I will start in a somewhat dignified manner, defining my terms and explaining carefully, but as I go along, I’m fairly sure I will break into something approaching a juicy (but jolly) jeremiad. This is because what I’m going to be explaining is an idolatrous shrine, and it’s hard not to start feeling something as you go along.

So here is my central claim: so-called “race realism” is the new liberalism. Just as the old liberals tried to adapt Christianity to Darwinism by saying “God did it” (so-called “theistic evolution”), these new liberals are trying to adapt Christianity to pagan theories of race and then baptize it by saying “God did it.” But you never fix your lies by putting them in the mouth of God. Aaron’s golden calf was not acceptable worship simply because he said, “Behold, your god who brought you out of Egypt.” In every case, it’s not Christianity; it’s a rival religion. It’s an idolatrous shrine that a bunch of fools are trying to roll into the sanctuary of God, like those Greeks did with that big wooden horse one time.

What Is “Race Realism”?

The general idea is that “race” is a biologically meaningful category, especially for traits like intelligence, temperament, and behavior, and that these biological markers are as determinative as environmental and social conditions, or more so. There’s a real range and a dimmer switch here. Some go in for the “curse of Ham” hogwash, and others just play footsie, flirting all around the edges of it, in what some of us have called “Revoice for Nazis.” 

Now, I doubt anyone denies that genetics play some role in human behavior. If that were all that was being said, we’d all be race realists and there’d be nothing to talk about. But like all liberals, they play on the ambiguities of their claims. It’s a classic motte-and-bailey: when challenged, they retreat to the harmless claim that genes matter somewhat, and when no one is looking, they march back out to claim that race is approaching destiny.

Missing Voddie

I posted a short video clip of Voddie Baucham last week that excited a few folks on X. The clip is classic Voddie on race, pressing the point that, biblically speaking, we are all part of one human race. Our genetics differ by a fraction of a percent, and the most obvious difference in appearance, the color of our skin, is just varying levels of melanin. And in his very-Voddie way, he encouraged all of us pasty-skinned folks not to think we were inferior just because we had less melanin than him. I posted that clip saying, “Man, I miss Voddie.”

And the howling began. Some insisted that this was a rare Voddie fail, except that anyone who has watched and listened to Voddie knows that this was a point he regularly made in his writing and speaking.

The more articulate among them cleared their throats knowingly and patted Voddie on the virtual head as a dearly departed brother (gotta decorate the tombs of the prophets, you know) and then claimed that Voddie was wrong because (checks notes) differences between the races have been taught for thousands of years of church history. Others bemoaned how they too had once thought like Voddie, but the differences between the races were just too overwhelming to deny. Even the gospel could not account for them.

Now, I’ll grant that you can find churchmen in the past who taught some form of racial hierarchy. You can also find churchmen in the past who taught that the sun revolves around the earth. Please think carefully.

America Is Not a “White” Nation

All of this is part of a broader push to identify America as a “white” nation. In another post, a liberal suggested that all the Christian Nationalists leave America and start their own white Christian nation, and one goober replied that we already did: it’s called America.

Now, on the surface, I don’t have any problem with identifying the founders of our nation as a bunch of white Christians. You can find many similar descriptions from the founding generations themselves. This was because (gasp) nearly everybody was a white Christian, and they founded a nation. The reason I call the man who posted it a goober is because he’s playing right into a broader narrative that pretends this “whiteness” was somehow intrinsic to the project and that this is still what America is or should be.

But the color of our skin and other biological markers were completely incidental to our success in the West. Our old Adamic pride always wants to take credit for some of it. But God was absolutely clear when He blessed Israel: He did not choose them because they were a great nation; He chose them when they were little and few, to prove the power of His love and covenant faithfulness (Deut. 7:7–8). And Paul makes the same point to the Gentiles in Corinth: God has not chosen the wise, the mighty, or the noble, but the weak and base things of this world to confound the wise and mighty, so that no flesh may glory in His presence (1 Cor. 1:26–29). America and the West have been great to the extent that we knew we were not special and that all we have is a gift of God’s grace. To claim that “whiteness” or “blackness” or the shape of your nose or forehead had anything to do with it is paganism, and it’s classic liberalism to try to insert that into God’s grace. 

The Yeah-Buts

Now, let me back up and address a bunch of the yeah-buts. Yes, I know that Democrats and RINOs have been intentionally flooding our nation with immigrants to dilute our broadly shared Christian culture. You can stand against that (as I do) and still not become a drooling race hustler. Though we wish the globalists hadn’t been stomping on the tube of immigration toothpaste for the last 30 to 50 years, we are not in a position to get most of that toothpaste back into the tube. I fully support efforts to close the borders and deport illegals, but it has nothing to do with the color of their skin.

