GOD’S AGENCY IN WAR
By George Lawson,
1811. (edited by Arthur Pink, 1941.)
Does God punish nations for their wickedness under the Christian dispensation
as He did during Old Testament times? If He did not we should have to
discontinue the use of many of the Psalms in the praise of God. David often
speaks of the righteousness of God’s judgment against the nations, and if it
were a glorious expression of the Divine justice in the days of old to punish
guilty nations, why is it to be thought that He is now weary of exhibiting such
specimens of the excellency of His administration? It is still true that the
Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment and that His holiness will be
sanctified in righteousness. The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ had not been
long established in the world before a wrath came upon Judah to the uttermost,
because that people had killed Jesus the Savior, and slain the Prophets and
Apostles whom He sent unto them (Matt. 22:7; 1 Thess. 2:16).
The book of the Revelation gives us a concise view of the series of Divine
administration in the world under seven seals, seven vials, and seven
trumpets—and it is plain that the calamities predicted under each were
judgments to be inflicted upon the peoples for their iniquities. Under the
fifth seal we find a complaint presented before God by the souls of those who
were slain for His Word and for the testimony of Jesus. Under the sixth seal we
find a prediction of tremendous revolutions announced against their
persecutors. Under the trumpets awful judgments were inflicted on the nations
for sins that are expressly named. After the sounding of the sixth trumpet it
is said that the men which were not killed by these plagues, “yet repented not
of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, the idols of
gold and silver,” etc. (Rev. 9:20, 21). When the third vial was poured out and
the fountain of water became blood, John heard a voice saying, “Lord God
Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments” (16:7). So, too, mystical
Babylon is to b destroyed because she is “the mother of harlots and
abominations of the earth.”
But it may be objected: Is it not inconsistent with that humility which becomes
such short-sighted creatures as we are to ascribe the particular transgressions
which have kindled the Divine displeasure against those nations which are
ruined by the agents of His providence? It would certainly be inconsistent with
that reverence which we owe to God and that charity we owe to our fellow
creatures to assign reasons for their calamities, when we are not authorized by
the Word of God to do it. But the Scriptures plainly tell us what those
offenses are which ordinarily bring down the displeasure of God on guilty
nations, and they require us to give Him the glory due unto His works by
observing and acknowledging His righteousness. Wise men who contemplate the
works of nature inquire why the great Creator has given to various creatures
different powers, propensities, and instincts. But how would they understand
the wisdom and goodness of their Maker if they should, through an affected
humility, disclaim all knowledge of His intentions in dispensing His gifts so
variously? And how can we make that improvement of the works of the King of
nations if we shut our eyes against that light by which we might judge of the
reasons of His conduct?
The Scriptures tell us what those crimes were for which God spread desolation
and misery over many countries in ancient times. If we knew that the same or
the like crimes abounded in those countries which have recently been the
theater of the judgments of Heaven, ought we not to be impressed with a new
sense of that holiness which appears in the ways of the Lord and to learn
righteousness when His judgments are on the earth? Our Lord censured those who
thought that the men on whom the tower of Siloam fell were greater sinners than
others in Jerusalem. And we, too, would deserve severe censure if we should
pretend to judge of the degree of criminality chargeable on any nation from the
calamities which have befallen it. Those are not always the most wicked nations
that are first or that are most awfully punished. The Chaldeans were the worst
of the heathens, and yet they were the ministers of Divine Providence in the
punishment of all the surrounding nations (Ezek. 7; Jer. 25).
The Sovereign Ruler of the earth gives no account of His matters, and we can
claim no right to call Him to account. He has reasons worthy of Himself for His
conduct when He extends His patience to some people or nations to a greater degree
than He does to others less wicked. But while we give Him the glory of His
sovereignty, we ought not to hide our eyes from the plain proofs which He is
pleased to give us of His hatred of sin. The old lying Prophet who deceived the
man of God of Judah and tempted him to eat bread when God had forbidden him to
was undoubtedly a greater sinner than the Prophet whom he deceived, yet the
patience of God to that offender should not hinder us from admiring His wisdom
and justice in punishing a good Prophet for his disobedience.
