Miller’s Works, vol. 3. Exposition of the Twenty-Fourth Of Matthew; The True Inheritance Of The Saints; The Cleansing of the Sanctuary; The Ty

II. WE HAVE A PROMISE, AND THE TIME SPECIFIED WHEN IT WILL BE FULFILLED

“After two days will he revive us.” In this sentence we have the time specified when the work will be finished, and these promises verified; when he will revive his children, or all who have returned unto the Lord. Revive, signifies to bring to life, to quicken. In this place it must mean, to raise to life. It cannot mean to quicken, in a spiritual sense; for it would be in plain contradiction to other Scriptures. “After two days.” As though they must wait two days before they could be quickened by his Spirit of grace; while he says in his word, “to-day, if you will hear his voice,” etc. This must mean, therefore, their resurrection from the dead. “In the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” This is still stronger proof that the prophet has reference to the resurrection of the saints: “they shall live in his sight;” that is, they shall live with him. John says, “But we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” See, also, Revelation 20:4, 6: “And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” See John 14:3: “I will come again, and receive you to myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” These passages illustrate the prophet’s meaning. As it respects the time, “days,” spoken of in our text, we will attend to that in our last division on the subject. MWV3 50.2

“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.” When shall we know? In the third day, when we are revived and raised up, if we follow on to know the Lord. How shall we follow on? Be obedient to his commands. What does “to know the Lord” mean in this passage? It means, to believe in him, to have faith in his word, to understand his will, and be acquainted with his Spirit by a practical life of love and holiness. What shall we know, if we follow on? We shall know “that his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” The knowledge we shall obtain is the first and second coming of Christ to the earth, and our living in his sight. The time specified to accomplish these things is three days. The prophet, to illustrate this subject, brings two comparisons, to show us the manner and object of Christ’s coming to the earth. And, first, he compares it to the morning. Why like the morning? Because the morning brings light, drives away the darkness, chases away the clouds and fogs, dispels the obnoxious vapors, dries up the damp dews of the night, awakes the songster to his matin lays, cheers up all nature with its glory, drives robbers and thieves to their cells and wild beasts to their dens, and vivifies and warms, animates and enlivens the animal and vegetable kingdoms of the earth. Just so will the first and second coming of Christ improve the moral world. He is called “the day-spring from on high;” “the bright and morning star;” “the light of the world;” “the life of men;” “the glory of the whole earth;” “the sun of righteousness.” MWV3 51.1

But you will inquire how the morning can illustrate the two comings of Christ. I answer, there are two parts to the morning - daybreak and sunrise. There are also two luminaries, the daystar indicates the morning at hand, but it is completed only by the rising sun. When Christ first came to the earth, he came as a day-star; he shed some rays of light, but they were feeble in comparison with the full-risen sun. The light shone in darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not. And had he not performed miracles which no man could perform, none would have supposed him to have been the Son of God, with all power. He came as a man - as a star out of Jacob; he suffered as a man; he sorrowed like one of us. But when he comes the second time, he will come in all the glory of God, with light ineffable, without becoming an offering for sin again, but a Judge over the whole earth a King, to sit upon the throne of his father David forever. He comes, like the sun, to drive all moral darkness from the earth; to chase the clouds of war and crime from the world, and dissipate the fogs of error and delusion from his church; dispel the obnoxious spirits of pride, self-love sectarian names, cold hearts, hatred, envy and malice, and the whole catalogue of the evil passions of the natural heart, from the moral heavens and earth; to dry up and wipe away all tears from off all faces; put a new song into the mouths of all his saints; cheer the new heavens and new earth by his presence; glorify his people with his own glory; destroy death and him that has the power of death, which is the devil; drive the wicked from the earth, and the devil to his den; shut him up in the place prepared for him, and destroy all the kings (called beasts) from the earth; revive his saints from the dust, and raise his children to immortality and life; set up a kingdom which shall rule under the whole heavens, and reign over all forever and ever. How beautiful is the comparison! How rich and grand is the figure, “His going forth is prepared as the morning!” MWV3 53.1

Again; another comparison: “And he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” In this passage is a noble figure, and a clear illustration of the coming of Christ, in the manner and object. “As the rain.” As what rain? As the two periodical rains, Spring and Fall. Why does Hosea call it “latter and former rain?” Because what we call the spring rain, or former rain, was in the days of Hosea called the latter. This rain was in our month of February, and they began their years on or about the 22nd day of March; so that their seed-time, or spring, as we should call it, was in the latter time of their year; and the harvest, or fall rain as we should call it, was in the former part of their years. This accounts for the manner of Hosea’s saying “latter and former rain.” James has in his epistle, 5:7, 8, used the same figure for the same purpose that it is used by the prophet Hosea: “Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” James says, “early and latter.” Why? Because James lived under the Roman government, who had changed the time of the beginning of the year from March to January; and therefore he uses it as we do. MWV3 54.1

