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gives the modern name to several of these ancient nations. Phut is Libya. Javan is Greece. Mizraim is
Egypt. Cush is Ethiopia. These peoples are still in existence, and present no difficulty. When we look at
the remainder of the list a two-fold problem is present.
1. Some names have become entirely obsolete. We have no precise information that will enable us to put our finger
on the map and say "there, in such a place, this people are to be found." Yet these unknown peoples are spoken of by the
prophets in the same breath with those of whose existence and continuance we are assured.
2. Modern names are not to be found. We look in vain for Great Britain, France, Germany, and the like. That does
not prove that these nations are not there however. Be it noticed that we did not say modern nations are not to be found,
but modern names.
If we search the Hebrew O.T. from beginning to end, we shall not find the name "God" mentioned
once. The reader will immediately reply, that seeing that the word "God" is English, and the Hebrew
word for God is "El," that does not prove that God Himself is unnamed. So with the nations of prophecy.
He who could inspire the prophets with such peculiar accuracy to speak of events so far remote from
their own day, could have easily caused Isaiah or Jeremiah to have given modern names to the nations
spoken of. But what good purpose would this have served? The ancient nomenclature serves as a vail in
some instances, so that the responsibility of the nations for their actions shall be in no sense influenced,
but as surely as the nation of Israel must come into touch with the nations of the earth now in existence,
so surely must these old names of Hebrew Scripture belong to many of them.
To take an example that is fairly generally known. Gomer, the son of Japheth, is named in the
prophets, yet what nation does that name represent to-day? It is usually accepted that Gomer, who is
called Gimirra by the Assyrians, and Kimmerii by the Greeks, and Cimbri by the Romans, is the name of
the Welsh or Celtic race. The Jews have always maintained that Ashkenaz refers to Germany. Tubal is
connected with a people that travelled from the Black Sea to Sicily, Spain, &100:
Without joining the ranks of those who undertake to give dates for prophetic events, we realize that
it is not possible for the tribulation and restoration of Israel to take place without some reference to that
nation that framed the "Balfour Declaration," whose army freed Jerusalem from the Turk, and who
received the mandate for Palestine from the League of Nations. This people will follow their own ways,
and be under no constraint by reason of the teaching of prophecy, any more than Israel were compelled
to sin, yet nevertheless did so in full accord with the prophetic Word which was in their hands. Under
one or more of their ancient names all modern nations come, and however many and multifarious the
nations of the earth may appear, their number is in reality 70, and their habitations are fixed with regard
to Israel and Israel's hope (Deut. 32: 8). It will be readily understood that a detailed examination of the
teaching of the prophets lies quite outside the scope of these articles; we can but give a brief word by
way of example.
The nation and the nations.
Under the title "The day of the Lord" we have quoted Isa. 2: 2 and noticed that when the Lord's
house is established "all nations shall flow unto it." Zech. 14: 16 gives in fuller detail:
"It shall come to pass, that everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem
shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast
or tabernacles."
Speaking of Israel, the Lord says:
"I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and
Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory
among the Gentiles" (lsa. 66: 19).
Thus shall the evangelization of the world be really accomplished. There is, moreover, the precious
promise of Isa. 25: 7:
"And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over
all nations."
The reader must pursue this marvellous theme in the prophets in order to discover the many features
of judgment and blessing that are in store for the nations of the earth. Moreover, the tracing out of the
prophetic statements concerning anyone of the nations cannot fail to be illuminating. The prophetic
witness concerning Assyria and Egypt is particularly valuable. Enough has been brought forward to
demonstrate the fact that the hope of Israel as a nation (Jer. 31: 36), and the nations of the earth are to
be taken literally, and the discerning student will not fail to see how this literal interpretation cannot be
withheld from the sequel to the O.T. prophets concerning "the hope of Israel" contained in the Gospels,
the Acts, many of the Epistles, and the book of the Revelation, neither will he fail to appreciate the fact