Glorification

By Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton
1941

Part I
The Ancient Truth

V. VIRGIN BIRTH AND SUN DIAL OF AHAZ

"The Lord spake unto Ahaz, saying, The Lord shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name God With Us." (Isaiah 7: 10, 14.)

"Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying Go, and say to Hezekiah, . . . This shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord. . . . Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of 4haz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which it was gone down." (Isaiah 38: 4, 5, 7, 8)

The birth of the Lord into the world was the supreme miracle of all time, and essential to the redemption of the human race. It was given as if in living forecast by the sign of the virgin birth during the reign of Ahaz, King of Judah, and later confirmed by the reversal of the sun's course, or the going down of the shadow on the dial, during the following reign of King Hezekiah. The contrast between these two miracles is obvious, the one being human in its manifestation, and the other cosmic. Both were quite beyond the established laws of nature. They stand as a Divine intervention. Though widely different in outer aspect, yet there is an intimate relation between them. This relation is indicated by the fact that the sun's reversal during Hezekiah's reign was recorded on the dial of Ahaz.

The prophecy of the virgin birth was an open forecast of the Lord's actual Advent, and was accepted by Ahaz as of immediate fulfillment, while the sun's going back on its course in Hezekiah's days signified the providential retarding of the states of the church until the Advent was at hand.

We note with interest the fact that while the virgin birth actually came to pass in its ordained time, the dial mystery of later date, or the sun's recession, presented a cosmic impossibility. Yet both stand as representations of that which in the fullness of time would surely come to pass. Both foretold the future by realistic signs which involved mysteries of things that were, and were yet to be.

The virgin birth of prophecy in Ahaz's day was taken by that king as a sign of his own times - as a sign that his enemies should not prevail. Syria and Israel had joined in a coalition against Judah. This threat was conceived with intent to destroy Jerusalem and dethrone its king. Israel, to the north, was then largely gentile. Its inhabitants were not bound by the sacred traditions which prevailed in Judah or in the Holy City, and with its king, who was of the royal line of David, whose throne represented, in the highest sense, the rule of the Lord over His church. Of Providence it was imperative that the house of David should be maintained. A break in the royal line would have signalized the end of the representative church. If we may conceive of this break as taking place in Ahaz's time, the actual coming of the Lord would then have been a necessity, and the virgin birth a fact. Certainly the Advent was then as if pending, so near was the evil state of the church to that which subsequently prevailed when the Lord came - so near, indeed, that an open representation of His Advent was the only means by which the final consummation could be stayed, and His coming delayed until the appointed time.

Though Ahaz was evil as if beyond measure, his Divine representation was maintained, and so to him an open vision of the virgin birth was granted; yet he, as a man, could not see beyond that which is called the "sign of the times," which sign was at all times an immediate and powerful influence in the day of its giving.

While there was, in fact, no virgin birth in Ahaz's day, yet the Scriptural manifestation concerning that event was in effect sufficient to moderate the evil of the times, and to make effective in both worlds the required delay. The like may be said of every prophecy and its sign recorded in the Word of God. As understood by the angels of heaven, a prophecy, its sign, and as well its fulfillment, are one, since in the world to come time plays no real part.

The entire Scripture is infilled from within by that which is known as its internal sense. This sense may now be seen in some part by every believing man. To the end that the Word may be so interpreted, it was allowed that evil men might, in the highest degree and equally with the good, represent the Lord. It was so with the wicked Ahaz, and this for the obvious reason that he was the lawful King of Judah, and of the royal line of David. To him the vision was given and the sign made manifest; yet his mind was altogether fixed on the sign, and he was afraid. "His heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved by the wind." (Isaiah 7: 2.)  A choice was allowed. "Jehovah said unto him, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above." If he should ask from the depth, the answer would be from hell; but if from the height, the response would come from heaven. The choice appalled the king. Taking refuge in evasion, he said, "I will not ask." And the Lord rebuked him, saying, "Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name God With Us. . . . Before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings." (Isaiah 7: 10-16.)

This was the prophecy, and this the sign.  Ahaz refused to inquire either from heaven or hell.  Therefore the Lord Himself foretold the virgin birth, and gave the sign of victory, signifying the conquest of the one so born over all evil, and this even in His childhood, by virtue of the Divine power resident in His soul, which, though but obscurely realized, was not the less Divinely effective.

It may here be noted that these early conquests of the Lord prepared the way for His entrance into Jerusalem; for there He must go, leave, and return.  There He must encounter the death that opened to life. Only in Jerusalem could the central features of the Divine drama be enacted. Also, it may be noted that the alternations between good and evil states involved in His temptations were, in the historic days of Judah and Jerusalem, represented by the change from good to evil kings and from evil to good. In the text, the evil Ahaz was followed by the good King Hezekiah. It was in the reign of this king that the sign of the sun going back was recorded on the dial, and this as a companion miracle to the sign of the virgin birth.

Near the end of Hezekiah's reign, a threat of danger from Assyria arose on Judah's horizon. At the time, Hezekiah was near death.  Word came from the prophet Isaiah, saying, "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt surely die." Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, protesting that he had "walked in truth and with a perfect heart."  The Lord answered him, saying, "I have heard thy prayer; . . . behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria. . . . And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees which is gone down on the dial of Ahaz. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which it was gone down." (Isaiah 38: 1-8)

This text stands over against the miracle of the virgin birth of Ahaz's day.  It is not contrary to the order of creation, if understood as having reference to the spiritual sun.  It may then be seen that the retarding of states signified by the sun's going back has a like spiritual origin.  While the virgin birth was not impossible to God, and was a world event, the retreat of the sun was a spiritual event, and the record of it was apocalyptic, in that as a phenomenon it was significant - of an ordered delay of the judgment which was to take place in the spiritual world, and this while Hezekiah saw in it only an extension of the years of his life and the deliverance of Jerusalem.

While the virgin birth was a natural event, and a world necessity, and the source of the Christian religion, it is of interest to note that the Jews were strict in their disbelief. Despite the Jewish origin of the text concerning the virgin birth, they denied that their Messiah was to be born of a virgin. They pointed to the fact that no such birth is to be found in their list of Messianic prophecies.  Christians, however, have always appealed to the text from Isaiah as sustaining the New Testament's account of the Lord's birth. But, so far as known, Christians have not closely associated the Virgin birth, recorded as if in Ahaz's day, with the after miracle of the dial. However, we may point to the crucial fact that the sun's recession in Hezekiah's day was recorded on Ahaz's dial, thus establishing a fundamental and overruling link between the two miracles.

The Writings affirm that the mystery of the dial was given in Hezekiah's day because he was a good king, and we may note that only the angels of heaven may see the spiritual sun. They also see its twilight recession. To the evil it is ever veiled in darkness.

The ancients, lacking a knowledge of discrete degrees, could hardly distinguish between the natural and the spiritual sun. They invested the sun of this world with godlike powers. Certainly they saw it as a living thing, and as if having a volition of its own.

Taken together, the two representations complete the Divine significance in joining the human with the cosmic. They invest the virgin-born Child with the Sun of heaven. This may be seen confirmed in the New Testament by the inspired words of Zacharias, who characterized the Child born of Mary as the "dayspring from on high."  By this the heart of all ancient prophecies was fulfilled. The Child born of Mary, as His glorification advanced, was successively reborn of God.  His birth from Mary was given when the light of heaven was darkened - when the hearts of men were cold, when the sun was low on the horizon, and human need was greatest, just then He was born, and soon thereafter began His ascent upon the steps of the celestial dial, passing through and above the heavens into an eternal union with the Father.