Attempts Made to Destroy All Righteous Men from the Earth—God's Interposing Hand
This is one of several articles by Elder Reaser on the general theme of the eternal purpose of God concerning this earth and its people. In previous articles, he has shown that it is God's plan to have this earth peopled with righteous men and women; and while the fall of man and his course of sin may delay the divine purpose, yet it cannot overthrow it. Some of the attempts that have been made by Satan to overthrow God's plan are interesting topics for study. Editor.
ALTHOUGH, before the Deluge, the Lord preserved a godly line, a "righteous seed," through whom Christ — the Seed upon whom hope centered for making God's eternal purpose effectual — could eventually make His appearance in the human family, yet not till after the Flood did He organize His people into a government, separate from all other peoples.
THE CALL OF ABRAHAM
Preliminary to the launching of the commonwealth of the godly line, later known as the Hebrew people, or the nation of Israel, was the call of Abraham, about 367 years after the Deluge. Gen. 12: 1-3.
The chief purposes of this organization were, first, to prevent the calamity of the amalgamation of the godly seed with the ungodly, and thus the pollution of the people of God; second, to preserve God's name and His truth in the earth; third, that His people might be a factor in the evangelization of the world; and fourth, that through the godly line, a channel might be provided for the coming of the Deliverer into the human family.
Connected with the call of Abraham was the promise that in him would all the families of the earth be blessed, thus revealing that the thing uppermost in the mind of the Lord was the carrying to completion of His eternal purpose, the filling of the earth with a people all righteous. Gen. 12: 3.
It is manifest to the student of Bible history that when Abraham was called to depart from his kindred, to become the head of Jehovah's nation, the race of Adam was fast drifting into idolatry. So far as the inspired record relates, Abraham and his nephew, Lot, seem to have been the only survivors of the race whose religion was not corrupted with paganism. It was therefore high time that they and their families should be separated from the ungodly line. After the severe test of the faith of Abraham in waiting a full quarter of a century for a son promised by Jehovah, when the son of promise had finally come to manhood, one of the greatest perplexities that confronted Abraham was, to secure for that son a wife as nearly as possible in the godly line. Genesis 24. A similar problem perplexed the next generation (Gen. 26: 34, 35; 27: 46), and the situation was not relieved until there was a larger increase of the godly seed.
PHARAOH SEEKS TO DEFEAT THE ETERNAL PURPOSE
Still following the history of the godly line, we find the second and third generations after Abraham in Egypt. While they were there, Satan made special effort to effect the amalgamation of the godly line with the ungodly. The decree of Pharaoh that all the male children of the Hebrews should be killed at birth, would soon have compelled the marriage of the daughters of God with the sons of men, if the seed of Abraham was to be preserved. But before this satanic plan for corrupting the godly line could be carried out, Jehovah, to make His eternal purpose carry, raised up a deliverer in the person of Moses, and led His people out of bondage.
In still another way, the godly line had been all but overwhelmed in Egypt. The central object of worship of the Egyptians was the so-called "sacred bull." Israel had been so far swept from their bearings by this false worship, that, even after beholding the mighty miracles by which they had experienced deliverance from Egypt, yet with few exceptions they united in the making and in the worship of a golden calf, the nearest approach to the gods of Egypt that their resources permitted them to create.
Moses had not been swerved from his allegiance to God by the influences of Egypt. Thus one man in the godly line still remained loyal. Knowing that His eternal purpose could only carry through the preservation of the godly seed, yet beholding the deflection of His people, Jehovah suggested cutting them off, disinheriting them; declaring that with the one righteous survivor, Moses, He could still carry His eternal purpose to completion. He based His determination so to do, upon the fact of His own existence, as it is recorded, "But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." Num. 14: 12, 21. All but a single individual of His chosen people might fail; but the plan, never. Jehovah cannot be surprised nor His plans defeated. He "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will."
Full seven centuries after the establishment of Israel as a nation, with the kingdom of Assyria dominating the world, and God's people divided into two nations, Assyria's king sent an army and carried away the ten tribes of Israel. This occurred in 721 B. C. 2 Kings 17: 6, 7. Thereafter Israel as a nation is lost to sacred history.
The last photograph of Mrs. White, taken at her home. Some of her secretaries and other helpers standing. Seated, from left to right, Prof. G. A. Grauer, the late Elder O. A. Olsen, Mrs. White, Elder W. C. White, and Prof. M. S. Reppe.
Only a few years after the captivity of Israel, the same world power sent a mighty army to subjugate Judah. The godly line being in Judah, the latter must be preserved in order that the eternal purpose shall carry, by the coming into the world of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Jehovah declared that for His own sake, He would save Judah. The crisis demanded the intervention of Heaven to avert the overthrow of the godly line. It is written that the angel of the Lord went forth in the camp of the Assyrians, and smote 185,000. 2 Kings. 19: 32-37.
AN UNALTERABLE DECREE REVERSED
Two centuries pass; and under the rule of Medo-Persia, Haman, the prime minister, a deadly foe of the godly line, secured the passing of an "unalterable decree" that all the people of God — then in captivity — should be destroyed in one day. Esther 3: 12-14. Again Heaven intervened to preserve the godly line, and a counter decree resulted not only in the saving of the people of God, but also in the complete overthrow of their enemies. Esther 8, 9.
