used by Inspiration to make the event known to God's people.
Since, as we have previously seen from the Spirit of Prophecy, the sealing and the slaughter take place in the church during the closing work for her, they could not antedate the present time. And the prophecy itself shows that the sealing must begin at a time when her spiritual life is at its lowest ebb, when she is polluted with sin -- in "exceeding great...iniquity." Ezek. 9:9. For it is her defiled condition that causes a Holy God to do in her midst the work of marking, sealing, the saints, and of doing away with the sinners among them.
How did she start to reach this condition? -- The servant of the Lord sadly answers:
"The Lord has not closed Heaven to us, but our own course of continual backsliding has separated us from God. Pride, covetousness, and love of the world have lived in the heart without fear of banishment or condemnation. Grievous and presumptuous sins have dwelt among us. And yet the general opinion is that the church is flourishing, and that peace and spiritual prosperity are in all her borders.
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"The church has turned back from following Christ her Leader, and is steadily retreating toward Egypt. Yet few are alarmed or astonished at their want of spiritual power. Doubt and even disbelief of the testimonies of the Spirit of God, is leavening our churches everywhere." -- Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 217.
"We have wandered away from the old landmarks. Let us return. If the Lord be God, serve him: if Baal, serve him. Which side will you be on?" -- Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 137.
"As Jesus views the state of his professed followers today, he sees base ingratitude, hollow formalism, hypocritical insincerity, Pharisaical pride and apostasy." -- Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 72.
"Who can truthfully say, 'Our gold is tried in the fire; our garments are unspotted by the world'? I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness. Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath. Then He said to me: 'Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character? "How is the faithful city become an harlot?" My Father's house is made a house of merchandise, a place whence the divine presence and glory have departed! For this cause there is weakness, and strength is lacking.'" --Testimonies, Vol. 8, p. 250.
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"The time has come for earnest and powerful efforts to rid the church of the slime and filth which is tarnishing her purity." -- Testimonies To Ministers, p. 450.
Thus with humiliating certainty we are made to see and to acknowledge that the condition of the church "is deplorable in the sight of God." -- Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 253.
And it is a mournfully admitted fact among all the informed and honest throughout the Denomination, that though she has for years been steadily declining spiritually, she has never hitherto reached her present low level where she retains scarcely any of her former distinction from the world.
"Spiritual death," laments the Voice of Inspiration, "has come upon the people that should be manifesting life and zeal, purity and consecration, by the most earnest devotion to the cause of truth. The facts concerning the real condition of the professed people of God, speak more loudly than their profession, and make it evident that some power has cut the cable that anchored them to the Eternal Rock, and that they are drifting away to sea, without chart or compass." -- Christ Our Righteousness, p. 36 (1941 edition).
"Men and women are in the last hours of probation, and yet are careless and stupid, and ministers have no power to arouse them; they are asleep themselves.
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Sleeping preachers preaching to a sleeping people!" -- Testimonies, Vol. 2, p. 337.
Indeed, "the conviction is gaining ground in the world that Seventh-day Adventists are giving the trumpet an uncertain sound, that they are following in the path of worldlings." -- Testimonies To Ministers, p. 86.
For all these and for other reasons, some of which we know not, a pure and Holy God is "whetting his sword in Heaven to cut" down those who do not sigh and cry. "Oh that every lukewarm professor could realize the clean work that God is about to make among his professed people!" -- Testimonies, Vol. 1, p. 190.
"Mark this point with care: Those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those 'that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done' in the church." -- Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 267.
"The seal of God will be placed upon the foreheads of those only who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land." -- Testimonies Vol. 5, p. 212.
Necessarily, "while the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting
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away of sin, among God's people upon earth." -- The Great Controversy, p. 425.
Now that this special work is on, there is doubt no longer that "the days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place, we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will manifest that his fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor." -- Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 80.
In another memorable vision of this same crucial work, Sister White "saw angels hurrying to and fro in heaven, descending to the earth, and again ascending to heaven, preparing for the fulfillment of some important event.
"Then I saw another mighty angel," she continues, "commissioned to descend to the earth, to unite his voice with the third angel, and give power and force to his message. Great power and glory were imparted to the angel, and as he descended, the earth was lightened with his glory.... This message seemed to be an addition to the third message...." -- Early Writings, p.
And "only those," avers the Spirit of Truth, "who have withstood temptation in the strength of the Mighty One will be permitted to act a part in proclaiming it
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[the Third Angel's Message] when it shall have swelled into the loud cry." -- The Review and Herald, No. 19, 1908.
"The great issue so near at hand will weed out those whom God has not appointed, and He will have a pure, true, sanctified ministry prepared for the latter rain." -- B-55-1886.
Why are the sinners taken from among the righteous before the earth is lightened with the glory of the angel? -- Because "one sinner may diffuse darkness that will exclude the light of God from the entire congregation." -- Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 265.
The clear sequence of facts here brought to view conclusively points out that we are now in "the closing work for the church, in the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand"; that the sealing, marking, sifting, shaking, "special work," "important event," "closing work," and "purification," all result alike in the destruction of the unsealed and in the purification of the sealed. Yes, this is the preparation for the time of trouble, the Loud Cry, the closing work for the world.
Obviously, then, the closing message for the world is proclaimed by the faithful only, and God's people during the plagues are apart by themselves with no unfaithful among them.
So the subject of the 144,000, with its interrelated subjects coming into clear,
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harmonious focus, shows that the eleventh-hour call for laborers in the Lord's vineyard is now in progress, and that now is the time to "strive with all the power God has given us to be among the 144,000." -- The Review and Herald, Mar. 9, 1905.
And now, this identification of the 144,000 has caused the identity of the great multitude (Rev. 7:9) to become almost as mooted a question. So the responsibility assumed in this series to identify the former, the firstfruits, imposes a commensurate responsibility to identify the latter --
"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands" Rev. 7:9.
Leading to the identification of this great multitude, Inspiration has given several clues, one of which is a classification of the redeemed of all ages, from the martyrdom of Abel to the close of probation.
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Consequently, if they are not group 1, 2, or 3, then who can they be but the living saints. And since they are not the 144,000, the firstfruits of the living they must, then, be second fruits. Indeed, there
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must be second fruits, for the term "firstfruils" calls for second fruits just as much as the term "first resurrection" (Rev. 20:6) calls for a second resurrection, and as much as the term "second death" (Rev. 20:14) calls for a first death.
Nevertheless, still another baffling question requires an answer: If Christ's query, "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth" (Luke 18:8), also His statement, "Fear not, little flock" (Luke 12:32), mean that few a are to be saved and found living when He comes for His own, then how can there be an innumerable multitude? -- Though at first glance the question propounds a paradox, it is quickly resolved, and the idea that only a few living saints are to meet Him in "the air" is effectively dissipated when account is taken of the facts that "the harvest truly is plenteous" (Matt. 9:37), that it is "the end of the world" (Matt. 13:39), and that the very term "harvest" itself denotes a larger gathering than at any previous "season."
Furthermore, the query, "Shall He find faith on the earth?" is not questioning the number of saints at this particular coming, but rather faith itself regardless of number. And if at His appearing in the clouds to take home the faithful, He finds no faith in the earth, then what about His waiting church, which is to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, be it small or great?
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Obviously, His coming recorded in Luke 18:8 cannot be the one of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, His coming "in the clouds." But it could be the one of Malachi 3:2, 3, and Matthew 13:30, 47-48, leading to Matthew 25:31-33. His coming to His temple is to separate the sinners from the saints, at the commencement of which Inspiration asks, "Who may abide the day of His coming?"
And now, in the prophet's own words, comes the overall evidence of the ingathering of a great multitude of living saints during the "harvest time:"
"And they [the 144,000 who escape the slaying or abide the day (Isa. 66:16) in the separation of the tares from the wheat (Matt. 13:30, 41), the harvest of the firstfruits (Rev. 14:4), the "servants" of God (Rev. 7:3)] shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord." Isa 66:20.
"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image
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became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." Dan. 2:35.
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
"And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob." Isa 2:2, 3.
Keeping these correlative forecasts steadily in view, none but the blind can fail to see that the idea of only a few saved is true only of the number saved during any pre-harvest message-bearing period; not, though of the number saved during the "harvest" time itself.
The great multitude, the second fruits of living saints, moreover, are also found projected in certain demonstration in type:
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Since there are two types for the living, and as Enoch himself was not a descendant of Jacob, he cannot logically represent Jacob's descendants, the 144,000. In fact, the name Jacob, or the title "Israelite," did not even come into existence until centuries after Enoch was translated. Accordingly, Elijah, an Israelite himself, logically typifies the 144,000, and Enoch logically typifies the great multitude, who are from "all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues" (Rev. 7:9), because from his generation have descended all nations.
