The Parousia Cloud.—The Shekinah Glory.

MY mode of dealing with this subject will be rather to present a number of passages of Scripture bearing upon it and leaving you to draw the inferences which I trust the Spirit of God will lead to the linking together of these several passages. The first, you will find in the ninth chapter of the Book of Genesis, from the eleventh to the fifteenth verses:—
"And I will establish My covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth; that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant."
This is the first time that the cloud is introduced to us in God's Word; and, you see, it is introduced in connection with judgment—in this case, with judgment passed. This is the establishment of God's covenant with the earth itself, and very specially with Noah; with Noah as the saved one from that great flood of water which God had brought on the earth for man's sin; and with Noah as representative of the men of God's purpose, who were set there in connection with the things of the earth—of the earth as such.
Now turn with me to Exodus, thirteenth chapter and twenty-first verse. Here we have God leading on His redeemed people and the nation of His purpose, the elect nation among the nations of the earth:—
''And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night, in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night; He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." The one reason why I have read this passage is to draw your attention to the fact that—
THE LORD HIMSELF WAS IN THAT CLOUD.
The Lord in the pillar of cloud; the Lord went before His chosen earthly people, as He was leading them out to bring them into all His promised purposes—He went before them in the pillar of cloud! It is very precious for God's people to notice that of course, we have in this, in a sort of spiritual way, a type of God's dealing with us. God went before His people in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night; and you and I must recognise, as God's children, the need of God's guidance continually, whether it be by daylight or darkness. You know that sometimes we are inclined to say, "Oh, but I do not now need Divine guidance, everything is as plain as noon-day." We can, it may be, see our way ever so far ahead; but we do not need the less the pillar of cloud in the brightest day. You and I need the Lord Jesus Christ as much in what we may be inclined to call the plainest path and the clearest light—as far as mere nature is concerned—as if it were the darkest midnight. And we have this as a type, the Lord needing to go before them in the brightest sunshine of mere nature. And so it is with us. But I have only pointed out this to draw attention to the fact that in that cloud was the Lord Himself. You have the same thought in the sixteenth chapter of the same book, and in the tenth verse. Here, you know, there was a time of murmuring on the part of God's elect nation. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold,—
THE GLORY OF THE LORD APPEARED IN THE CLOUD.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel; speak unto them, saying, At even, ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning, ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God."
In the first text, you know, we had God's bow of the covenant in the cloud; then we had the Lord coming to lead His people, and still the cloud, with the Lord in it; and here we have a new thought, the glory of the Lord manifested in the cloud, and, in connection with that glory, the Lord speaking. And now another passage, the thirty-third chapter of Exodus and the seventh verse. Here we have the history of a great time of apostasy on the part of God's chosen people. There is not only murmuring, but there is direct rebellion against the Lord. We read in the seventh verse,—
"And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation;" or, as it is in the original, "the tent of gathering together," the tent of meeting. I suppose most of us know that there are two words translated "tabernacle," both of which are associated with this wonderful erection. There are, as I have said, two words in the original, both of which are translated by the same word in our text, the word "tabernacle." The one means "the dwelling-place," and presents to us that wonderful erection,—
BUILT UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF JEHOVAH,
as the place of God's indwelling. It represents the Christ of the living God, in whom Jehovah is afterwards specially to dwell. That is one thought connected with the word "tabernacle." That is one special word; the other is the word brought before us here, which does not speak of "indwelling" so much as of the "tent of meeting," the place where God's people were to meet Him; where those who sought the Lord in the midst of a rebellious camp were to go out and meet with Jehovah. And Jehovah was here to make known His purposes to those who should thus, by His grace, have the desire, the heart, and the power to go right out from the midst of these rebelling and murmuring people and meet Jehovah in His appointed spot, so to speak. We have, as you know, the anti-type in our blessed Lord. Oh, let us thank God for happy meeting-places; let us bless God for places where we can come together and worship God, and where we can commune together upon the things of God! But never let us forget, in these days, that it is a Person rather than a place Who is the centre of our gathering together, and that there is no place, so to speak, where two or three of God's dear people, with a simple faith in Jesus, may not meet with God. And if we are to have a blessing in this place, at this Conference during these days—and if we are going to have a blessing this evening—it is because our hearts are, by the power of God's Spirit, drawn out to meet the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is in Him that God manifests Himself here, it is through Him that God gives the blessing. And as we in all our different characters and spheres of life, with our variety of temptations, all poor sinners washed in the precious blood of the Lamb—look up to Jesus Christ tonight, so shall we meet with God, and be sure of God's blessing. We shall then have the Father's smile upon our hearts and upon our meeting, and there will be no stint of blessing. But it is personal, and the person is here represented by this wonderful tabernacle, taken during that time of apostasy, and pitched afar off from the camp. And then we read that—
ALL THOSE WHO DESIRED TO MEET WITH GOD
went to that place of gathering—went to the tabernacle—and there, God revealed Himself.
