The Sovereignty of God

 

Dr. W. A. Criswell

 

Daniel 1:8-16

 

09-29-96

 

 

 

That’s about the best introduction I ever had in my life.  The best one, though, really, was when the fellow who was to present me didn’t appear and I introduced myself.

Well, it is an incomparable privilege to be here with you. I’ve been a preacher for 70 years and I have never been with a group that have been so reverently listening, as have you.  It inspires my heart.

Now, I want to take just a moment and look at our previous lesson on the Babylonian Captivity.  There is no way that we could ever enter the tragic sorrow of the kingdom of Judah when it was destroyed and taken into captivity.  Their homes were destroyed.  Their capital city of Jerusalem was destroyed.  The walls of the city were destroyed.  The Temple was destroyed.  The sacred places were annihilated.  The priests were slain.  And the people were carried away into Babylonia.

You have one of the most poignant of all the prescriptive reactions to the destruction of that kingdom in the one hundred thirty-seventh Psalm:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

For they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

One can hardly express the tragic sorrow of those people as they went into Captivity.

            But, in the last lesson, we pointed out three incomparable blessings that came out of that slaughter and that slavery.  The first one was: the people of Judah were never again idolatrous.

            One of the most amazing things in the Bible to me is the addiction and the openness of the people of God to idolatry.  Even when Moses was up there on the top of the mountain, receiving the Ten Commandments, his brother Aaron was down there, leading the people in the worship of the golden calf.

            You remember, of course, the name of that valley just to the right of Jerusalem and Mount Moriah.  They renamed it Gehenna.  Time and again, that word Gehenna is used in the New Testament for hell—Gehenna: another name for hell.

The reason for that is right down there at the bottom was a large graven image of Moloch, who held out his arms like that.  And underneath they built a roaring fire.   And they brought their children—this was the Jewish people—and they brought their little children and placed them in the arms of Moloch.  And they were burned to death.

It’s hard to realize it.  That’s why that valley is called Gehenna, another name for hell.

The second great, marvelous blessing that came out of that Captivity was the birth of the synagogue, which is another name for us of the church.  Heretofore, Israel had been—Judah had been worshiping the Lord in the Temple, and all of the beautiful things that pertain to that Temple.  But, now it was gone forever.  So, the people assembled to worship and have their services in what they called the synagogue.

And in that synagogue you will never find a graven image, just as it is for us in our dear church.  It would be unthinkable for us to have an idol in our sanctuary.  So it was that the second great blessing to come out of the Captivity was the birth of the synagogue.  When you go into the synagogue, there, up front, will be a scroll of God’s Holy Word, just as in our sanctuary you will have the Word of God up front: the Bible.

The third great blessing that came out of Captivity was the creation of the canon—the birth of the Holy Scriptures.  That came to pass in that Captivity.  When you read that marvelous eighth chapter of Nehemiah, you have the story of Ezra, who gathered all the people together.  And the Holy Scriptures were made up of books written in Hebrew.  And a book like 1 Maccabees, as marvelous as its history is, was not in the canon because it was written in Greek.

The books that were included in the canon had to be written in Hebrew.

Now, the people learned to speak Aramaic in the Captivity.  They no longer spoke Hebrew.  So, in the eighth chapter of the Book of Nehemiah, you have the priest, Ezra, speaking to the people and reading to them out of the Holy Scriptures.  But, they were written in Hebrew.  And the people now spoke Aramaic.  So, Ezra the priest taught the people what the book said in Hebrew.

You don’t realize it.  I don’t think anybody does.  But, Jesus spoke Aramaic.  The people spoke Aramaic.  And Hebrew was a dead and forgotten language. 

And in one of the most marvelous prophecies that I could ever think for, Jeremiah said that Hebrew will be spoken again under the grace and goodness of God.  And do you realize that came to pass only in 1948, when the kingdom of Israel was recreated in Palestine?  That means that, for 2,600 years, that language was forgotten—never spoken.  But, Jeremiah said it would be spoken again.  And that came to pass in our day.

Could I make just one other observation about the Captivity?  Not only were those three marvelous results born out of that servitude, but that little group that came back—that little group that followed Ezra and Nehemiah and all of those devoted servants of Christ, but that little group was the group that gave birth to the remnant: to Joseph, to Mary and, finally, to Jesus.

