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 solemn 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.
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?!