Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms – Part 9

We continue with our extracts from Benjamin Wills Newton’s book, Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms, the chapter 14 —

ORDER OF EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE APPEARING OF CHRIST AND HIS MILLENNIAL REIGN

We come to Part 9, which covers from the top of page 345 to the end of the ‘note’ on page 349.

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It (the earthly Jerusalem in Millennial days – Editor) is well fitted, therefore, to be the centre of truth, and the centre of governmental influence in the earth; and being sustained in righteousness through grace, it will not fail in its high calling. “In righteousness thou shalt be established.” “Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the peoples: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed whom the Lord has blessed.” “The children of Jerusalem shall be made princes in all the earth,” and the nations shall at last be regulated according to God. They shall be made glad as with new wine — wine which they had never tasted· before — no longer the wine of the wrath of the fornication of the daughter of Babylon. We can well understand, therefore, why it should be said; “for Zion’s sake, will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake, I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth . . . . ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”*

* It is very commonly thought that the Ten Tribes have been lost since the time of their first captivity: and they are supposed to be still dwelling in some unknown region. But there is not the slightest authority in Scripture for saying that they are lost: on the contrary; “both the Houses of Israel,” are declared to have rejected Jesus. “He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel.” Moreover, Paul says, “to which promise our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night, hope to come:” and James writes expressly to the converts among the twelve tribes. The Scripture therefore does not regard them as lost.

The full and ordered glory of the Millennium, however, is not introduced until some time after the Day of visitation upon Jerusalem, That Day of visitation will be only one day. “It shall be one day, known unto the Lord.” (Zech. xiv.) In it, Israel will be nationally forgiven; and the remnant spared in the Land of Israel, will look on Him whom they have pierced, and mourn. But the greater part of Israel will be in distant lands — some having been carried captive during the days of Antichrist, others scattered by his persecutions, whilst others will be voluntarily sojourning in the uttermost regions of the earth, worshippers of the wealth and mercantile greatness of Babylon and Tyre. These will not escape the judgments that fall, more or less, upon the whole house of Israel: “As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you; And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the Land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel xx. 33-38.)

But if the wilderness be the place where this part of Israel is “pleaded with,” and purified; it is also the place where they shall find mercy. “Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the Land of Egypt.” (Hosea ii. 14.) “According to the days of thy coming out of the Land of Egypt, will I show unto him marvellous things. The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee.” (Micah vii. 15.) This is the time of which it is said: “I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.” (Isa. xliii. 19.) “The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea ; *

* Tongue or “bay” of the Egyptian Sea. This word “tongue,” is rendered, “bay,” three times in Joshua xv. and xviii. The bay of the Egyptian Sea is that part of the Red Sea which Israel formerly crossed. It is a bay about 200 miles long, extending from the promontory of the wilderness of Sinai to Suez. The land of Israel will by and by include the wilderness of Sinai. (See Ezekiel.) Thus when the seven streams of the Nile, and the bay of Suez, shall be dried up, Egypt, Israel, and Assyria will stand in close and uninterrupted connexion — the closeness of their physical connexion symbolising the intimacy of their moral union. The millennium abounds with arrangements intended to symbolise higher blessings. It is as it were a system of living symbols. The union of Egypt, Israel, and Assyria is thus mentioned in the Scripture. “In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.” (Isa. xix. 23-25.)

“… and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the Land of Egypt.” Besides those who are thus immediately gathered by the Lord, we read of others brought by the nations at the commandment of the Lord. “I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.” (Isa. xliii. 6.) “In that time, shall the present be brought unto the Lord of Hosts, of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto ; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts, the Mount Zion.” (Isa. xviii.)*

* Whilst Israel is being gradually assembled, judgments are sent upon many nations, which, although they have escaped Antichrist, have nevertheless been rebellious against the Lord, and persecutors of Israel. It is during this period apparently, that the Gog and Magog nations assail the land of Israel, in the manner narrated in Ezekiel. See ch. xxxviii, The ordered glory of the millennium will not have been introduced (although Israel is forgiven) at the time when they are thus attacked. This invasion must not be mistaken for the rebellion mentioned at the close of the millennium.