Meaning of Numbers in the Bible
1 (One) - Part 1 of 2

Meaning of Numbers in the Bible
Number 1 (One)

When it is written: "Hear, O Israel, the LORD thy God is one LORD," it does not deny the Doctrine of the Trinity, but it excludes absolutely another Lord: it excludes, therefore, all idolatry.

Hence the First Commandment declares "Thou shalt have NO OTHER GODS" (Exo 20:3).

It asserts that there is in God a sufficiency which needs no other; and an independence which admits no other.

It marks the beginning. We must begin with God. All our words and works must be characterised by the first words of the Bible: "In the beginning GOD." Nothing is right that does not begin with Him. "God first" is the voice of Scripture. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt 6:33) is the testimony of Christ. "God first" is the great proclamation. The angels sang: "Glory to God in the highest." This was the beginning of their song. And it was after this that they sang of "good-will" towards man. This, too, must be the great principle governing all our testimony and our work. We cannot give "glory to God" without doing good to men. And there is no real good-will for men which does not spring from a desire to glorify God. The rapid declension, which is the great mark of these last days, comes from an ignoring of this great principle. God is shut out, and man is exalted. Hence "the gospel of God" (Rom 1:16) is being rapidly and almost universally superseded by the gospel of man, which is a gospel of sanitation, and indeed is now openly called "Christian Socialism." But it is a socialism without Christ. It does not begin with the glory of God, and it will not and cannot end in any real good to man. It begins with man; its object is to improve the old nature apart from God, and to reform the flesh; and the measure of its success is the measure in which man can become "good" without "God."

Man's ways and thoughts are the opposite of God's. God says, "Seek first." Man says, "Take care of number one." He is in his own eyes this "number one," and his great aim is to be independent of God.

Independence, in God, is His glory. Independence in man, is his sin, and rebellion, and shame.

In the Word of God, therefore, God is first, and before all.

"Thus saith the LORD, the King of Israel,
And his redeemer the LORD of hosts:
I am the first, and I am the last;
And beside Me there is no God." (Isa 44:6)

"Hearken unto Me, O Jacob, and Israel My called;
I am He; I am the first, I also am the last.
Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth,
And My right hand hath spanned the heavens." (Isa 48:12,13)

"Before Me there was no God formed,
Neither shall there be after Me.
I, even, I, am the LORD;
And beside Me there is no Saviour." (Isa 43:10,11)

"I am Alpha and Omega,
The first and the last." (Rev 1:11,17, 2:8, 22:13)

Thus Jehovah emphasises this great foundation truth. All must be confusion where man refuses to recognise it. All must be peace where it is owned.

The first is the only one. There cannot be two firsts. Man ignorantly speaks of the "two first," or the "three first," when he really means the first two, or the first three, etc. The Word of God does not thus ignorantly speak. He is the only one. He is first in priority of time. He is first in superiority of rank, and He is first in absolute supremacy.

Redemption and salvation began with God. His was the word which first revealed it (Gen 3:15). his was the will which first purposed it (Heb 10:7). His was the power that alone accomplished it. Hence "Salvation is of the LORD" (see Exo 14:13; 2 Chron 20:17; Jonah 2:9; etc.). His is the will from which it all proceeds. "Lo, I come to do Thy will," said the Redeemer (Psa 40:7,8; Heb 10:7) when He came to do that "will."

The first recorded words of the Lord Jesus are full of significance.

Here is another illustration of the significance of number in Scripture. The Lord Jesus must have spoken from the time that all children spoke; but not one syllable that He uttered has the Holy Spirit been pleased to record in the Scriptures, until He was twelve years of age. And then only this one utterance from His birth till He entered on His ministry at His baptism. Only one sentence out of all those twenty-nine years. Surely words thus singled out by the Holy Spirit must be full of significance. What were they? They are written down for us in Luke 2:49: "WIST YE NOT THAT I MUST BE ABOUT MY FATHER'S BUSINESS?" Solemn words! Significant words! Especially in the light these first words throw up His last words, "IT IS FINISHED." What was finished? "The Father's business." Yes, it was the Father's will. "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O My God." "This is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day" (John 6:39). Salvation was no afterthought with God. It was part of his "eternal purpose." It originated in His "will." It was not merely for the good of man, but for the glory of God in a thousand ways which we see not now or yet. Hence it is that when Jesus was delivering up His work back into the Father's hands, He could say: "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do" (John 17:4).

