Prophets and Kings
by Ellen G. White
Chapter 60: Visions of Future Glory
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Often the church militant is called upon to
suffer trial and affliction; for not without
severe conflict is the church to triumph.
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In the darkest days of her long conflict with evil, the
church of God has been given revelations of the eternal purpose of Jehovah. His
people have been permitted to look beyond the trials of the present to the
triumphs of the future, when, the warfare having been accomplished, the
redeemed will enter into possession of the promised land. These visions of
future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, should be dear to His church
today, when the controversy of the ages is rapidly closing and the promised
blessings are soon to be realized in all their fullness. {PK 722.1}
Many were the messages of comfort given the church by the
prophets of old. "Comfort ye, comfort ye My people" (Isaiah 40:1),
was Isaiah's commission from God; and with the commission were given wonderful
visions that have been the believers' hope and joy through all the centuries
that have followed. Despised of men, persecuted, forsaken, God's children in
every age have nevertheless [723] been sustained by His sure promises.
By faith they have looked forward to the time when He will fulfill to His
church the assurance, "I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of
many generations." Isaiah 60:15. {PK 722.2}
Often the church militant is called upon to suffer trial and
affliction; for not without severe conflict is the church to triumph. "The
bread of adversity," "the water of affliction" (Isaiah 30:20),
these are the common lot of all; but none who put their trust in the One mighty
to deliver will be utterly overwhelmed. "Thus saith the Lord that created
thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed
thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art Mine. When thou passest through
the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not
overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned;
neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy
One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for
thee. Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honorable, and I
have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy
life." Isaiah 43:1-4. {PK
723.1}
There is forgiveness with God; there is acceptance full and
free through the merits of Jesus, our crucified and risen Lord. Isaiah heard
the Lord declaring to His chosen ones: "I, even I, am He that blotteth out
thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put Me in
remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be
justified." "Thou shalt know that I the Lord [724] am thy
Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." Verses 25, 26; 60:16. {PK 723.2}
"The rebuke of His people shall He take away," the
prophet declared. "They shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of
the Lord." He hath appointed "to give unto them beauty for ashes, the
oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord,
that He might be glorified."
"Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion;
Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the Holy City:
For henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the
uncircumcised and the unclean.
"Shake thyself from the dust;
Arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem:
Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter
of Zion."
"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors,
And lay thy foundations with sapphires.
"And I will make thy windows of agates.
And thy gates of carbuncles,
And all thy borders of pleasant stones.
"And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord;
And great shall be the peace of thy children.
In righteousness shalt thou be established:
"Thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear:
And from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by Me:
Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall
for thy sake. . . . [725]
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper;
And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment
thou shalt condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord."
Isaiah 25:8; 62:12; Isaiah 61:3; 52:1, 2; Isaiah 54:11-17. {PK 724.1}
Clad in the armor of Christ's righteousness, the church is
to enter upon her final conflict. "Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and
terrible as an army with banners" (Song of Solomon 6:10), she is to go
forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer. {PK 725.1}
The darkest hour of the church's struggle with the powers of
evil is that which immediately precedes the day of her final deliverance. But
none who trust in God need fear; for "when the blast of the terrible ones
is as a storm against the wall," God will be to His church "a refuge
from the storm." Isaiah 25:4. {PK 725.2}
In that day only the righteous are promised deliverance.
"The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the
hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall
dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh
uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands
from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and
shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of
defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters
shall be sure." Isaiah 33:14-16. {PK 725.3}
The word of the Lord to His faithful ones is: "Come, My
people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy [726] doors
about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation
be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity." Isaiah 26:20, 21. {PK 725.4}
In visions of the great judgment day the inspired messengers
of Jehovah were given glimpses of the consternation of those unprepared to meet
their Lord in peace. {PK
726.1}
"Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it
waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants
thereof; . . . because they have transgressed the laws, changed the
ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured
the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate. . . . The mirth
of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp
ceaseth." Isaiah 24:1-8. {PK 726.2}
"Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand,
and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. . . . The seed
is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are
broken down; for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of
cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep
are made desolate." "The vine is dried up, and the fig tree
languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even
all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the
sons of men." Joel 1:15-18, 12. {PK 726.3}
"I am pained at my very heart," Jeremiah exclaims
as he beholds the desolations wrought during the closing scenes of earth's
history. "I cannot hold my peace, because [727] thou
hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction
upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled." Jeremiah 4:19,
20. {PK 726.4}
"The loftiness of man shall be bowed down,"
declares Isaiah of the day of God's vengeance, "and the haughtiness of men
shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols
He shall utterly abolish. . . . In that day a man shall cast his
idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to
worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and
into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of
His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth." Isaiah 2:17-21.
{PK 727.1}
Of those times of transition, when the pride of man shall be
laid low, Jeremiah testifies: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without
form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains,
and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo,
there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and,
lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken
down." "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is
even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it."
Jeremiah 4:23-26; 30:7. {PK
727.2}
The day of wrath to the enemies of God is the day of final
deliverance to His church. The prophet declares:
"Strengthen ye the weak hands,
And confirm the feeble knees. [728]
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be
strong, fear not:
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
Even God with a recompense;
He will come and save you."
