IN verse 36 we read, “And the king shall do according to his will.” This is no king of either north or south, but quite another monarch who is called simply “the king.” No other designation was required. Every intelligent Jew would at once know, as every Christian ought to know, who that portentous ruler is. O.T. prophecy prepares us for an awful time that is to befall the nation before the Messiah comes in power and glory. They boast much about their boundless charity to their own people; but how little they enter into what David calls the “kindness of God!” Christians are called by their Savior to love their enemies. I wonder if every Christian here loves his enemies, no matter how unjust they may be? It is just our opportunity of showing that grace makes us to be above spite and evil. Should we be able to sing at midnight in prison, with our feet in the stocks? What can be done with such people? The world finds them invincible. No wonder that they are to reign with Christ by-and-by, seeing that by His grace they now conquer in the irresistible might of weakness. Exploits are all well for Puritans as for Maccabees; but they suit not the Christian. Stonewall Jackson in America and Havelock in India were too like the Maccabees. They had an imperfect idea of the true place of the Christian. They had not learned to bear all, and endure all, not only in passive obedience to their earthly rulers, but in grace to such as shamefully injured them.
Here it is supposed that the readers know there is to be at the time of the reigning in Judea an apostate potentate. Having rejected the True Light, the Jews do not realize that they are the very people to be governed by this self-exalting enemy of God. They would not deny that there will surely arise an audacious and wicked king in the land of Israel; but they forget that they are to be his subjects, accomplices, and victims. So far from being king of the north or of the south, we see here that he is attacked by the then kings of both those lands. He is simply called “the king,” as neither of those powers is ever called. He bears that name, as being then king of the land between the north and the south. The text affords demonstrable proof of this. “The king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself.” This may be no uncommon quality; but he manifests it to an unheard of degree: “He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god.” What pretension! Did he not then require to eat, drink, and sleep like any other poor creature? Surely this ought to have convinced him how far he must be from God, or even an angel, had he not been blinded by Satan's power. Nay, he shall “speak marvelous things against the God of gods.” Not this only, but we are told that which gives astonishing evidence of long-suffering till judgment come; we are told that he “shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done.” What a solemn way of God it is to let one go on in blasphemous pride, that wickedness may fully come out, and its downfall may be all the more just and complete! God is righteous. But what is man? What are the Jews, and particularly then?
How came such a king to reign over Judea? They refused Him that came in His Father's name. They will then receive one that comes in his own name. Here we read what he is and does. “Like king, like people” we may say, as one of the earlier prophets said, “As the people, so the priest.” They will be in that day one evil lump. The difference is only in degree. Lawlessness will have reached its height. “And he will not regard the God of his fathers.” This shows, according to scripture language, he is a Jew. Nobody but a Jew can correctly be described thus: a simple, but incontrovertible proof for such as know the Bible. Where do we find anything like it?
An Englishman who believes may speak of God as his Father; but he cannot talk of “the God of his fathers” except as imitating the phrase of a Jew. This reference of course is to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are the true fathers whom God chose to be the depositories of promise, on behalf of their seed and land, yet to be verified under Messiah: a most happy time for the world, after its hitherto sinful and sad history. I do not of course speak of the gospel, founded on Christ's cross and calling us as the church to heavenly glory. But there is a bright and blessed time for the earth when Israel shall be truly the people of Jehovah exalted above all nations and a blessing to them. The church will have a glorious place in heaven, and will reign over the earth, but not on it. This is the mistake often made in rendering ver. 10 of Rev. 5. It ought to be not “on” but “over.” ere is an idiom in the construction which bears this out. Why it should have been overlooked by many excellent scholars seems strange; for the usage is plain enough.
Neither shall this king, to take the next characteristic, regard “the desire of women.” The phrase alludes to the well-known expectation that a maiden of Israel would be the mother of Immanuel (Isa. 7). “Nor [will he] regard any god, for he shall magnify himself above all.” So excessive is his lawless self-exalting presumption that prevalent idolatry he repudiates in his self-assertion. Yet he is an idolater after all—this man who pretends to be the Most High God. “In his estate shall he honor the god of forces.” We can readily understand how everything at such a time will turn to the worship of material force. Never has there been such a rage for arming to the teeth as at the present moment. There have been many epochs when a countless host of barbarians has swept over the civilized world, but never a time when such vast armies stood confronting one another, though their own lands groan under the necessary taxation, afraid of breaking the peace, but ready for war if they saw the opportunity to seize the coveted prize.
(To be continued, D.V.)