By Rev. MALCOLM GILLIES, Stornoway, Lewis.
“And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said:—’Is it peace, Jehu?’ And he answered:—’What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many!'” (II Kings ix. 22).
WE see in this chapter how the judgments pronounced against the house of Ahab were accomplished. They were threatened against Ahab himself who fully expected they would have fallen upon him and his immediately, but the Lord was pleased to acknowledge how Ahab humbled himself with sackcloth and with fastings, and declared ‘a postponement of the evil while Ahab lived.’ When God has either a work of mercy or judgment to bring to fruition He invariably has His fit instrument to carry out that work. There is no difficulty at any time to trace the affinity between that which must be carried out in fulfilment of the Divine purpose and the chief agent employed by God to secure this effect. The Word of God, the histories of the Church and of nations furnish us with innumerable illustrations of this fact. In all probability, there was no man living in the days of which the Chapter treats, so suitable as Jehu, the son of Nimshi for the work in hand, and his own want of a right principle of heart and action does not diminish his fitness for such a task of destruction as he was destined to carry out.
No soqner was Jehu anointed as king by one of the sons of the prophets and proclaimed as such by the rude and tumultuous garrison of Ramoth-Gilead that he rides furiously to Jezreel for the purpose of cutting off King Joram and all Israel’s royal house over which hung God’s solemn sentence of destruction, a sentence which they made no effort to avert by timely repentance.
It is very remarkable how often the question:—”Is it peace?” occurs in the Chapter. The horseman sent by Joram to meet the approaching company asks:—”Is it peace?” The second messenger repeats the question. In the words of our text, Joram cries out as he recognises the company as his own servants:—”Is it peace, Jehu?” Even defiant Jezebel before she is hurled to her doom, speaks of peace:—”Had Zimri peace who slew his master? The dire threatening of the Almighty had its response in their guilty consciences which could only hold out a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.” The want of peace within is displayed in the yearning
for peace without—a vain yearning which a righteous God will not permit any sinner to possess—no, not for a moment. “There is no peace saith my God, to the wicked.” Thus, the way of transgressors is hard—in reality much harder than the way of those who “depart from evil, and do good, who seek peace and pursue it.”
It has always been that those who create dispeace by their wrongdoing are they who lay most stress upon peace. What they want is to reverse the Divine order and to enjoy peace at the expense of purity. “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” was Ahab’s salutation for the Lord’s prophet, Elijah. The answer which was given to this vile king’s accusation is relevant to all who walk contrary to God’s Word, and who do not hesitate to charge others with the consequences of their own evil ways.
The passage before us has its own importance and value, as viewed in its literal sense. It can further be applied to each one of us with reference to our relation and responsibility to God for time and especially in view of an endless eternity.
We have to consider:—
I. The question:—“Is it peace?”
II. The answer:—“What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many.”
The Word commands that “if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men” (Rom. xii. 18). This teaches us that oftentimes, try as we may, we cannot keep peace with our fellow creatures, but we have to try every lawful means towards this end. The nearer the relation, the more intimate the knowledge, the degree of power for good or evil which others can exercise with respect to us, the more pressing and important becomes the necessity of the pursuit of peace.
It follows that nothing can be so vital to us than to have the Ruler of Heaven and Earth to be at peace with us. It would mean to us that He, in all the infinitude of His Being and Attributes would be on our side. Not to have peace with God places us in the awful solemn position of having the Almighty in all His fulness opposing us.
It is a goodly part of the happiness of angels that He Who alone is eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, the God of infinite justice, goodness and truth favours, blesses and is at peace with them. This was also man’s portion in his creation and while he remained in a state of innocence and in such a happy condition there is hardly room for such a question as this one:—“Is it peace?”, as the contrary is and was unknown to them.
Alas, man knows the opposite of peace now; his offence, disobedience, his sin with all its effects have intervened between God and our fallen race. “The Scripture hath concluded all under sin,” and declares a state of alienation and dispeace on account of man’s rebellion and disobedience; God in all His fulness is opposed to us, for man’s whole nature and disposition and activity wage war against the being, nature and attributes of God. He questions God’s right of being, and of
Government, His wisdom, justice, holiness and truth and defies His omniscience, His omnipresence, His omnipotence and dares Him to execute His judgments upon him as a guilty and rebellious law-breaker. This question:—”Is it peace?” must be answered with an emphatic negative. As far as God is concerned, it must be so, for it would be as possible for Him to cease to be God as to be at peace with man who has become the very antithesis of what he was in creation. On the part of man also there can be no peace, for he has neither desire nor ability to give up his contention with the Most High, God cannot be reconciled to man without full satisfaction being rendered for all the dishonour done to the glory of God by man’s sin, and man can never meet the demands of a broken law and offended Justice, even if it were disposed to seek such a basis of peace.
This question:—”Is it peace?” requires such a change of circumstances between God as the Righteous Judge and guilty man as would bring in a good hope that peace might be effected and established. The Law could never bring about such a change, but God in His grace and mercy has provided and revealed such a provision as this in the Glorious Gospel.
This very condition has been provided by God in accordance with His purpose and Government appointment. The Son of God appeared in this world in human nature, and by His atoning work in life and death, a sure foundation for peace was established, a foundation worthy of God and glorifying to all His Divine attributes. The setting up of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Redeemer gives ample grounds for this question to be directed to the conscience of every Gospel hearer. Should there not be peace between God and man when the Most High in grace and mercy has revealed and established a basis upon which He is able and willing to end the estrangement which sinners have made inevitable by their sin?
