[454]Thus the Lord is letting the light of truth shine out, and by the truth is binding Satan, which means the great adversary, the devil, and his various agencies and influences in the earth.  And this is further evidence of the Lord’s presence.  Truly Satan’s house is divided against itself and cannot stand.  It is going to pieces.  Jesus in his revelation to St. John caused to be written these words:  “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season,” (Revelation 20:1-3) This is the time that Jesus foretold when the nations shall be “as vessels of a potter, ... broken to shivers”.  (Revelation 2:27) Satan soon shall be restrained and his empire completely and forever destroyed. (Isaiah 34:1-4; 51:6) Thus shall the Lord be revealed to the world, and they shall know of his presence by the fiery time of trouble which shall take vengeance upon the unrighteous systems and things of the earth. (2 Thessalonians 1:7,8) This is the day of God’s vengeance and his fire will continue to burn until all parts of the Satanic order are destroyed.  The Prophet wrote concerning this first work of the Messiah:  “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel”.  —­Psalm 2:  9.

TO RECEIVE HIS BRIDE

[455]Jesus is likened unto a bridegroom, while the church is likened unto a bride. (John 3:29; Revelation 21:9; 2 Corinthians 11:2) Many beautiful word pictures or types appear in the Old Testament, which God caused to be made for the purpose of teaching his great plan to those who would search for the truth.  One of these pictures is that of Isaac and Rebekah.  Abraham the father of Isaac sent his servant Eliezer into a distant land to find a wife for his son Isaac.  The servant took ten camels and went into Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.  There he found Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, a virgin very fair to look upon.  Eliezer “took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold”.  Rebekah agreed to accompany Eliezer to become the wife of Isaac.  “And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man [Eliezer],” who brought her unto Isaac.  “And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s, tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife,” after his mother Sarah’s death.—­See Genesis 24.