A WORD CONCERNING THE LORD’S MOVE IN RUSSIA
Now I would like to say something concerning the Lord’s move in Russia. All of those who have some feeling to go there need to be sober in their consideration. To move from one country to another country in order to live there involves many things.
According to the Bible, especially in the New Testament, we Christians should be movable people. In Acts 1:8 the Lord said that the disciples would be His witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and even unto the uttermost part of the earth. The disciples migrated to other places, not for making a living but for the gospel.
The Bible tells us that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in tents (Heb. 11:8-9). A tent is a movable lodging place, with no foundation. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were always picking up their tents and moving to another place. They lived in a tent with an altar, that is, with the cross of Christ, to serve and worship God. This is why they were sojourners, pilgrims. This is the first principle of our Christian life. For a Christian who loves the Lord to get himself settled in a place permanently is not scriptural. We are pilgrims today on this earth, moving around all the time.
To have a proper view of the Lord’s present move in Russia, we also need to understand God’s economy concerning the human race. In Genesis 1 God made man in His image and after His likeness so that man could express Him in His image and represent Him with His dominion (vv. 26-28). Genesis later tells us that when Noah came out of the flood he built an altar to serve God, and that pleased God. Then Noah made a mistake by becoming drunk and naked. After that God used him to prophesy concerning his three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth (9:18-27).
According to history, these three sons eventually became three big races. Japheth became the Europeans, and according to Noah’s prophecy, Japheth would be enlarged by God. This means that the descendants of Japheth would be the strong ones to conquer and spread. Shem is the source of the races which are mostly from Asia, including the Jews. Palestine is a part of Asia. Ham became the father of the race which is mostly in Africa. Europe, Asia, and Africa come together geographically around the Mediterranean Sea. The Jewish land of Palestine is in the center of these three inhabited sections: Europe to the north, Africa to the south, and Asia to the east. About five hundred years ago, Columbus ventured to sail across the Atlantic, and he reached a new land, America. Thus, Japheth was further enlarged. The majority of the people in the United States are the descendants of the Europeans, who are the descendants of Japheth.
According to history, the strong people at first were with Assyria and with Babylon. Nimrod was the builder of these two great nations—Assyria with Nineveh as the capital and Babylon with the city of Babel as the capital (Gen. 10:8-11; Micah 5:6). Assyria came first to invade and defeat Israel. Then Babylon followed Assyria to conquer Israel, to destroy Jerusalem, to burn the temple, and to exile all the children of Israel. Later, the Medo-Persian Empire followed Babylon to defeat Israel. Medo-Persia was the largest empire in history. Esther 1:1 tells us that it had one hundred twenty-seven provinces. Today in the Persian Gulf, we have these strong peoples. Iran is today’s Persia, and Iraq is today’s Babylon. They are fighting with each other and are still making trouble in the region of the world around the Mediterranean Sea.
The Bible in Daniel 7 tells us that four beasts come up out of the Mediterranean Sea, the Great Sea. The first beast signifies the Babylonian Empire, the second beast signifies the Medo-Persian Empire, the third beast signifies the Grecian-Macedonian Empire, and the fourth beast signifies the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire even reached Palestine, and the Lord Jesus was born under its rule.
If we read history carefully, we can see that God in carrying out His economy always went through the strong people. Christ was born as a captive of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was a strong nation. They built highways and opened up the traffic from Palestine to Rome and even to Spain. At that time people considered Spain the uttermost part of the earth. Greek was also made the common language throughout the Roman Empire. Even the Lord Jesus quoted from the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.
(The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee)
