GOD’S WORD TO THE ANCIENT NATIONS

In the twenty-seventh chanter of Jeremiah there is an illustration of this truth, with respect to the nations of old. There Jeremiah, the prophet of God, was commanded to make some wooden yokes and to put them upon his neck; and, in the time of King Zedekiah, when ambassadors came up to the king of Jerusalem from Moab and Ammon, and Tyre, Sidon, and Arabia, Jeremiah was to take these yokes, from his neck and hand them to the ambassadors, and tell them to carry to their kings the yokes, with this message: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus shall ye say unto your masters: I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto Me. And now have I given all those lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come; and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, that nation will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish. But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.” Jeremiah 27:4-11.MON 8.1

There is a definite message which was sent by God to the kings and peoples of those very small kingdoms.MON 9.1

The empire of Assyria, to which of Jonah was sent, included Phenicia, Syria, all Mesopotamia, Armenia, and all the north country to the Caspian Sea. God sent Jonah to call them to repentance, because of the iniquity that had come in through the luxury which was the fruit of the wealth, extent, and pride of empire which they had acquired. All of the wealth was brought to Nineveh, the capital. Wealth induced luxury; and luxury brought vice of every sort, to such an extent that it carried the ruin of the nation in it. For this reason God sent Jonah to that people to warn them; they received the warning of God; they repented, and were not destroyed.MON 9.2

Then followed the kingdom of Babylon, which covered the same space of territory as had that, of Assyria, and considerable more. The king of Babylon at that time was Nebuchadnezzar. God sent to him a message by the prophet Daniel.MON 9.3

Next came Medo-Persia, which covered the same territory as had Babylon, and considerable more. To Cyrus, king of Medo-Persia, Daniel read from the book of Isaiah the message of God to that king by name. Isaiah 44:28; 45:1-15. Cyrus received the message, acknowledged God, and issued a decree setting at liberty all Israel, that they might return to Palestine and rebuild the city of Jerusalem, and the temple of God there. Ezra 1:1-4.MON 9.4

Next came Alexander the Great, who spread the empire of the Greeks from the Adriatic Sea to the borders of India, and from the River Danube and the Black Sea to Ethiopia. He offered sacrifices at the temple of God in Jerusalem, and heard read to him from the book of Daniel the message of God concerning himself.MON 10.1

Thus in those times the Lord sent messages by word and in writing to the rulers of nations. That being so, and God being no respecter of persons nor of nations, can it be that there is no message in the Word of God for the mighty nations of to-day, of which only a few own and control the whole world? And what were those nations that in ancient tines controlled the world, in comparison with these five mighty powers of to-day? Then, as certainly as the Lord is no respecter of persons, nor of nations, He has put in His Word instruction, admonition, and warning for the nations, and concerning the nations, of the present time, and for the people that compose these nations that are governing the world to-day. Let us look, then, not simply for something that the Word of God may say as though we were searching in uncertainty; but let us look at what that Word says; for on this great subject that Word does certainly speak.MON 10.2