SATAN DEFEATED IN HIS EFFORT TO DEVOUR THE DELIVERER
Forty centuries of futile effort on the part of Satan to extinguish the godly line, brings us to the birth of the God-man, upon whom is focused the hope of the human family for replenishing the earth. If the great rebel, the author of death, the desolator of the earth, can destroy the Seed of the woman, then he can defeat God's eternal purpose. We find him, therefore, standing before the woman — the godly line — to devour her Child as soon as He is born. Matt. 2: 16 with Rev. 12: 1-4. But the Child was caught up to God and to His throne.
The escape of "the Child" from being devoured by the dragon; His subsequent victory over Satan in temptation; His sinless life; His vicarious death; and, finally, His glorious triumph over the grave, assured beyond question the ultimate success of God's eternal purpose, the replenishing of the earth with a people all righteous.
When this assurance was given, there went up a mighty shout in heaven, "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ." Rev. 12: 10.
THE LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH HATH PREVAILED
Not only did the arches of heaven ring with this joyful chorus, indicating that the angels now had full assurance of the triumph of God's eternal purpose, but "a door was opened in heaven," and to a member of Adam's race the invitation was extended in these words: "Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter." Rev. 4: 1. Accepting the invitation, John saw a vision of the eternal Father seated upon His throne, holding a book "sealed with seven seals." It is evident, from the context, that in this book was bound up the knowledge of the final destiny of the human family, — the outcome of God's eternal purpose. A question was then proclaimed in heaven, as to who was worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. To make an impression on the mind of John, for a time no one came forward to open the book. Realizing that the eternal destiny of the race of which John was a representative was bound up in the sealed book, the prophet says that he "wept much."
Who was there in heaven to comfort him? Was an unfallen angel best calculated to offer the comfort? — Not so. When Christ triumphed over death, it was fitting that He demonstrate to the universe His power to accomplish God's eternal purpose, even by wrestling from their graves a certain number of those who had, through grace, developed such characters that in the final replenishing of the earth, they might be the subjects of His eternal kingdom. And, too, having Himself taken all the preliminary steps to become the High Priest for the race, and being qualified, by becoming a member470of our human family, by sinless character, and by the offering of Himself as an all-sufficient sacrifice for sinful men, to begin His work as our great High Priest in the sanctuary in heaven, He needed, apparently, the same number of men to coöperate in the sanctuary service above as officiated in the same service on earth.
One of these, better calculated than an angel for the purpose, came to John, saying: "Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof."
THE SONG OF TRIUMPH
The One mentioned as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah" was Christ. Thus introduced, He came forward and took the book, preparatory to breaking the seals. At once "a new song" was raised by those who had been rescued from their graves, ascribing all worthiness to the One who had redeemed them by His blood. Please note that one strain in the song was, that we are not only kings and priests to our God now, but "we shall reign on the earth." Rev. 5: 1-10. In this last statement we have an expression of the full confidence of the representatives of our human family now in heaven, that God's eternal purpose for our world — its replenishing with the sinless and deathless survivors of Adam's race — will be accomplished by "the Seed of the woman," upon whom help was laid when Adam defaulted.
Note again the words, "The Lion of the tribe of Judah . . . hath prevailed to open the book." Over what must He prevail to assure the success of God's eternal purpose? — Over "the gates of hell," or the grave. Christ declared to Peter that upon the eternal rock, the sure foundation, that He was the Son of the living God, He would build His church, and the gates of hell, the grave, should not prevail against it. The final proof that He was the Son of the living God was the creative act of His resurrection from the dead; as it is written, "Declared to be the Son of God with power, . . . by the resurrection from the dead." Rom. 1: 4. In giving His commission to John to write the book of Revelation, He declares, "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, amen; and have the keys of hell and of death" — the power to unlock. Rev. 1: 18.
We now see the force of the expression, "The Lion of the tribe of Judah . . . hath prevailed to open the book." The opening of the seals reveals the outcome of God's eternal purpose. John supplies the prophetic description of the children of Adam whose character development entitles them to places in Jehovah's completed purpose. He says: "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb; . . . and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." Rev. 7: 9, 10.
Possibly the reader has never considered that after the coming of Christ into the world, by the conquest of the cross the gospel work by which God's eternal purpose must be accomplished, received so much impetus, obtained such a strong foothold in the earth, that the utter extinction of the godly line by the forces of evil never reached such a danger point, the completion of the eternal purpose never was in such a crisis, that Jehovah was compelled to perform a "strange act" in sweeping away the ungodly as in the former dispensation.
To defeat the eternal purpose, Satan persistently refuses to release from the grave those who have fallen asleep in Jesus — the godly line, cut down by the hand of death. Isa. 14: 17, margin; Jude 9. But by virtue of the prospective triumph of Jesus over the grave that the eternal purpose might carry, we find the prophetic announcement, "Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O My people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel, . . . and shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land." Eze. 37: 12-14. See also Rev. 1: 18.
ATTEMPTED EXTINCTION OF THE GODLY LINE THWARTED
Following the history of the godly line down the stream of time, as prophetically foretold, we discover the righteous seed during the "Dark Ages," desolated by the persecution of that great apostate church styled "the woman drunken with the blood of the saints." Rev. 17: 6. But as in ages past, even so now, the omnipotent hand of God is over His own, to save them from destruction. Descriptive of the divine protection provided at that time are the words of Jesus: "Then shall be great tribulation. . . . And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Matt. 24: 21, 22. The "elect" are the godly line. For their sake, Heaven interposed, and stayed the hand of "the woman drunken with the blood of the saints."
It would be difficult to find uninspired language more beautifully expressive of God's watchcare over His people for the completion of His eternal purpose, than the following well-known lines from the pen of James Russell Lowell:
"Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne.
Yet that scaffold sways the future;
And behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His own."
