Stephen
Terry, Director
Desire of Nations
Commentary
for the March 20, 2021 Sabbath School Lesson
"No one calls for justice;
no one pleads a case with integrity.
They rely on empty
arguments, they utter lies;
they conceive trouble and give birth to
evil.
They hatch the eggs of
vipers
and spin a spider's web.
Whoever eats their
eggs will die,
and when one is broken, an adder is
hatched.
Their cobwebs are
useless for clothing;
they cannot cover themselves with what they
make.
Their deeds are evil
deeds,
and acts of violence are in their hands.
Their feet rush into
sin;
they are swift to shed innocent blood.
They pursue evil
schemes;
acts of violence mark their ways.
The way of peace they
do not know;
there is no justice in their paths.
They have turned them
into crooked roads;
no one who walks along them will know
peace."
Isaiah 59:4-8, NIV
Two centuries have
passed since our nation tore itself apart in a bloody Civil War. Per the CNN
documentary, "Lincoln: A Nation Divided," during only three days of that war at
Gettysburg, approximately as many Americans died as during the entire two
decades of the Vietnam War. Yet, today, some glibly speak of bringing on a new
Civil War, parading the flags of that centuries-old conflict as an emblem of
honor rather than the monument to treason and murder of their fellow citizens
that it truly is. As shown by the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6,
2021, they would bring the bloody business to life again. These traitors
proclaim that blue lives matter as though they support the police while beating
a police officer to death. Had they been able to reach them, they would have
killed more. One officer they tried to crush in a door barely escaped with his
life. As Lincoln said in his second inaugural address, "Both parties deprecated
war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the
other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came." I pray
that two hundred years later, his words are not horribly prescient.
These individuals who
claim to be saving the country launched one of the most despicable attacks on
the very institutions of our democracy ever tried. With unabashed cheek, they
did so based on the lie of a stolen election, a lie that countless judges,
election officials and attorney generals decried for what it was, false. While
some try to claim that there was a biblical basis for their violence, a lie is not
from God or Christ. Christ himself tells us that lies originated not with God,
but with Satan.[i]
Ironically, the very scenes we saw played out in Washington, D.C. in January,
played out long ages ago in heaven. Based on the lie that God was exerting
unauthorized, tyrannical control over the beings of heaven, Lucifer began a campaign
of lies to win followers to his cause. Perhaps it was not hard to win others
over. Since lying began with Lucifer, who became known as Satan, the concept
would have been unknown to the rest of the heavenly beings. According to
Revelation 12,[ii]
he succeeded in convincing a third of the angels to rally to his banner before
God put an end to the insurrection. His following, strong as it was, could not
prevail against the loyal angels. He was cast out of heaven, along with all his
angels, and while this ended the insurrection in heaven, he brought his
campaign of lies and rebellion to the Earth. The very first act he carried out here
in Eden was to subvert with a lie the loyalty of mankind. The lies have been
unending ever since. Mankind's gullibility in the face of those lies has only grown
over time.
We may tell ourselves we would never believe a lie, but what if the lie was
based on what we erroneously believed to be true? What if we were already
suspicious about the motives of people from other countries or races and the
lie said that they had a secret agenda harmful to our interests? Would we fall
for it? What if, as Christians, we believed that certain activities were
sinful, and someone told us they would do something about it? Would we fall for
that lie? Would we continue to fall for it even if nothing they did produced
the promised changes? What if they said the only way to carry out the change
was to overthrow the government, would we do so? At what point does
Christianity say, "This is too far?" Is there a point that the Christian must
stand against the mob and disengage from the hostile, lying rhetoric and the
violence it births?
The history of this
entire hemisphere is written in rivers of blood shed for the effort to bring a
false religion of racial dominance to the heathen, indigenous people. We
exterminated them with the aphorism that the only good Indian is a dead one.
While doing that, we enslaved yet another race, torturing, raping, and murdering
with impunity, all the while claiming it to be a God-given right to do so. We
have done it for so long, and the tally of justice has piled so high against
us, rather than do what is right, out of fear, we double down like a desperate
gambler trying to avoid the consequences of his losses. But unlike the gambler,
who may make any number of excuses for his behavior, we try to claim a holy
justification for our behavior by pointing out the sins of others. Called "whataboutism"
because when confronted about our evil, we say but what about this other person
and what they did? It is like the magician who tries to divert our attention
elsewhere to perform their slight-of-hand "magic." But both the magician and
the sinner who do so are merely perpetrating a lie to cover their actions. But
we know where lies originate. We should not be taken in, even if it seems to
confirm our unwarranted suspicions.
Even as it did in
heaven, the foreseeable result of following the founder of all lies is
insurrection, violence, and death as was shown in the American Civil War, and
more recently in the Capitol Insurrection. When things are not progressing as
we think they should, we take up arms and destroy one another. The banner that
says "Love One Another" gets trampled in the dust to be replaced by one that
says "Don't Tread on Me." The Kingdom of God, a kingdom of peace, love, and
compassion for one another is not as compelling to us as one based on
bloodshed, so we beat the plowshares into swords and the pruning hooks into
spears,[iii] little realizing that, as
the prophet Joel points out we are hastening the day we will be judged in the
Valley of Decision for the lies we have fostered and spread.
But there is hope for
those who do not choose such a bloody and vain path. Christ, the Prince of
Peace and Desire of Nations will come. What took place in heaven will be repeated
on Earth as the usurpers, those who teach and follow the lie, will be cast out
once again.[iv] However, this time, unlike
the time that cast them into an Edenic Earth, they will have nowhere left to go
in God's creation. They will be brought to an end. The affliction they brought
to this world will not rise a second time.[v] When Christ died upon the
cross, he showed the lengths that liars will go to in opposing humility, empathy,
and service. The lie was exposed so that all could clearly decide whether they
would believe and follow the lie or turn away from what the lie promised and be
restored to all that we were created to be. Those possibilities Jesus modeled
and taught for three and a half years of ministry recorded in the gospels. His Sermon
on the Mount, recorded by Matthew in chapters five through seven, tells us of
the principles of God's Kingdom, principles that are largely the opposite of
what most of the world attempts to teach us.
The world demands we
jump on the rat-race wheel to chase the golden carrot. We are taught that he
who has the most gold wins. If others get trampled under our scampering feet,
too bad for them. Eventually. We reach the end of life exhausted, worn out by
the struggle. We may find out too late that the race was rigged from the get-go.
Others, believing the lie, may pledge the golden carrot they expect to get as
surety to have things they want now. Too late, they discover that debt shackles
them so that they can no longer keep up with the race. Life becomes a draining
burden to so many rat-racers. But Jesus promised a better way. Instead of focusing
on that dangling carrot, he urged us to forget about that. Let God take care of
our needs. Look to others instead to find ways to serve them. In that service,
he will replace our struggle with his peace. He tells us "Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."[vi] Who would not desire that?