"And the Voice of His Words as the Voice of a Multitude"

This is the last characteristic of the symbolic Man of the One Spirit, noted by the prophet Daniel. In John's vision of the Mystic Christ, it is testified that "His voice was as the sound of many waters." These "many waters" are Daniel's "multitude"; for "many waters" signify, as apocalyptically explained, a multitude of people. In Ezekiel's "visions of Elohim," the voice of Daniel and John's symbolic man comes from the wings of the cherubim. "I heard," saith he, "the noise of their wings, like the noise of many waters, as the voice of Shaddai (Mighty Ones) in their goings, the voice of speech, as the noise of a camp: in standing, they let down their wings" (ch. 1:24). The meaning of this is, that Ezekiel heard the voice of a multitude of Mighty Ones, speaking as the warriors of a camp in motion against an enemy; and that when they were not in progress, their voice was not heard --"in standing they let down their wings," and, consequently, there was no sound of war. But the voice of Daniel and John's symbolic man was heard as the roar of a multitude -- the roaring of many waters; by which we are to understand that their Man of Multitude was in progress, leading on the body and wings of his brazen-footed battalions against the Fourth Beast, or the Apocalytic Beast and False Prophet, and the kings of the earth and their armies; the former consumed in the furnace, or "lake of fire, burning with sulphur; and the kings and their armies slain with the sword of the resurrected and glorified Mystic Man" (Rev. 19: 19, 20).

Now, Daniel, as the representative of his people, saw the Spirit Man, while those who are no constituent part thereof see him not, but tremble before him, and flee, as the Old Adam did, "to hide themselves."

Daniel's Symbolical Death and Resurrection

The vision being apparent, Daniel is alone, after his companions have fled. At this crisis, the relation between the prophet and the man is peculiar. Daniel occupies the position of one dead -- his vigour was turned into corruption, and he retained no strength; he was in a deep sleep on his face, and his face toward the ground, and destitute of breath (ch. 10:8, 9, 17). While in this symbolic death, the symbolical man, the symbolical associate of which is "Michael, one of the chief princes," was near him. The man uttered his voice -- a voice to be responded to by the dead (John 5:25-29; Dan. 12:2), and Daniel heard it: "When I heard the voice of his words," saith he, "then was I in a deep sleep on my face." After the voice had awoke him to consciousness, the power of the Man raised him from his prostrate condition -- "a hand touched me," said he, "which raised me upon my knees, and the palms of my hands." This is the attitude of a man in the act of rising up from sleep on or in the ground after he had awoke. He was then told to stand upright, for that the Man of the vision was sent unto him -- He was sent of the Spirit to communicate to him certain things after his symbolical resurrection; for the things communicated in their crisis are to be accomplished after the literal resurrection of Daniel and his people by "Michael the Great Prince," at the end of the 1335 days (ch. 12:1,2,12,13). Hearing the command to stand upright, he obeyed, and says "I stood trembling." He was now alone in the presence of the august vision from which his attendants fled to hide themselves. He trembled; for though raised and erect upon his feet, he was not yet "in power." But the Man who had raised him from the ground came again to him, and touched him, and said to him: "O man, greatly beloved, fear not; peace be unto thee; be strong, yea, be strong." Then Daniel no longer feared and trembled, but became symbolically incorruptible, immortal, strong; for when the Man of the One Spirit had spoken to him thus, he says, "I was strengthened, and said, let my Adon (Lord) speak, for thou hast strengthened me."

Here, then, was Daniel's Lord in vision, seen also by Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. They all saw him as a man. The Spirit assumed this appearance in vision; and to represent to Daniel his future manifestation through the son of David as Prince of Israel, he, the Spirit, associates himself with the archangel Michael, whom he styles Daniel's Prince. "Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me," saith the Spirit, "and I remained there on the side of the kings of Persia. I will shew that which is noted in the Scripture of truth; and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael, your prince."

"Michael One of the Chief Princes"

Now the Michael with whom the Spirit co-operated on the side of the Kings of Persia against Babylon, must not be confounded with Michael, the Great Prince, who appears at the epoch of the resurrection (ch. 12:1, 2). The name Mi-cha-el signifies who-like-to-Ail, or the Eternal Power; and is applicable to any person, or community of persons, in whom Eternal Power is embodied, and manifested. It was therefore an appropriate appellation for the sar-tzevah-yahweh, PRINCE OF THE HOST OF YAHWEH, who appeared to Joshua by Jericho; and who had been appointed over Israel in the wilderness at the time the Spirit said to Moses: "Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for MY NAME IS IN HIM. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I shall be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary to thine adversaries. For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee into the land, and cut off its inhabitants" (Exod. 23:20-23; Josh. 5:14). This Angel-Prince is styled Michael in Daniel, because the Name, or power, of the Eternal was in him. He was therefore as AIL, or as men say GOD to Israel. He was not the Only Potentate whom no man hath seen nor can see, but His representative, who was to be obeyed as if he were the Eternal himself, because "his voice" gave "utterance" to the commands of the Spirit.