But the first coming is as the spring rain. Why? Because this is the time the farmer scatters his seed into the earth. Just so Christ, when he first came, came to sow the gospel in the earth, that, at his second coming, he might reap a harvest of precious fruit, and gather his fruit, into his garner. See Matthew 13:37-43. MWV3 55.1

How completely is this figure carried out by Christ’s parable of the wheat and tares! So, then, his first coming is illustrated by the early rain, when the husbandman sows his seed in the earth; when the rain causes the seed to vegetate, the blade to grow and put forth its leaves, then the stalk, the ear, and the full ear, then the latter rain and the harvest. So is the second coming of our blessed Savior. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. MWV3 56.1

It would now be well, perhaps, to examine one other text in the New Testament, which agrees with, and will corroborate this passage in Hosea. Luke 13:32, 33: “And he said unto them, Go ye and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless, I must walk to-day and to-morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.” The history of the facts which gave rise to this conversation of our Lord, was as follows: MWV3 56.2

Some of the Pharisees came unto him, and told him to “get out hence,” for Herod would seek to kill him. “And he said unto them, Go ye and tell that fox.” We know that Herod was made ruler of the Jews by the Romans; and Christ, in calling him a fox, had something more in view, in my opinion, than to nickname Herod, although possibly it might have been very appropriate. Yet I believe that Christ had a greater object in view. He spake of him as a representative of the Roman government. The angel Gabriel, in his instruction to Daniel 11:23, has said, “he should work deceitfully;” meaning the Roman power over the Jews; and the name “fox” is but another appellation for craft or deceit. Therefore, he said, “Go ye, and tell that fox,” deceitful and crafty as he is, “Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.” As much as if he had said, - I well know the Roman power will oppose my gospel, will tear and persecute my people, two days, or to-day and to-morrow; yet I shall do cures, bind up the wounds which they make, and cast out devils which they may employ during these two days, (evidently meaning the same days as Hosea in our text,) and the third day I shall be perfected; that is, my body, the church, shall be made perfect. Hosea says, “the third day we shall live in his sight;” which is the same thing as being perfect. “When he shall appear, we shall be like him, (perfect,) for we shall see him as he is;” live in his sight. MWV3 56.3

That, in the 32nd verse, Christ does not mean literal days, is evident from the fact that in the 33rd verse he does mean literal days; for if in both verses the days mean the same time, then it is a paradox I am not able to reconcile; for it is certain in the 33rd verse he says, “Nevertheless, I must walk to-day and to-morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.” Therefore, the three days could not possibly be fulfilled, by Christ’s own showing; for he must walk the three days, and yet be perfected on the third day. He could not be perfected in his sufferings; for he did not suffer until more than a week after this declaration. It could not be the perfection of his church; for she could not be made perfect until after Christ’s death and sufferings, and in truth she is not made perfect yet, neither by death, nor through sufferings, nor by glorification. Neither could either of the passages mean the three days between Christ’s death and his resurrection; for he is represented as healing, binding up, casting out devils, doing cures, and walking; which was not a fact, as all must acknowledge, while Christ lay in the tomb. And yet it has a meaning; for “not one jot or tittle of his word can fail.” MWV3 57.1

What, then, can be the meaning of Christ? I answer, it is a figure; for every passage in the whole word of God must be understood either in a literal or figurative sense. Some have supposed that the Scriptures are mostly to be understood in a spiritual sense. But what do they mean by spiritual sense? I have never seen any that could describe what they mean by spiritual sense, except they mean life, power, influence, or figures. For instance; Jonah being three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, is to be understood spiritually. What do we mean by spiritual, in this sense? If we mean that Jonah was Christ, the whale was the earth, and the belly of the whale was the bowels of the earth; then we are wrong. But if we mean Jonah was a figure, or a typical representation of Christ, the whale representing the earth, and the belly of the whale representing the bowels of the earth; then we are right. Just so with “days” in our text. Days may be used as figures of different portions of time. Sometimes a day means twenty-four hours; sometimes we mean only twelve hours; and at others indefinite time. The word of God uses a day as a figure of a year, and sometimes as a figure of a thousand years. MWV3 58.1