How is it that the sorrows of our lives become our greatest blessings?  In an unbelievable reconstruction of our human days, it is out of our tears and our hurts and your disappointments and the sorrows and death you experience that come our greatest blessings.

So, we come now to the lesson for today.  We’re going to speak of the Lord God who rules the nations: the sovereignty of God.  Someone has said that a great institution or business is but a shadow of the family that creates it.  In the same way, it might be said that the Babylonian kingdom, which lasted from 625 B.C. to 605 B.C., was the shadow of a single gifted family.

The family presented in the Old Testament—that family made a most meteoric flash across the history of the human race.  It was the family of Nabopolassar and his son, Nebuchadnezzar. 

Strangely enough, this family of four generations left behind a more material evidence of their day than any other family in the Bible—and I’d like to add: than any other family in human history.  And of the monarch, Nebuchadnezzar, more is said of him in the Bible than any other ruler. 

As we speak of him, we, inevitably, speak of the sovereign God, who rules over the nations of the world.  So, we just look at that almightiness and His glorious relationship with us.  In Genesis 15:13, God makes known to Abraham the 400-year captivity of Israel in Egypt.  And you look at that: God’s prophecy to Abraham that his people would be captive in Egypt for 400 years was spoken 500 years before it came to pass.

How old is the United States?  I’d say about 200 years old.  It’s hard to think of the marvel of God in relationship to us.

Now, if you have a Bible, you turn to Isaiah 39—Isaiah 39.  And we’re going to read verses 5-7—Isaiah 39:5-7:

            Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts:

Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.

And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shall beget, they shall be taken away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

            Now, Babylon, at that time, was just a little town down there on the Euphrates River.  This is a good hundred and some odd years before it came to pass.

            And may I point out one other little thing to you: the sons of the king are going to be eunuchs.  And when we get to looking at Daniel: he was a eunuch.  The three Hebrew children with him were eunuchs in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar.

            Dear me!  Dear me!  How God speaks of the things that are yet to come!

            Now, one of the things that the New Testament repeats: in Romans 11:25,

Paul writes: “Blindness of Israel will continue until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.”

            Now, how long is that Scripture true?  It has already been true for 2,000 years.  This is the dispensation of the church that is made up of Gentiles and a few—few—believing Jews.  And we live in that prophecy.  This is called “the fullness of the Gentiles”—this era in which God has cast our lives.  And it has already lasted 2,000 years.

Now, God raises up men to execute His judgments.  For example, in Jeremiah 25:9, 23:6 and 43:10, Nebuchadnezzar is called by the Lord “my servant.”  That is amazing to me.  That’s the same word in Hebrew that is applied to David in Psalm 78:70 and 2 Samuel 7:8.  That’s also the word—“my servant”—that God applies to Cyrus, the leader of that Persian conquest.  Each ruler of the great empires was, in ways he did not realize, working out the purposes of God.  And when God wills it, no man can countermand or interdict it.

I want you to look at this for a minute.  In Jeremiah 27:2-11, it says that Jeremiah sent yokes to the nations all around Israel.  And that was the prophet’s signification that the nations—all of the nations around there—would be servants of Nebuchanezzar.

All right.  Let’s take one little incident that accrues with that.  In Jeremiah 28:16-17, Hananiah, who proposes to elect and appoint himself a prophet—Hananiah breaks a yoke off Jeremiah that Jeremiah is also wearing, signifying that Judah is also going into captivity.  Not only did he send those yokes to all the nations around Judah to show that they were going into captivity, but he also put a yoke around his neck, signifying that Judah was going into Babylonian captivity.

Well, Hananiah, the self-appointed prophet, took the yoke and broke it off of Jeremiah and said: “We’re not going into captivity.”

And the Lord looked at Hananiah and said: “You certainly are going into captivity.  And one of the signs of it will be not only that yoke you broke off my neck, but, in a matter of weeks, you will die.”

It’s just amazing to me: the workings of God through His chosen servants!

Now, I have another instance of that same kind of a thing.  When I turn to Isaiah 20:2, Isaiah walked naked and barefooted three solid years through Jerusalem, as a sign that the nations were coming under the destructive power of Assyria and a sign of the helplessness of the people around that were under that terrible prophecy of the almighty might of Assyria.

