Chapter 21 The Establishment of the Modern State of Israel

Biblical Signposts Which Signify the Divine Establishment of the Modern State of Israel

How did the 'Seven Times' of the Exile End?

The 2,520 Years From 583 BC

We cannot bring these pages to a close without revealing how the 2,520 years of the Gentile over lordship of the Holy Land, from the Babylonian Captivity era, were brought to an end at the time of Israel's rise to nationhood in 1948. the last stage of these 2,520 years commenced with the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, which was 583-582 BC, and we read in Jeremiah 52: 27-30 about this final de-population of Jerusalem, and of how 'Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.'

In the spring of 1938, when 2,520 years were ending from 583 BC, the European scene was growing darker, and the small group of 'watchers' who had published the Bible's chronology and sent copies of the literature to all the Bishops in the previous December, became impressed with the fact that, if man had disregarded the printed warning that trouble lay ahead for the world then God Himself must give a sign.

We saw from Luke 21: 24-25 that 'there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon' after 'the times of the Gentiles' were 'fulfilled.' It was made clear to us by the Holy Spirit that a warning of some such 'sign' should be given on March 31st, to take effect at noon on April 1st. (As already remarked, God's ways of dealing with a world that has persistently mocked at the thought of the verbal inspiration of the Holy Scriptures are at times bordering on the comic! However, there was nothing 'comic' about the long-term fulfilment of the warning we had to give relating to April 1st 1938). As British people know, 'April 1st' is 'All Fools' Day'- that is, until noon.

There had been sunspot activity earlier in the year, and the impression was strong that we must not hold back from giving this warning. Accordingly, on March 31st, brief but carefully worded letters were sent to the Editor of 'The Times' Newspaper in London, the Archbishop of Canterbury (both of whom had had knowledge of our previous expectations) and the Astronomer Royal. It was not said what the exact nature of the 'sign' would be, but those who gave the warning believed that a darkening of the sun, similar to that on the day of the Crucifixion, might be expected.

The day of April 1st passed uneventfully - and, as the following comments on Hezekiah's 'ten hours' will show, it was not until some ten years had passed that it fully dawned upon us that God had perfectly fulfilled His counsel in relation to the matter. We were then able to look back upon a most amazing sequence of events which revealed precisely the purpose and significance of this warning. God had 'darkened the sun', but in such a way which had never begun to dawn upon our minds or hearts in the Spring of 1938.

The 3,700 Days of Testimony 'To the Jews Only' (AD 26-36)

We must now consider the 'seven times' or 2,520 days during which Nebuchadnezzar lost his reason, as described in Daniel chapter 4. These days were typical, 'each day for a year', of 2,520 years in which the Gentile powers, holding dominance on earth in place of the Kingdom of Judah, would remain in their moral darkness, until their reason was restored to them. The 'seven times' of years had their commencement over an era in the time of the Kingdom of Babylon, and were coming to their end over well-defined stages in the present day. God used the measurement to mark the phases of the going into captivity of the people of Judah during Nebuchadnezzar's reign, and the world today has witnessed the corresponding ending stages of these 2,520 years.

We had seen many in the Church of God awaken, all over the world, to the fact that the coming of the Lord was drawing nigh, because for over thirty years students of the prophetic word had been in expectation that 1917 would see movement on God's part to begin to restore the Land of Israel to the Jews - and they were not disappointed. Then we know that 1923 - the year when the Palestine Mandate had at last begun to operate - had also been clearly forecast by Dr. Grattan Guinness in the 1880's. And those who have read these pages will know how plainly God marked the end of 2,520 years from 588 BC to 1933, when the 6,000 years also ended.

Christians, however, had failed to take account of the most obvious sign of all, and that was that in 1914 - just 'seven times' from when God began to break up the Kingdom of Judah (see Daniel 1:1) in 607 BC - He had commenced to bring about the downfall of our present civilisation, by the outbreak of the First World War. Such things as these were too big to discern at the time, needless to say, but now that the world as a whole has a stockpile of infinitely superior weaponry, in readiness for a third outbreak, few can remain ignorant of the words of Jesus, when He said (in Luke 21:31) 'When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand.' But He had to add, 'Take heed to yourselves, lest ... that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.'

