efforts of the Jesuits. V. 45. And he shall plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain, literally, "between seas, over against the mountain of the glory [or ornament] of holiness," so that his palace was intended to be a rival of the ancient seat of Jehovah's power in the midst of His holy people; yet he shall

come to his end, his true nature being exposed and realized by at least some of those who read the signs of the times, and none shall help him. The Reformation dealt the Roman Antichrist a blow from which he has never fully recovered, although he will continue his campaign of deceit until the end of time.

The End of the Revelation Vouchsafed Daniel.

THE DELIVERANCE OF THE LORD'S PEOPLE. V. 1. And at that time, at the end of the present world age, shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, as the heavenly protector of Israel, chap. 10, 13. 21; and there shall be a time of trouble, of tribulation and affliction for the believers, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time, the climax of the oppression brought upon the spiritual Israel by all antichristian forces; and at that time thy people, the true believers, shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book, whose name had been entered in the book of life. Cp. Rev. 13, 8. V. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, literally, "many, a great multitude of those who sleep in the dust-land, shall awake," shall return to life in the final resurrection, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt, this being the division at the Last Judgment, the believers destined for heaven, the unbelievers to hell with its torments. V. 3. And they that be wise, the true teachers of the people, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, in a wonderful glorification, and they that turn many to righteousness, by instructing them in loyalty and faithfulness in the midst of the tribulations of the latter days, as the stars forever and ever, this statement being rightly applied to the work of faithful preachers of the Gospel in these latter days of corruption and apostasy. V. 4. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, so that its contents, for the present, would not be revealed to men, even to the time of the end, the present Messianic era; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased, literally, "many shall search it through, and thus understanding will become great." It is true in general that the knowledge and interpretation of the prophecies of old comes to those who search the Scriptures most carefully, diligently comparing prophecy and fulfilment as indicated in the directions of the Lord. Cp. John 5, 39. A FINAL WORD OF CHEER. - V. 5. Then I, Daniel, looked, after the angel had finished

his message, and, behold, there stood other two, two more angels besides the one who had spoken to him, the one on this side of the bank of the river and the other on that side of the bank of the river, on either side of the Tigris. V. 6. And one, only one of these angels being introduced as speaking, said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, occupying a position above the water, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? literally, "Till when the end of these marvelous things?" the end being the period, or era, of the Messiah with all that happened in it. V. 7. And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, as though enthroned there or floating on the waters, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, in the gesture of a most solemn oath, and sware by Him that liveth forever, by the one everlasting true God, that it, the period of these wonderful things, shall be for a time, times, and a half, the duration of the period being the same as that of Antichrist's reign, cp. chap. 7, 25; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, when the Christian Church would have reached a point apparently near annihilation on account of the oppression of Antichrist, all these things shall be finished, including also the deliverance of the people of the Lord by the angel Michael and everything else that had been included in the great prophecy of the angel. V. 8. And I heard, but I understood not, he did not grasp the meaning of the angel's announcement; then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? He wanted a more exact explanation and interpretation of the period to which reference was made and to the sequence of events in that era, for he V. 9. was still in the dark concerning them. And he said, Go thy way, Daniel, the words being encouraging although in the nature of a refusal; for the words are closed up, altogether concealed, and sealed till the time of the end, so that it would not be lost or mutilated throughout the times then coming and until the Messianic era. V. 10. Many shall be purified and made white and tried, the time of tribulation bringing out their faith

fulness to their Lord; but the wicked shall do wickedly, deliberately closing their eyes and minds to the lessons intended also for them; and none of the wicked shall understand, the eyes of their understanding being blinded by their own fault; but the wise shall understand, for they would read and interpret the signs of the times aright. V. 11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, cp. chap. 11, 31, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, in the idolatry introduced by Antiochus Epiphanes, the antitype of Antichrist, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days, a period of time whose duration in human days and years cannot be exactly

determined. V. 12. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days, evidently the end of the great trial intended to test the loyalty of the Lord's children. V. 13. But go thou thy way till the end be, calmly awaiting death as a deliverance from all present affliction; for thou shalt rest, in the peace of the grave, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days, in the possession of the inheritance of the saints in light, Col. 1, 12, whose enjoyment he will share with all those who, like him, are faithful to the Lord until the end. Blessed are all who await their death in this spirit of calm hopefulness and certain trust in the promise of God!

