Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 536
“Whereas the Lord was there.” Ezekiel 35:10.
HEREIN lay the special security of the chosen land. The Edomites saw the whole country of Israel and Judah left desolate. Babylonians and Chaldeans had carried away the people and ravaged the land, therefore the proud inhabitants of the city in the rock said—“These two nations and these two countries shall be mine and we will possess it.” The dukes of Edom counted upon an easy conquest and such, indeed, the Holy Land would have proved, had there not been one great difficulty—quite unknown to them—“The Lord was there.”
Jehovah Himself was still in possession, even though His rebellious people had been carried into captivity. HE would never allow that the Idumea should hold Jehovah’s land in possession, and with despiteful hearts cast it out for a prey. From this one incident we gather that whatever may be the machinations and devices of the enemies of God’s people, though there is nothing else to thwart them, there is this as an effectual barrier—the saints are God’s heritage and the Lord is there, to guard and hold His own. The book of Ezekiel, if you will notice, concludes with these blessed words, as the name of the great city of the latter days. When all conflicts shall be ended, when the scattered shall be gathered, when the tabernacle of the Lord shall be among them. Then this which is Zion’s bulwark today, shall be her everlasting glory. JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH—” The Lord was there.”
As Palestine was preserved from the enmity of Mount Seir by the presence of the great Jehovah, so the Church and each separate member of it is constantly kept by the power of a present God, despite the rage of adversaries. In enlarging upon this cheering Truth of God, I shall invite you to notice the Church as a despised people, constantly triumphant. Next, we will observe the Christian, in his opposed life, perpetually victorious. Thirdly, a desolate soul graciously delivered from Satan. And lastly, a ruined and depraved earth, resplendent with perfect beauty—and all because “The Lord was there.”
I. Consider, then, A DESPISED PEOPLE CONSTANTLY TRIUMPHANT, BECAUSE “THE LORD WAS THERE.” “Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated.” Here election divides two races forever. Since that hour the rejected have always displayed a deadly hatred towards the elected. The seed of the profane Esau, who sold his birthright, have in all generations maintained perpetual strife against the children of the accepted Jacob, upon whom the Lord has looked with the eyes of discriminating Grace.
The Prophet Obadiah denounces a curse upon Edom for their violence to their brother Jacob—“In the day that you stood on the other side. In the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even you were as one of them. But you should not have looked on the day of your brother in the day that he became a stranger. Neither should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Neither should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Neither should you have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape. Neither should you have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.”
An eternal enmity is put between the serpent and the woman—between his seed and her seed. This was evidenced at the beginning of human history, in the case of Cain and Abel—and the story of the great battle of Armageddon, when Gog and Magog shall be utterly overthrown, will stand upon the last page of the world’s story as a sure proof that the old enmity is as hot as ever. The people of God have always been, in every age, a hated and despised people. This may be seen if you will notice a few facts.
1. The adversaries of God’s Israel have often thought in their hearts that they would utterly destroy them. When Israel dwelt in Egypt and the single household began to be a great nation, Pharaoh said unto His people, “Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply.” Hard bondage, in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in the field was tried until their lives were made bitter. But the tyrant’s purpose was not accomplished, for the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.
Then spoke the king unto the midwives—“If it is a son, then you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” O deep-laid scheme of a cruel and wily despot! Now he thinks that the work is surely done. The Nile will be covered with the dead bodies of Israel’s sons and Egypt will know no fear from her bond slaves. Little did he dream that the mid-wives would violate his orders and far less that from the river which he worshipped would spring the man who would make the fields of Zoan mourn and avenge upon the first-born of Egypt the slaughter of Israel’s sons.