God Rewards the Piety of His People
What a glorious thing will this be—to have God express the high praise of his saints! When Alexander saw the sepulcher of Achilles, he cried out "O happy Achilles, who had Homer to set forth your praise!" What an honor will it be to have the names and worthy deeds of the saints mentioned, and God himself to be the herald to proclaim their praises! (2 Cor. 4:5).
God Rewards the Piety of His People The third good effect of the saints piety—was that God
REWARDED it. "And they shall be mine, says the Lord Almighty, in that day when I make up my jewels!" (Mal. 3:17). The reward is threefold.
1. God's owning them: "They shall he mine, says the Lord Almighty."
2. God's honoring them: "In that day when I make up my jewels."
3. God's sparing them: "I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him."
Note first, the Person speaking, "the Lord Almighty". This is too great a word to he passed by in silence. God is often in Scripture styled, "the Lord Almighty" (Psalm 46:11; Isaiah 1:24); that is, he is the Supreme General, and Commander of all armies and forces, and gives victory to whom he will.
Question: Why is this name, "the Lord Almighty", given to God?
Answer: Not because God needs any others to protect himself, or suppress his enemies. Earthly princes have armies to defend them from danger—but God needs none to help him: he can fight without an army. God puts strength into all armies. Other captains may give their soldiers armor; they cannot give them strength; but God does:
"You have girded me with strength for the battle" (Psalm 18:39).
Why then is God said to have armies—if he needs them not?
Firstly, it is to set forth his sovereign power and grandeur; all armies and regiments are under his command.
Secondly, it is to show us that though God can effect all things by himself; yet in his wisdom he often uses the agency of the creature to bring to pass his will and purpose.
Question: What are these hosts or armies, of which God is the sovereign Lord?
Answer 1: God has an army in heaven—angels and archangels: "I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the armies of heaven around him" (1 Kings 22:19). By the armies of heaven, is meant the angels; they, being spirits, are a powerful army: "You his angels, which excel in strength" (Psalm 103:20). We read of one angel who destroyed in one night "a hundred and eighty-five thousand men" (2
Kings 19:35). If one angel destroyed such a vast army, what can a whole legion of angels do? A legion consisted of six thousand, six hundred and sixty six. How many of these legions go to make up the heavenly host! (Dan. 7:10).
The stars are God's army too (Deut. 4:19). These were set in battalions and fought against God's enemies: "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera" (Judg. 5:20). That is, the stars charged
like an army, raising storms and tempests by their influences, and so destroying the whole army of Sisera.
Answer 2: God has armies upon earth, both rational and irrational.
The rational are armies of men. These are under God's command and conduct. They do not stir without his warrant. The Lord has the managing of all military affairs. Not a stroke is struck—but God orders it! Not a bullet flies—but God directs it! As for the irrational armies, God can raise an army of flies, as he did against King
Pharaoh (Exod. 8:24); an army of worms, as he did against King Herod (Acts 12:23). Oh, what a Lord is here—who has so many armies under his authority!
First use of the doctrine: EXHORTATION.
1. Let us dread this Lord Almighty! We fear men who are in power, and is not that God to be adored and feared, who does all thing at his good pleasure? "All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him—
What have you done?" (Dan. 4:35).
His power is as large as his will. "What his soul desires—that he does" (Job 23:13). God is a sovereign power over all. "He pours contempt upon princes" (Job 12:21). He threw the proud angels to hell. God can with a word, unpin the wheels and break the axle of the creation. God's power is a glorious power (Col. 1:11). And in this it appears glorious—it is never consumed or exhausted. Men, while they exercise their strength, weaken it. "Have you never heard or understood? Don't you know that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary." (Isaiah
40:28). "I will use up My arrows against them." (Deut. 32:23)
Though God "uses up his arrows" upon his enemies—yet he never exhausts his strength.
Oh, then tremble before this Lord Almighty! Remember, O hardhearted sinner, how many ways God can be revenged on you! He can raise an army of diseases against you in your body. He can arm every creature against you, the dog, the boar, the elephant. He can arm conscience against you, as he did against Spira—making him a terror to himself. Oh, dread this Lord Almighty.
