The Lord # 3
3. I need at this point to say briefly what all the prophets of the Old Testament from Isaiah to Malachi have to say about the Lord, in general and in some detail.
1. The Lord came into the world in the fullness of time [Galatians 4:4], which was when he was no longer recognized by Jews and when for this reason there was no longer anything left of the church; and unless the Lord had come into the world and revealed himself at that time, humankind would have suffered eternal death. He says in John, “If you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).
2. The Lord came into the world to carry out a last judgment, thereby subduing the hells that were then in control, and doing so by means of battles or trials that were permitted to attack the human nature he had received from his mother, and by a constant succession of victories. Unless the hells had been subdued, no one could have been saved.
3. The Lord came into the world to glorify his human nature-that is, to unite it to the divine nature that he had from conception.
4. The Lord came into the world to found a new church that would recognize him as Redeemer and Savior and that would be redeemed and saved through its love for and faith in him.
5. At the same time he was reorganizing heaven and uniting it with the church.
6. The suffering on the cross was the final battle or trial by means of which he completely subdued the hells and completely glorified his human nature.
In my forthcoming booklet on Sacred Scripture it will become evident that these are the sole subjects of the Word.
Zechariah 13
1
"In that day there will be a spring opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
2
It will come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will be remembered no more. I will also cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land.
3
It will happen that, when anyone still prophesies, then his father and his mother who bore him will tell him, 'You must die, because you speak lies in the name of Yahweh;' and his father and his mother who bore him will stab him when he prophesies.
4
It will happen in that day, that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision, when he prophesies; neither will they wear a hairy mantle to deceive:
5
but he will say, 'I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.'
6
One will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your arms?' Then he will answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.'
7
"Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me," says Yahweh of Armies. "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
8
It shall happen that in all the land," says Yahweh, "two parts in it will be cut off and die; but the third will be left in it.
9
I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, 'It is my people;' and they will say, 'Yahweh is my God.'"
