On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take nor rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in all the earth.Our older covenant fathers at the time of our Lord Jesus Christ's presence on the earth looked to heaven for help. The forces against them, both within and without Israel's borders, were overwhelming. So great was the array of hostile influences that they had come to believe the only solution, the only hope, was of direct, divine intervention in the person of Messiah to force their enemies into submission. In the end, however, they were shown to be misled and misguided. They neither understand the Lord, nor His Kingdom.
Isaiah 62: 6,7
For the past one hundred years many Christians in the West have fallen into the same kind of error. A kind of capitulation to the forces of Unbelief has led to a deep conviction that things are getting worse and worse; the Kingdom of God is in terminal decline; the only hope is of direct divine intervention in human history. Like the Jews of old—in their doubt and depression—they have so distorted the teachings of Scripture so that they look for direct divine intervention in human history. They expect that Messiah will come and set up a perfect Jewish kingdom in the physical city of Jerusalem in Israel, and will rule the world using direct divine power, conquering all nations. This is the only way they can conceive of things changing for the better.
Like the Jews of Jesus days on earth, these folk will be shown to be misled and misguided.
The structure and matrix of redemptive history is patently obvious in Holy Scripture. The nation of Israel under the Old Covenant was a precursor to the real Kingdom of God which was established by Messiah. That Kingdom has the Church as its central institution, but it embraces all human reality, all the realms of creation. All power and authority in heaven and earth has been given to King Jesus, and all enemies are being placed under His feet. All that Israel once signified and represented is now overtaken and fulfilled in the reality of the risen and ascended Christ and His Kingdom upon the earth.
That Kingdom is sure, certain, fixed and impeccable. But it is a Kingdom which comes from the inside out: therefore, it can neither come nor exist by the arm of human flesh, trying to compel and force people from the outside in. This would be a satanic parody of the Kingdom—the leading representative of that Satanic parody in the world today is Islam. It is Islam which seeks to create a kingdom by forced submission from the outside.
The Kingdom of God, however, comes from the inner conversion of souls, and therefore the gradual transformation of families, schools, cultures and governments. Since God alone can convert, since faith is a gift of God, and since being born again is of the Spirit alone, no human or angelic agency can establish or progress the Kingdom. Its coming is invisible, quiet, largely silent, and profound. It is known only by its fruit. It does not rest upon human agency or devices.
Surely there are means of grace which the Lord has appointed to use in regenerating individuals and transforming families—means such as the authorised proclamation of the Gospel, the Word of God, the Sacraments, prayer, public and private worship and so forth—but none of these represent more than empty shells without the presence and power of the Spirit using these means and making them bear true fruit. Without God's Spirit they are vanities. Men cannot wield these weapons. Their success, power, and efficacy belongs to the hand of God alone using them.
When God's people see these things in Holy Scripture they are never left to despair, no matter how dark the night. God's work cannot be thwarted. Christ's victory is already irrevocable. The doom of His enemies is sure. If all the devils and all their servants were to array against one solitary soul trying to prevent his conversion, if all the governments of the world, if all the police forces and prisons, if all the torture chambers, if all the organs of propaganda, if all the bribes, all the mockery, all the lies and all the slander were poured out upon one man trying to prevent his conversion appointed by God, it would not avail. The Spirit moves where He wills, and none—even if they all act in concert—none can stay His hand.
In our text, the Lord promises that upon the walls of Jerusalem, that great city of Belief, that great city of which Christ is the Head, He will establish watchmen. These servants are put there to watch for the city and for the Lord. He charges these watchmen not to give Him any rest. They are to cry out to Him, day and night, until Jerusalem is established as a praise in all the earth.
The text is almost incredible in its implications. The Lord wants us to be very clear just how certain it is that His kingdom will triumph over all the earth. He wants us to know how clear His will is in this matter; how settled His determination. He uses the image of an earthly sovereign who wants to make it clear to his subjects that he is resolved upon a certain course of action. To make the strength of his resolve clear, he appoints watchmen to watch their sovereign, and when he leaves the palace they are to cry out to him, reminding him of his commitment. When he rests at night, the watchmen are to wake him up, shouting out, reminding him of his promises.
King Darius of old actually did something of similar ilk. He swore to have vengeance upon the Athenians, and so appointed his cup bearer to say at every meal, “Sire, remember the Athenians.” By this appointment everyone in the Medo-Persian Empire, who heard of the King's appointment, knew for certain that the king was resolved upon war with the Athenians.
The Lord uses this human device, this human institution, to drive home to us how implacably certain it is that His Kingdom will triumph in the earth. To the appointed watchmen we say, “Cry out!” Let us join with you in reminding the Lord of His oaths and vows. As He has commanded, let us give Him no rest night and day until Jerusalem is the praise of all the earth.
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