A New Year's gift to a king.
There is a common proverb, that "he who gives quickly gives double." But this is not always true. A deferred gift is sometimes the best gift. God may to us seem to forget, but it is only seeming. The memory never fails, nor yet his good will.
I. ROUGH WAR IS SOMETIMES SERVICE DONE FOR GOD. "They wrought for me, saith the Lord God." Men of delicate sensibility cannot understand how God can allow the rough business of war to serve his cause. Nevertheless, he does. If a warrior-king is actuated by a desire to vindicate righteousness or to redress a wrong, he is fighting in the cause of Jehovah. Probably his motives and ambitions may be of a mixed and conglomerate character. Love of self may be commingled with love of justice; yet so far as a righteous purpose appears, he may expect the benediction of God. If our Lord Jehovah did not bless human endeavor until it was free from every admixture of selfishness, he would never bless at all. Abundant generosity marks all his action. By so doing he encourages youngest efforts in the right direction.
II. IN WAR, GOD IS THE SUPREME ARBITER. Possibly Nebuchadnezzar did not know Jehovah—did not know that he was rendering a service to the God of heaven. This happens sometimes. Isaiah was commissioned by God to say to Cyrus, "I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." Ignorance, if not preventible, is excusable. Ignorance that is willful is a crime. God does not always take sides in war. Very often both sides are actuated simply by malice or some equally base passion. Temporary success in war cannot, therefore, be accepted as the approval of Jehovah. The devil does, now and again, obtain a transient triumph—at least a seeming triumph. But, on the whole, God acts as Arbiter, and often quickly reverses the effect of a visible conquest. In every battle he sees much to condemn, sometimes much to approve.
III. GOD IS THE UNDISPUTED DISPOSER OF EMPIRES. Without question, he gave the empires of Canaan to the seed of Abraham. He gave the territory of North America to the British. He gave Egypt for a time to the kings of Persia. "He setteth up one, and putteth down another." As he claims supreme control over individual persons, so he does also over empires, large and small. "The earth is the Lord's." He alone may rule with a high hand, and give to men no account of his doings.
IV. HIS REWARDS, THOUGH SEEMINGLY DELAYED, ARE TIMELY AND GENEROUS. In this passage God does not stint his praise to Nebuchadnezzar. He generously styles it "a great service." He has noted carefully all the hard toil which his army endured. Not an item of hardship or fidelity is overlooked. Every tear of the widow, every sorrow of the orphan, was lodged in his memory. To have rewarded the king immediately might have been to do him injury. It might have unduly elated him. It might have fed his pride. It might have fostered an ambition for further conquests. Ambition of this sort is a terrible passion in man, and needs to be held in with a strong curb. But when danger of abusing the reward is past, God will give it, and give it in an ample measure. To possess Egypt was wealth, honor, fame. It was to gain a notable place in the history of the world. Be quite sure that when God rewards a man it will be with generosity more than royal—generosity not to be measured. Having done good service, we can afford to wait.—D.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON