In the darkest days of her long conflict with evil, the
church of God has been given revelations of the eternal
purpose of Jehovah. His people have been permitted to look
beyond the trials of the present to the triumphs of the future,
when, the warfare having been accomplished, the redeemed
will enter into possession of the promised land. These
visions of future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God,
should be dear to His church today, when the controversy
of the ages is rapidly closing and the promised blessings are
soon to be realized in all their fullness.
Many were the messages of comfort given the church
by the prophets of old. "Comfort ye, comfort ye My people"
(Isaiah 40:1.), was Isaiah's commission from God; and
with the commission were given wonderful visions that
have been the believers' hope and joy through all the
centuries that have followed. Despised of men, persecuted,
forsaken, God's children in every age have nevertheless
been sustained by His sure promises. By faith they have
looked forward to the time when He will fulfill to His
church the assurance, "I will make thee an eternal
excellency, a joy of many generations." Isaiah 60:15.
Often the church militant is called upon to suffer trial
and affliction; for not without severe conflict is the church
to triumph. "The bread of adversity," "the water of affliction"
(Isaiah 30:20), these are the common lot of all; but
none who put their trust in the One mighty to deliver
will be utterly overwhelmed. "Thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel,
Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by
thy name, thou art Mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of
Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia
and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in My sight,
thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life." Isaiah
43:1-4.
There is forgiveness with God; there is acceptance full
and free through the merits of Jesus, our crucified and risen
Lord. Isaiah heard the Lord declaring to His chosen ones:
"I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for
Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put Me in
remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou
mayest be justified." "Thou shalt know that I the Lord
am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of
Jacob." Verses 25, 26; 60:16.
"The rebuke of His people shall He take away," the
prophet declared. "They shall call them, The holy people,
The redeemed of the Lord." He hath appointed "to give
unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they
might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the
Lord, that He might be glorified."
"Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion;
Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the Holy City:
For henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the
uncircumcised and the unclean.
"Shake thyself from the dust;
Arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem:
Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter
of Zion."
"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors,
And lay thy foundations with sapphires.
"And I will make thy windows of agates.
And thy gates of carbuncles,
And all thy borders of pleasant stones.
"And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord;
And great shall be the peace of thy children.
In righteousness shalt thou be established:
"Thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear:
And from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by Me:
Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall
for thy sake. . . .
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper;
And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment
thou shalt condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord."
Isaiah 25:8; 62:12; 61:3; 52:1, 2; 54:11-17.
Clad in the armor of Christ's righteousness, the church
is to enter upon her final conflict. "Fair as the moon, clear
as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners" (Song
of Solomon 6:10), she is to go forth into all the world,
conquering and to conquer.
The darkest hour of the church's struggle with the
powers of evil is that which immediately precedes the day
of her final deliverance. But none who trust in God need
fear; for "when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm
against the wall," God will be to His church "a refuge
from the storm." Isaiah 25:4.
In that day only the righteous are promised deliverance.
"The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised
the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring
fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly;
he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his
hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from
hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
he shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the
munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters
shall be sure." Isaiah 33:14-16.
The word of the Lord to His faithful ones is: "Come,
My people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy
doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment,
until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord
cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the
earth for their iniquity." Isaiah 26:20, 21.
In visions of the great judgment day the inspired
messengers of Jehovah were given glimpses of the consternation
of those unprepared to meet their Lord in peace.
"Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh
it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad
the inhabitants thereof; . . . because they have transgressed
the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting
covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and
they that dwell therein are desolate. . . . The mirth of
tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the
joy of the harp ceaseth." Isaiah 24:1-8.
"Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand,
and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. . . .
The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid
desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are
made desolate." "The vine is dried up, and the fig tree
languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and
the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered:
because joy is withered away from the sons of men." Joel
1:15-18, 12.
"I am pained at my very heart," Jeremiah exclaims as
he beholds the desolations wrought during the closing
scenes of earth's history. "I cannot hold my peace, because
thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the
alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for
the whole land is spoiled." Jeremiah 4:19, 20.
"The loftiness of man shall be bowed down," declares
Isaiah of the day of God's vengeance, "and the haughtiness
of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be
exalted in that day. And the idols He shall utterly abolish.
. . . In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and
his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to
worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts
of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for
fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when
He ariseth to shake terribly the earth." Isaiah 2:17-21.
Of those times of transition, when the pride of man shall
be laid low, Jeremiah testifies: "I beheld the earth, and,
lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and
they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they
trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and,
lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were
fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness,
and all the cities thereof were broken down." "Alas! for
that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time
of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it." Jeremiah
4:23-26; 30:7.
The day of wrath to the enemies of God is the day of
final deliverance to His church. The prophet declares:
"Strengthen ye the weak hands,
And confirm the feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be
strong, fear not:
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
Even God with a recompense;
He will come and save you."
"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God
will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke
of His people shall He take away from off all the earth:
for the Lord hath spoken it." Isaiah 35:3, 4; 25:8. And
as the prophet beholds the Lord of glory descending from
heaven with all the holy angels, to gather the remnant
church from among the nations of earth, he hears the waiting
ones unite in the exultant cry:
"Lo, this is our God;
We have waited for Him,
And He will save us:
This is the Lord;
We have waited for Him,
We will be glad and rejoice
in His salvation."
