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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 81. The Illustrations
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The Illustrations
Now we want to turn to the illustrations in the Book. I have tried to make, first, these simple statements of the principles contained in the illustrations. Let us look a little more directly at the illustrations themselves. There are three groups of judgment incidents in the Bible. Certain historical events stand out big,—the Flood, the burning of Sodom, the judgments upon Egypt, and the wholesale destruction of the inhabitants of Caanan. Certain incidents stand out in Israel's history,—Nadab and Abihu consumed by fire, Miriam's leprosy, Korah's company swallowed up by the opening earth, twice a plague among the people; and long years after these, David's three days' pestilence. Then there is a group of personal experiences,—Job, Jacob's dislocated thigh-joint, Ananias, and Herod's terrible death by worms.
There are other incidents that have the element of judgment in, but these seem to be the chief. It is quite impossible, within our limits here, to go into each of these. Each is different from the others, yet the same essential principle lies under each. God is always the same in His unchanging love. The whole sun can be seen reflected in a single drop of water. One's general bodily condition is revealed in a single drop of blood.
Let us look a little at the first group, the outstanding historical events. The Flood was a judgment by water, and was complete, so far as animal life was concerned, over the inhabited earth. Sodom, with its sister cities, was a judgment by fire, and was complete concerning every form of life, within a very restricted area. Egypt was a graduated judgment, both in the means used, and in the degree of suffering; it was partial only; and affected the great political world-power of that time. The destruction of the Canaanites was meant to be general, and was accomplished by means of war, in which, however, the chief weapon was the supernatural power of God, exercised through a people wholly untrained in warfare. Each is preceded by a statement of the awful extreme to which iniquity had gone. In connection with the Flood, with Sodom, and with Canaan, sin had literally run riot. The judgment came at the extreme point of wickedness.
It would seem quite clear, in connection with the Flood, that the chief thing aimed at was the preservation of the race, while the result to those perishing was a logical result of their sin. Sin was burning the race out. Something radical must be done. The careful plans for preserving seed of every sort of animal life reveals the underlying purpose in the event. The actual coming of the vast deluge of water would, of course, be simply through a partial withdrawal of the controlling Hand upon the powers of nature. Those forces were, and are, being held in check constantly by God's act for our sake. A brief partial withdrawal let the waters loose.
The result that came to the crowds—death—would have come inevitably as a logical result of their sin. The Flood merely moved the clock forward a little, and changed the mode. These changes were controlled by a purpose of love toward the race thus preserved. The action was not arbitrary, except in restraining judgment up to this time. It was simply an answer to the tacit pleading that God would leave them alone. He might have done so long before. In His patience He waits until this time, so prolonging their lives and their opportunity.
The Sodom story is essentially a repetition of all this. The unspeakable sinfulness, carried to the awful degree of attempting to use the divine visitors in their lust, the long-time patience, the gracious sustaining of life in these blasphemous, unclean people, the witness of Lot, then the partial withdrawal of the restraint upon nature.
The Egypt story is given more fully, but is no different in principle. It brings out the intense selfishness and cruelty of the Egyptians. The Israelites had been the benefactors of Egypt, through their kinsman, Joseph, who greatly increased the wealth and prestige of the nation. As the Israelites increased in numbers, the selfish fear of them led to a persecution that included horrible cruelties. Yet there was special grace extended to Pharaoh, which should have changed all this, and led him to right the wrong. God had graciously continued his life and power. [Note: Exo_9:16; Rom_9:17.]The riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering were meant to lead Pharaoh to repentance. [Note: Rom_2:4.]
God had graciously endured, with much longsuffering, this man, who was fitted by his own stubbornness in sin for the destruction that sin always carries in itself. [Note: Rom_9:22.] But he obstinately resisted every such effort of God to win him. Then the crisis came. The tracing of the process is not always an easy task. The direct positive action of God mingles in, as in the wind and the locusts. [Note: Exo_10:12-19.] Yet careful study reveals that under all these events of judgment the dominant factor was a carefully graduated withdrawal.
The withdrawal was a long-delayed answer to the long-continued pleading-in-action of Pharaoh, to be left alone. He was left alone partially. God did nothing; that was the judgment. He had been doing everything for them despite their protest. Now He does nothing, yet only partly; that was all. This is the very essence of all judgment. So the grievous wrong to Israel of centuries was righted, and so Egypt, and through Egypt the world, was taught anew of God's power and gracious forbearance. [Note: Exo_7:5; Exo_14:4, Exo_14:18.]
There was immensely more grace than judgment in the transaction. The king, his army, and the season's crops, and some of the livestock, were destroyed; and every family knew the great sorrow of its future head dying. All the rest was graciously left, the gift of life to the mass of the people, the land, the unfailing, abundant answer of the soil; and there came a new knowledge of the true God, His power and love. There was overwhelmingly more grace than judgment.
The story of the destruction of the inhabitants of Canaan may seem like a horrible butchery. A surgeon thrusting a knife into a man's vitals, and death actually resulting, may seem like murder. Yet no one who understands, ever thinks of using such a word in either case. The whole purpose is beneficent. When all the knowledge available regarding Canaan is gathered up, the gracious purpose of the divine Surgeon is seen. It is an effort to save the race by removing the horrible cancerous growth threatening its life. God's first thought was directed toward these people, whose sin had gone to such extremes; Israel getting into the land came in as the second consideration. [Note: Deu_9:5; Deu_18:12; Lev_18:24-25; Lev_20:23.]
Such is the story of judgment, told in this Book, by picture and word. It is directed against sin, not man. Its purpose is to change the man, to save the race, to serve as a danger signal, and more, a sad, sad more. Its process is always by withdrawal, God ceasing to do His kindly work, at man's urgent request. And judgment brings immeasurable grief to the heart of God.
The heartbreaking part of the story is that there does come an ultimate withdrawal. It is heartbreaking to know about, more heartbreaking to talk about, immensely more heartbreaking to Him whose heart broke on Calvary, under the load of sin. Yet the initial act in that ultimate withdrawal is not God's; it is man's.