p. 156 | Question Corner by Milton C. Wilcox

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 9, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 10.

Question Corner

By Milton C. Wilcox

Conducted by MILTON C. WILCOX

Mountain View, California

NOTE.— This department is for the purpose of helping Bible students. Answers must of necessity be brief, often only suggestive, never exhaustive, never infallible only as they agree with the infallible Word. Such questions only will be answered as seem to the editors to minister to the mission of the paper. Questions of the same import can not be answered repeatedly in the same volume. Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best. It is well always to inclose stamp, not stamped envelope, unless answer is desired by letter alone.

93—CLEAN AND UNCLEAN BIRDS

In God’s orders regarding clean and unclean birds, is there anything said about fowls with web feet? I find what is said about the swan, but I thought all web-footed fowls were mentioned, and I cannot find it. E. L. D.

There is no mention of web-footed fowls in the prohibitions against unclean birds. The Lord tells us just what birds were unclean, and He leaves His people to choose the rest. The birds of prey seem to be the birds that are unclean. Now what is called “the swan” in our Common Version is the “horned owl” in the Revised Version, and that doubtless is correct. There seems to be no reason why the swan should not be eaten as well as the goose or the duck.

The Revised Version gives these among the unclean birds: “And these ye shall have in abomination among the birds; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the gier-eagle, and the osprey, and the kite, and the falcon after its kind, every raven after its kind, and the ostrich, and the nighthawk, and the sea mew, and the hawk after its kind, and the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, and the horned owl, and the pelican, and the vulture, and the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat.” Lev. 11:13-19. The Companion Bible, in its note on verse 18, says: “Not our swan. It is variously rendered ibis, bat, heron, and pelican.”

94—THE COVENANT WHICH GENDERETH TO BONDAGE

Please explain Galatians 4 from the twenty-fourth verse to the end of the chapter. B. B.

The passage reads as follows: “Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.”

The only reason why explanation is asked or the text is largely used, is because of the two covenants that are there named; and the simple fact is that men use it to try to obscure the minds of those who are seeking to know just what is the truth concerning God’s Sabbath. If the Sabbath question, which involves a heavy cross, were not at stake, no one would use that passage for a moment to endeavor to prove that the sixth commandment or the seventh is not binding. They would have no thought of it. In fact, there is nothing in it whatever that has anything to do with the law of God except to confirm it. The apostle is speaking of the covenants. The old covenant was made at Sinai. It was made with the children of Israel. It was no stronger than the weakest link, and that was the promise of Israel that they would do God’s will. They had no power to do it of themselves, and yet they promised that they would. See Ex. 19:3-8 and also Ex. 24:3-8. In both cases, Israel promised to keep the law of God. Israel failed. The duty remained the same, and the law remained the same; but the failure was in evidence.

That covenant is well likened to Abraham’s effort to carry out God’s plan. God had promised Abraham a son by His own power, but Abraham thought the best way to do was to fix it up through the handmaid Hagar. He was going to do what could only be done by God, and he failed. Hagar brought forth a bondman, who could not be the heir of Abraham.

The Jewish people of old, represented by Jerusalem, did just the same thing. They thought that by their own righteousness they would enter the kingdom of God, but they failed. Consequently whenever they attempted, or whenever any human beings attempt, to do God’s will in their own strength and by their own power, they are placing themselves in bondage; for the only one who can free mankind from sin is God. Consequently that covenant of old “gendered to bondage.” It could not save the individual soul. But the new covenant rested on God’s promise. It was not what men could do, but what God would do; and God would give Abraham a son, and God did it—wrought a miracle in order that He might do it.

By that same new covenant, God saves His children, and works a miracle that He may do it—converts them anew, re-creates them, changes them from sinners to sons. That is represented by the Jerusalem that is above, which is free, which is our mother. Isaac stands for the new covenant. Ishmael stands for the old. Isaac was the child of promise; and those who trust in God’s promise alone for salvation are the children of promise, just as Isaac was. But as Ishmael persecuted Isaac, so will the self-righteous persecute God’s humble children, and have done it in all the ages.

What will the Lord do at last?—He will cast out the mere professors, who seek to establish their own righteousness; and He will save those who are made free in the blood of Christ, who have His law written in their hearts, who delight to obey its sacred precepts.