We may find another illustration of the significance of the number "one" or "first" in noticing the first ministerial words of the Lord Jesus.

THE FIRST MINISTERIAL WORDS OF THE LORD JESUS

At His baptism (Matt 3:13-17) He was anointed for His ministry, and immediately after we read: "THEN was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil." For Forty days He fasted and was tempted. Not a word that escaped His lips during those Forty days is written down. But the very first recorded words of his ministry are: "It is written." Three times over: "It is written"; "It is written"' "It is written."

His official ministry closed with His High-Priestly prayer to the Father in John 17, for at its close He went out into the Garden of Gethsemane to His betrayal, and within a few hours His death. In those last words of His ministry there is the same threefold reference to the Word of God: 5:17, "Thy word is truth"; v. 14, "I have given them Thy word"; and v. 8, "I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me."

What does this fact say to us? If we have ears to hear, it says The beginning and end of all ministry is the Word of God. Yea, it is the whole sum and substance of ministerial testimony. The Lord thus exalted the Word of God, and by the significance of His first ministerial words He impresses upon us this great lesson.

THE FIRST BOOK

The first book of the Bible also affords us another illustration. In Genesis we see Divine sovereignty and supremacy. Sovereignty in Creation, in giving life, and in sustaining life.

The name by which God specially revealed Himself to the Patriarchs, He says (Exo 6:3), was El-Shaddai (God Almighty). This Title occurs nine times in all; the square of three, the number of Divine perfection.

The first occurrence of the name "Almighty" is also full of instruction, but we shall consider it under the number "five." All through this first Book we see this Divine supremacy and sovereignty—sovereignty of will in election and calling: calling Abram and no other (Acts 7:2); choosing Isaac and not Ishmael (Gen 17:18-21); Jacob and not Esau (ibid. 25:23, etc.); Ephraim and not Manasseh (ibid. 48:19; Heb 11:21).

This first book is the one book. It contains all the other books in embryo, and has been well called "the seed plot of the Bible." Its Divine title is "THE BEGINNING," i.e., the first: "In the beginning God," i.e., God first. Here is the beginning of life, the beginning of prophecy (Gen 3:15). The woman's seed foretold, and the beginning of the enmity between her seed and the seed of the serpent.

The covenant made with Abraham (Gen 15) was unconditional, because there was only one contracting party. The Law had a mediator, therefore there were two parties to that covenant. "But a mediator is not of one [contracting party*], but God is one" (Gal 3:20). God alone made this covenant, hence it is called "the covenant of PROMISE."

* The ellipsis is wrongly supplied in Gal 3:20. It is not the word mediator which is to be repeated, but the contracting party from v. 19.

Then we have the sufferings of Christ, and the glory which should follow, foreshown in Joseph. His death as a substitute is foreshown in Isaac's ram. "The way of Cain" and the way of God are seen in Cain's fruits and Abel's lamb, showing the true and only ground of access to and worship of God.

Thus in the forefront of revelation we are shown that man cannot be saved by works, but by grace alone. The foundation of all truth is here. Gospel truth shines brightly here. All is in one book, and that the first.

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

"This is the first and great commandment," Matthew 22:37, 38, or in Mark 12:29, 30, "Hear, O Israel; the LORD our God is one LORD: thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength."

The reference is to Deuteronomy 6:4. This is "first" in order, first in time, and first in importance. This is therefore the "greatest" in necessity, in extent, and in nature. The first in the Law, and the greatest in the Law, and hence it was one of the four passages written on the phylacteries of the Jews.

The Hebrew words may be variously rendered, but the quotation of the Lord Jesus, written by the Holy Spirit in the Gospels, fixes the meaning of the words. In the Hebrew the order is, "Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our Elohim, Jehovah One." The Jews repeat it to-day thus, "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One," and the whole congregation repeat the word "One" for several minutes.*

* As "Elohim" is plural we might with much more reason repeat "Elohenu" for several minutes!