Many nations have been in our day (1810) brought very low. Several thrones have
been subverted (by Napoleon). It is our duty to hear the voice of God in such
tremendous dispensations calling upon us to learn righteousness from His judgments
which are abroad in the earth. But how can we learn righteousness from them if
we affect to be ignorant of a truth so often taught in the Bible—that fat lands
are turned into barrenness and countries covered with desolation for the
iniquities of those who dwell in them (Psalm. 107; Amos 9). Far be from us to
infer from the miseries of any nations the sins for which they are punished.
This would be to imitate the reprobated conduct of Job’s friends, who judged
him to be a hypocrite and atheist because he suffered the most grievous
afflictions from the Providence of God. But when we know that nations have
greatly sinned against God, and that they have greatly suffered, we may justly
infer that their sins were the cause of their sufferings. God’s ways, like
Himself, change not.
The New Testament Prophet speaks of vials full of the last Judgment to be
poured out upon the Beast and his worshipers. When those vials are poured
forth, praise is given to God by those who had escaped from infection: “great
and marvelous are Your works Lord God Almighty: just and true are Your ways,
You King of saints, Who would not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name, for
You only are holy for Your judgments are made manifest” (Rev. 15:3, 4). Are we
not taught in those words that the ground of God’s quarrel with the Popish
nations, when they shall be visited with His judgments, is to be made so
manifest as to afford just cause for praise! Some may object, If by the
worshipers of the Beast are meant Romanists, they cannot deserve grievous
judgments for holding fast a religion which they had been taught by their
fathers and which they sincerely believe is well-pleasing to God. Answer: the
Israelites who revolted under Jeroboam believed the worship of idols was
acceptable to the Lord, yet the error of their judgment did not shelter them
from His vengeance.
The perversion of religion in Israel was accompanied by many other vices which
were so many causes of God’s wrath against them. And are not the errors of
Popery equally inimical to good morals? It is a pernicious deceit to suppose it
is of no great consequence what men believe if their morals are good. Our faith
ought to be pure as well as our morals, and corruptions in faith never fail to
have an immoral tendency. Woe be unto us, who abhor the errors of Popish
nations, and yet are perhaps as bad in many respects as they are, and in some
respects worse. Our sins are greatly aggravated by the superior advantages that
we enjoy. We have been wonderfully preserved from threatened judgments—let us
not be high-minded, but fear. God does what He pleases but His justice as well
as His mercy endures forever.
There are other reasons beside the punishing of guilty nations for which God
makes use of His battle-axe and weapons of war, in the destructive work for
which they are fitted. By the revolutions accomplished in the world He gives
striking manifestations to mankind of the vanity and instability of all earthly
things, and of the infinite difference between those glories of the world which
so much dazzle the eyes of beholders, and the glory of His own eternal throne.
We walk too much by sight, and not by faith. When we see men elevated to
uncommon heights of power we almost think they are immortal. When we behold
cities enriched by commerce or the spoils of enemies, surrounded with strong
fortifications and defended by mighty armies, we almost think they are eternal
cities, as Babylon and Rome were once thought to be by their inhabitants, and
perhaps by their enemies, too. When a kingdom has stood long in its strength we
are ready to dream that such kingdoms are everlasting.
Thus we are tempted to give those honors to men and sublunary things which are
due only to Him who lives forever and ever. By the fall of mighty kingdoms and
the subversion of thrones, we are made not only to see but feel the folly of
trusting in princes, of bestowing excessive admiration on earthly grandeur, and
of looking more at things seen and temporal than those which are eternal. When
the day of the Lord is upon the cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan and the
ships of Tarshith, His intention is that the things which are great and high in
the eyes of short-sighted men may be brought low, that the Lord alone may be
exalted. Thus when the Prophet predicted the destruction of the glorious city
of Tyre—the London of those days—he assigned this reason for God’s awful
purpose against that city: “The LORD of hosts has purposed it to stain the
pride of all glory to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth” (Isa.