"And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation;" Called it "the tent of gathering together."
"And it came to pass that every one which sought the Lord, went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation [or to "the tent of gathering together"] which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses."
Here you have the wonderful cloud as the symbol of the presence, the presence of the Lord with those of His people whose hearts were right with Him, and with those whose desire had drawn them out to meet Him, that they might hear His purposes; and bring their offerings unto Him. And there, Moses, as the mediator of that old covenant, has God talking with him at the door of that place of meeting, and in the pillar of cloud. Now you will find in Numbers, the eleventh chapter, and the twenty-fifth verse, another reference. There you read:—
"The Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him (Moses), and took of the Spirit that was upon him and gave it unto the seventy elders; and it came to pass that, when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied and did not cease."
Now you will find from these two references, that from this time, the cloud of glory, the cloud, which was representative of the Lord's presence, not only was over the tabernacle—as we know the tabernacle now was far off from the camp—but was as the symbol of Jehovah's presence, within the tabernacle,—
DWELLING IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES;
the great Shekinah cloud of glory in the holiest place. But now, if you read carefully the history of God's ancient people Israel, you will find that the separation that we have alluded to was marked and continued; and that when Moses had to confer with the Lord about anything connected with His people, he had to go into the tabernacle to meet with the Lord. He had to go right away from the camp itself, and he had to come to this "place of meeting" before he could get the opening up of Jehovah's purposes to him, and, through him, to the people.
Now turn with me to the fortieth chapter of the Book of Exodus. You will understand better as we go on, why I am linking these passages together. In this chapter, we have the tabernacle now "perfected," if we may use that expression. You know that in its erection—in the preparation of all the things connected with it, the clearest, the fullest directions were given by God Himself; and after all the directions were thus given, we have the history of the rearing up of the tabernacle, until it is perfected. And then we have this tabernacle perfected, and with a company gathered out to it whom God was specially to bless, and upon whom He was to throw special light; a glory separation as it were, which, nevertheless, was linked on to Israel in all Israel's interests.
I think we must pause for a moment to see one thought here which runs through the whole of this wonderful subject and is a thought which may be helpful to us in our present life. I believe that since our Lord went up to the right hand of God, He is, as you know, separated from the mere things of earth, that by-and-bye, He may come again. He is now so far separated from the earth for the sake of future blessings, because of the present apostasy and sin of mankind in rejecting Him as God's gift to the world. He is at present, gathering out a people to His Name, that they, along with Him, may be the very anti-type of all this wonderful tabernacle building, and that, through Him and them united, there may come such blessings to the earth as up to this time, the earth has never been able to even dream of. Now you will find this running through the whole of this description; you will find that the Levites and priests were separated from the earthly nation in order that they might be brought near to God and receive blessing, which others in the nation could not directly receive. Those very priests and Levites were very specially a type of the first-born ones, as we shall see by-and-bye. Those priests and Levites were in their whole history, and in their entire work, and in all God's dealings with them, the link of connection between God and that very apostate people from whom they were chosen and separated. And now THAT IS OUR PLACE. Oh, let us never forget it! And there is one thing we must notice specially connected with the high priest himself. Upon the golden mitre which he bore before the Lord, on the forefront of that wonderful mitre—the high priestly mitre—there was written, "HOLINESS TO THE LORD." But it was written there for a certain purpose. It was that he (the high priest) might bear the iniquity of the holy things of the children of Israel before the Lord. Ah, there is this true separation. Thank God if we are beginning to know something of it—
IN ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER AND NATURE.
