It does not seem to us that the scripture needs explaining. It is all very plain indeed. It tells the children of Israel how they should bring their tithes and offerings and keep a feast to Him. They should use their means, or means turned into money, to enable them to make the journey, and then, after they had met together, they should bestow their money for whatever they desired. We suppose that the special thing which has raised question in the mind of our correspondent is concerning ''strong drink,'' and ''whatsoever thy soul asketh of thee.''
It must be remembered that the strong drink of those ancient times was not distilled liquor, and it would probably take a great deal of it to make one drunken or bestial; and God's children who came together to praise and serve Him would not have a mind to seek after those things that would make them drunken and foolish. They had His restrictions and injunctions and precepts elsewhere, and all this liberty which He gives must and would be understood by them, in harmony with all those precepts. And so we should understand it. Those who made license out of liberty and brutes out of humanity would suffer the penalties which God had abundantly written elsewhere.
1955.—Ending of the Seventy Weeks.
Is it safe to accept the theory that the seventy weeks of Daniel 7 end with the death of Stephen, Acts 8:4? About how long after the crucifixion was the conversion of Cornelius as recorded in Acts 10?
G. B. W.
It is safe to accept the theory that the seventy weeks ended 490 years after the time that they began, which was B. C. 457. They therefore ended A. D. 34. Seventy weeks of years were set apart upon God's people, divided to them, that is, the Jews. During those seventy weeks the Lord worked for them, and through them for others. At the end of that time they were no longer the special people of God. The nation, as a nation, had rejected Him, and He could use that people, as a people, no longer. A very clear marking of that event, was the second rejection of Christ in His servant Stephen by the Jews, as recorded in Acts 7. As they had said when Christ was crucified, so they said by their actions when Stephen was stoned, ''His blood be upon us and upon our children.'' Thenceforward His people were scattered abroad, winning souls from other peoples wherever they went. It was about seven years after this that Peter preached to Cornelius the centurion.
1956.—Healing the Sick. Mark 16: 17-20.
Please explain the four last verses of Mark 16. Does it mean that all who are truly converted can heal the sick by the laying on of hands, and can cast out devils? and also that no deadly thing shall hurt them?
A. O. D.
This is not the meaning. All that is implied in this brief summary in Mark 16 is that God would pour out His Spirit upon His children, and His gifts would be distributed among them. The distribution of those gifts are set forth in other passages, like Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. If you will read those scriptures you will see that not to every one are all these gifts distributed, but they are divided among them. After mentioning various gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, the apostle says, ''But all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as He will.'' Among these is the gift of healing. Some may not be fit to bear the responsibility of that gift. God may give them a very much more important gift, and yet one which the world would scarcely honor. See also verse 28: ''And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues.''
Some of the very things that the unconsecrated heart would be moved by are among the lesser gifts of the Spirit of God. It might be true that in a company the Lord had no one that He could trust with apostleship, or gifts of healing, or teaching. There might be some humble child who had the gift of healing. If you will study these scriptures aright, you will find these lessons: (1) It is our aim and object so to seek God that He can bestow upon us His Spirit for cleansing and fitting for service; (2) We should covet the best gifts for us, those that we can best use to His glory; (3) These gifts are not possessed by all, but the Spirit divides them as God will; (4) We are not to test the people of God by the presence or the absence of what seem to us marvelous things, nor are we to test ourselves in that way. The real test always in all ages has been the commandments of God; therefore, Mark 16 does not teach that every one should do all these things; it simply assures us that these signs shall follow them that believe, be manifest among them, and that has been true when God's people have been true to Him.
1957.—Three Days and Three Nights. Matt. 12: 40.
Does Matt. 12: 40 correspond with from Friday night till Sunday morning that the Saviour was in the tomb?
C. F. C.
It is strange to us that there are so many who, in the light of so many Scriptures which can be understood and are of such weighty importance, will place so much time on other passages which, at the very most, are only confirmatory of faith or are merely incidental in the teaching of the Word. To the Jews, Jonas was a sign; to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection, he is not.
Secondly, the text does not say that it would be three days and three nights that Jesus would lie in the grave; that is read into the text over and over, but the text does not say it. It does say that ''as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.'' And there is no place in the Word which says that the heart of the earth is the grave. Why not say, as the Scriptures seem to indicate, that it means under subjection to the powers of the earth; for that is what Jesus was from the time of His arrest; for when the soldiers met Him to arrest Him, Jesus used these words, ''This is your hour, and the power of darkness.'' From that time till the resurrection—parts of three days and three nights, which were counted by the Jews as three days and three nights—Jesus was in the hands of the power that ruled the earth, under the prince of this world. That would take in what we call Thursday night, Friday and Friday night, the light part of the Sabbath, and the night following; or, as they reckoned time then, the evening and the morning of the sixth day, the evening and the morning of the seventh day, and the evening of the first day, till Sunday morning, in general parlance three days as the term was used in Bible times. This has been explained quite fully in past numbers, and we can not take the space to go into the various arguments at this time.
1958.—''Hell and Destruction.'' Prov. 27: 20.
If hell and destruction are future, why is the word ''are'' used?
B.
The word ''hell'' is from the Hebrew word Sheol, meaning the abode of the dead, both righteous and wicked. Both that and destruction in a thousand forms are present and have been since sin entered. The American Standard Revised Version reads: ''Sheol and Abaddon [the grave and destruction, personified] are never satisfied.''