I shall now try to show the meaning of the days in the texts of Hosea and Luke. They cannot mean natural days, we must all agree; for the church has been torn and smitten more than forty-eight hours. The first and second coming of Christ must be included within these days, and the resurrection and living with Christ on the third day. Also the work of salvation, casting out devils, and doing cures, must be finished, and the church and kingdom of Christ perfected. These days cannot mean indefinite time; for the words “two” and “third,” “to-day” and “to-morrow,” are too clearly defined to admit of such a construction. They will not admit of years, for the same reasons that we have brought against the natural day - not being fulfilled. I know of but one construction more that can, in the Bible, be applied to a day; and that you will find in 2 Peter 3:8: “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day;” which cannot, with any propriety, mean anything more or less than - what we count a thousand years God calls a day. Therefore, the days spoken of in our texts must mean so many thousand years. Then, permit me to paraphrase our texts, as I understand them. MWV3 59.1

Hosea 6:1-3. Come, let us repent and turn unto the Lord; for he hath suffered the nations and kings of the earth to tear and scatter us, yet he will heal us, and repair the breach. He hath suffered our enemies to persecute us, and to kill and destroy the body of this earthly tabernacle; but he will gather and bind us in one bundle of everlasting life with himself. After two thousand years he will reanimate the bodies of all his saints; in the third thousandth year he will raise them from the dominion of death, and then they will live and reign with him a thousand years, in his presence. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth to the earth is prepared by divine wisdom, so as that he will come unto us as the morning cometh; first, as a daystar in the east, and secondly, he will come the second time, like the rising sun in all his glory; ¹ or he will come like the early rain in seed-time, MWV3 60.1

Luke 13:32. And he said unto certain Pharisees that came to him, Go ye, and tell that fox, (deceitful Roman,) Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures this thousand years and next thousand years, and the third thousand I shall be perfected; or, in other words, my work of redemption will be finished, my kingdom completed. MWV3 61.1

The next question which arises, in trying to understand our text, is to know when this time commenced, or these two thousand years began. I shall, therefore, now endeavor to answer this question. MWV3 61.2

Let us, then, take notice, that the first and second coming of Christ are included within these two thousand years, and Hosea speaks of them as being then in the future. Christ speaks of them as though one of them had already commenced, - “to-day and to-morrow.” Then one point is settled: somewhere between the time that Hosea prophesied and Christ spake, the two thousand years began. Well; if they began a hundred and sixty years before Christ, they would have ended last year: so, you will readily see, we are confined within the space of one hundred and sixty years, at any rate; and how much of that time was accomplished when Christ was born, I will try to show. MWV3 62.1

The Jews began their day at the setting of the sun, and this was taught them by God himself: “the evening and the morning were the first day.” If time began in this way, with God, surely, unless we can show a change, we ought so to reckon days now. And as Christ first came as a daystar, ¹ then his coming would be very likely to correspond with the time of that star’s rising. We know, also, when Christ did come, the world was in a state of moral darkness, and had, for nearly or quite two centuries, been enveloped in a dark and dreary night. Therefore, it is reasonable to suppose that a part of the first thousand years had actually passed away when our bright and morning star first appeared. MWV3 62.2

But Hosea has given us some more light on this subject, in the fifth chapter, beginning at the eighth verse: “Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Beth-aven, after thee, O Benjamin.” This verse is a call to the idol worshippers among the Jews to return from their idolatry and rebellion against God. The places mentioned were the places where the tribe of Benjamin had established idolatrous worship, and set up altars to heathen gods. MWV3 63.1

Verse 9: “Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.” The tribe of Ephraim was made desolate shortly after Hosea wrote his prophecy, and is not now known as a tribe in the world, being carried away with the ten tribes by Esar-Haddon. This prophecy is the same as the one Isaiah has given in his prophecy, Isaiah 7:8; and Rollin, in his Ancient History, vol. 1, page 286, has shown when this prophecy was fulfilled. And surely God hath made known to the tribes of Israel their history and destiny ages before it was fulfilled; and here is my strong proof, that what Hosea tells us will come upon us, will be as literally and as certainly fulfilled as that has been which was prophesied concerning the Jew. MWV3 63.2

Verse 10: “The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound. Therefore, I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.” The meaning of this verse is, - the prophet is speaking of the rulers and priests among the Jews removing the laws of God’s house in that way that they might more indulge themselves in their wickedness, and practise their abominations with less restraint. The threatening against them was executed upon them in a most remarkable manner: they were truly carried away like a flood. MWV3 64.1