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And their Master's final call, then, appear in beautiful symmetry the trophies of the gospel -- two hosts of resurrected with their types, and two hosts of translated with their types.
O. what an ineffably wondrous and awesome sight -- the glorious hosts of the redeemed sweeping through the portals of glory and marching down the gold-paved street of Paradise, to the strains of celestial anthems which mortal ear has never heard --
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Brother, Sister, it is ours to choose either the habiliments of the saved or the cerements of the lost; either to walk with the ransomed in white or lie down with the damned in black.
If it be the latter -- God forbid that it should be -- then the dreadful price must be, not the first death alone, but also the second death, from which there is no release.
Yes, which will it be -- shrieking lamentations in the lake of unquenchable fire, or rapturous songs at the fount of unquenchable joy? Now, at the last hour you will have to choose either the company of
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"And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob." Gen. 25:21-26.
In the preternatural birth and the lives of Esau and Jacob, there is unmistakable Divine design and typology. The strange anomaly of this family's experience obviously dramatized in miniature an experience through which God's church would one day pass. Rebekah herself was made well aware of this fact when "the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger." Gen. 25:23.
What is the typology in this throbbing life drama? -- Basically that which stands forth in Paul's interpretation of the equally
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intense drama of Hagar and Ishmael, Sarah and Isaac. Inspiration unveils the fact that the former pair represent the Old Testament Church and its members, the Jews; and that the latter pair represent the New Testament Church and its members, the Christians (Gal. 4:22-31).
Similarly, though in another phase, Rebekah also represents the church, while Esau and Jacob represent her offspring, the laity. And since the two struggled within the mother before they were born (delivered), the important lesson is that while the church is travailing with her children just before they are delivered, receive the second birth (John 3:3) and are led into the kingdom, they are to struggle within. So, Rebekah's carrying two sons makes known that the church is carrying within her two classes of people -- Esaus and Jacobs.
"There are two opposing influences," affirms Inspiration, "continually exerted on the members of the church. One influence is working for the purification of the church, and the other for the corrupting of the people of God." -- Testimonies To Ministers, p. 46.
The manner in which Esau and Jacob were born -- Jacob's following Esau ahold of his heel -- has very obvious significance: Esau's leading makes him a type of leaders possessing his character, and Jacob's following makes him a type of followers
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possessing his character. This analogy unerringly signifies, too, that the one represents a class which precedes the other in church fellowship. Broadly speaking, therefore, they together represent candidates for a successor ministry and laity respectively.
There is also typical significance in the further fact that Esau was born hairy and Jacob smooth. This outstanding external unlikeness obviously imports some kind of outstanding visible identification of the two classes typified.
God ordained the man to lead and the woman to follow, and as such He created the man hairy and the woman smooth. These Divine marks of distinction reveal that Esau and the class which he represents possess the natural equipment for leadership, while Jacob and the class he represents do not. Besides, being the first-born, Esau by birthright was to be the family's priest. Through him were to come the progenitors of the twelve tribes, the prophets the princes, and the kings of Israel, even the King of kings Himself, the Saviour of the world.
But the desires, ambitions, and aims of Esau and Jacob, ran counter to their inherited positions. Esau had no special interest in the part of the work which his birthright permitted, whereas Jacob coveted it. Blocked, though, by the law of inheritance
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from possessing Esau's part, Jacob in his inordinate longing for the birthright managed to purchase it at the opportune time. Then in order to receive his father's blessings, he consented to his mother's conniving to obtain it through deceit.
The tragic lesson is painfully conspicuous: The Esau class who attend the duties of their office less than its sanctity demands, indifferently let it slip from their hands into the eager reaching grasp of the Jacob class, who do veritably appreciate and prize its obligations, but who, not being natural-born leaders, must acquire the equipment for the holy office by passing through the disciplinary training of some soul-trying experience as foreshadowed by Jacob's training while he was a fugitive from home. Thus in their providential lot, cast out of the church by their elder brethren, as was Jacob cast out of the home by his elder brother, because of their zeal in God's service, they gain a training for the privileged work which is to be theirs.
What an inestimable blessing the first-born, the present ministry, are losing! Theirs is the matchless privilege of standing on Mt. Zion with the Lamb and of fathering forth the latter day subjects of the Kingdom, ushering the Kingdom itself, bringing the second advent of Christ, and finally leading the redeemed host into the heavenly Canaan, into the realms of
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faceless glory. But they are about to lose out -- tragedy of tragedies!
For some tempting mess of pottage they let slip this sovereign privilege! Sadly, they are even now letting it slip away to the Jacob class, the faithful laity, the 144,000 future servants of God (Rev. 7:3; 5:10, Testimonies, Vol. 5, pp. 475, 476)
"As Esau awoke to see the folly of his rash exchange when it was too late to recover his loss, so it will be in the day of God with those who have bartered their heirship to heaven for selfish gratifications." -- Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 182. (Read also Testimonies, Vol. 2, pp. 38, 39.)
"Brethren," years ago pleaded the Spirit of Truth with the first-born in warning them of their danger of losing their birth-right, "if you continue to be as idle, as worldly, as selfish as you have been, God will surely pass you by, and take those who are less self-caring, less ambitious for worldly honor, and who will not hesitate to go, as did their Master, without the camp, bearing the reproach. The work will be given to those who will take it, those who prize it, who weave its principles into their every-day experience. God will choose humble men, who are seeking to glorify his name and advance his cause rather than to honor and advance themselves. He will raise up men who have not so much worldly wisdom, but who are
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connected with him, and who will seek strength and counsel from above." -- Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 461.
"The call to this great and solemn work was presented to men of learning and position; had these been little in their own eyes, and trusted fully in the Lord, he would have honored them with bearing his standard in triumph to the victory....
"God will work a work in our day that but few anticipate. He will raise up and exalt among us those who are taught rather by the unction of his Spirit, than by the outward training of scientific institutions." -- Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 82.
"Here [Ezek. 9:5, 6] we see that the church -- the Lord's sanctuary -- was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light, and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God's power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. He is too merciful to visit his people in judgment. Thus peace and safety is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God's people their transgressions and the house of Jacob
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their sins. These dumb dogs, that would nor bark, are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children, all perish together." -- Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 211.
Now as this numerous-phased typology turns round to its next aspect, Esau and Jacob are seen in a further representation of two sinful classes: Esau, both by the color of his skin and by the significance of his name after it was changed from Esau to Edom; Jacob, by the meaning of his name before it was changed from Jacob to Israel.
Singularly enough, as was the color of Esau's skin red, so was the meaning of his new name, Edom. And as he failed to appreciate and cherish the paternal gift, never fulfilling the meaning of his birth name ("he that finishes"), it is seen that his new name, unlike Jacob's new name, signifies, not advancement, but rather failure to advance, going on unrestrained in his carnal ways -- remaining in his inborn, "red," character. Hence, the class of leaders which he typifies are to lose out, never to finish their God-appointed work, and never to be transformed from sinners to saints! What a loss!
Not so, though, with the Jacob class. Just as their type, who diligently cared for the sheep, carefully tended to his business, and triumphantly overcame his covetous
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nature, had his name changed from Jacob (supplanter) to Israel (and overcomer and thus a Prince), so they, too, finally, triumphing over their own carnal nature, have their names changed from Jacobites to Israelites, from supplanters to overcomers, -- from servants of self to servants of God, from common Christians in Laodicea to exalted princes on Mt. Zion. Thus in their own right the antitypical Jacobites become antitypical Israelites, by acquisition of the priestly birthright they become finishers of the gospel work and as servants of God they stand on Mt. Zion with the Lamb.
So it is seen that both classes, like their types, have their names changed: the Jacob class, because they cherish, as did Jacob an imperishable birthright; the Esau class, because they despise, as did Esau, the imperishable birthright, and cherish the perishable glory of this life. The one has a sharp, correct sense of life's values; the other, a dull, incorrect sense of them.
And though Jacob lacked the natural qualifications for performing the duties of his office, the lack was more than offset by his overwhelming zeal. Regardless, therefore, how much or how little natural talent and acquired training one may have for any position, he will never make a success at it unless he invests in it everything he possesses -- throws his whole heart and soul into it. This is one of life's immutable
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laws, and it should be remembered by all that it governs prosperity in every field of endeavor whether for believer or unbeliever.
Since one's loss is always another's gain, just as Esau's loss was Jacobs gain, so the dreadful, irreparable, and priceless loss to the Esau class is to be a glorious eternal gain to the Jacob class.
In gnawing remorse over the realization of his inestimable loss, Esau "found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Heb. 12:17. His fate irrevocably types that which is to overtake all who by their works place themselves in the Esau class.
In the stream of this most instructive typology on the subject, we are now carried along to its climaxing feature
On the first night of his flight from the murderous wrath of Esau, Jacob, using a stone for a pillow, lay down to rest:
"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." Gen. 28:12.