Hosea ("Jehovah has redeemed,") was the son of Beeri, a citizen of the kingdom of Israel. He was an early contemporary of Isaiah and Micah. But while these two prophets preached in the southern kingdom, Hosea prophesied in the midst of the northern kingdom, which he regularly called Ephraim, which was then, in the eighth century before Christ, at the zenith of its power. Jeroboam II had greatly enlarged the borders of the land, so that the material prosperity of the country became proverbial. But to this outward glory of the kingdom its moral corruption corresponded, for shameless idolatry went hand in hand with an open transgression of all the commandments of the Second Table. The people of the land forgot and forsook the true God and followed after false gods. Chaps. 1, 2; 2, 5. 13; 3, 1; 4, 17.

The prophecies of Hosea fully take these conditions into account, for the two sections of his book, clearly as they are distinguished (chaps. 1-3 and 4-14) both treat of the faithlessness of Israel and of the divine love which calls His people to repentance. In the first part of the book, which seems to have been written toward the end of Jeroboam's reign, the prophet sternly reproves the people for their spiritual adultery and admonishes them to repent. In the second part, which seems to presuppose the unsettled

conditions following the death of Jeroboam, the prophet announces to the godless and selfhardened people of his nation the inevitable judgment of the Lord. The entire section may be subdivided into three parts: chaps. 4, 1—6,3; 6, 4-11, 12; 12, 1-14, 9, each concluding with a thought opening up a brighter future to such as will heed the Lord's admonition.

The style of the book is unique, with a strong character of individuality and an equally strong subjective trend. It is rich in bold and strong figures, often with passages of marked beauty, sometimes rather abrupt, particularly in passing rapidly from one picture to another. The vocabulary is sometimes strange and the language involved, with peculiar grammatical constructions.

Hosea has some Messianic passages of singular power and beauty; for while he declares that the Lord must and will disown His reprobate children, he says, at the same time, that Jehovah will gather for Himself a numerous people. He predicts that in the days of the Messiah the true Israel, including men from all nations of the world, shall return and seek the Lord and shall fear Him and His goodness.1)

1) Cp. Fuerbringer, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 78-80; Concordia Bible Class, June, 1919, 79-81.

The Spiritual Whoredom of Israel. ISRAEL TO BE REJECTED ON ACCOUNT OF ITS IDOLATRY. — V. 1. The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Heze

kiah, kings of Judah, who are probably mentioned in the sequence of their reign on account of the stability of their rule, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, this statement being added to bring out

the fact of Hosea's having prophesied in the earlier part of the century, before there was any indication of decay in Israel from which one might reasonably have deduced the probability of the nation's downfall, a fact which would have weakened the idea of a prophecy. V. 2. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea, literally, "In the beginning when Jehovah spoke with Hosea," and the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms, most commentators believing this to have been done internally and in a vision, since the force of the symbolical act would otherwise be lost, and children of whoredoms. The figure represents the northern kingdom in its relation to Jehovah at the time of the prophet, when the nation as such had become unfaithful and in its individual members could well be compared to children of adultery, as the prophet says; for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord, its idolatry was of a kind to call forth the righteous anger of the Lord. V. 3. So he, the prophet, went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, whose very name was descriptive of the life in which she delighted; which conceived and bare him a son. V. 4. And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel, the name of a very fruitful valley in the northern part of the land; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel, namely, the blood that had been spilled by Ahab and other wicked kings in this garden spot, upon the house of Jehu, who had loaded blood-guiltiness upon himself by acts of murder for which he had no command of God, cp. 2 Kings 9 and 10, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel, the end of the kingdom thus being predicted while it still seemed to be at the height of its power. V. 5. And it shall come to pass at that day that I will break the bow of Israel, the military force on which the strength of the kingdom rested, on which its existence depended, in the Valley of Jezreel, for the Assyrians, within four decades, overthrew the power of Israel completely. V. 6. And she conceived again and bare a daughter, a female child being named in order to represent the entire nation, both men and women, in the sons and daughters of the people. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah ("not having obtained mercy"); for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away, literally, "for not will I add any more to have compassion on the house of Israel that I should keep on forgiving them," that is, His patience was now exhausted, and His judgment upon them would soon be carried out. V. 7. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, the southern kingdom, in

which His worship was still being observed by the few who represented His kingdom on earth, and will save them by the Lord, their God, by an almighty deliverance, and will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battle, by horses nor by horsemen, the heaping of the synonyms showing the futility of all human power over against the Lord's decrees. V 8. Now, when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bare a son, there being no interruption in the announcement of evil. V. 9. Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi ("not My people"); for ye are not My people, namely, on account of their rejection of Him, and I will not be your God, they could not claim Him as their highest good, they could not call upon Him as their Helper. When people deliberately reject the true God, they cut themselves off from all the manifestations of His grace and mercy; they bring misfortune upon themselves and can blame no one but themselves for their unhappy state.

THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE TRUE ISRAEL. V. 10. Yet the number of the children of Israel, the spiritual Israel in Messianic times, shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered, cp. Gen. 22, 17; 32, 13; and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, namely, in the center of the Lord's worship in the midst of His visible Church, wherever He would establish His congregations in the Messianic era, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God, this being the message which is proclaimed wherever the Gospel is preached. V. 11. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel, all the true members of the Church of the Lord, all those who have acknowledged Him in faith as their Father, be gathered together, in the communion of saints, and appoint themselves one Head, accepting the Messiah as the one Master in the Church, and they shall come up out of the land, being removed from the unbelievers in whose midst they live; for great shall be the day of Jezreel, the day of Israel's overthrow being at the same time the day of its deliverance; for only such as are conquered by the forces of the Messiah may become partakers of His grace and mercy. Cp. Luke 2, 34. Chap. 2, 1. Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi ("My people"); and to your sisters, Ruhamah ("having obtained mercy"). The original names of the children were thus changed to indicate their changed relationship toward God and their Savior. No matter how far a person has fallen away from the truth of God's Word, there is always mercy for Him through the redemption of Christ, if he but returns in true sorrow over his sins and accepts the offered deliverance.

The Idolatrous People Punished and

Converted.

A THREAT OF PUNISHMENT. V. 2. Plead with your mother, the members of Israel, as the children of an adulterous wife, being addressed, plead; for she is not My wife, she was no longer Jehovah's bride, neither am I her Husband, for He had been obliged to reject her on account of her adultery; let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, namely, the shameless idolatry which was practised throughout Israel at the time, and her adulteries from between her breasts, for Israel, in her shamelessness, was like a public harlot, who displays her profession in her bared breasts, v. 3. lest I strip her naked, as a punishment for her shameless exposure of herself in the practise of her spiritual wantonness, and set her as in the day that she was born, cp. Ex. 16, 4, when she was without covering, and make her as a wilderness and set her like a dry land, altogether desert in every way, and slay her with thirst, thus depriving her of all the wonderful blessings which He had given her in the past, for the Lord had had mercy on His people in Egypt, He had led them out of the house of bondage, and He had made a covenant with them. The desert is a picture of the various tribulations and sufferings of the exile. V. 4. And I will not have mercy upon her children, all the members of the nation being included in His punishment; for they be the children of whoredoms, all of them being guilty of the same shameless idolatry. V. 5. For their mother hath played the harlot, the whole nation, as the various prophets show, being guilty of the same idolatrous behavior; she that conceived them hath done shamefully, openly committing her shameless acts, making no attempt to hide her bold practises; for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink, food, clothing, and the enjoyments of life; for Israel's commercial enterprise was stimulated by the riches and power of the nations round about, and it was with the idea of getting and holding their friendship that the Israelites began to practise idolatry. V. 6. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, setting insurmountable obstacles to keep Israel away from the heathen nations with their allurements and temptations, and make a wall that she shall not find her paths, namely, to the temples and altars of the idols. The Lord undoubtedly refers to the oppression and affliction of the exile, which opened the eyes of the children of Israel to the vanity and helplessness of the idols. V. 7. And she shall follow after her lovers, determined, at first, to cling to the false gods whom she had accepted, but she shall not

overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them, for she would be reduced to such straits as would show her how vain was her hope in these idols and their assistance. Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first Husband, having learned, by bitter experience, that He is the only true God, for then, at the time when Israel followed Him alone, was it better with me than now. V. 8. For she did not know, she did not realize at that time, that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold, giving her all these temporal blessings in rich measure, which they prepared for Baal, using it for his cult and worship, in open idolatry. Many a person serves a false god, not knowing that the very gifts which he brings are the blessings of God's goodness upon him. V. 9. Therefore will I return and take away My corn in the time thereof, namely, at the very time of the harvest, when men would expect a full supply, and My wine in the season thereof and will recover My wool and My flax, all these being gifts of His bounty, and therefore rightly belonging to Him, given to cover her nakedness. If God takes the gifts suddenly and at the very time of the harvest, the punishment would be more severe than if He had taken them after the outlook already was poor. V. 10. And now will I discover her lewdness, uncover her nakedness and shame to her disgrace, in the sight of her lovers, cp. Ezek. 16, 37, and none shall deliver her out of Mine hand. Cp. Jer. 13, 26; Nah. 3, 5. While the nations round about were looking on, partly in helpless idleness and partly in malicious joy, Israel was delivered to her punishment. V. 11. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, the hypocritical evidence of a joy which was no longer real among the people, her feast-days, especially the three highest festivals, Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts, whatever days were observed in the course of the year. V. 12. And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, representative of the wealth of the country in farm products. whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me, thus blasphemously taking the honor from the Lord; and I will make them, the fine orchards and vineyards, a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. Cp. Is. 7, 23 ff.; Micah 3, 12. V. 13. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, punishing her for devoting the great festival days of the Jewish church-year to the service of heathen idols, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, decorating herself for the purpose of making an impression upon those whom she had permitted to seduce her, and

