All Articles For Day of Shadows

We must now take notice more in particular of the strictly sovereign character of this first covenant of Sinai. The question is this: was this covenant a contract or agreement between Israel and the Lord? Did it thus emanate from Israel and from the Lord as from two parties? Or was it strictly onesided and did it thus emanate from God alone? We must allow the Scriptures to answer also this question for us. We turn again to that passage in Hebrews 8:6-13. In this scripture passage the Greek word used for covenant is not ‘suntheekee’ but ‘diatheekee’. How is...

The manna of the desert period was not from below, as is natural bread; it was from above. The Lord rained it for His people from heaven. Thus it did not grow in the earth; it was not the fruitage of man’s own industry, but of a special working of God’s power. The manna, in a word, was a wonder, a new thing, which the people of Israel knew not. It was a thing which they had never seen and of which they had never heard. It was brought into being in the early morning of each day directly by...

We see then what is to be understood by what the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews calls the “first covenant”. We see what he means by the “New Covenant.” The “first covenant” was the true cov­enant of grace with symbolical-typical form and mini­stration. The “new covenant” was this same cov­enant of grace as freed from its symbolical-typical form and ministration. Thus essentially the “first” and the “new” covenant were one and the same covenant.

“Thou art the man”. It was Nathan speaking. And the accusing finger of the prophet was pointed to Dayid. A dreadful chain of sins in David’s life had led to this moment. He had cohabited with Bathsheba, while her husband, Uriah, was away fighting Ammonites. When he had learned from the woman that she was with child, he added sin to sin in the at­tempt to prevent his adultery from becoming public. His first move was to command Joab to send him the Hittite.

 “And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people.” Exodus 32:14 This Scripture can be understood only in its con­tent.

Arminianism is a subtle heresy. Let us see how true this is by attending to its teachings regarding justification by faith. My quotation is from the “Elements of Divinity” by Thomas N. Ralston, D.D., an avowed Arminian, who wrote in the latter part of the 17th century. From this work we quote the fol­lowing from chapter XXXI: “Justification—False Theories Refuted—Justification by Works Alone, and by Faith and Works United, Considered.

How sad they imagined their plight to be is indic­ated by their weeping. But they were not starving they were well-nourished men, strong and vigorous and in the best of health. For the manna, to which they were restricted, was a perfect food. Thus what they cried for is not nourishment, they had that, but the pleasures of the table, sensuous enjoyment, for they cried for leeks and onions and cucumbers and mel­ons and garlic and above all for flesh; in a word, they cried for the fleshpots of Egypt.

Turning to the prophetic discourse of Isaiah, the 49th chapter, the thirteenth verse, we come upon this complaint of Zion, the church. “Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.” As if this were possible! To Zion’s complaint the Lord returns a wonderfully consoling reply. Says the Lord to His people. “Can a woman forget her suck­ing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

“The child that is born shall surely die.” These were the prophet’s final words to the pen­itent David. He had sinned, and had sinned grievously. In the words of the prophet, he had despised the commandments of the Lord to do evil in His sight. He had killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and had taken the victim’s wife to be his wife.

In the Scripture grace and the command or ex­hortation are always connected, and the former, grace, presented as the cause, reason and fountain of obedi­ence to the command in faith and repentance and holy living.