The Bible Magazine, Vol. 21 #1
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Vol 21. Issue No.1 January 2008 THE BIBLE MAGAZINE January 2008 A WITNESS OF BIBLE TRUTH FOR OUR TIMES Vol. 21. Issue No.1. “...thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy 1948 - 2008 Sixty Years of Preparation: sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the 22 blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” Revelation 18:23,24 WRITTEN OVER 100 YEARS AGO John Thomas has an unusual view of the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:15-17 PAGE 3 DOCTRINE HOW READEST THOU? Ron Kidd continues his series of articles. This issue: Before Abraham was... PAGE 30 ZION: The Royal City of the kingdom. A look into the future with Daniel Billington PAGE 25 Written in 1948 by Graham Pearce THE PROMISED LAND Elon Moreh: A place with promise PAGE 15 PROPHECY FULFILLING COVER Milestones Update:The search for peace PAGE 8 HOLY SMOKES! Enemies of Israel: How the Vatican and Christian Churches support Arab terrorism (Cover story) PAGE 16 Israel’s The Development of Israel before Armageddon. Enemies Graham Pearce wrote this in 1948 PAGE 22 Create a EXHORTATION 16 smoke- Frank Abel asks: Are You Ready? PAGE 12 screen! PLO President Abbas (2nd from right) has Roman Robert Roberts on Christ & the Churches PAGE 14 smoke in his nostrils—and that’s not funny... EDITORIAL Purifying our hearts by faith PAGE 6 When the knock actually comes on the 12 BIBLE & HISTORY door it is too late to tidy up the inside of the Ken Loveridge: The Babylonians in the Land PAGE 28 house! Are You Ready? BIBLE MAGAZINE NOTICE BOARD If you are in a mess, tidy up now. Prophecy Days, DVD’s PAGE 14 Food For Thought PAGE 5 Quotables: from various writers PAGE 7 Zion was the royal city of the Interesting news cutting from 1949 PAGE 29 kingdom. When Remedy for Boring Sermons PAGE 31 the kingdom is restored again to BACK PAGE FEATURE Israel, Zion will On earth, and under the earth... again be the royal 25 city of the house “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” John 17:17. of David. WRITTEN OVER 100 YEARS AGO: Rachel Weeping for Her Children The passage referred to in Jeremiah reads thus—“Thus saith the their enemy’s land. The cry of that day was a loud, Lord: A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, bitter weeping; shrill, and bitter lamentation, not confined to Ramah, T Rachel weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her but extending throughout the land from Beersheba to children because they were not. Thus saith the LORD: Refrain thy Laish or Dan. Jeremiah, though especially protected voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for there is a reward for by the favor of God and the king his servant, mingled in that lament for thy work, saith the LORD; and they shall return from the land of the enemy. his country’s ruin. And there is hope for thine end, saith the LORD, and thy children shall “How doth the city sit solitary,” he exclaims, “that once was full of return to their own boundary” (Jer. 31:15-17). people! As a widow is she become! She that was great among the A voice was heard in Ramah. Ramah was one of those cities which nations, and princess among the provinces, tributary is she become! She were allotted by Joshua to the tribe of weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are Benjamin on the frontier of this canton, and on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath that of Ephraim. The word signifies an none to comfort her: all her friends have eminence. Sometimes it is put simply for a dealt treacherously with her, they are high place, and then signifies neither a city become her enemies. Judah is gone into nor a village. In Ramah, or on the high places captivity because of affliction, and because of Benjamin and Ephraim, was a voice to be of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heard—in the city of that name, and in all the nations, she findeth no rest: all her pursuers region round about. This voice or cry was overtook her between the straits. The ways foretold by Isaiah as well as by Jeremiah. of Zion do mourn, because none come to the “Ramah,” says he, “is afraid, Gibeah of Saul solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her is fled. Lift up thy voice, O daughter of priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief, poor Anathoth” (Isa. 10:29-30). Gallim and her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath Anathoth, the latter