The same person may be king of a country and father of a family, and this is the difference between God's actings towards us and the Jews. Towards the Church it is the character of Father; towards the Jews it is the character of Jehovah the King. His faithfulness, unchangeableness, His almighty power, His government of the whole earth—all this is revealed in His relationship towards Israel. It is in this way that the history of this people lets us into the character of Jehovah.
Psa. 126, "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion... then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.”
Ezek. 39:2828Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. (Ezekiel 39:28), "Then shall they know that I am the Lord [Jehovah] their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there." This is the way in which Jehovah reveals Himself.
The Father reveals Himself to our souls by the gospel, by the spirit of adoption, but Jehovah makes Himself known by His judgments—by the exercise of His power on the earth. I have said that the Father reveals Himself by the gospel, because the gospel is a system of pure grace-a system which teaches us to act towards others on the principle of pure grace, as we have been acted on by the Father. It is not "eye for eye, tooth for tooth"; it is not what justice requires-the law of retaliation or equity, but a principle according to which I ought to be perfect, as my Father is perfect. (Matt. 5:4848Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48).) But it will not be mere grace that is suffering evil and doing good, in the government of Jehovah. Jehovah, without doubt, will bless the nations, but the character of His kingdom is that "judgment shall return unto righteousness." Psa. 94:1515But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it. (Psalm 94:15).
At the first coming of Jesus Christ, judgment was with Pilate, and righteousness with Jesus, but when Jesus shall return, judgment shall be united to righteousness. Now the people of Christ, the children of God, ought to follow the example of the Savior (that is, they should not expect or wish that judgment should be in the rigor of righteousness, but they should be gentle and humble in the midst of all the wrongs which they suffer on the part of man). United to Christ, they are compensated for all their wrongs in the strength of His intimate love, which comforts them by the consolations of the presence of His Spirit, and more than this, by the hopes of the heavenly glory On the other hand, Jehovah will console His people by the direct acting of His righteousness in their favor (see Psa. 65:55By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea: (Psalm 65:5)), and by reestablishing them in earthly glory. The Jews, then, are the people by whom and in whom God sustains His name of Jehovah, and His character of judgment and righteousness. The Church is the people in whom, as in His family, the Father reveals His character of goodness and love.
J. N. Darby