I feel very distinctly that there is a special character in this present time through which we are passing. The great powers which are destined to fill out the action of Christendom’s closing day are practicing themselves, each in its several sphere, with great earnestness and skill. I means the civil and the ecclesiastical.
I do not doubt but that for a season the ecclesiastical will prevail. The woman is to ride the beast (Revelation 17) for a while—a prophetic symbol, I believe, signifying ecclesiastical supremacy. And this present moment is marked by many efforts on the behalf of that which takes the place of the church, thus to exalt itself. She is so adroitly directing those efforts that success may speedily await them, and then the blood of the saints may flow afresh.
The civil power, however, is anything but idle. The wondrous advance that it is making every day proves great skill and activity on its part. It is largely boasting itself, showing what it has done, and pledging what further it means to do. I do not doubt that the civil power will have to yield the supremacy for a time, and the woman will ride again, though her greatness will be but for a little, for the civil power will take offense, and remove her.
If we, in God’s grace, keep a good conscience toward Christ and His truth, we may count upon it that no inheritance in the earth is worth much. If we consent to become whatever the times would make us, of course we may go on, and that, too, advancing with an advancing world. (I speak simply of things as they are on the earth. I know that at any time, independently of them, the saints may be taken up to meet the Lord in the air.)
The Spirit of Jeremiah
I have been sensible lately of how much the spirit of Jeremiah suits these times. Iniquity was abounding in the scene around him, though it was called by God’s name, and was indeed His place on the earth. The house of prayer had become a “den of thieves,” though they still cried, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these.” He knew that the judgment of God was awaiting it all, and he looked for happy days which lay in the distance, beyond the present corruption and the approaching judgment. Over all this corruption Jeremiah mourned; against it all he testified, and like his Master, he was hated for his testimony (John 7:77The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. (John 7:7)). He was, however, full of faith and hope, and in the strength of that (anticipating the future) he laid out his money in the purchase of Hanameel’s field (Jer. 32). All this was beautiful—the present sorrow over the corruption of the daughter of his people, faith’s certainty of the coming judgment, and hope’s prospect of closing crowning glory.
This is a pattern for our spirit. And I observe another feature of power in the prophet. He was not to be seduced from the conclusions of faith by occasional fair and promising appearances (see Jeremiah 37). The Chaldean army had broken up their camp under the walls of Jerusalem because of the arrival of the Egyptian allies. This circumstance flattered the Jewish people into hopes, but Jeremiah left the city because he would still hold to the conclusion of faith, that Jerusalem was doomed of God in righteous judgment. All this is a fine exhibition of a soul walking by the light of God, not merely through darkness, but through darkness which seemed to be light. As in Jeremiah’s day, separation is the Christian’s place and calling—separation because of heavenly citizenship and oneness with an already risen Christ.
The Parable of the Potter
All this may admonish us, beloved, but I have another word in my heart just at present also.
The parable of the potter in Jeremiah 18 and 19 was designed to let Israel know that, though brought into covenant, they were still within the reach of the divine judgments. In John Baptist’s time, Israel is found in the like character of self-confidence. If in Jeremiah’s day they would say, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these,” in the Baptist’s day they said, “We have Abraham to our father.” But John, like Jeremiah, would again teach them that, though in covenant, judgment could reach them. In the Lord’s ministry we find the same. Israel still boasted, and the Lord again and again warned them of the coming judgment. All this has a lesson for us.
Christendom, or Babylon, has taken this ancient place of Israel. She trusts in security in spite of unfaithfulness. She boasts in the Lord, though her moral condition is vile. She says, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall, see no sorrow” (Rev. 18:77How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. (Revelation 18:7)), though blood, and pride, and all abominations, stain her. But Revelation 18 is another action. Like that of the prophet in the potter’s house, it teaches the unfaithful one that the doom of the broken vessels, or of the millstone cast into the sea, awaits her. This is for our learning. God never sanctions disobedience. He did not go into the Garden of Eden to accredit Adam’s sin, but to bring relief in the way of grace for it. So in the gospel He utterly condemns sin, while delivering the sinner.
Nor does He ever commit Himself to His stewards. He commits Himself to His own gifts and calling (Rom. 11:2929For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Romans 11:29)), but never to His stewards. They are always held responsible to Him, and disobedience works forfeiture. Christ is the only Steward that ever stood and answered for Himself in the conditional place, and as always, He is the moral contradiction of man. In the temptation (Matthew 4) the devil sought to inspire the Lord with confidence in spite of disobedience. He partially cited Psalm 91, quoted the promised security, omitting the required obedience. But he was utterly defeated. The Lord in answering cited Deuteronomy 6, and acted accordingly, for in that chapter obedience is declared to be Israel’s ground of security. In this way did Jesus keep His own blessings under Psalm 91, and His Israel’s blessings under Deuteronomy 6. But all other stewards, in their turn, have failed, and Babylon’s boast, which we have already listened to, is a lie.
Boasting Vessels
All this may nowadays be had in our remembrance seasonably, for we live at a time when Babylon is filling herself afresh with this boast, just before her overthrow, when she is to meet the doom of the millstone (Rev. 18:2121And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. (Revelation 18:21)). For the boast of “the eternal city,” as she calls herself, only the more awfully signalizes her for the judgment of God. It is a favorite thought with her, that while other churches tremble for their safety, she is above such fears; she is God’s city, and has His walls around her. This is imposing, but when considered by the teaching of the Word, it only the more distinctly declares what she is, and witnesses her more advanced ripeness for the judgment of God. This boast is defiance. It is the denial of her subjection to Him, of her stewardship or place of being answerable to Him and His judgment. It leaves her for the doom of the potter’s vessel in the valley of the son of Hinnom, or of the millstone in the hand of the angel. “Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again” (Jer. 19:1111And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. (Jeremiah 19:11)).
J. G. Bellett (adapted)