MARK THAT “THIRD DAY.” by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 23, 1900

MARK THAT “THIRD DAY.”

By Uriah Smith

There is a suggestive prophecy in the book of Hosea, which seems to be entitled to especial attention at the present time. It is found in Hosea 6: 1-3, and reads as follows: “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”

Often a prophecy, which, in its general terms, is somewhat obscure, furnishes data in a single particular that constitutes sure ground from which to draw conclusions governing the other portions of the record. Many queries have arisen as to the meaning of this prophecy, especially as to what the three days are that are referred to, and what time they cover. The last clause, if we rightly apprehend, gives the key to the solution of this question. This is a promise of the former and the latter rain,—not a literal rain, but spiritual blessings; for it comes down upon people; and it comes from the presence of the Lord. “He shall come . . . as the rain.” By other scriptures we know when this rain is to come. It is the outpouring of the Spirit upon the church in the last days,—the refreshing promised to crown the closing work of the church as the final time of trouble comes upon the world, and probation ends.

James locates it in unmistakable language: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” James 5: 7, 8. There can be no question, therefore, as to the application of this portion of the prophecy. The latter rain is an event that is distinctly located, and from which it is safe to draw conclusions as to the other portions of the prophecy.

The last work of the church is to give to the world a warning of the second coming of Christ, in a threefold message, or, as represented in Revelation 14, in a message introduced at first as three distinct messages. And, in the closing portion of the last of these messages, the outpouring of the Spirit is to be given; and this is the “reviving” spoken of in the second verse of Hosea 6; but this reviving is to be in the “third day.” What relation, then, has this third day to this third message? Does it not denote simply one and the same time and the same thing; namely, the message, and the time covered by this message? If this is so, then the time covered by the two preceding “days,” the first and the second, is the time which precedes; that is, the two preceding messages, the first and the second message; and the conclusion inevitably follows that the three days of Hosea 6: 3 are the periods covered respectively by the three messages of Revelation 14.

In harmony with this application, we find the word “day” often used in the Scriptures to denote a period of duration, of greater or less extent. Thus we read, in Heb. 3: 8, “Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.” Here the word “day” covers a period of forty years. Christ said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8: 56); and in this language he refers to the period of his incarnation here upon the earth. Again, the gospel dispensation is referred to by the same term, as we read, in Heb. 4: 7, “Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To-day: after so long a time; as it is said, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” In the same way the periods covered by these special proclamations, the three messages of Revelation 14, may each be called a “day” when spoken of in their individual capacity.

And the application of the three days of Hosea 6 to the time of the three messages of Revelation 14 harmonizes well with what is said to occur in the first verse of Hosea 6: “Come, and let us return unto the Lord.” The condition of the religious world at the time of the beginning of the great Advent movement of the last century, was such as to call for a returning to the Lord. “He hath torn,” continues the prophet, “and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.” The churches of the Reformation failed to follow the advancing light of God’s word; but some were ready to receive new light, which, as others failed to receive it, led to the still further division of the church, by the formation of new bodies. But every advance movement in the right direction was a rebuke to those who preferred to cling to their previous errors, and so remain behind, though it resulted in still further divisions in the religious world. Thus it came to pass that when God undertook to lead his people fully out from the darkness and superstition of the Romish church, the perversity of men so marred the work that the Protestant world found itself torn into unhappy sections and divisions, and smitten with discord and confusion. This rending needed to be bound up, and this confusion to be healed. It was the design of God, in that first Advent message, to remedy this state of confusion among his people; and this would have been its result if the people would have received that message. “We would have healed Babylon,” said the prophet; “but she is not healed.” Jer. 51: 9. But this prophecy of Hosea shows what the Lord would have done if they would have turned to him. He stood willing and waiting to bind up and heal. And what he would then have done for all, if they had accepted his reproof, and moved onward with the advancing message, he will still do for all those who will obey him, and walk forward in the light; for his purpose can not fail.

So, “after two days,” after the first and second messages have been given, he will revive us. “In the third day,” in the third message, he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then the next verse tells how this will be accomplished. It will be by his coming unto us, as the former and latter rain unto the earth. What is it, then, to live in his sight?—Heb. 10: 37, 38, gives us an answer to this question: “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” Living in his sight is certainly to be living by faith, which will be the life of the church in their closing experience.

“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.” What kind of knowledge we are to have, and by what means we are to know, we read in 1 John 2: 20: “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” This is called, in verse 27, “the anointing.” This is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which is the “latter rain;” and it is also the abiding with us of the Comforter, promised in John 14: 26, who is to teach us all things.

“His going forth,” says Hosea, “is prepared as the morning.” In the morning, the light increases more and more, until, at length, the full illumination of the day is spread upon the land. Peter speaks of the same thing; for he says the time is coming when the day-star shall arise in our hearts, and the day shall dawn. 2 Peter 1: 19. And then our knowledge will be such that we shall no longer need the word of prophecy, which now, as a light that shineth in a dark place, sheds its beams along our pathway.

In this “third day,” then, where we now are, under this third message, we are to see a church “revived,” “raised up,” living by faith in the Lord’s sight, sharing the latter rain, or outpouring of the Holy Spirit, enjoying the unction from on high to teach them all things, and emerging from the long night of error and sin into the light of the dawning day.

The latter portion of this third day is now here; and this condition of things is now due. Shall we see it soon in all its fulness? and shall we share in its blessings? So may it be. U. S.