In this world are three active and potent forces, each contributing to its pretensions as it now subsists, or will shortly expand, and embracing every motive or incentive to action, that has, since the fall, marked its course.
These three forces are Power, Religion, and Commerce. And because the whole world lies in the wicked one, power has begotten oppression, religion has developed into idolatry, and commerce is energized by covetousness. By power is meant the authority, however acquired, of man over man; and by religion, not God's revelation, but the outcome of man's nature, which is essentially religious. For, even if man is a infidel, he still bows to a superior, and pays homage to a being—real or imaginary—above himself. Even Antichrist, who exalts himself above all that is called God, will pay homage to the god of forces (Dan. 11:38, 3938But in his estate shall he honor the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. 39Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain. (Daniel 11:38‑39)). It is commerce that now seems to have the sway of the world, not that the love of power is extinct, or commerce of recent development. There were merchant princes in Tire nearly fifteen centuries before Christ. But the spirit of traffic is now more widely spread, and other things are for the time yielding to it.
The first expression of power among men, after the deluge, was an attempt to be independent of God—to build a tower and make themselves a name, and a gathering point lest they should be scattered. And if they could have succeeded, their power would have been limitless. God Himself declared that now nothing would be restrained from them which they imagined to do. There was mercy mingled with judgment when men were scattered into different groups and tongues. Had they been permitted to remain with one language, the world would have been, if possible, even worse than it is; for man has given proof of what he could do. When God put power into his hand (as we see in Nebuchadnezzar), he used it to establish idolatry, and to burn out the confession of the true God. Although Babel was not ostensibly built to support idolatry, the spirit that prompted its building was the same as was soon seen in the universal spread of idolatry, viz., the exclusion of God. If violence and corruption filled the earth before the flood, idolatry overspread it immediately after.
It was a fallen world before man acquired power. Magisterial authority was given to Noah by God. But man soon found what a great auxiliary to power it was to have a center, and so the attempt at Babel; and when dominion was given to Nebuchadnezzar by God, he endeavored to consolidate his authority by establishing idolatry. (Indeed there is no force equal to the religious element in human nature to strengthen or overthrow any power on earth.) Egypt abounded in idols; but we do not read that the king enforced their worship with penalties if disobedient. But from Babylon the threat issued, that all who worshipped not the golden image set up should be cast into the furnace. Satan had no need to oppose the stupid idolatry of Egypt by idolatries elsewhere. But against the worship of God he stirs up Nebuchadnezzar, and afterward Darius the Mede.
It was the failure of Israel, and of the city of Jerusalem as the standing witness for God, that was the occasion of investing the Gentile with supreme authority: the wickedness of Israel was greater than that of the Gentiles, and Israel was given up to their hatred. The hatred was against the testimony of God rather than against Jerusalem, and at last the Jew joins with the Gentile against it. The chief priests and Pilate, Jew and Gentile, are together in condemning the Lord. But while Jerusalem stood a witness to the government of God, it was the object of the enmity of the surrounding nations. But God was compelled (if we may so say) to judge it; otherwise He would have appeared indifferent to sin, and to His own truth and majesty. But though the nations be His instruments for chastising, yet are they punished for their own sin, and in proportion to their enmity to Israel.
But while all show enmity, some are more expressive of the spirit that now dominates the world—the spirit of Mammon. A special phase is commerce. Commerce is influenced by covetousness, and covetousness is idolatry. For the sake of Mammon war is decried. At the same time is it not worthy of the Christian's notice that war is cultivated as a science, and standing armies are maintained in Christendom where the gospel of peace is professed? What a proof of the rule and power of the prince of this world! The crust of peace spread over the civilized world is very thin. Underneath are armed millions and new warlike inventions. Nations are saying Peace, peace, and yet preparing for war, and rumors and signs of it are not wanting. How blessed that amid all the commotions and strifes of this world, believers can look beyond and say, “we, receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved!” But, whatever the dominating spirit, all men who have not the truth are hoping and seeking to maintain the present system of the world. And they dream that they will perpetuate it, and they will continue to dream, until the judgment of God awakens them. Then in their alarm they will call on the mountains and rocks to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb.
