Christ The Future World King, continued

Going a step farther in our New Testament enquiry, we come to the birth of Christ, and we note the following incident:

"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born KING OF THE JEWS" (Matt. 2v 1).

The enquiry of the wise men was intelligible in view of all that the prophets had foretold of him who was to be ruler in Israel; but if Christ is only the spiritual Saviour of mankind, in a universal general sense, their words have no meaning. In what sense could Christ be "king of the Jews," if he only stood in broad spiritual relationship to the human race as a whole? It may be suggested that he is king of spiritual Jews, who are not Jews outwardly, but in the heart. The reply to this is, that Christ is not king of his own people. Of them he says, "I call you not servants, but friends." They are his brethren, "joint heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8v 17), destined to reign with him a thousand years (Rev. 20v 6). They are not his subjects, but aggregately his bride, "the Lamb's wife" - signifying the closest communion and identity of relational interest. Christ, therefore, cannot be king of the Jews in any spiritual sense. He is king of those Jews of whom David was king; for he is heir to his throne. That this was the nature of his claim, as understood by his contemporaries, is obvious from what followed the enquiry of the wise men:

"When Herod the king had heard these things he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet, and thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda; for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel . . . And (Herod) sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men" (Matt. 2v 2, 3, 6, 16).

Now whence all this commotion? If Christ was merely to be a spiritual ruler in the popular sense - exercising power from heaven in the hearts of men, without at all interfering with the temporal concerns of kings on earth, it is not conceivable that Herod should have been so jealous of him, because Christ's spiritual dominion would not in any way have conflicted with Herod's jurisdiction as a king.

Assuming, however, that the enquiry of the wise men imported the verity of Christ's character as a king, appointed of God to sit on David's throne, Herod's procedure appears in a natural light. He was at that time ruler in Israel. He was, in fact, "King of the Jews," in the name of the Roman Caesar. For him, therefore, to hear of the birth of a rival to that position, was to be touched in the tenderest part, and to have all his jealousy aroused. He would see plainly that if he allowed this infant king to live, the people's allegiance might become diverted, and his own throne would be endangered. He therefore conceived the inhuman project of slaughtering the entire babyhood of Bethlehem, in the hope of destroying the object of his jealousy - a proof that he recognised in Christ, a prospective claimant of the literal kingship of Israel.

If we trace the career and note the sayings of Christ, as further recorded, we shall find constant indications of the correctness of the view entertained by the apostles concerning his kingship. For instance, in the course of his sermon on the mount, he said: "Swear not by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King." Now it would be difficult to attach a likely significance to these words on the popular supposition. If Christ is never to return to earth again, except for the purpose of plunging it in the "judgment fires" and blotting every vestige of its existence from creation, what possible connection can exist between him and the city which witnessed his humiliation, since in that case it must perish in the universal destruction? In the passage before us Jesus affirms a connection with it, and accounts that connection so sacred that he prohibits us from using the name of the city on oath. He is "the Great King". - the "greater than Solomon." Jerusalem is the city. It existed at the time that Christ uttered the words under consideration; only in the time of Christ it was a great, prosperous and magnificent centre of royalty and learning, afterwards it became an insignificant abominationinfested, and comparatively ruinous and neglected town in the heart of a petty Turkish province. Divine regard, however, is no less now than ever it was. The testimony is, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands: thy walls are continually before me" (Isa. 49v 16). For a period it has been in desolation. This was predicted by the Lord Jesus. He said:

"They (the Jews) shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, UNTIL the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21v 24).

He also said (with tears in his eyes):

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matt. 23v 37-39; Luke 13v 34, 35).

Here was a treading down and a desolating foretold. That this referred to Jerusalem in Palestine is universally granted. Let it be noted then, that the place involved in the prediction of ruin, is the same which is related to the "UNTIL" by which that prediction is limited. If Jerusalem has been trodden down of the Gentiles, and left "desolate," she will as certainly, by the same prediction, recover from her fall when the period indicated by the word "until" arrives. In one case "until" arrives with the expiration of "the times of the Gentiles"; in the other, when the time comes that the Jewish nation will recognise the crucified Jesus as the namebearer of God. The declaration is, that at that time, downtreading and desolation shall cease. Now both events are certain. The termination of the times of the Gentiles, or the age of Gentile domination is decreed (Dan. 7v 25-27; 9v 24-27; Rom. 11v 25), and we are informed, in the following testimony, that the day is coming when Christ will yet be received by his penitent nation the Jews:

"I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn" (Zech. 12v 10).

When these have been accomplished, what then for Jerusalem? Let the following testimonies give the answer:

"The Lord shall inherit Judah, his portion in the Holy Land, and shall choose Jerusalem again" (Zech. 2v 12).

"The Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody" (Isa. 51v 3).

"Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury. Thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.... Therefore hear now this thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people. Behold I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury. Thou shalt no more drink it again" (Isa. 51v 17, 21, 22).

"Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean . . . Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem" (Isa. 52v 1, 9).

"The Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously" (Isa. 24v 23).

"At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart" (Jer. 3v 17).

"For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Mic. 4v 2, 3).