GREAT THOUGH THE ART OF CREATION BE, BETTER FAR IS
DESTINY
EPILOGUE
To
1
Sin,
it is the one ground of the disorder.
Mercy
is the stay that limits the response.
Thus,
in part, the decline falls from the natural order,
as its violation vitiates it,
its sanctions ignored, its sanity disregarded,
Its
sanctities despised or even denied.
In
part, it falls from the supernatural, as judgments arise,
passing all the sublime barriers of
restraint,
where love regards and opportunity
exists.
Grand Design, Greater
Destiny
2
The
day is darkened despite the successive tenderness of new dawns
(Lamentations
Cresting
the rises and sending prongs of new light into the rest from which day arises.
His
mercies are new every morning, but in the gross darkness
(Isaiah
mouths mockeries at the Eternal Light,
even Christ, as shown by many, such as
by whom this Light was not loved,
nor yet did it capture Pilate the Roman, governor
in the greatest Empire of the day,
who gave reluctant but crucial
concurrence with the national adventurism of
to bring ruin on himself,
though God used a spiritual phalanx from the nation with new avenues of mercy in
the Messiah
to reach to the ends of the earth,
as Isaiah predicted (49:6, 24:16);
nor was it loved by Herod the Idumean, symbol of the irascible hatred still seen
in the
Pilate
the Roman, and Caiaphas the High Priest, may not
have been friends;
But
in action, their resultant was one: TURN OUT THE LIGHT!
3
Because
the Light of this world still continues shining brilliantly,
probing the darkness, multi-sourced
and incremental though it be,
its denizens ever dabbling more
dimly in things little understood
with all the brio of a Scotch Terrier
on his morning walk, with sundry sallies and tasks:
there is hope, but not for this world
(John 17:9,14-16,20, II Peter 3:10-13, Matthew 24:35).
Witless,
with unhallowed and irreverent hope, and deeds unspeakable,
This
present world pursues its love of itself, its spluttering wisdom,
Daft as to its beginning, blind
as to its end.
It
wallows in darkness, as a film star in her suds,
but this, it does not clean.
Yet
time, though straitened, still remains (cf. Revelation 10:6)
to find the very Light of God,
for He is the one thing vital,
the word of God, Jesus Christ (Revelation
19, John 1, 5:19ff., Colossians 1:19ff.).
Inapplicable!
Irrationality screams in the throat of many an academic
(Ancient Words, Modern Deeds Chs. 9,
13, A Spiritual Potpourri
1-9, TMR 1, 8),
Intolerable!
more frankly fulminates the ruler,
as wars, a stack of them, line
up for take-off, creating traffic jams at the airports:
Islamic
jihad with its rank sanctions competing with other lust and lovelessness,
while the seats for instruction in
other passions to promote for grasping,
these are all sold out (SMR 8-10).
This
world, in its negligent disorder, ignores its Light as the worm ignores the
beauty of the apple,
and that one God who is gracious
and kind, has for all that, ordained that
the end is not quite yet (II Peter
3:9).
This
spinning globe does not care to see, for its eyes it has closed (cf. Matthew
but its spiralling
tornadoes give no uncertain testimony to the judgment to come,
which arises in its time, as surely
as the ocean breakers follow the storm.
4
It
seems necessary that sin should continue in its squalid war, justified in
rationalisation,
rampant in specialisation,
as if mice could think only of cheese, from any source,
fascinating by the part, ignorant of the
whole,
as that there is a household or
a cat to help keep it clean.
Nevertheless,
in this life, the ultimate source of the storm can be met, as one meets
an enemy.
It
can be met with the bright and shining light which dismisses darkness and
commands peace,
stilling the squall with spiritual strength
(Matthew
where space and place for it is found.
When
He is ready, the Prince of this world will come
and it is He
who will rule this world, whose name is truth,
whose heart goodness and whose way
is righteousness,
not in the social flurries of imagination,
as if a crowd constitutes right,
nor in the brimming, scalding potions of philosophy, as if ignorance
held wisdom (I Corinthians
but with that eternal Light which
both lightens man when he comes to this world,
and is put out, in the scurryings of his detached soul, and the blindness
of his closed eyes.
Of
His kingdom and peace, there will be no end (Isaiah 9:7, Daniel
but out of it, there will be no
end to its absence.
5
If
the world is a stage, the end is not a play.
This
failed and fallen world, however abrupt
in its dark and dismal dismissals of the Light,
has an end.
It
is reserved for it (II Peter 3),
fitting for its fabrications, for both
it and its evil works are to be burnt up,
just as the implements of hatred
and the belligerence of spirit are to go
to their place.
