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STUDIES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

—INTERNATIONAL S.S. LESSONS—

SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS DESIGNED TO ASSIST THOSE OF OUR READERS WHO ATTEND BIBLE CLASSES WHERE THESE LESSONS ARE USED; THAT THEY MAY BE ENABLED TO LEAD OTHERS INTO THE FULNESS OF THE GOSPEL. PUBLISHED IN ADVANCE, AT THE REQUEST OF FOREIGN READERS.

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RETURNING FROM THE CAPTIVITY

I. QUAR., LESSON 1., JAN. 1, EZRA 1:1-11

Golden Text—”The Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee.”—Deut. 30:3

The events of this lesson are located at the close of the seventy years desolation of the land of Israel and of the captivity of the people of Israel in Babylon. The cause of this long exile and this utter desolation of their land is stated to be their failure to let their land enjoy its sabbaths (2 Chron. 36:21), according to the command of the Lord, who, by this typical observance of sabbath or jubilee years, purposed to prefigure the blessed Times of Restitution, in which time the continually recurring cycles were ultimately to terminate. But though the people were negligent of the command of the Lord, and only partially observed this requirement, God did not permit their indifference to mar his typical prophecy, but turned even this circumstance to account in making the prediction still more emphatic by showing the exact number of typical jubilees which culminated in the grand antitype or “times of restitution of all things,” and thus pointing out the exact date, both of the times of restitution and also of the Lord’s second advent, which is due at that time. (Acts 3:19-21.) See MILLENNIAL DAWN, Vol. II., Chapter vi., also Lesson X. in our issue of Feb. 15th.)

And not only had Israel neglected to observe properly the typical Jubilees, but they had lapsed into idolatry and had polluted the house of the Lord, and they had mocked his messengers and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord rose against them with the sword and with captivity and with the destruction of their temple and with the utter desolation of their land for seventy years. See 2 Chron. 36:14-21.

But when God had served his purpose of chastising Israel and of completing his typical prophecy—when the three score and ten years of desolation of the land, in which the land had enjoyed her sabbaths, had expired, the return of the captives was due. The great clock of ages pointed to the time for the return of the exiles, and, like every other feature of God’s plan, the deliverance of Israel from Babylon was promptly on time, and the agent for the accomplishment of their deliverance was on the spot. God had him marked out by the Prophet Isaiah for this very purpose, calling him by name and specifying the work he was to do. See Isa. 44:24,28; 45:1-6.

It is pleasing also to note that in the land of their captivity Israel (with some exceptions)

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were reclaimed from idolatry so thoroughly as never to return to it again; and then, without the temple and its services, they learned to appreciate what was left to them still—the Word of God and the teaching and counsel of some of the faithful ones among them, such as Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah; and thus for a time the forms of worship gave place to a more real heart-worship of the one true God; and they were led to a fuller appreciation of the privileges they had enjoyed, as manifested in Psalm 137.

When Israel was restored, however, it was not as masters of the land, but as servants of Cyrus and his successors; for, according to the words of the Prophet Ezekiel (21:25-27), they were never again to possess the land as an independent nation until he should come whose right it is to rule—even their long-promised Messiah. The reference here is evidently to the Lord’s second advent; for at his first advent he did not come to rule, nor did they at that time, nor ever since, gain full possession of their land. They were always tributary to other nations until they were finally—A.D. 70—dispersed among all the nations; and so they have continued until the present time, when, the time having come, their regathering has begun.

The “golden text” of this lesson has reference, not to the return of Israel from this captivity in Babylon, nor from any of the minor captivities, but to the great regathering from among all the nations whither the Lord had scattered them. (See Deut. 30:3-5; also Jer. 32:37-42.) This is a deliverance which will need no repetition; for they shall be firmly planted and established in their everlasting possession. (See Jer. 24:6,7; 31:28.) This deliverance is already beginning and shall be fully accomplished by the close of “The Times of the Gentiles.” See MILLENNIAL DAWN, Vol. III., Chapter viii.

The story of the deliverance of Israel from the captivity in Babylon is not only a historic fact, but it has also its typical aspect. The captivity of Israel after the flesh in literal Babylon represented the subsequent captivity of spiritual Israel in “Babylon the Great”—the great Antichristian nominal church; and the deliverance of fleshly Israel by Cyrus, whose name signifies sun or brightness, represents the deliverance of spiritual Israel out of “Babylon the Great” by the bright shining of the Sun of Righteousness.

And as Cyrus commanded the faithful people in Israel to return to the land of promise and to rebuild the waste places and to take possession of and replace in the temple the golden and silver vessels which the king of Babylon had profaned (Dan. 5:1-4), so the light from the rising Sun of Righteousness now indicates to the faithful children of God who are still in “Babylon,” the great nominal church, the duty and privilege of returning to the blessed inheritance of the saints—the exceeding great and precious privileges of the sons and heirs of God—and of replacing in his spiritual temple, which is the true Church, all the golden and silver vessels—the divine and the natural truths or doctrines—so long perverted in “Babylon” during the dark ages of bondage and superstition. As to the progress of this work, see MILLENNIAL DAWN, Vol. III., Chapter iv.

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— December 15, 1892 —