2 For I will gather all nations <eth-k̆ol-haggoyim - certain particular nations> against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

THE EASTERN QUESTION

The great military problem of the not far distant future to be solved by the coming events is that indicated in the last chapter of Zechariah, and the second verse, where it is written,

"I will gather all the nations eth-k̆ol-haggoyim-against Jerusalem to war.‭"

‭ ‬This is the purpose of Him of whom Moses says, Yahweh ish milkhāmā, I shall be is a Man of War-Ex. 15:3.

The phrase eth-kol-haggoyim does not mean indefinitely, "all nations," as would seem to be intended by the Common Version; the particle eth is emphatic, and prefixed to kol signifies certain particular nations. He will gather all the nations, that is, the armies of the nations subject to "the Powers that be," which have scattered Israel, and parted or divided among themselves Yahweh's land. See Joel 3:12: and Zech. 12:3, in which latter place it is written,

"In that day (the day when Jerusalem is besieged) will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; all that burden themselves with it, shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it."

The armies of the Powers of the earth, then, which burden themselves with Jerusalem and the Holy Land, are to be gathered together for war in that region of the East.

It is the last Stage of the Eastern Question which immediately precedes the apocalypse of Israel's King, styled by the Eternal Spirit in the second psalm, "My King;" who is to be placed upon Zion, the hill of the Yahweh-Sprit's holiness, though all the Powers should decree the contrary.

These powers of the Earth are the parties to the Eastern Question, the principle of which is "the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire." Of course, if this be maintained by the Powers, the Yahweh-Spirit's purpose of placing His king on Zion, can never come to pass; for that empire includes within its territorial limits, Jerusalem and the Holy Land, which Yahweh in Joel styles "his land."

Hence the policy of the Powers pledging themselves to the maintenance of Ottoman independence and the present [1857] boundary of its dominion places them in a state of war with Yahweh; whose king cannot

"reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem before his ancients gloriously," (Isai. 24:23,)

so long as the Holy Land continues a part of the Turkish, or any other Gentile, dominion.

Yahweh and his King against the Powers is the fundamental element of the current situation of human affairs. His hostility to them is the source of all their trouble, anguish, and vexation of spirit. He has taken peace from them, and will plague them in various ways until he has overwhelmed them, and made triumphant the purpose he hath decreed.

The Powers against which, as the potential rulers of the world, he has indignation, are, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Turkey, France and Great Britain. We do not mean to say that he has no indignation against the powers existing on the territories of Germany, Spain, Italy, and so forth, because we have named only the six aforesaid. He has indignation against all the powers of earth.

We mention those six, because their will directs and controls all the rest, which are but the satellites of the political firmament or "air." Russia claims ascendency at the "Holy Shrines of Jerusalem" as the head of the Greek superstition; Austria and France as rival candidates for the chieftainship of the Latin; Prussia and Great Britain have planted their standard on Mount Zion as the protesters against the Greeks and Latins; while the Ottoman Turks claim the soil as their's, acquired and governed by the sword. But they are all thieves and robbers-spoilers of Israel and the land.

Great Britain, then, to say nothing of the other powers at this time, is in an attitude of hostility to Yahweh. She has entered on a career which will lead to her overthrow at the hand of God.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Dec 1857

4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 

"There shall be a very great valley."

The expression "a very great valley" indicates a tremendous move­ment of the mountain halves, and consequent disturbance of the sur­rounding land. It would seem that the lifting-up of the 50-mile-square Holy Oblation will occur in this same convulsion, and will, in the providence of God, be greatly destructive of the enemy hosts, swal­lowing them up like Dathan and Abiram.

It is in the valley of Jehoshaphat beside Jerusalem that Joel (3:11-14) says God will assemble the hosts of the nations to judge them. And the King of the North, when he hears troubling tidings, rushes back from Egypt and sets his headquarters in the glorious holy mountain. He is there destroy­ed, and all his hosts (Dan.11:43-45).

Certainly a great "shaking" of this area will be necessary to clear it of all the superstitious rubbish that now pollutes: Moslem, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish.