But this Michael was not a son of man. He did not belong to the race of Adam, to which the dominion of the earth was originally and for ever given (Gen. 1:26). His viceregency therefore, could only be provisional. He had dominion over Israel as their prince until another personage should appear to assume the reins of government, who should be both Son of Man, Son of Abraham, and Son of David, to whom dominion over Israel and all other nations inhabiting the earth to its utmost bounds, has been decreed (Ps. 2:6-9; 8:6). Thus, as Jesus taught, "the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father, who hath given him authority to execute judgment, because he is a Son of Man" (John 5:22-27).

Michael the Great Prince

The Michael, then, contemporary with Moses, Joshua and Daniel, was only provisional viceregent of Israel till the Son of Man should attain to authority and power. Until this event, the "Aion" or course of things, was subjected to angels, as clearly appears from Jewish history. But when the Son of the Eternal Spirit, born of a Jewess of the house of David, was begotten from among the dead, the decree proclaims "Let all Elohim bow down to Him.." This was the person of whom it was said to Moses at the bush, Yahweh, that is, HE SHALL BE; and, concerning Him, David saith, in the same Psalm, "Thou art Yahweh, Most High above all the earth; greatly hast thou been exalted above all Elohim" (97:7, 9). This Yahweh was exalted by the Father Spirit. He was the Eternal Form, and, therefore, "thought it no robbery the being as God" saying "that God was his Father" (John 5: 18). "He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in men's likeness; and being found in habit as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that to the name of Jesus every knee of heavenly ones and earthly ones, and subterranean ones should bow: and that every tongue should confess that the anointed Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:6-11). This high exaltation of Yahweh by the Eternal Ail placed him above the prince whom Joshua saw, whose viceregency over Israel terminated when the handwriting of the ordinances was nailed to the cross, and the principalities and authorities it established were spoiled, and made a spectacle of publicly (Col. 2:14, 15), the mission of the Mosaic Michael was consummated. Israel had "provoked Him", and "He would not pardon the transgressions." He had expelled the ten tribes from Palestine, where He had p1anted them, because of idolatry and its abominations; and now because Judah, Benjamin, and their priests had crucified one to whom he had bowed, and would not accept pardon in His exalted name, He stirred up the Roman Horn of the Goat against them, and would deliver them no more.

Such has been the condition of Israel from that day to this. They have been abandoned by the Eternal's Archangel Michael, "the Angel of His presence, who saved them" (lsa. 63:9) in the days of antiquity; and they are repudiated by the Second Michael, whom they crucified and pierced. So that now they are "without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice, without an erection, without ephod and teraphim" (Hos. 3:4), in short, without any "caphporeth", or covering for sin, and, therefore, under sentence of death, "being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them." What a pitiable condition for a people, formerly Yahweh's, to be in; a people, because abandoned of God for a time, styled Lo-ruhahmah and Lo-ammi. Such are Israel's names "till the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled," the nation that has not obtained mercy,' the nation that is not my people saith Yahweh (Hos. 1:6, 8, 9). And how blind must be their Rabbis and Scribes, and the multitude led by them, who "whatever may be the real character of the Christianity of the not more enlightened Gentiles around them," cannot see that Israel and Judah are not the people of the Lord. The Eternal and "Michael their Prince" have turned their backs upon them, and as their royal prophet predicted, "their sorrows have been increased," because "they have hasted after another" than he whom they crucified, and God raised from the dead. As for him, the Nazarene, to whom the angel of the Eternal's presence bowed, he says concerning them in their Lo-ammi state, "I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood, nor will I take their names upon my lips" (Psalm 16:4).

