JUDGMENTS OF FIRE AND WATER

JUDGMENTS OF FIRE AND WATER

"While the earth remains, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" Gen. 8:22

These words are part of the new covenant which God made with man after the Flood, in that judgment of a corrupt race the order of Nature had been set aside. One whole lunar year had been a year of judgment (compare Gen. 7:11 with Gen. 8:13, 14), and during that time there had been neither seed time nor harvest, nor cold nor heat, nor summer nor winter, nor day nor night, so far as the experience of man and the condition of the earth were concerned. The purpose of that particular judgment being accomplished, God reinstated man in his relationship to the earth, putting him under a new order of life, that of the government of man by man (see Gen. 9:1-6). In doing so He restored, and abidingly confirmed, the natural order. The next judgment of the earth will be its final fire-cleansing (See 2 Peter 3:7 and 12; Psa. 148:8). Until then this order abides. It is important that we remember that this covenant has never failed, and that the continuity and regularity of the seasons is due to the faithfulness of God. Through the ages man has lived by seed time and harvest, by cold and heat, by summer and winter, by day and night; and this because God has been faithful and patient. The sorrows of humanity are all due to man's misuse of these things. If they were properly used under the Divine government, there would be neither pain nor poverty, but perfect human conditions. All earthly blessings flow from these Divine arrangements. All earthly curses result from human misuse of them.

INSTRUMENTS OF JUDGMENT

INSTRUMENTS OF JUDGMENT

"Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" Gen. 6:5

These words give the reason for the Flood. We come at this point in the record of human history, to the first activity of the PUNITIVE JUDGMENT of God. A crisis was reached, which made it necessary, in order to the carrying on of the Divine purpose for humanity, that there should be such action; and in these words the nature of the crisis is revealed. They are very emphatic, and show the utter MORAL DEPRAVITY which prevailed. To read them carefully is to discover that fact. When evil choices and courses have thus wrought themselves out, God always acts in judgment in this way. Over and over again has He done so. We have lived through a period of such Divine activity because of His curse. And so it will continue until the final victory is gained; and evil is completely banished from the earth. Two matters are revealed which are of the greatest importance. 

1st, God never acts in such judgment until it is necessary in order to the fulfilling of His highest purposes for humanity. 

2nd, God always does so act, when it is necessary. 

They are the facts of His PATIENCE and His PERSISTENCE. Evil never escapes Him. He presses upon it, and compels it to go on to the uttermost expression; and that, in order that He may destroy it. The flood, the blood and fire and vapor of smoke, all are the INSTRUMENTS OF HIS JUDGMENT, and are employed in order to the realization of His high ideals for humanity. Nature is under His direction (Psa. 148:8) and reveals constantly that He is still on the throne using what is termed secondary causes.

ALPHA AND OMEGA`

THE ALPHA AND OMEGA

"Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen" Psa. 41:13

The English reader has gained much in the study of the Psalms from the fact that the Revisers have restored the Hebrew divisions of the selection into five Books. There is no doubt that the editing, by whom so always done, was carefully done, and that in each of the five books there is a dominant idea. In each case this idea is revealed in the Doxology with which the Book ends. The editor—possibly and even probably Hezekiah—may have written this Doxology himself. The verse we have taken is the Doxology with which the first Book ends. Kirkpatrick is certainly right when he says: "This doxology is, of course, no part of the Psalm, but stands here to mark the close of Book I." The prevailing Name of God found in this collection is Jehovah. The songs have set forth in varied ways all that this Name meant to the men of faith. Thus the Doxology utters the praise of Jehovah, Who is the God of Israel. It recognizes the all-encompassing sweep of the Divine government and grace in the words: “From everlasting to everlasting." It declares the assent of man to this fact, in the concluding double: "Amen and Amen." The word everlasting in the Hebrew means the vanishing point. The idea is that the God of Israel is Jehovah from the past which is beyond human knowledge, to the future which is equally so. Rotherham's rendering is very fine; "Blessed be Jehovah, God of Israel, from antiquity unto antiquity. Amen and Amen.” To us the great truth is made clearer in the words of Jesus: "I am the ALPHA and the OMEGA." (Rev. 1:8, 11; 21:6; 22:13) In that sense of the eternity of our God, and of the eternity of the things concerning Him unveiled in His Son, is the secret of our songs.