If you and I, by the grace of God, have been separated from this poor apostate world; if we now look down and see its darkness; if we have been separated from it, so that the light of God is now streaming into our hearts and we know something of God's purposes, it is not only that we may take an interest in the holy things; it is not only that we may be filled with a desire for blessing and receive the fulness of it; but it is likewise that we should thank God that, by His grace, there is a day soon coming when we shall be made the channel of marvellous blessing to that very apostate people in a way and measure at present beyond all conception. In the meantime, we are separated unto the grace of God, that we may know something of that grace in our own hearts; that we may take a deeper interest in those who are strangers to that grace, and seek in every possible way to be the means of showing something of the grace which we have received, showing it forth unto others that we may win them also to the comforts and blessings found in Christ Jesus. And so we have the constitution—if one might so say—of the whole tabernacle in the wilderness, with all its furniture and those serving in it, that they might be the link of connection between God Himself and the Lord Jesus—Who is the great anti-type of the tabernacle—and those very apostate people who are rebelling against God and His purposes.
Turn with me now to Leviticus, the tenth chapter and the second verse, where a new thought is brought before us. Here we have judgment associated in a very distinct way with the presence of the cloud. The passage tells how Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle, and how the flash of judgment came from the very cloud itself to the destruction of Nadab and Abihu, as they were offering strange fire before the Lord. We read in the second verse:—
"And there went out, fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord."
I read this only to remind you that when we find the great cloud—
HOVERING AGAIN OVER THE EARTH
as the symbol of God's presence—the Parousia that we are looking forward to very soon—then it will be the sign of the flashing forth of God's judgment, and of God's indignation against all the rebels of this evil age and against the antichrist and his hosts.
Now turn to the twelfth chapter of Numbers and the tenth verse. Here we have God coming down again in judgment against Miriam because of her murmuring against Moses. Read the first and second verses:—
"And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath He not spoken also by us?"
And then read the ninth and tenth verses:—
"And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and He departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle."
Now that is a word wonderfully spoken in connection with the whole of this wonderful history. I think both Miriam and Aaron are here, types. Miriam is very typical of the Israel nation in its present condition, of the utter and absolute rejection of the Lord's purposes in connection with His "Servant Jesus." (Acts iv. 27, R.V.) And from this time, you will see a wonderful thing, there is a crowding up of evil! Apostasy, rebellion, murmuring, and all sorts of sin came to the front, and that not occasionally, but in a sort of general way, as if it were the rule henceforth instead of the exception. And thus you have in Miriam, a type of the whole nation; the leprous woman set aside, and—
THE CLOUD IS NO LONGER EVEN OVER THE TABERNACLE.
You have the Lord departing, and the cloud taken away; and there you have, I believe, Israel of to-day. And you have no mention of the cloud returning after this, till the dedication of the great temple in king Solomon's reign (2 Chron. vii. 1, 2), alas! for a brief period only. Here then, we have the Lord in the cloud, departing from the tabernacle. But now, thank God, the glory cloud is coming again to take up, in connection with Israel and the earth, the place that in a typical way it, as it were, took up then.
Let us now turn to the New Testament and look at that well-known passage in the ninth chapter of Luke and the thirty-fourth verse. Let us read from the twenty-eighth verse:—
"And it came to pass, about an eight days after these sayings, He took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray. And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering. And behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep, and when they were awake, they saw His glory, and the two men that stood with Him. And it came to pass, as they departed from Him, Peter said unto Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here and let us make three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias;’ not knowing what he said. While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them; and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son: hear Him.’ And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone."
Here, as we all know, we have a shadowing forth of the coming Kingdom. I believe we are wrong in thinking we can trace the Church in this Scripture, except, of course, in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We have the Man of God's purpose, and we have the things of the earth; and we have His position in the coming dispensation of the Kingdom shadowed forth before us in this wonderful incident that took place in connection with the things of earth, and those who—in connection with Israel and humanity, are with Him there on the mount.
