“And it shall come to pass, _if_ thou shalt hearken diligently unto the
voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which
I command thee this day: that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above
all nations of the earth: and all these blessings shall come on thee, and
overtake thee, _if_ thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy
God.” Deut. 28:1, 2. “But it shall come to pass, _if_ thou wilt not
hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his
commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day: that all
these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee,” &c. _Ib._ 15.
Predictions of mere national prosperity, or adversity, are usually
conditional. When the condition is not expressed, it is implied.
_Example._—The Lord said unto Jonah, “Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great
city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.... And Jonah began
to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty
days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed
God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of
them even to the least of them.... And God saw their works, that they
turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said
that he would do unto them: and he did it not.”
For all cases of this kind, the Lord has given the following general RULE:
“At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a
kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it: if that nation
against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the
evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak
concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent
of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them.” Jer. 18:7-10.
9. UNCONDITIONAL Prophecy includes all predictions which are absolute in
their nature. _Examples._—“But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be
filled with the glory of the Lord.” Num. 14:21.
“For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen
upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising.... For the nation and kingdom that will not
serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted....
Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for
ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be
glorified.” Isa. 60:2, 3, 12, 21.
“But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the
house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it
shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.” Micah
4:1.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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