23:9).
We ought certainly to mourn when God punishes guilty nations for the misery of
our fellow creatures and for the indications which He gives us of His
displeasure against them. But if we believe the world is governed by the
providence of Him who sees what is past and to come at one glance, we ought not
to confine our views of the works of God to their present appearance but to
remember that what He is now doing tends to something else, which in His time
He will show who is the blessed and only Potentate, and that in His whole
administration He keeps in view ends worthy of His wisdom and grace.
Generations may indeed pass away one after another before those glorious
results appear to men which are well known beforehand to the all-seeing Eye. We
ought to satisfy ourselves with the well-grounded assurance that all the
glorious things which are spoken of the City of our God shall be fulfilled,
that not one good thing said or her shall fail. He will bring light out of
darkness and life out of death.
Perhaps we are too dim-sighted to see how those revolutions which bring so much
misery and desolation can contribute to the good of mankind in their remoter
consequences. We can however see how the prosperity of nations only too often
tends to the increase of vice by giving opportunities to men to gratify their
lusts. In such cases sore calamities are necessary for checking the progress of
wickedness and forcing them, if they will not be virtuous, to set at least some
bounds to their vices. History shows how the power of kings has often been
employed to obstruct the progress of the Gospel, and therefore the destruction
of their powers makes a way for the free course of the Lord’s Word. Former
revolutions have been made instrumental in the diffusion of the knowledge of Christ
in ways that no human sagacity could have foreseen or conjectured. When the
mystery of God is finished we shall see more clearly how He has brought a clean
thing out of an unclean.
Another thing taught by our text (Jer. 51:20) is that when God is pleased to
bring about awful revolutions in kingdoms He ordinarily makes use of men for
His instruments. By so doing He shows forth His glory as the universal Lord,
who rules not only in the raging of the sea but in the tumults of the people.
It is His glory to make use of wicked dispositions and the unholy works of the
worst of men for the accomplishment of His purpose. He makes the wrath and
pride of man to praise Him. The robber, the murderer, the destroyer of nations
are His servants. While they are, to the utmost of their power, doing the work
of His great enemy, yet they are accomplishing His holy counsels. It is very
wonderful in our eyes that the will of God should be fulfilled even by His
greatest enemies: thereby He magnifies His righteousness as the Governor of the
world, not suffering wickedness either in individuals or nations to pass
unpunished.
But what is most astonishing in this view of the Divine Providence is that even
God’s works of grace are carried on, not only in defiance of all the opposition
that is made to them, but by means of the worst actions of wicked men and
devils. Nebuchadnezzar, by the revolutions which he accomplished in many
countries, prepared the way for the diffusion of the Gospel when it should be
preached to the Gentiles. He scattered the Jews, the only nation that knew the
true God, many of whom never returned to their own land. Thereby the Gentiles
in many lands had some seeds of true religion scattered among them, which were
to bring forth an abundant increase in days to come. It might easily be shown
that all the great revolutions of the past contributed their part to the happy
success of the Gospel in later times, and we have no reason to doubt that the
present shaking of nations will have like consequences, although we cannot name
the time or the manner in which the Lord will finish His “strange work” in
righteousness and mercy.
The variety of God’s works is no inconsiderable part of their glory. David
praises Him in strains of rapture for the endless variety of His works of
nature. He is no less worthy of praise for the wonderful variety of His works
in the moral government of the world. It will at least be clearly seen that
both when He is pleased to destroy nations by His own immediate agency (as at
the Flood) or by employing human instruments, He acts in a manner most
conducive to the fulfillment of His purposes. If He had punished all those
guilty nations that had made themselves obnoxious to His justice by fire from
Heaven, the history of mankind must have been completely different from what it
is, and many works had been left undone which are the objects of high praise in
the Psalms and in the prophetical writings of the Old and New Testaments.