It would appear, too, most likely that this tremendous upheaval and disturbance in the land of Israel will be the occasion and inaug­uration of the convulsions throughout the earth that will bring down "every high tower" and all the proud and lofty works of men. Certainly such dreadful monstrosities of man's pride and folly as the ugly, useless Toronto Tower and the dark, towering steel money-grubbing canyons of New York must be swept away, to be replaced by sound, sensible, God-glorifying structures.

Most of the large buildings of Detroit, the dazzling pride of a mere 50 years ago, are now decay­ing, outmoded and tarnished eyesores. So will it be with all man's ugly creations when the new, clean, pure, wholesome order of living begins, every man under his own vine and fig tree (Mic.4:4).

The Temple is an entirely different kind of building: of health, beauty, and true utility, in harmony with the environment It will doubtless be the foundation pattern for the wise architecture of the future.

The Kingdom Age will be ushered in by cataclysmic, worldwide destruction of life and property. This is sad but necessary, as it was in the time of the Flood, so that all human filth and corruption can be swept away, and an entirely new, clean, fresh order can begin. The Kingdom of righteousness cannot be built on rotten, shaky, corrupt human foundations. Psa.46 declares-

"The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered His voice, the earth melted. Come, behold what desolations He hath made in the earth."

The context of this psalm clearly shows it to be millennial. And Isa. 30:25 speaks of-"The day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall."

And Is. 66:16, again in an unmistakably Last Day context-"By fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many."

Again, Isa. 2, the Lord shall-"Arise to shake terribly the earth."

And so says Haggai (2:6-7). We must think of these events on the universal scale of the convulsions of the Flood.

Bro.Sulley thought that the drying up of the marshes of the Dead Sea for salt would in all probability bring Sodom and Gomorrha, now covered by shallow water at the south end of the Dead Sea, to the surface again. Similarly, the waters flowing north, and the lake thereby formed, would completely submerge Bethsaida, Capernaum and Chorazin under 100s of feet of water, in judicial fulfillment of the words of Jesus (Mt. 11: 21-24).

And to complete the picture Jesus gives there, bro. Sulley felt it likely the northern stream would enter the Mediterranean at Tyre, restoring it to its ancient importance as the "entry of the seas." Isaiah prophesies (23:18) that in the last days the merchandise and hire (labor) of Tyre shall be for them that dwell before the Lord. This would be so if Tyre were the Temple's seaport.

Geographically, Tyre would be the logical place for the waters to enter the Mediterranean. There is a valley to it, and it is just about in line with the northern end of the lake that would be formed by filling the Jordan valley to the level of the Mediterranean.

Bro Growcott - BYT 4.18.

6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:

‭ ‬Incorruptibility is a matter of essential being.‭ ‬An incorruptible being,‭ ‬endued with life,‭ ‬can diversify its appearance-can become luminous,‭ ‬or draw in its light and appear as ordinary beings.‭

It can affect others by divine power,‭ ‬for it is divine,‭ ‬and its power divine.‭ ‬When Christ returns,‭ ‬and has his first interview with the Elders of Israel,‭ ‬he will,‭ ‬doubtless,‭ ‬draw himself in,‭ ‬which is opposed to what is indicated by the phrase‭ ‬letting himself out.‭ 

‬During the forty days with the apostles,‭ ‬he‭ ‬drew in‭; ‬so when he comes to revise his suspended work in the midst of the years-in the forty-years‭' ‬epoch of the Second Exodus-he will draw in:‭ ‬else how shall one discern the wounds with which he was wounded,‭ ‬in the house of his friends‭? ‬For to let himself out would so dazzle all observers,‭ ‬as totally to obscure all sight of his wound-scars.

Ambassador of the Coming Age, May 1868

7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to Yahweh, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.

In Zech. xiv. 7, the saints who come in with Yahweh Elohim are styled yekaroth, the splendid shining or glorious ones. The word is used of stones, gems, and stars. Their splendour constitutes them Urim. They are the gems and stars through which the brightness of the Spirit enlightens the nations of the earth, when Jesus and his Brethren inherit all things.