If the Lord had not supplied the verb which fixes the meaning, we might well have read it as the Jews do, for this fixes (unconsciously to them) the doctrine of the Trinity. For the three Persons are named, and then it is declared that they are one: "The Lord, our God, The Lord, is one," i.e., the three, Father, Son, and Spirit, are one.

But there is a further peculiarity in this passage. In all the MSS and printed texts the last letters of the first and last words are always written and printed majuscular, i.e., larger than the others; thus:

"ShemA Israel, Jehovah, Elohenu, Jehovah, EchaD."

In the Hebrew the first of these two larger letters is ( (ayin), and the second is d (daleth). Rabbi Bochin has this remark, "It is possible to confess one God with the mouth, although the heart is far from Him. For this reason ( and d are majuscula, from which, with tsere subscribed d( 'a witness,' is formed, that every one may know, when he professes the unity of God, that his heart ought to be engaged and free from every other thought, because God is a witness and knows all things" (J. H. Mich., Bibl. Hebr.). What may be the true reason, however, for these two letters being larger, we do not know. The real sense of the words, according to their meaning, is, Hear, O Israel, Jehovah (the ever-existing One) our Elohim (our Triune God), Jehovah "is one."

What is here predicated of Jehovah is not the unity of God at all, but that it is to Him that the name Jehovah rightfully belongs, that He is the one and only God, and that there can be no other. It is equally opposed to all forms of Theism and Deism, which are the creations of man's ideas, as well as to polytheism on the one hand, and national or local deities on the other. The whole statement has regard to revelation. Israel alone could say, Jehovah is "our God," because He had made Himself known—"His ways unto Moses, and His acts to the children of Israel" (Psa 103:7).

With this agrees the choice of the word Echad, which is used for "one." In the Hebrew there are two words in use for the number "one." dxaf)e (Echad), "one," unus; and dyxiyaf (Yacheed), "an only one," unicus.

The latter, Yacheed (dyxiyaf), means absolute unity, or uniqueness, an only one. It occurs only twelve times in the Old Testament (3x2²), viz:

Pentateuch, 3
Rest of Old Testament 9 (3²).

• Genesis 22:2, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac."
• Genesis 22:12 and 16, "Hast not withheld thy son, thine only son."
• Judges 11:34, "She was his only child."
• Psalm 22:20, "Deliver...my darling" (marg. only one).
• Psalm 25:16, "I am desolate and afflicted."
• Psalm 35:17, "Rescue...my darling (marg. only one) from the lions."
• Psalm 68:6, "God setteth the solitary in families."
• Proverbs 4:3, "I was...tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother."
• Jeremiah 6:26, "Mourning as for an only son."
• Amos 8:10, "I will make it as the mourning of an only son."
• Zechariah 12:10, "As one that mourneth for his only son."

These are all the occurrences of the word Yacheed, and here therefore we see the meaning of the word. But this is not the word which is used in Deuteronomy 6:4, and it is never used of Jehovah. It is used of the Lord Jesus as the only begotten Son; but never of Jehovah—the Triune God.

But dxaf)e (Echad) is so used because it does not mean absolute unity, but a compound unity. Always one of others which make up the one. Its first occurrence is:—

• Genesis 1:5, "The first day" (of seven).
• Genesis 2:11, "The name of the first is Pison" (i.e. one of four).
• Genesis 2:21, "He took one of his ribs."
• Genesis 2:24, "They two shall be one flesh."

Hence when it is used twice, the word being repeated, "one, one," it is translated both one and the other; but it is always one where there are others. (Hence sometimes each, as in Num 7:85).

• Genesis 49:16, "As one of the (twelve) tribes of Israel."
• Numbers 13:23, "A branch with one cluster of (many) grapes."

We even have the plural Echadim (like Elohim), ones. In speaking of the two sticks representing the houses of Israel and Judah, it says, Ezekiel 37:19, "They shall become ones in Thine hand."

• Psalm 34:20, "He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken."

In all these and other places Echad is composite. It is one of others, and hence it is the word used in Deuteronomy 6:4. Jehovah (the Father), Elohim (the Son), and Jehovah (the Spirit) is Echad:—One Triune God.

