1 all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." Paul tells us, "Through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles." And he informs us that the world is again to be indebted to the Jews; he says: "Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much their fullness?" The restoration and conversion of the Jews is thus connected with the great ingathering of all nations into the Church of Christ; and the time of this is at hand. 2 The extraordinary predictions concerning the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's oldest son, uttered by the Lord before Ishmael was born, have been wonderfully fulfilling ever since. His posterity have "multiplied exceedingly," and become a great nation," in the Arabians; and, while the conditions of the nations around them have been constantly changing, they are yet living, as they have for nearly four thousand years, like "wild men," shifting from place to place in the wilderness; "their hand against every man, and every man's hand against them;" and they are still "dwelling," an independent and free people, " in the presence of all their brethren.” 3 4 The predictions concerning Esau, the first-born of Isaac, have long since been accomplished. His family has become extinct, "cut off forever," so that there is none "remaining of the house of Esau." Though their habitations "in the clefts of the rock" in Petra, are still the wonder of travelers; "the things of Esau" have been "so searched out, and his hidden things sought up," that not a relic can be found in their ancient dwellings. 2 Rom. xi. 11, 12. 3 Gen. xvi. 10, 12; xvii. 20. 5 Obad 6. 1 Rom. xi. 25. |