Isaiah 25:9.
The voice of the Son of God is heard calling forth the
sleeping saints, and as the prophet beholds them coming
from the prison house of death, he exclaims, "Thy dead
men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as
the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."
"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart,
And the tongue of the dumb sing."
Isaiah 26:19; 35:5, 6.
In the visions of the prophet, those who have triumphed
over sin and the grave are now seen happy in the presence
of their Maker, talking freely with Him as man talked
with God in the beginning. "Be ye glad," the Lord bids
them, "and rejoice forever in that which I create: for,
behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people: and
the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor
the voice of crying." "The inhabitant shall not say, I am
sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their
iniquity."
"In the wilderness shall waters break out,
And streams in the desert.
And the parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water."
"Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree,
And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree."
"And an highway shall be there, and a way,
And it shall be called The way of holiness;
The unclean shall not pass over it;
But it shall be for those:
The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein."
"Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is
pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double
for all her sins." Isaiah 65:18, 19; 33:24; 35:6, 7; 55:13;
35:8; 40:2.
As the prophet beholds the redeemed dwelling in the
City of God, free from sin and from all marks of the curse,
in rapture he exclaims, "Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be
glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her."
"Violence shall no more be heard in thy land,
Wasting nor destruction within thy borders;
But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation,
And thy gates Praise.
"The sun shall be no more thy light by day;
Neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee:
But the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light,
And thy God thy glory.
"Thy sun shall no more go down;
Neither shall thy moon withdraw itself:
For the Lord shall be thine everlasting light,
And the days of thy mourning shall be ended.
"Thy people also shall be all righteous:
They shall inherit the land forever,
The branch of My planting,
The work of My hands,
That I may be glorified."
Isaiah 66:10; 60:18-21.
The prophet caught the sound of music there, and song,
such music and song as, save in the visions of God, no mortal
ear has heard or mind conceived. "The ransomed of the
Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and
everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and
gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." "Joy
and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the
voice of melody." "As well the singers as the players on
instruments shall be there." "They shall lift up their voice,
they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord." Isaiah 35:10;
51:3; Psalm 87:7; Isaiah 24:14.
In the earth made new, the redeemed will engage in
the occupations and pleasures that brought happiness to
Adam and Eve in the beginning. The Eden life will be
lived, the life in garden and field. "They shall build houses,
and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat
the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit;
they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a
tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long
enjoy the work of their hands." Isaiah 65:21, 22.
There every power will be developed, every capability
increased. The grandest enterprises will be carried forward,
the loftiest aspirations will be reached, the highest ambitions
realized. And still there will appear new heights to surmount,
new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend,
fresh objects of study to call forth the powers of body and
mind and soul.
The prophets to whom these great scenes were revealed
longed to understand their full import. They "inquired and
searched diligently:. . . searching what, or what manner
of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify.
. . . Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves,
but unto us they did minister the things, which are now
reported unto you." 1 Peter 1:10-12.
To us who are standing on the very verge of their
fulfillment, of what deep moment, what living interest, are
these delineations of the things to come--events for which,
since our first parents turned their steps from Eden, God's
children have watched and waited, longed and prayed!
Fellow pilgrim, we are still amid the shadows and turmoil
of earthly activities; but soon our Saviour is to appear
to bring deliverance and rest. Let us by faith behold the
blessed hereafter as pictured by the hand of God. He who
died for the sins of the world is opening wide the gates
of Paradise to all who believe on Him. Soon the battle
will have been fought, the victory won. Soon we shall see
Him in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. And
in His presence the trials and sufferings of this life will
seem as nothingness. The former things "shall not be
remembered, nor come into mind." "Cast not away therefore
your confidence, which hath great recompense of
reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have
done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For
yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and
will not tarry." "Israel shall be saved. . . with an everlasting
salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded
world without end." Isaiah 65:17; Hebrews 10:35-37;
Isaiah 45:17.
Look up, look up, and let your faith continually increase.
Let this faith guide you along the narrow path that leads
through the gates of the city into the great beyond, the
wide, unbounded future of glory that is for the redeemed.
"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the
Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious
fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he
receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish
your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."
James 5:7, 8.
The nations of the saved will know no other law than
the law of heaven. All will be a happy, united family,
clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving. Over
the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons
of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite
in proclaiming. "There shall be no more sin, neither shall
there be any more death."
"And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to
another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh
come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." "The glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it
together." "The Lord God will cause righteousness and
praise to spring forth before all the nations." "In that day
shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a
diadem of beauty, unto the residue of His people."
"The Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all
her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like
Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord." "The
glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of
Carmel and Sharon." "Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken;
neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate:
but thou shalt be called My Delight, and thy land Beulah.
. . . As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall
thy God rejoice over thee." Isaiah 66:23; 40:5; 61:11; 28:5;
51:3; 35:2; 62:4, 5, margin.