Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadQuiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return: 70. God's Future Plans
TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 70. God's Future Plans
Other Subjects in this Topic:
God's Future Plans
Now this Oriental Book is intensely Jewish. It leads a man to Christ as a personal Saviour. It has everything of instruction he needs for the building of his Christian character. It does this regardless of his race or place. But its setting and atmosphere are wholly Jewish. The Jew is an Oriental. There is food for all men, everywhere, through all time, but it is served up on Jewish plates. Everything is woven into the Jew warp. The Jew colouring is never out of the pattern being woven. We proud Gentiles have a hard time getting this straight. Maybe we're a bit jealous of the prominence here of the Jew, whom we've commonly—not all of us, but many of us—come to despise so intensely.
The Old Testament is directly concerned wholly with this people. From the twelfth of Genesis to the close of Deuteronomy it is taken up with the making of the nation. The book of Joshua and through to the close of the Chronicles, traces its growth in its homeland, its greatest glory, its decline and captivity; Ezra and Nehemiah trace the return of some of the captives. Esther is a stirring incident among the people in captivity. This covers the historical part.
Certain poetical and literary portions, that grew up during this history, are grouped by themselves;—the Psalms of David's time and earlier and later, the Song of Solomon, with Proverbs and Ecclesiastes,—marking three distinct periods in that king's experience; and the patriarchal book of Job, probably belonging to a very early time, with its wonderful study of the problem of suffering.
Then there is the other group of books that grew up during the latter history, the prophetic books. There has come to be a common feeling, that it is impossible to understand these prophetic books, so far as the prophetic part of them is concerned. Portions of them are dearly loved and used. But there's a vague feeling of something mysterious about prophecy. Scholarly folk may possibly fish in these waters, but we common folk seek shallow, safer waters, and look a bit askance here,—that's the common feeling, though not always so expressed. It might help if we dropped that word "prophecy" altogether, only because of that very common feeling, and simply talked about "God's plans." The wise gentle Father has graciously told us a bit about His plans for coming days.
And there's a simple, practical purpose here. He wants us children down here in the shadows, to have something of an understanding, both of His future plans, and of how certain things will work out. It helps greatly to know a bit ahead how things are working out. It steadies our steps when the clouds gather and the weather threatens to be a bit dirty. We know ahead about this squall, and the sun's shining after. It strengthens our faith while travelling through the deep valleys. And it makes our praying more intelligent and steadier when the winds blow so rough. We needn't be so afraid of prophecy. There's a prophetic element in every simple promise of God's Word. For a promise is a prophecy of what He means to do, if we will but work believingly with Him.
It's good to remember how these prophetic, books grew up. The prophets were preachers. One day the people are going up to the temple in Jerusalem at the appointed time. Yonder's a little knot standing at a corner listening to a man talking earnestly. Some one passing along says curiously, "What's that?" "Oh," some one replies, "it's only Isaiah talking to the people again. I confess I think he is too intense, too much of an enthusiast, a well-meaning man, no doubt, but a bit excitable, I fear." And they pass on to the temple service talking. Isaiah, fresh from the presence of God, is talking in burning words while the crowd listens. By and by he stops, the moving congregation disperses, he slips quietly down to his home, and under the Spirit's holy spell writes down some of what he has been saying. So there grew up the rolls to which his name is attached.
In some such way these prophetic books grew up, in the main, under the Holy Spirit's guidance and control. They are full of the intense fire, the vivid action, the homely colloquialism of just such intercourse, and circumstance. There were two sorts of these prophets, the speaking or preaching prophets of which Elijah and Elisha are the best known, and those who wrote as well as spoke, whose names are preserved for the most part by their writings. It is not so difficult as it seems to get a simple grasp and understanding of the prophetic books. Of course there is work here for the most scholarly, profound minds. But we common ordinary folk can get something of a simple, clear grasp of them, if we go at it simply and habitually and prayerfully. One can make a picture of the time and try to see these men as they talked.
These seventeen small books fall easily into four groups. The first group is of those belonging in the time before the nation was exiled. It was a period, roughly, of about one hundred and fifty years, beginning with the prosperous record-reign of Uzziah, and running up until the nation went to pieces. Isaiah is the principal prophet of this period, and with him are Hosea, Micah, Amos, all of whom may have been personally acquainted; and also Zephaniah and Habakkuk. Then there is the exile group, Jeremiah preaching in the land of Judah, both before and during the siege and the captivity following; and Ezekiel and Daniel bearing their witness among the exiles in the foreign country.
Then there is the group that witnessed during the time of return to Jerusalem. The second Isaiah probably preached to the people as the opportunity came to go back to Jerusalem. [Note: The book of Isaiah naturally divides into two parts, chapters 1-39 and 40-66. The historical allusions of each make it quite clear that the two parts belong in two periods, far apart. One hundred and eighty years intervene between the close of the time stated in Isaiah's first chapter as his period of prophesying, and the beginning of the return from exile into which the second part fits.] But the full inspiration of the second part is in no wise affected by the modesty of this rarely Spirit-swayed man, who withholds his own name, and, after the manner of his time, attaches his writings to those of a well-known man of his nation.] Haggai and Zechariah stirred the returned people up to build the temple. Joel and Malachi witnessed probably a little later in the same period. And then there is the small foreign group,—Obadiah sends a message to Edom, and Jonah and Nahum bear their witness to Nineveh. Now to try and make a mental picture of the time, from the historical books, and then watch these prophets as they preach to the people, helps much to bring these prophetic books home to us.