Abraham Not Alone.—Abraham was not the only priest called and prepared in that manner. There were "many of the noble and great ones." Israel was "a kingdom of priests," "a holy nation," and as such must have been called and prepared even as was Abraham. We have seen that Jehovah, the God of Israel, "the great High Priest of our profession," was fore-ordained to be the Savior; and that his servant Jeremiah, before being formed in the flesh, was known to God in the spirit, and sanctified and ordained "a prophet unto the nations." Undoubtedly the same could be said of others, and Paul doubtless had them in mind when he wrote: "For whom he did fore-know, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren."—(Romans 8:29.)
Princes and Servants.—If the name Israel means "prince of God," when applied to Jacob, may it not mean princes of God, when applied to his posterity? Jacob was told that kings should come out of his loins. And have they not come?—princes and priests and kings, the nobility of heaven, though not always recognized and honored upon the earth. The greatest among them was not recognized even by "his own;" for when he came unto them, they "received him not." The wise Solomon was never wiser than when he said: "I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth" (Ecc. 10:7). Even the God of heaven, the mighty. Prince of Peace, walked unknown, unhonored, by his own servants, in the dust of his own footstool.
Degrees of Greatness.—There are degrees of greatness in heaven as upon earth, choice spirits and choicer. But all God's servants are noble. No position in the Church of Christ is insignificant. David was right in saying: "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." It is greater, infinitely greater, to hold the humblest office in the priesthood, than to reign, an alien from God, over all the kingdoms of the world.
Israel's Pre-existence.—In view of what the prophets have spoken, are we not justified in believing that the house of Israel was chosen in the heavens for the mission it had to perform, and is still performing, upon the earth? What other inference can be drawn from these words of Moses:
"Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: * * *
"When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.—(Deut. 32:7-8.)
The period here mentioned, when the sons of Adam were separated, and the nations received their inheritance, evidently antedated by many generations the times of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Those events were probably much earlier, and certainly no later, than the days of Japheth, Shem, and Ham, by whose families the nations were "divided in the earth after the flood" (Gen. 10:32). It looks very much as if Moses, when he wrote those words, had in mind, not a temporal Israel, unborn at the early period indicated, but a spiritual Israel, according to whose numbers, known in the heavens before they had taken bodies upon the earth, the boundaries of "the people" were determined.
CHAPTER II.
Israel's Mission.