One thing in Present Truth this week I cannot quite grasp, is about the millennium. The writer says that the righteous will be caught up to meet the Lord, and that all the rest will perish, and that the earth will not be inhabited for a thousand years. If this be so, when will the mission of the Jews to the world begin? When will they believe, and become evangelists? Are they never to become so?
For a full and comprehensive treatment of this subject, I would recommend to my friend, and to all who have similar thoughts, the reading of the book recently published by the International Tract Society, entitled, The Everlasting Covenant. In our small space here I can give but the barest references.
God's Own Purpose
Let us take a hasty glance over the entire history of God's people, and His purpose for and with them. Once the earth was perfect, and man was upright and its rightful ruler. Then came the fall, and the loss of dominion. Since that time, God has had but one purpose, to which He has been constantly working, namely, the restoration of man and the earth to the original condition, to make an entirely new creation.
To this end the Gospel, the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes, is preached. There is but one Gospel of good news "to all people," (Luke 2:10) and this is today the same that it was from the beginning; for with God is no variableness, neither shadow that is cast by turning. Paul declared that whoever should presume to preach any other Gospel than that which he preached, must be accursed, (Galatians 1:8-9) and he affirmed that he had said "none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come." (Acts 26:32)
The Gospel which the apostles preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, was the very same that was proclaimed by the prophets of old; (1 Peter 1:10-12) and there will never be another. In the preaching of this Gospel, as well as in the receiving of it, there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all are one in Christ Jesus. (See Romans 3:22-24; 4:8-13; 10:12,33; Galatians 3:7-8,27-28; Colossians 3:9-11)
God's Choice of the Jews
From the beginning God has been searching throughout the world, to find people who would be His agents in proclaiming the Gospel to mankind; and in every age He has found a few.
In the course of time Abraham was found, and chosen. His mission was to leave his father's house and his native land, and travel to and fro, proclaiming the name of Jehovah. He was the first foreign missionary whose lifework is recorded.
Because of his wonderful faith he became the father of a great people, whose mission it was likewise to preach the Gospel to the world, for the promise was that they should be a kingdom of priests. Read the history of that people, and you will see that God was continually sending messages by them to the heathen round them.
Jeremiah was ordained before his birth, to be a prophet to the heathen, (Jeremiah 1:5) even as Paul later on was ordained to be the special apostle to the Gentiles.
Their Unfaithfulness
But the Jews were not faithful as was Abraham. "They could not enter in because of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:19)
They refused the high office of kings and priests, as ambassadors of God to be the head of the earth, and they chose instead to be a nation of servants, having a king over them, like the other nations.
For many hundred years God labored with the Jewish people, sending messages to them by the prophets, not merely that they might be saved, and live for themselves apart from the rest of mankind, but that they might accept the position which naturally falls to all children of Abraham, that of being light-bearers to the world.
But they forgot that their only advantage over other people lay in the fact that to them were committed the oracles of God, (Romans 3:1-2) to give to the rest, and their light went out. Then God sent them into captivity, and thus made even their apostasy serve as a means of enlightening the heathen; for through Daniel and a few other faithful men the truth of God was accepted by great kings, and was proclaimed to the ends of the earth.
A Fixed Time Allotted
Still God did not become impatient with the nation which had been the recipients of His most wonderful favors, and even in their captivity He continued His offer to let them have the leading people in announcing the Gospel of the kingdom.
A vision was given to Daniel, in which was made known a period of time reaching down to the very last work of the Gospel on earth, before the coming of the Lord. (See Daniel 8:13-14) That period of time was to date from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem; (Daniel 9:23-27) and from the whole period of twenty-three hundred prophetic days, or literal years, seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years, were cut off or appropriated to the Jewish people.
That length of time was to be terminated by the events in immediate connection with the baptism, crucifixion, and ascension of Jesus. So long a time was allotted to the Jewish people, to see if they would accept the high destiny offered them, that of being the chief bearers of the message of the mercy of God to the world.
The Honor Rejected
We know the result. They would not take the place. Jesus came to His own, and they that were His own received Him not. Their King came, but because He was not like earthly kings, they crucified Him. Just before that climax, when the measure of their impiety was filled, Jesus wept over their city, saying: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!" (Matthew 23:37-38)
All this was because they knew not the time of their visitation. Since that time the Jews as a nation have ceased to have any prominence in the Gospel message. They have no mission whatever to the world, and the highest honor that can come to them is that some of them may accept the Gospel, on the same terms that the Gentiles do, and be saved, thus becoming a part of the true Israel of God.
God's Purpose Unchanged
It must not be supposed that while waiting for the Jewish people to take the place offered to them, God left himself without witness among the heathen. In every age the Gospel was being preached by every one who would let the Lord use him, and by the inanimate creation as well.
Nor did God ever confine His attention to that one People. The Jewish nation was a people called out from among the Gentiles, for Abraham was originally an idolater; and the true people of God were in old time, even as now, those who worshiped God in the spirit, and rejoiced in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3) Israelites are those in whom is no guile.
God's purpose has not changed, although the Jewish nation has shown itself unwilling to be God's peculiar people; for God is able of the very stones to raise up children unto Abraham. (Psalm 32:2; John 1:47)
The Jewish Mission Still Carried On
And yet the mission of the Jews to the world has not ceased, "for salvation is of the Jews." (John 4:22)
Jesus Christ, the Son of David, was a Jew, and He is to rule over the house of Jacob for ever. Whoever preaches "the unsearchable riches of Christ" is performing the work that God gave to the Jews. "Whosoever will" (Revelation 22:17) is commissioned to echo the Gospel invitation, until this Gospel of the kingdom is preached in all the world, for a witness to all people, "and then shall the end come." (Matthew 24:14)
And when that end comes, and the Saviour appears, many, out of "all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues." (Revelation 7:9)
Matthew 8:11 Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God.--Present Truth, September 20, 1900.