I take it for granted we are now entering into the time of the latter days—a time that precedes by a natural consequence the millennium. It is, therefore, unwise on the part of any person to claim that Christ may come any day, and that His millennial reign may be begun at any moment. It is but fair that we should carefully consider our bearings in the circle of
Providence and our position in the ages. The story and work of redemption are grand, full of interest and thrilling incidents; still we must take things in their order. Some stories we read are very fascinating. The plot culminates, the characters and incidents converge toward and centre in the hero. At such a point we are often carried away with our sympathy for the hero; we become anxious for him, and desires to know the issues, and so are tempted to skip a few pages and get at the end unwisely and unlawfully. Thus I think many are carried away by a loving desire for the millennium; they become anxious for the return of the Hero of redemption; they skip a few pages of Providence, and come to the end too soon.
These days are preparative, and in such a preparative stage we are warranted to look for the fulfilment of certain prophecies; for prophecies, indeed, of such a nature and character that no Bible student need be mistaken as to the time, place, and conditions of fulfilment. We have called your attention to one of these prophecies, and pointed out to you how the same was literally fulfilling before the eyes of all. God, in olden times, made promises to Abraham, the patriarchs, and their seed. These promises were nothing more nor less than prophecies. He attested the same by His own oath. He called to witness the sun, moon, stars, sea, night, day, the seasons, seedtime and harvest. These He called His ordinances. These ordinances may depart from before Him, but the seed of Israel should not cease to be a nation. They were not only to be a nation, but a company of nations. To this end, in the latter days, they were to come in possession of the isles of the sea, the coasts of the earth, waste and desolate places; to inherit the seed of the Gentiles, and cause their desolate cities to be filled. They were to possess and rule over the heathen. In the latter days they were to possess Edom and Esau—that is, Turkey—and so come in possession of their own land, Palestine. Now I call you to
witness, and ask you if these things are so? Before your eyes, before mine, before the eyes of all the world, God is fulfilling His promises made to the fathers.
The very exceptions to the sweeping and comprehensive possessions of the seed of Jacob are pyramidal witnesses to the same. The House of Judah was to become homeless, without a nation and without a government, after they left Palestine; but to be a people known by the race feature, and by their unwavering adherence, attachment, and fidelity to the Mosaic worship. This exception all can see, and none can truthfully deny. They have had money and men enough to buy and rule a nation, but as yet they have none. Their talent, their ability, and their money, have been the chief factor in the rule, prosperity, and greatness of many nations in the past as well as now. And the second conception is not less grand and conclusive. Let any one inquire what was to be the portion of the Tribe of Manasseh, and they will find that Manasseh was to be a distinct people, a great people; for so said the dying patriarch Jacob. Now such a people, a great people, we hold Manasseh to be at this day in the people of the United States. Some sixty colonies England has overrun, established, or conquered, and she is busy at work yet conquering and gathering in. But is it not remarkable that she has never lost one of the many save the United States? Will any one give an earthly reason for this marvellous exception? I presume no one can. There is, however, a Divine reason. Moses, when giving his prophetic benediction to the Tribes of Israel, gives us an insight into this question. Speaking of Joseph and the wonderful blessing in store for his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, he says: “His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns; and with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh” (Deut, xxxiii. 17). And further light is thrown on this
subject when we notice what Isaiah says in the forty-ninth chapter. The children of Israel, when settled in some Isles, would lose a portion of themselves, and still the “children which thou shalt have after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me, give place to me that I may dwell.” The simple and natural interpretation of such a passage is, that the Isles referred to were the British Isles. The children lost refer to Manasseh, the Pilgrims, and Puritans who came from England. And the cry for more room after they have left, shall lead England to look for lands in which to colonise her surplus population, all of which she has done and is doing.
Surely in these things there is something more than chance. Yes, there is a divine purpose fulfilled. Seeing, then, that God will put the land into Israel’s hand, there will run another blessing parallel with this—namely, a peculiar increase of the seed, or children of Israel, so that they may occupy and control these lands. These two prophecies are to be fulfilling on a parallel line at the same time. Are they so fulfilling? We answer, Yes; and the answer all the world may verify, for the facts are of such a nature that if they are not so fulfilling it can be very easily disproved.
The prophet tells us in the text that the children of Israel are to be numerous—to be numerous in an extraordinary degree—so much so that it shall appear partly miraculous when such increase is compared to other people or judged by the common methods of reasoning. Hosea had three children; the first a son. He called him Jezreel. This son was set for a witness that God would cause to cease the House of Israel in Palestine—that Israel should cease to be a nation for a time. This idea Isaiah points out under the type of an abandoned wife. God styles Himself the Husband of Israel, and that He had given the wife a bill of divorcement. Thus the two prophets agree, and history ratifies both.
Hosea’s second child he calls Lo-Ruhamah. She was set for a witness that God would take away His mercy from the House of Israel for a time, and that God would utterly take them away out of the land. So He did; for a few years after this we find the children of Israel were carried captive into Assyria by Shalmaneser, and the Assyrians were brought and put in their place. And from these Assyrians, who were planted in the cities and country left by the children of Israel, we get the Samaritans, who were, as you see, not Jews nor Israelites by generation—they were manufactured Jews only. “And the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day” (2 Kings xvii. 23). During this captivity, which is even in force till now, barren Israel, the divorced one, was to have more children than the married one—namely, Judah.
We find that the third child born to Hosea is called Lo-ammi, meaning, “Ye are not My people.” This child pro-figured the casting out of the Jews; that they would refuse to accept God in Christ, and He therefore would reject them. Thus the Jews became wanderers from their own land. And the land rests in desolation, enjoying her Sabbath of rest, while her sons and daughters are being chastised and trained for their return.