And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him; “Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin, the Lord is with you, while ye be with him: and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.
—2 Chronicles 15:2
Distinguishing the Four Ways in Which God May Be Said to Be with a People
For the words themselves, the first thing proposed to be inquired into for their explanation is this; what is it for God to be with a people? God may be said to be with men, or present with them, in sundry respects.
1. By Divine Omnipresence
First, he may be said to be with them in respect of the omnipresence of his essence; so he is naturally, and necessarily present with all creatures; indistant from them, present with them. The ubiquity and immensity of his essence, will not allow that he should be distant from anything to which he has given a being. “The heaven, even the heaven of heavens, cannot contain him” (1 Kings 8:27). Does he not fill heaven and earth? Is he a God at hand only, and not afar off, as to the ends of the earth? This presence of God with all things David emphatically declares (Ps. 139:7–12). But it is not that, that is here intended: that is universal, to all creatures, natural, and necessary, this especial to some, voluntary, and of mercy; that of nature and essence, this of will and operation.
2. By the Incarnation
Secondly, God may be said to be with one in respect of personal union, so he was with, and only with, the man Jesus Christ. Θεὸς ἦν μετʼ αὐτοῦ, “God was with him,” (Acts 10:38), that is, in personal union; the human nature being taken into subsistence with the Son of God.1
Volume 19 includes some of the most important sermons that Owen delivered on the national stage in which he urged his audience to commit to personal godliness and further reformation of church and state.
3. By Means of the Covenant of Grace
Thirdly, God is present, or with any in respect of the covenant of grace. He is with them to be their God in covenant, the tenor whereof is, that he will not leave them, nor shall they forsake him, he will be for them, and they shall be for him, and not for another. He is with them for all the ends of mercy, love, kindness, pardon, salvation, that are proposed and exhibited in it: but neither is this the presence of God here intended, though this be something that flows from it, and does attend it: for,
(1) First, that presence of God with his people has not such a conditional establishment, as this here mentioned: it stands on other terms, and better security than that here proposed; it has received an eternal ratification in the blood of Christ; is founded in the immutable purpose of grace, and is not left to the conditionality here expressed, as we shall see afterward.
(2) Secondly, the presence here mentioned, respects the whole body of the people; all Judah and Benjamin in their national state, and consideration, unto whom, as such, the effectual covenant of grace was never extended; for they were not all Israel who were of Israel.2
(3) Thirdly, the presence here promised respects immediately the peculiar end of blessing the whole people with success in their wars and undertakings; so the occasion of the words, and the context, with regard to the following discourse do undeniably evince; it is not then this presence of God only that is intended, though, as it will afterward appear, it is not to be separated from it.
4. By Means of Providence
Fourthly, there is a presence of God in respect of providential dispensations, and this is twofold.
(1) First, general; ordering, disposing, guiding, ruling all things, according to his own wisdom, by his own power, unto his own glory; thus he is also present with all the world; he disposes of all the affairs of all the sons of men as he pleases; sets up one and pulls down another;3 changes times, seasons, kingdoms,4 bounds of nations,5 as seems good to him. The help that is given to any he does it himself. “The shields of the earth belong unto God”;6 he works “deliverance in the earth,”7even among them that know him not. And the evils, desolations and destruction, that the earth is full of, are but the effects of his wrath and indignation, revealing itself against the ungodliness of men.8 He is thus present with every person in the world, holds his breath, and all his ways in his hand;9 disposes of his life, death, and all his concernments, as he pleases. He is present in all nations, to set them up, pluck them down, alter, turn, change, weaken, establish, strengthen, enlarge their bounds as he sees good; and the day is coming, when all his works will praise him:10 neither is this here intended: it is necessary, and belongs to God, as God; and cannot be promised to any; it is a branch of God’s natural dominion, that every creature be ruled and disposed of, agreeably to its nature, unto the end whereunto it is appointed.
(2) Secondly, special; attended with peculiar love, favor, good-will; special care toward them with whom he is so present: so Abimelech observed that he was with Abraham, “God is with thee in all that thou doest” (Gen. 21:22): with you, to guide you, bless you, preserve you, as we shall see afterward: so he promised to be with Joshua (Joshua 1:5) and so he was with Gideon (Judges 6:12), to bless him in his great undertaking; and so with Jeremiah (Jer. 15:2).11 This is fully expressed [in] Isaiah 43:1-3. “I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine: when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee;” and this is the presence of God here intimated; his presence with the people, as to special providential dispensations, as is manifest from the whole discourse of the prophet; and wherein this consists, shall be afterward at large declared.
Distinguishing the Two Ways in Which a People May Abide with God
Secondly, what is a people’s abiding with God? There is a twofold abiding with God.
Personally
(1) First, in personal obedience, according to the tenor of the covenant, this is not here intended, but supposed: there is no abiding in anything with God, where there is not an abiding in this thing: yet this, as I said, is not here principally intended, but supposed, something further is intended: for as has been declared, it is national work, and national abiding, that is intended; so that—
Nationally
(2) Secondly, there is an abiding with God in national administrations: this is a fruit of the other, in those who are called to them; and that this is principally here intended, is evident, from that use that Asa made of this information, and exhortation of the prophet: he did not only look to his personal walking thereupon; but also immediately set upon the work of ordering the whole affairs of the kingdom; so as God might be glorified thereby; how this may be effected shall at large afterward be declared; what has already been spoken may suffice for a foundation of that proposition, which I shall this day insist upon: and it is this.
Main Doctrine Raised from the Text
Observation. The presence of God with a people in special providential dispensations for their good, depends on their obediential presence with him, in national administrations to his glory: “The Lord is with you, while ye be with him.”
Notes:
- This text was significant in the context of the arguments about John Biddle and the Racovian Catechism. See Owen’s Vindiciae Evangelicae (1655), chap. 7. See Complete Works of John Owen, vol. 2
- Rom. 9:6.
- Ps. 75:7.
- Dan. 2:21.
- Acts 17:26.
- Ps. 47:9.
- Isa. 26:18.
- Rom. 1:18.
- Dan. 5:23.
- Ps. 145:10.
- Jer. 15:2.
This article is adapted from Sermons from the Commonwealth and Protectorate (1650–1659) (Volume 19) by John Owen.
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