From the six Old Testament books of 1 and 2 Samuel through 1 and 2 Chronicles we see another principle-God’s building always involves a struggle, a real battle. When God has done something, the enemy always attempts to damage and destroy God’s work. The pleasant prospect, the glorious condition, never lasts too long; that is, not until we reach the ultimate goal. During this process of time, over the ages, there is a continuous struggle. Satan will not allow the good prospect of God’s building to remain.
History shows how God’s enemy came in to damage and desolate God’s temple not long after it was finished (2 Chron. 12:1-2; 24:4-5, 7, 12-13; 29:2-7, 16-17; 34:8, 10-11). Not only did he damage the temple, but eventually Satan sent the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, to completely destroy God’s building. They took away all the vessels of the temple and then burned God’s house (2 Chron. 36:17-19). The city out of which Abraham was called was in Babylon. The book of Revelation reveals that up to the very last age before God’s ultimate consummation these two cities will be in existence, Jerusalem and Babylon; and Babylon is always in opposition to Jerusalem. Abraham was separated from Babylon, and his descendants eventually built God’s building. But God’s enemy came also from Babylon to destroy this building. The destruction inflicted upon Jerusalem by the Babylonians was not perpetrated merely by human hands, but by the enemy, Satan. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, had captured all the vessels related to the temple and the worship of God and brought them to Babylon, where he put them in a temple of idols (Ezra 1:7; Dan. 1:1-2). This was a great blasphemy to the Lord. Thus it is evident that this fight was not merely between the Babylonians and the Jewish people, but between Satan and God.
We must remember that God’s intention is to recover this earth from His enemy. Through His chosen people, especially through men like David and Solomon, God regained at least a portion of this earth. He recovered some ground upon which He could place His feet, where He could glorify Himself, express Himself, and exercise His authority upon this earth. It is in this way that God becomes the Lord, not only of the heavens, but also of the earth. Because God had gained a place on this earth through His people, He could be called the Lord of earth as well as the Lord of the heavens. Today, God is eager to recover the entire earth.
When Satan sent the army of Babylon to destroy the temple, that meant, spiritually speaking, that he came to force God out of His position on this earth. By reading all the books of the captivity, such as Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel, we notice a very interesting fact: in all of these books God is always called “the God of heaven,” not the God of heaven and earth (Ezra 1:2; 7:12, 21, 23; Neh. 1:4, 5; 2:4; Dan. 2:18, 28). In a sense, God had been chased away from this earth. God had lost the ground to exercise His authority on this earth, for it had been captured by His enemy. The temple was destroyed, the ground was lost, and God withdrew from earth to heaven. God again became the God of heaven, rather than the God of heaven and earth.
Satan’s intention is ever to chase God from the earth. God’s intention is to have a building on the earth, a Bethel, a gate to heaven, a place where God can put His feet to exercise His authority. We must see from history that whenever there is a person or a group of persons on this earth who will take a stand for God, at that time God is called the God of heaven and earth. In Genesis, when Abraham defeated the five kings, Melchisedek the priest came out to meet him. At that time God was called the “possessor of heaven and earth” (Gen. 14:19), because at that time there was at least one person on this earth who could be the gate of heaven. Abraham brought heaven down to this earth. God could boast because of Abraham that He was the possessor not only of the heavens, but also of the earth. He had some ground upon which to exercise His authority. Later in history, when the people of Israel crossed the Jordan, the priests who carried the ark stepped into the waters and remained there. At that time, God was called “the Lord of all the earth” (Josh. 3:11). There were some people on this earth standing with God, and through these people God gained the position to exercise His authority on the earth. However, in all the later books which record Israel’s captivity, God is always called the God of heaven. Apparently speaking, God had been chased away from this earth by the failure of His people.
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