This is the teaching of the number one as applied to this first commandment. There is only one Lord, consequently there is no other to divide the heart. Therefore thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart. Thus the ground of the claim is first mentioned, and then this first and great commandment is given, based upon it.

But this leads to another illustration in Zechariah 14:9.

THE One MILLENNIAL RULE

"And the LORD shall be King over all the earth;
In that day shall there be one LORD, and His name one."

There will in that glorious day be no one to dispute Jehovah's rule. There will be no difference of law, or will, or rule, then. All will be harmony, unity, and agreement. This is the secret of Millennial peace. In the Lord's Prayer the two are placed together, one being consequent upon the other.

"Thy kingdom come."
"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Where there are more wills than one, there can be no peace, no rest. There must necessarily be conflict and confusion.

This is the secret of all disturbance in families, parties, and nations.

We sometimes hear of a "Dual Control," but it is a fiction. It exists only in words, not in reality!

This is the secret of rest for the heart now—"One will." As long as there are two wills there can be no peace. As long as our will is not subject to God's will, we cannot know what rest is.

This is where the Lord Jesus, as man, found rest in the midst of His rejection. In Matthew 11, John the Baptist doubts, vv. 2, 3; the people of that generation reject Him, vv. 16-19; the cities which saw His mightiest works do not believe, vv. 20-24. Then we read in the next verses (25,26), "AT THAT TIME Jesus answered and said, I THANK THEE, O FATHER, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, EVEN SO FATHER; for so it seemed good in Thy sight." And then turning to his weary servants, the subjects of similar trials and disappointments, He says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."

In other words, rest is to be found only in subjection to the Father's will. This is the secret of present rest for our souls. This is the secret of Millennial peace and blessing for the earth.

How simple! and yet what strangers we are to this rest! How the Lord's servants are rushing hither and thither to find this great blessing, and yet do not enter into it! Why is this? It is because we do not believe that His will is better than our own? If we were occupied with the Lord instead of with ourselves, with the Blesser instead of with our "blessing," we should soon have such a sense of His grace and glory and power as would convince us that His will is better than ours; and then, instead of being busy with ourselves and enquiring how we are to give up our will, we should see that His is so good that we really loathe our own, and desire only His.

This blessing is not gained by any "act of surrender" or "act of faith," but our own will simply vanishes in the contemplation of his will as we see it to be all-gracious and all-good.

Man's modern methods all begin at the wrong end. They begin with ourselves, they occupy us with ourselves, and hence the failure. The Divine method puts "God First," and thus the end is assured.

It is when our hearts are so before God and so with God, that we learn the wondrous wisdom of His way, and the perfection, sweetness, and blessedness of His will. We yearn to possess it, we long for it, and desire to come into its joy; and our own will vanishes without an effort, and without our knowing it, until we discover afterwards what has happened by a happy experience.

In Millennial days this will be the blessing of the whole earth. For in that day there shall be one King, one will, "one Lord, and His name one."

This is the unity of the members of the one body of Christ, who are all animated by the same Spirit. It is a unity which we cannot make. It is made for us in Christ. We can only preserve it, and live in the power of it by the Holy Spirit, who is "the bond of peace." It needs indeed carefully preserving, for it is opposed to all man's ideas of unity in churches and sects. It is a spiritual unity.

In Ephesians 4:4-6 this unity of the body and its members is set forth. And note the seven-fold nature of it. It is set forth in an Epanodos, i.e., the sentences are arranged in an introversion, where the first answers to the last, the second to the next to the last, etc. The Lord is exalted by being placed in the centre of the whole.

A. There is one BODY,

B. and one SPIRIT,

C. Even as ye are called [also] in one HOPE of your calling:

D. One LORD,

C. One FAITH.

B. One BAPTISM.

A. One God and Father of all [the members of this Body], who is above [or over you] all, and through [or with you] all, and in you all.

Here note, then, in A and A, we have the one Body. In B and B, we have the Spirit and His Baptism. In C and C, the graces of "faith" and "hope"; while in D the Lord stands out as the great head of this one Body, the keystone of this arch of Divine truth.

