There Is A River That Flows With Blood!
“But that the Gentiles would repent of the evil in which they led erring lives, when they heard the doctrine preached by His apostles from Jerusalem, and which they learned3 through them, suffer me to show you by quoting a short statement from the prophecy of Micah, one of the twelve [minor prophets]. This is as follows:1
Micah 4:1–7 (NKJV)
1 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And peoples shall flow to it. 2 Many nations shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go forth, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 3 He shall judge between many peoples, And rebuke strong nations afar off; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. 4 But everyone shall sit under His vine and under His fig tree, And no one shall make them afraid; For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. 5 For all people walk each in the [name of His God], But we will walk in [the name of the Lord our God] Forever and ever. 6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will assemble the lame, I will gather the outcast And those whom I have afflicted; 7 I will make the lame a remnant, And the outcast a strong nation; So the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion From now on, even forever.
We return now to chapter 109 of Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho. Previously, Justin charges Trypho’s fathers with the death of the saints and that their Passover is insufficient to atone for their sins. But now Justin is moved to offer some compassion and some comfort to the Jewish conscience, with promises made uniquely to them for a future hope and special glory, that the rest of the nations will only be the beneficiaries of. While this is not something for them “to take pride in,” as Justin will point out later in his dialogue in chapter 112, but it is something they should treasure and guard with all of their heart (Deut.26:16).
“Moreover, you accuse Him of having taught those godless, lawless, and unholy doctrines which you mention to the condemnation of those who confess Him to be Christ, and a Teacher from and Son of God. Besides this, even when your city is captured, and your land ravaged, you do not repent, but dare to utter imprecations on Him and all who believe in Him. Yet we do not hate you or those who, by your means, have conceived such prejudices against us; but we pray that even now all of you may repent and obtain mercy from God, the compassionate and long-suffering Father of all.”
This portion begins with a continuation of the previous rebuke upon the Hebrews for their failure to repent and trust in the promises of God; but here, Justin makes a particular point to show that the Gentiles are also called upon to repent. Justin is charging, here, that Gentiles are also under sin, and need the grace (and knowledge) of truth, which God charges Israel for failing to do, in a spirit of truth and of love. For fear of what Gentiles might have done, and for the pride of their own self-sufficiency (in God) they did not proclaim the whole counsel of the Word of God. However, Christ has not only done this but fulfilled this, and now calls Israel to come under His Lordship as the crucified “King of the Jews,” and as the resurrected “King of kings.”
Acts 17:30 (NKJV)
30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
Justin is asking Trypho for the grace of his own ears, to bear with him in patience, to hear his heart of care and concern for his people, who God said would repent upon hearing the whole counsel of the Word. To draw Trypho’s ears, he points him to the prophet Micah’s heavenly vision (the eternal perspective) of the last days. In this vision, we see in Micah 4:1-7 that Jerusalem will again be called the house of Yahweh, and that Justin is pointing to the fact (of the text) that the “life” or “river” that flows from the mountain will draw the Gentiles to her, to learn of His righteousness. Also, as a result of learning the righteousness from the holiness of His mountain, they will cease the arts of war and learn to walk hand-in-hand in peace and safety under His judgments. However, the promise is that Jerusalem (herself) is chosen for the glory of this, but she is not chosen to walk in her own name but in the Name of the LORD “our” God forever and ever. The “sign” of this will be that once He is established as not only King of the Jews but as King of kings that He Himself will reign over the nations from her until the sun and moon shine no more. In other words, no more will she be threatened by acts of war; and if she would be threatened, the sun and moon will shine no more (Rev.20;21).
Jeremiah 31:31–40 (NKJV)
31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” 35 Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The Lord of hosts is His name): 36 “If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the Lord, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever.” 37 Thus says the Lord: “If heaven above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the Lord. 38 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the city shall be built for the Lord—from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. 40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”
All of this is to show Trypho the heart of the LORD his God, whom Trypho claims to serve and love. However, the very fact that Justin has to “teach” Trypho about his own LORD (is the sign) that the house of Israel does not yet possess these things. These are the days of the Gentiles, and as long as the Jews fail “to repent,” the Gentiles will continue to trample on the courts of the holy and promised land.
Romans 11:25 (NKJV)
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
Now if we hold to Paul’s intention for the use of the word Gentile here, he means to regurgitate it in the fashion that Jews would have understood it in the days that this was spoken, for these Jews hated the Gentiles; and the term was synonymous with the name, sinner. Therefore, the Jews, here, are being charged under the same use of their own presumptions, that Gentiles are sinners. However, Paul is charging both Jew and Gentile “under sin” (Rom. 3:9-19); and therefore, the Jews are sinners (Gentiles) in the eyes of this prophecy.
Revelation 11:2 (NKJV)
2 But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.
The “they” here, in verse 2, is speaking of “the Jews” who are “spiritually” called Sodom and Egypt (Gentiles), for they crucified “the” Lord, and the “river” that flows from this mountain is His blood.
Revelation 11:8–10 (NKJV)
8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 9 Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. 10 And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
It is His blood that continues to be shed for the love of this city and the love of these chosen people of the house of Israel (Acts 9:4).
Therefore, Trypho, or any Jew of his character, do you hear the blood of your brother, Abel? Do you hear his blood crying out to our Father for justice? Do you hear “your need” to repent? Do you understand that without the holiness “of the Lord,” there is no forgiveness for your sins? Do you hear the trumpet of Micah, to put down your sword, and to take up your prayers?
Joel 2:1–3 (NKJV)
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, For it is at hand: 2 A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, The like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations. 3 A fire devours before them, And behind them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them,[hint, hint] And behind them a desolate wilderness; Surely nothing shall escape them.
3 3 Read μαθόντα for παθόντα.
1 Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 253). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
