Assyrians Defeated but Babylon Triumphs
Isaiah 36-39 is a symbolic story for our time. The Assyrians are poised to conquer Judah, the godly king Hezekiah mourns, prays and seeks the prophetic word of liberation. In response the Lord slaughters the Assyrian army and miraculous delivers the nation. Then Hezekiah falls terminally ill and is told by Isaiah he will die. He cries out for longer life, the Lord “changes his mind” and adds 15 years to his life for which he is very thankful. During this life-extension Manasseh is born to Hezekiah, he will become the most wicked king in Judah and is blamed for the exile to Babylon (2 Ki 21:1-18). Then before Hezekiah dies he puts on show to ambassadors from Babylon all his treasures, and when told by Isaiah of their coming invasion he’s completely at ease. The seeds of national destruction were sowed by the selfishness of a “righteous king”. If the dreaded “Assyrians” have just suffered electoral defeat, without a much deeper repentance amongst Christians the Babylonians will soon be upon us. Why do I believe this?
Introduction
Many conservative believers are jubilantly declaring “the victory of the Lord” in the recent political contest. Whilst God is in charge of all things, and we should pray for a peaceable life (Rom 13:1-7; 1 Pet 2:13-17), this triumphalism spirit over the political realm hardly resonates with the priorities of the kingdom of God. Our Pentecostal P.M. is an affable, daggy, genuine, likeable suburban dad. But what did ScoMo actually mean when he said, “No, I don’t believe gay people, because they’re gay, will go to hell. I don’t need a law to tell me that. I don’t believe it.” This is a clever and ambiguous political answer, but I’m not sure it reflects the gospel. What is clear is that we’ve just been exposed to a spendathon dominated by issues of taxes and jobs, one appealing to material interests rather than higher values. This is of great concern, for I agree with John Wesley’s verdict, “I fear, wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion.” The love of money is an epidemic in our society and it sows “every kind of evil”, including in the Church (1 Tim 6:10). Mammon is an old idol, but a newer one has blinded many.
Worshipping Freedom of Religion
If you had a choice between freedom of religion and a zeal for God, what would you choose? Most of us have already chosen. Paul testifies differently, “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” (2 Tim 3:12). Persecuted Christians globally know an intensity of God’s presence we can barely imagine. Whilst understanding that the Roman Empire was not a democracy, the issue of praying for a pursuing the right to worship hardly surfaces in the book of Revelation. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a fine document, but in the end its humanism cannot equate to the right-eousness which is in Christ alone. The zeal which some believers are pursuing religious liberties here in Australia is often so intense that it seems to be, “without knowledge” (Rom 10:2). This has led to an obsession with politics which is both short sighted and misguided.
Cultural Influencers
Whilst many Bible-believers are focussed on politics and law in holding back the Green-Left tide, this side of the “culture wars” understands that the mindset of politicians, and others with power, isn’t generally formed by church attendance or private schools but by higher education, especially the humanities, the arts, media, entertainment and philanthropy. Without some sort of leavening of these spheres of culture, the tide will turn against godliness in an unprecedented and lasting manner. The influence of this lobby was manifest in the same-sex marriage plebiscite, which, unlike the recent election took financial remuneration out of the question (Matt 6:24). Can anyone imagine this ground-breaking moral legislation being overturned soon? There are further forms of spiritual blindness cloaking the Church.
Nation Worshipping
“How good is Australia! How good are Australians!…Australia is the best country in the world.” (ScoMo). Is this the voice of Jesus or what we want to hear? Apart from our gross hedonism, ask the First Peoples of the land, our 116,000 homeless, the languishing refugees in PNG and the swelling number of non-recipients of foreign aid about our national self-interest. God has indeed created a beautiful country blessed with a richness of natural resources. Our danger is that with a shortage of death-and-resurrection miracles in the Church we are tempted to glory in and naturalise the miraculous. “I’ve always believed in miracles” (ScoMo) is unbiblical vocabulary. With our popular religious naturalism looking more like America we glory in the external works of God rather than only in Christ crucified (Gal 6:14)
Beware Ambition
God elevated men like Joseph and Daniel to power without ambition. But I have never read that Scott Morrison’s leadership of Australia is anything other than the fruit of a burning ambition. Hardly unexpected, for such drives are “normal”, not just for politicians, but pervasive across the contemporary Church. ScoMo’s finance, trade, aid, immigration and military policies etc. are essentially secular. Which is not a problem as long as Christians don’t fantasise they are anything different. They are not holy.
Lazy Christians
No major party across the political spectrum will dare articulate the catastrophic spiritual truth, “Our prosperity is killing us.” (Steve Smith, later a missionary to Yemen). Our spirituality of self-concern mobilised to personal advantage at election time will continue to breed lazy Christians (Matt 25:26). Where do you find a serious long term prayer culture in a local church today? Until we are grasped by the revelation that real power belongs only to a slain and standing Lamb (Rev 5:6) i.e. crucified and risen, the attitudes of the Church, whether of right or left ideologies, are a tragic-comedy. Perhaps no one will actually believe any of this until the Babylonian destroyers are ravaging the temple of God. The Lord does seem to have only one lasting way of cleansing his people from idolatry.