by Arthur W. Pink
by Arthur W. Pink
Philologos Religious Online Books
Philologos.org
by Arthur W. Pink
September, 1941
THE DIVINE AGENCY IN WAR.
(Jeremiah 51:20)
George Lawson
War is one of the most frightful calamities which can overtake a nation: how dreadful then the misery and suffering entailed when many nations are involved therein. At such a time the belief of many in an over-ruling Providence is rudely shaken, for to them it appears that Satan, rather than the Lord God, is master of the situation and the author of their troubles. Even God's own people, unless they are firmly established in the Faith, find it difficult to stay their minds on the Ruler of the Universe, trusting implicitly in His wisdom and goodness. Questions will be raised that are not easily answered, doubts stirred up which cannot readily be stilled. It is therefore timely to ask, What is the relation of God to war? Is He but a far-distant Spectator, having no immediate connection? or is His agency directly involved? if so, to what extent? To speculate upon such a solemn matter would not only be useless, but impious—to the Word of Truth we must turn if we are to have right thoughts thereon, thoughts which honour and not dishonour the Most High.
We have been granted the loan of a small book published in 1810 which contains three sermons by George Lawson, minister of the Gospel, Selkirk, Scotland, in which he has most helpfully dealt with “The Divine Agency in War and Revolution.” They examine this subject in the light of Holy Writ and are the best treatment of the same which we have ever come across. We therefore propose to give our friends the benefit of these sermons. We shall not publish them at length, but summarize their contents, sticking close to their substance, and even language, yet here and there adding some comments of our own. Though preached nearly one hundred and fifty years ago they are most pertinent to our own times, for they were delivered in the midst of the Napoleon wars, when the greater part of Europe was then convulsed and plunged into wretchedness and woe, in fact, conditions which obtained then supply not a few analogies with those existing now.
Those who read the histories of nations find many proofs that men are often more cruel to their fellows than lions and tigers. These ferocious animals kill their prey only to satisfy their own hunger, but men destroy their fellows to fulfil the lusts of ambition and avarice which can never be satiated. Lions and tigers may have killed thousands of human beings in the course of the centuries, but millions have been destroyed in the span of a few years by the restless wickedness of men who cared not what their fellow men suffered if they obtained the gratification of their unreasonable desires, which, when they were satisfied, were found to add nothing to their happiness, but rather to increase their misery.
Who can sufficiently deplore that depravity of human nature which has made men beasts of prey, or rather devils to one another, seeking whom they may devour? He who has read the history of any nation must be sensible, if he uses his understanding, that the accounts given us in the Holy Scriptures of the corruption of mankind are well confirmed by experience. But let us not think, my readers, that the same corrupt nature is not in ourselves which shows itself in the ravagers and destroyers of mankind; or that it does not operate in us because it is not manifested in the same outrageous manner against our fellow men. There is none among men that is righteous, none that seeks after God. Self-love has taken the throne of the heart of man, and when it is not under Divine restraint nor refused opportunities of discovering its horrible malignity, it spreads misery and ruin around it on every side.
But while we contemplate with grief and shame the works of men of the same corrupt natures with ourselves, we ought by no means to overlook the agency of Divine providence in all these occasions wherein they are actors. God is the supreme agent. All inferior agents are under His government and held by Him under such effectual control that they can do nothing without Him. In the most tremendous calamities which they inflict, they are the ministers of God's righteous providence. When kingdoms are destroyed, by whatsoever means, the agency of God is to be acknowledged in this work of judgment. This is plainly taught in, “Thou art My battle-axe, and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms” (Jer. 51:20). This was the text for each of Mr. Lawson's sermons, but before considering it more closely let us call attention to one or two other Scriptures, equally definite and striking.
In Jeremiah 25:9 we find Jehovah referring to Nebuchadnezzar as “My servant,” just as He spoke of “My servant Moses” (Num. 12:7) and “David My servant” (Psa. 89:3). The king of Babylon was just as truly an instrument of the Divine will as were the Patriarchs—the one in punishing and destroying, the other in delivering and building up. “Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD . . . and they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword” (Jer. 5:15, 17). God brings judgment upon a nation as surely as He gives blessing, uproots as truly as He plants. “Lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs: they are terrible and dreadful” (Hab. 1:6, 7): how clearly do those words reveal that even heathen nations are under God's control and used by Him when it serves His purpose. None who are conversant with the contents of Holy Writ and who bow to its authority can doubt for a moment that God uses one nation as His instrument for chastening another, even though afterwards He destroys the instrument itself.
