IN our February 15th issue, page 63, questions re the Covenants, 6-8, we did not, it seems, express ourself so that all could understand our meaning; hence we now add a few words.
The Sarah Covenant represents the Divine promise in its entirety as a Grace or Faith Covenant. As St. Paul explains in Gal. 4:22-28 her child of promise represented The Christ, Head and Body, the great antitypical Prophet, Priest, King, Judge and Mediator between God and men—the world of mankind in general. Sarah had but the one child, and hence the earthly seed of Abraham or any other could not be represented by her. But God had promised Abraham an earthly seed, as well as a heavenly. His seed was to be "as the stars of heaven and as the sands of the sea," the Apostle explains: "that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the Law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham." Abraham's seed according to the Law was cut off entirely, and must get its blessing through the spiritual seed—The Christ, Head and Body. The Spiritual Seed lays down in sacrifice all earthly rights, bequeathing these or willing them by testament or covenant to natural Israel—thus sealing for natural Israel the "New (Law) Covenant." This was in order that the natural seed may, during the Millennial Age, become the Seed of Abraham—as the sands of the seashore. And into the same Covenant as members of Israel, may come whosoever will of the Gentile nations. Thus the Apostle declares that eventually, according to Divine promise, Abraham will be "a Father of many nations." All of these will be blessed by The Christ, the Mediator of the New (Law) Covenant, under which they will be permitted to come back into harmony with God and obtain eternal life through obedience to its Law. It is in accord with this that we read in the same epistle, Romans 11:27-31, that fleshly Israel, under that New (Law) Covenant, will "obtain mercy through your mercy"—the mercy of The Christ, the mercy of the Spiritual Seed of Abraham.—Gal. 3:29.
The Apostle gives us to understand that after the Abrahamic Covenant was confirmed through Isaac, his two sons became in a measure typical characters, Esau, the elder, representing natural Israel, and Jacob, the younger, representing spiritual Israel of this Gospel Age, to whom the Abrahamic blessing has come. Similarly Jacob in due time had the Abrahamic Covenant confirmed to him; and his two children, by his wife Rachel, seem to typify the fact that there will be two classes of spiritual Israelites, represented by Joseph and his younger brother Benjamin. We need not rehearse the various evidences that Joseph was a type of The Christ, Head and Body. We remember how he was hated of his brethren, sold into captivity, suffered various abuses for righteousness sake, yet took all of his trials faithfully. We remember how he was taken from the prison to be next to Pharaoh in the throne, and there became the dispenser of the food which kept the Egyptians and the Israelites alive through the seven years of famine. We have already noticed how beautifully many of these features fit as types to the antitype, which will [R4437 : page 219] soon be revealed. Christ, both Head and Body, must be brought out of the great prison-house of death before the exaltation to the Kingdom and glory and honor will be effected and the work of feeding the world with the bread of life will begin. Joseph, the life-giver of Egypt through that bread of life, was unquestionably a type of the greater Life-Giver, The Christ, Head and Body.
Joseph had but one brother of the same mother, but he had ten half-brothers. Our thought is that those ten half-brothers represent the Jewish people, who will very shortly be brought before the exalted Christ and be given a share in the great feast which will come to them from his table. It will be remembered that Benjamin, Joseph's full brother, was with the other ten when the feast was made, but that Joseph sent to Benjamin as his portion five times as much as any of his brethren received. Benjamin, to our understanding, represents the "great company," the foolish virgins, otherwise called the virgins, the Bride's companions, who will follow her into the presence of the King.—Psa. 45:14,15.
There is another reason for considering Benjamin a prefigure of the "great company." It is this: his name, Benjamin, signifies "son of my pain." He was born in sorrow and travail, even as the "great company" will "come up out of great tribulation." His mother died in giving him birth, as we expect the spiritual feature of the Abrahamic Covenant to pass away entirely with the change of those who will constitute the "great company." It is our thought that the Ancient Worthies belong to this same class and, as already suggested, that they will reach the spirit plane in the time of trouble at the end of the Millennial Age.
We are loath to give any explanation of types not directly or indirectly referred to in the New Testament. These types seem to us to be not directly but indirectly implied by the New Testament teachings already referred to. Those who cannot receive this interpretation are entirely welcome to have as their own any better interpretation, or none at all, as they see fit. Indeed, we might remark that this is true of all that we write. Hence, should any cease to see eye to eye with us, they have full right to their own opinion, without any need for a quarrel with us. If they find new and better light our sentiment towards them is, God bless you. We are glad if you have something that will do you more good than that which we present. If we thought that there were anything better, we, too, would want it. But, on the contrary, we are fully content with the leadings and blessings, the enlightenments, the spiritual food and refreshments which our present Lord has spread before us as his family. It is so satisfactory a portion that we could not think of looking for anything more or different. For long years we hungered and thirsted and searched and finally, when we found the satisfactory portion, we knew it. It satisfied our longings as nothing else could do. The time we have to spare from the eating of such food and the dispensing it to others we have full use for in giving thanks to the Father of Light, who has brought us out of darkness into his marvelous light, wherein we greatly rejoice.