of the king we.s but the harvest of which he himself had sown the seed. In due season God himself will justify all his dealings with men. IV. REVOLUTIONS IN BUMAN HISTORY LEADING TO TRE ADVENT OF THE RIGHTFUL SOVEREIGN OF MAN. "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more until be come whose right it is; and I will give it him." Three points are sugge~ted by this verse. 1. The completeness of the national downfall. The repetition of the "over- turn" indicates the thoroughness of the destruction. No attempt to restore the kingdom to prosperity and power would fully succeed. 2. The duration of the national downfall. "This also sl1all be no more, until he come whose right it is." The regal authority and the priestly dignity were not restored to the Jews. "As to the kingdom, Zerubbabel, the leader of the people after the exile, although of David's line, was no king on David's throne. But Herod, who becomes king over Israel, is of Edomite origin" (Schroder). There was a partial restoration of the functions of the priesthood after the return from Babylon, but it never recovered its former dignity and glory. For, as Fairbairn observes " there was no longer the distinctive prerogative of the U rim and Thummim, nor the ark of the covenant, nor the glory overshadowing the mercy-seat; all was in a depressed and mutilated condition, and even that subject to many interferences from the encroach- ments of foreign powers. So much only was given, both in respect to the priesthood and the kingdom, as to show tbat the Lord had not forsaken his people, and to serve as pledge of the coming glory." 3. The advent of the rightful So·vereign. "Until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him." Undoubtedly these words point to the Messiah. They probably contain a reference to Ps. lxxii. 1, " Give the King thy judgments, 0 God, and thy righteousness unto the Kiug's Son." He is the great High Priest. He is the divinely anointed King. Previous to his coming into our world all revolutions in human history were overruled by God to lead on to that event. And all subsequent revolutions, and all revolutions in the present, are being overruled by him for the establishment of his gracious rule over the hearts and lives of men through- out the whole world. "Of his kingdom there shall be no end." Thus in the declaration of dread judgments mercy was not forgotten by God. "Even now, when he is in a fo 11 career of overturning, he tells them of the coming of Christ, who should be their King, wear the crown, and raise up the kingdom again. Tbis;was a great mercy in the depth of misery; if they lost an earthly kingdom, they should have a spiritual one ; if they lost a profane and temporal king, they should have a King of righteousness, an eternal King" (Greenhill). Even in wrath he remembers and exercises mercy.-W. J.
Ver. 27.-Mundane revolutwns. "l will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more," etc. L THE C0NTTh7JITY OF :r,rn:imANE REVOLUTIONS. "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it." The Lord thns declares his determination to overthrow again and again the government of the Jews, until the corning of the Messiah, their rightful Sovereign. The words may also point, as Scott remarks, to " the repeated subversions of the Jewish nation by the Chaldeans, Macedonians, Romans, and many others to the present day; which will not come to any happy termination till they submit to their long-rejected Messiah. Nay, they seem to predict all the convulsions in states and kingdo,ms, which shall make way for the establishment of his kingdom throughout the earth." Revolutions in governments, in society, in science, have always been. They are rife at present. While men continue ignorant, selfishly ambitious, and wicked, they will continue. These overturnings will not cease until human character is radically altered, until it is fashioned after the Divine model. It is not one overturning, and then settled order and progress. In our world change succeeds change as wave follows after wave on the face of old ocean. Unsettledness characterizes all things here. II. THE DIVINE AGENCY IN MUNDANE REVOLUTIONS. "Thus saith the Lord God ... I will overturn, overturn, overturn it." These revolutions are not accidental; they do not occur by chance. They are brought about under Divine arrangements. God being the great " Ruler over the nations," they cannot take place, to say the least, without bis permission. Being Supreme, all things are either originated. or allowed by him. The sacred Scriptures assert this. "Neither from the east, nor from the west, nor yet from the south, cometh lifting up. But God is the Judge. He putteth down one, and lifteth up another; " " He bringeth princes t-0 nothing; he maketh the judges of the 011. xxr. 1-32.) 'l'HE BOOK OF 'rl:IE PROPHE'l' EZEKIEL. 4/Jl