In view of the awful war that is raging in three continents, men are asking: “DOES GOD INTERVENE IN HUMAN AFFAIRS?” Many are assured of His wonderful power every moment in carrying on all the providences of nature, but hesitate as to whether He intervenes in human affairs. Does He show His hand in connection with our lives, individually or nationally?
The answer to this question cannot be obtained by studying the book of nature. We must come to revelation, the Scriptures of truth, the Word of God. If people studied their Bibles and prayed, they need never ask, Does God intervene in human affairs?
GOD’S INTERVENTION IN THE PAST.
The difficulty is to make choice of a few instances of God’s intervention in human affairs; such is the wealth of material at our disposal in the Scriptures.
First, individually. The translation of Enoch was clearly an intervention on his behalf. Noah and his family’s salvation by the ark presents another case in point.
The miraculous birth of Isaac; the promise of the birth of Samson and of Samuel; the preservation of the infant Moses; the miraculous passage of the three Hebrew youths through the fiery furnace, which burnt their bands, but did not singe their hair; the shutting of the lions’ mouths, hungry as they were, when Daniel was consigned to their den; the raising to life of dead persons; the angel bringing Peter out of prison; and standing by Paul on the storm-tossed vessel, cheering, sustaining, promising deliverance, though outward circumstances seemed all against it—these and a hundred other instances of God’s intervention in the lives of individuals crowd to one’s memory.
Then as to nations, the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt; the angel of the Lord smiting 185,000 Assyrians with His asphyxiating breath; the bringing in of the “times of the Gentiles” as seen in the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires, are notable instances in point.
GOD’S GREATEST INTERVENTION.
But God’s greatest intervention in human affairs was in the gift of His well-beloved Son. His beautiful life, His wonderful death, His glorious resurrection and ascension, the proclamation of the gospel world-wide, all bear witness to this.
The effect on the lives of countless individuals, and on nations, of the reception or rejection of the gospel, is too patent to be denied.
Has this great intervention affected you, reader? If it has not, then you are in a perilous condition indeed. A planet that could cease to be affected by the attraction of the sun, and wander from its orbit, would certainly meet with destruction. Shall man, puny as he is, but more precious than any planet—man with a soul capable of communion with God—shall man get out of relation with God and escape destruction?
Even in this life the man who sets God’s laws at defiance does so to his own hurt. The doctor’s consulting-room, the law courts, the prisons, the asylums, all bear terrible witness to this.
It is well to be sensible of this, and to seek, if one has never benefited by God’s great intervention in human affairs, to do so without further delay.
For the believer at the present moment, how comforting are the Scriptures. How these illustrations as to God’s care in the past ages can be echoed in our hearts when we say, “We trust in the LIVING God, who is the “Saviour [i.e. Preserver, in temporal matters] of all men, SPECIALLY of them that believe” (1 Tim. 4:10). How those two words stand out in this text, “living” and “specially.” God lives; God cares; He marks each falling sparrow, and counts the very hairs of our heads. How full and deep are His knowledge and care of His own.
We have, then, the care of God, and the benefit of the priesthood of Christ, and the comfort of the Scriptures to sustain us in spite of every kind of pressure. We are rich indeed!
GOD’S INTERVENTION IN THE FUTURE.
To get an understanding of God’s intervention in the past we have to go to Bible history; to get an understanding of God’s intervention in the future we must go to the prophecy of Scripture.
The great intervention for the believer is to be caught up out of this world at the second coming of Christ. And this coming, surely, draws very nigh. We are, without doubt, on the very eve of its fulfilment.
The terrible happenings in the world are giving men cause to think. Is this Armageddon? Are these happenings the fulfilment of Bible prophecy? These are the questions of multitudes.
There is one verse that distinctly answers these questions in the negative. The Lord says to His own, “Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev. 3:10).
The word of the Lord’s patience is the communication of the hope of His coming for His people and the instructions to be patient till He comes. Because we suffer with Christ in rejection and wait for Him patiently, we are assured that we are not to go through the great tribulation that is coming on the earth. What is happening just now is terrible indeed, but it is nothing in comparison with what will happen when God’s judgments sweep the earth.
And mark how careful is the wording of this promise. We are to be kept “from [literally, out of] THE HOUR of temptation.” And seeing the tribulation comes upon all the earth, there can be no escape from it for any on the earth. And to be kept from the hour of it literally means, to be taken out of time. “The hour” is connected with time, and to be kept “out of the hour” is to be in eternity.
So the next verse simply and naturally puts before us the speedy and imminent return of our Lord. “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown” (Rev. 3:11).
Then, generally and broadly speaking, we see God’s intervention in the future adumbrated by the happenings of today. In connection with the Lord coming to reign we are given signs that portend its approach, such as the apostasy of Christendom, the revival of the Roman Empire, the Jews going back to their own land, and the manifestation of the Anti-christ. They have not yet fully come, nor can they come till the church is caught up to glory, but things are most evidently working towards that end.
(1) The apostasy of Christendom. The progress of “Higher criticism” and the New Theology, the spread of blasphemous and anti-Christian cults, the frightful worldliness of the Church, all show that after the Rapture there will be nothing to hinder full-blown apostasy.
(2) The revival of the Roman Empire. The combination of nations, the suggestion repeatedly made of the wisdom of a federation of Latin kingdoms [one writer, and he an infidel, going so far as to enumerate a possible union, mentioned exactly ten countries, and the revived Roman Empire is to consist of ten kingdoms]—all this is a very ominous sign.
(3) The Jews going back to their own land, though in unbelief. The Zionist movement, the readiness of the Jews to furnish vast sums of money for the possession of the Holy Land, the secret preparation of material for the temple they intend to rebuild, the high probability of the expulsion of the Turk, all point in this direction.
(4) The manifestation of the Antichrist. All the antichrists and anti-Christian teachings coming more and more to the fore are paving the way for the man of sin. When the church is caught up and the present active restraining influence of the Holy Spirit is removed, there will be no barrier to the arrival of such a person.
When I was a young man, the attention of politicians was focussed on the near east. Then it shifted to the far east and America, and little was heard of the near east. The recent happenings in the world have plainly centred interests in the near east. Palestine has seen strange sights of late. The Mount of Olives, Nazareth, the vale of Megiddo (giving a topical name to the future Armageddon), and such places have witnessed guns and convoys in transit marked with the name of Krupp. All round the Holy Land there has been fighting. Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Balkans, massacres in Armenia, etc., witness to this. And what is it all leading up to? God’s great future intervention in human affairs. The Christian, enlightened by Scripture, sees gloomier days ahead for the world than the gloomiest pessimist has foretold. But he also sees a brighter moment coming than the airiest optimist has ever dreamed of. From behind the blackest clouds of Armageddon, in a day yet to come, there will burst forth the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion and to them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the Lord” (Isa. 59:19-20).
Then peace, long looked for, will soothe the anguished heart of this world; joy and glory will come when the Lord God omnipotent reigns.