Now, I can’t help but remark on what an unusual “come to pass” that was.  Isaiah the prophet walked naked and barefoot through the capital city of Jerusalem as a sign that the whole world around there was going into captivity to Assyria.

Well, I have one more instance of that kind of thing in Acts 21:11.  Agabus, who is a prophet, binds the Apostle Paul with his girdle, signifying that he is going, as a bound prisoner, to Rome.

Now, we’re going to look at the men that God used to execute His judgments and their personal characteristics.  No matter what kind of a critter the king was, God used him.  And his personal characteristics did not enter at all into God’s choice to use him. 

Well, let’s take, first of all, Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan idolater.  In Daniel 1:1-2 and 3:1, he is a servant of the Lord.  And look at what kind of a guy—what kind of a ruler—he was.  He was revengeful and imperious.  For example, when the wise men, in chapter 2 of Daniel, could not tell him what he had dreamed, they were to be slain—killed.

All right.  Turn over one chapter to the third chapter and the three Hebrew children, who refused to bow are thrown into the fiery furnace.  Now, that is Nebuchadnezzar, the man God chose to be His servant.

Now, look again, in Daniel 4:30.  Nebuchadnezzar was vain and proud.  As he walked through the city, he said, “This is my great Babylon.”

But, the purposes of God—in Habakkuk 1:12, God says of Nebudchadnezzar and Babylon, “They are ordained for judgment and established for correction.”

It just amazes me as I read all this.  No matter what the personal characteristics of the ruler, or the people or the nation, God used them.

Now, look again: the ruthless, merciless rulers of Assyria, such as Sargon and Sennacherib.  But, Isaiah, in 10:3, calls them “the rod of mine anger and the staff of mine indignation.”  God used them for His purposes.

May I speak a word of the imponderables of war and the judgments of God?  Let’s take one recently that you know about.  Can you believe—can you—that the great and mighty nation of America—no nation in the earth ever even began to assume the glorious proportions of our country. 

Now, there’s a little country over there—I’ve been over there—there’s a little country over there named Vietnam—a little bitty country—and who won that war?  America came back in embarrassment—scorned , belittled. 

Well, where could such a thing come from?  You look at America.  I don’t care what you think.  America is the most corrupt nation that has ever existed: murder, crime, immorality—everything that is bad.  And it’s getting worse.

What the future of America is is known but to God.  He’s the God of judgment.

That why, when I’m out there at that College of ours—this coming Tuesday, I’ll be preaching at their chapel hour—I tell those young folks honestly, truthfully and as forcefully as I can: “You will never come to any day in this earth like the day in which God has called you to be a preacher.”

It is unthinkable and unbelievable—a day ago, a day ago—oh, a day ago, there was a TV minister who had a group together to talk to them about the eclipse of the moon.

And one of them said, “Oh, my.  This is an interesting thing.”

Another one said: “Gracious, gracious.  The whole world can look at this, can’t they?”

And they had comments and comments.  And they went to a little fellow, and said: “What do you think about that?”

And he said, “When I look at it, I see the glory of God.”  And immediately, the TV minister took the microphone away and wouldn’t let him make one other comment, because he was speaking of the glory of God.

Well, you don’t speak of the glory of God in America.  What you speak is all of this stuff you see on television and the movie theaters and these unthinkable books that are published.

Don’t you persuade yourself otherwise!  There is a God of judgment, looking down on America.

Do you remember that Rudyard Kipling?  He went to that great celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of Queen Victoria. 

There has never been a pageantry comparable to that in the history of the world.  Oh, dear.  The whole world was there—with the armies and navies and everything possible to exalt Queen Victoria.

And Rudyard Kipling was there.  And do you remember the poem that he wrote: “God of our Fathers, Known of Old?”

 

God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine ~
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
Far-called our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law ~
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And, guarding, calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!

 

[Rudyard Kipling, “Recessional”]

 

            And England, the leader of the greatest empire the world has ever known—and England has the strength of a puppy.  It is so divided: Scotland one way, Wales another way, England another way, the southern part of Ireland one way, the northern part another way.  England couldn’t mount a force of any stature or power anywhere in the earth.

