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Saturday, November 22, 2014

 

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NEXT: "His Eyes As Lamps Of Fire"

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PHANEROSIS
The Subject Itself


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PAGES 109-114

Literally "his faces" as the appearance of lightning; that is, the Faces of the Spirit through which the Eternal expresses His favour or indignation towards the posterity of Adam in the age to come. Every individual element of the heavenly Adam is a face of Daniel's symbolic man by synecdoche; a figure by which a part is taken for the whole, and is of general occurrence in the construction of symbols. It is by the expression of the face that the workings of the brain of one man are manifested to others. It is so, also, with the Eternal Spirit Yahweh. But as He hath said, "no man can see His face, and live"; His face then, when seen, is not His face peculiar to His person, but to certain other persons, the expression of whose faces is the exact representation of the workings of the Eternal Mind. During the times preceding Messiah's, the Elohim who appeared to Abraham, Job, Jacob, Moses, and the seventy, Manoah, Daniel, Zechariah, Mary, Jesus, and the apostles (of whom the only ones named are Gabriel and Michael), are the faces of Yahweh, with respect to man; but when Messiah's times arrive, new faces will flash upon the world, and give expression to the pent-up fires that burn in the Eternal Mind against the kings, the clerical orders, and the intoxicated peoples of the earth. All these faces of Yahweh, both old and new, are "against them that do evil"; but "shine upon" the heirs of salvation. The faces of the Eternal Spirit are symbolized by the faces of the Cherubim in Ezekiel 1:10; 10:14; Rev. 4:7. But as we are not now engaged upon these passages, we shall not enter further upon their exposition at present.

When Yahweh is angry (and "He is angry with the wicked" and therefore with the clergy "every day") and when the time arrives for the manifestation of His wrath, His anger flashes up into "His Faces," and they become "as the appearance of lightning." Now lightnings shooting forth from a divine countenance, are not indications of favour and kind affection. They express the contrary. They represent great fury and consuming indignation against them "that know not God, and obey not the gospel

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of the Lord, the Anointed Jesus"; the Aion Destruction -- from the face (Hebrew faces) of the Lord, and from the glory of His might, when He is apocalypsed from heaven, with the messengers of His power, (the other faces associated with Him) in devouring fire (2 Thess. 1:7-9).

The nature of symbolical lightning may be readily deducted from the use of the word in Scripture. Thus, in that grand description of Messiah's advent to punish the sons of Belial with aion-destruction, David in spirit says: "The earth shall shake and tremble; and the foundations of the mountains shall be troubled and shaken, because there was wrath with Him. In His anger a smoke ascended, and fire from His mouth shall devour; lightnings kindled from it. And He shall bow the heavens and descend, and darkness under His feet. And He shall ride upon the cherub and fly; and He shall soar on the wings of the spirit. He will make darkness His hiding place: the circuits of His pavilion the darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. Because of the brightness before Him, His thick clouds passed away; hail and lightnings of the fire. Yahweh also will thunder in the heavens, and the Most High will give forth His voice; hail and lightnings of the fire. Yea, He will shoot His arrows and scatter them; yea, He flashed forth lightnings and will put them to the rout. Then the channels of the waters shall be seen; and the foundations of the habitable shall be laid bare, because of Thy rebuke, O Yahweh, because of the blast of the spirit of Thy nostrils" (Ps. 18:8-16).

The reader will have no difficulty in perceiving that this passage is descriptive of a great break-up of the foundation of the political organization of the world for the wrath of Yahweh expends itself, not upon inanimate and unoffending nature, but upon the unrighteous and rebellious. These are "the earth," and its civil and ecclesiastical organization, "the mountains," "the heavens," "the channels," and "foundations of the habitable"; while that which is to overthrow, destroy, lay bare, and abolish, is the smoking fire of His indignation, flashing forth its lightnings and crashing thunders through Israel and their kings -- the lightning-faced Elohim of all the earth.

"The lightnings of the fire" are flashings kindled by the avenging wrath of Yahweh. The fiery abyss from which they shoot forth is said to be "His mouth," because it is by His command His mighty ones go forth against the enemy as a storm of lightning, thunder and hail. The fire typifies the Eternal Spirit in wrath. "Our God," saith Paul, "is a consuming fire." Hence, the flashing fires are "the lightnings of the fire."

