God Still Rules
George Burnside
We all need the comfort and hope that the Bible alone can give us. The outlook of the world may be dark, but the outlook is certainly bright; bright with the promises of God; bright because just beyond the dark clouds of war and trouble we see the silver lining that betokens the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What a glorious day it will be when Christ Jesus comes as "King of kings and Lord of lords" to end forever this reign of war, trouble and death.
That we live in a dark hour can be denied by no thinking person. Millions are burdened with worries and anxieties, and arc tormented with fears of the future. Why? They have forgotten God. They have grown up in this money-grabbing, pleasure-seeking, anti Bible generation hoping against hope that conditions would improve, that the soft, quiet breezes of prosperity would blow again, and that the ominous clouds on the horizon would gradually vanish away. They have pinned their faith on the plans of men and staked their future on the manipulations of bankers and insurance brokers. Now the threatened storm has burst at last, and they are rushing hither and yon asking for some word of hope, seeking some explanation of all that is happening, longing for some measure of consolation and comfort. They arc hurrying to astrologers, sorcerers and mediums, pleading for some sort of guidance, for some small gleam of light in the darkness. They have lost their anchor, and know not where to find it.
Yet, there is no need for all this panic. Truly the storm is upon us, but God still lives, and His Word is as full of comfort and good cheer as ever it was in happier and more peaceful times. It is a storm-built Book. Almost every line of it was written in some time of trouble in the long ago. All the prophets of the Old Testament composed their books in days of trial, and as for the later writers, one has but to think of John in banishment on Patmos, and Paul imprisoned in Rome, to realize that practically the whole New Testament was written under like conditions. Because of this the Bible is wonderfully fitted for this tragic hour in which we are living now. It has a message for our storm-tossed world to-day, a message that is clear, convincing, forceful, full of comfort and hope and heavenly joy; a message that will give peace where is now naught but fear and sadness.
But is not the Bible stale and out of date? On the contrary, it was never more virile, more up to the minute than it is to-day. That may sound exaggerated, yet it is true, as all who will give it the most hasty thought will immediately agree. It is unique among books in that it does not deteriorate or become obsolete with the passing of time. It is a living Book sent to us from the living God.
In every time of emergency, be it national or personal, it is a good thing to read the Bible again.
Many have read the second chapter of Daniel again and again in years gone by, somewhat mechanically, perhaps, and without any special thrill of discovery; but in the confusion and uproar of this present hour, when all are wondering which way "the fortunes of war" will turn, how that brief sentence leaps out at us: "He removes kings anti sets up kings." Daniel 2:21.
Comforting indeed it is to know that there is a God in heaven who is in control of world affairs, and that the final decision will be His. Someday all will have to admit, like Nebuchadnezzar, that: "He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of Earth: And none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, what are you doing?" Daniel 4:35.
In the darkest hour of the First World War, somebody said to our late King George, "How will it ever end?" The King prayerfully replied, "God will have to work a miracle." God did work a miracle. Truly He is "the God that does wonders." Psalm 77:14.
That is the reason Germany had the war as good as won several times, and yet lost it in the end. It was about four o'clock on the afternoon of April 22, 1915, that the Germany turned loose on the Allies for the first time, their deadly poisonous gas. It was unexpected and the Allied armies, unprepared and unprotected, must have fallen before it. So Germany had planned. All that she would need to do would be to march through and take the English Channel. Why then, didn't she? The particular time selected to turn loose the gas was fixed not by the military but by the meteorological authorities. Dr. Schmaus, the head of the Meteorological Department, advised the German General-in-Charge that the winds were fixed and settled in direction for thirty-six hours to come, and that they would carry the gas far over the Allied lines. So the gas was turned loose and sent on its mission of destruction. Suddenly, however, it turned and whirled and in a moment flung itself back over the German army. The Germans, gasping and strangling, staggered by the thousands to their deaths. Speaking of the event later in his official report, Dr. Schmaus said, "In forty years of meteorological records of the German government the wind never acted so peculiarly before." Doubly strange and striking is the fact that the wind whirled in only a small area. With this gas surprise Germany should have won the war. But she failed, for God intervened. This incident revealed the gas, demonstrated His power, and warned the Allies to prepare.
Several times Germany had the war as good as won and yet finally lost. Why? Because 2,500 years ago Daniel, the prophet of God, outlined the history of empires. You will read the whole story in the second chapter of Daniel. Of all prophecies in the Bible that demonstrate the over-ruling providence of God in the course of history and the destiny of the world, there is none more convincing than this one.
