“When preparing the lessons relating to Moses and his two presentations of himself to the Israelites, as their deliverer from Egyptian bondage (as shown in our previous two blog post), we noted the fact that “these things were written aforetime for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” (1 Cor 10:11.)

And, considering the matter from this standpoint, we perceived, as we had never done before, that the three signs by which the Israelites were convinced that God’s deliverance of them was at hand, at Moses’ second presentation, must have been intended to typify some corresponding three signs or testimonies at the second advent of Christ; testimonies which will be convincing to the true spiritual Israelites. In the type these three signs or testimonies preceded the plagues upon the Egyptians; and this in the anti-type, must mean that the three signs or testimonies to spiritual Israel respecting the second advent of our Lord, and respecting the great deliverance which he is to accomplish, must precede the plagues, the great time of trouble, coming upon the world in general shortly.

At first, we were perplexed, and said to ourself:

“The Scriptures clearly show us that we are now ‘in the days of the Son of Man;’ our journal has borne as its sub-title, Herald of Christ’s Presence, since its institution, 1879; yet where are these three signs?

Already (that is, at the time this was written in 1900) twenty-seven years of the forty-year harvest have passed, and but thirteen remain, in the last four of which we confidently expect the plagues upon the world – anti-typically referred to as Egypt. (*So as not to distract from the flow of our study here we will address the issue of the forty-year harvest and the mistake which the Pastor realized was made in this regard sometime later near his death, at the conclusion of our study.)

Where are these signs or testimonies, which the type teaches us we should expect at this time, to convince all the true Israelites?

For a time, we were inclined to look for miraculous tokens, but subsequently realized that this would be out of the Lord’s order, as the anti-type is always on a higher and grander scale than the type: as for instance the typical Passover lamb but feebly foreshadowed the Lamb of God, and the great things accomplished through his sacrifice. Feeling confident of the times in which we are living, “in the Parousia (presence) of the Son of Man,” we concluded that in all probability these signs had already been given, or were in process of giving at the present time. Still, we could not recognize them, and feeling that the matter must now be to the Lord’s household “meat in due season,” we besought the Lord earnestly and repeatedly for light upon the subject, while continuing our studies. No light coming, we mentioned the matter to the Bible House family at the dinner table, requesting the prayers of all upon the subject, and that if any had suggestions to offer they would feel free to present them. Seemingly it was in line with the divine purpose that we should thus come to the point of making confession of inability to solve the riddle, and that our reliance for wisdom was wholly upon the Lord: for within two hours after this acknowledgment the entire matter became clear and lucid to our mind, as we shall endeavor now to lay it before you all.

(1) Our Lord declares Moses to have been, in some particulars, in some of his transactions, a type of himself, saying, “Moses wrote of me.” Moses himself declared, “A prophet [teacher] shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me.” Peter quotes this last expression in his sermon, and emphasizes it. (John 5:46; Deut 18:56; Acts 3:22.) Moses did not typify Christ in all of his doings, however, nor was his life as a whole a type of the life of Christ. For instance, in his smiting of the rock, contrary to the divine command, he became a type of those of Christ’s followers who put him to an open shame, and who, in consequence, will die the Second Death; and as a type of these Moses was not permitted to enter into the land of promise. (Num 20:11; Deut 32:51,52; Heb 10:29.) He typified Jehovah at times also; but in the present instance we are especially interested in considering his conduct with the Israelites in connection with their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. In this type we see him distinctly as a representative of Christ Jesus. Moses was rich, a prince in high honor, learned in all the learning of his times, but for Israel’s sake he renounced these, left them all, and they being bondmen, he took his place amongst them, to be their leader and deliverer. How like this is to the description given us in the Scriptures of our Lord’s course! He left the glory of the heavenly condition and spiritual plane of being; he took a bondman’s form and was found in fashion as a man. He came to deliver his brethren from bondage. –Phil 2:6-8, Diaglott.

When Moses came to his own people, they rejected him, and he fled for his life to the land of Midian, from whence he came to them a second time. So, Christ came to his own, and his own received him not (John 1:12); and he went into a far country, even heaven itself, from whence he has now, a second time, come, and will deliver all who are true Israelites indeed from the bondage of sin and death. Moses was forty years in coming to the point where he offered himself to Israel the first time; then he was absent from them an equal period of time, forty years, and came again and delivered them. There is a type or parallel in this time feature also; it illustrates the length of the Jewish and the Gospel ages, as being equal.

From the time of the beginning of typical Israel as a nation, waiting for the coming of Messiah, down to the time when Jesus actually presented himself, was a period of 1845 years, and from that time, when he died and left them, until the period which the Scriptures show us marked his second coming (October, 1874) was a like period of 1845 years, – corresponding exactly to the two periods at which Moses offered himself in the type.” (R2917)

(This last concerning the 1845 years and “The Jewish Double” was pointed out in our previous post.)

In our next post we will take a look at the three signs by which the Israelites were convinced that God’s deliverance of them was at hand, and how these relate to the tree signs given to spiritual Israel and their deliverance.