So it was that, as things quietened after the First World War, a drowsiness appeared to settle down upon the Church as a whole, and one feels this end-time 'slumber' is what our Lord had in mind in the first parable of Matthew 25:5 'while the Bridegroom tarried'.

In the above heading we have referred to the '3,700 days' during which, first John the Baptist testified to 'Messiah the Prince' (Daniel 9:25) between AD 26 and AD 29, and then Jesus Himself ministered for three and a half years until His ascension in AD 33. After this, from pentecost in AD 33 to the salvation of the first Gentile household in Caesarea, at Pentecost in AD 36, there were three further years during which the preaching of 'the word' was 'unto the Jews only' (Acts 11:19). The whole period amounted to exactly 3,700 days - the two days of Christ's entombment and the nine days between His ascension and Pentecost being omitted from reckoning (for the reason that no Divine Person was then ministering on the earth).

We have had to go into this detail for an essential reason. Apart from many other significant measurements which had April 1st 1938 as their starting point, was one which ended with May 17th 1948 - the day the newborn State of Israel received de jure recognition from the Soviet Union, on the third day after its proclamation on May 14th-15th. This period was exactly 3,700 days.

We must attempt to uncover the tremendous significance of this fact.

When the exact patterning of the seven years from 1938 to 1945 was examined and compared with that of the years, AD 26 to AD 33, we were amazed to see that the one was a chronological shadow of the other. (Attention has been drawn already to the '1,263 and a half days' and '1,260 days' which spanned the time from June 11th 1938 to May 8th 1945, when the War in Europe ended and the remnant of the Jews was saved from Nazi genocide). The 3 years and 9 days from May 8th 1945 up to May 17th 1948 can be seen to compensate chronologically for the 3 years and 9 days between the Ascension of Christ in AD 33 and the Day of Pentecost on June 22nd in AD 36.

These facts spoke loudly to us, as the facts of history will speak if we consider them, but what were they actually saying ?

AD 26 to AD 33 Compared with AD 1938 to 1945

During the three years of His public ministry to the Jews, between the Passover of AD 30 and that of AD 33, John's Gospel reveals that, in the main, Jesus ministered in Galilee because, in Judea, 'the Jews sought to kill Him' (see John 7:1 & 5:16-18). And, when He eventually came back to Jerusalem in AD 33, He knew full well that they would have their way. The shadow of the Cross hung over His whole pathway in those years and, in a very real sense, with perfect foreknowledge of all that which lay before Him, Jesus walked in 'the valley of the shadow of death' until, in the end, for seven hours, forsaken of God and afflicted, He was to be seen hanging upon a tree. 'For seven hours' - and these also were divided like the seven years, into four hours and three.

The Hours of the Cross

Mark's Gospel (15: 25) tells us that 'it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.' This third hour of the day, from 8 to 9 am, was the hour of the morning sacrifice, and we can be sure that it was close to the beginning of this hour that our blessed Redeemer, already 'so marred more than any man' (Isaiah 52:14) through the scourging and the buffeting He had received, was nailed by His hands and feet to the stake (Greek 'stauros', pole or stake), which was then erected and dropped into the hole dug for it.

From that hour until noon the sun shone pitilessly down upon His suffering body, but after that the darkness came 'until the ninth hour' when Jesus died. For three more hours His body hung there lifeless upon the tree before, 'when the even was come', Joseph of Arimathaea went to Pilate and obtained permission to take it down for burial in his own new tomb (Mark 15: 33, 42-46).

So for ten hours on that day of May 1st, AD 33, the curse of God had rested upon the body of His Beloved Son, 'for it is written, "cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree"' (Galatians 3:13, Deuteronomy 21:23).

We each one know that He bore that curse for us.

The Ten Years and the Ten Hours

A sizeable book could be written about the significance of the 'sign' given to Hezekiah (as recorded in Isaiah 38, etc.) when 'the sun returned ten (lit.) steps, by which steps it was gone down,' but, of necessity, the fact can only be alluded to here in brief. The purpose of this great interposition of God, at the time of what was probably the supreme crisis in the history of the Kingdom of Judah, as the context of Isaiah chapters 36 and 37 shows, was to provide 'a sign' that He would deliver and defend His people and city from the King of Assyria.

