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Hebrews 4:3.
Speaks of the institution of the Sabbath and its fulfilment, and the finishing of the work of God in
connection with this period.
Hebrews 9:26.  An argument is used in which this period is introduced in order to show the folly of the reasoning
in question in the passage.
Revelation 13:8. The book of life of the Lamb slain which had been written from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 17:8. Names not written in this book of life.
The first time in Matthew that the Gentiles are mentioned with approbation (see Matt. 4:15; 6:32; 10:5,18), is in
Matthew 12, that is upon the Lord's rejection.
`Then the Pharisees went out, and held a counsel against Him, how they might destroy Him ... should not make
Him known: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying ... He shall show judgment
to the Gentiles ... and in His name shall the Gentiles trust' (Matt. 12:14-21).
In the immediate context of the first quotation of Isaiah 6:9,10 in the New Testament we have, therefore, the
following suggestive features:
(1)
The rejection of Christ as Israel's Messiah and King.
(2)
The introduction of the `if' into the problem of John the Baptist.
(3)
The first occurrence of the word `mystery'.
(4)
The first occurrence of the phrase `From the foundation of the world'.
(5)
The first reference to the Gentile as an object of blessing (In Matthew 10 the word was `Go not unto the
Gentiles').
The reader who has already entered into the blessedness of the dispensation of the mystery made known through
Paul, the Lord's prisoner, will need no lengthy exposition of the close parallel that exists between Matthew 13, and
Acts 28. At the latter:
(1)
Israel, who reject the Lord, are rejected.
(2)
`The mystery' is made manifest for the first time in those epistles written by Paul from prison.
(3)
Those thus blessed are `Gentiles', particularly (Eph 3:1-13).
(4)
And they were chosen in Christ `before the foundation of the world'.
The two passages are parallel, but they deal with vastly different parts of the great kingdom of God: the one with
the mystery phase of the kingdom of the heavens, the other with the dispensation of the mystery, which has its
sphere `far above all' where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Just as Christ turned from the multitude and began
to speak of secrets to His disciples, secrets which had been kept since the foundation of the world, so Paul, the
servant of Christ, no longer free and therefore unable to speak openly to the multitude, made known to the saints
secrets that were hid in God from before the foundation of the world.
We therefore appreciate the aptness with which Isaiah 6:9,10 was quoted by the apostle at this great moment of
Israel's rejection.
We do not believe that the reader who has pondered these things will need any argument by us to justify our
sub-heading:
`The Dispensational Landmark'
Israel, as in Matthew 13, did not hear. The Gentiles, who, up till then, had been kept outside (`Go not' `Aliens',
`Strangers'), now become the object of grace.
At the moment when the apostle could utter the words, `The salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles', then, the
dispensation of the mystery began and, then, Israel became lo-ammi, `Not My people'.