Now turn with me to Revelation, fourth chapter. Let me just briefly run over what is in my mind about this whole matter. I believe that you and I are waiting, as we all know—
FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST,
to receive His Church to Himself, to receive those who have been gathered out from all nations during the time that Israel, as a nation, has been set aside. God is gathering out the members of the company who are made one with Christ in all His blessed interests, and everyone now saved by the grace of God, through the precious blood of Christ, and standing thus upon God's own righteousness, are made one with Him in His person as the Christ of God, and also in all His interests in the coming Kingdom. And so, as His companions, we are now to become the great means of blessing to this poor burdened earth; and we have therefore become disciplined and fitted for wonderful things yet to come, when Christ shall govern the nations in righteousness and blessedness and shall bring about a wonderful blessing to the whole creation. At present, we are separated from earth and earth's interests and ways, and are waiting (the whole Church is waiting) for the time when, from various parts of the earth, we shall be caught up into the presence and glory of the Lord in a cloud. In Thessalonians, the words "the clouds" are misleading, "the" being in italics. The thought given us here is this: that we shall be taken up in clouds. There will be a cloud from London—and oh, let us thank God that, in the midst of all the terrible sin of this mighty city, there is nevertheless to be a mighty cloud from London—and a cloud from every city, a cloud also from India, from Africa, and from China. Yes, clouds of God's saints will be caught up suddenly to meet the Lord in the air. We shall be caught up in clouds to meet Him, and there, along with our blessed Lord, we shall enter fully into the glory which will be given us. And thus, caught up into the glory, we shall, along with our blessed Lord, shine forth in the—
RESPLENDENT LIKENESS OF THE LORD HIMSELF,
and by-and-bye, with Him, become the light of multitudes who, but for this, should sit down here in darkness and in the shadow of death. We are going to be with the Lord in the great Parousia cloud of glory very soon. Of course, the great thing, as many believers say, is to see the Lord Himself. But, do you not know, dear friends, that we never have a moment's light even now! Sometimes our eye is off Jesus, but when the eye of faith sees Him, then there is light—there is light in my soul when I look up to Jesus; there is light when my eye is fixed on Christ. And that is the earnest of still greater light, and fuller blessing and power, when we shall see Him as He is, without a cloud between. And so, while the great thing is to see Jesus, let us also remember that the very perfecting of the Church depends on this. And, as we continue to gaze  upon Him, thus we shall be fitted throughout eternity to blaze forth, as it were, the light of God upon this dark and apostate earth. Yes, presently we are going to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are waiting for this, to be caught up to meet Him!
Now let us look at several passages where this glory is seen. First, John sees it in the fourth chapter of his Revelation, and I still think—notwithstanding the difference of opinion of very many of beloved brethren in the Lord—that John is here the type of the Church of God. He is suddenly caught up. He has waited on, so to speak, in type, till the coming, and—
HE NOW FINDS HIMSELF IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD,
in the very centre, as it were, of this very glory cloud. We need not read the whole passage. You see the throne of God, and it is clearly the throne that was seen in the Holy of holies. And, just let me say in passing, that I believe that, when the tabernacle is fully reared, we shall have the Holy of holies, linked with the holy place and with the outer court. In other words, the redeemed Church in Glory, linked on with the earthly nation, and thus with the nations of the earth. Thus, I believe that the Lord Jesus and His glorified saints are the anti-type of the Holy of holies in the tabernacle. And then you have the propitiation there resting upon the ark. And then you have the light of the jasper stone in the midst of the throne; and you have the whole of this wonderful picture in its relation to the earth, and with God's dealings which are now about to begin in connection with the earth, after the heavenly people have been brought to their inheritance. And therefore, you have the bow in the glory cloud, you have the bow like an emerald circling the throne of God, that earth may know, in the midst of judgment scenes, that God will yet keep His covenant with it.
Turn with me now to Hebrews—the twelfth chapter and the first verse, in order to make clear what I mean by this. I may not have the sympathies of all of God’s dear people with me in what I say; but I know many agree with me in this, that, however much this wonderful Epistle to the Hebrews has a bearing upon the Church, and however much blessing you and I have had out of it as God's saints, it has, nevertheless, a very distinct and special bearing upon the Hebrew nation, and I believe, beyond all other epistles, that it will be the great epistle which the Holy Ghost will take and use, in its linkings on with the Old Testament prophets, as the means to enlighten that large company, the Israel believers, who shall be the next witnesses during the few years that intervene between the coming of the Lord for His people, and—
THE FLASHING FORTH OF THE WHOLE CLOUD
of the Lord and His saints at the time that the antichrist and his armies are destroyed. I believe that this epistle has a very special bearing upon the Israel witnesses who succeed the Church in its present testimony, though the church testimony is not quite the Hebrew testimony. We are not here so much to see what God's government of nations is, as to learn how—
A SEPARATED AND REJECTED PEOPLE
