Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #58
58. The state of consummation of the Israelitish Church is described in both the historical parts of the Word, and its prophetic parts: in the prophetic, by the atrocious deeds of the kings, first of those of the Israelites, and afterwards of those of the Jews, by whom and under whom the land is said to have been profaned. But it is needless to recite them, because they are well known; only those passages from the prophetic parts shall be adduced in which the consummation and devastation of that Church are treated of. In these passages by "earth" and "land," "Zion," "Jerusalem," "cities," "mountains," "hills," "valleys," and "rivers," similar things are signified as above (n. 55). The following are from the prophetic parts of the Word:
[2] I saw the earth, and behold it was empty and void; and towards the heavens, and their light was not.... I saw, when, behold, Carmel 1 was a desert, and all the cities were desolated at the presence of Jehovah.... For thus hath Jehovah said, The whole land shall be wasteness, yet will I not make a consummation. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be blackened.
Thou, therefore, that art vastated, what wilt thou do? (Jer. 4:23-31; 5:10, 18).
The lion hath come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations... hath gone forth from his place, to reduce the land to a waste.... In that day... the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished (Jer. 4:7, 9).
In that day, every place where there were a thousand vines shall be... for thorns and briars,... because all the land shall be thorns and briars (Isa. 7:23-24).
A voice of the cry of the shepherds and... of the powerful ones of the flock, for Jehovah layeth waste their pastures: whence the sheepfolds of peace were devastated. Jehovah hath forsaken His tabernacle, for their land was reduced to a desolation (Jer. 25:36-38).
This house shall be like Shiloh, and Jerusalem shall be a devastation (Jer. 26:9; 27:17).
Jerusalem, and all the cities of Judah, shall be a desolation and a devastation in this day, because of the wickedness of your works; . . . your land is become a desolation, an astonishment and a curse (Jer. 44:2, 6, 22).
I will give the land to devastation, because they have committed transgression (Ezek. 15:8).
They shall be devastated in the midst of the devastated lands, and her cities in the midst of the desolated cities.... Then I will make the rivers drought,... the land into the hand of the evil, and I will vastate the land and the fulness thereof (Ezek. 30:7, 12).
When I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens, and will make the stars thereof black. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine;... and I will set darkness upon the land... when I shall bring on thy breaking up (Ezek. 32:7-9);
in like manner as the Lord foretold concerning the consummation of the present Christian Church (Matt. 24:29).
[3] I will give Mount Seir to wasteness and to devastation.... I will make thee the wastes of eternity... (Ezek. 35:3-4, 7, 9, 12, 14-15).
In that day they shall bring up a proverb against you... and say, In vastating we are vastated (Micah 2:4).
Fear and the pit have taken hold of us, devastation and breaking up (Lam. 3:47).
The mountain of Zion is vastated (Lam. 5:18).
Thine iniquity is consummated, O daughter of Zion (Lam. 4:22).
Woe to the sinful nation, heavy with iniquity;... they have provoked the Holy One of Israel.... From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness;... your land is a solitude.... The daughter of Zion is left as a tent in a vineyard, as a besieged city (Isa. 1:4-8, and following verses).
What will ye do in the day of visitation and devastation? Consummation is finished, justice is overwhelmed; for the Lord Jehovih is making a consummation and decision in the whole land (Isa. 10:3, etc., Isa. 10:22-23).
I have heard a consummation and decision from the Lord Jehovih of hosts in the whole land (Isa. 28:22).
The prophet fell upon his face, and said, Lord Jehovih! Thou art making a consummation with the remnants of Israel (Ezek. 11:13).
My sanctuary was profaned, and the land of Israel was devastated (Ezek. 25:3).
Were even Noah, Daniel and Job in the midst of it,... they only shall be delivered, but the land shall become a desolation (Ezek. 14:14, 16).
[4] The completion of the consummation of the Israelitish and Jewish Church was accomplished when the Lord our Saviour, after receiving the sponge of vinegar, cried out upon the cross,
It is consummated (John 19:29-30);
for it is said in David:
They gave gall for My meat, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink:... let their habitation be devastated (Psalm 69:21, 25).
And in another place:
Without cause have they hid for Me the pit of the net; without cause have they digged for My soul. Let devastation come upon him before he is aware;... let him fall into devastation. Rescue My soul from their devastators, and My only one,-that is, the Church-from the lions' whelps (Psalm 35:7-8, 17).
I will make Jerusalem heaps, a habitation of dragons; I will reduce the cities of Judah to a waste;... behold, I am feeding them, even this people, with wormwood, and I will give them waters of gall to drink (Jer. 9:11-15).
Full consummation, after this, is described in Hosea thus:
The sons of Israel shall sit many days: no king, no prince, no sacrifice, no image, no ephod, and no teraphim (Hosea 3:4).
Such is their state at the present day. There is no need to adduce more passages. The passages in which the vastation, desolation and consummation of this Church are further mentioned, shall be only named: as, for example, Isa. 9:13-21; 22:4-14: Jer. 7:31-34; 25:33; 47:4: Ezek. 13:14-15; 14:8, 15; 19:7; 25:12-13; 26:2; 29:9-10, 12; 32:12, 15: Joel 1:15-20; 2:3; 3:19: Nahum 1:8-9: Zeph. 1:15; 2:9: Lam. 1:16: Psalm 73:17-19; 74:3.
The devastated are also called "thrust through" 2 (Ezek. 11:6-7; 21:30, 34; 26:6; 28:8, 23; 31:17-18; 32:20-24, 28-32; 35:8: Zeph. 2:12: Lam. 4:9: Psalm 69:27: and in other places). They are said to be "thrust through" because a "sword," by which this is done, signifies falsity destroying truth.
Footnotes:
1. See R.V. margin.
2. In most of these passages our ordinary Bibles have "slain"; but Young's Literal Translation of the Bible has "pierced," which, of course, is the same as "thrust through."
Ezekiel 28
1
The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,
2
Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of god, in the midst of the seas; yet you are man, and not god, though you did set your heart as the heart of god--
3
behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is hidden from you;
4
by your wisdom and by your understanding you have gotten yourself riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasures;
5
by your great wisdom [and] by your traffic you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches--
6
therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God,
7
therefore, behold, I will bring strangers on you, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness.
8
They shall bring you down to the pit; and you shall die the death of those who are slain, in the heart of the seas.
9
Will you yet say before him who kills you, I am God? but you are man, and not God, in the hand of him who wounds you.
10
You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.
11
Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
12
Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13
You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day that you were created they were prepared.
14
You were the anointed cherub who covers: and I set you, [so that] you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15
You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.
16
By the abundance of your traffic they filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17
Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may see you.
18
By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who see you.
19
All those who know you among the peoples shall be astonished at you: you have become a terror, and you shall nevermore have any being.
20
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
21
Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it,
22
and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Sidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of you; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
23
For I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall fall in the midst of her, with the sword on her on every side; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
24
There shall be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them, that did despite to them; and they shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.
25
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob.
26
They shall dwell securely therein; yes, they shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and shall dwell securely, when I have executed judgments on all those who do them despite all around them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh their God.
