Racial Pressures
Is racial enmity increasing? Are the Jews under attack in many lands? Is the religious right considered dangerous by those who do not believe in God?
Answers to such questions are almost daily manifest in current events. One recent headline read, "Destroying Jews' Sense of Security" Another one in big letters said, "BLACK and WHITE and Read All Over!" But the trouble is neither color nor religion, but sin and what comes out of the heart. Undeclared wars are in many places on this globe. Strife and sorrow abound, and the most powerful authorities fail in correcting these things. "Peace-keeping missions" do not keep peace; civil war, tribal conflicts, and local uprisings cause much misery and poverty.
Rabin says, "There is a continuation of the arms' race. Saudi Arabia and Syria and Israel add to their arsenals. It didn't start yesterday. It is a prolonged process that continues." All this goes on while peace is pushed and much is made of signing treaties.
The prophet Isaiah writes of the fortification of Jerusalem in chapter 29. Here Jerusalem is called Ariel, meaning lion of God. The time is the last days in which time Messiah comes and delivers His earthly people. In verse 7 it says, "And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition [fortifications], and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.”
At this time Jerusalem will have been reduced to the last extremity by the seven years of the tribulation. But now Jehovah appears for her deliverance, and the multitude of her enemies disappear as a dream of the night.
The Jews will not be delivered by their fortifications. All of their arsenal will likely be expended during the wars of the seven years. But when they have been reduced and brought very low, the Lord comes and delivers them.
Meanwhile, the world is ill at ease, for many disturbing factors abound. Famine and disease afflict masses in many places at the same time that much of the world is comfortable and some are very wealthy.
The true Christian's peace in such a troubled world is in the upward look beyond strife, turmoil and selfishness. Our God whom we know as our Father is above all the unrest and strife. Events do not affect God's throne nor stop His hand. He is above all circumstances and He works all things according to the counsel of His own will.
The poetic language of Cowper expresses it well:
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
Can we not safely rest in His love and care? Circumstances cannot affect our peace if we rest in Him whom nothing can disturb. Ed.