people,"-i.e., the Jewish people: for He distinguishes them from the Gentiles-" and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me." And that the Gospel was to be preached "to the Jew first" we have it stated over and over again in the New Testament :2 because, as we have seen in my first vol. of "Outlines," that it is the Lord's purpose that there shall be an elect remnant out of Israel likewise, as well as out of the Gentiles, all through this Dispensation.

(4) The reference to "graven images" in verse 8, which refers to the close of the Dispensation, shows us, what other Scriptures abundantly prove, (and as we shall see as we advance further on in these "Outlines,") that the worship of idols, to which praise, or glory, is there said to be “given,' will be rife just before the second coming of the Lord :3 for then the worship of Antichrist and his image will be well nigh universal over the whole platform of the then Roman earth. And we have here, as it were, not only the Lord's protest against it, previous to His coming to take judgment upon these idolaters at His appearing; but likewise Jehovah's promise that all glory shall centre in Jesus Himself: for when He says He will not give His glory to another, this does not of course exclude Jesus Himself; because He is not "Another," but One with Himself, as He asserts in another prophecy which has reference to His first coming, but which is introduced into the midst of a narrative of the effect produced upon the Jewish nation by the second coming of the Lord; precisely, as well as for the same reason, as verse 21 is here inserted in this prophecy-the one relating to Christ's obedience to the Law, and the other relating to His bearing of its curse, the two combined forming the

1 Acts xxvi. 16-18.

As for instance in Luke xxiv. 47; Acts iii. 26; xiii. 26, 46; Rom. i. 16. 3 Compare Isa. ii. 17-22; Rev. ix. 20; vi. 12-17. 4 Rev. xiii. 8, 14, 15.

whole of the work which He thus accomplished for His people, while He was here on earth. The passage in our Chapter is as follows, "Jehovah is well pleased for His righteousness' sake; He will magnify the Law, and make it honorable:" while the other passage reads, "Awake, O Sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith Jehovah of Hosts: smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn My hand upon the little ones"-a passage which is expressly applied to our Lord Jesus, by two of the Evangelists, when they relate His apprehension in the garden of Gethsemane, previous to His death upon the cross for our sins.2

Passing by, then, any further comment upon any other verses in the Chapter, I will come at once to verses 13 to 18, which refer exclusively to the second coming of the Lord; and it will be observed that they are introduced, as it were, abruptly into the prophecy, evidently with a view of shewing the suddenness and unexpectedness of the coming itself—a fact which is frequently so stated in the New Testament, whether that coming be viewed by itself, or with reference either to the righteous or to the wicked. "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming," Tаpovolá, the personal And "we shall all be

Advent, "of the Son of Man be." changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. ."4 For "the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape."5

The passage from our Prophecy is as follows:-"Jehovah shall go forth as a mighty man, He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: He shall cry, yea, roar; He shall prevail against His enemies. I have long time holden My peace; I have been still, and refrained Myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. I

1 Zech. xiii. 7.
3 Mat. xxiv. 27.

2 Mat. xxvi. 31; Mark xiv. 27.
41 Cor. xv. 51, 52.

5 1 Thes. v. 2, 3.

will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods."

Mark then this contrast between the first and the second coming of the Lord. At His first coming it is said, “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets" but at His second coming, it is said, “He shall cry, yea, roar; He shall prevail against His enemies." We have seen something of this in our Exposition of Psalm 1., in the last Section: but there are many other Scriptures also which speak of this "roaring" of our Lord at His second coming. Thus this same prophet tells us, "For thus hath Jehovah spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall Jehovah come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.”1 And again, "Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither." And yet again, even more pointedly, the prophet Joel, after having described the assembled "multitudes" in "the valley of Jehoshaphat," continues, "The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. Jehovah also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but Jehovah will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am Jehovah your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain: then shall

Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more."1

These passages of Scripture taken together then, with those which I have already quoted in the last Section, sufficiently open out the subject of these verses, without any farther comment on my part; only I would add that the "long time" during which our Lord here says He "had been still and refrained Himself," exactly answers to His "silence" as recorded in the 3rd verse of Psalm 1. And as I shall hereafter have to set forth more particularly the events referred to in the 15th to the 17th verses of this prophecy, I shall waive all further consideration of the subject for the present; beyond noticing that the "blind" and the "deaf" mentioned in verse 18, of course refer to Israel as a nation, who are said to have been " given " up by "Jehovah" “for a spoil" to "the spoilers" (not "robbers ") on account of their sins-the "spoilers" themselves becoming a spoil, when Jehovah has ceased using them, as His instruments, for that purpose Himself! 2

1 Joel iii. 15-17. See also Isa. xxix. 5, 6, 7; Hos. xi. 10; Joel ii. 11; Amos iii. 8; Zeph. i. 10.

2 Isa. xxxiii. 1; x. 5-18.

CHAPTER III.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

SECTION I.

At the first coming of Christ, although the Gentiles were then grafted into the Jewish Olive Tree-God thus visiting them at the first, to take out of them a people for His Name: yet Israel, as a nation was not then gathered-an Exposition of a portion of Isaiah xlix.

IN the 49th Chapter of Isaiah, which is the 4th passage I have to notice which refers to this Dispensation, we have the fact revealed to us; that although the Gentiles were to be "grafted in" to the Jewish "Olive tree"-God thus. "visiting" them for the "first" time, "to take out of them a people for His Name;" yet that at this His first coming, Israel as a nation, was not then to be "gathered" unto Christ; and this notwithstanding that it had been revealed to their Father Jacob, that "unto Shiloh," when He "came," "the gathering of the people should be."2

The first seven verses of this chapter relate, as we shall see, to the first coming of Christ; verses 5 to 8, to this Dispensation; verses 8 and 9 to Christ's second coming: and the remaining verses of the chapter, to the final restoration of Israel, as a nation; with a prophetic intimation of some of the national blessings which will be conferred upon them, when Jehovah Jesus has brought them under the terms of "the New Covenant," at His second coming: and when only Jacob's prophecy respecting "the gathering of the people to Shiloh," will be “ fulfilled.”

Let us glance, then, at each in order. The first seven verses run thus. "Listen, O Isles, unto Me; and hearken