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Chosen no: R-5645 a, from: 1915 Year. |
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GOD'S MERCIES TO DISOBEDIENT ISRAEL
--MARCH 28.--QUARTERLY REVIEW.--READ NEHEMIAH 9:26-31.--
THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES--DIVINELY APPOINTED LEADERS - THEIR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES - ONLY ONE LAW-GIVER AND ONE LAW - TWO PICTURES OF ISRAEL'S NATIONAL LIFE UNDER THE JUDGES - MANIFESTATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE AND CARE FOR GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE - LESSONS FOR THE SPIRITUAL ISRAELITES.
"Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people."--Proverbs 14:34.
ISRAEL'S history from the time of the division
of Canaan amongst the tribes until the
anointing of Saul to be their king, a period
of 450 years (Acts 13:19-21), is called the
Period of the Judges--Joshua being the first
Judge and Samuel the last. These Judges
were evidently not elected to their position,
but raised to it providentially. But
as these Judges had no power nor authority,
collected no revenue and held no office which
they could entail upon others, it follows that any power,
or influence, they possessed was a personal one; and to
give it weight or force implied a proper acknowledgment
of them as Divinely appointed, or "raised up."
This arrangement led the people continually to look
to God for their helpers and leaders rather than to engage
in an ordinary claptrap of politics, in which personal
ambition and spoils would dominate and control.
God did the nominating; and the people, in proportion
as they came into harmony with Him, took cognizance of
His choice (and practically endorsed it or voted for it)
by their acceptance of the Judge. There may have been
a more methodical procedure in some instances; for the
elders of Israel who had witnessed God's miraculous interposition
on their behalf and who outlived Joshua seem
to have constituted the Judges in the different tribes during
the remainder of their lifetime.--Judges 2:7.
This arrangement by which God gave Israel their
Judges is in considerable harmony with His dealings with
Spiritual Israel during the Gospel Age--raising up for
them from time to time special counselors, deliverers,
ministers. Similarly Spiritual Israelites are not to caucus,
wire-pull and decide for themselves who shall be their
spiritual leaders, but are to regard the Lord as the great
Chief Captain and to look to Him to raise up from time
to time such spiritual chieftains as He may please. The
acceptance of the leadings of these as God's appointees
does not necessarily mean their selection by ballot, but
may be indicated merely by giving ear to their teachings
in harmony with the Word of the Lord.
The lead of such spiritual lieutenants of Divine
appointment will always be marked by spiritual victories
and the bringing of the Lord's people into closer heart-relationship
with Him. Any leadership which does not
produce such fruits is evidently not of the Lord, for the
Spirit of the Lord leads not to bondage, ignorance or strife,
but to love, joy, peace of heart, liberty of conscience.
Israel needed no congress or legislature; for it had
one Lawgiver--the Lord--and the Law given at Mt.
Sinai was to be perpetually the guide of the nation.
The priests and the Levites, under the Law, were the
appointed helpers of the people in things pertaining to
God--to instruct them in the Law and to represent them
in the typical sacrificing, atonement work, etc. In each
tribe, also, the Elders, according to their capacity, had
charge of the civil affairs of the tribe. As for soldiers
and a war department they had none. The Divine Law
was to separate them from other nations; and if they
would remain faithful to the Lord, He was to be their
Protector against all antagonists.
Similarly, Spiritual Israel in every congregation are
to look out amongst themselves for fit men for the
services needed. God's Law is to keep them separate
from the schemes, and warfares and entanglements of
the world. They are to be His peculiar people, and His
pledge to them is that all things shall work together for
their good so long as they abide faithful to Him. Therefore
they need no armies armed with carnal weapons,
although they are all soldiers of the Cross, pledged to
fight against sin, especially each within himself, and to
lay down their lives for each other--"the brethren."
TWO PICTURES OF NATIONAL LIFE
If the Book of Judges be read as a fully complete
history of Israel during those four and one-half centuries,
it would be a discouraging picture and to some
extent would give the inference that they were continually
in sin and idolatry, and suffering punishment
therefor. But this would be an unfair view to take. On
the contrary, the record passes by the happy period of
Israel's prosperity, and especially points out their deflections
from God, the punishments for such transgressions,
and the deliverances from their troubles through the
Judges, or deliverers, whom God raised up for them.
[R5645 : page 75] That this was in many respects a favorable time for the
Israelites is implied in the Lord's promise, "I will restore
thy Judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning."