Briefly it was this. The four metals represented four world empires which were to follow one another in history. The fourth, typified by iron that merged into a mixture of iron and clay, was to be divided and to remain divided until the kingdoms of this world give place to the kingdom of Christ. In other words, the divided Roman Empire, as revealed in the nations of Europe, will remain as such till the end of time. Boundaries may change, for the prophecy says nothing of boundaries; some nations may expand and others shrink, but Europe will remain divided till the end of time.
Seen in the light of history illuminated by the glow of the countless battlefields, where millions have struggled to defeat the divine statement, the inspired decree "they shall not cleave one to another" is seen to be the greatest prophetic utterance of all time.
Napoleon was to fight the battle of Waterloo at six o'clock in the morning, and by two o'clock it was planned all would be over. And, it would have been, for Wellington could not win without blucher and Blucher would not arrive until five o'clock. However, Napoleon did not fight the battle of Waterloo at six o'clock, nor seven, in fact he did not begin until 11:30 for all that night God poured down His rain and the ground became so soft Napoleon could not use his artillery, without which he could not win the battle. Blucher came at five o'clock and Napoleon lost. Who sent the rain at Waterloo? Over one hundred times the Bible speaks of God's dealings and doings with the rain-His rain.
Further, the brilliant French writer, Victor Hugo, states that God fought against the French. He says, "Was it possible that Napoleon should gain this battle? We answer, no. Why? Because of Wellington? Because of Blucher? No. Because of God."
God has decreed that no one power will dominate Europe. Against that decree, Napoleon, the Kaiser, Hitter or any other would-be world conqueror is powerless. God has decreed. God rules and works.
Think of His intervention at Dunkirk. He sent the fog--and what a fog! It was that fog that confounded the German bombers and like the cloud over the children of Israel, it protected the ships. The turbulent waters off the Straits of Dover became like a mill pond; the fishermen of Dover with their launches towed their row boats to Dunkirk, returning with them laden with evacuated soldiers.
During the last war it was obvious that Germany was superior in the air, and yet the world knows, that Germany agreed she was beaten in that realm during the last few months of the conflict. The head of the German aerial service explained this by saying: "The Allies did not have superior airships nor fighters, but it was the accursed clouds that defeated us. Nearly every time when we had a company of the enemy's ships in a pocket ready to take them, one of those accursed clouds would be hanging handy by and would envelop them as thick as a blanket, and the devil himself couldn't find them, and they would escape at leisure. It was the accursed clouds that did it." The records endorse his statement. Many of our boys who were in the Air Force report the same thing that "just when they were in a tight corner a cloud, coming from nobody knew where, canopied them as a tent." The scripture speaks in this way: "He makes the clouds His chariot," Psalms 104:3. "He spreads a cloud for a covering." Psalm 105:93.
God has intervened through food supplies. By the spring of 1917 the German scientists had solved the problem of growing food and grain, and perfected it as it had never before been perfected in the history of the world. They announced that Germany would have the potato crop of all time; that they had put in each potato hill that which would kill every enemy of the potato underground and above the ground. And how the potatoes of Germany grew. When those uncounted acres and miles were in blossom, then a blight heretofore unknown, swept over the potato fields of Germany and they were scorched, scabbed, shriveled as though fire-swept, and hungry Germany learned the bitter truth uttered by Napoleon, "An army travels on its stomach and will not travel when the stomach is empty." A mutiny broke loose in the army that forced the abdication of the Kaiser and brought the Armistice. Ludendorff, in his history of the war, says that it was the failure of the potato crop of 1917 that lost Germany the war. That same spring, though some of the Allies started with the coldest and wettest spring for years, nevertheless they raised such a bumper crop of potatoes, wheat and all foodstuffs that they were able to feed themselves and the other Allies. Verily, "God gives seed time and harvest." And also the blight. One of the plagues of Egypt at the time of the Exodus spread death to the growing crops, Germany cried in the very words of Scripture, "The harvest is passed, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."
Truly God still rules in the kingdom of men. Therefore, friend, "Cast not away, therefore, your confidence." Daniel closes his predictions with a brighter picture than the wrecking of empires. "In the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall never he destroyed. It shall stand forever." Daniel 2:44. To this blessed hope I invite you, with a prayer in my heart, that you will all be prepared to welcome Jesus, the coming King.