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Similar Beginnings
Beginning Again “God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 9:1). David Rice With Adam and Eve the human race had a beginning. With Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives, we have a New Beginning. The old world was removed with a flood, purifying earth from the downward spiral of sin and evil. It seems the long lives and vigor of pre-flood men and women were blessings that they did not use properly. This intervention by God opened the way for a better result for the human population. It also showed in a stunning way that divine judgment will not allow sin, or froward sinners, to go forever unchecked. When mankind, including those pre-flood millions, are on trial for everlasting life during the Millennium, that lesson will be vital for them. Those who see that the seventh creative day of Genesis chapter one, on which God rested from the physical creation, is seven thousand years in length, can see another “New Beginning” 3,500 years following Adam’s beginning. The creative days are each described to be in two parts, an “evening” and a “morning.” In the morning or second half, God’s purposes take clearer shape and definition. It is so with the second half of the last or seventh “day” of seven-thousand years. During this “morning” period the seventy weeks of Daniel chapter nine began to count toward Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary, followed by two ages of redemption, taking the world to the full light of regeneration by the close of the Millennium (Revelation 21:23). Bible Students have long seen that 1,845 years span the time between the first advent of Christ in 29 AD, and the second advent of Christ in 1874 AD. This period “measures” the distance between the opening work of two different ages of blessing, two New Beginnings. It seems to be an evidence of divine design that the same duration, 1,845 years, also spans the period between the New Beginning when the flood waters swept away the old world, until the “morning” of the last creative “day.”[1] Abraham, Israel, Jesus After the flood, 427 years passed until Abraham entered the land of promise with his large retinue of people, herds, and possessions. There, God appeared to Abraham at Shechem and affirmed, “Unto thy seed will I give this land” (Genesis 12:6,7). This was another milestone in the progress of God’s Plan of the Ages, for God’s choice of Abraham marked him and his posterity as the line through which our Lord Jesus, the promised “seed of Abraham,” would come (Galatians 3:16). That line would go through Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s son Judah (Genesis 49:10; 1 Chronicles 5:2). Another 430 years would pass until the nation of Israel, formed of the twelve sons of Jacob, would leave Egypt and in the wilderness of Sinai become united to the worship of God through a solemn covenant confirmed to Israel through Moses: “Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people ... and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:5,6). There seems to be an intentional parallel between the recorded experiences of Abraham and those of the nation of Israel. Abraham visited Egypt and was called out again after Pharaoh’s household suffered “great plagues” — the same for Israel (Genesis 12:17-20). Abraham “went up out of Egypt ... very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold,” as Israel would later leave Egypt with their cattle and the silver and gold given them by the Egyptians to persuade them to leave rapidly (Genesis 13:1,2). Abraham was the chosen patriarch; Israel was the chosen people. When the Israelites as a nation left Egypt, they were counted as precious to God as a firstborn son: “Israel is my son, even my firstborn” (Exodus 4:22). The prophet Hosea later referred to this pronouncement: “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1). However, that same text was also prophetic of what would happen to the real firstborn of God, the ultimate “seed of Abraham,” our Lord Jesus, because Matthew applied that same text to Jesus’ coming out of Egypt with Joseph and Mary, into the land of promise, after the death of Herod (Matthew 2:15). Thus, these New Beginnings — with Abraham, Israel, and Jesus — are related by Scripture and events. Moses, Joshua The covenant people, Israel, foreshadowed the calling of a new and higher covenant people, the Gospel age church. Their leader, Moses, foreshadowed our Lord Jesus: “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee [Moses], and will put my words in his mouth; and he [Jesus, the greater prophet] shall speak unto them all that I shall command him” (Deuteronomy 18:18). Israel received covenant blessings from God at Sinai in the opening days of Sivan, month three (Exodus 19:1). The church received even more remarkable blessings from God also on the third month, on the day of Pentecost, which annually falls upon the sixth of Sivan. Moses was the leader of Israel for forty years in the wilderness. Jesus is our leader through the wilderness of sin, leading us toward our heavenly Canaan. Joshua then replaced Moses to lead the Israelites into the promised land and