Well, then, the Mosaic Aion, which was subject to angels, has long since vanished away; and the times of the Gentiles also subjected to God or Elohim, are verging upon their close, and a New Aion or Course of Time, and the new oikonomia or administration of the oikoumene or habitable, all constituting what Paul in Heb. 2:5, styles he oikeumene he mellousa, "the Future Habitable," rendered in the English version, "The World to Come," concerning which, he writes in the l st and 2nd chapters, are about soon to be revealed. This administration of the Habitable in the approaching Aion, is the true CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION, and is styled by the prophet Isaiah, "Zion's times," in which "Yahweh is Israel's judge, lawgiver, and king" (chap. 33:6, 22). This dispensation, which is divided from the Mosaic by the long dreary, intermediate night of Gentile and Jewish superstition, wickedness, and folly, "is not subjected," says Paul, "to the angels" --to Michael, Gabriel, and other "chief princes" (Heb. 2:5); but, according to the teaching of Moses, David, Daniel, Jesus, and the apostles, to the Son of Man and his associates --MESSIAH AND THE SAINTS. These, in resurrected and glorious manifestation, are the Eternal Spirit manifested in flesh --in Spirit-flesh, or HOLY SPIRIT NATURE; and are styled by Paul in Rom. 8:19, 23, "the manifestation of the Sons of God," "the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" -- that, "one body of many members," the ecclesia, which is Christ's body, the fulness of Him who filleth up all things in all the saints (Eph. 1:22, 23).

The germ of this one body symbolized to Daniel, Ezekiel, and John, is Jesus of Nazareth, or "Michael the Great Prince," to whom "Michael one of the chief princes," has done obeisance, and "on acount of whom are all things -- dia hou ta pauta, and through whom are we" the saints kia hemeis dia autou (1 Cor. 8:6). Thus, all things are "out of God," and "for Him," "on account of the Anointed Jesus," and "through Him." If there had been no Jesus, Son of David, and Son of God; or if, like Adam the first, he had been, but had become a transgressor, there would have been no "One Body," composed of saints resurrected or otherwise. These are all IN HIM; but, if in his development, he had not proved, like the brazen altar, most holy, he would not have imparted holiness to all that touch him by laying hold upon him through the faith. But becoming "partakers of the altar" by being "in him," they are holies or saints; and "through Him" become "kings and priests for God," who has made him heir of all things (and they joint-heirs with him), and therefore all things are "on account of him," and also "for their sakes."

The anointed Jesus (not the dead body lying in the sepulchre of the Arimathean Joseph) is eternal power manifested in flesh; and, therefore, AIL, or in Saxon "God." Now Mi-cha-lo? -- WHO-LIKE-TO-HIM among the sons of the mighty? (Psalm 89:6). Therefore, because there is none to compare with him the "child born" and the "son given" to Judah, is styled in Isaiah 9:6, AIL givbor, "the Mighty Power." Hence, when he appears in power and great glory to put a hook into the jaws of the leviathan, to slay the dragon in the sea, and to raise the dead, it will be said of him, Mi-cha-el? Who like to God? to "Yahweh the Man of War"? Who will contend with him? (Isaiah 50:8), with Jesus, the Eternal's king of the Jews?

Jesus, then, the Son of David and Son of the Eternal Power by David's daughter, is Michael the great Prince of Israel, who comes to redeem his kinsmen and their inheritance, and to break in pieces their oppressors. But as he is not only a single individual, but also one containing many -- a manifold man -- whose symbolical number is 144,000; the many "in him" are constituents of "Michael the Great Prince," who delivers Israel in the time of trouble which transcends all the calamitous periods of human history since the Flood.

The Son of Man, then, whom John of Patmos beheld in vision, was the Michael of Dan. 12:1 -- "the Alpha (or Eternal Spirit) and the Omega (Jesus and the saints) the Beginning and the Ending, the ONE YAHWEH, who is and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." "Yahweh," says Moses, "is a Man of War." Hence out of this manifold Yahweh-Man mouth, John saw a sharp two-edged broad-sword going forth, that with it he should smite the nations (chap. 1:16; 19: 15, 21). And when they are smitten, it is by a coup de soleil, for "his countenance is as the sun shining in his strength," not only dispelling the darkness, however, but "enlightening the earth with his glory" (Rev. 18: 1).

Now when John saw this ALMIGHTY BODY POLITIC he became as dead at his feet -- like Daniel, symbolically dead; which represents that what he saw is fulfilled at the termination of the death state; for he is brought out of that state to write the things which shall be. When the things signified by what he saw, shall be complete, the united voice of the many waters will be, "I am the First and the Last! he that liveth and was dead; and behold I am living for the cycles of the cycles; amen: I have the keys .of the invisible and of death" (Rev. 1: 18), and will therefor abolish death at the end of the Millennium (Rev. 21:4).