The text presents to our notice two topics, first, The Duty of nations; and secondly, The Punishment by which the neglect of this duty will be avenged. The consideration of these may be subservient to the appreciation of our position and responsibilities as a church of Christ.
The prophecy to which these words belong is both brief and obscure. It stands, so to speak, apart and alone, disjoined equally from that which precedes, and from that which follows it. Instead of indulging in fruitless conjecture and speculation, I shall content myself with shortly stating that which alone can with any certainty be gathered out of it; and having done this, shall proceed at once to consider and use it as a call to examine the signs of this present time.
Jesus Christ is citing Numbers 21, where God punishes Israel with fiery serpents for their sin. And Jehovah will save Israel through a graven serpent lifted up. By citing Numbers 21 and using this language, Jesus is teaching us that Numbers 21 is a figure of sin and salvation. And the graven serpent itself is a type of his person and work.
We turn to Psalm 87 which bears the title “A Psalm for the sons of Korah.” The notation tells us that it was explicitly written for public worship in the Temple. We are not told when it was written, and some scholars have attributed it to David. Others locate it in the days of Hezekiah, and others argue it was written after the return from captivity. So the date is uncertain, but what is clear is that it speaks to all these historical eras as well as to the Church today. Indeed, it takes us beyond all these to our eternal hope. The theme of Psalm 87 and our address is Zion, the City of God and specifically the glorious things God has said of her.
The trifler hopes that the time will come at last when he shall trifle no more; the inconsiderate and groveling never think they have enough of amusement, or of sensuality, but are still looking for more enjoyment in the paths of folly and vice; the man of rational research is still in expectation of discovering something in a higher degree gratifying to his intellectual capacities and habits; and he who lives by faith feels that he is far from having attained, and therefore presses forward to the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It is very desirable then, that this restlessness should always be excited by a right cause, and always urge us forward to a right end.
An event had taken place at Jerusalem, in which every son of Adam on the wide surface of the earth was interested, which was to bring unnumbered multitudes to Heaven, and thus greatly to influence the records of eternity. And Christ, looking steadfastly upon the faces of his chosen followers, and thinking of the multitude of sinners which then thronged this miserable world, and of the countless generations then unborn, who afterwards were to be blessed by his salvation, uttered these most emphatic words: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
These words occur in the course of the apostle’s address in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia. Wherever the Jews were scattered within or without the bounds of the Roman Empire, it was their desire to cleave fast to one another, and so, wherever they were sufficiently numerous to have a public place of worship, they had it, and met there on the Sabbath day for the reading of the law. From among the nations, there were those that joined themselves to them, laying hold of the skirt of him that was a Jew, saying, “We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” These were by the Jews distinguished from the other Gentiles, as those that feared God, and we find that in this synagogue there were present such proselytes from among the Gentiles, along with those that were Jews by descent. To both classes, the apostle addresses himself, and to each class, he declares the good news of salvation.
The Apostle Paul assures us that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. There seems to be a necessary connection between godliness and persecution. There is an enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. In the words of the text, persecution appears to be one of the great tribulations through which they pass. They all suffer persecution in some shape or other.
The providences of God towards his people are most remarkable, and fraught with the most weighty instructions: they are no doubt intended for the benefit of all generations, and preserved in the Scriptures for that purpose. The history of Abraham, the friend of God, and father of the faithful, is most remarkable and interesting. That part of his life and that severe trial of his faith to which the text refers, we have an account from the beginning of this chapter, and in the text, a remembrance is kept of it.
Messages from the Lord are always true and seasonable, whether his words are those of rebuke or those of comfort. In each case too, the authority of the message is divine, and should not therefore be challenged. And the tenor of the messenger’s feelings must be according to the words which he speaks in the name of the Lord to his own generation, which was in a sadly degenerate condition. Its spiritual state, and the kind of message which the Lord gave him to deliver, caused his being distinguished as “the weeping prophet.” In times of backsliding, all who speak in the Lord’s name, and according to His mind, must be like him. The view which they have of the times they live in, and the kind of message which the Lord directs them to deliver combine to make them sad. The woeful condition of things around them casts its dark shadow on their face, and causes the gloomy and austere aspect for which they are condemned by those whom the Lord constrains them to rebuke.