The Divine promise was, 'Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees (lit. steps), which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.' The Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1949 comments that 'a more correct translation of Isaiah 38:8 may be: "Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the steps down the steps of Ahaz, 10 steps backwards." ' (Editors' note: Jay P Green's Literal Translation of the Bible, 1985, (in his interlinear Hebrew/Greek Bible) also says for verse 8: 'Behold, I will bring back the shadow of the steps which has gone down in the steps of Ahaz with the sun, backward ten steps. And the sun went back ten steps by the steps which it had gone down!')

These 'steps' registered hours, and the hour is the smallest unit of time of which the Bible takes account.

It is one thing for the child of God to believe in 'the wondrous works of God' (Job 37:14) and to know that the Bible is true when it records the amazing miracle of the sun standing still 'for about a whole day' in Joshua chapter 10, or that 'the sun returned ten steps' - the great sign we are now considering in Isaiah chapter 38 - but it is another thing to receive what the Spirit of Truth reveals as to why these things occurred in history so long ago. What was the significance of the cancelling of ten hours out of time in the days of Hezekiah?

Without giving this the massive support which can be drawn from the Bible's chronology as applied to Israel's history, let us say in all simplicity that it has to do with the putting away of sin. We can remember the words of Hezekiah in Isaiah 38: 17: 'Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for Thou has cast all my sins behind Thy back.'

God on that occasion turned 'the shadow of death into the morning' (Amos 5:8) by causing that at sundown the fiery orb should return and register but the third hour of the day (8-9 am). That is, what was still the hour of 6 p.m. in Heaven's time had now become 8 am on earth so that the day might run its course again. Leaving all other reasons for this 'sign' aside, why do we think of this great miracle in the time of Hezekiah as having any bearing upon the history of our modern civilisation? For one pre-eminent reason. We have seen the ten years from AD 26 to AD 36, when 'the word was preached to none but unto the Jews only,' (Acts 11:19) chronologically repeated between 1938 and 1948, when the national resurrection of Israel took place. Between AD 36 and 1938 we have measured a great 'two days'(2,000 lunar years or 1,960 years with the addition of 40 years of Jubilee) - the era of waiting to which Hosea refers in chapter 6: 2.

And, looking back at the Gospel records, we see the sufferings of Christ at the hands of the Romans were for ten hours until the time of His death - from the opening of 'the sixth hour' (5-6 am) when Pilate had Him scourged (John 19:1,14), to the Jewish 'ninth hour' (2-3 pm) when He yielded up His spirit (Matthew 27: 45-50). And after this, 'two days', until the afternoon of Sunday, May 3rd.

The Ten Hours to Resurrection

It was not until the Midnight hour of 12-1 am on Monday May 4th that God raised Jesus from the dead. We must briefly digress and consider this important aspect of the death and rising again of Jesus our Lord. Jesus is God's 'firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth' (Psalm 89:27) and, as such, He was 'let go' from death at the hour of midnight, like the 'firstborn' in Egypt, at the time of the Exodus. But Jesus had also been the sin-bearer - 'reckoned among the transgressors' (Luke 22: 37) - and suffering judgment, like the 'firstborn of Pharoah' (see Exodus 4:22-23 and 12:29).

How then was He to die at Midnight, and thus as a Substitute, fulfil this role in the mighty plan of Redemption? We believe the answer is to be found in the following facts. When God interfered with the ordered course of time in Hezekiah's day (712-711 BC) He never changed the calendars of Heaven. When '8 am' might be the time on earth, '6 pm' (the opening hour of the next day) still registered with God. Hence, if we travel onward to the Cross of Calvary, we find that the hour when Christ was crucified was the opening of a new day, in terms of 24-hour days as reckoned from Creation. It was in fact '6 pm' when, like a lamb, Jesus was put to death by crucifixion - and 'Midnight' (our 2-3 pm) when He died. No wonder darkness covered the earth as this dread hour approached!

It was then, at the time of the death of Jesus, that God 'changed the times and the seasons' (Daniel 2:21). The 1,960 years of Israel's Redemption Calendar had ended, so now the Father would wait until the true solar Midnight was reached on May 3rd before commencing the new Calendar of the Resurrection.