This reference to the Urim is very remarkable, and in the English Version very imperfectly translated. As it stands in verses 6 and 7, no sense can be made of it. It may be seen by the margin, which deepens the obscurity of the text, that "the authorities" do not know what to do with it. There is no obscurity, however, in the original to one whose mind is not darkened with clerical traditions, and who understands the glory to which the saints are called in the gospel of their salvation.

The passage should read thus:

"Yahweh my Elohim (He who shall be my Mighty Ones, or righteous governors) shall come in, all the saints with thee. And it shall be in that day there shall be no brightness, the splendid drawing in. And it shall be one day that shall be made known by Yahweh; not day nor night, but it shall be in time of evening there shall be brightness,"

or Ur.

From this we learn, that when the Lamb and 144,000 enter upon their work of judgment at eventide, they will not

"shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars" (Dan. xii. 3)

they will not be manifested as Urim; but, though capable of so doing, they will draw in their brightness, and appear as men: but, when the judgment is over, and the kingdom established, and the time is come for them to rest from their labours, then they will no longer draw in their splendour, but

"shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matt. xiii. 43);

not in the "day" of Jerusalem under the law; nor in the "night" of her widowhood, "not day nor night;" but at eventide, which begins the seventh, or great sabbatic day.

Eureka 7.6.

8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.

Bro. Sulley's basic picture is very satisfying. He presents a building that is ideal for the purpose intended: a vast, open structure of mas­sive but delicate masonry latticework and archways, filled in and cano­pied over by thick, verdant greenery-a vivid contrast to man's increas­ingly horrible and artificial monstrosities.

This building will have all the freedom and healthiness and beauty and freshness of open-air living, with none of its bareness or disad­vantages. Trees purify the air naturally and noiselessly and effortlessly.

This building will host a continuous flow of millions. Living green­ery everywhere, ventilation everywhere, and pure, clear, running wa­ter everywhere-are its primary characteristics. A perfect site for the Feast of Tabernacles, or "Booths," to which all nations go (Zech14:16). The curse will be removed. The greenery will be free from all today's pests and problems. The weather will always be ideal.

Bro. Sulley gives the basic outline, but he is quick to point out that this is the most important building in all history, that it is designed directly by God's infinite wisdom unlike anything ever before, that Ezekiel's description is very limited and elementary: and that therefore while man can humbly suggest the general unrevealed details, as bro. Sulky does, to give us something to visualize as we picture the activities there, still man cannot possibly begin to imagine the building in its full divine beauty as it actually will be.

Bro. Sulley cautions us that the details and decorations and much of the layout are merely suggestive, and that we must just take them as a faint hint of the real beauty to be revealed.

At times he gives alternate suggestions; and we can legitimately formulate our own, within the basic pattern. But until we have fully studied and mastered bro. Sulley's book, it would be presumption to question or discount individual details. Bro. Sulley, like bro. Thomas, took scriptural detail very seriously, neither ignoring anything, nor conveniently spiritualizing it away.

The Truth of God is a thing of realities: beautiful, satisfying, div­inely-appointed realities: not like the vague and hazy vaporizings of the world's manmade religions. Truly, mortal man can never begin to conceive of the full glories of the immortal state, and we must wisely ever remind ourselves of this. But when God has graciously given revelation and a glimpse of things to come to build our faith upon, it is our wisdom to seek to comprehend them. This is vital food for the spiritual mind, without which it cannot grow, and become strong, and overcome and cast out the earth-groveling mind of the flesh within us all.

We shall be what we fill our minds with.

Bro Growcott - BYT 4.24.

9 And Yahweh shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Yahweh, and his name one.

The New Covenant being made with the house of Judah, the kingdom is established. Not, however, to its full extent. It is but the kingdom in its small beginning, as when David reigned in Hebron over Judah only. The Lord Jesus, as King of Judah, will have to bring the ten tribes and nations generally to acknowledge him as King of Israel and Lord of the whole earth.

'... when the Lord appears in his little kingdom of Judea, he will undertake to deliver every Israelite in bondage, establish David's kingdom to its full extent, overturn all kingdoms and dominions among the Gentiles, abolish all their superstitions, enlighten them in the truth, and bring them to submit to him joyfully as their lawgiver, high priest, and king.