Well, what about America?  That’s why we need a great turning to God.  We need a mighty revival.  We need to supplicate ourselves and ask fort he remembrance of the Lord.

So, I come to this avowal: God presided over the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar.  God did that.  It was foretold by Jeremiah in chapter 23 and chapter 17 and chapter 27.  It was foretold by Ezekiel in chapter 12.

Do you remember, in history, the old Babylon: in the eighteenth century B.C., when the famous king and lawyer, Hammurabi, was the leader of the nation?  Do you remember that?

Well, this new Babylon is over 1,000 years later.  And it rose to like world power under another Semitic king, named Nebuchadnezzar.  Hammurabi—a thousand years before; Nebuchadnezzar—a thousand years later.

And between the two—the “old” and the “new” Babylonian empires—the Assyrian Empire, with its world-famous capital of Nineveh on the Tigris River, ruled the world.  Their last great king was named Ashurbanipal.  He died in 625 B.C.  He had appointed Nabopolassar as the viceroy to rule over Babylon.

And the heir to the throne of Assyria when Ashurbanipal died was weak and incapable.  And Nabopolassar, and his gifted son, Nebuchadnezzar, rebelled against Assyria and went to war against Nineveh.

Now, you remember that was when Pharoah Neco was pharaoh of Egypt.  He came up to help Assyria against Babylon.

But, God had said, “Babylon is going to rule the world.”  But, Pharoah Neco took his army to help against Babylon.

And what did good King Josiah do?  Now, you remember that God had said that Babylon was going to rule this world.

I just can’t believe this.  When Pharoah Neco took his army up there to help Assyria against Babylon, Josiah took his little army and placed it in the pass at Megiddo, to destroy the effort of Neco to help Assyria against Babylon.

And you already know what happened.  Not only was that little army of Judah destroyed, but Josiah, that last great marvelous king of Judah, was slain.

I tell you, when God says something, it doesn’t matter who you are—even this great king, Josiah—when God says something—when God reveals His purpose and will, it’s best for us to acquiesce.  This is God’s Word, God’s purpose and God’s will.

So, the armies of Assyria and Egypt met in battle at Carchemish, one of the great ancient cities of the world.  They met there—the army of Neco and the army of Assyria against Babylon.  And the Assyrian and the Egyptian armies were defeated. 

And that battle turned the history of the world.  Babylon became triumphant.

So, may I point out: in that vast victory of Babylon over Assyria and Egypt at Carchemish, five things resulted?  Five things came out of that one battle:

#1: Assyria passed away forever.

One of the beatenest things I ever read in history was this: Alexander the Great—on his way to the east, Alexander the Great, the mighty military leader—never defeated—Alexander the Great passed his army over Nineveh and had no idea what a great city was under his feet.

How conclusive are some of God’s judgments?  And that’s one of them.

All right.  Another thing: the back of Egypt was broken forever.  They never rose again.  Egypt never rose again as a world power.  And to this day, it is one of those little nations down there in the north of Africa.

#3: the magnificent city of Carchemish, with its long and brilliant history, was utterly destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.  And now, even now, it is buried under desert sand—to this very day.

All right.  #4: one of the results of the triumph of Babylon at Carchemish—Judah became a vassal of Babylon—and this according to that prophecy that we read in Isaiah 39.  Judah has never been able to rise again.

Now, #5: while Nebuchanezzar was pursuing the army of Pharoah Neco, and the army of Josiah, in their panic-stricken flight from Carchemish, back through Palestine and Judah, to Egypt, word was brought to Nebuchadnezzar that his father, Nabopolassar, had died.  And this was in 605 B.C.  So, Nebuchadnezzar turned around and returned to Babylon, to be crowned king of the Babylonian Empire.

But, he returns not alone.  He carries back with him, in 605 B.C., a few chosen members of the royal family of Judah to aid, and to add to the brilliance of, his imperial court.  And of those chosen were Daniel, that he named Belteshazzar; Hananiah, that he named Shadrach; Mishael, whom he named Meshach; and Azariah, that he named Abednego.

And that’s where we’re going to start next lesson: how those four young men out of Judah, who were taken captive—how they fared in the heathen capital of Babylon.

 

 

 

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