p. 2 | GOD RULES | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 29, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 29.

GOD RULES.

“THE Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.” “He removeth kings, and setteth up kings.” “Thou, O king [Nebuchadnezzar], art a king of kings; for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.” “He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand.” Over and over again has God stated this truth, that man may learn not to meddle with the things of God, and that his children may depend on the final outcome.

He even calls the proud, idolatrous Nebuchadnezzar his servant: “And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant.” He punished his own people because they would not submit to Babylon’s yoke. And yet so far as it was for God’s glory and their good, he always protected them from temporal harm. For our God makes even the wrath of man to praise him, and what may not be turned to his praise he restrains.

But have not some of his children died?—Yes, in all kinds of cruel ways. But the Most High is Lord of life and death. This world is but a brief span of God’s hand in his eternity. His children may lose life here, but they live with him in glory in all ages to come. He controls all. Devils and men may take counsel against the Lord even to slay his Anointed, his Son, but he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, and have them in derision, and set his Son on his holy hill in Zion, above all rule and authority and power. Fierce fiery furnaces, and hungry lions’ dens, and Roman crosses, and martyr fires may await his children; God will use them all, and those who thus plot against him, to preach the free Gospel of the Son of God. He always has, he always will; for he is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.

Yet notwithstanding all this there are those who profess to be his children who worry and weep, who mourn and cry, who plot and plan in politics, lest the cause of God should go to ruin. Poor human laws for this and that and the other of the Lord’s laws and institutions, or what are thought to be, are demanded just as if God could not care for his own, and even save them if they are saved at all. How much better would it be if, like Daniel, they sought God for Jerusalem, and calmly pursued their way, whether Babylon or Medo-Persia were at the helm! How much better would it be if, like Paul, they would pray for all in authority, whether a wicked Caligula or a wickeder Nero reigned! And how much better it would be, instead of endeavoring to bring in the mighty, glorious, and righteous kingdom of Christ through the unholy policies of politics, for each to do his part in saving and fitting men for that kingdom by the Gospel of Christ, and leave God to establish his own rule, as he certainly will! He has not given that to man to do; “the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”