A NATION’S GUIDE

As a nation, Israel was privileged above all others. As Paul expressed it, “unto them were committed the oracles of God”, Rom 3. 2. In the psalm we have read, Asaph says, “he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers”, v. 5. Verse 7 adds, “that they might set their hope in God, and … keep his commandments: and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation” The Word of God was intended to be the nation’s constitution. So important was this that God gave the instruction, even before a king was appointed, that any future king “shall write him a copy of this law … and he shall read therein all the days of his life”, Deut. 17. 18, 19. God knew that writing a thing impresses it upon the mind, and that constant reading deepens the impression.

Alas, these exhortations were largely forgotten, and in consequence the nation so often was justly described in the words of verse 8, as “a stubborn and rebellious generation”.

In the days of king Josiah, 2 Chron. 34. 14, the book of the law (which had been lost, and therefore not consulted) was found amid the rubble in the temple. It was brought to the king, and as it was read it was realized how far the nation was from God’s standards. Reformation followed. The Word of God exerted its power in national life. There was a time in the history of England when it was called “the land of the Book”, and during that period an Englishman’s word was his bond. It is said that a visiting foreign potentate asked Queen Victoria the secret of Britian’s greatness, and she replied “the Bible”. Now, alas, all this has changed. In national life, there is no reference to God’s authority, and of recent years vices which are denounced and forbidden in God’s Word have been legalized by Parliament. In our schools, the teaching of the Bible is being abandoned, and the young are growing up in ignorance of God. Shall we soon deserve the words of Psalm 78. 8, “a stubborn and rebellious generation”?

Could it be that this has partly come about because we have failed to obey 1 Timothy 2. 1, 2, “supplications, prayers … be made … for kings, and for all that are in authority”?