"Bow Thine heavens," saith David in another place, "and

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come down, O Yahweh, touch upon the mountains, and they shall smoke; flash forth lightning, and Thou shalt scatter them; shoot Thine arrows, and Thou shalt put them to the rout" (Psalm 144:6). Isaiah puts an interpretation upon this in the exclamation: "Oh, that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst come down, that the mountains (or kingdoms) might flow down before Thy faces as the burning of liquid fire the fire shall cause the waters to boil -- to make known Thy Name to Thine adversaries: Before Thy Faces the nations shall tremble. At Thy doing of terrible deeds we shall not confide in, Thou descendest; before Thy Faces the mountains were poured out, and from the age u-mal-olahm, (from the beginning of the Mosaic Economy) men have not heard, they have not given ear to, the eye hath not seen besides Thee, O Elohim (mighty ones) what He shall prepare for him that is waiting diligently for Him" (chap. 64:1-4). Paul quotes this in 1 Cor. 2:9, in such a way as to show that the "Elohim" apostrophized by Isaiah, as the many in one who alone hath given ear to the things that shall be prepared, are the saints in Christ; for he saith to this class of persons, "God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit . . . that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. For all things are ours and for our sakes" (chap. 3:21; 2 Cor. 4:15). The Elohim only have heard and given ear to, and seen by the eye of faith, the all things to be inherited. Thus saith Isaiah. But Paul also saith, that he and his brethren discerned them; therefore, admitting Paul to be a competent witness in the premisses, "the saints in Christ Jesus" who are finally approved, and the Elohim of Isaiah in the text before us are the same.

The "lightnings" and "arrows" of the Eternal Spirit are to scatter and put the armies of the nations to the rout. "Yahweh's arrows shall go forth as the lightning" (Zech. 9:14). An arrow is an instrument of death, and requires a bow for its projection, strong and well strung, to give the arrow the velocity and deadliness of lightning. Now, the prophets tell us that Judah, Ephraim, and the resurrected Sons of Zion, are Yahweh's bow and arrow, battleaxe and sword. But before they are developed in this character, they are "prisoners of hope in the pit where no water is" of life, physical or national. They must, therefore, become the subject of a personal and political resurrection; those who are dead in the grave, of a personal; and Judah and Ephraim dispersed among the nations, politically dead and buried there, of a national resurrection, "standing upon their feet an exceedingly great army" ready for action as the result (Ezek. 37:10).

With reference to this crisis the Spirit of Christ in the prophet saith, "Fear not thou worm Jacob, ye men of Israel: I will

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help thee, saith Yahweh, even thy near kinsman,* the Holy One of Israel. Behold I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and thou shalt rejoice in YAHWEH (He who shall be), and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel -- i.e., Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" (Isaiah 41:14-16).

 

* The word is Goail from Gahal to redeem. Now the interpretation of Goail, rendered in the English version, redeemer, must be sought for in the Mosaic law of redemption. According to this, all the first-borns of man and beast in Israel are Yahweh's, and were all to be sacrificed to Him, except the first-born of an ass, and the first-born children, being males (Exod. 13:1, 13-15; 34:20); fields, houses, cities and servants (Lev. 25:25-34); all these, when sold were returnable to their original owners, because these, as Yahweh's representatives, had the fee simple right in them, and could therefore not convey an unlimited right. The absolute fee simple right was in Yahweh; first, because He brought Israel's first-born out of Egypt while he slew those of the Egyptians (Exod. 13:14); and secondly, because He claimed the Holy Land as absolutely His, the Israelites being only strangers and sojourners with Him (Lev. 25:23). The firstling of a cow, of a sheep and of a goat, were not redeemable from death; they were to be sacrificed to Yahweh, being typical of Messiah the prince in his cutting off (Num. 18:17).

The redemption of redeemable things was to be effected by a blood relation of the nearest kin. Hence, GOAIL stands for the nearest relative, a blood relation, the next of kin or a redeemer in this sense. It was his duty in redeeming to pay a stipulated price, so that the near kinsman became a purchaser, and the first-borns and so forth, a purchased people, and purchased things. Under the law, the price was blood and money. Now all this was a pattern of heavenly things. It was an illustration of the substance expressed in the text words: "Yahweh. Goail of Israel"; that is, "He shall be the nearest kinsman of Israel." This necessitates that the Effluence of the Eternal should become an Israelite, or as Paul expresses it, "He," the Spirit, "took upon himself of the nature of Abraham; for in all things it behoved him to be made like his brethren." The Spirit becoming thus a blood relation, and by resurrection Son of Power and first-born, he is the one of right to redeem the Holy Land and Israel by a blood-price out of the hand of strangers, who desolate and oppress them. They are the Eternal's, and His near kinsman is Jesus the Holy One of Israel. (Dr. Thomas).

