As a second principle of God's intervention regularly to be seen in operation it may be remarked that what is generally put as the motive or incitement to such intervention is the deliverance of His own people. “When God arose to judgment to save all the meek of the earth.” (Psa. 76:99When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah. (Psalm 76:9)). Upon very little reflection we can readily understand how valid a reason to Him for interfering that must be. In this it is a question of His heart being engaged. We can hardly imagine our God remaining quiescent or inactive in face of the suffering and persecution met by His people in this scene. Their relief and their vindication must be objects kept in view by Him, and to which He applies Himself in suited time. Accordingly, we find it a principle with Him that when He does intervene, it is on behalf of His own, their position and circumstances being such as to call it forth.
This also comes out in Hezekiah's eminently illustrative case. It was a case of king and people seeking in a measure to be true and faithful to God, falling under the might and tyranny of the wicked. We can hardly be in doubt but that this will, humanly speaking, prompt early and decisive action on God's part. “The eyes of Jehovah” we read “run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” One cannot but notice therefore how steadily and progressively the issue comes to be one, not between Hezekiah and Sennacherib, but between God Himself and the Assyrian. He makes Hezekiah's cause His own, and having been appealed to on the ground of His interest in, and relationship to, His people Israel, gives striking manifestation of that interest, and affirms the reality of that relationship by their merciful and timely deliverance.
An earlier instance occurs to the mind also where this comes out not less clearly. When Israel, on their way from Egypt came into the region of Moab, marked hostility from that people, and also from the Ammonites and Midianites, was manifested to their approach. A form of that hostility, which they themselves had no knowledge of even, Balaam the prophet with his enchantment and divination being the agent, was being employed against them on the high places overlooking their camp. Again and again did Balak, king of Moab, seek to utilize these hostile influences against this people whom he hated as much as he feared; but God intervened on each occasion. Truly could it be said of His people “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” There was “no enchantment against Jacob, neither any divination against Israel.” Jehovah their God turned the curse into a blessing unto them, and—wherefore? “Because Jehovah thy God loved thee” (Deut. 23:55Nevertheless the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy God loved thee. (Deuteronomy 23:5)). And that always is the great reason of God's intervention.
It shall, in that day to come, be called “the day of the Lord” principally for the very reason that it is the day of the Lord's intervention. Take Deut. 32, where the history of their defection and apostasy, sketched so vividly, connects itself with the story of their future restoration. The very first steps of God's renewed dealings with them ultimately are seen to be prompted by His love for them. Chastised for their sins they had been, downtrodden of the nations and oppressed; but these same oppressors in their turn have God to reckon with, and He will render vengeance to His adversaries, as He now calls them, “and will be merciful unto his land and unto his people.” For these are the same of whom it is said “Jehovah's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so Jehovah alone did lead him.” His love for them truly is no new thing, but old as their history, and evident throughout its varied course. It is His love for them still that brings Him in here again for their deliverance, and it is that which the enemy have to dread. Their guilt is that those whom they have afflicted and persecuted are God's chosen and beloved people. And that love will assuredly not desert them finally, grievously as they have sinned against it, but will, when their oppressors least expect it, cause Him to Intervene in power for them.
It could not be otherwise in that crisis which is approaching. Objects of His love are upon earth here, suffering under tyranny and oppression of evil men, and open to the attacks of Satan. Shall the malignity and hatred of the enemy be allowed to triumph, and His own be forever oppressed? It cannot be. “O Jehovah God of revenges” is the prayer of the oppressed remnant in Psa. 94, “O God to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself.” “How long shall the wicked triumph?” “They break in pieces thy people, O Jehovah, and afflict thine heritage.” “They say Jehovah shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.” How far wrong are their thoughts in this matter. The seeming delay is only “until the pit be digged for the wicked. For Jehovah will not cast off his people” but will prove Himself their help, their defense, and the rock of their refuge. It is upon the ground of His interest in them, and because of His love for them, that “He shall cut them (i.e., the oppressors) off in their own wickedness; yea, Jehovah our God shall cut them off.” “Shall not God avenge his own elect” said the Lord Jesus “which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily” (Luke 18:7, 87And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:7‑8)). The souls of the martyred witnesses (Rev. 6:9-119And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 10And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 11And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. (Revelation 6:9‑11)) cry from under the altar, and their appeal is loud in God's ears “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood of them that dwell on the earth.” And that appeal shall be answered, for God shall judge, and one of the most important features of that judgment is that it shall be an avenging, a vindication, a deliverance of His own. “When God ariseth to judgment,” verily it is “to save all the meek of the earth.” If the first principle looked at gives a clue to the time or seasonableness of God's intervention, this shows its motive.
Still another principle governing the occasion of God's coming in upon the scene here in an active way is the fact, already in part alluded to, that God has a plan and purpose of His own for the earth. We can never surely suppose that He who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will has no such thing as a settled design regarding this earth. Is it to be imagined that while, as to heaven and heavenly things the counsel of God is settled and sure, the earth has been left entirely out of account? That, while God is to be sovereign, and righteousness supreme, throughout the universe, this scene is not to be privileged to witness and share in the restoration and release from the dominion of evil? On the contrary, it is distinctly testified that, in whatever respect heavenly things are hereafter to be affected by Christ, earth is to be likewise. God's purpose, now disclosed, is that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He is to gather together, sum, or head up, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth (Eph. 1:1111In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: (Ephesians 1:11)). At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, confessing Him Lord, of things in heaven, things on earth, and things even under the earth (Phil. 2:1010That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; (Philippians 2:10)). By Him all things are to be reconciled, in which is to be embraced not only things in heaven but also things on earth (Col. 1:2020And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:20)). His beneficent purpose of future blessing then in-dudes the earth in its range and scope.
A purpose this is, too, which nothing that the enemy can do or contrive, can in any way frustrate, but to the working out of which, on the contrary, God can bend and adapt happenings seemingly the most adverse. The germ of this truth is contained in Psa. 76:1010Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. (Psalm 76:10), “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee.” He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him. This, it is admitted, is a principle which is true all round, and on all occasions, being generally accepted as indisputable. Many have difficulties as to a Particular Providence; as it is termed, concerned with minutest details of individual life. Few can have as to a General Providence, a disposing and shaping of historical events, the things that figure. on the world's stage as crises. “He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand, or say unto him What doest thou?” (Dan. 4:3535And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? (Daniel 4:35)). The purpose, however, for which He does so supervise and over-rule throughout history is not so generally recognized. What is, in one sense, the precise point, or object, of all Divine Providence in history is somehow missed. In fact there is altogether a serious gap or deficiency in the outlook of Christians generally in this matter, which is to be deplored, How defective must be the vision of believers who do not perceive the great and grand purpose of God for the establishment of a scene of blessedness and glory on this earth! To have no idea of, or hope regarding, the future for this world and its peoples, a future of blessing and peace and rest, must be a serious limitation, particularly in times of national stress and turmoil. To know that this entire creation, equally in its highest and it lowest spheres, long as it has groaned and been oppressed, in its age-long subjection to ills and disorders of every description, is one day destined to have its burden removed, and to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God-how this brightens and enlarges the vision! To any who intelligently study scripture it is quite apparent that a scheme and dispensation of blessing and glory lies in store for man, for earth, and all this lower creation. Conflict and confusion, defilement and disorder reign now; but what comfort and confidence it gives to, know that there is a plan, and that these or any uprising of evil cannot thwart it, but will imply fall into line with it, and be made contributory to the carrying of it out. “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee.”
[J.T.]
(Continued from page 264)
(To be continued)