When Governments Fail: Abraham Saves Five Governments (from four others)
But where is brother Lot?
"Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men" (Mt. 5:13)
“And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich” (Gen. 14:22-23).
"For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds" (2 Peter 2:8).
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With Melchizedek that makes 10 kings in all, so it would be more proper to speak of The Church and the Governments. If your church needs government funds apply here. There should be enough here for everybody (five government treasuries here), and Abraham is in a position to deal. If you need a government bailout--rather, if your governments need a Church bailout--hear the nine gladdest words in the Hebrew language: "I'm from the non-government, and I'm here to help." Yesterday, he set the superpower Babylon and 3 allies straight--this was as close to a world war as it got in those days--and after processing these next five, he'll be ready to resume his own work: not "staggering" while waiting for the next Promise. All in a pilgrims day. Ask not what Governments can do for you, but ask rather what you can do for Governments. He could have set Brother Lot up for life so he could sit in his own "gate." He gave it all back and went his way as if nothing happened. Just another day of "not being weary in well doing," "until the saints may rest from their labors." No more than another day of walking with God. If they thank him, good. If not, he would do it all over again.
The Book of Judges is salted from beginning to end like this. Samuel (the last and most powerful judge) had power a king could only dream of. He defeated the Philistines with thunder (1 Sam. 7:10), and city elders trembled at his approach (1 Sam. 16:4). But they wanted celebrity. At the height of Abraham's triumph, preacher Melchizedek shows up to celebrate with a prayer meeting. The foolishness of preaching "in the king's dale." Celebrity kings do not celebrate, they are the celebration. Samuel had kingly results, but he did nothing for national pride. They would have drooled over General Bobby E. Lee and his movie-ready uniform. Lot still preferred the glory of these kings. Meanwhile, Abraham went back to wait in his humble tent once more. This is the world upside down, "to them that perish foolishness." "We agree with everything you say," Israel would reply, "but still, why not make it even better. That's why everyone has a king." "But God is your king," Samuel said. "And that's all well and good, but it only goes so far, as far as that goes, and at the end of the day, there's a place for big government." They got it in spades with Solomon, who split the kingdom in two because (as they told his son) they wanted small government, and ended up with two--they never got smaller. Good came of it in that they each had to keep a set of books which ended up giving us a bigger Bible. Jonah's whale and Elijah's "chariots of fire" are from the church that split North. But the Northern Convention also gave us Bethebel. Her daughter Athaliah married a king of the South, and almost wiped out the entire Messianic line. How she managed not to make it into the Book of Revelation--but perhaps her mother was enough for both of them. Hebrews lists a number of faith judges, but slams the door on all the kings save David who was "a prophet" (Acts 2:29), and would have made a better judge than king. Godly Uriah would have lived to have children, who may have become judges. God's Program was on track when they decided to switch. The Book of Judges went out on a high note--and alas, Israel sunk in the quagmire of politics. John Baptist picks up where Samuel left of ("I will give thee Judges as at the first")--because the Kingdom of God moves only on preaching: "by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved (Hos. 12:13). "God manifests His word through preaching" (Tit.1:3).
Melchizedek, the preacher-priest, could have given Lot excellent counsel. But he was not done with the city yet. It looked too good not to be true. When the Apostles asked Jesus if His new program would "make Israel great again" (Acts 1), the last thing on their minds was the humble stewardship of Judge Samuel. A "kingdom," in their mind, needed a king, who did what kings do: "go out before us, and fight our battles" (1 Sam. 8:20). They still didn't get it. "Abraham saw His day and rejoiced." The Apostles still didn't see now what he saw back then.