FIRST OCCURRENCES OF WORDS

These are always important. The ancient Jewish commentators call special attention to them, and lay great stress upon them as always having some significance. They generally help us in fixing the meaning of a word or point us to some lesson in connection with it.

Take for example the word—

"Hallelujah"

Where does it first occur? Psalm 104:35:—

"Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth,
And let the wicked be no more.
Bless thou the LORD, O my soul,
HALLELUJAH."

And where is the first occurrence in the New Testament? Revelation 19:1-3, "I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying ALLELUIA;* salvation, and glory, and honour, and power** unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are His judgments; for He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand, and again they said ALLELUIA."***

* This is the Greek spelling of the Hebrew word "Hallelujah."

** The repetition of this word "and" is an example of the figure of Polysyndeton.

*** This is an example of the figure of Repetition called Epanadiplosis, where the same word that begins the sentence is repeated at the end, for the sake of emphasis, and to call our attention to some important lesson in connection with it.

In both these cases, in the Old Testament and in the New, the first occurrence of the word "Hallelujah" stands in connection with judgment. It is for this that praise is given to God. This does not accord with the teachings of the false charity and the traitorous toleration of the present day. The servants of Jehovah, who are imbued with the spirit of the Scriptures, are to, and can, praise Him for the destruction of His and their enemies.

"Prophet"

The first occurrence of this word stands in connection with Abraham, Gen 20:7. God says to Abimelech king of Gerar, concerning Abraham and his wife, "Now therefore restore the man his wife: for he is a PROPHET, and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live."

We learn from this that the word Prophet does not mean merely one who foretells, but one who witnesses for God as His spokesman. The Hebrew word occurs in Exodus 7:1, "Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet"; while in 4:16 the same word is translated, "he shall be thy spokesman." This is exactly what it means; and the man who spoke for God was recognised by the people as God's man, i.e., "A man of God."

The first occurrence of #dq (Ko-desh), holy, is in Exodus 3:5. Not in the Book of the Beginning (Genesis); not until Exodus is opened—the Book of Redemption, which records how God came down to redeem His people out of Egypt (Exo 15:13). The creature cannot understand anything about holiness except on the ground of redemption.

The first occurrence of the word "bride," hlk (Kalah), as applied to the Bride of Jehovah, is in Isaiah 49:18. This fixes the meaning of the term as applying only to Israel, and not to the Church, which is "the Body of Christ," part of "Christ mystical"; in other words, part of the Bridegroom. We are thus pointed to the fact that Israel is the Bride. Compare Isaiah 61:10, 62:5.

This important expression occurs first in Isaiah 2:12, and if we read the description of it as there given to us by the Holy Spirit, and note its character and object, as well as the purpose of it, we shall have a clear understanding of its meaning.

It is the day when the LORD ariseth to shake terribly the earth; when man shall be humbled and brought low; and when God alone shall be exalted.

Read the whole passage Isaiah 2:10-22, and note how it is emphasised, and how its importance is further shown by being stamped throughout with two figures, which run side by side,—Polysyndeton, the word "and" being used twenty times in nine verses, and Synonymia, i.e., where different words of similar meaning are heaped together and repeated. Here there are seven words and twenty repetitions of them in order to show the loftiness of man's natural pride, and the depth to which it shall be brought down and humbled in "the Day of the LORD."

This is the first occurrence of the expression:—

"For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty,
And upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low...;
And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day." (v 11)

THE FIRST QUESTIONS

of the Old and New Testaments are also full of instruction.*

* Gen 3:1 is not a question, as the margin explains.

Genesis 3:9, "Where art thou?"

This question was put by God to the sinner who is hiding from His holy presence, to bring him to conviction, to show him that he was lost and guilty and ruined. This is the object of the Old Testament. The Law it is that gives the knowledge of sin, and brings the sinner under conviction.

The first commandment is, "Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart," etc. The impossibility of obeying this commandment convicts the sinner of his impotence, and causes him to thankfully cast himself upon God's omnipotence, and cry out for a Saviour.