can live by the grace of God, and how the grace of God may be manifested most fully in our history. We are poor, undeserving sinners, with nothing to boast of but the blood of Jesus, and acceptance through that precious blood in Christ Himself. And everything we have and are receiving, and everything we are yet to receive and become, is to tell out here and through all eternity, this one great thing—the grace of God, the grace of God! Now, you do not find that in the Israel people so much, and you will not find it afterwards. Here is a righteous people, who is to manifest God's righteousness. They are going to be at the head of affairs—and we are not at the head of affairs—and I believe that, throughout all eternity, there is one thing more than another that we are going to shew forth, and that is, the exceeding riches of God's grace. This is the key to God's purpose in the present dispensation. The angels, and principalities, and powers, and a whole world of righteous men, will point to the kings of the heavenly places, the power of the Lord Jesus, Who shall have taken the place now occupied by the prince of the power of the air, and will say, "See what the grace of God hath done!" It will then be seen what value God puts upon the blood of His Son, since poor, wretched nothings, deserving only the wrath of God, can now, on account of it and as a matter of pure grace, be crowned with loving-kindness, and can righteously be raised by Him to the very highest position in His universe. That is what we are going to be throughout all eternity, monuments to God's love in simple grace, the great grace company, the fullest proof, so to speak, of the value of the blood of Christ. And what does "grace" mean? A little Sunday school child who was once asked, replied, "Being treated as I do not deserve;" and that will be the boast of God's saved and glorified Church throughout all eternity. Oh, to enter in something like power, into that thought to-day! Then how our mouths will be open to receive more, because we will see that we deserve nothing, and yet may righteously expect anything. This will make us more anxious to give out, in streams of blessing to others, for when we come to know the meaning of God's grace, our hearts will long to teach those who do not know it yet. I verily believe that something like this will be our history—
RIGHT THROUGH THE COMING AGES.
In Hebrews xii. 1 (now try and read it from a Hebrew standpoint, try and think you are left behind, that you are not in the glory cloud, but that you are left to be witnesses, and that you are Israelites, that you have been enlightened afterwards), "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a crowd of witnesses." And, you know, the witnesses are given us in the preceding chapter as specimens—and oh, what specimens they are! Thank God for it, and that the Israel people are getting conversant now with all this; that the Spirit of God is telling them that they are compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses. But let us go further down in the same chapter, and read the twenty-second verse,—
"But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company."
There, I think, there should be a pause, and then the innumerable company is divided into six sections. The great citizens of this city comprise an innumerable company, the whole host of angels; the great guardian host around all the rest, seen by Israelite witnesses looking at the cloud from the earth point of view, and waiting for the coming of the Lord with His saints. Those Israelites are seeing by faith, this wonderful thing described here in the Epistle to the Hebrews. As they gaze upward, Nathaniel like, they see there the nearest to them, the great crowd of angels, and then the general assembly and Church of the first-born ones enrolled in Heaven. There can be no doubt who the Church of the first-born is if you read Colossians, and mark where their destiny and all their future are. They were not enrolled on earth, but they are enrolled in Heaven. They had a higher destiny, a different nature; they were separated thus to God, and they are going to be linked on to a perfected earthly people—Heaven and earth thus once again united. (Heb. viii. 2, ix. 11.) Here is the new tabernacle perfected. Here is the wonderful creation—God Himself the Maker and Perfecter—and here is the great company in this glorious city now—
SHINING ABOVE THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE SUN.
The first-born ones, the Church, the assembly. Oh, blessed, blessed truth taught here! The Church of God has never met in general assembly. It is waiting for its assembly. In our conferences, only portions of the church have ever met together; the general assembly has never yet taken place, for that we are waiting. The foremost thought connected with the church is separation; it is the called-out; that is the simple meaning of the word "ecclesia"; and it speaks of separation and weakness and minority. But there is a moment coming when that ecclesia is, without a single member wanting, to meet in assembly—a general assembly, a synagogue of the ecclesia of the first-born ones. So far, then, we have the city crowning Mount Sion, then the great innumerable host of angels, and then the Church of the first-born ones enrolled in Heaven. Why is the next thought given to "God, the Judge of all?" Do not forget that we are now with a band of Israelites looking at things from the Hebrew standpoint, and the standpoint now among the things of earth. God has prepared this tabernacle for the earth and the coming age. Ere this, the first-born ones have been already judged! Yon and I could never occupy our place as the new priesthood with Christ for the coming age unless we had gone through our judgment—never, never! That Cross on Calvary was my judgment and never can be repeated again. But now, God is taking His place as the Judge of all. He is taking up again the affairs of earth. The whole picture is God’s linking on of those heavenly things with the things of the earth, and so, He has brought before us here in this peculiar place—God the Judge of all. Then, "the spirits of justified men made perfect.” And, if you take in that thought, which we have no time to dwell on, you will understand something said further on—that there are some witnesses, not now in our days part of the ecclesia, but who shall come after us, and in these very times of which we are treating, in which the Parousia cloud is seen over the earth, shall live and witness and die for Jesus. In the great economy of God's purposes, they belong to the magnificent martyr company of Hebrews xi. Perfected as to their spirits, these are waiting to have added to them the great tribulation witnesses. (Rev. vi. 9.)