Sheep among Wolves
Abraham’s great concern, when he left the protection of city life, was that he was entering a jungle of anarchy. Cain, the fugitive (Nod in Hebrew) solved that problem for himself by imposing his will on fellow Noddites (everyone outside of God’s presence, Gen. 4, is a Noddite--today everything outside of the regenerate church is outlaw Nod--all the nations of the world constitute one big Mafia--the entire globe is Occupied Territory) by converting the Mark God gave him for protection, into the insignia of the State, to symbolize the monopoly of violence on which civilization (cities) rest. "War," says Clausewitz, "is politics by other means," and politics is violence without bloodshed. This is the genius of Cain. He organized criminals ("the land of Nod"), compelled them to obey a few select laws by threatening them with the sword, and called it citification (our word civilization). Abraham lived in this environment until God called him to abandon it. Still, cities were unavoidable, and Abraham felt compelled to half-lie in order to survive.
Abraham knew that Cain had not changed his spots. He feared for his life. You are safe in Cain's domains as long as you do as you're told. Beyond that, he sees it within his rights to stick a knife in you (see "four kings with five" trying to kill each other for no other reason but that they try to kill each other, because they thought nothing of killing one another, Gen. 14.9). Men of honor, or gentlemen, have little else to do but engage in the sport of kings. When Robert E. Lee was offered command of the Norther Armies he recoiled in horror at such a wicked thought: that a devout Christian would draw his sword against his own kinfolk (Virginia). Not for one second did he entertain the thought that he should not fight at all. He was considered the most capable soldier in the nation. War is what he did. War was his calling, and he killed for the glory of God. And you expect him to sit out what was the opportunity of ten lifetimes to put his talents on display and ride into the history books like Napoleon? And watch from the sidelines while two-bit generals make a mess of it? He knew he was destined for the history books. He would have considered the thought of not "doing his Christian duty" blasphemous and heretical, an affront to the memory of his Calvinistic forefathers who shed their blood to save the Church. "War," Calvinist Stonewall Jackson said, "was his calling." Grant and Sherman ("War is [the altar of] Hell") knew what war was, and had nothing but contempt for those who used the language of the Bible to Christianize it. The North envied the South its "galaxy of celebrity Generals," and never forgave Grant and Sherman for their ungentlemanly manner in dishonoring war (a hair from Jackson's horse's tail brought $10 up North--he was the Napoleon the North could only dream of). When Lincoln called on victorious Grant to assume control of Northern Armies, northern newspapers sniffed, "But Grant hasn't met Bobby Lee yet." We'll see what he's made of when he meets a real star quarterback. Until the late 80's you will have seen saintly Bobby Lee on his even saintlier horse, Traveler, in grade school books. Grant's mugshot across the page portrays a disheveled drunk, the opposite of a "Christian gentleman." Bobby Lee was camera ready. If Northern sons needed killing at least let them be killed in style. Their rapidly filling graveyards were his trophies. They drooled over "Bobby Lee." As the death toll mounted, Abraham Lincoln became obsessed with Christ's saying "It is necessary that offences come." The Civil War was "the woe" of the second part the verse. The "offence" was slavery. Both were ordained of God, both the offence and the punishment. He didn't allow himself to contemplate that the war was the offence and that he would be the man to whom "woe" would come. He knew what lay there: an unimaginable horror, that when God ordained the sword (and war), He at the same time ordained the damnation of those who use it. Generals Lee and Jackson would have decried Lincoln's interpretation of the first part as blasphemy. Why? Because a Calvinist only does what is to the glory of God. War was a good like slavery under biblical conditions. To reproach devout Christians like Lee and Jackson of having any part in committing "offences" was slander. Luther and Calvin would have accused Lincoln of committing ignorant heresy in his application. A Christian, they rightly taught, must "avoid even the appearance of evil." And Lincoln charges them with an abominable "offence" here? His morbid obsession with his own involvement in committing such a horrible "offence" which lead to the "woe" of war, implicated the great stalwarts all the way back to Luther and Calvin. But Lincoln was convinced that the whole nation was involved in both the offence and woe. Lee and Jackson knew that "woe" had eternal significance and not temporal as Lincoln would have it. If his interpretation of meditated offences is true, Lee and Jackson would have replied, than the woes of the second part are inescapable. But the arguments for Just (Christian) War were designed to prevent precisely the darkness gripping Lincoln's soul. Lee and Jackson saw their killing as God's hand against evil, and even gloried in it. "Kill them all" was Jackson's refrain. The cause against evil demanded Northern deaths. How then could it be an "offence?"