ABOVE AND UNDER THE SUN

THIS IS THE BOOK OF THINGS ABOVE AND UNDER THE SUN

"Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; vanity of vanities, all is vanity" Eccles. 1:2

The subtitle of this book found in our translations, "or the Preacher," we owe to Luther, and it is misleading. As Dr. Plumptre has argued at length, and proved conclusively, the more correct rendering of the Hebrew word Koheleth would be "The Debater." This is important, for it at once reminds us that here we have Discussion, rather than Teaching. In these words we have the general proposition of the Debater. Everything he says from here on to 11:8 is in defense of this statement. Then in a paragraph, brief but pregnant (11:9-12), he gives an entirely different view of life, which is a correction of this. Let us, then, at once face this opening declaration. It is an absolutely accurate statement of life when it is lived under certain conditions; but it is not true as a statement of what life must necessarily be. There are thousands of men and women today who cannot, and do not, accept this to be true of life as they find it; it is not vanity, vapor, emptiness, nothingness. To them life in every way is real, rich, full, glorious. It is best, then, that at the beginning we should understand the viewpoint of the Debater. His declaration is that THINGS IN THEMSELVES BRING NO SATISFACTION TO THE SOUL OF MAN. To live on the earth without recognition of the supreme wisdom which begins and continues in the fear of Jehovah, to deal only with that hemisphere which is "under the sun," is indeed to find things of exceeding wonder and beauty and power; but it is to find nothing that satisfies, and to be left at last without any reality, to find only vanity, vapor, emptiness and many end up there.

TRUE AUTHORITY

TRUE AUTHORITY

"I will" Psa. 101:1

The song is attributed to David, and there is no valid reason for questioning that suggestion as to authorship. It is evidently the song of a Ruler, a Prince, a King. In its first movement (vs. 1-4), it records the ruler's decisions concerning himself; in its second (vs. 5-8), it declares his decisions concerning the administration of his Kingdom. It is a Psalm of VOLITION. That is why we have emphasized its first two words. They run through all its stanzas. Trace them. Here is no appeal to others. All the way the singer is exercising HIS WILL. His decisions prove that he is doing so under the inspiration of TRUE INTELLECTUAL APPREHENSION, and pure EMOTIONAL IMPULSE. The important thing is that he is RESPONDING. This is always the matter of principal importance. Moreover, the nature of his decisions and the order of them are INSTRUCTIVE. This king is evidently seeking to act in every way in harmony with the CHARACTER and PURPOSE of the One and only King. He begins with himself. He will bring his own CHARACTER and CONDUCT into conformity with the way and will of Jehovah to Whom he offers his praise. Then he will govern according to the same standards. The persons and things which are unlike God he will not tolerate within his realm. Those persons and things which are in accordance with the will of God, he will cultivate and preserve. This is the true way of authority. THE FLOW BEGINS AT THE TOP WITH TRUE AUTHORITY.

CITY HOUSE AND TEMPLE

CITY HOUSE AND TEMPLE

"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the House of Jehovah" Psa. 122:1

This is the song of the singer, no longer distanced from the CITY and TEMPLE, but having arrived therein. It is the song of first impressions. These were concerned with the CITY as the place of the TEMPLE. Observe that in this opening stanza, and also in the last, the reference is to the HOUSE of Jehovah. First there is the record of the gladness which came when the invitation, and so the opportunity, came to go to the HOUSE of Jehovah. Finally there is the expression of determination to seek the good of the CITY for the sake of this HOUSE. Approaching the HOUSE, the singer was impressed with the CITY; in its compactness, as the center for the gathering of the tribes; and as the seat of the GOVERNMENT. He then prayed for, and spoke of, the peace and prosperity of the CITY. The song reveals the singer's understanding of the true facts of national life. That CITY was to him the center of that life. The HOUSE of God was the center of that CITY. That HOUSE was highest in importance because it was the HOUSE of Jehovah. Jehovah, the God of Grace, is the One around Whom the people gather. The TEMPLE is the means of grace, the Tent of meeting between man and God. The CITY is the embodiment of the ideals of God for His people, the realization on their part of the order of peace and prosperity which is His Will for them. Whenever the song was written, it was idealistic, for never yet in its history has the CITY of God realized this conception. But that is the glory of the life of faith. Spiritually it enters into the experience of the high purposes of God, even when actual conditions fall far short of those purposes. Moreover, it is by such high confidence that men move forward towards realization actually and materially of what they already apprehend spiritually.