This company of "justified men," when completed by having added to them the martyrs under the fifth seal, resurrected also as to their bodies, shall find their home, side by side with the Church of the first-born ones in the Home of the Saints, the Heavenly City, the Parousia Glory Cloud—of all the saved ones, they are seen here (Heb. xii.) among these heavenly citizens, as the immediate link with the saved earthly people who are about to be joined to them in their covenant relation in and by the glorious Mediator JESUS.
Now read the Epistle to the Hebrews in the light of these remarks, and it will become a different book to you, as it has to me. And what next? "To Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant!”   "See, ye men of Israel, that ye refuse not Him that speaketh." That is the thought before us, as I think, in Hebrews.
Now two passages and we will close. Turn to the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation. Here we have a very remarkable passage. What is going on in the earth at this time—a number of witnessing Israelites, the antichrist in power! The time is the interval between the coming of the Lord for His saints and His coming with them—a wonderful interval—
CROWDED WITH TREMENDOUS EVENTS.
Well, in this thirteenth chapter of the book of Revelation, and in the sixth verse, you will read these remarkable words—speaking of the beast—"And he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name, and His TABERNACLE, even them that dwell in the Heaven." (R.V.) At that time then, people on earth quite know all this; the antichrist and his host will be perfectly aware of the presence of the Lord in the neighbourhood of the earth, quite aware of the presence of the great, perfected Tabernacle, through which God is to bless the earth with good things. (Heb. ix. 11.) He sees too the glory cloud over the earth and knows what it means. And this daring usurper, who takes the place of Christ, will not hesitate to blaspheme the name of the Lord and His Tabernacle, even them that dwell in Heaven. Turn with me again to the Epistle to the Hebrews—to the ninth chapter and the eleventh verse. Here we read:
"But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, of this creation."
Yes, by Jesus Christ, and those united with Him, all the good things are to come; by Jesus—even just now—all good things come to us; and all good things will also come by Christ to the earth in the coming dispensation, through this wonderful Tabernacle. And so this is now beginning to be known—known even by the very usurper himself; and he blasphemes God, and the whole purpose of God in connection with it.
Now turn with me to Zechariah, the fourteenth chapter and the sixth verse: "It shall come to pass in that day"—the context clearly tells what day—"that the light shall not be clear nor dark. But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, and night [for this is the true reading], but it shall come to pass, that—
AT EVENING TIME IT, SHALL BE LIGHT."
Yes, there is to be a light for Israel above the brightness of the sun. You see the wonderful, wonderful anti-type of that very cloud and pillar of fire which led on the Israelites, now seen here in the Glory cloud, just over Palestine, sheltering, protecting, and enlightening in the times of millennial blessing with a light which puts the light of the sun to shame (Isa. iv. 4-6; Isa. xxiv. 23); "their sun goeth no more down." You have the protection by cloud in the daytime; you have the light by night. You have it as a shelter; you have it as a covering from the heat. And as you have it in that chapter we have just read together (Isa. iv.)—above all this Israel people, and their land, and their city Jerusalem, during millennial times, the Glory shall be a covering (marg.). Read also the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah, and you will see the same thought brought fully out.
''Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."
Note this rising of the Glory of God upon Jerusalem is what is going to give the great city her distinctive place.
"Arise, shine; for thy light is come."
This does not mean the light which Jerusalem is to give, but it means the lamp of Israel, that which is to be Israel's light.
"Thy light is come and the glory of the Lord has (at last) risen upon thee."
My friends, there is to be a remarkable interval after the rapture of the Church. Ah! during that wonderful interval, the whole earth-camp is against God, and the tabernacle is pitched afar off. The first effect will be judgment against the anti-christian rebel hosts, to consume, in the power of Jehovah, the enemies of Christ who withstand God's purposes for blessing to the earth. Afterward, this wondrous Tabernacle shall become the channel through which God shall pour His coming good things out of the fulness of Christ Jesus, the only source of all blessing, upon Israel and the saved nations. O God, help us to see intelligently these purposes of Thine, for Christ's sake. Amen.
“The Morning Star” 1895