Let us now draw some practical reflections from our text. 1. We learn one great
advantage to be derived from history. When we survey the works of nature we
lose the chief part of the pleasure and advantage which we might derive from
the view if we forget they are the works of God. Truly the light is sweet and a
pleasant thing it is to behold the sun, but this pleasure is greatly heightened
and turned to devotion when we hear the voice of the heavens declaring the
glory of God and the firmament showing His handiwork. So, too, we deprive
ourselves of the richest advantage which history affords if we do not remember
that the events which it records are the wondrous works of Him who is perfect
in wisdom.
We are rightly saddened when we read of the fall of mighty empires and the
carnage which has often been spread by the sword of the warrior. But we should
remember that the sword of war is the sword of the Lord: that He musters the
hosts of battle—that when mighty conquerors go forth they are the instruments
of His Providence for accomplishing those overturnings which for wise ends He determined
before any of us were born. With the same disposition we should read or hear
the accounts which we receive daily of those events which are now happening in
the world. Let us not forget that all men and their actions are under the
superintendence of One who never errs. “I make peace, and create evil: I the
Lord do all these things” (Isa. 45:7). If we hear of awful events we ought to
admire that Providence which will bring order out of confusion and make
darkness light to those who love Him.
There were heretics of old who confessed that all rational creatures were made
by God but vile and noxious ones were made by the Devil. You are perhaps amazed
that such foolish notions should enter the minds of men, but is it not equally
unreasonable to suppose that the Providence of God is active only in the good
and not in the wicked actions of men, that our blessings come from Him, but our
calamities proceed from no higher course than some principle of evil? It is
exceedingly dishonoring of God to suppose than any sin can be committed without
His permission or any calamity befall men or nations that was not appointed for
them in His eternal purpose.
2. Give unto God the glory of the awful dispensations of His Providence towards
sinful nations. In Psalms 50, 105, 106, 135 we find praise is given to God for
His judgments upon guilty people which shows that there is a Divine excellency
in such works, which excellency we are to gladly acknowledge. The entire book
of Ecclesiastes is devoted unto an exposure of the vanities and vexations which
cleave to every earthly enjoyment. In the Lamentations God’s people are taught
to consider their distresses as a chastisement from the Almighty. Behold the
desolations which He has wrought in the earth, and know that He is a just God
as well as a Savior. Though slow to anger, He is great in power and will not at
all acquit the wicked. When you see the desolation He has wrought in the earth
be still and know that He is God. He will be exalted among the nations.
While we give Him glory as the God to whom vengeance belongs, let us not forget
that mercy which He remembers in the midst of wrath. There is mercy to mankind
even in those terrible calamities which bear hardest on our spirits when worse
evils are prevented thereby and when we have reason to believe that good will
result from them. The casting away of the Jews has brought salvation unto the
Gentiles (Rom. 11:11). What would have been the consequence if God had suffered
wicked nations to walk age after age in their own ways without sending some of
His terrible judgments to check the progress of sin? The world would scarcely
have been habitable through that excessive wickedness which would have
overspread the nations. If men are not generally reformed by the judgments of
God, they are at least incapacitated to be so wicked as they might otherwise
be. What would be the state of any nation if there were no magistrates to
punish crime? And what would the world become if the King of nations suffered
their wickedness always to remain unpunished? Admire, then, the wisdom of Him
who brings good out of evil.—(good). Lawson.
THE DIVINE AGENCY IN WAR
Jeremiah 51:20
George Lawson
3. The glory of the Divine sovereignty ought likewise to be acknowledged in the
destruction of kingdoms and desolation of countries. If God should be pleased
to inflict His tremendous judgments upon all sinning nations, the sons of men
would soon be utterly consumed. He destroys some while He spares others, and
who shall ask Him why He bears with nations more guilty than those whom He
destroys and inflicts His vengeance upon those whose wickedness admitted of
some excuse? His judgments are unsearchable and His ways past finding out when
He suffers some to live, become old and wax mighty in power, while others less
wicked perish in youth. Instead of questioning His absolute sovereignty over
the nations, admire His patience to us.