the birthplace of afflicted her for the multitude of her Jeremiah, were cities of Benjamin. Referring transgressions: her children are gone into to the same event, Hosea says, captivity before the enemy” (Lam. 1:1-5)— “Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, the trumpet that is, “they are not.” But, not withstanding in Ramah; cry aloud Bethaven after thee, O all that calamity, “there is hope for thine end: Benjamin. Ephraim shall be desolate in the they shall come again from the land of the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel enemy—they shall return to their own have I made known that which shall surely border.” be. The princes of Judah were like them that And they did return in part as an earnest, remove the bound; therefore I will pour out so to speak, of the great restoration in Israel’s my wrath upon them like water” (Hosea “latter end” (Deut. 32:29). Benjamin, the 5:8-10). son of Rachel’s sorrow, and the son of Hence, the voice to be heard was Jacob’s right hand, returned with Judah, his lamentation and bitter weeping on account of fraternal ally, from the land of the enemy to the desolation and slaughter, of Benjamin his own border, seventy years after his and Ephraim, by the enemy, and their deportation. This was the first and only deportation into their destroyer’s land. The restoration of the Hebrew commonwealth. contexts of these references show that the But there was little comfort in it. Ephraim predictions relate to the removal of the whole and Manasseh “were not,” being still exiles twelve tribes from their land by the Assyrian beyond Bashan. These were Rachel’s power. Benjamin stands for Judah and children as well as Benjamin, being the Jerusalem as well as for its own particular descendants of Joseph her first born. They canton; for the kingdom of Judah included have never yet returned from the land of the Benjamin, and Jerusalem was one of the enemy to their own border. The time for this cities that fell by lot to it when Joshua is not arrived; but of its certainty there can subdued the country. Ephraim represents the be no doubt in the mind of him who is rest of the tribes, or kingdom of Israel as intelligent in the faith, believing the words distinguished from that of Judah, inasmuch of Moses and the prophets. as Samaria, the seat of government, belonged to Ephraim and Manasseh. But the voice of lamentation and bitter weeping was not stifled by The prophecy of this voice of lamentation in Ramah found its Benjamin’s return. There was another crisis in Hebrew affairs to be initiatory accomplishment when the overthrow of the twelve tribes was encountered, which would cause that voice to rend the air with piercing consummated by Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean head of Assyria. Then cries of lamentation and woe. Its echoes would sound from one end of captives of Judah’s kingdom were gathered together in Ramah, and with the Roman world to the other, and be hushed only by a second them Jeremiah the prophet, at the disposal of Nebuzaradan, the captain of deportation of Benjamin into the land of the enemy. After this the cry the guard” (Jer. 40:1). The voice of lamentation ascending from these would be heard no more in Ramah, or on the high places of the land of prisoners, can better be conceived than described. The tender and delicate Israel. “Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears.” This of the upper and wealthy classes of the state, whose children and relatives “refrain” hath continued hitherto. Since the destruction of Benjamin’s had been slain by the sword, and their palaces and mansions burned with city, the metropolis of Judah’s kingdom, the tribe’s lament has no more fire, were there assembled to be marched off by a barbarian soldiery into been heard in Ramah; for Rachel’s weeping and tears can only result THE BIBLE MAGAZINE Vol. 21 ISSUE No.1 Page 3 from the eyes and voice of her descendants in the land. Rachel’s Tomb The reason why the voice of weeping no more ascends is because there is hope for The site known as Rachel’s tomb Benjamin, Ephraim, and their companions; and (left) is near Bethlehem but as with this hope is, that they will return from the land so many ancient sites it is impossible of the enemy to their own border. This to prove its genuineness. Some point restoration is the subject of Jeremiah’s prophecy to Genesis 35:20,21, “And Jacob set found in his thirtieth and thirty-first chapters. Let the reader peruse them in connexion.