Elpis Israel 3.6.

Yahweh shall be King over all the earth 

Where then will be the thrones, principalities, and dominions which now oppress the world, sitting as a night-mare upon the nations, and binding them in the fetters of ignorance, superstition, and political chicanery.

A resounding joyous shout, as the roar of a multitude of waters, will reverberate through the heavens, saying 'destroyed, abolished, gone for ever, to be found no more at all.

Then will come a reign of peace and righteousness and wisdom and knowledge will become the stability of the times, when the nations will glory in their King, in whom they will be blessed and free. The glorified Saints will possess the dominion of the world. Dan. 7:14, 18, 27; Rev. 5:9, 10.

To advance still further in the Apostles' doctrine, such an association as that before us must proceed to the investigation of the plain and unsymbolical prophecies. Such as the Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Their contents may be arranged as to generals under the following heads; namely:

1. The calamities predetermined upon the two nations of Israel.

2. The restoration of the house of Judah from the Chaldean captivity—Haggai;

3. The restoration from its present dispersion:

4. The bringing back of the ten tribes and re-union of all Israelites into one kingdom and nation in the land of Israel;

5. The glory, power and blessedness of the Israelitish nation during one thousand years, during which all other nations will rejoice in Israel's King;

6. The birth, life, sufferings, moral, sacrificial and pontifical character, &c., of the King of Israel;

7. His resurrection and ascension to heaven, there to remain a limited time;

8. His return and subsequent glorious and triumphant reign on the throne of his father David, from the time of the restoration of God's kingdom again to Israel until 'there shall be no more death'—'he shall be a priest upon his throne,' 'after the order of Melchizedec,'—Zech. 6: Ps. 110:4

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Mar 1851

14 And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance.

Their conquests will begin with the countries contiguous to Judea. For when the Assyrian

shall invade their land, the judge of Israel having caused him to fall, "Judah shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof, thus shall he "that is to be ruler in Israel" deliver them from the Assyrian when he cometh into their land, and when he treadeth within their borders. And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord" (Mic. 5:1-7).

Elpis Israel 3.6.

16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, Yahweh of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

But Jerusalem is situated in the centre of the world, at an immense distance from the greater part of the nations, even if we include only the inhabitants of the ancient continents, or of the prophetic earth. But it is not only said that all nations shall come up, but that every one that is left shall come up.

Here is, then, a universal pilgrimage of mankind, of rich and poor, from the furthest extremities of the earth to Jerusalem. Such a pilgrimage as was never conceived before, and still less carried into effect from age to age.

...There will be no destruction by the way; nor can we have any faith in the Millennial Reign, or in the goodness of God, if we imagine that the pilgrims of the Feast of Tabernacles will be allowed to perish by the way like the Mussulmans or Crusaders.

...The Feast of Tabernacles serves, therefore, for a standard of measurement by which the political economist may estimate the social condition, and the material progress of mankind during the Millennial Reign; and as such, it is one of the most remarkable prophecies in Scripture, full of meaning in every point of view; expressive of a complete renovation of society, and of an entire revolution in all the conditions of human life.

Diffusion of wealth, universal prosperity, unbroken peace, and mutual good will, are all implied, as they are involved in this one prediction:

"All the nations that are left shall go up from year to year to Jerusalem."

... It is not to be supposed that literally all the world will go up to Jerusalem at one time. The prophecies of Scripture are always to be interpreted according to the rules of right reason; for before God sent us his word he endowed us with rational faculties to prepare us to understand it. He deals with men as men, and not as children, in all cases not strictly spiritual.

The prophecy of Zechariah is, therefore, to be interpreted with the usual allowance which right reason, ordinarily styled "common sense," would suggest. It is not to be imagined that every individual person will go up to Jerusalem at all; or that more than a very few will go up above once or twice, or that any individual will go up year after year, or that all mankind will go up at the same time.

Neither is it certain that this prophecy extends beyond the limits of the ancient world, or, perhaps, of the four prophetic empires of Scripture.

