Comment By Torchlight

Immanuel's Land

The land of Israel is a subject of perennial interest to all who love the Holy Scriptures. There has been great interest in the phenomenal developments which have taken place there since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. At the present time a project is on foot which is likely to embitter further the already strained relations between Jews and Arabs. The Israelis are engaged in diverting the Jordan waters by means of a pipeline from Lake Tiberias, through which the River Jordan flows, to the thirsty Negev desert in the south. The first stage of this operation is well under way and is due to be completed by the end of this year. To the Israelis this opens up the prospect of converting the desert into a flourishing land for two million more settlers. For various reasons the Arabs are hostile to the project, and during the meeting of Arab League chiefs at Cairo in January last it was an important item on the agenda. There is apprehension lest any action by the Arabs to block this plan should provoke a conflict.

Deep historical enmities are aroused here. The Israelis, with their great skill and the tenacity of their national character, tempered by centuries of struggle and oppression, forge ahead. But they are still estranged from the God of their fathers and His Only Begotten Son.

We thank God that the day of their national reconciliation is fast approaching. Paul looked down the ages, beyond our day and time, when he wrote : "A hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in ; and so all Israel shall be saved even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungoldiness from Jacob" (Romans 11.25, 26).

End of a Mission

The ex-Premier, Mr. Harold Macmillan, has signified his intention to retire from the House of Commons at the end of the present Parliament. For many years he has held high offices of state and has given outstanding service. Whatever may be thought of the policies he followed, be served in a difficult period of history with great devotion to the causes he considered were for the good of his country. It is not ours to evaluate those services, but to remark on the heavy burden such men carry and our duty to pray for them. It is our hope that Mr. Macmillan and Lady Dorothy will enjoy much peace in retirement and in the evening of their days direct their thoughts heavenward. Distinction in politics does not ensure acceptance in heaven. True wisdom is measured by the acknowledgement of the only Saviour of men, our Lord Jesus Christ, without whom no life however distinguished in the eyes of men, is worthwhile.

While, on our part, we believe that it is the purpose of God for His people that they should stand aside from the polities of this world, we also recognize that "the powers that be are ordained of God" and our duty to such is clearly defined in the New Testament in such passages as Romans 13.1-7 and 1 Peter 2.18-17.

Royal Birth

As we write, the news has been announced that the Queen has given birth to a son, her fourth child, at Buckingham Palace, and that mother and child are doing well. There is great rejoicing in the Royal House and also among her Majesty's subjects everywhere. The prayers of God's people will include thanksgiving to God for her safe delivery and renewed supplication for the temporal and spiritual well-being of the Royal family. As is well known Princess Margaret is expecting her second child at the end of this month and the Duchess of Kent her second at the beginning of May.

These events awaken a train of thought on the profound subject of human existence. The miracle of birth loses nothing of its wonder by manifold repetition, and motherhood remains the glory and crown of womankind. In the whole range of man's achievements there is nothing comparable, in design or execution, with the Creator's wonderful arrangement for the procreation of the human species. It is a masterpiece of divine wisdom. Part of the wonder of the Gospel is that when God sent His Son into the world He did so by means of birth, "when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman" (Galatians 4.4). In due course, in circumstances so well known, the peasant maiden of Nazareth, the chosen vessel of the Incarnation, brought forth her firstborn Son, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger. "Before Him wondering shepherds fall." We, too gaze and worship! For without Bethlehem, Gethsemane and Golgotha never had been.

Preach the word

It will not be out of place here to comment on these words of the apostle Paul to his son Timothy. Preach the word. Preaching is not lecturing. It does not merely engage the interest and inform the mind. It does these things, but it goes much further. True preaching makes its appeal to the heart and the will. It has about it an indefinable quality which the hearer instinctively recognizes. Preach the word Expository preaching is not so common today as it was fifty years ago. Its decline is to be regretted. Some time ago we came across this advice to preachers which we noted as a needed word; "Keep among the great themes of the Gospel. The master-themes of Scripture demand a lifetime of study and will occupy a lifetime of preaching. No message can match the Gospel in the vastness and profundity of the matters with which it deals. God, man, creation, heaven, hell, eternity, sin, law, grace, the love of God, the righteousness of God, the incarnation of the Son of God, atonement, resurrection, etc., etc., these are some of the mighty matters with which it deals. Keep among them. Do not become a trifler among the little suburban texts with secondary themes."

unknown | Apr 1964
Comment By Torchlight