EXPLANATION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER
"Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory." Matthew 6:13
The last like the first sentence of the Lord's Prayer, points to our Father
as above all power and authority and every name that is named. The Saviour
beheld the years that stretched out before His disciples, not, as they had
dreamed, lying in the sunshine of worldly prosperity and honor, but dark
with the tempests of human hatred and satanic wrath. Amid national strife
and ruin, the steps of the disciples would be beset with perils, and often
their hearts would be oppressed by fear. They were to see Jerusalem a
desolation, the temple swept away, its worship forever ended, and Israel
scattered to all lands, like wrecks on a desert shore. Jesus said, "Ye shall
hear of wars and rumors of wars." "Nation shall rise against nation, and
kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and
earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."
Matthew 24:6-8.
Yet Christ's followers were not to fear that their hope was lost or that God
had forsaken the earth. The power and the glory belong unto Him whose great
purposes would still move on unthwarted toward their consummation. In the
prayer that breathes their daily wants, the disciples of Christ were
directed to look above all the power and dominion of evil, unto the Lord
their God, whose kingdom ruleth over all and who is their Father and
everlasting Friend.
The ruin of Jerusalem was a symbol of the final ruin that shall overwhelm
the world. The prophecies that received a partial fulfillment in the
overthrow of Jerusalem have a more direct application to the last days. We
are now standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. A crisis is
before us, such as the world has never witnessed. And sweetly to us, as to
the first disciples, comes the assurance that God's kingdom ruleth over all.
The program of coming events is in the hands of our Maker. The Majesty of
heaven has the destiny of nations, as well as the concerns of His church, in
His own charge. The divine Instructor is saying to every agent in the
accomplishment of His plans, as He said to Cyrus, "I girded thee, though
thou hast not known Me." Isaiah 45:5.
In the vision of the prophet Ezekiel there was the appearance of a hand
beneath the wings of the cherubim. This is to teach His servants that it is
divine power which gives them success. Those whom God employs as His
messengers are not to feel that His work is dependent upon them. Finite
beings are not left to carry this burden of responsibility. He who slumbers
not, who is continually at work for the accomplishment of His designs, will
carry forward His own work. He will thwart the purposes of wicked men, and
will bring to confusion the counsels of those who plot mischief against His
people. He who is the King, the Lord of hosts, sitteth between the cherubim,
and amid the strife and tumult of nations He guards His children still. He
who ruleth in the heavens is our Saviour. He measures every trial, He
watches the furnace fire that must test every soul. When the strongholds of
kings shall be overthrown, when the arrows of wrath shall strike through the
hearts of His enemies, His people will be safe in His hands.
"Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the
victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is
Thine. . . . In Thine hand is power and might; and in Thine hand it is to
make great, and to give strength unto all." 1 Chronicles 29:11, 12."
Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, p. 102-122.
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