In reference to good, God’s principle of action is unity; in reference to evil, it is division.
Satan, copyist as he is, works after the same fashion. In reference to evil, his principle of action is unity; in reference to good, division. He copies God’s method, but reverses the application. Reference to Scripture will amply confirm these statements.
The first division in Scripture is light from darkness as narrated in Genesis 1:4.
“And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”
It is remarkable in this passage that God saw the light, and recognizing its goodness, brought in division between light and darkness.
No doubt whilst this stands as a great physical fact in nature marked by the beneficence of an all-wise Creator, it is intended to symbolize the great division between moral light and moral darkness. This principle runs all through Scripture. It is exemplified to the full in Him, who was the Light of the world.
“And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:51).
In nature the light disperses the darkness, and rules the day, only that it is in turn withdrawn, and then darkness supervenes and rules the night; but in the spiritual realm the darkness is so dense that the appearance of the light brings no change to the darkness—so impenetrable, and completely without apprehension, is it.
Deeply interesting it is to note the exactitude of Scripture
“The evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5).
The darkness first, the light following, prophetic of the final victory of light. The formula is repeated till the sixth day is reached, the sixth day merging into the seventh, of which no evening is recorded—the seventh day symbolizing the rest of God. Thus the end of the Bible answers to the beginning, the antitype fitting into the type.
We read of the New Jerusalem—the Church in millennial display—which receives the blessing and glory of the eternal state before that state is fully inaugurated;
“And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 22:5).
Light finally triumphs and darkness passes away. The process is going on which shall have this blissful consummation.
“The darkness is passing, and the true light already shines” (1 John 2:8, N.Tr.).
Yet we must ever remember that evil will receive its doom in the lake of fire, and there be confined for eternity. However, it remains true that light will triumph, because darkness will be confined and no more intrude in realms of light, and only in those realms of light will the creature be blessed.
The next Scripture we refer to is Genesis 11. There we get the whole earth of one language and speech. Man in his independence of God, designs one vast imperialism and sets to work to build a city, and a tower whose top should reach to heaven. God sees the danger of this unity for evil and brings in division, thus weakening man in his evil designs and keeping him within bounds.
In this way nationalities came into existence as God’s design for preventing that solidarity in man’s aim for independence of God, which has ever marked him.
The contrast to this is found on the day of Pentecost. In Genesis 11 God divides men into nations and confounds their speech so as to keep evil within bounds. God brings in division upon evil; in Acts 2 men of different nations are met by the miraculous gift of tongues, so that every man heard and understood the Pentecostal message. God gave unity of understanding. Then when by the Holy Ghost believers were formed into one body with Christ as their Head in heaven, though belonging to different nationalities they composed the members upon the earth; and the one Spirit pervaded all, as intelligence and power.
Finally we find a scene where there shall be neither Jew nor Gentile, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free male nor female, where the division of nationalities shall be ended, for we read—
“The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God” (Rev. 21:3).
The next Scripture we refer to is 1 Kings 12:24,
“This thing [i.e., the division between Judah and Israel] is from Me.”
After much fighting David had consolidated his kingdom and handed it to Solomon. Solomon was greatly blessed by God. He gave him wisdom beyond any; he was the favoured instrument for the erection of the temple; his kingdom was at peace, and prosperous. But he allowed his heart to run after strange wives and their gods.
In that hour of his idolatry the doom of his kingdom was decreed. For David’s sake judgment was deferred during his day, but in the days of Rehoboam, his haughty and foolish son, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, rebelled, and snatched ten of the twelve tribes from under his sway. Rehoboam, about to make war for the recovery of his lost dominions, was checked by the prophetic utterance of Shemaiah, the man of God, that this division was from God. Division was the judgment for idolatry. But was this division to exist for ever? Nay! where, then, was the promise to David? But it is true that unity can only fully prosper under Christ.
This was foretold by Ezekiel when he took two sticks, one for Judah, the other for Israel, and joined them into one stick in his hand, and prophesied:
“Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land and David My servant [i.e, Christ] shall be King over them; and they all shall have one Shepherd” (Ezek. 37:21 and 24).
Division, alas! was brought in because of man’s sin; unity will come on Israel’s side through “the time of Jacob’s trouble”, the great tribulation, by bitter repentance, and acceptance at last of Him whom they have pierced; on God’s side, because of Christ and His own faithfulness to His word of covenant to Abraham and David. When we come to the Gospels we find divisions most marked.
“There was a division among the people because of Him” (John 7:43);
and the Lord Himself says
“Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay, but rather division” (Luke 12:51).
Surely this is the carrying on of the first division between light and darkness. Christ was the light of the world, and when the light shone in the moral darkness of this world the darkness comprehended it not.
And when we come to the Christian profession alas! division soon came in, the work of Satan, seeking to destroy the wonderful testimony of Pentecost. Division in this sphere is sternly reprobated in God’s word:
“There is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men” (1 Cor. 3:3)
wrote the apostle Paul in vehement reproof. And yet amid all Satan’s wreckage of God’s work in an outward way, God’s real work shall stand. Deplorable as such division is, God can yet make it serve His purpose. Hence the apostle added to the same carnal believers:
“For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Cor. 11:19).
How refreshing to turn from man’s carnality in the things of God and view God’s unity:
“There is ONE body and ONE spirit, even as ye are called in ONE hope of your calling; ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism, ONE God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in you all” (Eph. 4:4-6);
and to realize that the Lord’s prayer,
“That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hut sent Me” (John 17:21),
will be abundantly and gloriously answered. How happy to see the ultimate and full triumph of God’s bright designs.
As to Satan, his aims ever are to unite evil so as to make it powerful in his hands for his own ends. Hence the attempt to amalgamate the labour movements of every country, to unite the workers of every land in one vast union—hence the League of Nations, the precursor, surely, of the revived Roman Empire, to be the instrument for evil in the rapidly approaching last days.
Yet even in this God gives division as seen in the mingled iron and clay of the ten toes of the Colossus.
Witness, too, the movement towards the amalgamation of great religious bodies, all paving the way for the great apostasy and the appearance of Babylon, the mother of harlots, on the scene.
And yet, amid all this, God is exercising the hearts of many believers, and is drawing them together. Satan, who has produced the divisions of God’s true people, would perpetuate them, but God would draw saint to saint in true brokenness of spirit and humiliation of soul before Him, and awaken in their breasts the bridal cry of “Come, Lord Jesus.”
Surely, in view of the near coming of the Lord it would be in accordance with His mind, if there were true exercise of soul and recovery, not in any pretentious way, not with any flourish of trumpets, but quietly, simply and earnestly as endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The drawing together of the large bodies of Christendom on worldly and political grounds is the unity Satan would forward.
The drawing together of God’s true, but, alas! divided people, in brokenness of spirit and in subjection to His word, is the unity God would forward.
The two movements are diametrically opposed. One is of the world, worldly, of the devil, devilish; the other is of God and the Spirit; the one is a movement the world can understand and approve of; the other is only understood by those who sigh and mourn over the present state of things.
God help us in these broken days. They are illumined by the bright light of the near advent of our blessed Lord and Master.