What does the dream mean? -- Being another facet of the same typology, it must necessarily be a prefigurement of a note-worthy event to overtake God's people, the Jacobites.
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Since the ladder, with one end on the earth and the other in heaven, symbolizes Christ (Patriarchs And Prophets, p. 184), and since the angels walking up and down the ladder are His messengers (The Great Controversy, p. 512), the whole signifies that Christ shall establish through Himself a sure and constant communication between heaven and earth.
"And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth." Hos. 2:21
The next step in the typology takes into consideration --
Along the chronological path of this numerous-phased typology, we now in thought follow Jacob on to Padan-Aram. There he took unto himself four wives -- Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Laban; then Zilpah and Bilhah, their respective maids. These four were the mothers of the twelve sons of Jacob, who in turn were the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel.
In this type-progression of spiritual Israel, only one of the four, Leah, was Jacob's legal wife. Only she, therefore, can typify the true and legal church -- the one which was organized in Jerusalem by the twelve-tribe kingdom, and which finally evolved into the Christian Church.
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Rachel must necessarily represent a sister church -- the one organized in Samaria by the ten-tribe kingdom and dispersed with it among the Gentiles.
Zilpah and Bilhah, being "strangers" and servants to Leah and Rachel, must necessarily represent subsequent churches of Gentile origin.
From these four lines descended the antitypical children of Israel. And what is true in the physical genealogy must he true also in the spiritual genealogy. Hence, while the antitypical, like the typical, twelve tribes come through both Israelite and Gentile mothers, yet they are begotten by one and the same father -- an Israelite.
Dispersed by God throughout the Gentile nations, both Judah (the two-tribe kingdom) and Israel (the ten-tribe kingdom) were swallowed up by them. Then, too, the Christian Church, herself but an upshoot from the Jewish Church (Christ's disciples and apostles, as well as the church's early converts, were purely Jews, remember), dropped her Old Testament title "Jewish" as she took her New Testament title "Christian." Then she gradually lost her Jewish foliage amid the foliage of the ingrafted Gentile branches.
Now as we leave this phase of the typology, we enter that of
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After twenty years of faithful service in Padan-Aram, in the sharp, overreaching employ of Laban, his uncle, Jacob at last turned his face and his steps homeward toward his father's house in the land of promise.
But trouble overtook him. While grappling with his fears as to the outcome of his imminent meeting with Esau "there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." Gen. 32:24
Here lay down the man Jacob and rose up the man Israel, exemplifying the agonizing experience through which his posterity must victoriously pass before they, too, receive a new name, pass from sons of Jacob to sons of God, become Israelites indeed. Having gained the victory over this test, "the time of Jacob's trouble," they will reach home, the land of promise -- the happy end of their long and troubled journey.
On this trying and testing time the Spirit of Prophecy comments: "A decree went forth to slay the saints, which caused them to cry day and night for deliverance. This was the time of Jacob's trouble" -- Early Writings, pp. 36, 37. (See also Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 202, 203.)
Now, as Jacob's retirement from his servitude in Padan-Aram ends with his returning
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home, the typology continues with --
That the Bible reveals its tremendous truths in divers ways -- in numerics, in symbols and figures, in parables and allegories, in dreams and visions, in types and providences -- is even more fully recognized in the anomalous experience of ancient Israel's going into Egypt. In it every informed Bible student discerns, not mere happenstance, but purposive design wrought by the omnipotent hand of Providence. Indeed, Joseph himself, the principal character in the great drama, so avouches it: "God did send me before you," he declares, "to preserve life." Gen. 45:5.
In acknowledgment of this, Paul at the instance of Inspiration forewarns that "all these things happened unto them for ensamples." 1 Cor. 10:11. How supremely important, then, that we thoroughly explore, understand, and prize these marvelous ensample which God wrought for our welfare.
Beginning with Jacob's experience, we see providential circumstances shaping his life all along, even to predisposing him to love Joseph better than his other sons (Gen. 37:2-11) -- the immediate cause of their jealousy and their making away with
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the lad. Thus, years before their removing from Canaan to Egypt, God in His providence sent Joseph, as he himself later realized, to prepare their way. Then by bringing the seven years of plenty, followed by the seven years of famine in all the land, the Almighty further shaped circumstances so as to bring the entire household of Israel down into Egypt. And there were they later reduced to slavery, which cost them untold hardship and the murder of a great number of their male children.
From the selling of Joseph into slavery, to the slaying of the first-born in Egypt -- what a sorrowful sequence of vicissitudes! Why was it necessary that the house of Jacob pass through such purging experiences? Why? -- Because "all these things," again reminds Inspiration, "happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 1 Cor. 10:11.
In His inscrutable wisdom, God permitted the sons of Jacob to go the hard way, so that they might become a type, an ensample, a saving object lesson in the day He sets "His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea." Isa. 11:11.
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Upon us, then devolves the responsibility of soberly, wisely, and faithfully making their defeats our stepping stones to victory. Wonderful indeed to know that our path has been charted centuries in advance!
As an integral part of these master "ensamples," the Designer of them promoted Joseph to the throne of Egypt by enabling him to predict the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine, whereby
"And it came to pass...that Pharaoh
dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river. And, behold, there came up
out of the river seven well favoured kine and fat fleshed; and they fed in a
meadow.
"And, behold, seven other kine
came up after them out of the river, ill favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by
the other kine upon the brink of the river.
"And the ill favoured and
leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favoured and fat kine. So
Pharaoh awoke.... And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was
troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the
wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could
interpret them unto Pharaoh....
"Then Pharaoh sent and called
Joseph, and they brought him haste fly out of the dungeon...and Pharaoh said
unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can
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interpret it: and I have heard say of thee that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it...., [Then Pharaoh related the dream to Joseph].
"And Joseph said unto Pharaoh... God hath shewed Pharaoh what He is about to do. The seven good kine are seven years... And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years,...
"Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt... And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous....and Pharaoh said,... See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt...
And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number." Gen. 41:1-49.
What is the spiritual significance of this object lesson? -- Just this: since in the Scriptures the number seven invariably signifies completeness of the category represented, the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine necessarily point respective to two successive and complete periods of time.
The first is miraculously to produce in great abundance not only for the time then present but for the time to come, and the second is miraculously to produce very little, if anything.
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And what else in the field of symbolism could the stored "corn" represent but spiritual food, the Word of God stored in the Bible (Ps. 78:24)? Accordingly, the ensample shows that the sixty-six books of the Bible are God's storehouses of Truth, and that they were filled with soul-nourishing food during the period of the prophets -- the antitypical period of plenty -- to sustain spiritual life during that time as well as during the subsequent period, the period of the gospel, the antitypical period of famine.
Hence, the stored Truth which is to sustain each generation both in the Old and New Testament dispensations is the writings of the prophets unfolded as timely revelations throughout the gospel period. And such is, as every Bible student knows, the actual fact.
Clearly, the great typological lesson is that in the long reach of years which have ensued since the Bible was written, and in which there has been no additional spiritual food, necessarily it had to be purchased from the old store, Jehovah's great Storehouse, the Bible, and is still to be purchased from It and now as then, only through His appointed distributors, His inspired interpreters.
"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," now invites the Spirit, "and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and
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eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Isa. 55:1.
The type unerringly shows that just as in Joseph's day no one could help himself to the corn, but could obtain it only through Joseph's appointed servants, so even in our day the only one who provides "meat in due season," is the Saviour through His appointed servants. Only through them He reveals, interprets, and distributes timely truth.
Thus it is that though we are now in the antitypical years of famine, the period of indirect revelation from Heaven, there is to be no lack of food, present truth. There is enough stored in the Bible to carry us through the years of famine if we but make our request to His appointed distributors. This is the most significant, most urgent, and most needed lesson taught in this providential ensample for God's people.
The facts that the corn is figurative of the Creator's Word, and that the storehouses are figurative of the books of the Bible, automatically make Joseph a type of Christ, Who controls the Scriptures and Who alone distributes the Truth to those who pay the price -- who give up both their inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong-doing (Christ's Object Lessons, p. 330; Prophets And Kings, p. 97.)
So it is that as Joseph reigned co-ruler with Pharaoh, Christ reigns Co-ruler with
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God: and as Joseph, the world's physical saviour, stored the corn in the granaries of Egypt, Christ, the world's spiritual Saviour, stored the Truth in the books of the Bible. Hence, the honor which Pharaoh bestowed upon Joseph foreshadowed the honor which the Master Typologist bestowed upon Christ.
Having prepared the way, Joseph sent for his father, his brethren, and their families:
"And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.
"And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.
"And He said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt...
"And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee: the land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell...
