THE KINGDOM AND THE NATURAL SEED OF ABRAHAM.
IN the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God; which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god.” Dan. 1:1, 2. What a woeful history, what a terrible calamity, what a sad reversal of conditions, is set forth in those two sentences! And that, too, in the providence of God! For in this great transaction Nebuchadnezzar, the heathen king of a heathen nation, was recognized as the servant of God (Jer. 25:9). The query naturally arises, Why this utter overthrow of the once prosperous kingdom, this transference of the dominion to a heathen potentate, this apparent surrender of the Almighty to the enemy?—The answer is brief and clear, tho anomalous: It was to save His eternal purpose from eventual defeat. It was one of the vicissitudes of carrying out a vast eternal purpose through the instrumentality of fallible creatures. It was for the same purpose that He had suffered and brought about the division of the kingdom in the time of Rehoboam. His people were departing from the right way, and prosperity would simply add encouragement to their apostasy. Nothing short of severe chastisement would bring them to a realization of their fallen condition. The warning had been given by the prophet Isaiah one hundred years before the calamity came (Isaiah 39), but reformation was only temporary, and not thorough. Again, in the days of Manasseh king of Judah, the people were made to do “worse than the heathen” (2 Chron. 33:9); and, tho there was a change in the latter part of his reign, and in the reign of Josiah, there was afterward a hopeless relapse. The word of the Lord through Jeremiah was utterly rejected. So when the Lord’s people persisted in being “worse than the heathen,” the best thing that He could do was to place His cause in the hands of heathen. Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. . . . He stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel.” This is always the natural result of rejecting the counsel of the Lord’s prophets. But the king was not alone in his rebellion; had it been so, the king alone would have been removed. But “all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem.” So the holy vessels which were carried to Babylon might better be in the treasure-house of Nebuchadnezzar’s god for safe keeping, than in the temple at Jerusalem which the Lord’s own professed people were polluting with heathen mimicry. “The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place.” Thus whatever the Lord did was for the best interest of His cause, altho some things were done in His wrath. It is always worthy of note, however, that the Lord’s anger, being righteous indignation, never distorts His judgment. “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” Ps. 19:9. But the people of Judah “mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy [margin, no “healing”].” So the decree came from the Lord, by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel: “And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.” Eze. 21:25–27. He whose right it is, is Christ. The kingdom never was restored after the captivity, and never can be restored to the literal seed; for the emphatic Word of the Lord is against it. A portion of the people returned to Jerusalem, and re-established the worship of God. But only a minority of them had faith to return when the opportunity was given by the king of Persia. So neither the city nor the temple ever attained the grandeur and influence that they might have attained had the people taken the Lord at His word, and by faith seized the opportunity set before them. In after years, when they attempted, in their own way, by rebellion under the Maccabees, to re-establish their independence, their success was but partial and temporary. “It [the kingdom] shall be no more” until Christ, “whose right it is,” shall come to take it for Himself and people. He did not take it at His first advent, for that was not His mission. His kingdom “is not of this world” (John 18:36). His subjects are not the natural seed of Abraham (Rom. 9:6–8; Gal. 5:6; Phil. 3:3; Heb. 8:9; Rev. 5:9, 10). Moreover the natural seed again threw away their opportunity by rejecting the Messiah. In deliberate session, their official council formally condemned Him to death. When He ascended to heaven He went to receive for Himself a kingdom, and to return (Luke 19:11–28). He will receive it when His mediatorial work is done (Dan. 7:13, 14). His subjects will enter into the kingdom when He comes again, accompanied by all the holy angels (Matt. 25:31–34; John 14:1–3; 1 Thess. 4:15–17; Revelation 21). It is only in looking forward to the grand consummation that we are able to understand the purpose of God in what otherwise would appear like strange dealings with a chosen people. But His love for all the world is too great to allow those whom He has given place in His vineyard to always cumber the ground. If they will not work, they must give way to those who will. The stumbling-blocks must be taken out of the way. His great love and patience has been manifested in all generations, with all people; and it is only when they have demonstrated that no appeal will reach their obdurate hearts, that they are cut off. And, as in the case of Jerusalem of old, it is with weeping that He sees those who have had great opportunities cast them aside, and choose the way of death. His daily appeal is, “Whosoever will, let Him take the water of life freely.”