“Thou art My battle-axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms” (Jer. 51:20). The reference here is to Cyrus, but what is said of that mighty conqueror is equally true of all conquerors that ever lived or shall live on the earth. Shall there be evil in any city or kingdom, and the Lord hath not done it? (Amos 3:6). Conquerors reckon themselves almost gods upon the earth, but the axes and saws with which men cut and cleave wood might, with far better reason, exalt themselves to the rank of human creatures. None of them can do anything but what God's counsel determined before to be done by their hand—and therefore it is our bounden duty to give God the glory for all the good that is done by them, and to adore His awful providence in all the miseries which they inflict upon guilty kingdoms.
When God is pleased to bring about changes and revolutions in kingdoms, He ordinarily makes use of men for His instruments. Cyrus and his army were His battle-axe and His weapons of war for the destruction of Babylon. Alexander the great was His battle-axe for the destruction of that empire of Persia which Cyrus had raised upon the ruins of Babylon. The Romans were God's battle-axe and weapons of war for the subversion of those kingdoms into which the empire of Alexander was divided—as, we may add, they were His battle-axe in destroying Jerusalem: note well how in Matthew 22:7 it is expressly declared of the Romans, “He sent forth His armies and destroyed those murderers (of the Prophets and of His own Son) and burned their city.” Later, the Goths and Vandals were God's battle-axe for the subversion of the western part of the Roman empire, as He employed the Saracens and Turks to destroy the eastern part of it.
1. Let us now consider on what account conquerors of nations are called “God's battle-axes.” We read in Scripture of hail and snow laid up in His magazines which He has prepared for the day of war (Job 38:22, 23). By a like figure of speech these mighty men whom He employs in shaking nations and overturning kingdoms are compared to these terrible weapons which in ancient times were used for the destruction of mankind. God had chosen the instruments employed by Him for subverting kingdoms. Before the foundation of the world He decreed whatever has come to pass or will come to pass, and selected from the rest of His creatures the inferior agents by which all His counsels were to be accomplished. As Paul was separated from his mother's womb to bear the name of Christ before the Gentiles and to raise up many churches, so Cyrus was chosen to be the utter destroyer of Babylon and the repairer of the desolations of Sion. God said of him long before he came into the world, “he is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure” (Isa. 44:28).
2. All the talents possessed by conquerors are the gifts of God. When we read the exploits of the champions of Israel in the days of David, we see how abundantly God bestowed on His favoured people those accomplishments by which many of them acquired immortal honour. It was He who taught David's hands to war (Psa. 18:33, 34), made his feet like hinds' feet and set him upon His high places. It was He who girded David's illustrious heroes with strength, so the bows of steel were broken by their arms; lion-like men were destroyed with as much ease as if they had been little children, and whole troops were put to flight by the steady valour of single champions.
But are those accomplishments from God which are used for the service of the devil? Certainly, for the devil cannot put wisdom into the inward parts: he cannot inspire the hearts of men with unshaken fortitude to battle; good gifts may be applied to very bad purposes. The accomplishments of the destroyers of mankind are the gifts of God to them, not for their own benefit, but for the chastisement of guilty nations. If the plowman cannot manage his business successfully unless God instruct him (Isa. 28: 26, 27), it is impossible for the warrior to lay his plans and execute them with determined bravery amidst a thousand dangers and obstructions without receiving from on High a large portion of those intellectual endowments which are the glory of men when they are directed by benevolence, and their disgrace when they are made subservient to a selfish ambition. When Cyrus is called “the anointed of the Lord” (Isa. 45:1), we are taught not only that he was chosen to accomplish great works for God, but that he was qualified by the Spirit of God for doing them. Not only that wisdom by which some are furnished for usefulness in the Church, but all those qualities of mind by which any of the sons of men render themselves illustrious, come from the Spirit who is the Author of rational life as truly as of spiritual (see Exo. 28:3; 31:2, 3; Job 32:8).
3. By the Divine providence conquerors are placed in those circumstance which give them opportunities for performing those great works for which they have been renowned. Multitudes are compelled by necessity all their days to live in obscurity, whatever talents they may possess. If Cyrus had been the son of a peasant, all his great endowments might have been concealed from the world, or at least no mention made of them in history. Though the son of a petty king, he was the grandson and the nephew of mighty monarchs of the Medes, and matters were so arranged by Divine providence that, having received the excellent education which the Persians in that age bestowed upon their children he obtained that place in the armies and councils of his uncle Darius which furnished him with opportunities to exalt his country above the other nations, to destroy his enemies, and in destroying them to subvert that mighty empire of Babylon, by which the people of the Lord had been so cruelly oppressed.
But although men should be born in a low station, if God has great works to be performed by them, He knows how to raise them from obscurity and to extend their sphere of usefulness or of mischief. For many generations past the affairs of Europe have been managed with such a steady policy that there seemed to be no reason for dreading any very remarkable reverse in the fate of nations. But of late such changes have taken place that new and striking lessons have been given to all mankind of the instability of all things under the sun and of the inefficacy of human wisdom to secure the thrones of those who derive their pedigree from a long list of royal ancestors, or to prevent the children of the lowest of their subjects from rising up to seize their envied power. “The Lord casts down the mighty and raises the poor out of the dust that he may inherit the throne of glory.”