"And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household with bread, according to their families.... And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein and grew, and multiplied exceedingly." Gen. 46:1-3; 47:5, 6, 12, 27.
The country of Goshen, which God disposed Joseph to give to Israel in their absence from their homeland, was the best in the land of Egypt. There amid superb surroundings and other favored
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circumstances, Joseph provided for all their needs (Gen. 45:10).
So in the antitypical years of famine, -- in the gospel dispensation, -- Christ must have, as the figure shows, provided His church with the best land available while on her antitypical sojourn among the Gentile nations -- "the wilderness." Rev. 12:6. There, in the antitypical Goshen, was she "nourished for a time, and times, and half a time," Rev. 12:14.
Moreover, as Jacob and his posterity, the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel, went into the country of Goshen, not at the beginning of the years of famine, but rather in the second year, it again shows that their counterpart should not be looked for at the very commencement of the Christian era, but later.
Moreover, we find that Elder White, whose given name "James" means the same as Jacob, fathered (organized) his posterity (converts and associates), the founding fathers of the Seventh-day Adventist church the spiritual progenitors of the antitypical twelve tribes -- the144,000 -- in the antitypical land of Goshen, away from the promised land.
And Pharaoh's maintaining Joseph at his right hand on the throne of Egypt having the similarity of God's maintaining Christ at His right hand on the throne of
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the universe, the typology identifies Pharaoh as a type of God.
But in the course of time this benevolent and compassionate Pharaoh passed away, and there arose in his stead a hateful and cruel Pharaoh who determined to wear out the Hebrews by removing them --
"Now there arose up a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we,... Therefore, they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.... And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field." Ex. 1:8-14.
By parallel logic, this "new" Pharaoh who knew not Joseph and who sought to destroy the Lord's people, the Israelites, typifies a master enemy, none other than Satan, a false god, the usurper of this world, who knows not Christ and who seeks to enslave His people the Christians, while they are sojourning in antitypical Egypt.
Evidently the servants of the spiteful Pharaoh those through whom he carried out his evil intents, typify the servants of
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Satan, those through whom he works to destroy God's purposes for His church.
In view of this Joseph had sought to forever close the possibility of social intercourse between the Hebrews and the Egyptians, by instructing his brethren to emphatically tell Pharaoh that they were shepherds, for shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. Nevertheless, as time went on, the wicked Pharaoh took them from the sheepfolds and put them to work in the brick yards.
True to type, Seventh-day Adventists have from the very beginning represented themselves as shepherds, their slogan being: "Every Seventh-day Adventist a missionary, and every missionary a preacher and a pastor" -- shepherds of the flock of God.
The Spirit of Truth, however, made known years ago that restrictions on such a practice had already begun. "A strange thing," It revealed, "has come into our churches. Men who are placed in positions of responsibility that they may be wise helpers to their fellow workers, have come to suppose that they were set as kings and rulers in the churches to say to one brother, Do this; to another, Do That; and to another, Be sure to labor in such and such a way."--Testimonies to Mlnisters, p. 477.
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So. as were the Hebrews
forced from the sheepfolds into the brickyards, Seventh-day Adventists in like
manner are forced from preaching the gospel to raising goals and ever more
goals. Yes, even while exacting their labor, modern Pharaoh, too, demands
that there be given them
"And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves... And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying,... Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it: yet not ought of your work shall be diminished." Ex. 5:6, 7, 10; 11.
And now, just before their deliverance from their antitypical servitude, Seventh-day Adventists are circumstantially required to make up their budgets, goals, and various fees and other expenses, but when in need, they receive practically no Denominational aid whatsoever. As with their types, everything -- time, strength, money, and all -- is taken from them, in return for which they are given virtually nothing.
"In former numbers of Testimonies for the Church," says the founder of the Denomination, "I have spoken of the importance of Seventh-day Adventists establishing an institution for the benefit of the
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sick, especially for the suffering and sick among us. I have spoken of the ability of our people, in point of means, to do this; and have urged that, in view of the importance of this branch of the great work of preparation to meet the Lord with gladness of heart, our people should feel themselves called upon, according to their ability, to put a portion of their means into such an institution....
"When I saw those who managed and directed, running into the dangers shown me, of which I had warned them in public, and also in private conversation and letters, a terrible burden came upon me. That which had been shown me as a place where the suffering sick among us could be helped, was one where sacrifice, hospitality, faith, and piety should be the ruling principles....
"As nearly as I am able to judge, one-half of the afflicted among our people, who should spend weeks or months at the Institute, are not able to pay the entire expense of the journey and a tarry there. Shall poverty keep these friends of our Lord from the blessings which he has so bountifully provided? Shall they be left to struggle on with the double burden of feebleness and poverty?...
"To the afflicted among our people I wish to say, Be not discouraged. God has not forsaken his people and his cause." -- Testimonies, Vol. 1, pp. 633, 641, 643.
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Next in the type we are led to
consider the faithful midwives --
"And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah: and he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.
"And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.
"Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
"And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive." EX. 1:15-22.
Whom could the midwives typically represent? -- Let logic and reason give the answer: The children born to the Hebrew women in the land of Egypt, away from their homeland, can only represent the children born to the church while she is sojourning among the Gentile nations.
The duty of a midwife is to graciously receive immaculately wash, and neatly
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clothe, also nutritionally nurse, the new-born babe. So the ancient midwives must represent, those whose spiritual responsibility of this day is to cleanse the student-youth from inherent sins, clothe them with the robes of Christ's righteousness, and nourish them with spiritual food -- teach the doctrines in the light of Present Truth. The only such agency for the youth, of course, is the church school.
The midwives' refusal to kill the Hebrew children, therefore, demonstrates nothing less than the fact that the teachers in the Denomination's schools of today are endeavoring to do the right thing even if they have, as it were, to violate Pharaoh's wicked command.
And this interpretation of the typology is concretely substantiated in an excerpt from The Home and School Journal of Christian Education, a General Conference paper to which every teacher in the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination is supposed to subscribe.
The December, 1929, issue of this journal, full of Christmas-keeping and Christmas programs and gifts, is a fair example of the Conference trend at the time The Shepherd's Rod began to unfold. As it is too lengthy to reproduce in full, we quote only the very last sentence, the closing words under the paragraph, "What Christmas May Always Mean":
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"And, in general, a baptism of reality, simplicity, and sincerity in the observance of the world's supreme birthday."
For a General Conference publication to command the teachers to exalt in the eyes of the youth the world's supreme idolatrous day as the birthday of Christ, is incredible. But, as all can see, it is just as actual as was Pharaoh's command to the midwives.
His demand that the male children be cast into the river, was not in effect blocking the progress of the rapid increase of the Hebrew nation, but was a ruthless attempt to destroy the promised deliverer. And the defeat of Pharaoh's evil intent in that day foreshadowed the defeat of modern Pharaoh's subtle endeavor to do away with the prophet of today, the one who is to deliver modern Israel when the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled.
In confirmation that Pharaoh of today is in effect doing all that can be done to cheat God's people of a deliverer in this day, we recite the fact that while the Denomination's Inspired record plainly foretells the coming of a prophet (Testimonies To Ministers, p. 475), a message, additional truth (Early Writings, p. 277), the members of the church are not only left ignorant of it but are even warned against it, -- taught that they have need of nothing, that they have all the truth to carry them clear through to the Kingdom!
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To expose, in the words of Inspiration, modern Pharaoh's boastful and deceitful declaration of such a falsehood, we quote:
"Prophecy must be fulfilled. The Lord says: 'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.' Somebody is to come in the spirit and power of Elijah, and when he appears, men may say: 'You are too earnest, you do not interpret the Scriptures in the proper way. Let me tell you how to each your message.'" -- Testimonies To Ministers, pp. 475, 476.
"The present attitude of the church is not pleasing to God. There has come in a self-confidence that has led them to feel no necessity for more truth and greater light. We are living at a time when Satan is at work on the right hand and on the left, before and behind us; and yet as a people we are asleep. God wills that a voice shall be heard arousing His people to action." -- Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 709. (See also Gospel Workers, p. 300.)
That the Pharaoh of today is to meet ultimate defeat in his subtle endeavor, is clearly revealed in the facts that not only was Moses' life spared by ancient Pharaoh's daughter, but also was he reared at the king's own expense! The typology reveals, therefore, the fearful defeat which the enemies of the work of the antitypical deliverer will suffer: their unwitting endeavor to defeat God in His purpose for
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His people, is at their own expense sure to turn into a glorious victory for the Lord.
Having now seen that Israel's going into Egypt is typological, logic rules that so also must be
That the exodus of Moses' day is a miniature demonstration of the exodus of the near future, the Spirit through Isaiah the prophet emphatically declares:
"And in that day there shall he a root of Jesse [a nucleus of his descendants], which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest [the land where it stands] shall be glorious.
