The true Church; or, the community of the good: 2. A consuming power.
"And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it." There is a fire in the true Church. Notice—
I. THE CHARACTERISTIC WHICH THIS FIRE DISPLAYS. What is the fire? The fire of truth, that burns up error; the fire of right, that burns up wickedness; the fire of love, that burns up selfishness. "I am come," said Christ, "to kindle a fire upon the earth." "Is not my Word like a fire?"
1. The fire in the Church is a strong fire. It has burnt an enormous amount of wickedness in every form, age, and land. It has burnt through the fiercest storms of centuries.
2. It is an extending fire. Its flames are ever advancing, they reach further today than ever. The most splendid systems of men, ethical, theological, and philosophic, however brilliant, have been but sparks compared to this; they have burnt on a little and gone out in darkness.
3. It is a steady fire. It does not flare and flash, but burns its way silently wherever it goes.
4. It is an unquenchable fire. Men have tried to put it out, oceans of infidelity and depravity have been poured upon it, but it burns on.
II. THE MATERIALS WHICH THIS FIRE CONSUMES. "Stubble." What is moral depravity in all its forms—theoretical and practical, religious, social, political? What is it, however old, however decorated with worldly power and grandeur? What is it? "Stubble." It is not a rock, that stands fixed amidst the surges of time; not a tree, that has roots that may grow forever; it is mere stubble, dry, sapless, worthless "stubble," ready for the fire. Error to truth, wrong to right, malice to love, is but stubble to fire.
CONCLUSION. God speed this fire until the whole world of wickedness shall be destroyed, until its heavens be dissolved, its earth burnt up, and its elements melt with fervent heat, and there come out of it "a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness"!—D.T.
The true Church; or, the community of the good: 3. An aggressive power.
"And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead," etc. By the "south" or southern part of Palestine is here meant those who should occupy it; and by the "plain," those who should occupy the low country along the shore of the Mediterranean. "According to the relative positions of those who should take possession of the different parts of the Holy Land was to be the enlargement of their territory by the annexation of the adjoining regions which had formerly been occupied by allies or hostile powers. As there is no subject specified before the country of Edom and the country of Samaria, it seems to be intimated that the regions of Ephraim and Samaria were to be occupied by the Jews and the Israelites jointly, without any regard to tribal distinctions; and the reason why the tribe of Benjamin is mentioned is merely on account of the proximity of Gilead to the territory which it originally possessed" (Elzas). "The promise here," says an old expositor, "no doubt has a spiritual signification, and had its accomplishment in the setting up of the Christian Church, the gospel Israel, in the world; and shall have its accomplishment more and more in the enlargement of it, and the additions made to it, till the mystical body is completed. When ministers and Christians prevail with their neighbours to come to Christ, to yield themselves to the Lord, they possess them. The converts that Abraham had made are said to be the souls that he had gotten (Genesis 12:5). The possession is gained, not vi et armis—by force and arms; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual; it is by the preaching of the gospel, and the power of Divine grace going along with it, that this possession is got and kept." That the true Church is an aggressive power will appear from considering the gospel, which is at once its inspiration, its life, and its instrument. Consider, therefore
I. THE ELEMENTS OF WHICH THE GOSPEL IS COMPOSED. It is made up of two great elements, "grace and truth," that is, eternal reality and Divine benevolence. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." To show the aggressiveness of these two principles, two facts may be stated.
1. That the human soul is made to feel their imperial force. It is true that the soul in its unregenerate state is ruled by directly opposite elements—error and selfishness. But even error has power over it only so long as it regards it as reality, and selfishness influences it under the guise of love. It is the truth when made clear to it that comes with a conquering power; it is love or grace that transports its heart. The human soul is made for these two elements.
2. That the human soul is bound to yearn after these elements as its highest good. Its deep hunger is for truth and for reality, for benevolence, or love. It has no natural hunger for error, no natural hunger for selfishness.
3. That the human soul is everywhere restless without these elements. It is only as the soul gets truth and grace into it that it becomes settled, calm; self-united. These are facts connected with the human soul, and these facts show the aggressiveness of the gospel.
II. THE PROSELYTIZING SPIRIT WHICH THE GOSPEL ENGENDERS. As soon as ever the gospel takes real possession of a soul, that soul becomes intensely solicitous to spread it abroad. It becomes what Jeremiah describes as a "fire in the bones." Peter said, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard," Paul said, "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge," etc. "Necessity is laid upon us" Every genuine recipient, then, of the gospel becomes a missionary, a propagandist, a moral knight, to battle against the mighty hosts of error and selfishness. Each member of the true Church, or godly community, becomes, by a moral necessity, a soldier of the cross.
III. THE TRIUMPHS WHICH THE GOSPEL HAS ALREADY ACHIEVED. Compare the influence of the gospel in the world now to what it was when Christ was on earth. It was then confined to one lonely soul, the soul of Jesus of Nazareth; it is now in the possession of millions. The springlet has become an Amazon; the grain has covered islands and continents; the little stone has grown into a mountain that bids fair to fill the earth.
CONCLUSION. Such thoughts as these tend, we think, to demonstrate the essential aggressiveness of the true Church. It will one day take possession of all heathendom, with its "mount of Esau," the "plains of the Philistines," the "fields of Ephraim," and the "fields of Samaria," and what Canaanites there are as far as Zarephath.—D.T.
Obadiah Intro
Obadiah
Jonah Intro
Obadiah 1 - obadiah-1 - worlddic.com