The Gospel Revealed

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 16, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 19.

The Gospel Revealed

And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1:76-79.

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. Matt. 4:16.

For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. Matt. 13:17.

How that by revelation was made known unto me the mystery [the Gospel]; . . . which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; . . . unto me . . . was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the stewardship of the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God who created all things; to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Eph. 3:5-11, R.V., margin.

The same increase of light is shown in Rev. 5:1-9, where the opening of the book of the Gospel, the revealing of the saving truth of God, was accomplished by the overcoming and death of Christ. The church had dropped the robes of lesser light in types and shadows, and was garbed in the greater radiance of clear fulfilment.

There is another significance to the expression "arrayed with the sun." Jesus Christ is called "the Sun of righteousness." Mal. 4:2. When transfigured, "His raiment became shining, exceeding white." Mark 9:3. The church is espoused to Him. Rom. 7:4; 2 Cor. 11:2. He clothes her in His own royal robes, invests her in His own apparel, bestows upon her His own name. See Isa. 61:10; Rev. 19:8; Ps. 45:13. The glorious dress of the church eighteen centuries ago was but the outshining of the glory — Christ's righteousness — within. And so the church is represented in the heaven, in perfect congruity with her dress, as also her spiritual station.

CROWN OF TWELVE STARS.—That the church had conquered in some great struggle is represented by the crown, the twelve stars representing both the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles, who in the glorious restitution will rule over the twelve tribes (Matt. 19:28), the names of whom are in the foundations of the eternal city (Rev. 21:14).

4. HER CONDITION.—"And she was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered." This represents a condition previous to her victory, previous to her crowning, previous to her being clothed with the sun. "She WAS with child," and during this time she was in pain to be delivered. The figure is a forcible one and known to

all. Some minds may be shocked at the simile that the prophet uses, but it will be only those wrongly educated or whose minds have become basely corrupt, who look upon marriage as a license to gratify lust, and the begetting and bringing forth of children as libidinous and shameful, instead of the important and blessed and holy thing which God designed it should be. "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." In early times it was considered by holy women a disgrace to be without offspring,—offspring legitimate, begotten of their own lawful husbands, developing unselfishness in their own lives, strengthening love for each other, and enlarging the heart with almost infinitely tender and strong outreachings for blessing and power to bestow upon the lives of their lives. The figure is too serious and too sacred to every one born of woman for low jest or vile thought. There are no longings so great as those in the heart of the true mother before her child is born. Her pain, her anguish at the time of its birth, is not alone for herself, but for him in whom she is to be glorified.

So the church, with a hundredfold intensity, is represented as longing with pain and anguish for her Child. Not only is He to be her glory, but her Deliverer.

When Did This Travailing Begin?

The church of God as an organized body came into existence when God delivered His people out of Egypt and adopted them for His own, in order that they might serve Him by revealing Him to the world, and so save others. For that purpose He bestowed upon them "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants [old and new], and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises." But He did it all that His people might reveal His glory, His law, His covenants, His service, to others, that others also might receive His adoption. And so the Lord said, "I was an husband unto them."

As long as God's people were faithful to Him they prospered. This prosperity reached its earthly climax under the reigns of David and Solomon, each of whom was a type of Christ. From that time the glory began to decline. The ten-tribe kingdom was subverted; only the tribe of Judah, to whom the promise of the Shiloh was made, remaining independent, having her own king, and preserving the true worship of God. In her back-sliding the Lord chastened her, and in returning to Him He prospered her, till at last her wickedness grew so great that the Lord removed from her His protecting arm, and the daughter of Zion was carried to Babylon. (See 2 Chron. 36: 14-21.)

In the Babylonian humiliation began the travailing of the church, the anguish, the crying, the longing for the Deliverer. Her condition in captivity is thus set forth:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Ps. 137:1-4.

In Jerusalem, obedient to God, she could sing His praise in the joy and prosperity of His presence. In captivity she mourned for the things she had lost, and longed for the Deliverer: "O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!" Ps. 14: 7. She waited with anxiety for the coming of "the Desire of all nations."

The prophet Micah, contemporary with Isaiah, after referring to the wickedness in Judah among priest and prophet, as it existed in the time just preceding her captivity, as shown by Jeremiah, predicts the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people, as well as the restoration. Thus he speaks of the church as she was going into the captivity, and was surrounded by her foes:

Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counselor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a women in travail. Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon. Micah 4:9, 10.

A little farther along in his prophecy, after referring to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), the prophet again refers to the time this anguish, pain, longing, and travailing are to continue, in these words:

Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth; then the remnant of His brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. Verse 3.

The anguish and travail began, therefore, at the time the people of God — the daughter of Zion — went into captivity to Babylon, about six hundred years before Christ, and terminated when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Then was manifest the Shiloh of the tribe of Judah, to whom the gathering of the nations should be, and not to a literal king at Jerusalem on earth.

We have learned thus far that the woman of Rev. 12: 1, 2 symbolizes the church of God in her triumph after having passed through her anguish, pain, and longing of six centuries of captivity. In our next we will trace the other predictions of the prophecy.