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant [those who are yet among the Gentiles] of His people, which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
"And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
"The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut
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off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. [There shall be perfect peace among them].
"But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
"And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea [world]; and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod.
"And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that He came up out of the land of Egypt." Isa. 11:10-16.
Very evidently, then, the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that so gloriously led the Hebrew host out of Egypt foreshadowed and even greater and more glorious protective covering, victoriously leading Israel of today not only on their way to the land of promise but all the while they are there.
For "it shall come to
pass," reveals the prophet, "that he that is left in Zion, and he that
remaineth in Jerusalem [after the sinner is taken away],
shall be called holy, even every one that is
written among the living in Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the
filth of the daughters
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of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
"And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.
"And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain." Isa. 4:3-6.
These prophetic passages with certainty forewarn that shortly the sinners will be taken away from Jerusalem ("the filth of the daughters of Zion" be washed away), and thus they promise that only the righteous from the four corners of the earth will have a part in the forthcoming antitypical exodus.
The Passover. too, in which perished all the first-born of man and beast that were found in dwellings which had not the blood on the doorposts, forespoke an antitypical Passover in which all who are left without the mark because of not sighing and crying for the abominations in their midst will surely fall under the slaughter weapons of the angels (Ezek. 9:2).
When will this come to pass? -- The type unquestionably reveals the time through the fact that only the first-born were then
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in danger. Accordingly, the antitypical Passover will take place in the time of the firstfruit harvest -- the sealing of the 144,000, the firstfruits, the first to go to antitypical Jerusalem, the first to stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb, the first-born by the Spirit. Obviously, all of the firstfruits who receive the mark will live on, and all who fail to receive the mark will perish as surely as did the first-born who at the time of the typical Passover failed to apply the blood on the door-posts.
Besides these most striking ensamples with their valuable lessons, the Wonderful has, for our enlightenment, most accurately worked out even greater
The eye focused to the light of heaven sees that Jehovah God, the Super Artist, has employed in the Scriptures every method known to mankind by which to unfold the wondrous structure of Redemption. And now while leading His people to the Kingdom eternal, He employs for light on their way even typology -- the lives of men who have gone before and the experiences through which they have passed -- and decrees that their defeats and victories should be the saints' stepping-stones over every pitfall.
And to arouse the spirit of men to a realization of His wonder-working power and of their inability to foresee the future
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and thus to walk in the straight path, the Omniscient One flings the challenge:
"Produce your cause, saith the Lord; taring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
"Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.
"Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together." Isa. 41:21-23.
"Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am He." Isa. 41:4.
Explain the cause, the reason, the significance of former things, He demands. Tell us, what do they mean? What are they for? Can you predict the future by the past, be it good or be it bad? Exhibit Divine power if you can.
Silence on the subject gives consent to the fact that only the Great I Am can thus forewarn the generations, the first to the last. And He makes it known that though the experiences through which our predecessors were permitted to pass were for our ensamples, yet even these we of ourselves cannot correctly interpret.
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But now at the appointed time, He Himself reveals their significance to the very people for whom they were originally and especially designed. Thus by "the former things," the world of yesterday, the great and only such Typologist has projected "the latter end" of them, the world of today:
At the outset of this typology, it is seen that "the woman," Eve who through her own seed (the living church) is to bruise the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15), typifies the church preceding the Hebrew dispensation; next, that Hagar typifies the church during the Hebrew dispensation, and finally, that Sarah typifies the Christian Church.
Following these, the typology shows that Melchisedek, the priest of the Most High God, Who has neither beginning nor end of days, typifies Christ our High Priest and His eternal work, and that Aaron, a high priest in the Jewish dispensation, typifies Christ our High Priest and His temporary priestly work.
While constructing the typology, Providence brought Hagar into the home of Abraham, and through Sarah's unbearable waiting for a son, brought Ishmael into being. Thus was forecast the moral character and behavior of an antitypical nation.
"For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the
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bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
"Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
"For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
"Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
"Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not he heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." Gal. 4:22 - 31.
Clear it is that Hagar and Ishmael's coming into the household of Abraham foreshadowed a flesh-born (not spirit-horn) people, the descendants of Jacob (ancient Israel), coming into the household of God,
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not through spiritual birth, but through natural cause.
It is also that Hagar's rebellion against Sarah forespoke the rebellion of the rabbis against the Christian Church, and that Ishmael's persecution of Isaac pointed out the Jews' persecution of the Christians.
And last, Abraham's disinheriting Hagar and her son, sending them away once and forever, was a preview of God's disinheriting and discharging from His household the carnal minded Jews who failed to become converted, reconciled, born again -- failed to bury the carnal body and to arise with a spiritual one according to the promise.
Never, therefore, will the carnal Jew, any more than the carnal Gentile, ever with the saints inherit the Kingdom of God -- no, no more than Ishmael inherited Abraham's wealth -- or ever have any part in His glorious promises, except they be born again, born of the Spirit into the holy family of God (Rom. 11:23).
Having glanced through these three church periods with their varied priesthoods, we now come to the second phase of the typology, and this we shall quickly and even more realistically see as we now review the typological drama of the ages with the aid of the accompanying chart, which graphically unveils the advancing truth and urges our compliance with It.
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By means of this chart the church of God is quickly seen in five different categories by periods. The first two are within the typical, and the last three within the antitypical:
(1) The Noatic, (2) the Patriarchal, (3) the Kingdom Temporal, (4) the Evangelical, (5) the Kingdom Eternal.
The typological seed of the "woman" is born in the two typical periods -- the Noatic and the Patriarchal -- and reaches spiritual maturity during the ensuing three antitypical periods; namely, the Kingdom Temporal, the Evangelical, and the Kingdom Eternal.
In the typical arc the natural-born children: Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob -- a good and a bad in each instance. And in the antitypical they find their antitypes as follows:
Allegorically, throughout church history are seen on the one hand Cainites -- those who are worshiping God, not as He commands, but as their desire and convenience demands. And on the other hand are seen Abelites -- those who are worshiping God precisely according to His will and who, moreover, for thus doing incur the displeasure of the Cainites, who in anger and jealousy slay them. Thus the martyrs.
Then Mercy brought forth Seth to carry on the part which Abel was circumstantially forced to leave Cain, the first-born, represents,
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according to Bible order, a class of ministry, while Abel and Seth, the younger, necessarily represent a class of laity.
Thus were ministry and laity, hypocrite, martyr, and saint, typed in the very beginning of the human race.
Isaac, the first-born son through promise through the will of God, can only represent a class of ministers who are placed in that holy office through the promised spiritual birthright -- "born again," Divinely appointed.
Ishmael, too, being Abraham's first-born son, but not through legal marriage or promise, he circumstantially represents a class of carnal ministry who are led to that office, not through spiritual birthright and a call from the Lord of the vineyard, but only through favorable opportunity.
In this manner was dramatized the character of the self-willed Jewish rabbis, the Ishmaelites in antitype, who persecuted the apostles, the lsaacites in antitype.
Esau and Jacob being twins and
the last in this line of typology, they therefore foreshadow two classes of
people living at the same time in the church period subsequent to the one which
Isaac represents -- the last, the Laodicean Esau, being the first-born,
prefigures an Esauite ministry
who for as little as a mess of
"pottage" forfeit their position to a Jacobite laity.
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And in amplification of the subject, the Spirit of Prophecy long ago emphatically forewarned the Esauites, saying:
"In the mighty sifting soon to take place, we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will manifest that his fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor....
"Those who have rendered supreme homage to 'science falsely so-called,' will not be the leaders then. Those who have trusted to intellect, genius, or talent, will not then stand at the head of rank and file. They did not keep pace with the light. Those who have proved themselves unfaithful will not then be entrusted with the flock. In the last solemn work few great men will be engaged. They are self-sufficient, independent of God, and he cannot use them. The Lord has faithful servants, who in the shaking, testing time will be disclosed to view." -- Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 80.
Now, the change of Esau's name shows that the Esauites are some day, and not far hence, no longer to be thought of and idolized as Esauites as the ones who finish, but rather dreaded as Edomites, as ones who perish. And the change of Jacob's name shows that the Jacobites are then no longer to be driven out and feared as Jacobites, as supplanters, carnal, but rather welcomed as Israelites, holy princes, co-rulers standing
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with the Lamb on Mount Zion (Rev. 14:1), in the palace of the Great King.
Then, when the gospel work is finished and "the seed of the woman" mature to full-grown Christians (become the Lord's battle ax -- Jer. 51:20) -- and bruise the serpent's head, also smite the wicked nations -- Dan. 2:44, 45), then shall be plainly seen that that which the first Adam lost through indulgence, the second Adam through self-control recovered, -- the Kingdom Eternal again ruling the whole earth (Dan. 2:35).