"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God
will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He
take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it." Isaiah
35:3, 4; 25:8. And as the prophet beholds the Lord of glory descending from
heaven with all the holy angels, to gather the remnant church from among the
nations of earth, he hears the waiting ones unite in the exultant cry:
"Lo, this is our God;
We have waited for Him,
And He will save us:
This is the Lord;
We have waited for Him,
We will be glad and rejoice
in His salvation."
Isaiah 25:9. {PK 727.3}
The voice of the Son of God is heard calling forth the
sleeping saints, and as the prophet beholds them coming from the prison house
of death, he exclaims, "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead
body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as
the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."
"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart,
And the tongue of the dumb sing."
Isaiah 26:19; 35:5, 6. [729] {PK 728.1}
In the visions of the prophet, those who have triumphed over
sin and the grave are now seen happy in the presence of their Maker, talking
freely with Him as man talked with God in the beginning. "Be ye
glad," the Lord bids them, "and rejoice forever in that which I
create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And
I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people: and the voice of weeping
shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." "The
inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be
forgiven their iniquity."
"In the wilderness shall waters break out,
And streams in the desert.
And the parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water."
"Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree,
And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree."
"And an highway shall be there, and a way,
And it shall be called The way of holiness;
The unclean shall not pass over it;
But it shall be for those:
The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." {PK 729.1}
"Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath
received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." Isaiah 65:18, 19;
33:24; Isaiah 35:6, 7; 55:13; Isaiah 35:8; 40:2. {PK 729.2}
As the prophet beholds the redeemed dwelling in the City of
God, free from sin and from all marks of the curse, in rapture he exclaims,
"Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her:
rejoice for joy with her." [730]
"Violence shall no more be heard in thy land,
Wasting nor destruction within thy borders;
But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation,
And thy gates Praise.
"The sun shall be no more thy light by day;
Neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee:
But the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light,
And thy God thy glory.
"Thy sun shall no more go down;
Neither shall thy moon withdraw itself:
For the Lord shall be thine everlasting light,
And the days of thy mourning shall be ended.
"Thy people also shall be all righteous:
They shall inherit the land forever,
The branch of My planting,
The work of My hands,
That I may be glorified."
Isaiah 66:10; 60:18-21. {PK 729.3}
The prophet caught the sound of music there, and song, such
music and song as, save in the visions of God, no mortal ear has heard or mind
conceived. "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." "Joy and gladness shall be
found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." "As well the
singers as the players on instruments shall be there." "They shall
lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord." Isaiah
35:10; 51:3; Psalm 87:7; Isaiah 24:14. {PK 730.1}
In the earth made new, the redeemed will engage in the
occupations and pleasures that brought happiness to Adam and Eve in the
beginning. The Eden life will be [731] lived, the life in garden and
field. "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant
vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another
inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are
the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their
hands." Isaiah 65:21, 22. {PK 730.2}
There every power will be developed, every capability
increased. The grandest enterprises will be carried forward, the loftiest
aspirations will be reached, the highest ambitions realized. And still there
will appear new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to
comprehend, fresh objects of study to call forth the powers of body and mind
and soul. {PK 731.1}
The prophets to whom these great scenes were revealed longed
to understand their full import. They "inquired and searched diligently:
. . . searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did signify. . . . Unto whom it was revealed, that
not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now
reported unto you." 1 Peter 1:10-12. {PK 731.2}
To us who are standing on the very verge of their
fulfillment, of what deep moment, what living interest, are these delineations
of the things to come—events for which, since our first parents
turned their steps from Eden, God's children have watched and waited, longed
and prayed! {PK 731.3}
Fellow pilgrim, we are still amid the shadows and turmoil of
earthly activities; but soon our Saviour is to appear to bring deliverance and
rest. Let us by faith behold the blessed hereafter as pictured by the hand of
God. He who [732] died for the sins of the world
is opening wide the gates of Paradise to all who believe on Him. Soon the
battle will have been fought, the victory won. Soon we shall see Him in whom
our hopes of eternal life are centered. And in His presence the trials and
sufferings of this life will seem as nothingness. The former things "shall
not be remembered, nor come into mind." "Cast not away therefore your
confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of
patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the
promise. For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not
tarry." "Israel shall be saved . . . with an everlasting
salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end."
Isaiah 65:17; Hebrews 10:35-37; Isaiah 45:17. {PK 731.4}
Look up, look up, and let your faith continually increase.
Let this faith guide you along the narrow path that leads through the gates of
the city into the great beyond, the wide, unbounded future of glory that is for
the redeemed. "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the
Lord. 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. Be ye
also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth
nigh." James 5:7, 8. {PK
732.1}
The nations of the saved will know no other law than the law
of heaven. All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of
praise and thanksgiving. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together,
and the sons [733] of God will shout for joy, while
God and Christ will unite in proclaiming. "There shall be no more sin,
neither shall there be any more death." {PK 732.2}
"And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to
another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship
before Me, saith the Lord." "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together." "The Lord God will cause
righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." "In
that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of
beauty, unto the residue of His people." {PK 733.1}
"The Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her
waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like
the garden of the Lord." "The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto
it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon." "Thou shalt no more be
termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou
shalt be called My Delight, and thy land Beulah. . . . As the
bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee."
Isaiah 66:23; 40:5; Isaiah 61:11; 28:5; Isaiah 51:3; 35:2; Isaiah 62:4, 5,
margin. {PK 733.2}
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