Verse 11: “Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.” Ephraim not only has reference to the ten tribes which revolted from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but it also has reference to the sects and churches under the gospel dispensation, who have departed from the laws and commandments of the gospel. Those things were types unto us on whom the ends of the world have come. ¹ Ephraim was the second son of Joseph, as the gospel is the second dispensation of God. Ephraim was preferred ¹ before Manasseh, as the gospel, the better covenant, is preferred before the law. ² Joseph’s bough was to run over the wall, ³ and his seed was to become a multitude of nations. MWV3 64.2

Verse 12: “Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.” In this verse Ephraim represents the people of God, under the New Testament; and Judah represents those who were called the people of God, under the Old Testament. This prophecy has been as literally fulfilled as it is possible for it to be. “I be unto Ephraim as a moth.” What does a moth unto a garment? It eats holes into it, so that it is easily tattered and torn. Is it not so now with the severed sects and churches, who profess to be the children of God? Where can you find a sect not divided, or a church not torn? “Unto Ephraim as a moth.” It is well known that a moth does not devour the whole garment; it only takes a part. Just so with the gospel church: there is a remnant which will be saved; but our sects and our churches are like moth-eaten garments. What more striking similitude could the prophet have brought to represent the church under the gospel dispensation, than a moth-eaten garment, if our day is a fair sample of the whole? Look upon the church since the days of the apostles, and read her history. What do we see? A continual jangle about words, about doctrine, about men and measures; persecution and hatred, disunion and division, have been the acts and manifested walk of the church. O Ephraim! thou hast been a cake unturned; a worshipper of every god but the true God; a lover of every way but the highway cast up; a follower of every man but the man Christ Jesus. MWV3 66.1

“And to the house of Judah as rottenness.” What does the house of Judah mean? It means the Jewish dispensation, or the people of God under the first covenant. And what shall we understand by rottenness? What else but final destruction? Although our Judaizing teachers tell us the Jews are to be built up again, I believe them not. I have no fellowship for such humbugs; for the Lord, by the mouth of the prophet, says, “as rottenness.” The Romans have taken away their place and nation, and Jerusalem is to be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, and then all the nations and kingdoms of the earth are to be destroyed as were the Jews. And then Christ will come, and set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. MWV3 67.1

Verse 13: “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb; yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.” In this verse we have a prophecy, that, when the gospel church, or the Jews, should be in trouble, instead of applying to God for help, as he had commanded them to do, with the assurance that he could help them, they have applied to literal or mystical Babylon, and put their trust in kings or great men of the earth to heal them, or plead for them: but they cannot heal them, nor cure them of their wounds. This proves one thing certain - that the church will never be healed from her sickness nor cured of her wounds and divisions until Christ shall come. They have been telling us, that our missionary societies, Bible societies, tract societies, and all of our moral reform societies - temperance, abolition, and nonresistance - and also our education societies, were so many streams to waft us into the ocean of the spiritual millennium, when all would see eye to eye: but every one of these has only carried us farther and farther apart. No one can or will pretend but that we are more at war now than when these societies were first instituted. How long have the common people to wait to see the fruits and fulfilment of our great men’s promises in these things? I tell you, my brethren, we must have a higher trust than kings, princes, or great men of the earth. The world will never, no never, reform themselves; every step they take, while leaning on earthly power, is but in the end their ruin. The Jews were finally ruined by making a league with the Romans. MWV3 67.2

Mystical Babylon had its rise from a connection of the church with the civil power of the Roman beast. MWV3 69.1

Verse 14: “For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.” God will, by his providence, suffer the church to be caught in the snare, and made a prey of, by the same power, which will utterly take away the Jews, like as an old lion catches the prey. But as a young lion devours the prey, so shall the Jews, be utterly devoured: and this will happen when Christ will come and go away. Then these things are to be accomplished under the Roman kingdom, which had great iron teeth, and which was to break in pieces and bruise, and was to stamp the residue under his feet, ¹ and none could deliver out of his hand; ² until the Ancient of days should come, and judgment should be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. ³ And then, as Paul tells us, this power shall be destroyed by the brightness of his coming. offence” - or, as it reads in the margin, “till they be guilty of this offence” - “and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.” The sentiment conveyed to my understanding is this: the Lord, by the mouth of the prophet, is speaking of his first advent, of his return to his Father, where he will remain until they will be guilty of the offence of applying to Babylon and the kings of the earth, to be cured and healed - until the Jews should be rottenness, and Ephraim should be torn and smitten; and this power should last two days, as our text tells us: but while they should be thus afflicted, he would be healing them, and binding up their wounds, casting out devils, and doing cures; the gospel, too, would be preached, and they would seek his face by prayer and faith: and this would begin - that is, the gospel - in the early part of these two days. MWV3 69.2

