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words `so shall thy seed be'. Yet once again the figure is changed to `the sand upon the
sea shore' (Gen. 22: 17).
"Sir Arthur Eddington is of the opinion that one hundred thousand million stars make
one galaxy, and one hundred thousand million galaxies, make one universe. The number
of stars in a universe therefore would be ten thousand trillion, or expressed in figures
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, that is equal to the number of drops of water in all the
oceans of the world, or grains of fine sand sufficient to cover the whole of England and
Wales to a depth of a foot, and each one of them comparable in size to our sun" (The
Endless Quest, Westaway).
While it is not intended that Israel are ever to reach such astronomical figures, the
contemplation of the possible number of stars, compels us to admit that an extraordinary
increase in number constitutes an essential feature of the Divine purpose for this `great
nation'. According to Deut. 1: 10 these promises were on the way to fulfillment even
when Israel stood upon the borders of the promised land, and the present drop in their
numbers is coincident with their being in disfavour `If ye walk contrary to Me, I will
make you few in number' (Lev. 26: 21, 22). When the Lord at length causes the
captivity of both Judah and of Israel to return `as at the first', when He performs that
good thing which He has promised unto the house of Israel and of Judah, then `as the host
of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply
the seed of David My servant, and the Levites that minister unto Me" (Jer. 33: 7, 14,
21).
At the time of the end this world will be so ravaged and desolated by the destructive
method of atomic or other super-scientific weapons that the prophet Zechariah speaks of
`everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem' (Zech. 14: 16)
which suggests a terrible depletion in the number of the inhabitants of the earth at that
day. In Zech. 13: 8 the prophet's meaning is made very clear, when he says, "And it
shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off
and die; but the third shall be left therein". Something of what may be expected when
atomic warfare breaks out over this devoted earth can be sensed by the words of the
Apocalypse:
"A third part of the trees were burnt up."
"A third part of the sea became blood."
"A third part of the ships were destroyed."
"The third part of men, slain." (Rev. 8: 7, 8, 9; 9: 15).
The day is passed when these catastrophic times could be brushed aside as mere
figures of speech, we have lived through days when `a third part of the ships' were
well nigh literally destroyed. We have seen that following the desolation of Gen. 1: 2
came the creation of man and the command `replenish the earth'. We have seen that the
same command was given to Noah after the cataclysm of the Flood. This same command
will be fulfilled in Israel, when they too, shall `blossom and bud, and fill the world with
fruit' (Isa. 27: 6). Ephraim, as the `firstborn' will indeed be great, and his seed `shall
become a FILLING UP of the nations' (Gen. 48: 19). Once again we see the principle
of the Pleroma at work, with its promise of a better day, when sorrow and sighing shall
have fled away, when the true seed shall flourish, and the seed of the serpent be no more.