"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse," declares Inspiration, "and a Branch shall grow out of His roots [the Saviour of the house of Jesse]...and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth:...
"And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy
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mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Isa. 11:1-9.
And now, dear reader, realizing that the time for a real feast of spiritual food, "meat in due season," is actually here, you are, of course, led to inquire: What brought it? What made the great change?
The answer to this pertinent question is given in the following
"Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years." Ex. 12:40.
The reader will herein quickly see that the events during this period of sojourning and affliction of Abraham, Isaac Jacob, and Israel, most remarkably coincide with similar events in the period from the Reformation by Luther to the message of today, the sealing of the 144,000.
"The period of four hundred and thirty years dates from the promise given to Abraham when he was commanded to leave Ur of the Chaldees. The four hundred years of Gen. 15:13 dates from a later period. Notice that the period of four hundred years is not only a time of sojourning, but of affliction. This, according to the Scriptures, must be reckoned from thirty years later, about the time when Ishmael, 'he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him [Isaac] that was born after
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the Spirit.' Gal. 4:29." -- The Patriarchs and Prophets p. 760, Appendix, Note 6.
And according to Galatians 3:15-17, the 430 years ended with the giving of the law at Mount Sinai.
At the outset of these coincidences, we are reminded that when Abraham decided to follow the Lord out of Ur, idolatry prevailed throughout the Chaldean world. Likewise, it is held by the Protestant world that at the time Martin Luther decided to be a priest rather than a lawyer, idolatry, against which he protested, prevailed even throughout the Christian world. And the doctrine which he preached being the same as Abraham's, "the just shall live by faith," it is already seen that Abraham and the world in his time find their counterparts in Luther and the world in his time.
Then, too, Sarah and Isaac's protest against Hagar and Ishmael in the end of the thirty years from the time Abraham went out of Ur, finds its counterpart in 1530 A.D. Leading to this phase of the typology, history records that about the year 1500 Luther discovered a Latin Bible in the library of the University of Erfurt, and learned to his no small delight that It contained more than the excerpts in common use. His 30 years of studying and preaching the Bible resulted in the Augsburg Confession, a document adopted as the Protestant creed and presented at
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the Deit of Augsburg to the Emperor, Charles V, in 1530.
Thus Abraham's decision to live for God instead of for Ur, coincides with Luther's decision to become a priest instead of a lawyer. And the protest of Sarah and Isaac, that Hagar and Ishmeel were not loyal to Abraham's household and that they therefore were never again to be a part of it, never to be his heirs, coincides with the Protestant's protest contained in the document by which they protested that the practices of the church and of her followers in the Middle Ages were not according to the Word.
And from the time Sarah protested to the time Moses was born, the hope of Israel's deliverance, there were 320 years, which, if added to 1530 A.D. give 1850, the year which gave birth to the First Testimony for the Church, addressed to the 144,000, Israel of today. Plain it is, therefore, that the birth of Moses, the hope of ancient Israel, finds its counterpart in the birth of the First Testimony, the hope of modern Israel.
Continuing with these corresponding events, we call to mind that Moses at the age of 40 attempted to deliver Israel, but failing, he ran away. Adding these 40 years to 1850 A.D., we arrive at 1890, the time the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination organized the National Religious
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Liberty Association, which likewise failed to fulfill I its purpose.
Moreover, this notable date, 1890, was reached just two years after the doctrine of "righteousness by faith" was first brought to the attention of the Denomination at the historical 1888 Minneapolis Camp Meeting, and then and there rejected by nearly all of those who were present. Then during the ensuing two years, it was rejected by the whole Denomination. (See Christ Our Righteousness, pp. 41-55, 1941 edition; Testimonies To Ministers, pp. 79, 80.) This is one of the reasons that the church was in 1890 left to enter a forty-year antitypical wilderness wandering, matching Moses' attempt and failure to deliver ancient Israel; also his running away into the wilderness. (See Forty Years in the Wilderness, by Elder Taylor Bunch, pp. 15-17.)
Forty years after his first attempt to deliver the children of Israel, Moses was finally sent back into Egypt and was then enabled to break the Egyptian yoke. Adding these 40 years to 1890 A.D., we are brought to 1930, the year in which The Shepherd's Rod, Vol. 1, was first published, declaring throughout the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination that "the year of My redeemed is come," the day in which "the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people." Isa. 63:4, 11:11. So Moses' call
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to actually deliver Israel from Egyptian servitude coincides with the arrival of The Shepherd's Rod, demanding obedience to God's law, declaring the truth of the 144,000, and announcing that this is the time for their deliverance from Gentile rule.
Further, from the time of Abraham's decision to follow the Lord, to the birth of Jacob, there were 85 years. And from the commencement of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination, from its founder's first trance-vision, which was regarding the 144,000, to the birth of The Shepherd's Rod message, there were also 85 years.
All these coincidences as to time and objective may now be quickly and more easily comprehended in --
Abraham's decision to serve the Lord in 2083 A.M. (years from creation) coincides with Luther's turning from secular to spiritual pursuits in 1500 A.D.; Sarah's protest against Haaar and Ishmael in 2113 A.M. coincides with the Protestant's protest against the church in 1530 A.D.; the birth of Moses the hope of ancient Israel, in 2433 A.M., coincides in 1850 A.D. with the birth of the First Testimony, the hope of modern Israel -- addressed to the 144,000, the Israel of today.
And Moses's attempt and failure to deliver Israel in 2473 A.M. coincides with the attempt and failure of the Seventh-day Adventist
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Religious Liberty Association, and their rejection of the message of Righteousness by Faith, -- causing the Denomination in 1890 A.D. also to enter into a 40-year wilderness wanderment, so to speak.
Finally, Moses' arrival in Egypt and his success in freeing the Hebrew host and restoring order and religious liberty in 2513 A.M., coincides with the arrival of The Shepherd's Rod in 1930 A.D., and with Its endeavor to effect revival and reformation and to free Israel of today.
(In some instances the coincidental events may, according to our present calendar, appear to be a year ahead or a year behind, due to the fact that the first month of the Mosaic calendar falls in the fourth month of the present calendar year. For an example, see The Answerer, Book No. 3 pp. 49, 50, 1944 edition.)
Hence, anyone can see that the 430 typical years and their interwoven events from the time Abraham went out of Ur to the time Moses with the Lord's rod went out of Egypt and delivered the law at Mount Sinai, match the 430 antitypical years from the time Luther discontinued his study of law and began the study of the Bible, to the year in which The Shepherd's Rod proclaimed the sealing of the 144,000, the deliverance of modern Israel.
These dovetailing events are now graphically and even more realistically seen in the following chart:
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All these modern occurrences being perfectly matched with the ancient ones both in time and objective, they definitely confirm the fact that the work of The Shepherd's Rod is Divinely foreordained and as timely in our day as was Moses' work and his rod in his day. One is consequently overwhelmingly compelled to acknowledge Providential design and foreknowledge of the reader's eternal welfare for thousands of years in advance.
So, completely disarming the Enemy of souls, the great Designer of these typological truths leaves the reader free to make his own choice as to whether he will continue in the darkness or come out into the Light of the Lord, no longer to wonder what church to join, or what is truth and what is error.
He may now behold "how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion Thy God reigneth!" Isa. 52:7.
Now the question as to "what made the great change," "what brought this glorious truth," is answered -- the timely arrival of this prophesied silent messenger.
Finally being fully aware of wherein one's safety lies and wherein one's danger lurks, you, dear reader, are doubtless anxious to know the quality and quantity of spiritual food you have been and are
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now feasting on. This phase of the typology is most faithfully and accurately revealed in
"Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem." Ezek. 4:1.
Ezekiel was commanded to engrave a city upon a tile and to name it Jerusalem. The material on which the city was to be engraved being everlasting -- not subject to decay -- it denotes that the city envisioned is one that will stand eternally: a people that shall never die.
"Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: shine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.
"But there the glorious
Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no
galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby....
"And the inhabitant shall not
say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their
iniquity." Isa. 33:20, 21, 24.
"And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about." Ezek. 4:2.
To "lay siege against it, means, of course, to invade it with an army of reformatory workers and compel it to surrender --
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to come to the knowledge of the truth herein revealed. Very evident it is, then, that the message of the hour, and it alone, should be brought before the people of God.
"And build a fort against it" -- make sure that none escape, good or bad.
Then "cast a mount"; spare not effort, and take precaution to secure the city.
"Set the camp also against it"; that is, make a temporary lodging place for your workers, Headquarters from which to carry on the work, and make preparation to remain there until you have conquered the city. This is the devout purpose in building Mt. Carmel Center, this is its given goal.
Also "set battering rams [margin -- chief leaders] against" the city "round about." The instrument with which they batter, of course, is clear, cutting, and convincing Bible truth. And this is the very obvious necessity for having in every branch of the work capable men to wisely lead.
"Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel." Ezek. 4:3.
That is, when this takes place in the antitypical house of Judah, it shall stand as a sign by which the antitypical house of Israel shall be warned.
Then it shall come to pass that "when the children of thy people shall speak unto
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thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?
"Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in Mine hand.
"And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in shine hand before their eyes.
"And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
"And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
"Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be My people, and I will be their God.
"And David My servant shall be king over them; and they all shall I have one shepherd: they shall also walk in My Judgments,
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and observe My statutes, and do them.
"And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children forever: and My servant David shall be their prince for ever.
"Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
"My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
"And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." Ezek. 37:18-28.
As a general of armies sets his face against an enemy nation with intent to conquer it, so is antitypical Ezekiel commanded to undertake this urgent "revival and reformation" among God's people.
"Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
"He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning, his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul." Ezek. 33:4, 5.
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"For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. Ezek. 4:5, 6.
In this parabolical presentation concerning the fate of the house of Israel (the ten-tribe kingdom) and of the house of Judah (the two-tribe kingdom), during their respective captivities among the gentiles, away from their homeland, stand dominantly to view the fact that while lying on his left side Ezekiel depicts the house of Israel in their iniquity for a period of 390 years, and that while lying on his right side he depicts the house of Judah in their iniquity for a period of 40 years.
"And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege." Ezek. 4:8.
Ezekiel's being immovably bound symbolically projects the certainty and inescapableness of the punishment which his people are for their iniquity to bear during the predicted period of years.
"Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and filches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.... And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that
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cometh out of man, in their sight. And the Lord laid, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them." Ezek. 4:9, 12, 13.
This is the punishment which is to be meted to the house of Israel during the years of its captivity among the Gentiles. And as neither sacred nor profane history records that God's people were ever literally subjected to food so prepared, the fact is conclusively substantiated that this entire prophecy is symbolical. The six grains, therefore, can represent only spiritual food just as do grains elsewhere in the Scriptures. When do the two periods (the 390 years and the 40 years) begin? -- Obviously not at the time Samaria, the capital city of the ten-tribe kingdom, was invaded by Assyria, nor at the time Jerusalem, the capital city of the two-tribe kingdom, was besieged by Babylon, for Ezekiel himself, not a Gentile king, is to lay siege against Jerusalem and take it, not let it escape.
Neither could the period have terminated with Judah's returning from Babylon to Jerusalem while rebuilding the temple and the city, for Judah was in exile only about 70 years, not 430 years.
And finally, the ten tribes, the house of Israel, have never even to this day returned to their homeland.
The entire symbolism must therefore be prophetic of the church in the Christian
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dispensation. And as Ezekiel, figuratively God's servants, has not yet taken Jerusalem, the time of his victory is yet future.
But when exactly does the period begin? -- The only logical answer is: When the punishments begin to be meted out. Accordingly, we must ascertain the time when God's dispersed people have been or are being subjected to eating food prepared as described in Ezek. 4:9-13.
Since the grains are figurative of spiritual food, doctrines, then the one vessel into which they are originally put can only be figurative of the Bible. And it follows inferentially that in their natural state, before they are baked, they must represent the doctrines uninterpreted, not understood; and conversely, when prepared into cakes and baked, they must represent the doctrines interpreted and published, ready to be dispensed and assimilated -- preached, believed, and practiced.
During the 390-year period, Ezekiel was to eat the grains sparingly, "by measure," and defiled, "baked on dung" fire. Fire from wood or coal (natural source) being symbolical of the Holy Spirit's power (Gospel Worker, pp. 22-23; Acts 2:3), then fire from dung (unnatural and filthy source) must be symbolical of a power foreign to the Holy Spirit: specifically Satan's inspiring the human agent to engage in "private" interpretations of the Scriptures -- a defiling thing.
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The inescapableness of this conclusion is even more fully demonstrated by tabulating the successive periods during which the house of Israel received the six doctrines, symbolized by the six different grains, that were to sustain the people's spiritual life throughout the 390 years.
It is widely understood that during the period from the canonizing of the New Testament Scriptures to the call of Martin Luther, the Truth was cast to the ground (Dan. 8:12), and that it then began to be lifted, first by the Lutherans' preaching the doctrine of Faith -- the beginning of the Reformation; then followed by a portion at a time, successively by the Presbyterians' preaching the doctrine of the Holy Spirit; by the Methodists' preaching the doctrine of Grace; by the First-day Baptists' preaching the doctrine of Baptism; by the First-day Adventists' preaching the doctrine of the 2300 days (Dan. 8:14), leading to a correct understanding of the Sanctuary truth; and by the Seventh-day Baptists' preaching the Sabbath truth. Finally the Seventh-day Adventists, and they only, embraced all these doctrines, but Divinely illuminated.
These six doctrines, along with their interrelated subjects, are the only ones which came to the church from 1500 to 1930. And as no honest Bible student would deny the fact that each in turn has been defiled by man's private interpretations,
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additions and subtractions (baked on dung fire), the fact stands out even more clearly that the six grains are symbolical of these six doctrines, and that they have in succession been preached since the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
Now in bringing into focus another aspect of the analogism, -- that each of the grains has the prime characteristic of the doctrine it represents, -- the truth will be seen in still brighter rays.
As wheat, the first of the grains in the symbolism, is first in order in man's physical diet, so Faith, the first of the doctrines in the Reformation, is the first course, first principle, in his spiritual diet. Accordingly, just as without wheat it is impossible to satisfy our physical needs, likewise "without faith it is impossible to please" the Holy One or to begin the Christian life.
Similarly, as barley, the second grain in the symbolism, is second in order in man's physical diet, so the Holy Spirit, second doctrine m the Reformation, is the second course, second principle, in his spiritual diet. Upon overhearing the Midianite relate that in a dream he saw a barley cake roll into his tent and overturn it, Gideon immediately understood the barley cake symbolized the work of the Spirit -- a revelation to him to go against the Midianites.
Beans, the third variety in the symbolism, are third in order in man's physical
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diet: likewise Grace, the third doctrine in the Reformation, is the third course, third principle, in his spiritual diet.
And as lentils, the fourth variety of food in man's physical dietary, is not so universally relished as are beans, likewise Baptism by Immersion, the fourth doctrine in the Reformation, and hence the fourth course, fourth principle, in the spiritual diet, is less commonly esteemed and practiced than is Grace.
The fifth grain, millet, is neither commonly known nor used, and is generally regarded as of little worth, merely a wild grass, though in fact it is valuable for both hay and cereal. So with that which it represents: The 2300 Days, unveiling the commencement of the Judgment, the fifth doctrine in the Reformation, the fifth course, fifth principle in the Christian's spiritual diet, is known and believed by only a few.
Spelt, the sixth of the grains, "a permanent variety of wheat, common in early times," perfectly represents the sixth doctrine in the Reformation, the sixth principle in the Christian religion -- the Seventh-day Sabbath in connection with the sanctuary, the most ancient, permanent, and least observed twain of Bible doctrines.
Final step in the science of cake-making is the baking, then the serving; and final step in the preparation of doctrines is the writing, then the preaching of them.
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Though the grains are God's creation, showing that the respective doctrines which they represent are in themselves Divine truth, yet Ezekiels visionally baking the symbolic cakes of them on dung fire, shows that these doctrines have been defiled -- misinterpreted, added to and subtracted from -- minced, as it were, and then served.
In subjecting the house of
Israel to such a subsistence during the 390 years, and the house of Judah to a
fast during the subsequent 40 years,
God punished both of them for their iniquity.
Judah's long fast then ending, they would of course begin to receive clean bread, unadulterated truth, as rapidly and plentifully as their need called for, and henceforth they would eat food and drink water forever without measure and without astonishment. This they shall experience, but not until after the 430 years have ended, in which time the city is to be taken and the people freed from the yoke of all their masters -- the hypocritical, the estranged, and the ungodly.
And finally, when Jerusalem, their homeland, the land of promise, is liberated from Gentile rule, "the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," then will these emancipated children of the "captive daughter of Zion" (Isa. 52:2), "return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and His goodness." Hos. 3:5. Then will they be reassured forever of an
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even more abundant supply of pure, undefiled (Inspired) Truth.
And I will "save My flock," says the Lord "and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it." Ezek. 34:22-24.
The fact that the people of God have since 1930 been receiving an ever-increasing supply of pure (Divinely revealed) truth at the hands of one, is evidence in itself that not only the defiled feasting and the 390 years have ended, but also the 40-year fast. There is no longer need, therefore, for anyone to subsist on dung-baked cakes, or to fast.
