There is no doubt that many Christians throughout the British Empire and America are earnestly praying for victory to attend the Allied cause, and that many Christians in Germany and Italy are likewise equally earnestly praying for victory to attend their efforts. It is clear these prayers for exact opposite answers cannot both be realized. It follows that God must so teach His people, whether in Germany, Italy, or the British Empire and America, that prayer may indeed be answered in such a way as to satisfy all. This may be a long and humbling process.
The writer would like to put on record a few thoughts gathered from Scripture that are helpful and cheering at this time.
We read: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1-4). Here we have plain instructions, whether one is a British Christian or a German Christian. We are told whom to pray for—for “all men” and for “kings and all that are in authority.” “All men” includes men of the British Empire, men of Germany, and of Italy, men everywhere—white, yellow, black. The matter is urgent for the first character of the prayer to be offered is that of “supplication,” that is of intense prayer, then we have prayer, then “intercessions,” that is praying on behalf of others, and finally “giving of thanks.” This last we can surely do at all times for an all-wise and loving God will surely give the best answer. Answers are sometimes given, sometimes delayed, sometimes modified, sometimes denied, but whatever is the result, it is God’s answer and is best.
The answer in this case is “a quiet, a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” May not God in answer to the supplications and intercessions of His people give an answer and cause kings and dictators to allow Christians to live in quietness and peace? Have we faith for this?
How often have we prayed that God will open the prison doors of the German pastors, who are held in durance vile because they will not bow the knee to the neo-paganism Hitler is seeking to impose on that unhappy country. God opened Peter’s prison of old, delivering him but a few hours before the time fixed for his martyrdom, and we have the same God today. One day these prison doors will assuredly be opened.
Another Scripture that is very forcible and cheering at this time is Genesis 18, where we read of Abraham’s intercession for Sodom. There was no doubt of Sodom’s wickedness. It was a veritable plague-spot on God’s fair earth—a pestilential offence to decent humanity. And yet if fifty righteous persons—a paltry number compared with the city—should be found in it, it should be spared for their sake. Abraham, emboldened, reduced the number to forty-five, to forty, to thirty, to twenty. Abraham had bravely said to the Lord, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”—words for which we have all been devoutly thankful, words that give us peace of mind as to God’s governmental dealings in this sad world.
Greatly daring at length Abraham interceded, “Oh! let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And He said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake. And the Lord went on His way, as soon as He had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned to his place” (Gen. 18:32-33).
One would have imagined ten should have been found righteous in that city seething with sin. Evidently Lot had at least four daughters, for he had two unmarried daughters and at least two married daughters for he had sons-in-law. Lot, wife, four daughters, two sons-in-law at least, count eight souls. Were they all righteous? The sons-in-law mocked at Lot’s warnings and perished in the city with their wives. It is a sad scene to contemplate.
It has been an unspeakable comfort in these days of stress to remember that if only ten righteous should be found in Sodom the city should be spared, and to think of the volume of prayer that is reaching the ear and heart of our heavenly Father from hundreds of thousands of His children all over the world, He will hear and answer.
When the children of Israel were carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, what attitude had they to adopt towards the land of their captivity? We read:“Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray to the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace” (Jer. 29:7).
It is true that Christians in this land are not captives to a foreign power. But a new element has come into our lives, making us strangers and pilgrims even in our native land. We have been saved by the grace of God out of a world that crucified and rejected our Lord. Our true home is in Heaven, in the Father’s house. Meanwhile we are in a world of unrest and sorrow, a world that “lies in wickedness” (1 John 5:19). Our conversation (literally citizenship) is in Heaven; from which we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20).
What a comfort it is that we can pray for peace, and are encouraged to do so.
Finally we may well ask ourselves the question and seek to answer it honestly, Is the British nation so God-fearing and righteous that we can ask God to give the Allied cause the victory. Alas! it is true that not five percent, ever darken the doors of a so-called place of worship. That even in the small minority professing to be Christian a large portion is merely nominal. Many clergymen and ministers are modernists and in too many cases deny the very fundamentals of the Christian faith. Christianity is indeed at a low ebb.
In the face of all this we can get solid comfort in reading Deuteronomy 9. God gave the children of Israel to understand that He did not give them the possession of the promised land, and victory over their foes, because of their righteousness, but rather because of the wickedness of those up till then possessing the land. He tells them in language which could not be clearer, “Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God gives thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness: for thou art a stiff-necked people” (Deut. 9:6).
Are we any better? Are we righteous? Are we not stiff-necked?
We may not hope for victory on the ground of our righteousness. But when we think of the wickedness of the aggressors, their defiance of God, their refusal of the Bible and of Christian teaching, their imprisoning of hundreds of German pastors because they will not surrender the gospel of the grace of God, the unspeakable torture of the Jewish race, their concentration camps, their devilish and unspeakable torturing of all who stand in the slightest way of their wickedness, we can only believe that God, who witnesses all this, will rebuke their wickedness and cause them to be brought to naught.
When we think of this on the one hand, and the prayers of the Lord’s people, including those of our German and Italian brothers and sisters in Christ, “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16), we are encouraged to believe that God will give peace in our time.
It can only be a partial peace for it will not be founded on the personal reign of our Lord, and amidst it all we, Christians, may hear the long-looked-for summoning shout of our Lord, gathering His people whether dead or living in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, to Himself for ever. What a prospect! Lord, haste that day. Amen.