Abraham saw heads of state as predatory alpha males (legal rapists) who gave themselves the right (outside of their domains) to “take wives of any woman that caught their eye" (Gen. 6:2). To be married as a pilgrim was dangerous. The legal cover behind this scheme is the old familiar one of Henry VIII, who after exhausting all the avenues of divorce, had the Archbishop Kramer find cause for capital punishment in his queens. Death ends marriage. With Abraham dead, Sarah would be free to remarry, and everything would be legal. So Abraham posed as Sarah’s brother. He didn't misjudge the danger. He found them to be legal rapists. But, as we see, no one was more concerned over the mothers of Israel than God Himself.
Abraham certainly (as Isaac afterwards) saw his marriage as a death sentence, and even after his wife was kidnapped, did not intervene. To do so would have meant certain death, he reasoned. Perhaps he expected God to save his wife's virtue in the end. But once in the harem, she would have been lost to him forever. But he would have saved his life. He saw the choice as between his life and his wife's virtue. Ironically, Lot, as a citizen of Sodom would be spared that choice. The city offered at least limited protection (as long as it was not conquered) of life. The danger to Lot's women lay elsewhere.
The Anabaptists knew they were exposing their children to great danger by making themselves vulnerable to State persecution. What would happen to their children if they suffered martyrdom? But the greatest legacy a child could receive is the testimony of a martyred parent. And the promises of God pass on to the tenth generation. The greatest blessing I received from my parents is the legacy that for 500 years there has been no shedding of blood at the hands of my forefathers. Throughout my life, I have considered God's protection in times of great danger in large measure due to His honoring the promises made to my forefathers. I feel blessed to see my own name written in the prison rolls of Alcatraz and Fort Leavenworth. If you scrub the dungeons of Alcatraz you will find my DNA there in blood and tears. If you scrub the cells of Fort Leavenworth you will find my DNA there, testimony to the righteous witness of my forefathers killed (once again) by the followers of Luther-Calvin-Catholic. Their crime? They would rather die than kill. Lutheran War I and Lutheran War II also bear witness--if God would allow Hell to take the stand and "open her mouth to blaspheme without measure." My forefather were killed almost to extinction, but, since I was a boy, hardly a day has passed when I did not think that somehow I made it through the centuries to bear witness. Christians often find reason to compromise for the sake of their families. No one cares more about the welfare of their families than God. Parents are to teach their children the ways of God and "make them wise unto salvation." The word martyr is simply the Greek word "witness" (as in Jesus the faithful witness or faithful martyr). Everyone who witnessed martyrdom saw its immediate effect on the spectators, and called them witnesses (martyrs). "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," Tertullian said. Greater witness they could not have.
Even after restoring the “kings of the plain,” Abraham still resorted to this ruse with the petty king Abimelech. Unafraid to go after the powerful kings of Babylon, he, nonetheless, twice bartered his wife to save his life. It goes without saying that men organize cities and courts to avoid just such dangers, and, barred from such, leaves you at their mercy.
Without a “continuing city” (organized state) men live essentially in the Book of Judges, almost unlimited freedom, but subject to having the enemy swoop in at any moment. It requires an ever watchful eye (“watch and pray”), and allows little time for the leisurely pastimes without which most people would consider life not worth living. Memories of “the fleshpots of Egypt” lingered in Israel to the extent that after 400 years of unlimited freedom, they threw in the towel and demanded a tyrant to keep them in line--and allow the pursuit of pleasure. Freedom is only possible by freemen voluntarily assuming unlimited responsibility, all the burdens of privilege with none of the perks or power. Israel never had a greater prophet than Samuel, and was never more victorious over her enemies. So why did they demand a king? They wanted the city back. They wanted civilization like normal people. They wanted to be "like the nations." But here Abraham has the nations at his feet. What is he to do, form a league of kings to keep them safe from the next attack? But how does Abel rule over Cain, which is what this would amount to. Lot shows what happens to a country when the church has a seat at Caesar's table, Abraham when "the salt hath not lost its savor." Abraham left Ur to become unlike the nations. Lot "vexed his righteous soul" trying to reconciled the two. He ended up in a cave.