The first question of the New Testament therefore is, in Matthew 2:2, "Where is HE that is born?" Where is this Saviour whom I need? He has sought me and brought me to conviction. Where is He that I might find Him, and know Him, and worship Him, and serve Him?

THE FIRST FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

This opens a vast field of instruction, laying down for us the lines, and showing us the principles on which the Holy Spirit interprets His own prophecy. It is in the Gospel according to Matthew (1:22,23):

A. "Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of (upo, by) the Lord by (dia, through) the prophet, saying,

B. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son.

B. and they shall call His name Emmanuel,

A. which being interpreted is, God with us."*

* Note that in this introversion we have, in A and A, the prophecy and the interpretation; while in B and B we have the prophecy fulfilled; in B His birth, and in B His name.

Here notice, first, that the prophecy is quoted from Isaiah 7:14. In Matthew it is specially said to be "spoken by the Lord"; and in Isaiah it is written, "The LORD Himself shall give you a sign."

Thus the fact is emphasised that "the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1:21).

As this is the first recorded fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in the New Testament, we may expect to find in it the generic character of all prophecy, and the grand example of the Holy Spirit's own interpretation.

The prophecy here said to be fulfilled is thus written in Isaiah 7:14: "Behold a virgin* shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel."

* The RV thus translates it like the AV, but gives in the margin: "the maiden is with child and beareth." The verbs occur twice besides, Gen 16:11 and Judg 13:5,7; and v 12 shows that birth was imminent. The noun virgin is hmafl:(ahaf Ha-almah, and means the "maiden," or the "damsel." Almah occurs seven times, Gen 24:43; Exo 2:8; Psa 68:25; Pro 30:19; Song 1:3, 6:8; Isa 7:14, and means "a maid" or "unmarried woman." Here it is "the maid," i.e., some particular maid well known to the prophet and to Ahaz, but not to us. The Hebrew for virgin in our technical sense is haflw@tb@:, Bethulah (and occurs 50 (2x5²) times; the first, Gen 24:16). The truth is that every Bethulah is indeed an Almah; but every Almah is not necessarily a Bethulah. The prophecy does not lose one fraction of its Messianic character and force by this admission of the truth, as we shall see below. When it was filled in the days of Ahaz it was merely Almah; but when it was fulfilled or filled full, the Holy Spirit interprets it by the Greek word parqenoV, and thus defines her as technically a virgin.

But there is another prophecy associated with this, which is recorded in the next chapter:

"The king of Assyria...shall sweep onward into Judah;
He shall overflow and pass through...
And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces;...
Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to nought;
Speak the word, and it shall not stand;
For GOD IS WITH US (l)' w@nm@af(i, Immanu-el)." (Isa 8:7-10, RV)

Now in this first quotation of prophecy as fulfilled, we note the following facts for our instruction:—

1. Prophecy is, as we have seen, spoken by JEHOVAH, and the prophets, so-called, are only the instruments or agents. With this agrees 2 Peter 1:20, 21, where it is said that they "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

Now the word Jehovah denotes Him who existed in eternity past, and will ever exist in eternity to come.

In the Old Testament we have the word (Jehovah) which implies the interpretation. While in the Apocalypse we have the interpretation which implies the word "which is, and which was, and which is to come" (1:4,8, 4:8).

The Name of the "Lord," or Jehovah, therefore, is the key to the understanding of His Word, for He has magnified His Word above all His Name (Psa 138:2). His Word, therefore, in a still higher sense, will relate to what WAS, and IS, and is TO COME.

Notice, however, that in the New Testament (the Apocalypse) Jehovah Jesus, as the Son of Man, is about to fulfil all His holy promise, and carry out all his responsibility. Hence His name is—

In the OT—He shall be, He is, He was
In Apocalypse—He shall be, He is, He was, He is to come.

The future has become present, and what was present merges into the past.

The present is, in the Greek, expressed by the participle (not the indicative, which is only suitable to a definite beginning or ending), thus indicating the protracted fulfillment of prophecy between the past and the future, running from the announcement of the prophecy down to the period of the crisis.