Now, by subtracting the 430 years from 1930 A.D., we get 1500 A.D., the time the Spirit moved to effect the Protestant Reformation. And as the defiled grains (doctrines) were during the 390 years dispensed to the Protestant congregations, and as the 40-year fast (absence of progressive Truth) occurred in the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination, two truths stand out clearly: first, that the Protestants are in this symbolism termed the "house of Israel"; and second that the Seventh-day Adventists are termed the "house of Judah." Thus the
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split which God brought into Solomon's kingdom necessarily symbolizes the split which exists between Sabbath-keepers and Sunday-keepers.
Hark to the messenger of the Lord, warning the Sabbath-keepers of the protracted fast which they were to undergo:
"I am authorized from God to tell you that not another ray of light through the Testimonies will shine upon your pathway, until you make a practical use of the light already given," -- Testimonies, Vol. 2, p. 606.
Furthermore, Jerusalem, let it be remembered, is the capital city of Judah. Thus the present siege against the "city" (the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination) is to be a sign to the Sunday-keepers; that is, it is designed to awaken them to a realization of how the Lord is to be worshiped, and where saving truth is to be found; of the commencement of "the great and dreadful day of the Lord," and of His judgment, also to bring them to a realization that if it first "begin at the house of God," then "what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" 1 Pet. 4: 17.
No longer now need the faithful truth-seeker wander from church to church, groping his way through the dense and endless forest of the world's religious literature in search of the right church with the right doctrine. Both now stand clearly identified, challenging him who would bear the
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vessels of the Lord, to be clean, to touch not that which is baked on "dung" fire -- that which is inspired not by the Spirit of Truth -- and to be ever acutely mindful that no newly-revealed truth was given to the church during the forty years from 1890 to 1930, and that therefore every claimant to a heaven-sent message during that period was a false one.
But having the long fast now broken with fresh truth, abundant and undefiled by man's wisdom, the hungry are now feeding at the bountiful table of the Rod (Mic. 7:14), at which you, dear reader, now sit and are joyously bidden to stay on for the rest of the feast.
Will you not do this? If you will, then just make it known, and the whole bounteous, unmatched, life-saving feast will be placed quickly before you without measure and with out price!
Having now actually arrived at the time of lasting "revival and reformation" --
"But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth His coming, and shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for Him and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut
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him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites." Matt. 24:48-51.
Inspiration teaches that his eating and drinking with the drunken does not merely mean drinking wine. One may get drunk by partaking of the world's spirit, and also by becoming engrossed with the "cares of this life." Luke 21:34.
And to do all this is to say in the heart, "My Lord delayeth His coming." "Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die." Matt. 24:48; Isa. 22:13.
As a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination, and the mother of three children, my determination has been to train them to set their affections, not upon the ways of the world but upon the Way of Truth and Righteousness. Faithful mothers know that the task and the responsibility is no light or easy one. And it is in no wise lessened by the worldly influences from within the church, working to build up a fallacious conception of what God expects of His children.
Activities such as listed in the following announcements, issued by the White Memorial Seventh-day Adventist church of Los Angeles, California, are examples of such influence:
The Interscholastic Faculty-Alumni Swimming Meet:... The big feature of the evening was a diving exhibition by Georgia Coleman, women's national diving champion..
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November Supper Club: This
promises to be another treat. A trio and reader from the Girl's Glee Club
of U.S.C. will be a big feature. Bill Hunter, Director of Athletics at U.S.C.
will give us a short talk on sportsmanship. Get your tickets early.
| COMING EVENTS
Nov. 24: Supper Club. Nov. 25: Juniors vs. Employees Baseball Game. Nov. 28: Matched Play Golf Tournament at Montebello Park. Dec. 2: Faculty vs. Employees Baseball Game. Dec. 9: Faculty vs. Juniors Baseball Game, 7:00. Employees 1st. team vs. Employees 2nd. team, 5:00. Dec. 16: Seniors vs. Juniors Baseball Game. Dec. 21-26: Holiday Cabin Party, Big Bear Lake. Health Lecture, Y.M.C.A., Friday, 8:00 P.M. |
The faculty-senior baseball game last Tuesday resulted in a score of 3-13. This, however, does not rightly represent the closeness of the contest as compared to previous engagements. A few more games and the faculty will be holding its own provided, however, H____ S____ and W___ do not slug too many home runs. H____ holds the record so far.... -- "Weekly Bulletin," November 14 and 21, 1930.
In the light of Inspiration's plain warning, such programs have no place in our
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institutions if we are to interest our children and young people in the plain, pointed teachings of our Saviour. Think of it, Seventh-day Adventist ministers and teachers sponsoring such programs as these! Young minds do not incline naturally to the serious side of life, and with the numerous dates and events which are ever kept before them in this manner, how can they be expected ever to become interested in striving to enter in at the strait gate?
Treating of the subject of amusements, the Lord's servant says, "I was told by my Guide: 'Look ye, and behold the idolatry of My people, to whom I have been speaking, rising up early, and presenting to them their dangers. I looked that they should bring forth fruit.' There were some who were striving for the mastery, each trying to excel the other in the swift running of their bicycles. There was a spirit of strife and contention among them as to which should be the greatest. The spirit was similar to that manifested in the baseball games on the college ground. Said my Guide: 'These things are an offense to God. Both near and afar off souls are perishing for the bread of life and the water of salvation.'" -- Testimonies, Vol. 8, p. 52.
Why take young people to the Y.M.C.A.? Could not the health lecture be given in our own church or school auditoriums'?
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Why a tournament of the Golf Club on a Friday morning? Are we not told in the Scriptures that Friday is the preparation day for the Sabbath, not a day of pleasure? As a rule, if one makes the proper preparation, there is not much time to be lost in playing at anything.
There may be no objection to swimming, but what effect must such an exhibition of champion athletic skill and such talk on "sportsmanship" have on the youth? Will it create a greater desire in them to serve Christ? What is the chaff to the wheat?
How can we mothers keep our children apart from the world if the school faculty takes them to the institutions of the world where they are thrown into association with mixed elements? Are we abiding by the principles upon which our Seventh-day Adventist Denomination was founded?
The Spirit of Truth now again exhorts: "For ye are the temple of the living God as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord." 2 Cor. 6:16, 17.
That conditions have not changed for the better even after the Rod originally protested, is evidenced by the following more recent bulletin:
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AMATEUR HOUR
THE MOST STUPENDOUS
SHOW
OF
1943
PAULSON HALL
COR. MICHIGAN, STATE
TWO HOURS OF-----
|
"Who can truthfully say, 'Our gold is tried in the fire; our garments are unspotted by the world'? I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness. Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath. Then He said to me: Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character? "How is the faithful city become an harlot?" My Father's house is made a house of merchandise, a place whence the divine presence and glory have departed! For this cause there is weakness, and strength is lacking.'" -- Testimonies, Vol. 8, p. 250.
For this reason, perhaps, as much as for any other, the church is in need of the message of the True Witness, which alone can stir and empower us to arise with prayer and fasting to save ourselves and our children from these so-called pleasures of the age, by which the Devil is seeking to deceive and to destroy even the very elect.
Great is the burden of my heart that every loyal Seventh-day Adventist will hear the Voice which is now crying out in our midst to "turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers." Mall 4:6.
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And as the leaders have failed, even after this severe protest to correct the existing evils, it is time that the faithful laity fully awaken to the seriousness of the situation and do what they can to effect a remedy.
The brethren need light on the subject, and the Lord has given the assurance that "even if all our leading men should refuse light and truth, that door will still remain open. The Lord will raise up men who will give the people the message for this time." -- Testimonies to Ministers, p. 107.
Parents, why not be those men? And if you do not start now then be forewarned that a more "convenient time" will never come, and that your opportunity will forever be gone.
A REMINDER
*Now that you have finished reading and studying the contents of this booklet, may we remind you, dear reader, that this and all other booklets of The Shepherd's Rod series are sent free of charge to Seventh-day Adventists, and that if you will send us the names and addresses of as many as you wish, the publishers will gladly and quickly serve them with the message of the hour.
**It will interest you to know, too, that a pocket-sized edition of The Shepherd's Rod, Vol. 2, is also soon to come off the press. Do not neglect to send for your copy; you cannot afford to be without it.
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*All of the Rod literature, offered on the internet.
**There were two other announcements concerning tracts which were to be published, but were not: (1) The Answerer Book No. 6 which was "soon to come off the press" but never did (5 Ans. pg. 94); and (2) "Before his death, Brother Houteff prepared material in question-and-answer form for a tract dealing with the subject of the Sabbath....it was never published,..." (13 Sym. Code No. 5, pg. 4); so here is another announcement of a tract -- the pocket-sized edition of The Shepherd's Rod, Vol. 2," which was "also soon to come off the press," but it never did. No one seems to know why. For this obvious reason, it cannot be included.
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