Now, as there were forty-five years of trouble, so here are forty-five pillars for support, perhaps to intimate that God will have in his church in the wilderness a sufficient succession of faithful men that, like pillars, shall bear up the truth above water all the time of Antichrist's reign and rage. And methinks the apostles and the Lord Jesus Christ do in all these places allude to the shields, the shields of gold, that Solomon made, and put in the house of the forest of Lebanon; which house, as I have showed, was that which indeed prefigured the state of the church in the wilderness; and these shields a type of faith. Bearing Out a Bible Passage? The answer to these objections appears to me to be conclusive. As they fought with Humbaba, "they whirled around in circles.
May we never be contented with the porch, but enter and enjoy the riches of Divine grace. Here is the true church, and she has the true light; here also is the boar, the man of sin, and the dragon; and they see by their way, and yet, as I said, all by the self-same windows. We know only that it was built according to the plan for the porch of the house of Lebanon. The descriptions in the Greek writers of the Persian courts in Susa and Ecbatana; the tales of the early travelers in the East about the kings of Samarkand or Cathay; and even the imagination of the Oriental romancers and poets, have scarcely conceived a more splendid page than Solomon, seated on his throne of ivory, receiving the homage of distant princes who came to admire his magnificence, and put to the test his noted wisdom. The prophet here knocks at the very door of the house of the forest of Lebanon, and tells her that her cedars are designed for fire; unto which also most plainly answer the flames to which so many of the cedars of Lebanon, [3] God's saints, I mean, for many hundred years, have been delivered for their profession; and by which, as another prophet has it, for many days they have fallen (Dan 11:33). To render persecution perfectly unjustifiable, Bunyan scripturally and plainly exhibits the harmlessness of the Christian character bearing with meekness the injuries heaped upon it; followers of him who, when reviled, reviled not again, but suffered patiently. Although therefore the porch was made of pillars, yet every one that walked there were not such. And this being the effect of light against light at first, is the cause of what to this day we see in the church among the true brotherhood. Here I see kings, princes, cities, and people; here I see wars, where some be overthrown, some be victors, some thrust down, some lifted up. Margaret J. Goldstein captures the beauty and diversity of Lebanon in pictures in her visually captivating book Lebanon in Pictures. May we remember above all the assembly of Psalm 22, mentioned in Hebrews 2:12 12Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. One is, that temporal governors have nothing to fear from the spread of vital godliness: the other is upon the nature of the strife and antipathy felt by the world against Christ and his spiritual seed.
These vessels therefore were for some other use than for formal worship in the house of the forest of Lebanon. God sends his love tokens to his church two ways, sometimes by her friends, sometimes by her enemies. A common expression for difference. "The church is pilled and polled by its own flocks. Under such a disguise, who would expect to find "the well-favoured harlot establishing a throne for Satan? It is yet further evident that this house of the forest of Lebanon was a type of the church in the wilderness:-.
Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos were just a few of the great Phoenician ports. One plaster, one salve cureth all their wounds, which also giveth to me strength and life; so that I sustain all these transitory anguishes and small afflictions with a quiet mind, having a greater hope laid up in heaven. God's ways are not as man's. A 3, 000-year-old defensive wall possibly built by King Solomon has been unearthed in Jerusalem, according to the Israeli archaeologist who led the excavation. This man had got that by the end that pleased him; neither could all the flatteries, promises, threats, or reproaches, make him one listen to or desire to inquire after what the world or the glory of it could afford. "The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. Ebedmelech, because he had compassion on Jeremiah when he was in the dungeon, God did not only give him his life for a prey, but promised him the effects of putting his trust in the Lord (Jer 38:7-11, 39:15-18). This house therefore was built to make assaults, and to be assaulted, as the church in the wilderness is; and hence the state of this house is compared to the condition of a woman in travail, struggling with her pains, as also we find the state of the church in the wilderness is-"O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail! " God forbid that I should relinquish the commandments of God and follow the counsels of men. Here are many nations, many kingdoms, many countries, and many cities, but the church in the wilderness was but one, and she was the heaven that God has here; hence she is called, "Thou heaven. Share with us your insight, thoughts, comments, and questions! "-Life of Bunyan, p. xc.
How much more then when light shall be against light in three ranks? Can any think that trees are the things taken care of here? The largeness, therefore, and prowess of the church, by reason of her inherent fortitude and the valorous acts that she hath done by suffering, by prayer, by faith, and a constant enduring of hardship for the truth, doth force into the world a belief, through their own guilt and clamours of conscience against them for their debaucheries, that this house of the forest of Lebanon will destroy them all when she shall be delivered from her servitude. Wherefore, if the Lord be true and faithful of his word, as it is most certain, then there is no blame in me; for he gave the words that I did speak, and who was I that could resist his will? A tower is a place of receipt for the afflicted, and so is the church under the rage of antichrist; yea, and though it is the only place designed by the enemy for ruin and destruction, yet it is the only place of safety in the world. And yet now the dragon stood by her (Rev 12:4). In vs. 8-9 Hiram answers King Solomon. The dread fire no longer consumes the cedars of Lebanon. CHAPTER V. OF THE WINDOWS IN THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON. These two pieces of armour then that Solomon the king did put into the house of the forest of Lebanon, were types of the spiritual armour that the church in the wilderness should make use of.
The mountains not only inhibited travel, but also limited the amount of land available for crops. In this world there is no mansion firm to me; and therefore I will travel up to the New Jerusalem which is in heaven, and which offereth itself to me, without paying any fine or income. The thick beams that lay over-thwart to couple this house of the forest of Lebanon together, did bear upon these forty-five pillars, to show that, by the burden-bearers that have and shall be in the church of God in the wilderness, the unity of that house is through the Spirit maintained. The cedars of Lebanon were cut from the dense forests of the mountains.