Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-03-11
PROMISE OF RENEWAL.
LESSON xl, FIRST QUARTER, INTER
NATIONAL SERIES, MARCH 10.

Eek xxxvi, e6-Commentary by the
Rev. ID. M. stearns.
rs. "Then will l sprinkle clean water
upon you, and We shall be clean; from all
your filthiness, and from all your idols,
will cleanse you" Six lessons in Isaiah,
four in jeremiah and one in Ezekiel give
us but the merest glance at the 166 chap
ters of those three books, and yet the
teaching of these lessons is in perfect &C
cord with all prophecy. The words of this
verse refer primarily to the yet future
cleansing of the nation of Israel oversees
1924; Jer xxxiii, Z, 81, and yet may apply
in n sense to every true believer.
20. "A new heart also will | give you,
and new spirit will | put within you"
The seat of all our difficulties being within
us, there must be change there before
anything can be right.
81. And will put my Spirit within you,
and cause you to walk in my statutes"
The same spirit who spake and wrought
in Christ, and in prophets and apostles,
God will give to Israel, and gives now to
every believer. Our part is to welcome
Him, and surrender to Him our whole
being and He will do the rest. John xiv,
10, IL, 26; XIV, 26 xvi, 49,
2S. "And We shall dwell in the land that
gave to your fathers; and We shall be my
people and l win he your God" There is
no way of applying the first part of this
verse to the church or to believers now; it
is peculiarly and only for Israel in the
future. The church has no special land,
her Inheritance is heavenly, the New Jeru-
salem, from which she shall reign with
Christ over the whole earth. The last part
of the verse may he spiritually applied to
the church. See ii Cor. vi, 1918.
~. II will also save you from all your
uncleannesses; and lay no famine upon
you" No good thing will He withhold
from them that walk uprightly (Ps lxxxiv,
~, and while Jesus, by His great work of
atonement, saves from the wrath to come,
He also saves by His present power and by
His word and Spirit in u.s. from daily sins
(Math. i, 81; Rom. " 10; Jude xiv, r. W.
80. And l will multiply the fruit of the
tree, that We shall receive no more re-
proach among the heathen." Peculiarly
for Israel, and yet when a believer is seen
longing for and enjoying the things of this
world that are not of God q John ii, 1910,
then it is as If he said, Jesus cannot sat
isfy me; must have the world too" and
thus the manifest famine in such a soul is
a reproach to God,
81. "Then shall ye remember and shall
loathe yourselves in your own sight for
your iniquities." The Lord will pour upon
them the spirit of grace and of supplica-
tons, and there shall be true repentance
when they see their long rejected King
Czech, xii, 10). The sight of the King in
His glory always causes loathing of self
Qsa vi, 5; Job xiii, 5, 6; Dan. X, s.. Pride
U Il e Al
seen Jesus.
49, Not for your sakes do | this. saith
the Lord God, be it known unto Won "
Israel was not in the first place chosen for
any good that was in them. but all was
done for them because of Gods promises
| to Abram and to David Deut tx & G. "a.
King XII, so, "a; Mic. vii, 2W. Jesus of
| Nazareth is son of David, son of Abram.
the promised seed CNIath. i. |: Gal iii. 16).
and all who are in Him have all things
made sure to them for His sake Gal iii. 20.
80. "Thus saith the Lord God, / will also
cause you to dwell in the cities and the
wastes shall be builded." Compare Zech.
viii, Z, s. Cleansing first and then restora-
ton-ths is always the order If You have
lost fellowship with God through sin, the
sin must be confessed and forgiven before
the communion can be restored.
"a. "And the desolate land shall be titled,
whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all
that passed by" Its desolateness was a
reproach to God, and "A constant advertise
ment of lsrael's sin. We, as believers,
glorify God only when we bear much
fruit (John XIV, s.. If our lives are selfish
and self indulgent we are then like Israel
in her rebellion and sinfulness (Hos Y, l,
2; XII, ~
80. And they shall say, This land that
was desolate is become like the garden of
Eden" That will cause people to praise
the God of Israel, and thus other nations
will be drawn to God, even as the queen OF
Sheba was drawn to Jerusalem by the
fame of Solomon.
SO. Then the heather that are left
round about you shall know that |, the
Lord, build the ruined places. l, the Lord,
have spoken it, and | will do it." Multi.
tudes out of the nations shall perish in the
judgments preceding lsrael's national con-
version, or in connection Herewith, but
some shall be left, and these shall 90 up to
Jerusalem from year to year to worship
the King, the Lord of Hosts (Zech. xiv, 16)