Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1911 — OLD TESTAMENT TIMES BROOKLYN TABERNACLE BIBLE STUDIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OLD TESTAMENT TIMES BROOKLYN TABERNACLE BIBLE STUDIES

JEHOVAH'S SUFFERING SERVANT Isaiah 52:13; 53:1-12—July # •'Jehovah hath 1 laid on him the iniquity at me aU." IN this study we have a Divinely drawn portrait of the experiences which God fore-ordained

should come upon the One whom He has promised shall ultimately be the great Messiah of glory wbo will exalt the nation of Israel and through It pour blessings upon all the families of the earth. Thus it is written. "In thy Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Much of the prophecy of this study has already been fulfilled. but not all of it—the gloriona features are yet to come, and we believe are nigh, even at the door. These prophecies were written nearly seven hundred years before our Christian Era. They bad their most striking

fulfilment In the personal experiences of Jesus. However, it should not be forgotten that a faithful handful, a “little flock,” tbe followers of Jesus, have walked in His steps during tbe nineteen centuries of this Age;

they have follow B „ altonCame Death. ed Him through

evil report and good report; tbey have suffered with Him, and the reproaches of those who reproached Him have fallen upon them; and when the hour of glorious revelation, the Kingdom power, shall come, these xrill be with their Redeemer and share His throne and glory, and, as His Bride, share His name. “This Is the name whereby she 6hall be called. Our righteousness of Jehovah.”—Jer. 23:6; 33:16. The key to the understanding of the longMelpy in tbe establishment of Messiah’s Kingdom is found in the fact that the Church is a very part of Him, members, of His Body. Had it not been the Divine intention to gather aD “elect” few from Israel and from all nations to be the Bride of Messiah, and a sharer in His Kingdom, there would have been no need of tbe long delay between the sufferings of Jesus and the outpouring of the glorious blessings which His death secures. Again it must be remembered that tbe elect Church is wholly different from the nominal church, as represented in its various systems. The true Church of God consists only of the saintly few who may be found inside and outside of all denominations of Christendom. “Gather My saints together unto Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” (Psa. 50:5.)

There are two reasons why the world and its great ones will be astonished when the Mediatorial Kingdom shall suddenly burst upon the world. They have heard such chimerical and unreasonable statements respecting Messiah’s Kingdom, even from the people of God, that they will be taken completely by surprise when they shall behold the reality. When it shall be ushered in, following a great social revolution, it will be so much more majestically grand than anything dreamed of that every mouth shall be stopped and. as the Lord through the Prophet declares, that Kingdom of Messiah shall be the “desire of all nations.”—Hag. 2:6, 7.

As Seen by His Followers

Chapter 53. verses 1 to 6. pictures the experiences of Jesus as viewed from the standpoint of the disciples of His day and since. Following their commission. they have told the wonderful

story of the Savior’s love and sacrifice, even unto death. But how few have heard, in the true sense of hearing; how few have appreciated it; how few have seen in Jesus the Arm of Jehovah, stretched down for the

Wounded For Our relief of Adam Transgresgiong. and his race from sin and death! Only a handful, the saintly few, really and truly believe the message, for surely every true believer would not only accept the proffered share of the Redeemer’s merit, but also the proffered share of His sufferings, that they might have a share also In the glory to follow.^ The Scriptures explain that In the Divine arrangement our Lord buys Adam and his race, condemned through his fall. Being raised from the dead by the Heavenly Father, Jehovah, Jesus is now the glorified One, merely waiting for the completion of the Church which is His Body, that He may take to Himself His great power and reign, as The Messiah of Israel and of the world. During the Messianic reign, opportunity will be given to Adam and all his race to be resurrected or uplifted out of sin and death conditions— up, up to full human perfection and everlasting life—to cH that was lost in Adam, to all that was redeemed through the cross. This is explained in the following verse: “He shall see His seed”—His progeny; so many of Adam’s progeny as will obey Him He will adopt as His children, giving them life everlasting on the plane of human perfection. J -