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not repent at the Lord's first coming, and that the salvation of the Lord would extend to
the Gentiles; consequently, Isa. 49: 6 continues:--
"And He said, It is a light thing that Thou shouldest be My Servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give Thee for a light to
the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My Salvation unto the end of the earth" (Isa. 49: 6).
In the structure of the Acts as a whole, we have already shown that Acts 13:
constitutes a parallel with the equipment of the twelve on the day of Pentecost, and
accordingly we find Paul traversing much the same ground in his early ministry.
When the Jews refused his testimony at Antioch, the apostle refers to this identical
passage in Isaiah, when he says:--
"Seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we
turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a
light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth"
(Acts 13: 46, 47).
There are some who would make this the point where Israel is set aside and the
mystery begins, but seeing that the apostle is fulfilling a passage in the prophet Isaiah,
such cannot be the case, for the mystery was, at the time of his fulfilling utterance,
unknown and unrevealed in any part of Scripture, and was disclosed only by revelation to
him as the Lord's prisoner. This ground has been covered in many articles in this
magazine, in many booklets, and in the three larger volumes published by us. While it is
beside our purpose to go over the ground again here, the matter is nevertheless of
supreme importance, and the reader, who is unaware of the unique character of the
dispensation of the mystery, is earnestly urged to consider the claims of the apostle in
Eph. 3: 1-13 as a matter of prime importance, if studies of such as these in which we are
engaged are to be effectively pursued.
The spiritual equipment of the apostles, received at Pentecost and promised in
Acts 1: 8, had in view the gathering of Israel (a feature that will receive fuller exposition
as we proceed to the study of Acts 2: and 3:), and also the gathering of a company from
among the Gentiles, during the period in which opportunity of repentance was permitted
to Israel. This we shall find is referred to by the apostle Paul in such passages as
Rom. 11: 7-24 and I Cor. 14: 21, where the extension of spiritual gifts to the Gentiles
had for its object the provocation of Israel. When, however, Israel refused to be
provoked to emulation, and as a nation were set aside in Acts 28:, a new
dispensation, with new characteristics, was introduced, and among the new
characteristics is the very evident change in connection with supernatural gifts of the
Spirit.
The last recorded utterance of Christ on earth is in Acts 1: 7 and 8, where His words
give assurance that, whatever the answer may be to their question concerning the time of
Israel's restoration, all was well, for all was in the Father's hands. Their part was to
witness faithfully, even though "Israel be not gathered". Their enduements included a