We found that, though scattered, they are preserved as a distinct and separate people. Now what did God foretell by the prophet Amos? “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.” (See ix. 9.)
We found that in their dispersion they have been the object of cruel reproach, and have endured much fierce persecution. Now what said Jeremiah, the prophet of God, in chap. xxix. 18? “And I will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them.”
But we found also that, notwithstanding all, they have been preserved in a most marvellous manner; so that at the end of eighteen centuries they are still amongst us a separate people, and preserved in the providence of God. And is it not all explained by that wonderful prophecy of Jeremiah? “If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.” (Chap. xxxi. 36.)
Such passages might be multiplied to almost any extent, as they abound throughout the prophecies; and I have merely selected a text from the Pentateuch and another from the later prophets to illustrate each of the five facts to which we all are witnesses. And are they not sufficient? How was it, I ask, that these great prophecies were given, some fifteen hundred years, and some five hundred years, before the dispersion? Was it accident? Was it calculation or guesswork? How should the writers have calculated, or, how should they have guessed? One thing is perfectly plain. They could not have been written after the event; for ever since that time the Jews have been dispersed over the world, and in all their dispersions have carried with them these prophecies. If they were forged afterwards, how did the forger get them into circulation amongst all the scattered Jews throughout the world, and that before there was a printing-press? They must have been written before the event; and before the dispersion what human mind could calculate the condition of the Jews after eighteen centuries of wandering? Think calmly over it. Consider well the five facts; test them both by history and the statements of modern travellers; and I cannot doubt for one moment that the conclusion of any thinking and intelligent man must be that the history of the Jewish people has been ordained of God, and that the Scriptures foretelling it were inspired by His Spirit, I cannot imagine how it is possible to avoid the conclusion that it is His hand which has ordered all in His sovereign providence, and His Spirit which has so clearly and so unmistakably foretold it all in His Word. While, therefore, we grieve over the Jew, and long to see, not only the nation safe in Palestine, but the individual safe in his own Messiah, we consider it no small gift in these sceptical days that we have him living amongst us as one of a separate people, and so bearing an unconscious testimony to the truth and inspiration of the prophecies of God.
But I cannot stop there; for it is not the inspiration of the Scriptures only to which the Jews bear unconscious testimony, for they are witnesses also to the faithfulness of God. Here they are after eighteen centuries of dispersion, during which they have lived without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice; during which they have been exposed to isolation, to temptation, to reproach, to spoliation, and to most unjust persecution; but not one grain has been lost from the seed, and here they are, Jews still. Aye, and what is more wonderful than anything, they are thus preserved in mercy, notwithstanding all that they have done, even in the rejection of their own Messiah. How could it be, and how can such preserving mercy be explained? Just turn to one text out of many that may unlock the mystery. It is written, in Psalm cv. 42, “He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham His servant.” There was His own covenant given to Abraham, and our heavenly Father is faithful to it still. Three thousand eight hundred years have not exhausted His faithfulness, and even the sin of the Jew has not prevailed over the fidelity of our God to His friend. Oh, what a lesson does this teach us as to the faithfulness of our God! Will He break the covenant which He has made with us in Christ Jesus? Will He depart from the promise which He has ratified in the precious blood of the chosen Messiah? Is not the covenant with Christ as sure as that with Abraham? And though we may be deeply conscious how unable we are to stand, and still more deeply conscious how unworthy we are to be preserved, may we not rest in the peaceful assurance of His covenant grace, and apply to all His people in Christ Jesus these wonderful words in Jeremiah xxxi. 37: “Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord”?
PALESTINE.
Can stones speak? Can rocks make their voice to be heard? The Lord said of His people on His entrance into Jerusalem, “If these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out.” And this is very much what those very stones are now doing; for the stones of Palestine are beginning to speak with a voice so clear and decisive that it seems a perfect marvel that any thinking man should be able to resist their evidence. Now therefore, if God permit, we will study their testimony; we will put the rocks into the witness-box, and endeavour calmly to learn from them what they teach us of the truth of God. There are three subjects on which their evidence is conclusive—the geographical accuracy, the historical truth, and the prophetic inspiration of the Scriptures. Let us examine them on all three points, and may that divine Spirit who inspired the word of His own great grace bring it home to our understandings and our hearts!
I. The Geographical Accuracy.
We must remember that a large portion of the Old Testament consists in the history of that chosen line which connected the Lord Jesus Christ with Abraham, and that the country which we generally call “Palestine” was given to that family as their home. It was in that country that Abraham sojourned, and that his family lived for the 1,400 years between the Exodus and the Advent. It is obvious therefore that the history of that family during all those centuries must abound in allusions to the different places in that country, and as the history enters very much into social life, we must naturally expect very frequent allusions to the places in which the people lived.
It is important for us also to remember that the history was not one book written by one author at one time, but that much of it was evidently contemporary history; so that there were different books written by different authors at different times, beginning with Moses 3,300 years ago, and ending, as some suppose, with Ezra, or Nehemiah, about 2,300 years ago.