02.05. Chapter 05. Prayer in National Affairs
Prayer in National Affairs
(4) If the circumstances under which Elijah stayed the rain be considered, we are at once brought to the matter of the place and ‘power of prayer in affairs national. The plainest intimation is given of the power which the righteous may exercise in public matters, and that prayer is their appointed means of intervention. The king and people of Israel had forsaken God and turned to idolatry. In this connection let it be remembered that covetousness is idolatry,1 and that so a nation may as certainly turn to idolatry by the worship of " empire" as its ideal, or by lust of territory or of wealth, as by the worship of demon gods or of images representing these. And all idolatry denies God His rights, and degrades men, and so falls under the severest judgment of the Almighty, Who only should be worshipped and served, and in honoring Whom men secure their own true good. At such a time of spiritual apostasy and grave moral declension Elijah intervened to secure God’s blessing by securing the repentance of the people. And the great prophet’s resource was prayer. Remonstrance and arguments had failed; the queen had had the prophets murdered. Elijah prayed, and prayed not for national victory, hut for national chastisement; and this though himself and all the godly in Israel must suffer with the rest of the people. And only when judgment had done its needed spiritual work did he pray for temporal blessing. Sometimes stern measures are the only merciful measures. In like manner, it was after seventy years of desolation for Jerusalem had passed over Israel for national sin that Daniel prayed for mercies and restoration,2 and his supplications prevailed. For almost all those seventy years he had been at or near the head of affairs, sometimes, indeed, prime minister of the world-empires; but not so had he been able to secure the prosperity of his people and city. But when God’s time came, prayer prevailed unto this end. The active agent for the rebuilding o(the city proved to be Nehemiah; and it was after four months3 of humiliation and fasting and prayer that his opportunity came to gain the needed permission of the king of Persia. And even whilst standing before the monarch Nehemiah’s habit of prayer persisted, for at that all-critical moment, while the king sat waiting for his immediate reply, he says, So I prayed to the God of heaven; and I said’ unto the king."4
Again, Sennacherib’s all but almighty armies had overrun Palestine, and the capital now seemed doomed. But Hezekiah, the king, went up into the house of the Lord and prayed, and officially urged other pious men to cry ceaselessly unto the Lord. To this public kingly appeal God’s response was prompt: "Whereas thou hast prayed to Me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard thee."5 And "The Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their heart hut once heaved, and for ever grew still !"
Thou hast prayed . . . I heard "—this is the all-important factor, and the uniform and dependable principle of God’s dealings. Had Hezekiah stopped at the military measures needed for the defense of the city, saying, "I have done all that is in my power; now I must leave the
God’s purpose for and methods with that section of His people named in the New Testament the church of God, are quite special, though ever harmonious with His holiness and with equity; but His overruling of nations is as it ever has been, and is revealed mainly in the Old Testament, in such instances as have been cited. We notice one other case: that of the threatened overthrow of the great city of Nineveh.
There arrives a time when heaven’s justice can no longer tolerate iniquity, and sentence goes forth for the removal of the godless from the earth. This sentence is pronounced in that court of angels which overrules the doings of men.1 And, as Ahab’s case shows, no human effort can affect those decisions or retard the due execution of a decree there issued. But the prayer of the repentant to God can rightly influence those Courts, by making it right for the Supreme Judge to suspend or nullify the sentence of the lower Court 2 For not punishment, but righteousness, is His delight; and when the lawless turns from his lawlessness, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.3 This is true for the individual,4 and also for a nation; and therefore -. was Nineveh spared upon the king, his princes and people, humbling themselves before, and crying mightily unto, God.5 Not in armies and fleets lies a nation’s final strength: "a horse is a vain thing for safety; neither shall he deliver any by his great power."6 Angels can still destroy armies, and storms will yet sink fleets.7 Much is risked when statesmen and prelates deliberately urge a national violation of the law of the Sabbath, as during the late wars. Nor can it be a way to the favour of the God and Father of Jesus Christ the Lord that an empire should take under its favour the one religion, Mohammedanism, that formally and fiercely denies to the Redeemer His personal glory as the Son of ..~. God and the Saviour of men. For the Father has decreed that all - --must "honour the Son even as they honour the Father" ;8 and for an empire to favour Islam, and to obstruct at all the spread of the gospel amongst Moslems, as England does, is an -offence against God and His Son which cannot but entail serious consequences.9’
It is for public repentance, humiliation, and supplication that God waits; but these avail to procure mercy and favour through
1 See Job 1:6; Job 2:7; Daniel 4:13, Daniel 4:17; Daniel 4:23; 1 Kings 22:19-23; Acts 12:23. 2 A plain instance is given in 1 Kings 21:27. 1 Kings 21:29. 3 Ezekiel 18:21, Ezekiel 18:23, Ezekiel 18:27-28. 4 Daniel 4:27. 5 Jonah 3:5-10. 6 Psalms 33:17. 7 Psalms 48:7. 8 John 5:23. 9 See World Chaos 157. the infinite merits of the Redeemer’s Person and passion. For nations, as for persons, the prayer of the contrite has power. Only let princes and peoples remember this solemn word concerning an ancient monarch : Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise; he hath let the appointed time pass by";1 and let them seek the Lord while He may be found, and call upon Him while He is near.2