Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

:

ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." (Luke xix. 41-44.)

Thus, then, the preference of the last to the firstborn was a figure, shewing forth that the elder, the Jews, who were first called to the worship of the true God, should serve the younger-the Gentiles ;-to this great end;-that the Gentiles might attain to righteousness-the real, true, and only righteousness -the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, should not attain it ;-because they sought it not by faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law." (Romans ix. 30-32.)

[ocr errors]

Thus, the precedence of the younger over the elder, in the attainment of true righteousness, was the birthright-not of the children of Abraham, after the flesh, but of the children of the promise, represented by Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. These children of the promise constitute that innumerable family, predicted by the mother and brother of the barren Rebecca ;-the thousands of millions, who should finally recognize in Sion that "stone, cut out without hands, which will become a great mountain, and cover the whole earth,"-that "rock, the rock of ages, on which God's church is built," and against. which the gates of hell shall not prevail ;-that rock,

which is "a sanctuary" to the children of the promise; but "a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel; and for a gin, and for a snare, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." (Isaiah viii. 14.)

7

SECTION XXV.

The same subject illustrated by Jacob's blessing on Ephraim and Manasseh.

We have viewed the events of Joseph's history in Egypt, as part of the typical design, which shadowed forth that divine and gracious purpose, the calling of the Gentiles. We will proceed, in this section, further to strengthen this presumption, by additional circumstances, connected with the family history of this distinguished younger son of Jacob, in whom was vested the birthright of the promise.

After residing with his sons in Egypt during seventeen years, "the time drew nigh, that Israel must die." "And it came to pass, that one told Joseph, Behold thy father is sick. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh, (the elder) and Ephraim," (the younger.) "And Jacob said unto Joseph-God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me "-and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee; and I will make of thee a multitude

of people, and will give this land to thy seed, after thee." (Gen. xlviii. 1—4.)

So far, the blessing of God, on his favoured servant Jacob, might be confined to its primary and evident intention-namely, the future establishment of Jacob's descendants, as a confederate nation in the land of Canaan.

ever

But the next words shew the secondary, spiritual, and typical intent of this blessing, which the patriarch probably did not comprehend, but which is equally clear to us, as the primary purport of the blessing was to him. "I will make of thee a multitude of people, and will give this land to thy seed after thee-FOR AN EVERLASTING POSSESSION." That the land of Canaan has not been an 66 lasting possession" to the seed of Jacob, we, and they, in these days, well know. It is an "everlasting possession," not to the seed of Abraham after the flesh, but to the children of the promise, namely to the worshippers of God in Christ Jesus. The "everlasting possession" in the land of Canaan was not the inheritance of the "son by the bond-woman, after the flesh;" but of "the son of the free-woman by promise: "-it pertained not to "the covenant of Sinai in Arabia, which gendereth unto bondage, which answereth to the Jerusalem which now is, and which is in bondage with her children; but unto the Jerusalem which is above; which is free; and which is the mother of us all." (Gal. iv. 22—26.)

This is that "holy city" of which "he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars," spoke unto the angel of the church in Philadelphia—" Him that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my new name." (Rev. iii. 12.) This new and glorified Jerusalem is the kingdom of "Him, that overcometh"-and who is he? "Jesus said, I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world—again, I leave the world, and go to the Father,"—" In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John xvi. 28, 33.) In the glorious temple of this new Jerusalem, there will be a place for the faithful disciple, as well as for his Lord and master, "Him that overcometh " (that is, he that is faithful unto death) "will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out "-" To him" "will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." (Rev. iii. 21.) St. John was "carried away in the spirit to a great and high mountain," that great mountain, which in Daniel's vision, filled the whole earth; and there was shewn unto him "that great city the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God," "having the glory

« PreviousContinue »