The means by which men raise themselves to stations of grandeur are often very bad. Justice and mercy are trampled under foot by men who aspire to stations to which they were not born. But without God these measures which are so greatly detested by Him would not be successful. It is the devil who prompts men to make use of them: but he is a liar when he says that he gives the kingdoms of the world to whomsoever he will. God never committed the disposal of kingdoms to His great adversary. But He sometimes shines upon the counsels of the wicked, to place them in a position to perform services to Himself, which they are better qualified to perform than His own faithful people. Agrippian, the mother of that monster Nero, procured the imperial crown for him by poisoning her husband Claudius, and Nero secured it to himself by the murder of his adopted brother, the son of Claudius. Yet concerning that prince, and those magistrates who held their place under him, it could be said with truth, “there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1).
4. God directs all the enterprises of the conquerors of the world. He presides in their councils; He regulates their decisions; He determines against what nations they shall lead forth their armies to war. It is, indeed, too high for us to understand how God regulates the councils of wicked men and how He bends their minds to a compliance with His decrees in those actions wherein the depravity of their hearts operates with a force that carries them beyond all bounds; but if it be wondrous in our eyes, should it be wondrous in the eyes of God also? Let us remember that our consolation and joy of faith depends on this truth, that no man can say and it comes to pass, when the Lord commands it not. If any man or devil were left to do one thing independently of the Divine providence, the foundation of our confidence in God would be subverted, and what could the righteous do? But Jehovah is the everlasting King—He fashions men's hearts—and while they are executing their own wills they are effectually executing the will of God.
Could any counsels be more unjust and impious than those of him which boasted, “Shall I not as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?” (Isa. 10:11). Yet he spoke the truth, although he meant to lie, when he said, “The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it” (2 Kings 18:25). Hear what God Himself says concerning him, “O Assyrian, the rod of Mine anger, and the staff in their hand is Mine indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical nation and against the people of My wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so” (Isa. 10:5-7).
When Nebuchadnezzar was ravaging the world, he held the nations in perpetual alarms. When he made an end of one conquest, it was the subject of anxious inquiry what nations should next be attacked by him. It was at one time a question whether he should lead his terrible armies against the children of Ammon or against Jerusalem. The oppressor of the nations was for some time himself undetermined and used divinations to decide the business. He made his arrows bright: he consulted with images: he looked in the liver. At his right hand were the divinations for Jerusalem, to appoint captains to open the mouths in the slaughter. But the matter had long before been determined in the counsels of God, who revealed His purpose through the Prophet: see Ezekiel 21:18-24.
5. All the success of conquerors is from God. We are often astonished at the rapidity of their progress. Some of them have achieved conquests in the space of a few weeks that which other famous leaders would have deemed it glorious to have achieved in a lifetime. Cyrus was justly accounted one of the most renowned leaders in the ancient world yet his victories are expressly attributed in Scripture to the providence of God. “He will do his pleasure on Babylon and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken, yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous” (Isa. 48:14, 15). When Nebuchadnezzar like a destroying lion laid the countries of the east desolate, the Lord put courage into the hearts of his soldiers, directed their operations and removed every obstacle out of their way—that He might accomplish His Word: see Ezekiel 30:22-26.
We have sometimes been astonished at the madness which seemed to possess the hearts of kings and their counselors when their dearest interests urgently demanded the exertion of all the wisdom that could be found within their kingdoms. But let it be solemnly remembered that it is often God's way to blind those whom He intends to destroy. “Shall I not in that day (of her calamity) even destroy the wise men out of Edom?” (Oba. 8)! So, too, we have been amazed at armies famous in battle who could maintain their ground and sometimes win notable victories, against more than double their number, yet a few years after turn back in battle when there are no such odds against them. God, to accomplish His purpose, weakened their courage and withered their strength: “Now have I brought it to pass that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded” (Isa. 37:26, 27).
6. All the events brought about by conquerors are consequently works of Divine providence. Mighty changes are accomplished by those who subvert kingdoms and destroy nations. But no change can be produced, great or small, by any power on earth which is not to be ascribed to the Most High who rules in the cabinets of kings, the tumults of the people, the fury of battle, as truly as in the raging of the sea. The Lord speaks of four sore judgments by which He punishes guilty nations: the sword, famine, pestilence, and beasts of the earth (Ezek. 14). He executes these judgments by different means but they are all equally the work of His hands. His agency ought to be acknowledged no less in what is done by wicked men than by what is accomplished by withholding rain. The wars by which the kings of Canaan were rooted out were as truly from God as the fire and brimstone which destroyed Sodom. The sword of Joshua was the sword of Jehovah (Josh. 10:42).—A.W.P.
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