In the Apocalypse the three-fold statement occurs twice more (11:17, 16:5). But these refer to the period after the Coming of Christ, and hence the future aspect of His name disappears. He is spoken of only as "which art, and wast."*

* The words "and art to come" were put in by some later copyist from the earlier part (1:4,8), and have no manuscript authority. They are excluded by Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Wordsworth, Westcott and Hort, and the RV.

It will then be simply the one "who is and was." The coming is regarded as having taken place, and the Day of the Lord inaugurated; therefore nothing future in the name remains in relation to the prophetic word.

Thus the fact that the words were "spoken by Jehovah" gives us the first key to their prophetic unfolding.

2. The subject of the prophecy is Christ, for "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev 19:10).

3. This prophecy was originally uttered in connection with man's failure as man, in the person of Ahaz (Isa 7:10-14). Just as the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 was given in connection with man's failure in Adam; and just as the prophets were first raised up as a special order of witnesses on Israel's failure. The Holy Spirit thus connects in this prophecy the failure of man and the promise of the Messiah, taking the different threads of His various utterances, and combining them in one. Thus establishing the principle that prophecy came in after man's failure.

4. On the other hand, He takes the words out of those combinations which were the direct cause of their original utterance. Thus prophecy is resolved into its elements by the Holy Spirit, and by Him the elements are re-combined in accordance with His plans.

5. He takes up the threads of passages that follow the one actually quoted, which explain the reason why the original combinations in which the words were written did not allow of the complete fulfillment of the prophecy at the time they were spoken or written.

6. He connects meanings of names with prophetic truth; and, seizing the gist of the prophecy rather than the mere words, He views in Ahaz the idolatrous and unbelieving Jews making a covenant with their Gentile enemy.

7. He develops, defines, and adds to the original force of the Hebrew word Almah, because, in the ultimate fulfillment, the woman to bring forth the son would be a virgin. The use of Almah in Isaiah made it correct for the historic fulfillment, but did not thus preclude the Futurist fulfillment.

8. The whole prophecy, therefore, of Isaiah 7 and 8 can receive its fulfillment only by separating that fulfillment into three parts, Preteritist, Presentist, and Futurist. Then, as the speaker is Jehovah, the LORD, as we have seen, it is interpreted according to the meaning of His name, which embodies past, present, and future, as the ever-existing and eternal God, "which is, and which was, and which is to come" (Rev 1:4,8).

It follows, therefore, from this that no interpretation of prophecy can be correct which confines itself to only one of these three parts, and denies the other two. This is not "rightly dividing the word of truth."

And also it follows that the power thus to divide the prophecy and re-combine the three divisions must be only that of the author of the prophecy, the LORD the Spirit.

Interpreters who take up one of these three principles are therefore divided into opposite and hostile camps against those who take up another of those principles. But not until we grasp the great principle laid down by the Holy Spirit here, and apply all of them, and all of them together, can we have a true understanding of prophecy.

Now let us prove these three principles.

First—The Preteritist

Ahaz, being greatly moved at the confederacy of Ephraim with Syria, was tempted to make a counter-confederacy with the king of Assyria. A sign was given to him that he need not yield to the temptation, for it would be withdrawn. A child would be born to a certain maiden, who would be called Immanuel, and before that child would know how to distinguish between good and evil, the land that he abhorred (i.e., Ephraim and Syria, regarded as one) would be forsaken of both her kings.

In the next chapter another sign was given to Ahaz. Again a child would be born, this time to the prophetess, and called Maher-shalal-hash-baz, and before he should be able to cry "father" or "mother," both Syria and Ephraim should be spoiled by the king of Assyria.

The words quoted in Matthew 1 are taken partly from Isaiah 7:14; and they distinctly show that Ahaz had not to wait for the birth of Christ to see the promised "sign," but that it must have occurred in his own day. And it was so. Herein is the Preteritist interpretation fulfilled in the past.

Second—The Futurist

But part of the quotation in Matthew 1, "God with us," is taken from Isaiah 8:10, which clearly reaches forward to the same time as Psalm 2, when the kings of the earth take counsel against Messiah, and is, therefore, exclusively futurist.

