We will continue our study of the Great Company by examining Leviticus 12. The key to understanding this chapter is in recognizing that Rachel, Jacob’s wife, represents the spiritual elective truths and their servants that combinedly developed the Little Flock and the Great Company, especially in the end of the Age. For the end of the Age, the truths that developed these two classes were the Parousia and Epiphany Truth and the servants who applied those truths.
But one may ask, Was not Jacob the type of the servants who apply such Truth to these two classes? We answer that Jacob types the Truth servants in their capacity of starting the antitypical Joseph and Benjamin movements, but those servants who nourished these after they were thus started are represented in the type by Rachel, even as the mother nourishes and develops her children, after the father begets them and after the mother brings them to birth. Hence the mother in Leviticus 12 types the same thing as Rachel does in the end of the Age. Verses 6-8 prove that the servants that have applied the Truth for the development of the two spiritual classes in the end of the Age are also involved in the antitype of this woman; because no atonement is made for the Truth; but atonement is made for the shortcomings of its servants, because they need it.
The Antitypical Male and Female Children
The Little Flock is sometimes typed by a male child, and the Great Company by a female child, when the two classes are contrasted. Little Flock members are spoken of as God’s sons (John 1: 12) (1 John 3: 1, 2), while Great Company members are spoken of as God’s daughters and as His maidservants (2 Corinthians 6: 18) (Joel 2: 29). Accordingly, the male child of Leviticus 12: 2 represents the Little Flock in the Parousia, and the female child of Leviticus 12: 5 represents the Great Company in the Parousia and in the Epiphany. Note that in the case of the birth of a son 40 days were required for the full purifying of the mother (Leviticus 12: 2, 4), while 80 days were required for the full purification of the mother in the case of a daughter’s birth (Leviticus 12: 5).
Therefore, the 40 days’ period for the purifying of the mother after the birth of a son represents the 40 years of the Parousia (1874-1914). The purifying of the mother during those 40 days types two things: (1) the ridding of the Truth (in its application to the Little Flock – the male child) of all error attaching to it; and (2) the purifying of its faithful servants, so that it was proven by October, 1914, that they had retained their crowns and therefore henceforth would retain them. Further, the 80 days’ period for the purifying of the mother after the birth of a daughter represents the 80 years of the Parousia and Epiphany combined (1874-1914 plus 1914-1954). The purifying of the mother during these 80 days types two things: (1) the ridding of the Truth (in its application to the Great Company, etc.) of all error attaching to it; and (2) the purifying of the faithful and measurably faithful servants of the Truth of such defilements as would unfit them for their place in the Millennial Age, as well as for a special attestatorial service from October, 1954, onward. This concludes our study on the generalities of the Great Company.