Standing on the Lord’s Side
Editor’s Note: It was December 1942. The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor the previous year, and the United States of America officially entered World War II. The first issue of Israel My Glory came off the presses carrying this message of hope, originally titled “A Glimpse Into the Future.”
Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? (Jer. 32:26–27).
It was a dark time in the history of God’s ancient people, the Jews. Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty king of the Babylonian Empire, invaded the Holy Land, laid in ruin its cities, and decimated its population. Jerusalem was besieged, about to be captured and desecrated. Hope had died in the hearts of the stricken people.
Amid such gloom the Word of God came to Jeremiah, commanding him to buy the field from his cousin Hanameel, in token that God would yet restore the country to peace and freedom and rebuild the devastated cities. But in the meantime, this looked impossible. Even Jeremiah himself doubted the wisdom of buying land at a time when the very foundations seemed to be giving way. However, the Word of God came to Jeremiah for the second time, saying, “Behold I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?” (Jer. 32:27).
What a timely word from our Lord for us who are in the midst of an upheaval the likes of which the world has not seen before. And yet, in spite of it all, God bids us look ahead in faith and prepare the ground for the task of rebuilding and healing, which must start as soon as the day dawns after the darkness of the present night has passed.
It would perhaps be presumptuous on our part if we should count on our own strength, to speak at the present time of what we will do when the war is over; but our confidence is in “the God of all flesh” for whom nothing is too hard.
We know that in this struggle against the demonic forces of evil, we are on the Lord’s side, and therefore victory is only a question of time if we but continue in the line of His holy will. With this faith in our hearts, we dedicate ourselves today in the midst of this terrible conflict to the task of restoration as soon as the battle is over.
We are thinking in the first instance of Europe, the continent upon which such disaster has come to stagger the imagination and numb our feelings. What a field of Christian reconstruction Europe will be after this war! What the wrath of man has destroyed, the love of Christ, working through His own, will have to rebuild.
Our thoughts and prayers, particularly at this time, are with God’s Chosen People, the Jews. Each day brings us a new message of the unspeakable horrors that have become their terrible lot. Hitler is trying hard to destroy them altogether. Is there any device for the purpose of murder that has not been used on this unfortunate people? As we hear continually of the mass slaughter of the Jews in Europe, we sometimes wonder, Will there be any Jews left there? But we believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will not permit this agent of Satan to achieve his purpose. The zealous God of Israel is watching over His people: “For thus saith the LORD of hosts, . . . he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye” (Zech. 2:8).
But what misery, what unspeakable suffering shall we have to face once this war is over! There will be starvation, epidemics, distress of such magnitude and intensity the likes of which man has never known before. It will take all the faith and all the self-sacrificing love that Christians can muster to heal the wounds, to feed the hungry, and to bring the light of Christ into the darkness of their sorrowful lives. There will be scars left upon the souls of men, burned in by the wickedness of their oppressors, which no power on Earth will be able to erase from the memories of the victims. Nothing, except the power of Christ! What a field Europe will be for the preaching of the gospel to the Jews and Gentiles, but especially to the Jews first (Rom. 1:16)! This is the will of our heavenly Father, that they who were the first to suffer from the concentrated attacks of the Devil should also be the first to experience the healing power unto salvation through their own Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
(All Scripture quoted in this article uses the KJV.)
