How God used Shakespeare to prepare Britain to lead the world
God gives us many examples to get our minds on the World Tomorrow. Even Solomon’s reign was a type of the wonderful World Tomorrow. And I believe that, in a way, the great British Empire gives us good insight into what is about to come on the Earth! Some really exciting things happened in that empire, and God wants it to be that way in our lives!
God had given tremendous promises to the descendants of Abraham (e.g. Genesis 12:1-3; 17:1-6)—particularly the birthright nations, which descended from Joseph (1 Chronicles 5:2). These Josephite nations would receive great material wealth and would rule over other nations (Genesis 27:28-29). Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, would become “a nation and a company of nations”—a commonwealth, or empire (Genesis 35:11). They would become a “fruitful bough … whose branches run over the wall”—prophetic language for a world-girdling, colonizing power (Genesis 49:22).
The modern nation that descended from Ephraim is Britain.
As Herbert W. Armstrong explained in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, God withheld these promises for thousands of years, in fulfillment of specific prophecies, until around the year 1800. Study Britain’s history and you see that the foundations for its rise as an empire were built over time. Those sitting on the British throne are descendants of the royal line of King David of Israel. (This is also proven in The United States and Britain in Prophecy.) It was under the reign of Queen Elizabeth i that the British Empire began to take shape as part of the fulfillment of those promises.
God had big plans—world-ruling plans—for Britain in these latter days. Is it possible that, in order to help Britons in that task, God would do all He could to enable them to become educated? I think God would give His birthright nation who had David’s throne a royal education to give it every opportunity to do great things with the empire. It was, after all, an empire that reached out to the whole world! It is logical to me that God would want Britons to be able to think and conduct themselves as true leaders, and that He would educate them for that role. God gave them the birthright, so wouldn’t He want to help them in other ways?
I believe God had a hand in the life of William Shakespeare for that purpose. This man lived during the reign of Elizabeth i, while this future empire was in its infancy. Yes, he was just a carnal man with many flaws, but when it came to his literary work, no author has been more venerated.
Imagine sitting down in the early days of that empire and, for entertainment, reading the works of William Shakespeare, a man who thought more deeply than any man in the British Empire. Do you think God might have had a hand in that? It seems logical to me.
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