The Partridge and the Ship

But we will not rest on these words and arguments alone. To convince those who love to study the oracles of God, we will prove the matter from many other testimonies as well. Daniel says, “And these will escape out of his hand: Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the sons of Ammon.” Ammon and Moab are the children Lot fathered by his daughters, and their people are still in existence today. And Isaiah says: “They will fly in the boats of foreigners, plundering the sea together, and they will plunder the men of the east. They will lay hands on Moab first, and the sons of Ammon will be the first to obey them.” [a] In those times, then, he will rise up and meet them. And when he has overpowered three of the ten horns in the line of battle and torn them out — Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia — and has taken their spoils and their gear, and has brought the horns that are left into subjection, he will begin to be lifted up in heart and to exalt himself against God as master of the whole world. His first campaign will be against Tyre and Berytus and the country around them. By storming these cities first he will strike terror into the rest, as Isaiah says: “Be ashamed, Sidon; the sea has spoken, the strength of the sea has spoken, and said: I was not in labor, I bore no children, I nursed no young men and brought up no young women. But when the report reaches Egypt, pain will seize them for Tyre.” [c]

These things, then, are still to come, dear friend. And when the three horns are cut off, he will begin to show himself as God, as Ezekiel said long ago: “Because your heart has been lifted up, and you said, I am God.” Isaiah says the same thing: “For you said in your heart, I will go up into heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven, I will be like the Most High. But now you will be brought down to Hades, to the foundations of the earth.” And Ezekiel likewise: “Will you still say to those who kill you, I am God? You will be a man and not God.” [f]

His tribe, then, and his appearing, and his destruction have been set out in these words, and his name has been pointed to in a hidden way as well. Let us look now at what he does. He will call all the people together to himself out of every country of their dispersion, making them his own as though they were his own children, promising to give them their land back and to set up their kingdom and their nation again — all so that he may be worshiped by them as God. So the prophet says: “He will gather his whole kingdom, from the rising of the sun to its setting. Those he summons and those he does not summon will march with him.” And Jeremiah speaks of him in a figure: “The partridge called out and gathered what it did not hatch, making itself rich without justice. In the middle of its days they will leave it, and at its end it will be a fool.” [i]

It will do our argument no harm, then, to explain that bird’s trick and to show that the prophet had a purpose in using it as a comparison. The partridge is a vain creature. When it sees the nest of another partridge nearby with the young in it, and the parent bird away on the wing looking for food, it imitates the other bird’s call and calls the chicks to itself. They take it for their own parent and run to it, and it preens itself proudly over another bird’s chicks as if they were its own. But when the real parent comes back and calls them with its own familiar cry, the young know it, leave the impostor, and go to their true parent. The prophet has taken this up as a comparison and applied it to Antichrist in the same way. He will lure people to himself, wanting to get hold of those who are not his own, promising deliverance to everyone — while he cannot save even himself.

Then, having gathered to himself the unbelieving from everywhere in the world, he comes at their call to persecute the saints, who are their enemies and their opponents. So the apostle and evangelist says: “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and had no regard for people. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, Though I do not fear God or have any regard for people, still, because this widow wears me out, I will give her justice.” [k]

By the unrighteous judge, who does not fear God and has no regard for people, he means Antichrist beyond any doubt, since Antichrist is a son of the devil and an instrument of Satan. For when he has the power, he will begin to exalt himself against God, truly fearing neither God nor the Son of God, who is the judge of all. And when he says there was a widow in the city, he means Jerusalem itself, which is a widow indeed, abandoned by her perfect, heavenly husband, God. She calls him her adversary and not her Savior, because she does not understand what the prophet Jeremiah said: “Because they did not obey the truth, a spirit of error will then speak to this people and to Jerusalem.” Isaiah says the same: “Because this people refuses the water of Siloam that goes softly, and chooses instead to have Rezin and the son of Remaliah as king over you, therefore, look, the Lord is bringing up over you the water of the river, strong and full — the king of Assyria.” By “the king” he means Antichrist, in a figure, as another prophet also says: “And this will be the peace from me, when the Assyrian comes up into your land and treads on your mountains.” [l]

In the same way Moses, knowing beforehand that the people would reject and disown the true Savior of the world, that they would side with error and choose an earthly king and count the heavenly King as nothing, says: “Is not this stored up with me, sealed among my treasures? On the day of vengeance I will repay them, at the time when their foot slips.” Their foot did slip, in everything, for they were found to be in agreement with the truth at no point. Not in the law — they became lawbreakers. Not in the prophets — they cut off the prophets themselves. Not in the voice of the Gospels — they crucified the Savior himself. Not in believing the apostles — they persecuted them. At all times they showed themselves enemies and betrayers of the truth; they were found to be haters of God and not lovers of him. And that is what they will be then too, when they find their opportunity. Rousing themselves against the servants of God, they will look to take their revenge by the hand of a mortal man. And he, swollen with pride at their fawning, will begin to send out letters against the saints, ordering them all to be cut down everywhere because they refuse to reverence him and worship him as God — as Isaiah says: “Woe to the wings of the ships of the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; woe to the one who sends sureties over the sea, and letters of papyrus on the water, for swift messengers will go to a nation in suspense and full of expectation, a people strange and bitter against them, a nation without hope and trodden down.” [o]

