WHY ARE THE NATIONS BEING WASTED BY WAR?

(A lecture delivered by the Rev. E. Teaz of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Liverpool, about 1916, but fitted to make us, in 1966, wonder what is to become of our nation in her continued rebellion against the authority of Heaven).

Men may give different answers to this question, and assign different causes for the horrible conflict of the nations now proceeding on the continent of Europe. But the real explanation, which lies behind all the others, is that furnished by God Himself through the pen of the prophet. The words of our text contain a solemn message for all rulers, but especially at this time for the rulers of the belligerent nations. Never since the first battle was fought on this earth between the opposing factions of the human family has there been such a waste of national resources as has been proceeding, by land and sea, for the past two and a half years. Blood is being poured out with a ruthlessness, and treasure with a recklessness, which strains and stuns the imagination. ‘War, that child of hell whom angry heavens make their minister’ has never before exhibited his horrors to such an alarming degree. The vastness of the tragedy almost paralyzes thought.

One result of this conflict of the nations has been the revival of the study of geography. Many a town and river and hill on the continent, hitherto unknown or little known, has assumed prominence and interest it never had before, and is traced on the map with the utmost care. Another result has been an increased interest among Christians in the Old Testament Scriptures. Many an historic and prophetic chapter of the Old Book has assumed a new significance and brought a new message to the child of God in these days of stress and anxiety.

The prophetic utterance of the text is one of these portions. In it He who is the Prince of the kings of the earth pronounces the doom not merely of those nations who oppose or neglect His claims, but of those who refuse to serve Him and seek to promote the interest of His cause and kingdom and to acknowledge His authority in their national capacity. Such disobedient and rebellious nations ‘shall be utterly wasted.’ This is both a prediction concerning them and a sentence passed upon them.

1. The disobedient and rebellious nation which refuses to serve God is sure to be utterly wasted, because He who cannot lie has said so. ‘God is not man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent. Hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good? ‘Man may speak in ignorance or in folly, and on more mature deliberation change his mind and refrain from executing his purpose. Or he may speak in weakness, and the outcome prove that he is unable to accomplish his design. But none of these contingencies can affect the unchanging word or purpose of God, Who is infinite in wisdom and power. ‘His truth endureth to all generations.’ Hence the nation that refuses to serve Him and obey His law — however strong, whatever be the extent of its resources or the multitude of its armies — is sure to be ‘utterly wasted.’

2. The nation which refuses submission to the authority of God and withholds its service from His cause will be utterly wasted because there is no punishment for rebellious nations, as such, hereafter, The disobedient and rebellious citizen may escape punishment in this world, because there is a judgment-seat before which he must appear in the world to come. ‘For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.’ Such is the description we have in the Word of God of the final judgment. That dreadful tribunal is for man in his individual, not in his citizens capacity. If a nation sins as a nation, it must be punished for its national offenses in this world. It cannot hope for a postponement of the day of retribution. He who is the Prince of the kings of the earth may bear long with such a nation. He may utter many warnings and bring many chastisements, but if it still refuses to serve Him, it will be finally overthrown by His terrible judgments, and its place and power will be given to another people. ‘And many shall say, every man to his neighbors, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and have worshipped other gods and served them.’ (Jeremiah 22:8).

3. The solemn truth that the nation which refuses submission and service to God will perish utterly is verified by the doom which has overtaken the rebellious nations of the past.

This is not only a truth of Scripture, it is a fact of history. Egypt at one time served God by providing bread and a home for His people in the days of famine. But eventually it began to serve itself by the oppression of His people. In rebellion and insolence the king demanded, ‘Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?’ Then the nation was plagued, her first-born were slain and ultimately her armies perished in the sea. Egypt has ever since been the hunting ground for other nations of the earth in their turn.

The Canaanites served their idols instead of God, and, though they were borne with till their iniquity was full, they were at last utterly wasted by the sword of Israel. Their land, which they had defiled, spewed them out.