4. We ought to give glory to our Savior as well as to the Father who has
committed all judgment to Him. God has given Him power to destroy as well as to
save. The destruction of Jerusalem was one of the great days of the Son of man,
in which His glory appeared in the destruction of His enemies as well as in the
salvation of His followers. Then was fulfilled, in part, what our Lord foretold
in the presence of the Sanhedrin (Matt. 26:64). The God of Zion lives, the King
of Zion reigns over the nations: let the children of Zion be joyful in their
King, and give praise to His name for His great and terrible acts even though
they perceive not His intention. He did all things well when He was on earth.
He does all things well in Heaven.
5. We ought to take warning from the destruction of kingdoms by Divine
judgments. Some tell us the ways of God are so incomprehensible to us that it
is not consistent with the modesty and humility of such short-sighted creatures
as we are to presume to give an account of His awful dispensations. He does
what pleases Him and gives not account of any of His matters, and although we
ought to believe He does always what is right, yet the special grounds on which
this judgment ought to be formed are often so high above us that we must leave
them to the secrets of God. True, we cannot penetrate the depths of any of the
Divine counsels, yet much is said in Scripture about the grounds of God’s
displeasure against those nations whom He destroys, and Christian humility does
not require us to regard those passages as sealed. Israel sinned greatly in the
desert because they understood not the wonders of the Lord in Egypt, nor
remembered the multitude of His mercies.
Our Lord, we are told, warns us in Luke 13:1, 2 against presumptuous intrusions
into the secrets of God’s counsel. True, He warns against the supposition that
those whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices were greater sinners
than others, yet in the very next verse Christ declared the miserable fate of
those men was a warning to all His hearers to repent, lest they, too, perish.
We should learn from His words there not to reckon ourselves better men or our
nation a less guilty one than those which have lately been spoiled of their
independence, merely because we have not suffered like judgments, and we should
also learn that the Lord’s voice in these judgments calls loudly to us, that
we, too, may justly fear as great, or greater miseries, unless we repent.
But if their fate was a warning to others of the danger of impenitency, then
sin must have been the cause of their miseries. It is not the execution of
innocent men but of criminals that warns spectators not to violate the laws of
their country. Charity does not require us to be blind to the faults of other
men or nations. If we do not believe anything to the disadvantage either of
nations or of individuals when we have clear evidence of its truth, all history
would be useless, for its pages are filled with accounts of human wickedness.
When we know that all ranks of a nation are chargeable with the very iniquities
which Scripture declares bring the wrath of God upon a people, ought we not to
fear lest the same crimes among ourselves, if repentance prevail not, will
bring the same ruin upon our own heads?
We may readily discover (especially from the book of Jeremiah) what were the
charges which Good’s Prophets brought against the people of Israel and Judah.
And it cannot be denied that many of the same sins are prevalent among
ourselves and that we have persisted in them in opposition to many warnings of
the Word and Providence of God. Can it be denied that our iniquities have been
highly aggravated by the greatness and clearness of our light by great and
signal mercies, by solemn engagements to cleave unto the Lord? When God speaks
to us by His Word can we be so impious as to turn a deaf ear to Him? When He
confirms the solemn declarations of His Word by many awful works of His
Providence, what excuse is left us if we are still disobedient to His voice?
[Shall it also be said of Great Britain “I gave her space to repent, and she
repented not?”— A.W.P.]
Is not a loud cry heard from every part of the Continent, that God is greatly
displeased with the sins of the nations? What is Napoleon that he should be
able to do so great things? The iniquities of the nations have put the sword
into his hand and strengthened his arm. God is sore displeased with the
contempt of His Gospel and Sabbaths, with the degeneracy of the Christian
churches, with the wickedness of men of every rank, and has given commission to
that terrible minister of His Providence to cut off and destroy nations not a
few. Flee sin as from the face of a serpent. If all the serpents of the dust
were commissioned to destroy us, they could not do us half the mischief that we
have procured by our sins.