But we who hope in the Son of God are persecuted and trodden down by those unbelievers. For the wings of the ships are the churches, and the sea is the world in which the church is set, like a ship tossed in deep water but never wrecked; for she carries with her a skilled steersman, Christ. And amidships she carries the trophy raised over death, for she carries the cross of the Lord with her. Her bow is the east and her stern the west; her hold is the south, and her two steering oars are the two Testaments. The ropes stretched around her are the love of Christ, which holds the church together. The net she carries with her is the washing of new birth, which makes believers new; and from these come her glories. The wind that is with her is the Spirit from heaven, by whom those who believe are sealed. She has anchors of iron with her too, the holy commands of Christ himself, which are strong as iron. She has sailors as well, on the right hand and on the left, seated beside her like the holy angels, by whom the church is always steered and guarded. The ladder in her that leads up to the yard is a figure of the suffering of Christ, which brings the faithful up to heaven. And the topsails aloft on the yard are the company of the prophets, the martyrs, and the apostles, who have entered their rest in the kingdom of Christ. [r]

Now about the trouble of the persecution that is to fall on the church from the adversary, John also speaks this way: “And I saw a great and wonderful sign in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. And she was pregnant, and she cried out in labor, in pain to give birth. And the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a male child, who is to rule all the nations; and the child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that they might feed her there for 1,260 days. And when the dragon saw it, he persecuted the woman who had given birth to the male child. And the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she might fly into the wilderness, where she is fed for a time, and times, and half a time, away from the face of the serpent. And the serpent poured water out of his mouth like a river after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. And the earth helped the woman: it opened its mouth and swallowed the river the dragon had poured out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged at the woman, and went off to make war on the saints of her offspring, who keep the commands of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.” [t]

By the woman clothed with the sun he meant, most plainly of all, the church, clothed with the Father’s Word, whose brightness is greater than the sun’s. By the moon under her feet he meant that she is adorned, as the moon is, with heavenly glory. The words on her head a crown of twelve stars refer to the twelve apostles, by whom the church was founded. And the words she was pregnant, and she cried out in labor, in pain to give birth mean that the church will never stop bearing from her heart the Word who is persecuted in the world by the unbelieving. “And she gave birth,” he says, “to a male child, who is to rule all the nations” — which means that the church, always giving birth to Christ, the perfect male child of God, who is declared to be God and man, becomes the teacher of all the nations. And the words her child was caught up to God and to his throne mean that the one who is always born of her is a heavenly king and not an earthly one, just as David declared long ago when he said, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” “And the dragon,” he says, “saw and persecuted the woman who had given birth to the male child. And the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she might fly into the wilderness, where she is fed for a time, and times, and half a time, away from the face of the serpent.” That refers to the 1,260 days — the half of the week — during which the tyrant is to reign and persecute the church. She flees from city to city and hides in the wilderness among the mountains, with no defense but the two wings of the great eagle: that is, faith in Jesus Christ, who stretched out his holy hands on the holy tree and unfolded two wings, the right and the left, and called to himself everyone who believed in him, and covered them as a hen covers her chicks. For through Malachi’s mouth he says this too: “And for you who fear my name the Sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in his wings.” [u]

The Lord also says: “When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place — let the reader understand — then let those in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the man on the housetop not come down to get his clothes, and let the man in the field not turn back to take anything out of his house. Woe to women who are pregnant and to those nursing babies in those days! For then there will be great distress, such as there has not been since the beginning of the world. And unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved.” And Daniel says, “And they will set up the abomination of desolation for 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits and reaches 1,295 days.” [y]

And the blessed apostle Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, says: “Now we ask you, brothers, about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering to it, that you not be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or by a word or by a letter appearing to come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has arrived. Let no one deceive you in any way. That day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above everything that is called God or worshiped, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, showing himself off as God. Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? And now you know what holds him back, so that he may be revealed at his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only the one who now holds it back will hold it until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth and abolish by the appearing of his coming — the one whose own coming is by Satan’s working, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with every deception of unrighteousness for those who are perishing, because they did not welcome the love of the truth. And for this reason God sends them a working of error, so that they believe the lie, so that all of them may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness.” And Isaiah says, “Let the wicked man be taken away, so that he does not see the glory of the Lord.” [aa]

Since all this is to come about, dear friend — the one week divided into two halves, the abomination of desolation shown then, the two prophets and forerunners of the Lord having finished their course, and the whole world at last drawing near its end — what is left but the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from heaven, whom we have waited for in hope? He will bring the burning and the just judgment on all who have refused to believe in him. For the Lord says, “When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” And, “Not a hair of your head will perish.” And, “For as the lightning comes out of the east and shines as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the fallen body is, there the eagles will be gathered.” Now the fall took place in paradise, for that is where Adam fell. And he says again, “Then the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds of heaven.” David too, announcing the judgment and the coming of the Lord as a prophet, says, “His going out is from one end of heaven, and his circuit to the other end of heaven, and there is no one hidden from his heat.” By the heat he means the burning. And Isaiah speaks this way: “Come, my people, go into your room and shut your door. Hide yourself for a little while, until the anger of the Lord has passed by.” And Paul likewise: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who hold the truth of God down in unrighteousness.” [ad]

Moreover, about the resurrection and the kingdom of the saints, Daniel says, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will rise, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Isaiah says, “The dead will rise, and those in the tombs will wake up; for the dew that comes from you is healing to them.” The Lord says, “Many in that day will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” And the prophet says, “Wake up, sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” And John says, “Blessed and holy is the one who has a share in the first resurrection; over such people the second death has no power.” For the second death is the lake of burning fire. And again the Lord says, “Then the righteous will shine out like the sun in his glory.” And to the saints he will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” But what does he say to the wicked? “Away from me, you who are cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, which my Father has prepared.” And John says, “Outside are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone who makes and loves a lie; for your portion is in the hell of fire.” And Isaiah likewise: “And they will go out and look at the corpses of the men who have rebelled against me. And their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh.” [ah]

About the resurrection of the righteous, Paul also speaks this way in writing to the Thessalonians: “We do not want you to be uninformed about those who have fallen asleep, so that you do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we tell you this by the word of the Lord: we who are alive and are left until the coming of the Lord will not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will always be with the Lord.” [an]