--Isaiah 1:26.
Incidentally the story of Ruth and that of the parents
of Samuel give us little glimpses of the other side of the
matter--of the God-fearing piety prevalent amongst many
of the people, the happiness and contentment enjoyed.
In our own day, if we judge of the affairs of the world
wholly by the daily history and details in the newspapers,
we might get the impression that crimes, strikes, accidents
and imprisonments constitute the whole life in our land;
for the great mass of the people attending to the ordinary
affairs of life are scarcely mentioned.
[R5646 : page 75]
In accordance with this are the following lines from
the poet Whittier, in which he rejoices in this land of
liberty and blessing, notwithstanding the unfavorable
reports thereof which go out to the world daily through
the press:
"Whate'er of folly, shame or crime
Within thy mighty bounds transpires,
With speed defying space or time,
Comes to us on the accusing wires;
While all thy wealth of noble deeds,
Thy homes of peace, thy votes unsold,
Thy love that pleads for human needs,
The wrongs redressed, but half is told!"
THE FRUITS OF DISOBEDIENCE
The Israelites had been instructed by the Lord to
utterly exterminate the people of the land, which extermination
we saw, in a previous lesson, prefigured our
conquest as Spiritual Israelites over the desires of the
fallen nature. Israel, however, settled down to enjoy
the Land of Promise without fully exterminating the
condemned ones; and later on the false religions of
the latter contaminated the Israelites through friendship
and fellowship. Thus those whom God had condemned
gradually alienated the hearts of many from their full,
proper loyalty to the Lord, seducing many of them into
a lascivious idolatry.
So with the Spiritual Israelites who do not wage a
valiant war against the natural desires of their own
fallen flesh--they find shortly that the flesh prospers at
the expense of the spiritual life, and that truces with the
flesh mean that their love for the Lord is gradually cooled
until some form of idolatry creeps in--the love of money
or of praise of men or of self, etc., dividing with the Lord
the love and reverence of their hearts.
We are not to suppose that all of the Israelites fell
away into idolatry; we are rather to understand that
repeatedly a considerable number of them became alienated
for a time from the love and worship of the Lord,
and thus repeatedly brought upon them the Lord's disfavor.
Applying this to Spiritual Israel, we are not to
expect that the Lord's displeasure with His people would
delay until they had fully and completely gone into idolatry
to self or wealth or fame; but rather that when
some of the affections of the heart begin to go out to
other things, the Lord's chastisements would be sent to
reprove, rebuke and correct while still there is in our
hearts something of obedience and love toward Him--
before the world, the flesh and the Adversary should
have time to capture us completely.
These records of Divine chastisements and of Israel's
subsequent repentance and the Lord's deliverance are all
proofs of the Divine love and care for that consecrated
people. So far as we have information the Divine power
was not thus exercised upon the other nations for their
reproof, correction, etc. They were left as strangers,
foreigners, aliens from God and from His promises.
So now the Lord's corrections in righteousness, His
chastisements, etc., are evidences of special protection,
care and relationship to the House of Sons. It is because
of our acceptance in Christ and our consecration
to the Lord that He in turn has accepted us as sons and
gives us the experiences, trials and difficulties needful to
our testing and character-development. This is to the
intent that we may realize the treachery and the seductive
influences of our own fallen natures, represented by
the Amalekites, the Canaanites, etc.; and that we may
utterly destroy these, and thus come eventually into the
condition mentioned by the Apostle when he declares that
the consecrated should bring every thought into captivity
to the will of God in Christ.--2 Corinthians 10:5.
When Natural Israel learned one lesson after another
and, as fast as each was learned, sent a cry of loyalty up
to God, His power was exercised on their behalf, and
their deliverance was effected. So with the Spiritual
Israelite; when he recognizes the true situation and with
thorough repentance turns unto the Lord and cries for
deliverance from his own weaknesses and imperfections
according to the flesh, his prayer is heard, and his deliverance
is provided for with the assurance that the Lord's
grace is sufficient. Such a cry to the Lord implies that
the sins and weaknesses of the flesh were contrary to the
transgressor's will. It implies that in some manner he
was seduced or entangled by the world, the flesh or the
Adversary; but that his heart is still loyal to the Lord
and to the Truth. All such who cry to the Lord in sincerity
and faith shall be heard, shall be delivered; for
His grace is sufficient for us.
