God will break His enemies

Jonathan Mayer is the illustrator for “Messiah: the Greatest Sermon Ever Sung,” a book written by Tony Pittenger.

Find more of Mayer’s amazing work at his website or on Facebook.

In Part 2 of the “Messiah,” Handel has walked his listeners through Christ’s passion, his resurrection, ascension, and the giving of the Holy Spirit. Missionaries have gone out into all the world to bring the sweet news of the gospel to all the nations. Then Handel gets to Psalm 2, which immediately precedes the Hallelujah Chorus.

In the Messiah libretto, it reads like this: “Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed. ‘Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yokes from us!’ He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn: the Lord shall have them in derision. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalm 2:1-4, 9).

Mayer comments on the imagery of Psalm 2 being the impetus for his painting of “Thou Shalt Break Them”: “This is one of the few places in Handel’s ‘Messiah’ where we see the wrath and judgment of God. When I was thinking about Biblical stories to illustrate that, there are a few that jump to the top: the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea. The imagery from Psalm 2 about “breaking” and “dashing” suggested to me one of the events involving water.

We rightly focus much of our attention on the saving gospel, but we shouldn’t flinch from contemplating God’s judgment, either. The drowning of Pharaoh’s army is a good case in point. Even in those rare instances where God unleashes his wrath, it is only after a long period of grace. The Egyptians suffered ten plagues of increasing severity during which they were being called to repentance. But they refused. They rebelled against God, and forced God to intervene—not in revenge, but in order to save his people. This is yet another aspect of God’s grace. It’s amazing how even those actions of God that destroy and condemn are intertwined so completely with his actions on behalf of mankind, culminating in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. It’s a marvelous paradox.”

What happened to lead to the judgment of the Egyptians being broken in the waters of the Red Sea? (Read last week’s blog post for more background.)

Moses had stretched out his staff and God caused a mighty east wind to blow and create walls of water on the right and left. Throughout the night, the Israelites caravanned across the dry seabed. In the morning, after the Israelites were safely on the other side of the Red Sea, the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud and allowed the Egyptians to pursue. Moses even records that God would cause the Egyptians to try to chase them down: “I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen” (Exodus 14:17).

The way through the sea was still open, so the Egyptians continued their chase. But when they were in the middle of the sea, the Lord threw their army into confusion, the chariots had difficulty maneuvering, and the Egyptians cried out, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt” (Exodus 14:25).

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A boy was sitting on a park bench one day with one hand resting on an open Bible. He was loudly exclaiming his praise to God. “Hallelujah! God is great!” he yelled. An atheist man, who felt very enlightened by his lack of faith and his abundance of knowledge from community college courses, was intrigued by the boy’s exuberance. He sat down next to the boy and asked him why he was so excited.

The boy replied, “Don’t you have any idea what God is able to do? I just read that God opened up the waves of the Red Sea and led the whole nation of Israel right through the middle.” The enlightened man laughed lightly, sat down next to the boy, and began to try to open his eyes to the “realities” behind the miracles of the Bible. “That can all be very easily explained. Modern scholarship has shown that the Red Sea in that area was only 10-inches deep at that time. It was no problem for the Israelites to wade across.”

The boy was stumped. His eyes wandered from the man back to the Bible lying open in his lap. The man, content that he had enlightened a poor, naive child in the finer points of scientific insight, turned to go. He had barely taken two steps when the boy began to rejoice and praise louder than before. “Now what?” the atheist asked.

“Wow!” Exclaimed the boy happily, “God is greater than I thought! Not only did he lead the whole nation of Israel through the Red Sea, he topped it off by drowning the whole Egyptian army in 10 inches of water!”

The Lord’s judgment upon the Egyptians was salvation for the Israelites. This miraculous rescue – not in ten inches of water, but through 500-1,000 foot walls of water – was seen by millions of people. It was a miracle by the pre-incarnate Son of God in the pillar of cloud and fire. It was a miracle that was visually impressive. It was a miracle that saved approximately two million people.

But the Lord has given us an even greater miracle than what happened at the Red Sea. This miracle happened upon a mountain – Mt. Calvary. It was not visually impressive – seeing a bloody Man hanging on a cross between two convicted criminals. But it was there that the incarnate Son of God powerfully swept away our mighty enemies with his precious blood flowing from the Roman cross. Jesus released us from our slavery to sin. The Pharaoh of hell, the devil himself, has been crushed. His chariots and army have been scattered by the pierced hands of the Lord. The death that constantly pursues us, Jesus has chased away with his glorious resurrection. The power that the unholy trinity of sin, death, and the devil has over us has been broken!

Just like the ancient Egyptians or Satan, God’s judgment upon those who oppose Him bring freedom and protection for His children.

Because the Lord has defeated our greatest enemies of the unholy trinity, now we don’t need to be afraid of any earthly enemies. Yes, the persecutions upon Christians by Muslims is very real. Yes, the pressures upon Christian businesses and churches by the LGBT community is constant. Yes, cancer steals your health. Dementia robs you of your loved ones. Temptations constantly plague and torment you.

But none of these enemies can really harm you. There is no reason to be scared. There is no basis for worry. There are no grounds for complaint. God has already demonstrated at the Red Sea and at Mt. Calvary that he can lure the enemies in … and then break them at the right time.