March, 1933
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
88
He may have been out in the garden back of his dwell ing, maybe down on his knees, digging, pruning, thinking, brooding over the plight o f his people, pretty clearly on his spirit knees praying, maybe wordlessly, when, very quietly, something happened.' His spirit eyes were opened, and he saw what he had not seen before, though it was there. And this is what he saw. The earth was enveloped in a storm, a wind-fire-fog-storm. It was a great storm, the fires ceaselessly flashing in and out, the wind with cyclone intensity, the fog down close, thick and dark. But there was a distinct limit to the storm, a sort of limiting, invisible fence. Above the storm it was clear, clear as crystal, so clear as to be awe-inspiring. This is the mean ing of the word under the English. Then he is awed yet more as he sees in the clear a throne. Characteristically, a throne is a seat of absolute authority, autocratic power. On the throne he sees a Man sitting. This is tremendous, humanity enthroned above the storm! The Man seems to be sitting on the edge o f the throne, bending eagerly over, watching intently things on the earth in the fog-fire-storm. For he is talking to this young Jew down in the whirl of the wind. Plainly enough, he is talking in this young fellow’s mother tongue. There is an errand he needs to have done, down in the storm, on the earth. And he asks young Ezekiel to do it. A message is to be taken to the leaders o f this exile Jew colony on the Chebar. Yet it will be a tough task. He says very plainly, “ They won’t listen to y ou ; for they won’t listen to Me.” And Ezekiel does the errand. It takes the very life of his life to do it. It affects his food, his personal appear ance, his family life, all in the most intimate, intense way. The word commonly used in Christian phraseology to day is “ surrender” ; but it means more to him than is com monly thought of today. But the errand is done. And this young exile is rarely privileged in-service and in the vision given him of the far future of his people. That Ezekiel spirit vision seems to fit peculiarly into the world situation today. The earth is enswathed in the most terrific storm, a very real, material, moral storm. But, but (are you listening ?) above the storm it is clear, clear as clearest crystal, an awe-inspiring crystal. In the clear, there is a throne, a seat o f absolute control; and on the throne, there is a Man. We know who that Man is. He came from a throne to a stable and a carpenter shop, to a full generation of com mon human experience, thenMto a cross and a tomb. Then out of that tomb. He went back to the throne. But His heart is here. The forefinger o f that scarred hand is down on the racial pulse beat. He is “ expecting,” we are told, as He intently watches things down here. That “ expecting” suggests intensity, eagerness, inten tion. Some day in His great love, He will think good for man’s sake, for the earth’s sake, to intervene, directly, per sonally, in the affairs down here. Clearly it will be an arbitrary intervening. It will be in tervention for racial salvage. He steps into earth action directly in person to keep the race, in its wild intensity, from cutting its own racial jugular vein. My own deepening conviction is that that intervention is now impending. It will likely occur in -the lifetime of most o f us now alive. Yet that is merely my personal conviction, simply one man talking to his fellows. There is an unmistakably iden tifying event to go by. When the Jew actually forms a national unit again in [C ontinued on page 120]
Crisis and A fter. It seemed a rather extreme title. Nobody was talking then of such a crisis. Two years ago, I prepared the manuscript of Quiet Talks on Difficult Questions, with prominence given to the world outlook at that time. In the Quiet Corner, just issued, has a rather full chap ter in which there is an attempted survey of the world situation at present. Recently I read over these three surveys. I have one severe criticism. They are quite too tame. The broad lines of the European situation are the same as at the signing of the Versailles Treaty, with two exceptions. But the lines are much deeper dug in ; and the attitude o f the two na tions excepted intensify the present alinemeftt. T h e C o m in g C r is is I f one speaks today of our Lord’s second coming, an audience begins to split up in the variation of views held. But this can be said. The old Book of God does give the world situation as it will be when our Lord does think good to intervene. There are five simple, clear bits in that situation. The Jew is back in his homeland, renationalized. There seems to be a city o f world commerce in the twin valley of the Tigris- Euphrates. There is a coalition of nations, the numberi shifting, north o f the Mediterranean. There is a man at the head o f that coalition who proves to be a bad man, hating God and Christ. Through his leadership, there comes to a head the worst racial crisis ever known. But the Jew is our Lord’s index finger. When the Jew actually renationalizes, probably a scraggly minority, squabbling among themselves as we Gentiles do, and is whipped back almost overnight by the stinging lash of per secution, this, this is the unmistakable pointing of God’s index finger. This means a time o f armed peace, with intervals of warfare, then the worst time of trouble the race has known, including war, famine, epidemics, and religious persecution. And Christ’s followers will have the rare privilege of witnessing through this troublous time, and will be kept un touched so far as they have learned to hold steady through simple faith in our Lord. Then our Lord Jesus will arbitrarily intervene for racial salvage. He will take up into His own presence those who are trusting Him as Saviour. Then will ensue a partial visitation o f judgment on the system o f evil. And then our Lord will return openly at Olivet to clear the crisis and begin the new blessed order of things on this dear old earth. Two things one watches with quick, prayerful intensity amid the present welter o f upset— these two things: any movement toward a coalition o f nations in Europe, and the Jew movement toward renationalization. The Jew move ment is the one unfailing identifying indication. When the Jew actually shapes up some sort of a na tional unit in Palestine, that is the significant thing. That means the beginning of the crisis. It means a certain period o f time and o f increasingly tense crisis, and then our Lord intervenes. Yet the day and hour of His intervention remains, and will remain, unknown. T h e T h r o n e O u t l o o k There is one other look out on the world situation, and it is one of utmost significance with these others in mind. It is the look on the world situation as seen from above. The story is pictured graphically on the first leaf of Ezekiel’s writings. Ezekiel was a young Jew exile, in a colony o f exiles on the canalized Chebar, tributary to the Euphrates River.
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