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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 2

SECTION 4

6. The Morning Star

 


 
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The Morning Star is also promised to him that overcomes -- "I will give to him the Morning Star," saith the Spirit. To appreciate the importance and value of this great promise we must know what is signified by the phrase.

The Morning Star is the star belonging to the morning. This morning is alluded to in Gen. xlix. 27, where it is written concerning the tribe of Benjamin, styled "a wolf," "he shall tear in pieces; in the morning he shall devour the prey; and at the evening he shall divide the spoil." In these words of Jacob's prophecy of "what shall happen with Israel in the last of the days," we are instructed to look for a period in which Benjamin will devour his enemies instead of being himself devoured, as for the last eighteen hundred years. This is styled "the morning" -- an era of triumph and conquest for Israel, as indicated by their devouring "the prey" and dividing "the spoil."

Now, the morning is the beginning of the day, or the time of the sun's rising. This is true whether the sun be the "Day Star" of the material or political heavens. The morning referred to by Jacob in his prophecy, is manifestly the time of the rising of a sun in the political heavens; because he is treating of a great political revolution in the affairs of Benjamin and the rest of the tribes. Israel cannot now "devour the prey" and "divide the spoil" among the people, because, as Moses says in Deut. xxxii. 36, "Yahweh sees that power hath departed, and none retained or left." It is this perfect powerlessness of the tribes before their enemies, that excites the indignation and compassion of Yahweh. The scattering of their power having attained its climax (Dan. xii.), the morning of their deliverance arrives;" for Yahweh will plead for his people, and show pity upon his servants, when he shall see that power is departed, and none retained or left."

But the tribes of Jacob are not the sun, or Day Star, of this morning of their glory. In the antitype as in the type, "in the morning they shall see the glory of Yahweh appearing in a cloud" (Exod. xvi. 7,10); and they who behold are different from the thing beheld: this is the Sun who in his rising makes it morning time. He will then give them bread to the full; and his dew will lie round about the host. The life and power of Israel are not in their own progress; but in the Eternal Spirit, Yahweh, manifested in Messiah aid his brethren -- the one Yahweh Elohim of Israel. It is he that makes "their latter end" glorious; and turns the weeping of their long and dreary night into the joy that cometh in the morning.

This Eternal Spirit in his multitudinous manifestation is the Sun, belonging to the morning of that great day in which the world shall be ruled in righteousness; and Yahweh's glory shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea The Spirit in David contemplating this, the One-in-Many, the future ruling body upon earth, says, "There shall be a Ruler over mankind, a just One, ruling in the righteous precepts of Elohim. And as brightness of morning, He shall rise the Sun of an unclouded dawn shining forth after rain upon tender grass out of the earth" (2 Sam. xxiii. 4).

This One Ruling Body, the mystical Christ, is the Shiloh, to whom shall be the gathering of the peoples, as the Sceptre of Judah. This is the King that shall be higher than Agag, and whose kingdom shall be exalted -- the Star out of Jacob, and the sceptre or rod of iron, that shall smite the princes of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. Jesus of Nazareth is the Head of this "One Body;" and the Head of Jesus is the Eternal Power, whence is effused the anointing of all (1 Cor. xi. 3).

Now the Eternal Wisdom is the revealer of the Apocalypse. He gave it to Jesus, "whom he anointed both Lord and Christ." Hence, when the anointed Jesus speaks in the apocalypse, it is the Eternal who speaks. For this reason it is, that at the end of each epistle the hearer is reminded that it is the Spirit speaking to the ecclesias. Thus we see the same rule maintained in the Apocalypse as in the Testimony of John. There, (in vii. 16) Jesus saith, "My doctrine," or teaching, "is not mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of Deity, or I speak of myself." And in xii. 49, "I have not spoken of myself, but the Father who sent me; He gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak." The rule of the apocalypse is the same -- the Eternal Wisdom speaking through Jesus, himself become spirit in being begotten and born of the Spirit from among the dead.

It is the Eternal Spirit, then, who, through Jesus, says in Apoc. xxii. 16, "I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright and MORNING STAR." The Spirit, apart from Jesus, could not say this. The Spirit is the Root of David, because David and all mankind sprang from the Spirit who created them; but apart from flesh and blood, He was not "the Offspring" of David. It was necessary for the Spirit to become flesh of Judah and David's line, as John teaches in ch. i. 14, to become "the offspring of David." When he raised up the dead body named Jesus, he transformed it into spirit-body. This became the Bright Star the bright particular star -- of that galaxy of stars pertaining to that morning when "Israel shall do valiantly;" and the wolf, Benjamin, shall devour the prey; and the Beloved of Yahweh shall dwell in safety by him, shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders (Deut. xxxiii. 12).

The Bright and the Morning Star, then, the Eternal Spirit glorified in Jesus, promises to give the morning star to him that overcomes. In other words, that he shall become a glorified constituent of the "One Body," when it is adopted at the manifestation of the Sons of Deity (Rom. viii. 19-24). He will, then, be a star pertaining to the Millennial Dawn -- a morning star; for "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars le-olahm wah-ed, IN THE OLAHM AND BEYOND;" or, as Jesus said, "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun IN THE KINGDOM OF THEIR FATHER;" which belongs to "the Olahm and beyond" (Dan. xii. 3; Matt. xiii. 43). The redeemed will then be, in the aggregate, a Cloud of Morning Stars, "equal to the angels," themselves "the Morning Stars that sang together, and the Sons of Deity that shouted for joy," when the corner-stone of earth's foundation was laid by the Eternal (Job xxxviii. 7). We look for the Bright and Morning Star from heaven, that he may "change our vile body, and fashion it like unto his glorious body" (Phil. iii. 21); and we know that "we are now the Sons of Deity, and that when he shall appear we shall be like him" (1 John iii. 2). This is equivalent to saying we shall be Morning Stars -- stars that come forth as dew from the womb of the morning, shining in all the glory of the resurrection state (1 Cor. xv. 41; Psal. cx. 3).

Of all the Stars in the New Heavens, Jesus will be the brightest; for in all things it is the Father's will and pleasure, not only that all the fullness shall dwell in him, but that he also shall have the pre-eminence. "There is one glory of the Sun," and that is his; and "there is another glory of the Stars," and that is the glory of his brethren individually; and "there is another glory of the Moon," and that is the glory of his companions collectively. As his Bride, they "look forth as the morning, fair as the Moon, clear as the Sun, and terrible as an army with banners" (Song vi. 10). He that overcomes, to him it shall be given to be one of these -- a splendid one sparkling in the glory of the great and fearful Name of YAHWEH ELOHIM.

 

 


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