Babylon was one of the greatest nations of antiquity. Herodotus tells us that its capital had a circumference of seventy-five miles, that it was surrounded by a wall three hundred feet high and so broad that two war chariots, each harnessed with four horses abreast, could easily pass each other upon it; that one hundred gates of brass formed the entrance to the city; that its streets were on hundred and fifty feet broad, and its houses were four stories high; while its gardens made it the praise of the whole earth. But Babylon refused in its pride to serve God, and it ultimately became a heap of ruins from which the modern archaeologist unearths the mouldy remains of its long-departed magnificence.

The Jews not only refused to serve the Lord, but in the days of His flesh, rejected and crucified Him, and for over nineteen centuries, though nationality was stamped upon them, they remained without a nation until recent years.

Imperial Rome, the conqueror and molder of the nations, whose victorious legions were once the terror of the world, and whose Emperors gave names to the months of the year, refused to recognize the claims of God, and Rome declined and fell.

In more modern times Spain, which once commanded the seas and planted her colonies in the uttermost parts of the earth, rejected the claims of God, becoming the home of the Inquisition, and shedding the blood of the saints. Spain is now weak, and wasted, and stripped of her colonies.

But never before in the history of the world has this ominous prediction of the prophet received such a tragic fulfillment as in the case of the nations now at war. The Central Powers of Europe have long since repudiated the claims of God as well as the rights of humanity. Turkey has worshipped the sword and the assassin. Austria has exalted the tyrant, and bowed to the Anti-Christ. That might is right is the national creed of Germany: her god is militarism, and her ambition is world-wide empire. Her philosophers have sought to expel God from His universe, and her theologians have striven to eliminate the supernatural from His word. Her rulers, if they acknowledge God at all, would take him by force and make Him not their king, but their servant. The wasting process has set in. It has come upon them at their own invitation, and the whole military situation today indicates that it will continue to the point of exhaustion. Though the Allies themselves will be wasted in applying the process, the Central Powers will be ‘utterly wasted’ when it is completed.

Where does our nation stand today with regard to the doom of rebellious nations? It was once bound in solemn covenant to the service of the Lord. For generations our land, with all her faults, has done for the world what no other nation could or would do. Hence the Messenger of the nations has made her rich and strong, expanding her empire until it encircled the globe. But, should we cease to be a blessing, or should we become a curse to the other nations of the earth, we must, sooner or later, resign to another her dominant place, and be relegated to the derelict powers of the past.

Godlessness pervades the whole social and political fabric. By the State and municipality the divine law has been systematically violated. In both, thousands are induced and hundreds compelled to violate the sanctity of the Sabbath by working during its sacred hours. In a large measure ‘gain’ has become the god of the merchant and the manufacturer. We only spend 400,000 dollars annually on the circulation of the Scriptures, while our national devotion to football is represented by the sum of 20,000,000 dollars; to the theatre by 45,000,000; to gambling by 150,000,000 dollars, and to strong drink by the sum of 365,000,000 dollars.

It may well be asked, ‘Can God make us victorious without condoning our iniquities?’ . . . . The best of our manhood are going to death by the thousand. Our shipping is being gradually sunk in the seas. No wonder that some of our naval and military leaders recognize the hand of God in this war, chastising us for our national sins, and are eagerly looking for national repentance as the sure harbinger of peace and victory. . . How long will a rebellious nation expose itself to the wastage of war? The gracious promise is: ‘If my people, which are called by my name, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive them their sin and will heal their land.’ (II Chronicles 7:14).

Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock.

Deuteronomy 8:15

This desolate and forbidding scene is in the desert of Southern Israel. It was territory like this through which the children of Isreal traveled in their forty year journey through the wilderness. Today it can be reached by roads and is the area in which a large number of agricultural experiments are taking place.

Courtesy Israel Government Tourist Office

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