ISRAEL'S WRONG COURSE
The government of Israel was different from every
other government in the world. God was their King;
and in His providences, according to His Covenant with
them, He supervised their affairs--whether by permitting
them to go into temporary captivity because of unfaithfulness
to Him, or by prospering the nation and guiding
their efforts favorably when they lived in obedience to
Him. In many respects their condition was most happy.
But in the days of the Prophet Samuel as the Elders
perceived that his sons were not to be relied upon to follow
in their father's steps and be faithful, impartial
Judges, they forgot--or perhaps had never fully realized
--that God was their real Judge, their King; and that
Samuel was only His representative and mouthpiece.
They forgot that although Samuel was growing old, the
Lord was "the same yesterday, today and forever," and
able to raise up for them, in His own due time, a Judge
of the kind best suited to their necessities. Doubtless,
also, they did not realize that personally and nationally
they were on a higher plane than the nations round about
them that had kings. On the contrary, they felt that they
were "out of style"; and, as people are very apt to do,
they concluded that the majority must be right.
Influenced by this servility to custom, the Elders of
Israel petitioned Samuel that he as God's representative
would anoint for them a king--make them a nation of
servants to one of their own nation. It is hard for us
to sympathize with such ignoble sentiments, such prayers
for their own degradation. Samuel seems to have viewed
the matter from this standpoint, and perhaps he also regarded
it as a personal slight to himself. However, he
very properly took the matter to the Lord in prayer; it
was not for him to decide--he was merely the Lord's
[R5646 : page 76] mouthpiece and representative, to speak to the Israelites
whatever message he should receive.
How grand it would be if the whole world could be
under such rule--Heavenly Wisdom directing, and incorruptible
earthly Judges communicating and enforcing the
Divine Message and Law? The Scriptures inform us
that this is what will eventually come to pass. (Isaiah 1:26.)
However, before that grand condition can be
realized, it will be necessary for the Messiah to take His
great power and reign. Then the people will be ready to
hearken to the voice of the Lord through those whom He
will appoint and recognize as His mouthpiece. As it is
written, "Thy people shall be willing in the Day of Thy
power."--Psalm 110:3.
THE MESSIANIC REIGN AUTOCRATIC
In recounting to Israel the manner of a king, neither
the Lord nor the Prophet Samuel meant that the description
given would be the proper one for a model king, but
rather that it would be the general course of any man raised
to such imperial power as the kings of olden time enjoyed.
The wrong course of kings in general may be traceable
to three conditions: (1) All men are imperfect and fallen,
and hence in the case of any king it would be merely a
question of the degree of imperfection and the tendency
to pride, selfishness and abuse of power; (2) The imperfection
of those over whom a king reigns makes possible,
and to some extent reasonable, the usurpation of great
power; (3) The Adversary's derangement of all earthly
affairs, putting darkness for light, often makes it seem
to both ruler and subjects that an abuse of power is really
to the advantage of those ruled.
The question then arises, How will it be with Messiah's
Kingdom? We reply that the Scriptures teach that
His Rule will be autocratic in the extreme; nevertheless,
no one who understands the matter need have any fear;
for He who is to take the Throne of the world is the One
who so loved the world as to give Himself a Ransom for
all mankind. Instead of His Kingdom being one of selfishness,
which would ruin its subjects for its own aggrandizement,
He has shown His Spirit to be the very reverse
of this, in that He left the glory of the Heavenly Courts
and humbled Himself to a lower nature, in order to become
man's Substitute--He "tasted death for every man."
It is this One who is now highly exalted and appointed
Heir of all things.
Let us also remember that the Church, now being
selected from the world, is composed of those only who
have their Master's Spirit and who delight to lay down
their lives in co-operation with their Lord and Head. Let
us remember that according to the Divine predestination
none shall be of that elect class save those who are copies
of God's dear Son; and that the tests of discipleship are
such as to prove their love and loyalty to God, to Christ,
to their brethren, to the world, yea, to their enemies also.
Who need fear an autocratic government in the hands
of such a glorious King! Indeed, such a Government
will be the most helpful, the most profitable, that the world
could possibly have--wise, just, loving, helpful. Let us,
therefore, who have been called to this High Calling lay
aside every weight and every besetting sin, and, by the
Lord's assisting grace, gain this great prize of joint-heirship
with Him in His Messianic Kingdom, to have a share
with Him in the blessing of all the families of the earth,
in the recovery of whosoever will from sin and death.
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