What has been shown in these past pages is the simple pattern of the death and resurrection of Christ which is, inclusively, 'two days and ten hours', following upon the preceding 'ten hours' of His great sufferings, when He 'put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself' (Hebrews 9: 26). And this is the pattern of the years which we have outlined - the ten years from AD 26 to AD 36, followed by the 'two days' (2,000 years) and the ten years from 1938 to 1948 which saw the Nation of Israel 'raised from the dead.'

The Sign of Darkness

It is only because of the importance of these facts for Israel and the world in the days which are to come, that it has been necessary to go so carefully into all this detail, which we well know could be burdensome to the normal reader. We must, however, draw attention to the 'horror of great darkness' which Abram experienced, before dealing directly with the question of the 'sign' forecast in 1938.

When the Most High God gave Abram the prophecy and vision of the four hundred years to the Exodus, in Genesis 15:12-13, He gave to the Patriarch a foretaste of the 'horror of great darkness' which would eventually come in Egypt, when that land experienced 'a thick darkness in all the land' for 'three days' (Exodus 10:22). We also know that at the end of the 4,000 years in the Chronology of Redemption from Adam to Calvary, there was the darkening of the sun for three hours, as Matthew, Mark and Luke each testify.

What then of the great four thousand years from the Covenant of Genesis 15, which ended in 1948? Let the fact dawn upon all, both Jews and Gentiles, that the three years (1942 to 1945) stood out in those final ten years to 1948 as the three hours of darkness in the ten hours of the Cross of Jesus. This was the 'sign in the sun' of which warning must needs be given at the opening of those last 3,700 days, and it was mainly in these three years that the third part of the whole Jewish race was taken from the earth.

Upwards of twenty-four million soles (civilian and military) perished in the Second World War, but the 'horror of great darkness' (Genesis 15: 12) fell mainly upon the people of Israel, and no one conversant with the history of those last three years of the war should think of challenging that fact.

'The Sign of Resurrection' in Isaiah 38

'What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?' (Isaiah 38: 22) If we read the account in 2 Kings 20: 8-11, we shall see the picture drawn even more clearly. 'Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day?"' What was the 'sign'? It was the sign of the Sun's returning to run its course again for ten hours. And what was the means used for the recovery of King Hezekiah from his sickness? If we read in Isaiah 38: 21, we find that it was 'a lump of figs.'

If scattered 'figs' portray the dispersion of the Jews from their land, of what does a 'lump of figs' speak, if not the regathering of the Nation again, as the whole world has witnessed in 1948? (Figs are symbolic of Jews carried away captive, and later restored to their land - see Jeremiah 24).

'3,700' Civil Lunar Years from the Exodus End in 1948

God is a God of absolute perfection when it comes to the designing of the chronology of His Word. Not only must He cause that the opening of the last 3,700 days from 1938 to the rise of the State of Israel in 1948 should be clearly marked by the warning of a sign, but in planning the ages He had foreseen, and, shall we not say, actually designed, that a span of 3,700 years (of 354 days each) should terminate at this great resurrection hour in the history of the Jewish people. For we shall find, if we measure this period from the very day of the Exodus, which was May 12th, 1639 BC (and leaving unreckoned the two days of the death of Jesus in AD 33) that it ended on the solar anniversary of Pentecost - June 22nd - in 1948, and that it was on this same day that the first US Ambassador to Israel accepted his appointment, thus sealing America's relationship with the new State.

This was most clearly a design of God, because the original 3,700 days from the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry in AD 26 had been timed to end at Pentecost - June 22nd - AD 36, as previously explained. What was God really saying in all this? The Jews - apart from the small minority in Israel who had received Jesus - had as a nation rejected and lost the Divine testimony of John the Baptist and of the Messiah Himself, and lastly (between AD 33 and AD 36) that of the Holy Ghost, during those former ten years. Therefore God had caused the period to run its course again at this end of the age. This, indeed, was what we had seen with our own eyes, and we had seen it end with the rise of the State of Israel!

Was not this chronological repetition of the ten years like the sun's shadow retracing its course on 'the steps of Ahaz,' the appointed 'sign' to the people of Israel that 'the third day' had now come - the day of their deliverance from an enemy worse than Sennacherib - because the 'two days' or 'two thousand years' of the Gentiles had ended?

