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TYPES IN SAUL, DAVID AND SOLOMON

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—

May I suggest for your consideration whether there are not some lessons to be gleaned from the thought that in some respects the forty years of Saul’s reign were typical of the harvest of the Jewish Age, the forty years of David’s reign typical of the harvest of the Gospel Age, and the forty years of Solomon’s reign typical of the harvest of the Millennial Age?

Take, for example, the first seven years of David’s reign, in Hebron (meaning “ford” or “company”). Might they not in some sense represent the years from 1874 to 1881, before the full establishment of the Kingdom in the “New Jerusalem”?

Again: We know that the 7,000 years rest of Jehovah will terminate in the year 2874, so that it seems proper to think of the forty years harvest of the Millennial Age as the time when the Christ will be at rest from all its enemies, in a special sense, as in the days of Solomon.

In the case of Saul: It does not seem perfectly clear to me whether the act of presumption which led to his rejection and the rejection of his posterity followed the second anniversary of his elevation to the kingship, or whether it followed the third anniversary. (I Sam. 13:1.) But it is noteworthy that his rejection was due to his failure to properly recognize his typical mediator, Samuel, and this surely was the cause of Fleshly Israel’s rejection, 3-1/2 years after a share in the Kingdom was offered to them.

If there is any apparent value to you in the above suggestion, I respectfully inquire whether you see anything in the end of David’s reign to illustrate the close of the present harvest time? I will not presume to do more than suggest a line of inquiry. David virtually abdicated in favor of Solomon, Solomon’s power gradually increasing while his own strength was gradually failing. “He must increase but I must decrease.” Please note the seven years of famine in 2 Sam. 24:13, mentioned as three years in I Chron. 21:12. (The characters “7” and “3” resemble each other closely, so that one of these is probably incorrect.) In your consideration of the subject I venture to call attention to the seven years famine in the days of Elisha.—2 Kings 8:1.

TYPES IN THE BOOK ESTHER

Permit me to suggest that Ahasuerus, meaning “King,” is a type of the “Sun,” Christ; that Vashti typifies those that were bidden to the feast and would not come; that Esther, meaning “The Planet Venus,” typifies the Bride of Christ (Venus is the most glorious of all our planets, reflecting more of the rays of the sun); that Mordecai the Jew, meaning “Dedicated to Mars,” typifies the Ancient Worthies (Mars is, I believe, nearer to the earth than any other planet, and is between it and the sun); and lastly that Haman, the Agagite, the last Amalekite mentioned in the Scriptures (see last sentence of Young’s Concordance, article “Amalekite”), typifies the class that tries to take the power out of the hands of the Ancient Worthies in the end of the Millennial Age. Please take a mental review of the

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story of Esther, and see how well this picture fits. If this application is correct, the meaning of the word Mordecai would be one more suggestion in line with your present thought that the Ancient Worthies may, after the close of the Millennial Age, attain heavenly honors and stations.

Your brother in Christ,

CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH.

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— July 1, 1907 —