WORSHIP AND WITNESS

WORSHIP AND WITNESS

"Make a joyful noise unto Jehovah, all ye lands" Psa. 100:1

This is the wonderful song which, in metrical version, composed by William Kethe in days of Marian persecution, is known as the Old Hundredth. It is jubilant with confidence for the whole earth, as it contemplates the glory of that earth, when its entire people are submitted to the reign of Jehovah. What a pity, by the way, that so many of our hymn-books render the phrase, "Him serve with mirth," as "Him serve with fear," and thus rob the song of one of its chief notes! The relation of this song to the eight preceding ones is unmistakable, and whenever it was composed, its placing here by the guided editor was surely intentional. The eight Psalms have been those of the City of God, of the Sanctuary within that City, of the people who are its citizens, and the worshipers. Their worship is concluded, and now their witness begins. It is as though the gates of the City, the courts of the Sanctuary, were suddenly thrown open, and all lands are called to serve Jehovah Who in Revelation is revealed to be none other than Jesus Chris, to know that He is God, to enter into relationship with Him. Observe that I have italicized the words which mark the movement of this world-wide ap­peal, serve, know, and enter. The relation between these things is very suggestive. Worship is for God. Witness is for men. The strength of witness is cre­ated in worship. IT IS THOSE WHO KNOW COMMUNION IN THE SANCTUARY WHO ARE ABLE TO CALL MEN TO GOD PREVAILINGLY. It is equally true that THE ULTIMATE VALUE OF WORSHIP IS WITNESS. To praise God for all the wonders of His reign, and to fail to proclaim those wonders to such as dwell in darkness, is almost to blaspheme. The Songs of the Sabbath sung with face lifted toward the throne, and catching the light therefrom, must be sung on all the other days in the highways and byways of human life, with faces irradiated, and so shining upon men. Let us all be His reflectors.

THE LIE OF SATAN

THE LIE OF SATAN

"This is the book of the generations of Adam" Gen. 5:1

Only twice in the Bible do we find this exact formula here, and in the first verse of the New Testament in the one case the reference is to the first man, the first Adam; in the other it is to the second Man, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). This in itself is a suggestive fact. Here in Genesis the words constitute the title of the scroll which immediately follows, on which the posterity of Adam, through Seth, is given, up to Noah and his three sons. It covers the history of the first period, or age of human history after the fall; that is the period from the fall to the Flood. In the previous chapter the history of the posterity of Adam through Cain is given, up to Lamech, who was contemporary with Enoch. The period covered lasted for fifteen hundred years; and this chapter is of importance because it is the only Biblical history of those centuries. That history is arresting in its brevity and boldness. In the main it is the account of the continuity of the race under the penalty of death resulting from the fall. Man had distrusted God, and rebelled against His government, because he had believed the word of the enemy, who had said, "Ye shall not surely die." Through these centuries the tolling of the bell of death is persistent; we read it again and again, eight times: "and he died." Thus history was proving the word of the ENEMY to be a LIE, and that of God to be the TRUTH. This is what history always does. Yet the principle of triumph over sin and death is illustrated in the account, once the death toll is not heard. Of one man's passing from the earth, the description is different. Of Enoch it is written: "He was not, for God took him." And the explanation is found in the fact that in life he found his way into FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.

JUDGMENT DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN PUNISHMENT

JUDGMENT DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN PUNISHMENT

"This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard; fear. God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man" Eccles. 12:13

With verse nine of the previous chapter the final division of this book begins. It stands in direct and intended contrast to all that has preceded it. That contrast is immediately seen when verses eight and nine in chapter eleven are compared. Both call upon man to rejoice, but the motive is entirely different. The voice of worldly wisdom says: rejoice because all the future is dark and vanity. Now the higher wisdom speaks, and it says: rejoice, by remembering, that God brings men into judgment as to the exercise of all their natural powers. Let it be remembered that JUDGMENT DOES NOT MEAN PUNISHMENT, unless and until men abuse those natural powers. Remember we have been living under the judgment of God placed on this earth at Babel. Wisdom says: life is to be full of joy, and the way to find joy is to order it under the judgment, that is under the government of God. This is urged in all that follows, until in these words everything is summarized. I cannot refrain from saying that this statement has suffered incalculably from the introduction by translators of the word duty. The word does not occur in the Hebrew text. Leave it out, and the statement is: "This is the whole of man." This at once emphasizes the outlook of all that has gone before. The outlook of the Debater has not been the whole of man. Life in its wholeness takes in the things ABOVE THE SUN, the spiritual facts and forces; it begins with the fear of God, and brings that fear to bear upon all the lower facts and forces; by walking in His commandments. No man who lives a whole life forever says that "all is vanity." He, first finding God, finds also the joy and fullness of life in every aspect. To him life becomes a song and gladness; it is full and glorious.

NATIONAL NOT GLOBAL

COMMON WEALTH OF THE WORLD

"These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations; and of these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood" Gen. 10:32

The reader will observe that in this 10th chapter we have an account of how the nations were “divided in the earth." It precedes the account of the occasion of this division, which is found in the next chapter. It is here that the NATIONAL idea emerges in the Bible account and not the present GLOBAL which this undoes. Up to now there had been one race. There would still be one race, but henceforth in its growth and development, it would consist of different branches, families, nations, each having peculiar characteristics, which in the Divine economy are intended to be held in trust for the COMMON-WEALTH, that so the race, being communal, might be the richer. Babel was an attempt to evade this wider purpose of God. Thus the writer describes the division, which followed Babel first, because it was the first Divine purpose. All this should be very carefully pondered. The national idea is Divine, but its principle is cooperation, and its purpose communion. Man has made its principle competition, and its experience has become conflict. When the nations are last seen in the Biblical Revelation, they are walking in the light of the City of God (Rev. 21:24); and then the COMMON-WEALTH of man will be realized in the Kingdom of God, and all conflict will have ended forever. The last glory of the race will not be monotony, but HARMONY, the cultivation by every nation of its own peculiar powers and resources, in the interest of all the other nations. That is the far-off Divine event, to which the whole creation moves; and that the glory of the vision which inspires to all sacrifice and service till it be realized.