Further Christ is risen from the dead and exalted to the Highest Heavens where He continually appears in the execution of His office as Mediator and to plead His merits on behalf of the salvation of sinners. Surely there is every prospect of peace when there is such an Advocate and Intercessor with the Father? God never withholds from Him the granting of any petition. He is requested to ask, and the Father will give Him the heathen for His inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for His possession. Sinners must incur unspeakable guilt if they refuse to avail themselves of the superabounding grace revealed in this aspect of salvation.
There is not only the redemptive and intercessory work of Christ, but further the fulness and perfection of the Holy Spirit’s operations in declaring, revealing and applying grace and salvation. If the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ meets the need of sinners as to their lost and ruined state, the grace of the Spirit of God is omnipotent and therefore all-sufficient for man’s inability and reluctance to avail himself of the mercy and salvation held out to him in the Gospel. Dead as we are in trespasses and sins, our case is by no means hopeless. “Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created: and Thou renewest the face of the earth” (Psalm civ. 30). The work of the third Person of the
Trinity is as efficacious as the work of the Divine Son of God in human nature, and is as absolutely necessary if sinners are to be saved. The Scriptures give us such a view of the power and perfection of the Spirit’s work in awakening sinners, in shining into their hearts the light of the knowledge of God in Christ, and in enabling them as lost and undone to close in with Christ for peace and salvation that the question:—”Is it peace?” should have its affirmative answer from every child of Adam to whom the Gospel comes.
The Gospel itself is pre-eminently the special message and free offer of reconciliation to God Who manifests Himself therein in all His Glorious perfections as the God of peace. In it, salvation is held forth in such fulness and earnestness, that the Most High is depicted as holding out His hands to men all the day long, beseeching them to be at peace with Him. Nothing has been left unprovided for, to bring home to every man his sin, his guilt, his danger, and God’s glorious remedy to meet all his need. The Word of God deals directly with every faculty, with the understanding, with the conscience, with the will, and appeals to the affections: it “is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. iv. 12). All this makes no question so very pertinent and proper as this question:—”Is it peace?”
The Bible declares that the sin by which the sinner persists in this condition of estrangement from God is the crowning sin of all sins; it is the damning sin, the condemnation, the sin which will seal for eternity the destruction of every sinner who dares to flout the overtures of mercy. “This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil” (John iii. 19). The Saviour as He stood and pleaded with men in the days of His flesh, applied this solemn exhortation to every breast:—”Agree with thine adversary quickly whiles thou art in the way with Him, lest at any time thine adversary deliver thee to the judge and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison” (Matt. v. 25). Surely it is the duty as well as the greatest of all privileges for each one of us to agonise leaving nothing undone in order that we may have the sure and certain persuasion and hope that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
II. The answer—What peace!
How utterly void of reason was the expectation of peace as far as King Joram and his house was concerned. How despicably abandoned did they show themselves to be! How completely ripe for Jehovah’s judgments did they prove themselves, in their resolve to continue their vile and evil ways, and yet to express their hope for peace! Jezebel, as she was with Ahab, so was she with the son, the supreme ruler. Her idolatry and other abominations filled the land. She had now reached the very utmost height of success in accomplishing her purpose according to her heart’s desire; the whoredom and defilement of Ephraim could hardly be carried further. Never was she more determined to continue her policy of having the royal family and all Israel as partakers of
her sins. In these circumstances, never was a crave for peace more importune and impossible. Their very act of pleading for peace filled the cup of tribulation and anguish, indignation and wrath which they all must drink in time, and alas, throughout an endless eternity.
What a solemn warning is given in this portion of Scripture history to each and all who refuse to repent and turn from their evil ways while God is still waiting to be gracious! Will God be at peace with any of us while we are at peace with sin? To have peace with Him is only possible by a declaration of war on our part against every sin known to us. Though turning away from sin is not the basis upon which we can be saved, and though it is as lost sinners, undone in ourselves, that we find in Christ’s finished work that basis, yet no sinner can value Christ as a Saviour who does not turn from sin with grief and hatred, and who does not purpose ceasing from evil, whether Christ will be his or not.
Can therefore the careless sinner have peace, while he remains prayerless and indifferent to his eternal interests? Can God be at peace with the swearer, the Sabbath-breaker, the unclean person? Can the liar and the slanderer hope that they are in a gracious state while they live in these sins? Will God bestow His favour and His fellowship on the drunkard, and on those who provide him with his strong drink, with his songs and his mirth? Will God, at His holy table, and in private and in public devotions give His countenance, His love and His blessing to those who frequent the Picture House, the Concert Hall and the Dancing Floor? Surely madness rules in the hearts of poor deluded sinners who expect that He Who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity will give them His peace while they are bent to carry on an open war against Him.
How can God be at peace with men and women, boys and girls while they treat with indifference the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and refuse God’s Beloved Son as Redeemer and Saviour? Do they expect the Holy One to overlook conduct which their fellow-creatures would not condone, if done to those near and dear to them? Will any individual have peace with the Father in Heaven while he “hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the Covenant whereby He was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace?” (Heb. x. 29). No peace will be the portion of that individual, but a much sorer punishment than they who died without mercy under Moses’ law.
Dear Friends, This solemn subject affords but one momentous application. It is this:—”Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord” (Isa. lv. 7). Put away from you that which constitutes you an enemy of God and of your own soul’s welfare. Turn by confession of sin and prayer for mercy to Him against Whom your whole life has hitherto been directed. He Who died for sinners is alive for evermore, and is the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is by Him that we have access to the Father. The promise of mercy, pardon and grace is sure, and without repentance on God’s part. It will be as the Saviour of sinners has left it in His Word:—”All that the Father hath given to Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out” (John vi. 37).