What of the 'Seven Times'?

'How great are His signs! and how mighty are His wonders!' (Daniel 4:3) This chapter was headed with the question 'How did the Seven Times of the Exile End?' The period in question was the 2,520 years (See Note 1) which started over the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, 583-2 BC and ended over the year 1938-9. Instead of ending with a literal sign in the sun, they had merely ushered in the darkest era in the entire history of the Jewish people - at least, as far as the Jews of Europe were concerned. 'The shadow of death' was, indeed, to pass over Israel but praise be to God - to the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob - that shadow in the end would be 'turned into the morning' (Amos 5:8).

The history of the returning of the 'exiles' of Israel over the year 1948-9 is too well known to all who love the God of Israel to need repeating here, for countless books were published on the subject. The story of the Yemenite Jews, borne back to their homeland 'on eagles' wings' (Exodus 19:4) - in the airlift from Aden - is, indeed, a tale of wonder to all who read it. But the 'sign' of Daniel 4: 16 & 17 etc. is in essence a chronological one - it must be exactly measured. So the question still remained, How could this great span of 2,520 years relating to the Gentiles ever become a 'sign' to all the peoples of the world?

The fourth chapter of Daniel is the one and only chapter in the Bible which is written by a Gentile, and it is, of course, the testimony of 'the head' of the succession of powers spoken of in Daniel chapter 2. It is to be noted that in Dan 4: 1, this King addresses himself to 'all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth.' And the purpose of the 'seven times' measurement is clearly stated in the chapter , by 'a holy one ... from heaven' (Dan 4:13), to be:

'That the living may know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men, ... and setteth up over it the most abased of men' (Dan 4:17) that is Jesus, whom men slew and hanged upon a tree.

The 2,520 Years + 10 Years or 2,530 Years

Revealed in the Holy Scriptures

It is only while writing these pages that the perfect pattern of the 2,520 and 10 years has come to light, and it lies upon the surface of the Bible's chronological structure.

According to the genealogical tables of Genesis 5 and the data given in chapters 6 - 8, it was 1,657 years (of 354 days) from Adam to the end of the year of the Flood (2469 BC). From this new beginning, after which the sons of Noah began to repopulate the earth, there were precisely 2,520 years in the Bible's chronology to AD 26, when John the Baptist began to bear testimony to 'Messiah the Prince'; that was when 4,177 years had been completed (4,177 - 1,657 = 2,520). 'Seven times' had passed over the Gentile world, since the Flood of Noah, before those final ten years which we have been so long considering, came into view. But the word was preached 'to none but unto the Jews only' right through until Pentecost, AD 36, and then it was that the Gentiles first began to hear how God had exalted Him Who had, at His crucifixion, truly been 'the abasest of men'. The whole ten years had been for a 'sign'.

The numerical value of the Hebrew word for 'sign', or 'ensign' or 'pole' - such as the 'pole' upon which Moses 'lifted up the serpent in the wilderness' (John 3:14) - is '110' and the word is 'nes', spelt with the Hebrew letters nun (50) and samech (60).

We find that 2,530 is 23 times '110', and from this fact we begin to see the design of God concerning the 'seven times'. Apart from the addition of those ten years from AD 26 (containing the testimonies of John the Baptist, of Jesus Himself, and of the Holy Spirit until Pentecost, AD 36) the 2,520 years could have been no 'sign' to the Gentile world. But when the three-fold testimony to Israel was completed, then in AD 36 it could begin to be unfolded to the Gentiles, as recorded in Acts 10.

God's ways are 'perfect', and many illustrations could be given to show the Divine use of the number '110' in connection with the Cross of Jesus, if space were to permit, but the spiritual mind will readily grasp the thought of God in causing the 2,520 years from 583 BC to end with the whole ten years from 1938 to 1948 - making 23 times '110' years in all.

Actually, we believe God may have looked upon AD 26 to 36 as a lost period in the 'seven times', so that its repetition over the years 1938 to 1948 would but bring the 2,520 years to fulness. But, whichever way we may look at it, it is certain that the God of Israel now requires both Jew and Gentile to receive an understanding of what He has done and of what He intends to do in relation to the people of Israel and their land.

