Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_700.lzh/6_747.TXT

Text File | 1994-11-26 | 7KB | 127 lines

sound of them, which will then go into all the earth;
for the swiftness in which they shall proceed; for their
rapidity and force in bearing all before them; for the
great spread of them; and for their virtue and efficacy
in cooling those who are inflamed with the fiery law;
refreshing thirsty souls; purifying the hearts and lives
of sinners, and making those that are barren fruitful:
and to living waters, because they are the means of
quickening dead sinners, and of reviving drooping
saints; and because they serve to support and maintain
a spiritual life, and nourish up unto eternal life, and
direct the way to it, as well as give the best account
of it: and these Will come out of Jerusalem; which
may design Jerusalem literally,. which will be rebuilt
at the time of the Jews' converston; or mystically the
church, the spiritual and heavenly Jerusalem; see Heb.
xii. 22. Ezek. xlvii. 1. Joel iii. 18. reference seems to
be had to the first ministration of the Gospel, which,
according to prophecy, came out of Jerusalem, Isa. ii.
3. Half of them towards the former sea; or the eastern
sea, as the Targum, the Persian sea; and may signify
that-the Gospel shall be carried into the eastern parts
of the world, into-Persia, Tartary, and China, and
other nations; and those great kingdoms shall be-
come the kingdoms of Christ: and half of them toward
the hinder sea; or tile western sea, as the Targum, the
Mediterranean sea; and m. ay denote the progress and
success of the Gospel in the European parts of the
world: and the meaning of the whole is, that the Gos-
pel shall be carried from east to west, and preached all
the world over, to the conversion of Jews and Gentiles,
who, some think, are designed by the two seas; when
the abundance of the sea shall be converted by it, and
the forces and fulness of the Gentiles brought in, and
all Israel saved: in summer and in winter shah it be; there
will be no summer of persecution, nor winter of cold-
ness and indifference to hinder the ministry of the
word: the phrase denotes the constant ininistry of the
word, and the duration of it; it shall be constantly
preached all the year long, and as long as summer ar, d
winter last.
Ver. 9. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth,
&c.] This refers to the spiritual reign of Christ in
the latter day; upon the success of the Gospel every-
where, there will be great conversions in all places;
Gospel churches will be set up and ordinances admi-
nistered everywhere; the earth will be filled with the
knowledge of the Lord; his kingdom will be from sea
tO sea, from the eastern to the western one, and his
dominion will reach to the ends of the earth; Popish
nations, Mahometan kingdoms, Pagan ones, and all
the kings of'the earth, will' become Christian, and
submit to the sceptre of Christ's kingdom: in that day
shall there be one Lord; there is but one Lord in right
now, and there is but one in fact that is owned by real
Christians; and there will be' but One in the spiritual
reign, among all that are called Christians; there will
be but one Lord and Head to Jews and Gentiles, Hos.
i. 11. the pope Of Rome will be no more owned as head
of the church, nor any other: and his nam.e, one; this
refers not to any particular name by which Christ shall
be called; but rattler to that by which his people shall be
tallied; all names.of distinction being now laid aside,
.and only that of Christians retained; though it chiefly
designs unity of doctrine, uniibrmity 'of worship, one
and the same way of administering ordinances: it sig-
nifies that there will be one true, spiritual, uniform
worship and religion; there will be no different senti-
ments and principles in religion; nor different practices
and modes of worship; nor different sects; but all
agreeing in the same faith and practice, under one
Lord and King, Christ Jesus. So the Targum, "they
"shall serve betbre the Lord with one shoulder; for
"his name is firm in the world, and there is none be-
'' sides it." This passage is referred by the ancient
Jews {} to the times of the Messiah.
Ver. 10. All the land shall be turned as a plain, &c.]
That is, all the land of Israel round about Jerusalem,
which was encompassed with mountains, Psal. cxxv.
2. but now these mountains shall become a plain, that
that may be seen; since it follows, from Geba to Rim.
mort south of Jerusalem; Geba was a city in the tribe
of Benjamin, on the northern border of the land, Josh.
xxi. 17. and Rimmonwas in the tribe of Judah, given
to Simeon on the southern part, Josh. xv. 32. and xix.
7. so that from Geba to Rimmort was the same as
from Geba to Beer-sheba, which was in the same tribe,
2 Kings xxiii. 8. and, according to the Jewish writers,
the south of Jerusalem was a plain; wherefore the
meaning seems to be, that the whole land, from Geba
to Rimmdn, should be like that. Jerom makes men-
tion of a village called Reramon in his time, fifteen
miles to the north of Jerusalem, which cannot be the
place here meant, and yet speaks of it as in the tribe
of Simeon or Judah; and afterwards takes notice of
another village called Remmus in Daroma, or the
south {m}; to me it seems that Geba and Rimmon were
places near one to another, and both in the tribe of
Benjamin; see 1 Sam. xiv. 4. where the word ren-
dered pomegranate is Rimmon, and is the proper
name of a place, according to some; the same with
that in Judg. xx. 47. where was a rock called the rock
Rimmon; and Jonathan ben Uzziel, on l Sam. xiv.
renders it, the plain of the pomegranate; or rather the
plain of Rimmon: and-the Jews make mention in their
Talmud {n} of the valley of Rimmort, where seven elders
met to intercalate the year; and here, they say, was
a marble rock, in which every one fastened a nail,
and therefore it is called the rock of nails. Now the
sense seems to be, that all the land of Israel should be-
come a plain, like the valley that was between Geba
and Rimmort. Jarchi interprets it 0fthe whole world.
And this will be literally true of the new earth, in the
thousand-years' reign, which will be without hills
mountains, and seas, Rev. xxi. 1. It may be ,mystically
understood of the spiritual reign of Christ, when the
whole world will become Christian; when Jews and
Gentiles, and even the kings of the earth, shall bow
the knee to Christ, and be subject to him. And it shall
be lifted up, and inhabited in her place; that is, Jerusa-
lem, which shall appear very high, all the land round
about being a plain; and, being rebuilt, shall be in-

{l} Zohar in Deut. fol. 110. 2.
{m} De locis Heb. fol. 94. A. C.
{n} t. Hieros. Chargiga, fol. 78. 4.