But let us see how these forces are represented in Scripture, and what places or cities are used as illustrative of the world's sin and judgment. And there in the forefront of all we find Babel with its tower and defiance of God. It was the first place after the flood where the exercise of the world's power brought down judgment from God. Though all joined to build the tower, yet the race of Ham, in the person of Nimrod, was the first to acquire power, which is continued in different characters throughout the old history of the world—through Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and, we may add, the seven-hilled city Rome. This also will be the last force in exercise when Gog and Magog are led against God after the millennium. It would seem that the power of the world had been restrained by God till Israel had falsified His testimony to it. Then, as we may see in Babylon, power was joined to idolatry, and the saints were subjected to persecution. Tire is presented where the world's religion succumbs apparently to commerce, as the love of gain becomes paramount. But if the phases of wickedness in Babylon and Tire be different, they are both in opposition to God. Egypt early rose to prominence but did not enforce idolatry as did Babylon; though the Lord declares that He will judge the idols of Egypt. And in the plagues of Egypt the Lord's judgment was as much upon their gods as upon the people themselves.
But, as we have seen, the first place was Babel; and there was a willful ignoring of the power and judgment of God. The height of the tower was to reach heaven, as if man could make a refuge for himself should any succeeding deluge overtake him. This same defiance of God was brought out in Egypt too; for it was Egypt's king that said, “Who is Jehovah that I should obey Him”? He learned who He was at the Red Sea—then too late: and when Egypt lost her place as a leading power in the world, it passed to Assyria, and Nineveh became next prominent, and the object of the Lord's judgment (see Nahum). Assyria, which was noted from the beginning, has its name carried on to the end, and given to the last earthly power in opposition to God. So that the power of the world, seen at the first in Babel and Nimrod, and for a time diverted to Egypt that the purpose of God in and for Israel might be accomplished, is found again at the close wielded by the Assyrian. But all through it is antagonism to God; and as His purpose for the earth was wrapped up in Israel, it is against them that the hatred of Satan is chiefly directed. He knew that the truth and testimony for God was somehow connected with Israel, and that the Bruiser of his head must come through them. He well understood the import of the sentence in Eden. He instigated Pharaoh to command that all the male children should be cast into the river. It was he who led Amalek and the inhabitants of Canaan to dispute Israel's passage into the land. He stirred up all evil amongst themselves, as well as their enemies against them. And when he found the line narrowed to David and his house, he roused Saul to destroy him. Failing in this he apparently succeeds in destroying the kingdom, and the king of Assyria carries ten tribes into captivity. To David's house only two tribes remain, which could not be a true picture of God's kingdom. But these also he seeks to destroy, or expatriate. For the purpose of God in David's house was in some measure seen by Satan, although Israel was blind.
Thus Nimrod, Pharaoh, Saul, Sennacherib, and the future Beast are all found arrayed against God. The same unseen foe guides them all in the same opposition. And when he leads the Assyrian in his last phase before the millennium, a greater destruction awaits him than befell Pharaoh at the Red Sea, or Sennacherib's army when destroyed by the angel of the Lord. And even after he has been bound for a thousand years, and then loosed for a brief space, he gathers again Gog and Magog to the battle, “and they” in the vision (Rev. 20:99And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. (Revelation 20:9)) “went up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down out of heaven and devoured them.” All the unconverted whose number is as the sand of the sea are led against the saints then on the earth. This is his last effort—the immediate prelude to their eternal blessedness.
Yet not Satan's efforts, but Israel's sin seems to delay the fulfillment of God's purpose (Psa. 11).
Nevertheless, God overrules all to subserve His counsels, and in due time will establish His decree. Meanwhile Satan, as it were, takes advantage of Israel's sin to include the whole world in idolatry. And the religious nature of fallen man affords a force when supported by authority which is almost irresistible. It would be quite so only for the grace of God overcoming nature.
It may be that men clothed with power wishing to consolidate their authority by religion used symbols of Godhead to aid the people in general. But men had sufficient evidence of the Godhead in the things that are seen. They did not wish to retain the remembrance of God (Rom. 1:2020For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:20)). Therefore it was easy for Satan to convert the symbol into an idol; and to it the idolaters bowed. When Joseph is carried into Egypt, we find idolatry systematized, having its high priest (Potipherah), in a man of note. Not that this is its first appearance. it was in Laban's family; nor does Jacob appear to have been shocked when Laban accused him of stealing his gods (Gen. 31). And the ancestors of Abraham served other gods (Josh. 24). Idolatry seems to have spread rapidly. Yet years must have elapsed before Egypt, and the idolatry which marked it, could have attained to the position she had among the nations; for she had traffic with other countries, and even slave-markets. But in the midst of all her prosperity she sunk in the depths of a debasing idolatry. How the great foe must have derided the wisdom of the Egpytian to see it accompanied with such folly!
To be continued, ( D. V.)