( Continued from page 194.)
To the sovereign choice of Jacob to the place of rule, as well as to the displacement of the seed of Abraham, according to the flesh, from the place of national prestige, because of their unfaithfulness, the question is raised,"Is there unrighteousness with God?" "Far be the thought," answers the apostle. The principle of sovereign mercy and the approval of righteousness in man wherever found, is what marks God in all His ways.
The Jew is reminded of that act of the Lord's mercy during the initial stage of Israel's history, when they had committed that awful sin against Jehovah-the sin of the golden calf.
"These be thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. . . To-morrow shall be a feast unto Jehovah." Not only had they become idolaters, imitating the worship of the sacred bull of Egypt, but they had dared-and how awful the blasphemy of it-to put that august, that sacred name, the name of Jehovah, upon their idol.
Thus had they forfeited their place as His people, and their right to national existence. But God in His mercy, in response to the intercession of Moses, retreated into His own sovereignty and declared, "I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy "-mercy shown to them on the confession of their guilt. To this gracious action of God they owed their existence as a nation (Exod. 33:19).
But how far reaching is this principle of the "golden calf." Witness in our day this thing in all its hideousness set forth in Christian (?) Science. The holy name of God's anointed put upon the vaporings of demons ! The awful daring of their apostasy from the fear of God is seen in the putting of the name of Him who is the " Holy and the True" upon their blasphemies and lies:-the name of Him Who is the "Wisdom of God" upon the irrationalism of their foolish verbal mutterings. O my God, have mercy on their darkened souls, and translate them from the power of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of Thy love. Blessed God, blessed Saviour, how good is the light of Thy countenance!
To return:Is God a respecter of persons ? Will He refuse mercy to the Gentiles if they repent ? Will He reprobate Esau because of his wickedness, and yet condone wickedness in the Jew ? Nay, rather, " You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore will I punish you for your iniquity" (Amos 3:2). How futile in them to murmur against the mercy of God going out to the Gentiles in view of the record of their own history, that they owed to that mercy their national existence.
" So then it is not of him that willeth"-as Isaac might will the blessing to Esau-" Nor of him that runneth"-as Esau might easily outstrip Jacob- "but of God that showeth mercy." Poor Jacob was a fitting object of mercy, and God showed him mercy.
The promise laid down, around which the apostle's closely packed arguments turn, "Not as though the word of God had taken none effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel," is that which is constantly kept before us; and in keeping with this the apostle begins to argue up to the hardening of Israel on account of their unbelief:"For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth."
May God give to us a deep reverence for "the Scriptures." The majesty of them is seen in that their Giver places them on an equality with Himself:"For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh." God had "raised up" Pharaoh, had raised him up on the throne of Egypt that, wicked and hard of heart as he was, he might be the suited vessel through which He might loudly warn the earth-might make His power known, and spread the terror and the glory of His name, thereby to turn men to repentance. But, so far as the record goes, only one poor "sinful woman, though all in Jericho had equal knowledge of God's dealings with Egypt and with His people, heeded the warning and turned to the true God.
"Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth." -" On whom He will." His will is perfect. On whom did he have mercy ? On poor weak vacillating Jacob-a suppliant before Him. Whom did He harden ? Pharaoh-proud, wicked and defiant. " Who is Jehovah ? I know not Jehovah, neither will I let the people of Israel go" (Exod. 5:2). If the weak and the suppliant receive mercy, and the proud and rebellious are hardened, what about Israel ? Is God a respecter of persons ? Shall God deal so with Pharaoh and otherwise with Israel, who, in view of their further light are surely as guilty as he ?
But if things have been carried through according to His will, "Why doth He yet find fault?" This bold and daring question, which is rooted in "no fear of Sod, "must be settled by the insistence of His sovereign majesty before there can be any further discussion of the question involved. "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?" Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, ' Why had thou made me thus' ? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor ? " Man in the hand of God, as clay in the hand of the potter ! Oh that men would fear Him! But has God "made" men to dishonor? Far be the thought. But "Man being in honor," and without understanding of his "honor"-in forget-fulness of God and in the abuse of power, is " like unto the beasts that perish.
Having insisted on the sovereign rights of God, the apostle now unfolds the facts in the case of Pharaoh. God had "endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction" – "fitted to destruction"-because of centuries of refusal of the light; because of their shameless idolatries and abominable wickedness. God would, in judging Egypt, "show His wrath and make His power known" so that the nations of the earth might know that He is God, and that they might know too the consequences of going on in idolatry and wickedness. Instead of judging Pharaoh and his people at one stroke, He held them under His hand, working wonder after wonder so that His Name, His wrath, and His power might be spread abroad. Egypt's cup was full. The hour of her judgment had come, and God saw to it that no passing spasm of fear which would have left unaffected Pharaoh's eternal destiny, was allowed to thwart His merciful warning to the other nations of the earth ; and to this end He hardened Pharaoh's heart (Exod. 4:21). He smote his heart with judicial hardness in retribution for his pride and wickedness.
But also, " Pharaoh hardened his heart " (Exod. 8:32), he steeled himself against all conviction in spite of the manifest interposition of divine power which again and again appealed to him, and the effect was "Pharaoh's heart was hardened "God did not harden Pharaoh's heart against true repentance toward Himself, but because the will of Pharaoh had set itself against Jehovah and the reception of His testimony, God would use the very wickedness of man to warn his fellows:"As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth " (Ezek. 18:32 and 33:n). Had not He given the Gentiles over to a reprobate mind because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge " ? (Rom. i:28). Will He not, in the coming day, give over " to a strong delusion" those who "received not the love of the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness?" Why then should we evade the full force of these words. "And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thy hand; but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go" (Exod. 4:21). There is no question here of hardening his heart against repentance towards God. Pharaoh was already a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction–self-fitted by the evil of his ways and the defiant pride of his heart. He had reached
"That mysterious bourne
By which man's path is crossed,
Beyond which, God Himself hath sworn,
That he who goes is lost."
The hardening of his heart was " that he should not let the people go."
The acceptance of present light, as a condition to a further revelation, is laid down by the Lord Himself as recorded in Mark 4:11,12:"And He said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables, that seeing they may see and not perceive; and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them."
How solemn is this! He refuses to enlighten all who are not "within," Why? Because had they believed Moses and the prophets, had they received present light, they would have received Him; they would have been "within." "Think not that I will accuse you to the Father:there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words ?" (Jno. 5:45-47). The blessed Lord will not put dishonor upon the Scriptures, as though they were not sufficient in their testimony to Him. For the word of Jehovah is all in all to Him ; not even if it were to turn them to God and bring them the forgiveness of their sins will He dishonor, as though it were insufficient in its testimony, God's revelation of old to them.
Could any ground of judgment be more just to a Jew?-"Moses in whom ye trust" shall be your judge, because "ye believe not his writings." And so, in our own day, the truth of Christianity having' been established, it is unbelief that asks for a sign, a miracle, in further testimony to the truth of it. G. MacKenzie.
(To be continued.)