 

Again, the spirit in another prophet, in addressing Israel, the rod of Yahweh's inheritance, saith "Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war; for by thee will I break in pieces the nations, and by thee will I destroy kingdoms; and by thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; . . . and by thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers. And I will render unto Babylon, and all the inhabitants of Chaldea, all their evil that they have done in Zion, in your sight, saith Yahweh" (Jer. 51:20). But Israel has never been the conquering power indicated in this testimony since it was delivered. From that time to this they have

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been oppressed, and in a state of punishment. Therefore, as Jesus truly taught, seeing that "the Scripture can not be broken," it yet remains to be accomplished when the Faces of the Spirit shall shine upon them, and scatter their enemies with the lightnings of His fury.

Again also the Spirit of Christ in yet another prophet, predicts that the king of Zion and Jerusalem, who, at one period of his history, was to come to them in humility, "riding upon an ass, even upon a colt, the foal of an ass," "should speak peace to the nations," and have universal dominion. Having declared this, the Spirit, addressing the just and lowly Monarch of Israel, saith, "As to thee, through the blood of thy cutting off, I will call forth thy captives out of the pit wherein are no waters." Then apostrophizing the captives, He saith "return to the stronghold (Zion) ye prisoners of the hope; this day itself he causes to announce that I will cause to restore double unto thee." Having announced this redemption at the price of the king's blood, the Spirit characterizes the day of redemption, or "year of his redeemed," as a "day of vengeance," "when I have bent Judah for Me, have filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy Sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the Sword of the Mighty One. And Yahweh shall be seen over them, and His arrow shall go forth as the lightning, and the Adohal Yahweh (the Faces of the Spirit) shall blow with the trumpet, and go with the whirlwinds of Teman. And Yahweh Tz'vaoth shall protect them, and they shall devour and conquer the slingers of stones . . . And in that day Yahweh Elohim shall save them as the flock of his people; for THE GEMS OF THE DIADEM are exalting themselves upon His land" (Zech. 9:9-16). And, illustrative of these last words, the testimony may be added that in that day shall Yahweh Tz'vaoth be "for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people, and for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them who turn the battle to the gate" (Isaiah 28:5-6). "Thou, O Zion, shalt be a crown of glory in the hands of Yahweh, and a royal diadem in the palm of thine Elohim" (Isa. 62:3).

From these premisses we learn, that on the day of the manifestation of Daniel's great vision of the Spirit-man, Judah will be the battle-bow; that Ephraim, or the Ten Tribes of Israel, will be His arrow; and that with the Judah-bow in one hand, and the Ephraim arrow in the other, strung to the utmost bent, the tribes will shoot forth from His faces with the velocity and destructiveness of lightning against the nations. The Man of the One Spirit is Yahweh, Goail and Holy One of Israel; styled in many passages Yahweh-Tz'vaoth, which signifies "He shall be hosts": that is "He shall be Captain of the armies of Israel"; for Moses says:

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"Yahweh is a man of war" (Exod. 15:3). Thus, in "the great day of the war of the Almighty Power" (Rev. 16:14) upon the kingdoms of the world, wherever there is a section of the Jewish captivity -- prisoners in their Gentile houses of death -- there will be an army of the Yahweh-Man, styled by Paul, "the man, the anointed Jesus"; the Man of Multitude, "in whom" are all the saints a constituency attained through the blood of his covenant or cutting off. In the day of approaching vengeance, the sons of Zion, according to the flesh, will be a sharp two-edged broadsword, proceeding forth from the mouth of this mighty Man of War, the Sons of Zion according to the Spirit. Thus com manded, their armies shall be among the Gentiles as a lion among the beasts of the forest, and as a young lion among flocks of goats, who, going through, treads down and tears in pieces, and none can deliver (Mic. 5:8). "The slingers of stones," or as we term them in modern technique, the gunners, cannoniers, or artillerists, whose ordinance is the glory and strength of the armies of the world --the fire and brimstone of their warfare shall be conquered; "they shall conquer the slingers of stones" (Zech. 9:15 -- R.V.), and scatter their hosts as chaff before the whirlwinds of Teman.

Having said enough in illustration of the facial similitude of the Yahweh Man, we proceed to the contemplation of . . . "HIS EYES AS LAMPS OF FIRE"

 

 


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