The evident conclusion then to which all Divine effort-as it affects things here below-tends and moves is the establishment, according to His revealed will, of the kingdom of God in power here upon earth. Thus only, and then only, can be secured the ascendancy of good, and the predominance of righteousness, and that in permanence. The kingdoms of this world rise and flourish and decay. The time is approaching when it shall be announced, and that from heaven, “The world-kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ is come, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:1515And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15)). Empires succeed each other, and the strife for place and power and dominion continues. God's purpose is, and He has definitely and unmistakably attested it, that Christ's rule and sway shall yet throughout the earth be universal and unchallenged (Dan. 2:34, 35, 44, 4534Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 35Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. (Daniel 2:34‑35)
44And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. (Daniel 2:44‑45)). In the direct line of succession, as it were, to the great world empires of the past, and supplanting the revived form of it which shall be then in force, there is to be a kingdom which the God of heaven shall set up, “which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” That purpose is opposed by men; but in spite of all opposition, “Yet have I set my king,” says God, “upon my holy hill of Zion.” He is to have the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession.
The first effect, no doubt, of His advent is that “He shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.” For “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God,” and there are sons of Belial who must be all of them as thorns thrust away and consumed; but judgment upon evil once executed, “He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even as a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain” (2 Sam. 23:3-73The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. 4And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. 5Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. 6But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands: 7But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place. (2 Samuel 23:3‑7)). For the sending of Jesus will mean the coming of times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. Such is God's plan and purpose regarding the earth. We may count on Him carrying it into effect, and thus may look for Him to intervene in His own good time in judgment, yet for blessing!
How antagonistic to the carrying out of that purpose, and how alien to the moral features of that time the elements predominating to-day are—how needful, therefore, also His intervention— a moment's reflection will show. For what are the features characterizing this age, and particularly this period of unrest and crisis now in progress? Man and Satan between them have filled the earth with corruption and violence. The deceitful working of Satan and the ungovernable passions of men predominate. This working of Satan has been spoken of as an important factor of history. So also the wrath of man. The relation of these to the third factor spoken of, the providence of God (thank God that is supreme), has been in a measure considered; but that there. are questions about these, the wrath of man and the working of Satan, both in themselves and in regard to their relation to each other, must be plain. How far do they act in concert? Or are they independent of each other? Does Satan plan and scheme all the devices of men? or do they, in their opposition to God, simply follow the bent of their own passions? Again, with what measure of intelligence must we credit the great adversary? Does he act in merely blind, hasty, unreasoning malice or is it cunning, calculating, far-seeing malignity that is to be perceived in all the dispositions he makes?
These are questions, perhaps, scarcely admitting of definite answer in our present state of knowledge. One thing at least recent happenings makes clear. We are not to suppose that every ebullition of human wrath and strife is directly attributable to Satan's immediate influence. For instance, an outburst of violence that betokens the breakdown of what we call civilization cannot be thought of as being purposely, deliberately planned and manipulated by Satan, the god of this age. It is rather the triumph of civilization than its failure that evidences his working (2 Thess. 2). The truth would seem to be that, finite as he is, after all, the great enemy frequently outwits himself. His instruments carry matters farther than he intended, or raise issues prematurely, and thus there are many historical crises not at all of his creation. His agents are not always docile and amenable to timely restraint. The wrath of man must often prove a very unreliable instrument to use, an exceedingly unmanageable and erratic medium to invoke!
How fully on occasion it comes to dominate the whole situation needs no emphasizing. Time and again, throughout history, it breaks forth. Storm after storm of human violence has arisen, swept the earth in its fury, and left its appalling mark on earth's face and history's page. Elemental to the race some would consider war, and the martial spirit generally. Inherent in the fallen nature we all of us possess, it certainly is at any rate. In this disordered and discordant scene it cannot be otherwise than that individual interests must clash, social jealousies and animosities assert themselves, national philosophies and ideals be found radically inimical to each other, imperial. aspirations and ambitions fiercely antagonistic; and, given the fact that man, a fallen creature, is constituted as he is, the appeal to arms would seem to be inevitable in a great many instances. And war is only one form of the outbreak of man's violence.
The wrath of man, of what is it not capable? All the righteous blood shed upon the earth from Abel downwards is witness to its fierceness against God. It is not less truly so against each other. Of all the human race generally who have passed away, the number who have fallen by the hand of their fellows is not small. That, again, evidences the length to which men, hateful and hating one another, will go. And all the strife and clamor and hate and violence characterizing us as a race, “the dark places of the earth full of the habitations of cruelty,” what does it show but that the wrath of man is, of influences adverse to God's beneficent working in this world, one of the most potent! It “worketh not the righteousness of God” we read (James 1:2020For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. (James 1:20)).
Is it not well to be reminded of this to-day? If the ends God has in view are achieved by it on occasion, as no doubt they are, we must remember it is by virtue of His so over-ruling, or so utilizing it as to secure them by its means, and not on any account by reason of such being its real, or even ostensible, object. A Christian even (the passage exhorts), a new-born creature of God, is to be slow to wrath, remembering that the mere ebullition of human passion, into which even righteous wrath is so apt to degenerate, expresses not, furthers not, never in itself evolves, the righteousness of God. To praise Him He can make it. Turn it to the execution of His will, and harness it to the working out of His purposes—this He does continually. But, of itself, in its own aim, intent, direction and purpose, the righteousness of God is not what it seeks, nor is it at all calculated to advance it. How solemn to reflect that this wrath of man, this human violence, so antagonistic to God, so inherent in man, so useful to the enemy, is in some ways the most predominating element about him! History is simply, or largely, the record of its various outbreaks and achievements.
What a welter of disruptive and anarchical forces the scene presents! “An enemy hath done this,” its most revolting features clearly proclaim. A comforting thought it is that, in any case, powerful though the enemy may be, mysterious to us in his personage, and subtle in his working, he, and it, and all the instruments he may use will never, we may be assured with much confidence, thwart God, for He will make their very antagonism a means of furthering His purposes, and the remainder—the rest, that which would go beyond this—He, at any rate, will restrain.
The often-desiderated intervention of God, then, seems, by analogy with the past, and in keeping with what is revealed as to the future, to be based on, and conditioned by, these principles. The ripeness of the situation seems to determine the time of it, the deliverance of His beloved people to supply the motive for it, and the fact that He Himself has His purposes of blessing for this scene here below, to be the end He steadily keeps in view. It remains but to emphasize how strongly and solemnly attested is the fact that He will intervene. What one might call the official announcement of the same is given in Rev. 10 It is there announced, and that from heaven, with all the formalities befitting such a momentous, universal, divine proclamation. A mighty angel, pictured as girded with cloud and rainbow, descends from heaven, and, with loud and far-resounding tone, accompanied by the seven thunders' voice, gives notice of the imminence of such a change of God's attitude towards earth and man's doings upon it. For how long ages, evil in its dominant and apparent triumph has usurped place and power on earth, to the detriment of good, and the oppression of the righteous! Mystery it has been that for so long, and in so striking measure, this state of things has prevailed, with no marked interference on God's part. Now, however, that long-expected, long-desired Divine interposition is to take place. This august messenger, with foot on sea and on earth, with hand uplifted to heaven “sware by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven.... and the earth and the sea, etc., that there should be delay no longer,” and that “the mystery of God should be finished as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” Divine intervention! come it shall, as sure as God is eternal in His person, supreme in His creation, and sovereign in His universal control.
J.T.
(Concluded from page 280)