These limitations must be observed in the first place; and while they still leave room for an immense movement, they exclude every idea of impossibility. The true meaning of the passage is this-that all the nations (at least of the prophetic earth) will be impelled by a general desire to visit the Holy City, to witness the glory of Jerusalem, to see the spot of which the Lord hath said,

"Son of Man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever."

Impressed by this desire, multitudes out of every nation, and from every rank of life, will undertake the journey to the land of Israel, and select the Feast of Tabernacles as being the most suitable occasion for the assemblage of Gentiles at a Jewish festival ...and ... the best adapted for Gentile participation.

And thus from year to year there will be a general and pervading feeling through the world, leading men to turn their steps towards Jerusalem, precisely as the Mussulman nations at present direct their steps to Mecca-not every individual man, but all that can make it possible at least one time within their lives.

Within these limitations there is no absurdity or impossibility in the case; and therefore, the objections which have been urged by some spiritualizing interpreters are as idle and unfounded as they are in every case where we have to deal with spiritualizers. The same tree will always bear the same fruit; and if the tree is but a shadow, its fruit will be equally unsubstantial.

The phrase "all nations" is also an evidence of the universality of the movement, as not being confined to one class of men only-to the rich, the great, or the learned; but as extending to all classes alike-to the poor and unknown equally with the wealthy and powerful; and thus it constitutes a precise statistical measure of the general condition of the world during the Millennial Reign.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, June 1856.

In respect of the feast of tabernacles, or feast of ingathering, the nations may well rejoice with Israel in the celebration thereof; for it will memorialize their ingathering into the Abrahamic fold when they shall all be blessed in Abraham and his Seed. But the possibility of national ingratitude for so great a benefit is implied in the following words of the prophet: *

Bro. Sulley's basic picture is very satisfying. He presents a building that is ideal for the purpose intended: a vast, open structure of massive but delicate masonry latticework and archways, filled in and canopied over by thick, verdant greenery—a vivid contrast to man's increasingly horrible and artificial monstrosities.

This building will have all the freedom and healthiness and beauty and freshness of open-air living, with none of its bareness or disadvantages. Trees purify the air naturally and noiselessly and effortlessly.

This building will host a continuous flow of millions. Living greenery everywhere, ventilation everywhere, and pure, clear, running water everywhere—are its primary characteristics. A perfect site for the Feast of Tabernacles, or "Booths," to which all nations go (Zech14:16). The curse will be removed. The greenery will be free from all today's pests and problems.

...Bro. Sulley gives the basic outline, but he is quick to point out that this is the most important building in all history, that it is designed directly by God's infinite wisdom unlike anything ever before, that Ezekiel's description is very limited and elementary: and that therefore while man can humbly suggest the general unrevealed details, as bro. Sully does, to give us something to visualize as we picture the activities there, still man cannot possibly begin to imagine the building in its full divine beauty as it actually will be.

Bro. Sulley cautions us that the details and decorations and much of the layout are merely suggestive, and that we must just take them as a faint hint of the real beauty to be revealed.

At times he gives alternate suggestions; and we can legitimately formulate our own, within the basic pattern. But until we have fully studied and mastered bro. Sulley's book, it would be presumption to question or discount individual details. Bro. Sulley, like bro. Thomas, took scriptural detail very seriously, neither ignoring anything, nor conveniently spiritualizing it away.

The Truth of God is a thing of realities: beautiful, satisfying, divinely-appointed realities: not like the vague and hazy vaporizings of the world's manmade religions. Truly, mortal man can never begin to conceive of the full glories of the immortal state, and we must wisely ever remind ourselves of this. But when God has graciously given revelation and a glimpse of things to come to build our faith upon, it is our wisdom to seek to comprehend them.

This is vital food for the spiritual mind, without which it cannot grow, and become strong, and overcome and cast out the earth-groveling mind of the flesh within us all. We shall be what we fill our minds with.

Bro. Sulley's exposition both makes many scriptures more plain, and gives them deeper meaning and reality and beauty. Such as—

"I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever" (Psa.23:6).

This is not only a House of Prayer for all nations, but it is the central dwelling place and assembling place and working place of the Multitudinous Christ.