CONSCIENCE

CONSCIENCE

“The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all his innermost parts" Prov. 20:27

In this great word of Hebrew Wisdom, we have incidentally what we may reverently describe as a revelation of Biblical psychology. The Hebrew word here rendered spirit, is the word rendered breath in the passage in Genesis, which says that “God . . . breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." (Gen. 2:7) The rendering spirit, therefore, is unquestionably accurate, and refers to that in man which constitutes him man and differentiates between him and all animals. By that breath or spirit he is separated from the animal world, as surely as the sentient life of the animal is separated from the vegetable life beneath it—and to greater distance. Man is not an animal. That breath or spirit—says this word of Wisdom—is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all the deepest things in the personality of man. Here is the Biblical conception of CONSCIENCE. Within the mystery of the spirit-nature of every man there is light. It is the instrument of God. It illuminates life. It is that by which man is constantly kept face to face with truth. Let us make no mistake about it: the most evil men know that their works are evil. No specious arguments can prove to the spirit-life of a man that wrong is right, that impurity is pure. The day may come when a man becomes content with wrong, satisfied with impurity. Perhaps the day comes to some when they are unable to make the distinction. I doubt it. But if so, then it is because that lamp of Jeho­vah is put out, that deep essential spirit-life is atrophied—perished. But that is not the end. That spirit-life cannot cease to be. There is a resurrection to condemnation. There will be a new lighting of that lamp, and therein is the awful mystery of retribution. "In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torments." (Luke 16:23)

FEAST OF PURIM

FEAST OF PURIM

"Esther confirmed these matters of Purim" Esther 9:32

In this chapter we have a full account of the arrival of the fateful thirteenth day of the twelfth month, and of all that happened thereupon. It was the day on which the changed conditions in the cases of Haman and Mordecai were revealed throughout the whole of the provinces. Men who had persecuted the Jews, and were looking for the opportunity of wreaking their vengeance by royal decree, found themselves filling the places which they had intended their foes to occupy. It was in remembrance of this great deliverance that the feast of Purim was established. The thirteenth day was the day when the lot, according to Haman's devices, was to fall out to the destruction of the Jews. God overruled the lot, and they were delivered. Therefore the fourteenth and fifteenth days were henceforth to be observed as Purim, or lots, a time of festal celebration. This decision was confirmed by the royal consent through Esther. According, to a Jewish tradition, "all the feasts shall cease in the days of Messiah, except the feast of Purim." It is a remarkable fact that while there have been breaks in the observance of the other great feasts, and some of them have been practically discontinued, this has been maintained. Whatever view men may hold of the value of this Book of Esther, it is certain that Jewish leaders have always treated it as an exposition of the method by which God wrought deliverance for His people in a time of peril, even while they were in exile, and so of His unceasing care for them. It has been the inspiration of hope for them in many dark and desolate days to come for Israel.

VOWS AND PRAYERS

VOWS AND PRAYERS

"I will pay Thee my vows" Psa. 66:13

This is another song of praise, in two movements. The first is national (vs. 1-12), and celebrates a Divine deliverance from trouble, while recognizing that the trouble itself was a part of the Divine method, a chastisement through which the nation was brought into a wealthy place. The second is personal (vs. 13-20), and perhaps in it the king, who in the earlier part had spoken of and for his people, spoke of and for himself. The singer had been heard; God had attended to the voice of the prayers he had uttered in the day of his distress. In that day of distress he had made vows to the Lord, and now in the day of prosperity he remembers them and comes into the House of his God with burnt-offerings to fulfill his vows. There is an important principle in these words. The soul of man in hours of distress constantly makes promises to God as to what it will do if He will deliver out of that distress. Such vows are entirely voluntary, and they are not necessary. They do not affect the action of God in the least. PRAYER DOES THAT, BUT NOT VOWS. But when the voluntary vow is made, it becomes an obligation from which the one making it must not attempt to escape. This was explicitly enacted in the Law. The provision will be found in Lev. 27. There it is clearly laid down that vows in respect of persons, beasts, houses, fields, are entirely optional; but when made, are COMPULSORY. The life of fellowship with God into which we are admitted through Christ, makes vows more than always unnecessary. They; however, are not forbidden. Only let us never forget that when made, they must be fulfilled. The reason is not in God, but in us. To fail to keep faith with God is to suffer deterioration of character.