CHAPTER EIGHT
THE JEWISH AGE: FROM MOSES TO CAIAPHAS

       Of all the Ages which we have to consider, the Jewish Age seems to have been the most disappointing. It began with the most extraordinary exhibition through Moses and Joshua of the Love and Power and Purpose of God yet given to man. The miracles in Egypt itself, the deliverance from Pharaoh at the Red Sea, the continuous display of God's presence and power in the wilderness were enough to convince everyone that they had no reason to fear the future with such a Friend in Heaven! And yet it needed but a few months in the wilderness, and a few years in Palestine after Joshua's death, to reveal the obstinate unbelief and love of evil in their hearts.

       As the years passed by there is an unrelieved story of backsliding, with the exception of a few short periods of time under Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, etc., and in the case of the Ten Tribes of downright idolatry and wickedness and rejection of Jehovah to whom they owed everything! Even the restoration of the Jews under Ezra and Nehemiah did nothing to change their minds: and in a few years we find them, after many vicissitudes, under Roman Rule in Palestine, with only the outward show of a corrupt Temple clique to remind them of Jehovah.

       Finally the real state of their hearts was irrevocably shown by their execution of God Himself as a criminal upon the Cross of Calvary! This was followed by their scattering all over the earth after the capture of Jerusalem, the destruction

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of the Temple by the Romans, and the occupation of the Promised Land for many centuries by their unbelieving enemies. Yet throughout this Jewish Age the Lord God was picking out His Jewels, such as the seven thousand in Israel in Elijah's time (1 Kings 19:18) or those who remained faithful in the evil days of Malachi; "And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my Jewels" (Malachi 3:17).

       This story, however, of almost unrelieved gloom and sin and unbelief has within the last few years been lit up by the partial return of the Jewish Nation to a portion of their home in Palestine, albeit in unbelief and without access to the Temple site! They will therefore be obliged to wait until they are allowed by the King of the North to rebuild their Temple upon its own site, only to find themselves tricked, and at the last moment expelled, and Anti-Christ the protégé of Satan installed and worshipped in their Temple in place of Jesus, the Son of God! (Revelation Ch. 13).

       At the same time it is made clear in the Old Testament and corroborated in the New Testament, that in the Millennium the restored and resurrected Jewish Nation will be resettled in a divinely restored Jerusalem, and a new Palestine, to rule over such as are left of the Gentile Nations after the Great Tribulation, and the destruction of Anti-Christ and his kingdom. (Ezekiel 36-38); (Zechariah 14; Revelation 20:1-3).

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