All Our Yesterdays
"To the last
syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays. . ." (Macbeth V.v.)
A series of brief articles
dealing with Human Pre-existence
by Arthur & Rosalind Eedle.
12. The Treasury of Souls
Isaiah
41:4 "Who has planned and performed this, calling forth the
generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first and the last; I am
He."
The
generations are all there from the beginning. It is the Lord who calls them
forth into their human existence.
A closer
look at the Hebrew text will be helpful. Beginning is ROSH. In
Genesis 1:1, the first word in Hebrew is B'RESHITH, which contains ROSH, and
means "In the beginning." There can be no mistake here. When God said
that He called the generations "from the beginning", He meant from
Adam and Eve.
The word
first is RISHON, which also contains ROSH. The
"first" generation is the "beginning" generation.
The word last
is AHERON, and it is plural in this verse. The last generations. As is
so often the case with Hebrew, the actual words used are very few, and we are
required to add other words in order to make sense for an English reader. This
is the case here. It could well read - "I, the Lord, am with the
first generation, and shall also be with the last generations." Or
perhaps, "I, the Lord, have called forth the first generation, and
I will call forth the last generations."
This brings
us to the point where we have to admit that God has created a finite number of
beings. It isn't the case that as long as there's a human pair and they
copulate, another human being will be made. This is the result of evolutionary
theory, the like of which we have all been subjected to for a century and a
half. Just as there are a fixed number of planets in the solar system, and a
fixed number of stars in our galaxy, so there are a definite number of human
beings created by God, and sooner or later they will all have entered human
life on the earth.
In this
connection, we need to refer to Psalm 102:15-18 "The nations
shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory.
When the Lord shall build up
Here again,
sadly, we are up against the translation problem. The Hebrew for "the
generation to come" is AHARON, in other words it should have read, "This
shall be written for the last generation."
Even more
pointed is the reference in Psalm 78:4-6 ". . . showing to the last
generation the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works
that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law
in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to
their children, that the last generation might know them, even the
children who are yet to be born, who should arise and declare them to
their children."
If there
remains any doubt about the translation "the last
generation", one needs to turn to Isaiah 44:6 "I am
the first and the last, and beside me there is no god." The
word for "last" is AHARON.
Within the
last generation, children will be born who will also have families, but it
appears that an end is in view. Quite what this means in practice is hard to
tell, and for the present time, we have no pat answers.
That this
concept was known early on is without doubt. One has only to read 2 Esdras
4:33-36 "I asked, 'How long have we to wait? Why are our lives so
short and miserable?' He (the angel) answered, 'Do not be in a greater hurry
than the Most High Himself. You are in a hurry for yourself alone; the Most
High for many. Are not these the very questions that were asked by the righteous
in the treasury of souls - How long must we stay here? When will the
harvest begin, the time when we shall receive our reward? And the Archangel
Jeremiel gave them this answer - As soon as the number of those like yourselves
is complete. For the Lord has weighed the world in a balance, He has measured
and numbered the ages; He will move nothing, alter nothing, until the appointed
number is achieved."
There are
other similar words to be found in other Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical
writings. With that, we shall leave the topic for further thought. It is yet
another item in this series of pointers to pre-existence.