"They shall serve God day and night in His Temple" (Rev. 7:15)

Note the night as well as the day. There will never be darkness here. It will be ever brilliant with the effulgence of the Glory of God. There will be no weariness to those who serve Him in immortal strength.

"The 144,000 on Mt. Zion, who follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth" (Rev. 14).

Bro Growcott - It is for the prince

17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, Yahweh of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

But this would be no punishment to Egypt, because rain does not fall there: her fertility is maintained by the inundations of the Nile. *

***

But, though truth and righteousness will have gained the ascendency and have prevailed for so long a period, sin will still exist in the flesh, and in some instances reveal itself in overt acts of disobedience. This is implied by the saying "the sinner shall die accursed" (Isaiah 65: 20)

There will be no occasion to march an army into a country to put down rebellion; it will be quite effectual to bring it back to its allegiance to withhold from it the fruits of the earth.

Elpis Israel 3.6.

1 000 YEARS

...though truth and righteousness will have gained the ascendency and have prevailed for so long a period, sin will still exist in the flesh, and in some instances reveal itself in overt acts of disobedience. This is implied by the sayings

"the sinner shall die accursed" (Isaiah 65: 20); and "whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, even upon them shall be no rain" (Zech.14:16-19).

There will be no occasion to march an army into a country to put down rebellion; it will be quite effectual to bring it back to its allegiance to withhold from it the fruits of the earth.

This spirit of insubordination will, however, smoulder among the nations until at the end of the thousand years the "enmity" against the Wornan's Seed burst forth again into a flame.

If the apostle felt the workings of "the law of sin" within him, though obedient to "the law of the spirit of life;" need we wonder that the same "law of nature" should gather force in the hearts of nations subdued by fire and sword to the sovereignty of Israel's King.

Man, unrenewed man, is essentially ungrateful and rebellious. The whole history of his race attests it. A thousand years of peace and blessedness will fail to bind him, by the bonds of love and a willing fealty, to the glorious and benevolent, yet just and powerful, emancipator and enlightener of the world.

Elpis Israel 3.6.

‭Zion's laws

Present-day travelling would doubtless astonish the patriarchs and holy men of much more recent date.‭ ‬Daniel,‭ ‬for instance,‭ ‬might be astonished at the‭ "‬runing to and fro‭" ‬which is done in connection with the work of the truth,‭ ‬not to mention the every-day objects of travel.‭

But what will it be by-and-bye,‭ ‬when the inhabitants of the world must visit Jerusalem once a year‭ (‬Zech.‭ xiv. ‬16‭)? ‬It will not be so difficult then to obtain a few hours‭' ‬release from toil.‭ ‬What will be the motive power in the age to come‭? ‬Electricity,‭ ‬compressed air,‭ ‬or something yet unknown to poor mortality‭?

The secrets of God will not all be laid bare by the scrutinizing efforts of men‭; ‬and,‭ ‬maybe,‭ ‬the locomotion of the Millennium will surprise us all.‭ ‬At any rate,‭ ‬we can scarcely suppose that the smoke and dirt,‭ ‬and all the discomforts inseparable from travel now,‭ ‬will be features of that perfect age.

The Christadelphian, Sept 1899

18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith Yahweh will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

In respect of the feast of tabernacles, or feast of ingathering, the nations may well rejoice with Israel in the celebration thereof; for it will memorialize their ingathering into the Abrahamic fold when they shall all be blessed in Abraham and his Seed.

But the possibility of national ingratitude for so great a benefit is implied.

Herald, Dec 1854

19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO Yahweh; and the pots in Yahweh's house shall be like the bowls before the altar.

21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto Yahweh of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of Yahweh of hosts.

The Mosaic Law amended so as to harmonise with the truth in Jesus, but not the entire original statutes, will become the code of all nations, in the time when 'it (the Law) shall go forth from Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'

Herald of the kingdom and Age to Come, Nov 1852

***

This can only relate to the future; because the sacrificing is to be practiced at a time when the Canaanite no more intrudes where it is unlawful for him to go. The Canaanite" is a phrase put for the enemy of Israel-the enemy shall no more be in the house of Yahweh. But the enemy is now lord of Jerusalem, and has established a temple of his superstition upon the site chosen of Yahweh for the house of his name.