2. If God is the Lord Almighty—let us take heed of hardening our hearts against God. It was the saying of Pompey that with one stamp of his foot—he could raise all Italy up in arms.
God can with a word—raise all the militia of heaven and earth against us, and shall we dare affront him! "Who has hardened himself against him, and has prospered?" (Job 9:4). Such as live in the open breach of God's commandments, harden their hearts against God; they raise a war against heaven! "He has stretched out his hand against God and has arrogantly opposed the Almighty!"
(Job 15:25). Like warriors who muster up all the forces they can, to fight with their antagonists, so the sinner hardens and strengthens himself against Jehovah: "He runs upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers" (verse 26). Bucklers anciently had one great boss in the middle with a sharp spike in it to wound the adversary. The grossly wicked sinner encounters the God of heaven— and runs upon the thick bosses of his fury, which will wound mortally. Who ever hardened himself against God—and prospered!
Will men go to measure arms with God! Do you have an arm like God's?" (Job 40:9).
God is almighty—and therefore can hurt his enemies; and he is invisible—therefore they cannot hurt him. Who can fight with a
spirit? God will be too hard for his enemies in the long run: "God will smash the heads of his enemies, crushing the skulls of those who love their guilty ways!" (Psalm 68:21).
How easily can God chastise rebels! "The Lord looked down on the Egyptian forces from the pillar of fire and cloud, and threw them into confusion" (Exod. 14:24). It need cost God no more to destroy his proudest adversaries than a look—a cast of the eye! It is better to be prostrate at God's feet, and to meet him with tears in our eyes— rather than weapons in our hands! We overcome God, not by resistance—but by repentance!
3. If God is the Lord Almighty—let us be so wise as to engage him on our side. "The Lord Almighty is with us!" (Psalm
46:11). Great is the privilege of having the Lord Almighty for us!
1. If the Lord Almighty is on our side, he can discover the subtle plots of enemies. Thus he detected the counsel of Ahithophel (2 Sam.
17:14). And did not the Lord discover the Popish conspirators of late, when they would have subverted true religion and, like Italian butchers, turned England into an Aceldama—a field of blood?
2. If the Lord Almighty is on our side, he can bridle his enemies and lay such a restraint upon their spirits that they shall not do the harm they intend. "It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt (said Laban to Jacob) but the God of your father spoke unto me saying, Take heed that you speak not to Jacob either good or bad" (Gen. 31:29). Laban had power to do hurt—but no heart. When Balak called upon Balaam to curse Israel, God so dispirited Balaam that he could not discharge his thunderbolt: "How shall I curse, those whom God has not cursed?" (Num. 23:8). He had a good mind to curse—but God held him back.
3. If the Lord Almighty is for us—he can help us, though means fail, and things seem to he given up for lost. When
Gideon's army was small, and rendered despicable, then God crowned them with victory (Judges 7:2, 22). When the arm of flesh shrinks, then is the time for the arm of omnipotence to be put forth:
"The Lord will indeed vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone" (Deut. 32:36).
The less seen of man—the more of God.
4. If the Lord Almighty is on our side—he can save us in that very way, in which we think he will destroy us. Would not all have thought that the great fish's belly would have been Jonah's grave?
But God made a fish to be a ship, in which he sailed safely to shore.
Paul got to land by the breaking of the ship (Acts 27:44). God can make the adverse party do his work; he can cause divisions among the enemies, and turn their own weapons against themselves: "I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians" (Isaiah 19:22; Judges 7:22).
5. If the Lord Almighty is on our side—he can make the church's affliction—a means of her augmentation: "The more they afflicted them—the more they multiplied" (Exod. 1:12). The church of God is like that plant, which grows by cutting. Persecution propagates the church: the scattering of the apostles up and down was like scattering seed—it tended much to the spreading of the gospel (Acts 8:1, 4).
6. If the Lord Almighty is on our side—he can alter the scene and turn the balance of affairs whenever he pleases.
"He changes the times and the seasons" (Dan. 2:21). God can remove mountains which lie in the way, or leap over them. His power is without limit; he can bring harmony out of discord. He who brought
Isaac out of a dead womb, and the Messiah out of a virgin's womb—