Chapter 42—Ruler Over All Nations
That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art
the most high over all the earth.
Psalm 83:18
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In the annals of human history the growth of nations, the rise and fall
of empires, appear as dependent on the will and prowess of man. The
shaping of events seems, to a great degree, to be determined by his power,
ambition, or caprice. But in the word of God the curtain is drawn aside,
and we behold, behind, above, and through all the play and counterplay of
human interests and power and passions, the agencies of the all-merciful
One, silently, patiently working out the counsels of His own will....
Every nation that has come upon the stage of action has been permitted
to occupy its place on the earth, that it might be seen whether it would fulfill
the purpose of “the Watcher and the Holy One.”... While the nations rejected
God’s principles, and in this rejection wrought their own ruin, it was still
manifest that the divine, overruling purpose was working through all their
movements.
This lesson is taught in a wonderful symbolic representation given to the
prophet Ezekiel [chapters 1 and 10].... A number of wheels, intersecting
one another, were moved by four living beings.... The wheels were so
complicated in arrangement that at first sight they appeared to be in confusion;
but they moved in perfect harmony. Heavenly beings, sustained and guided
by the hand beneath the wings of the cherubim, were impelling these wheels;
above them upon the sapphire throne, was the Eternal One; and round
about the throne a rainbow, the emblem of divine mercy. As the wheellike
complications were under the guidance of the hand beneath the wings of the
cherubim, so the complicated play of human events is under divine control.
Amidst the strife and tumult of nations, He that sitteth above the cherubim
still guides the affairs of the earth.
The history of nations that one after another have occupied their allotted
time and place, ... speaks to us. To every nation and to every individual
of today God has assigned a place in His great plan.... All are by their
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