"The king of Assyria...shall sweep onward into Judah:...
And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of Thy land, O Immanuel.
Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces:
And give ear, all ye of far countries:
Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces;
Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to nought;
Speak the word, and it shall not stand:
For GOD IS WITH US (Immanu El).
For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand,
And instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people." (Isa 8:8-12, RV)

This is continued in v. 21, and is evidently futurist, as it is the time of darkness, when the judgments of the Apocalypse are upon the earth. (See Isa 8:8-9:7)

"She that was in anguish" in 9:1 is clearly Zion, and it is Zion, or the nation, that will at the time of the end say: "Unto us a child is born." That is the time of Revelation 12 and Psalm 87, where Christ is seen as born of Zion. It is the time when He takes the kingdom and establishes His millennial reign (Luke 1:31-33).

Thus it is certain that a portion of these three chapters cannot be fully interpreted except on Futurist lines.

Third—The Presentist

lines, or those which run through the ages between the past (the prophet's own day) and the future (the day of the crisis), are also clearly discernible.

In 7:17 we read the words, immediately following the prophecy of the birth of this mysterious child:—

"The LORD shall bring upon thee,
And upon thy people, and upon thy father's house,
Days that have not come,
From the day that Ephraim departed from Judah;
Even the king of Assyria." (Isa 7:17)

To understand this, it is necessary to know that Nebuchadnezzar stepped into the heritage of the kings of Assyria. Hence the Babylonians were called Assyrians, even so late as the times of Xenophon, who so speaks of them in his Anabasis. And even Darius, whom we know was a Median, is still called "the king of Assyria" in the Word of God. (See Ezra 6:22, and compare 2 Kings 23:29 and 2 Chron 35:23.)

Thus "the Assyrian" of Isaiah's prophecy, at the time of the end, is not necessarily a king of revived Assyria, and we are taught that these prophecies of the king of Assyria reach through to all the heads of the four Gentile empires spoken of in Daniel.

The prophecy of the king of Assyria spoken of in these chapters of Isaiah runs on in protracted presentist fulfillment, covering the whole period of "the times of the Gentiles."

Another proof of the necessity of this presentist fulfillment is given in Isaiah 8:13:—

"The LORD of hosts, Him shall ye sanctify;
And let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.
And He shall be for a sanctuary;
But for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel,
For a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken,
And be snared and be taken.
Bind thou up the testimony,
Seal the law (or teaching) among my disciples.
And I will wait for the LORD,
That hideth His face from the house of Jacob,
And I will look for Him.
Behold! I and the children whom the LORD hath given me
Are for signs and wonders in Israel
From the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion." (Isa 8:13-18, RV)

Here we have the present character of the dispensation as it is described in Romans 9-11, the period of Israel's blindness. This is perfectly clear if we compare Isaiah 8:14 with Romans 9:32, 33.

Christ is the stumbling-stone and rock of offence to the masses; but He is believed on by a remnant of His disciples, "the remnant according to the election of grace." Christ and His disciples today are the Lord's "signs and wonders" to Israel, for the disciples are counted as the Lord's "children":—

"A seed shall serve him;
It shall be accounted to the LORD for a generation." (Psa 22:30)*

* It is clear also from Heb 2:13, that Isa 8:18 had both a preteritist and then a futurist fulfillment.

This is further set forth in the meanings of all the names employed. The salvation of Jehovah (for such is the meaning of the name ISAIAH) will be accomplished by Jehovah being with His people (IMMANUEL). That salvation is needed and brought about in consequence of the Assyrian hasting to make a prey and spoil of the nation (MAHER-SHALAL-HASH-BAZ). Then the remnant shall return, i.e. repent (SHEAR-JASHUB, Isa 7:3), and stay upon Jehovah and wait for Him.

Such is the purport and teaching of the whole Prophecy of Isaiah; for it is but one prophecy, a whole, complete in its parts, the "higher criticism," which would saw him asunder, notwithstanding.

Such, too, is the important lesson taught us by this first recorded fulfillment of prophecy in the New Testament, from which we learn that prophecy is only comprehensible as an organic whole, when thus subdivided by (and by us under the guidance of) the Holy Spirit into its Preteritist, Presentist, and Futurist fulfillments according to the meaning of the name Jehovah—"which is, and which was, and which is to come."