6. Use the means prescribed for averting from our land the dreadful calamities
that have come upon other countries. But what can we do? Have we counsel or
strength for war against an enemy flush with conquest, and conducted to new
victories by commanders renowned for their courage and skill? Yet if you were
called to expose your life for your king and country, such considerations ought
not to deter you from a plain duty. If God be our Helper, we need not fear what
man can do against us. But if that man is unworthy of the benefits which he
derives from the government of his country, who would refuse to expose his life
for its defense when Divine Providence calls him to do it? How much less does
he deserve to share in these blessings who is so far from bearing his part in
its defense that he adds, by his obstinacy in sin, to the causes of its danger,
and perhaps of its ruin?
Our defense is in God, and He who provokes our Defender to depart from us is as
really an enemy to his country as he who is chargeable with treason against the
king. Although we should not increase the anger of the Lord by cursing and
lying and other iniquities which bring down His wrath upon guilty nations, yet
if we do not contribute our endeavor, in our places, to that reformation of
conduct by which our judgments might be averted, we are but cold friends to our
country. Yes, by neglecting what God requires of us as means of preventing
judgments, we act the part of public enemies. They lie unto the Lord who pray
to Him for the safety and success of our fleets and armies and yet do not
sincerely desire and earnestly endeavor to have those evils removed which, if
God governs the nations, are the most formidable obstacles to their success.
Turn you to Him from whom we have all deeply revolted; warn and exhort all on
whom you can have influence to turn from the evil of their ways. Thus did the
king and people of Nineveh: and they were spared.
7. Seek safety to yourselves in the evil day if it should come upon others. We
cannot certainly say what will be the end of these wonders that are now taking
place in the world. Who knows whether Britain will be able at all times to make
an effectual resistance to the conqueror of the Continent? But we know that
there is a kingdom which cannot be moved, and that all the faithful subjects of
its King shall enjoy full security under His government. When God, by His
Prophets, foretells the most tremendous events that shall ever come upon the
world, He gives full assurance to His people that although He make a full end
of the other nations, He will not make a full end of them.
Take the yoke of Christ upon you and learn of Him, and you shall not only be
safe in the evil day but you shall look down with pity upon these oppressors
that waste and destroy the nations of the world. We cannot certainly say that
you shall be exempted from all share in these evils that go about from nation
to nation. It may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger. But if
you should fall by the hand of violence, angels will be sent down from Heaven
to receive your souls and to conduct them to the abodes of bliss, where no
tyrant that wears a diadem, no ruffian that carries a sword can reach you—where
you shall share with Christ in those glories which the Father gave Him.
When Habakkuk heard of the awful works which God was about to do in the land,
his belly trembled, his lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered into his
bones (3:16), yet he comforted himself with the well-grounded hope that he
would rest in the day of evil and find everlasting solace and joy in the God of
His salvation. “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be
in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no
food; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in
the stalls: yet will I rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my
salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds’
feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places” (Hab. 3:17-19).
The overthrow of thrones and the desolation of kingdoms are terrible events:
but we know of events far more awful for guilty men. The earth and its works
shall be burned up: the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat. In that day all the oppressors of the
earth, if they died impenitent, shall receive the full recompense of all the
indignities they did to God—of all the slaughter and devastation of which they
were the guilty instrument. But all who were found faithful to God in evil
times shall then also receive full reward of all that they did for the service
of God and the benefit of men. If those who would not give a share of their
bread to the hungry and of their drink to the thirsty shall have their part in
the Lake of Fire with the devil and his angels, what chosen woes shall be the
portion of the destroyers of their fellow-men? If every cup of cold water given
to a disciple shall in no wise lose its reward, how rich will be the reward of
those who exerted their utmost endeavors to convert sinners from the errors of
their ways and to save guilty nations from destruction?!—(George Lawson,
Minister of the Gospel, Selkirk, Scotland, 1811).