Hanna, Boaz, Naomi, Ruth, Samuel, Jesse and David were, like Abraham, “strangers in the Land of Promise.” Without such people salting life around them, the system would devolve into chaos and anarchy. They more than make up for the kings. When Israel needed a godly judge, God raised up Hanna to pray for one. David would have taken over from Samuel. Bur Israel wanted to be under Big Government again. Samuel warned them that they would soon cry like they did in Egypt. And form here on it's politics 24/7. Solomon, their third king, split the kingdom in two with monstrous taxation. His son Rehoboam was left with the carnage. From here on, when they were not killing each other, they were "killing the prophets." Prophets were safe in the Book of Judges, because they were the rulers with all the responsibilities and none of the power. Big Government killed preaching by silencing the prophets, and made the church unpersecutable, because the kings now prevented God's rod of chastisement (the nations within) from reaching it's mark, until God had no recourse but the ultimate chastisement: the destruction of Israel. Ultimately then, the king protected them from God. "They rejected me," God told Samuel. They silenced the prophets by killing them, and hid behind the king to escape the rod of His anger. Once they installed the king, they put themselves out of reach. It took a superpower like Babylon to de-king them, and allow God to again bestow "judges like at the first." The New Testament begins where the Book of Judges leaves off. "I gave you a king in my anger and took him away in my wrath." That's God's commentary on the entire episode. Only King David (who was a prophet) makes it into the Book of Hebrews' roll call of faith. But count the number of judges from the Book of Judges. It may look like a shambling affair to human eyes, like the Church of the first three centuries which overwhelmed Rome before Constantine hijacked it. But God was happy with it. God did not want these kings ruling over his heritage.
You don't see the likes of Hanna, Boaz, Naomi, Ruth, Samuel, Jesse again until you get to the New Testament. You can either have Big Government (the soul killing machinery of endless religious bureaucracy) or large souls, but you cannot have both. The Tabernacle produced large souls. The Temple was Herod's chapel: Big religious Government. And Big religious Government goes hand in hand with Big Government, period. People become infantile, entitled, and incapable. As sheep get older and less vigorous they become more lamb-like. Religious bureaucracies are nursing homes, full of people incapable of thinking for themselves. Denominations become religious nanny states. The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the clergy and I'm here to help you. Lot's refined city was a shallow pit. He was vexed because it took with the right what it gave with the left.
This is the dilemma. How could such a marvel of human life fall so far short? Because Cain invented the Anti-Jerusalem. He bypassed the Kingdom of Patience (Rev. 1) for a fly-by-night contraption that is a counterfeit of the real. While Abel had just begun laying the foundations of Zion, Cain threw up Babylon overnight. Lot was vexed because he found Sodom to be the opposite of Zion, which his righteous soul longed for. Yet he found it irresistible. Remove civilization and leave only the church and what do you have? Genesis 5: "they lived and died." That's all the "sons of God" accomplished?" Noah built a huge boat--in the mountains--to benefit eight people. Meanwhile, great cities spring up in ungodly Nimrod's tracks. And Abraham wants to take the church back? Lot was not convinced.
No one understood the idea behind the city better than Abraham. He left the corrupt city of Ur in search of the Jerusalem that is above. Man was made to live in the city which he himself saw "afar off." But until he found his "continuing city," he had to wander "stateless" in the desert. By refusing to live in a house, he was telling the world that he "was seeking a country." This was strange behavior to most people. It was a painful choice, enough to make any man "stagger." But he was not vexed. Melchizedek would not have called "vexed" Lot "blessed." If you feel blessed, don't try to upgrade. As Melchizedek says, Abraham is blessed like God is blessed. You can't rise higher than that. Even in heaven there is no higher grade than blessedness.