To
those within it, who love God, whose walk is with Him, whose work is from
Him,
whose trust is in the Christ whose
word of redemption is 100% over,
sufficient and available (Hebrews 9:12-28,
Romans 3:23-27, Ephesians 2:1-12),
whose Maker He is, and whose Saviour (Isaiah 43:10-11, Acts
there is a new organisation of life, a peace past any storm,
and a mission into the doom of
induced darkness,
as ambassadors of the Light.
And
that Light is within them (John 9:5,
6
When at last this world is dismissed (Matthew 24:35),
His
salvation stays (Isaiah 51:6).
It
is merely, for these His children, like a former house demolished.
If
it is a little saddening that it is gone, for so much occurred in it, much
good,
yet it is vastly gladdening that
the Creator both of it and oneself, is still with one,
unabashed in beauty, despite the woes
incurred in securing our redemption (Isaiah 50, 52:12ff.),
magnificent in holiness, doing wonders
as is fitting for the infinite Light.
It
is then, for His children, who alone He has redeemed (Isaiah 53:3-6),
Who
by His stripes are healed,
A
gap indeed, but no more:
For
although this world goes, as a house sold,
the new is better (Revelation 21-22).
7
But
what of the Jew ? that
chosen vehicle of the Lord,
Who
though he went nationally astray, is yet by appointment
For
a thousand generations, that is for all time on this earth,
Given
a place
(Psalm 33, Genesis 22, Galloping Events
Ch. 4, SMR Appendix
A ).
Wrong in rejecting
its truth, the Christ when He came by appointment,
on time like some ultra-spatial
train arriving by expectation (Highway of Holiness
Ch. 4).
The Jews of
they are back in their
land by strong guarantee,
and the very thought
is a war on the words of false prophet and false ruler alike.
Disobedient or obedient,
they are not welcome.
Their arrival of 1948
smells of a victory for the Lord of life,
not for the force of
jihad arms.
It shines like a light,
and promotes darkness where darkness dwells.
In turn, the Jewish
nation will not itself have peace without Christ.
Their refusal of Him
is more than mere disappointment:
it is rebellion;
and so the rebellious
dig their fangs into them, and eat, and eat …
to jihad, it seems,
the meat is not hard.
Their rebellion, it
is one with that of the Gentile, who plays his game by his own rules,
ruling in God’s world as
if the Maker were mere absentee,
and not sin the voider of light.
The cauldron heats, and the steam itself creates mist.
8
What then has arrived
since 1948 ?
In highlighted sweeping
victories as predicted (for God does not leave His people without adequate
words - Zechariah 12,14), they have swarmed back
into (national) existence,
exercising patience and artistry,
the aridities of Arab yore prophetically blossoming as
the rose (Isaiah 35),
the very forests abounding
as the sign for so long said (Isaiah 55:1-3,12-13)
as the vast preliminaries
to Zechariah 13:1,
stretch themselves out, conspicuous
and clear,
like a high altitude vapour trail, for all to see.
As they dismissed
the Son of God
(not some visiting card but the ONLY Saviour for ANY of our race,
as such deity designate and definitive, for
man, for earth
(Colossians 1:19ff., Acts 4:11-12, Hebrews 1, Isaiah 43:10-11),
so do their sons die in a
sombre and macabre aftermath.
9
In the end, salvation
is as the Saviour said, of the Jews (John 4),
for it is so in this,
that both the word of God written and living have come
through them (Romans 9).
But alas, the nation
is yet not far from the word of Romans 10, and far from Christ.
Indeed, until, as
in Romans 11, their (spiritual) blindness is removed, and
In Christ’s light, they see light:
no foundation for sin
and uncleanness is opened in
But it will be!
It is then, with many
in
suddenly brought home to repentance
from (diverse) rebellion against the God of the Bible,
the Christ of God,
that marvels follow until
at length
she who once was a centre
of Christianity (including Augustine, Bishop of Hippo)
is in much brought back
into line,
while
there being none without
its Prince, at any price:
and what prices already
have been paid, on all sides!
Those who follow the
Pharaoh complex,
self-righteous, self-affirmative, autonomous rebellion,
whether soiled in private sin or public arrogance,
can see the fruits of their non-exodus from judgment (Micah 7:15ff.);
but to the penitent in
the Prince, comes peace (Isaiah 9:7),
whether Jew or Gentile.
10
So the long odyssey
of enlarged odium is replaced by the eternal love of the Light,
who shone into the abyss
of sin, and descended to evacuate His people,
who are His.
The fountain for sin open now in
thus completing the triptych,
restoration, remission and royalty.
It is then that Christ’s
birthplace and death-site alike, honoured in spirit
rather than in endless geographical
tours,
physical proximity often mistaken
for spiritual closeness to the Lord,
are yet honoured in spirit, not for their architecture, but
for their
divine art, as the means
He used to bring what no mere means can produce,
Himself to the vagrant
hearts of men.
It is then the Christ
gives to this world its taste of peace,
before it goes!