Then come in the words of our text: “Come, let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn,” by the same power under which we have committed idolatry and rebellion against God; “and he will heal us,” if we repent and turn unto the Lord, by his gospel, by his grace. “He hath smitten.” By the same power to which we have been looking for redress, he has suffered us to be persecuted; the principal kingdoms of the world have been used as a scourge for the church, to drive them back to God. Ever since the days of Constantine the church has been laboring to obtain earthly power; and she has gone so far as to believe and promise that a time will shortly come when she will rule over the world, and gain possession of the kingdoms of the whole earth. Some will have it before her Lord shall come; others, not until he comes; but both must have the world and church mixed. Bless the Lord God of hosts, neither is true: for if now, while the world have the majority of the physical power, our priests and editors are dogmatizing, and lording it over the church, telling us what we shall preach or hear, and what we shall not; what would they do, having universal power over all? I thank God, “in the world ye shall have tribulation.” Yet “he will bind us up” into one fold, having one Shepherd, one Lord, and one kingdom: all others being carried away, and no place found for them. And this kingdom will be eternal, and shall never pass away. MWV3 70.1

“After two days,” - meaning two thousand years - of tribulation, under the Roman kingdom, “will he revive us;” - meaning, God will bring his children from the dead, at the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, with all his saints. “In the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight;” - meaning the first resurrection, or the resurrection of the just, when all that are his will come forth, and will reign with him - “live in his sight” - a thousand years - “third day” - before the resurrection of the unjust. “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years - ‘third day’ - were finished.” MWV3 71.1

You may ask now, when did those three thousand years begin? I answer, they must have begun somewhere before Christ’s first coming, for that is included in the two days. There is no rule but conjecture that they commenced at his birth, but rather before; for if his coming is compared to the morning star, the evening must have preceded it, “for the evening and the morning were the first day.” There is no rule in the passage to know when to begin this time, unless we begin at the time when the children of God began to do what God charges upon them as the cause of their calamity. “Then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb.” Then, when the people of God joined affinity with this Roman kingdom, which would tear and wound smite and persecute, their calamities began; “for they worked deceitfully.” The fox began his career of persecution against the Jews; afterwards tried to pull down and destroy the “bright and morning star;” then followed up by showing his enmity to the church, in persecuting and deceiving in every possible form that ingenuity could invent or devise. MWV3 72.1

If this is correct, then we have a sure place to begin our data; that is, when the Romans became connected with the Jews by league. This may be found in the 1st book of Maccabees, 8th and 9th chapters, also in the History of Josephus, Rollin’s Ancient History, etc., - when the Grecians ceased to rule over the Jews, and the last monarchy in Daniel’s vision began. This was one hundred and fifty-eight years before the birth of Jesus Christ, and two thousand years before the second advent of Christ: for by adding 158 + 1842 = 2000 years, or two days. Again; if Pagan Rome was to continue, as I have proved in a former lecture ¹ on that point, 666 years, and Daniel is to stand in his lot at the end of 1335 years from taking away the Pagan mode of worship, (Daniel 12:12, 13,) then add 666 + 1335 = 2001, which would carry us one year into the 3000, or to the year 1843 after Christ. And Hosea says, “after two days,” that is, after the two thousand years, “he will revive us;” and “in the third day,” that is, in the third thousandth year, (which will begin in the year 1843,) “he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight,” “and reign with him a thousand years.’ Revelation 20:6. “Then shall we know,” in the third thousandth year, “if we follow on to know the Lord,” - continue steadfast in the faith: “his going forth is prepared as the morning” - he shall come from heaven to earth, as the morning star and as the rising sun. “And he shall come unto us as the rain.” As rain on the thirsty ridges of the field, or upon the new-sown seed, to make it fructify, and yield a blessing to man and beast, so will the coming of the Son of man be. “As the latter and former rain unto the earth.” As the early rain, when the seed-time is given to man, was like the first advent of Christ; so will the second advent be like the latter or fall rain in harvest-time. “Be patient, therefore, brethren; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.” James 5:7. See, also, Deuteronomy 11:14; Jeremiah 5:24. MWV3 73.1

Can this all be fiction? Is there nothing real in all this? O, ye children of God! do you believe the prophets? Or shall we report there is no faith in Israel? What if these things be true? MWV3 74.1

Can you ever be able to remedy the evils you may be likely to do by scoffing and ridiculing them? O, beware! One sneer from you may sink a soul in everlasting ruin. I say again, beware, lest that day come upon you unawares. AMEN. MWV3 75.1