The Ottoman is for the present the Canaanite of the Holy City-the desolating abomination of the glorious land. But better times are fast approaching, when the last of the Canaanites shall be ignominiously expelled. Hear what Zephaniah says upon this subject,

"Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. Yahweh takes away thy judgments, he casts out the enemy; the King of Israel, Yahweh, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. Then shall the stone refused of the builders have become the head of the corner; and those of the city who behold him shall say,

"Blessed be He that comes in the name of Yahweh! The mighty one is Yahweh who showeth us light: bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. O give thanks unto Yahweh, for he is good; because his mercy is for the age!"

Herald of the kingdom and Age to Come, Dec 1854

The Service

So long as sin and death are in the world, the Melchisedec service of the Messiah-erected temple will continue; and the sons of Zadok, the Prince, or Just One, members of his immortal flesh and bones, will also with him be sacerdotally regarded as identified with the sins and trespasses of the people.

Therefore it is, that the priesthood under the New Covenant of the kingdom is not purely immortal, but of a mixed character.

A priesthood composed entirely of resurrection men, of angelic or spiritual nature, in whose flesh there was no sin or evil principle, would not be in harmony with the institution, and therefore unfit to perform a service for the purification of the erring and the ignorant; for priesthood must be sympathetically related to the ignorant who worship through it, having infirmity in itself, that it may offer for itself as well as for the people.

The infirmity of the New Covenant priesthood of the kingdam resides not in Zadok and his sons, but in the priests, the Levites, who minister to the people, and perform the humbler duties of the order.

Nevertheless, the Just One and his sons are represented in the service as offering their burnt offerings, and peace offerings; not for themselves as individuals and sinners, but only in their priestly capacity as part of a priesthood of mixed character, which partakes of Christ's mortal flesh, as well as his immortal nature, in reckoning the mortal descendants of Levi and Aaron among its constituents.

It would be discordant with the fitness of things that the priesthood should be wholly mortal, or entirely constituted of immortals, seeing that the kingdom itself is a mixed institution the subjects thereof being Israelites in flesh and blood; and its higher order of kings or rulers, incorruptible men.

The Twelve Tribes will then be obedient, and keep the covenant of Yahweh, and be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." This is said of Israel in flesh and blood subsisting. They will be the secondary kings and priests over the nations; the intermediate order between these and Zadok and his sons, the kings and priests to God over them and all the earth.

The kingdom and priesthood under the Mosaic law was of an unmixed character, the members of its civil and ecclesiastical orders being all of them subject to death. Not so, however, with the kingdom and its orders in the Age to Come.

Its subjects and inheritors are an intermingling of flesh and spirit, until the kingdom shall be surrendered to the Father at "The End;" when the people, and all their superiors worthy of exaltation, shall be all spirits, or incorruptible men; and priesthood and priestly service, but not the royalty, will be done away.

Israel and the nations subjected to them will bring of the flocks and herds of Kedar, and of the rams of Nebaioth, and present them for sin offerings, and burnt offerings, and thank offerings at the north gate of the inner court of the temple; and present them to the Levites of Aaron's seed.

These, who are not permitted to approach the altar, nor to minister before the Lord in the temple, will have the "charge at the gates of the house, and minister to the house"

"for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein."

They will therefore take charge of the people's gifts; and

"they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them."

They will slay the sacrifices, namely, "the burnt offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offerings," upon the eight tables of hewn stone in the porch of the north gate, and at the right and left side of the north entrance without. They will then wash them in the place appointed at this gate; and divide a portion to the people, and reserve that devoted to the Lord.

The people's part of the sacrifices they will boil in the corner courts of the paved outer court of the sanctuary; but "the most holy things," or parts of the sacrifices and offerings dedicated to the Lord, of the meat offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering, will be boiled and baked in "the holy chambers of the priests" on the two sides west of the inner court, and eaten there by the sons of Zadok, "the priests that approach unto the Lord." After this arrangement will

"all they that sacrifice come and take of the pots of Yahweh's house, and seethe therein."—Zech. 14: 21.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Sept 1851