p. 5 | Its Impartial Assignment by J. O. CORLISS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 29, 1911

Its Impartial Assignment

By J. O. CORLISS

Tracings of the Prophetic Gift—No. 8

Its Impartial Assignment

J. O. CORLISS

Through the generous gift of the Spirit, the apostle Peter learned one lesson that Jewish rites had failed to impart. So imperative, indeed, had these rituals been, that notwithstanding his long acquaintance with the charitable teachings of the Lord Jesus, the apostle had failed to appropriate these in their full significance. Even a vision from heaven, wherein an audible voice had emphatically commanded, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common” (Acts 10:15), had failed to make clear to him God’s unchangeable plan of saving all classes of people alike. But when he learned from the Gentile Cornelius that God had spoken to him in vision at the same time that he had spoken to Peter, and in relation to the same matter, the reluctant apostle was obliged to say, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.” Verse 34.

This was an astonishing revelation to Peter, but a lesson he should have learned from the first, believing, as he evidently did, that God is as unchangeable as he is infinite in all his ways. This principle was later magnified by the apostle Paul to cover not only nations separated from the Jews, but also to include sex, and every life condition.

This is his statement: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gal. 3:28.

It has been expressed by some that this liberal sentiment was new, and obtained only because the plan of salvation had taken on new aspects in the Lord Jesus. No doubt this was strange doctrine to the creed-bound Jews, who for centuries had counted Gentiles as dogs, and women so inferior that they were not to be considered in the problem of God’s work on earth. But had they pondered God’s dealings with their own nation, they might have seen that throughout all the ages, Jehovah had sought to impress them with the idea that he did not discriminate between nations or sexes when calling for representatives of his will among men.

To say nothing of the prominent part acted by Miriam in watching over the infancy of Moses, to preserve him for the great work before him (Ex. 2:4, 7), and also the leading part taken by her in organizing the female portion of that great national chorus of rejoicing at the crossing of the Red Sea (Ex. 15:1-21), she was but one of many women to have a conspicuous place in the normal history of Israel’s life drama. From the time those people were lodged in Palestine, their future home, their continued experience was one of alternating apostasy and repentance. Various men, called judges, were set to rule the nation in its early days of theocracy, each of whom led them to war, to relieve them from the oppression of heathen peoples, whose boundaries touched those of Israel’s tribes.

But generally soon after relief from immediate danger came, the people again sought to follow their own ways, which were evil. In time, however, the prophetess Deborah came into the position of judge or ruler, as one “divinely illuminated” for the position. This was at a time, too, when Israel had been sorely pressed for twenty years by one Jabin, king of northern Palestine, and commander of nine hundred iron war chariots. As usual, the people finding themselves in a hopeless case, began to plead for God’s help, which as yet had appeared in no human governorship. Deborah lived in primitive style under a spreading palm in the midst of Ephraim. From there she sent word to Barak, an inhabitant of Kedesh, in Naphtali, that God had called him to organize a force of ten thousand men, from the tribes Naphtali and Zebulon (these tribes being located nearest the scene of danger), and set these in battle array at Mount Tabor. Judges 4:6.

So minutely was the entire plan of the campaign laid out in the call of God, through the prophetess, that had Barak relied fully on the word sent, he could have known at just what point Sisera, Jabin’s general, with his chariots and his whole army, would have been captured. But regarding Deborah as one who, because of her exalted position, would be safe from harm, and so be a shield to himself and his command, Barak utterly refused to go on his heaven-sent mission unless Deborah would accompany him. She promised to go with him, but told him candidly that because he could not trust the Lord’s word through her, and go in faith to his appointed work, a woman would gain the honor that ought to be his, under God.

The result of this last prediction was as sure as the first. Sisera, finding himself liable to capture by Barak’s army, deserted his charge and fled toward home. On the way he stopped to rest at the tent of a Kenite, belonging to one Heber. Jael, the wife of Heber, gave him milk to drink, and when he lay down to rest, covered him with a mantle, he at the same time asking her to stand in the tent door, and turn away any who might come to inquire for him. Finding that he had fallen asleep, she made sure not to incur the wrath of his pursuers by attempting to hide him from them. So she took a nail, and wielding her hammer with a strong arm, drove the spike through the sleeper’s temples. When Barak and his men appeared, Jael directed them to their enemy lying in the toils of death, with the tent pin still projecting from his head. In consequence, Barak was obliged to join Deborah in a song of praise, for the woman who had destroyed Israel’s enemy (Judges 5:24-27), and thus God established her sex, in the minds of all, on an equality with the men of Israel.

Between the dates of Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s prophetic utterances there is found a time when another woman stood in the gap to declare the words of God to Israel. It is not known just when the prophetess Huldah began her heaven-deputed career, but we find her being consulted by the king on an important matter at least five years after the calling of Jeremiah. Huldah’s place of abode was in Jerusalem, as was also Jeremiah’s. The fact that King Josiah chose to interview her instead of Jeremiah, when both were alike accessible, rather gives color to the thought that she, being older in her calling, and having long been proved reliable as the Lord’s mouthpiece, her counsel was considered preferable to that of the young man whom God was probably training under her long experience for the important post awaiting him.

At all events, Huldah was the king’s counselor in the case alluded to. Coming at an early age to the throne of Judah, as successor of some very questionable rulers, and finding the Lord’s house sadly neglected, the king ordered it repaired. As the work proceeded, an ancient book of the law was discovered, and brought to the king. So struck was he with its contents that he hastened before the prophetess for instruction as to his duty regarding it. At once she pronounced upon that place and people the threatenings of the discovered book, but for the king she had only words of comfort and peace from heaven for his humble attitude before the Lord’s voice. 2 Kings 22:14-19. This interview proved the temporal reformation of the people; for immediately the king ordered burned all the furniture in the Lord’s house which had been dedicated to the worship of Baal, the sun-god. The horses, also, which had by former kings been dedicated to the service of the sun, and which were kept by the gate of the temple, were removed; and the chariots devoted to the sun, he caused to be destroyed by burning. The great image of Baal, at the entrance of the house, was also pulled down and destroyed. Chapter 23.

Space forbids enumerating here all the prophetesses named in the Bible. We find them, however, extending throughout the Old Testament, and continued in the New. Anna, a prophetess, was one of the first to recognize the divine nature of the Lord Jesus, as he was being dedicated after the usual manner in the temple. Luke 2:36, 38. In his travels Paul found four daughters of one family all of whom prophesied among the men prophets, and, these were found worthy of mention in the sacred annals. Acts 21:9-12. The entire record shows that God has never been a respecter of sex in his gifts and callings, but has bestowed them on those who would use them faithfully.

Mountain View, Cal.