she went after her lovers and forgat Me, saith the Lord. That is the outstanding reprehensible feature of unbelief and idolatry: the rejection of the true God, for He wants no other gods beside Himself.

THE RENEWAL OF THE LORD'S MARRIAGE CONTRACT. — V. 14. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, deliberately leading the idolatrous Israel astray and visiting His punishment upon her, but with a wonderful object in mind, and bring her into the wilderness, where there was nothing to detract her attention any more, and speak comfortably unto her, in a friendly, heart-to-heart talk, with the intention of once more manifesting His love, now that Israel was ready to acknowledge her transgression. V. 15. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, the very wilderness again blossoming as the rose, that is, the Gospel-teaching once more bringing forth glorious fruits, and the Valley of Achor, southwest of Jericho, here used only in a figurative way, for a door of hope, so that the crime of Achan would not be repeated, Josh. 7, 26; and she shall sing there, once more with the true happiness of a believing people, as in the days of her youth, when the Lord first led His people into the Land of Promise, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt, when the Lord first made His covenant with His people. V. 16. And it shall be at that day, at the time of this wonderful deliverance of the Messianic period, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call Me Ishi, that is, "My Husband," and shalt call Me no more Baali, in the form of idolatry by which Israel had transferred the worship of the one true God to the Phenician idol. V. 17. For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, so that the people would no longer mention them in prayer, and they shall no more be remembered by their name, so that idolatry would completely be forgotten in the midst of the Lord's people. V. 18. And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground, with all those things which might prove harmful and dangerous to them, under the picture of ravenous beasts, birds of prey, and poisonous reptiles, and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, so that the instruments of war would be destroyed and war itself cease, and will make them to lie down safely. All

this, of course, is figurative description of the time when there would be peace on earth through Him who is our Peace. V. 19. And I will betroth thee, so the Lord says to His bride, the Church of the New Testament, unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, namely, that earned by Christ when He cleansed His Church from all unrighteousness through the blood of His cross, and in judgment, by which He interferes in behalf of His people on the basis of Christ's perfect atonement, and in lovingkindness, in His free and merciful favor, and in mercies. Every idea of merit on the part of man is thus entirely excluded; God accepts every member of the Church on the basis of His own mercy in Christ Jesus alone. V. 20. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness, with a pledge of the eternal duration of the covenant on His side; and thou shalt know the Lord, the saving knowledge of Jehovah being imparted through this Gospelmessage. V. 21. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, His ears, as it were, being attuned to the slightest stirring on the part of those who know Him as their Savior, I will hear the heavens, who here appear as interceding in behalf of the believers, and they shall hear the earth, which likewise is represented as pleading for mercy; v. 22. and the earth

shall hear the corn and the wine and the oil, so that its blessings would once more richly be given; and they shall hear Jezreel, the people of the true Israel, of the Church of God, becoming partakers of the rich blessings of the Lord in the Messianic era. V. 23. And I will sow her unto Me in the earth, planting His Church anew by the operation of His divine grace; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy, the congregation of Israel; and I will say to them which were not My people, men and women from every part of the world, chosen by the Lord to be included in His communion of saints, Thou art My people; and they shall say, accepting their salvation at the hand of the Father through the redemption of Christ, Thou art my God. That is the confession of the Church and of all its members. Wherever the Gospel of Christ is preached, members are won for the Church, and the sum total of these believers are the bride of Christ and partake of all the blessings which He has gained for all men by His redemption.

The New Marriage of the Adulteress. In a second symbolical marriage the faithful love of God, which for that very reason is also jealous and intends to lead to repentance, is pictured. V. 1. Then said the Lord unto

me, Go yet, that is, once more, again, in a second venture, love a woman beloved of her friend, the word being used often for husband, yet an adulteress, one still regarded and surrounded with conjugal love by her lawful hus