vanquish their enemies. Jesus is the fulfillment of Joshua who will vanquish all the enemies of righteousness during the Millennium. Judges, Kings Thereafter, God raised up judges as necessary to deliver Israel. God appointed no king to rule over his fellow Israelites. Even Gideon, who was offered the kingship, modestly and properly declined: “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: Jehovah shall rule over you” (Judges 8:23). Similarly, our Lord advised his church of the Gospel age, “one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren” (Matthew 23:8). The aged apostle Peter likewise admonished the shepherds among the Lord’s people, “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof ... [not] being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2,3). God has raised up leaders as necessary to direct the sheep of the flock in Godly ways. Possibly the seven judges enumerated through Judges 10:5 [2] correlate to the seven stars in the right hand of Jesus in Revelation 1:20. Although the saints do not reign over one another here, the promise to the overcoming saints is that they will reign with Jesus, on his throne, over the world of mankind during the Millennium (Revelation 3:21; 20:6). The fact that the period of judges was followed by the period of kings, yet another New Beginning for God’s people, perhaps points forward to the fact that after the present Gospel age, the kingdom of Christ will be established in the earth and the saints will receive kingdom authority. Zerubbabel, Daniel Ultimately, Israel proved worthy of severe judgment, and God allowed them to pass into Babylonian captivity in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. They would be recovered after a period of seventy years, followed by a return to Israel and a period of rebuilding. Zerubbabel was appointed leader of Israel by Cyrus when Cyrus authorized their return. Zerubbabel laid the foundation of the temple at Jerusalem, but it thereafter languished for twenty-one years, from 536 BC until its completion in 515 BC (Ezra 4:24; 6:15). That period of twenty-one years may be intimated in the twenty-one day delay the prophet Daniel experienced while waiting for an answer to his concerns about the work in Jerusalem (Daniel 10:13). The temple evidently represents the church class (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Peter 2:5). Zerubbabel, the builder of that temple, represents our Lord Jesus, the builder of the spiritual temple class. The building of the spiritual temple began with zeal and fervor early in the age, but lapsed as the trials of the darker period of the age enveloped the saints. Altogether, it appears that the work of building the spiritual temple takes parts of twenty-one centuries. Perhaps this number of centuries is represented in the twenty-one years that passed in building the temple under Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was descended from the line of kings that came from David. In this way he was a picture of Jesus whose genealogy also is traced back to King David, both in the Gospel of Matthew (that gives the line through Jesus’ legal father, Joseph), and in the Gospel of Luke (that gives the line through Jesus’ mother, Mary). That Zerubbabel was the builder of the tem- ple connects him, conceptually, to the priestly function. He was not actually a priest, for he was of the tribe of Judah. But he pictures Jesus who has now joined the two offices of king and priest in himself. For at his resurrection he received a throne (Hebrews 1:8), and also became “a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 5:6, 5:6, 4:14).
Ezra, Nehemiah Another picture respecting the church is shown in the dual work of Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra did not build the temple, but he refurbished it and resumed the sacrifices in the temple. Similarly, Jesus directed the harvest work of the Gospel age by which the church is “refurbished” with the doctrines of present truth, utilizing the services of a robust and godly leader. However, though the harvest of the Gospel age was expected to close promptly, there has been a seeming delay of now more than a century — from our point of view — though certainly this is not an actual delay in God’s program. The church will be complete on schedule. Nehemiah, who completed the walls of Jerusalem, seems to represent Jesus’ work of completing “New Jerusalem,” and ushering the church complete into glory. Thus, the major New Beginnings in the history of the Old Testament, appear to contain lessons of interest and meaning to the saints of New Testament times, respecting the progress of God’s Plan of the Ages. __________ (1) The years given in Genesis chapters 5, 7, and 8 show 1,656 years from Adam to the end of the flood. The flood was a one-year episode; thus from Adam to the beginning of the flood there were 1,655 years. This leaves a remainder of 1,845 years to follow before the end of 3,500 years from Adam. (2) Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, and Jair. There is a natural break in the history of the Judges following these seven, as shown in Judges 10:7 and forward.
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