But now Abraham was about to meet the kings of the plain in the “king’s dale" (the seat of Big Government), “leading captivity, captive.” What was he to do with a handful of kings? He had their people as well as their goods. He was in a position to dictate terms, maybe even President of kings. Never before or since was there such an occasion to make Canaan great--with brother Lot as Vice President. This was a reversal of colossal proportions. At just that moment another king swoops in to intercept him, the overwhelming presence of Melchizedek, the king of Salem, with a loud reminder that he was already “blessed” in that he served “the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth” (Gen. 14). The sudden appearance of this mysterious king completely transforms the situation, and while he prepares a festive “table in the presence of his enemies,” Abraham would have had time to reflect. This could not have been an accident. Abraham arose from the table with a stinging rebuke to the king of Sodom: you can add nothing to the man who serves the “God who possesses heaven and earth.” In fact, Abraham wants to make certain that Sodom can lay no claim on him whatsoever. Sodom had a lot more to gain from Abraham than Abraham from Sodom. And while Abraham restored the State, he made certain to keep his distance from it. He even intercedes some years later to save these very same kings. But he wanted them as far away from him as possible. He didn't leave the cities of his fathers to join these squabblers.
Righteous Lot saw all this. What must have gone through his mind? He had a keen eye for well watered plains to graze his numerous flocks, and knew full well all the advantages of the city to a man of ambition. “To the victor belong the spoils.” Here was an opportunity of a lifetime for a man who loved the life of the city. His wife, who had a fatal attraction to the city, would not have restrained him. Abraham was in possession of a hedge fund here.
But for a pilgrim determined to live in tents until he found his “continuing city,” the piled up wealth of the cities before him was no more than worthless baggage. A man who professes to serve “possessor of heaven and earth” already has everything “the possessor of heaven and earth” wants him to have. Abraham was already as rich as he wanted (or needed) to be. God was his king, and the fellowship of the saints was his civilization.
The Book of Judges already had a king (“God is your King”), and the presence of God was a token of the citizenship of heaven--that is if you have faith that “God is your king.” Carnal Israel demanded a king because the notion of God as King left too much to chance. Where is God, after all, when God can barely “find faith in all the earth?” “He that believeth in God must believe that He is?” In the moment of crisis do you really have time to go through all the arguments for the existence of God? They could not possibly spend their entire life “watching and waiting.” Abraham spent his entire life “watching and waiting.” For a man of little faith like Lot, this was the height of frustration. Frustrated in the desert, vexed in Sodom. Neither hot nor cold. Forever halting between two opinions, lukewarm. This is Lot in a nutshell. This is the Lot everyone who reads the Bible sees. And everyone can see where the problem lies. There is not a Christian who ever lived who does not see themselves fit to put backslidden Lot on the couch and give him sound counsel. He is that far beyond the pale.
But where do you begin if the “salt has lost his savor?” Can you re-salt the salt? How do you unvex Lot? He cannot dig in the desert, and why would a man qualified to “sit in the gates” beg? His shelf would be full of self-help books. He would take his high-priced stadium seat and plunk down hefty offerings beside other equally depressed travelers. His wife and children would be cause for great anxiety. But where do you begin here? His table is piled with glossy books--you can judge these books by their cover. His prospective son in laws are vain mockers. This can only get worse.
What would Abraham do? He knows perfectly well what Abraham would do. So he continues to bargain with his soul. He has many strings attached. He forever stands for the Christian who tests the uppermost limits of what you can get away with and still be called a Christian. He cannot embrace the city fully, and yet cannot let it go either. “His lifelong cry has always been: “Is it not a little one.” Can I at least have some of the things that a man cannot have in the desert? But none of the cities were little with Abraham. Abraham would not have allowed Lot to return to the fellowship with so much as a government shoestring. The possessor of Heaven and Earth does not run his kingdom on a shoestring budget. All the cities of the plan did not amount to a shoestring, much less "blessedness." That's how faith sees it. But Lot is about to be promoted to "the gates." What could go wrong?
to be continued