This was the meaning of that natal hour at Bethlehem.
The angels were not singing over Him as the Prince of Peace who had come to abolish war among the nations, but as the ordained sacrifice who should bring peace between the individual man and his G.o.d. And yet--He is to be the Prince of Peace and reign and rule as such over the earth, putting an end to war and establishing perfect peace among the nations.
The promise of His reign and rule as the Prince of Peace is clearly set forth in Scripture; as it is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah:
"Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty G.o.d, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his peace and government there shall be no end."
But when? Where?
Listen:
"Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it."
And hear what Gabriel says to Mary when he comes to announce to her that she has been chosen of Almighty G.o.d to give birth to the Messiah of Israel.
The angel says:
"Thou shalt call his name Jesus . . . He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord G.o.d shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
He is to be the Prince of Peace when He sits upon the throne of united Israel in their own land and not before.
He was born in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah.
He was a Son given. The Son of G.o.d who was G.o.d the Son.
He was a Son given and became a child born.
He grew up to the station of manhood.
He entered upon His pre-arranged ministry.
At the appointed hour and to the very second foretold by Gabriel to Daniel and in the exact manner announced by the prophet Zechariah He rode into Jerusalem, went into the temple, claiming it as His Father"s house of prayer and by so much declaring Himself to be the Son of the Highest and the heir of David"s throne.
The shout of the mult.i.tude had announced Him officially.
They had said:
"Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord."
In crying this aloud they were fulfilling the prediction of Zechariah.
He had, under the vision of G.o.d, looked forward to this hour and with the Spirit of G.o.d upon him had exhorted the people who should be alive when Jesus should come to acclaim him.
He said:
"Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation (political as well as spiritual salvation); lowly, and riding upon an a.s.s, and upon a colt the foal of an a.s.s."
The mult.i.tude were shouting as Zechariah said they should shout.
They were confessing that He who came that day up the slopes of Zion was the Prince of Judah and King of Israel.
He came to His own, but His own received Him not.
Instead of the diadem of David He got a crown of thorns. Instead of the sceptre of Israel He got the vine stick of a Roman centurion thrust through His rope-tied hands. Instead of a throne He got a malefactor"s cross. Instead of a robe of royal purple He got the winding sheet of the dead. Instead of a palace He got a borrowed grave.
The Jews have paid the price of that blindness and betrayal. The man-slayer who unwittingly slew his neighbour or was even ignorant of it at the moment sooner or later found he had to flee from the avenger of blood instantly upon his track. He became an exile from his home, forced to dwell in a provided place called the city of refuge. He could not return to his home till the second coming of a priest.
The Jews were guilty, as a nation, of manslaughter.
They were deceived and involved by their leaders. They really did not know that He whom they hounded to death at the last was not only the covenant king of Israel, and the Holy One of their fathers, but the Prince of life.
Because of their blindness, blunder and sin they were cast out of the land. Because, even though in ignorance, they slew their King, they were exiled by the judgment of G.o.d from their home. They deprived the Lord of that land that was His through the covenant of Abraham, and the Lord in turn deprived them of the right of dwelling in the land. They should be exiles so long as He was an exile. Nor can they return till He comes the second time as a priest, not after the order of Aaron, but Melchisedec; for it is written that He shall be both a king and priest upon His throne.
Only can the Jews return and be owned nationally of the Lord when He shall come.
He will come and He will come as the Prince of Peace.
He will not come, I repeat, with the olive branch in His hand and the cooing dove nestling upon His shoulder.
Nay! not at all!
He will come as the Avenger of His elect, as the Son of man, as the judge of all flesh.
He will come to overthrow the combination of Devil and man.
His Coming will be the climax of old and outworn ages, the beginning of the new.
The glory of His Coming cannot be described.
Through years of meditation and continued effort at description I have exhausted my vocabulary and worn to tatters the oft-repeated phrases with which I have sought with heart full of adoring enthusiasm to announce the wonders of that hour.
If all the suns and systems were turned into speech till every flaming center of light were an adjective with increasing emphasis of qualification and expression the attempt to put into words the glory of that Coming would be a pitiful and overwhelming failure.
He will come surrounded by an innumerable host whose hallelujahs shall so vibrate that the very heavens will roll apart at their soundings.
The Lord will come in His threefold glory, the glory of the Father, the glory of the angels and His own glory: the glory of His eternal and unbegun sonship with the Father, as chief of the angels and as that man who is very G.o.d, as that G.o.d who is real and immortal man.
Then will He set up the kingdom, the government for which the ages have dreamed and groaned and guessed and prayed.
That hour of hours!
Satan bound, iniquity overthrown, G.o.d and Christ and the Holy Spirit ruling in the lives of men. The very air surcharged with the righteousness of G.o.d; so surcharged that he who thinks a lie shall fall dead in the tracks where he meditated it. No longer need of judge, of jury, of prison bars, nor hangman"s rope, nor electric chair.
An hour when no longer the scarlet poppies of hate, of jealousies and mad ambition shall bud and blossom into war. War over forever, swords beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks. Every man the same right as any other man, the right to sunshine, to air, to water, the beauty of the landscape and all the usufruct of earth.
That hour when no man shall call another his master; when no longer a man shall toil and bend his back and break his heart for a stipend of bread; for a hole in the ground and the worm of corruption as mistress of his bed.
That hour when life shall be worth while and when the centuries of peace and perfectness of actual being shall pa.s.s on till they are counted as eternity.