"A PECULIAR PEOPLE" - ISRAEL IN THESE LAST DAYS by Professor
Edward Odlum, M.A.
Wonderful were and are the material promises made to Israel, of
whom we read, "Thou art a peculiar people above all the peoples
upon the earth."
This strange people of the olden times were to be scattered and
diminished and then gathered and made populous beyond number.
They were to be chastised and sent to and among all nations, and
yet, nationally they were to be transplanted from Palestine to a
"place prepared for them," an island home in the west, in the
north and beyond the "Great Sea," the Mediterranean.
Concerning these people who were to have the blessings of the
deep and of the everlasting hills, we quote the following
extracts, only a TITHE of the extracts we might use if space
permitted:
Deut.32: 8,9: "When the Most High divided unto the nations their
inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the
bounds of the people (or nations) according to the number of the
children of Israel."
"For the Lord's portion is His people: Jacob is the lot of His
inheritance."
Read this two or three times and catch God's intent concerning
Israel, His national inheritance.
John Richard Green says of Britain:
"Warlike and imperious as is her national temper, Britain
has never been able to free herself from a sense that her
business in the world is to seek peace alike for herself and
for the nations about her."
Sharon Turner says:
"The Scythians, formerly inconsiderable and few, possessed a
narrow region on the Araxes; but by degrees they extended
their boundaries on all sides, till at last they raised
their nation to great empire and glory.... The migrating
Scythians crossed the Araxes, passed out of Asia, and
suddenly appeared in Europe in the sixth century B.C."
Esdras, the prophet, tells us that the Ten Tribes left their
exile and moved away westward across the Euphrates, beyond
Armenia, to a place called Ar-sareth (city or hill, of Sareth).
To the northwest of the Black Sea is a river called Sareth, to be
seen on the maps to this day.
Herodotus says the Persians called the Scythians by the name
'Sakai,' and Sharon Turner identifies these very people as the
ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. The old Greek writers spoke often
of the valour, the prowess and the undaunted spirit of these
Scythians. They say: "No nation on earth could match them. They
were unconquerable."
Sharon Turner says:
"Of the so-called Scythian nations which have been recorded,
the Sakai, or Sacae, are the people from whom the descent of
the Saxons may be inferred with the least violation of
probability. They seized Bactriana and the most fertile
fields of Armenia, which from them derived the name
Sakasina. That some of the divisions of this people were
really called Sakasuna is obvious from Pliny, for he says
that the Sakai who settled in Armenia were named Saccasani,
which is but Sacasuna, and, the name which they gave to that
part of Armenia which they occupied is nearly the same sound
as Saxonia. It is also important to remark that Ptolemy
mentions a Scythian people, sprung from the Sakai, by the
name of Saxons."
Niebuhr shows that Pliny, Mela and other ancients were surprised
at the influence and numbers of the Scythians, and were puzzled
to give an adequate explanation of their origin. Herodotus and
Hippocrates set forth that they were a distinct people and
nation.
Niebuhr says that the Iberians as well as the Scythians were
Hebrews.
It is remarkable that the word Scythian means a wanderer. The
Scriptures says; "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the
people. Israel is swallowed up; now shall they be among the
Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. My God will cast
them away, because they did not hearken unto Him, and they shall
be wanderers among the nations."
Diodorus says:
"The Sacae sprung from a people in Media who obtained a vast
and glorious empire."
Ptolemy finds the Saxons in a race of Scythians called Sakai, who
came from Media.
Surely these old writers knew what they were writing about. Pliny
says:
"The Sakai were among the most distinguished people of
Scythia, who settled in Armenia, and were called
Sacae-Sani."
Albinus says:
"The Saxons were descended from the ancient Sacae in Asia."
Prideaux finds that the Cimbrians (Kumrii) came from between
the Black and Caspian seas, and that with them came the
Angli.
Sharon Turner, the most painstaking Saxon historian, says:
"The Saxons were a Scythian nation and were called Saca,
Sacki, Sachsen."
Gawler, in Our Scythian Ancestors, says:
"The word Sacae is fairly and without straining or
imagination translatable as Israelites."