Friday Night in the World's History
By L. D. Santee
MANY, in reading the account of the seven days of the creation week, have concluded that it was a type of the seven thousand years allotted to this earth. It is all the time that is reckoned. Before it, eternity, in its awful vastness, existed; and after the seven millenniums of time, eternity again begins with its years uncounted and uncalendared, brooding over an earth that is sinless, and whose inhabitants never grow old. It is easy to come to this conclusion, for “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” 2 Peter 3:8. Every week brings us six days of labor, or, as Ezekiel calls them, “the six working days” (Eze. 46:1), followed by one of rest. In the antitype there are six thousand years of probation, of work and trial, followed by the seventh thousand years, a grand sabbath of rest. When that day comes, labor for ourselves or others will have ceased. Human destiny will be forever decided. Where are we living in this grand week of ages? Prophecy and the signs of the times tell us with myriad voices that it is late, Friday night, in this world's history. Daniel, the beloved, foretold four earthly kingdoms. The last has long been on the stage of action, and now we are waiting for the fifth. It will come with the close of the sixth day, when the purple hills, hidden by the darkness, tell us that night is here. The other kingdoms became strong by revolution and conquest. I read, in Rev. 11:15: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.” Reverently, and with awe, we note the revolutions that usher in the fifth kingdom. “For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.” Isa. 9:5. It is a solemn thought that with the setting sun of the sixth day will close the great week of earth's probation; that with the close of the “working days” will close the door of hope for the unsaved of the human family. The changes that shall usher in the coming kingdom are startling and unparalleled. Near us, so very near that our eyes may see the events, are the coming of the Lord, the resurrection of the just, the change to immortality of the righteous living, and the total destruction of the ungodly, by the agency of the plagues, and the glory that shall be revealed from heaven. These are the changes that shall usher in the great seventh day of God's calendar. O that wondrous sabbath that follows the closing of probation! What wonder that God wanted us to keep it in mind! Then God shall reign supreme, for “the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Rev. 20:5. There is only one enemy, and he is chained in the darkness and horror of a depopulated earth. The saints spend the sabbath in the New Jerusalem. They are immortal, and beyond the reach of evil. It is a foretaste of the unnumbered Sabbaths that they shall spend in the city, later on, when it is the metropolis of the new earth. When at the close of the six days of creation, the Lord rested, blessed, and sanctified the Sabbath, he set there a light that should shine across the centuries, through the darkness of the earth, until the grand sabbath, at the close of earth's troubled history, should be celebrated in the heavens. Solemnly the Jew offered his sacrifice, knowing that it was a type of the Lamb of God. Reverently we observe the Sabbath, knowing that it is a type of “the rest that remaineth.” With this view, how impossible to transfer the Sabbath to the beginning of the week. In the bosom of his holy law is the “Remember,” connecting the first and second Edens. Is it any wonder that we should call the Sabbath “a delight” (Isa. 58:13), or that it is a “sign” between him and those who are to enjoy the antitype? Eze. 20:12. What wonder either that Satan should try to obscure the light that shines into the New Jerusalem, and beyond that into the second eternity! What wonder that Jesus said, “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28), as his coming will bring the millennial rest. Will my place in the holy city be vacant and another take my crown because I have refused to observe the type, and so have failed to enjoy the antitype? or shall I be a Sabbath-keeper in the city of God and in the new earth? Isa. 66:23. It is Friday night in the world's history. Are we ready for the sabbath?