The Year of Israel's Rise Among the Nations

It is of importance to note that the United Nations Organisation recognised Israel as a member State a year after its inception in May 1948. The day and hour when their vote was cast is of great significance, for it was exactly 360 days after May 16th-17th in 1948, when the 2,520 years + 3,700 days were complete from the opening of the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar in 583 BC (The Babylonian year, or 'time' was 360 days -(see Note 1)

The day and hour was 'May 11th, at Midnight' in 1949, when by a majority of '37' votes the State of Israel was granted recognition by the world. This was, of course, to the hour, the solar anniversary of the Exodus 'Midnight' deliverance from Egypt in 1639 BC.

It was exactly ten years of 354 days each from September 1st 1939 when Germany invaded Poland (the country where the greatest number of Jews in Europe were congregated) at the beginning of the Second World War.

Let all who have pondered Israel's long history of suffering at the hands of the Gentile nations, and who consider their present position of crisis in the world, remember the closing words of the great king Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:37: 'Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase.'

And let us also remember that these words of Nebuchadnezzar are addressed to us, for they were 'to all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth.' And we remember that he went on, 'I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me. How great are His signs! and how mighty are His wonders!'

It is with the object of beginning to uncover these 'signs and wonders' that these pages have been written. This perfectly-timed overruling of world history by the Almighty God is manifestly proceeding to a conclusion in these days of increasing darkness and strife among the nations. 'Men's hearts' are indeed 'failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth' (Luke 21:26). But what of us, who are 'children of the light'? We are promised the shining of the 'day star' (2 Peter 1:19) and the gift of the 'morning star' - yes, indeed, the light of Jesus Who is 'the bright and morning star' (Revelation 2:28 & 22:16).

Has it ever occurred to the saints of God that this might be an astronomical light?! A light we can actually see with our eyes, just as we actually see the morning star? How many millions have blindly accepted that '4,004 BC' or thereabouts was the date of Genesis 1, simply because a few scholars had agreed that there probably would have been about four thousand solar years between the Creation of Adam and the birth of Christ?

God in His wisdom and in His mercy has brought the figures of His Word (that is, in the Hebrew Masoretic text - upon which our King James Version is based) to the rescue, so that we may discern the pattern and the bold outline, as well as the fine detail, of His works over the past six thousand years. Praise His Holy Name! Yes, we are at the 'resurrection' end of a long and darkened age, and, just as it was at the beginning, Jesus is now, in a multitude of hearts and minds, presenting Himself 'alive ... by many infallible proofs' (see Acts 1:3). Let us no longer ignore this marvellous side of His Holy Word.

Before proceeding to consider certain 'signs in the moon' in the next Chapter , let us ask soberly what probability is there that the network of facts and figures we have summed up in these preceding 21 Chapters could have come about by accident?!

It is the prevailing state of blindness in the world and in the Church, as it gropes its way along the edge of an appalling abyss (well beyond the point of no return) that causes us to go into print, however poorly or inadequately our case may have been presented.

And our case is simply that God has given light to shine on the Person of His Son Jesus, Jesus Who is still the light of the world, the only light it needs, or will ever have.

Nineteen centuries ago fear and prejudice put out that light for the people of Israel at large, and a small persecuted minority of Gentiles commenced to bear it aloft - which were destined to become the Church of God. Now, it would seem, it is the turn of Israelis and Jews generally to look again upon the Person of their Redeemer, and to get to know the true facts concerning His coming down to earth, to take His place among them and to become, as the Samaritan woman said, 'The Christ, the Saviour of the World' (John 4:42).

If we look for a brief moment in this fourth chapter of John's Gospel, we shall see that 'after two days' (Jn 4:43) spent in Samaria, Jesus 'departed thence, and went into Galilee' where, we read, 'the Galilaeans received Him, having seen all things that He did at Jerusalem at the feast ... so Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee where He made the water wine.' This return to Cana, 'after two days' (which had actually been spent in a Gentile sphere - for the Samaritans were not Jews) prefigured Jesus, after the two thousand years of the Christian dispensation, returning to reveal Himself in Israel, so that the people who have been 'in darkness' might see 'a great light' (see Isaiah 9:1-2).

Chapter 22 The Chronological Significance of the Apollo Missions to the Moon

Chapters Index