Now, the based bros are quite excited because they have recently learned two Latin words: ordo amoris. And for the record, the ordo amoris is good and right. We have to order our loves biblically. We are finite creatures who cannot love infinitely like God, and therefore we must prioritize. A man who does not provide for his own household is worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim. 5:8). So we are required by God to love Him and our neighbor, and our closest neighbors are our families and our literal neighbors.

But the gospel really does reorient this duty. (Notice that I did not say obliterate or abolish.) Even pagans know that a man must care for his family first, but pagans don’t know that the church must be woven into this ordo amoris. I’m not saying that’s easy, and there really are some hard calls along the way, but a black Ethiopian Christian whose parents legally immigrated here 40 years ago is my neighbor, my countryman, and my brother in Christ. The ordo amoris is not pixie dust that you get to sprinkle over your folly and call it wisdom.

The Lust for the Same

A certain kind of infatuation with similarity, desperately wanting your grandkids to “look like you,” is yearning for a form of incest. If you really want them to look like you, you should marry your sister or your mom. It really is pretty gay. And yes, I’m talking about the silly lapel pins – but I also mean it literally: It’s a lust for the “same,” and that is the very same disordered desire at the root of sodomy: love turned inward on itself, refusing the God-given otherness that makes fruitfulness possible. 

The homo-globalists are bad enough, but you can’t put up a meaningful resistance by becoming a bunch of homo-nationalists. I’ve been happy to sign on to Christian nationalism because I insist that the adjective “Christian” do all the heavy lifting: defining what a nation is, how it functions, and so on. But I appreciate the warnings of friends who have insisted that the pagan roots of “nationalism” will swallow up the “Christian” part, which is exactly the liberal play being attempted here.

Covenantal Realism

The Bible recognizes nations, and guess what the word for “nations” is? It’s ethnos, from which we get the word “ethnicity.” But you don’t get to insert into that word whatever you think it means, like those sick “doctors” pumping estrogen into teenage boys.

The based bros’ favorite verse here is Acts 17:26, where Paul says God determined the times and the bounds of every nation’s habitation. Amen. But read the first half of the verse: God “hath made of one blood all nations of men.” The same sentence that establishes the nations grounds them in a single blood. That was Voddie’s point. Paul is preaching against the proud Athenians, who boasted that they had sprung from their own soil, and he levels them with the rest of mankind before he ever mentions their borders. We’re far more alike than different.

What binds ethnicities together in God’s world is covenant. Covenant includes blood, but it is far more than blood. It includes oaths and promises; it includes marriage and children; it includes places and land and customs and history. And the Bible clearly teaches that these different ethnicities are real but also highly permeable. I guess I’m a “covenantal realist.”

Time Would Fail Us

God’s covenant with Abraham explicitly included the foreigners in his household: the sign of circumcision was given to every male “bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed” (Gen. 17:12–13). When Israel left Egypt, a “mixed multitude” went up with them (Ex. 12:38), and Moses himself married a Cushite woman, whom Aaron and Miriam objected to, dabbling apparently in proto-Kinism (Num. 12). God struck Miriam white with leprosy for it, which is kind of funny if you think about it.

Even in the conquest of Canaan, as evil as the Canaanite tribes were, Rahab the harlot and her family were saved, and she became the mother of Boaz. It was not genetic or biological markers that were passed down through those Canaanite tribes; it was moral, covenantal rebellion. It was the sin of Adam that flows in all our veins. And of course there was Ruth the Moabitess, who became the great-grandmother of King David, and time would fail us to tell of Caleb the Kenizzite, Jael the Kenite, Uriah the Hittite, Ittai the Gittite, the Queen of Sheba, Naaman the Syrian, Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, Darius the Mede, the Ninevites who repented, the Magi, the Samaritan woman, and the Ethiopian eunuch.

The point here is not that God doesn’t recognize different nations, with biological similarities that tend to develop over time, different cultural expressions, and different tendencies to sin or righteousness. He does, and they do. Did you catch that? He does, and they do. But He does so by virtue of His covenants. Nations relate to Him as covenanted peoples: covenanted in Adam, covenanted in Noah, and then through a myriad of other covenantal dealings, including marriage and family covenants, national and economic covenants, and so on. This is not “pure nature” (whatever that is); this is covenanted nature, everything relating to the Triune God personally, either pleasing Him or not. And that is the decisive thing. That is what all of those foreigners in Israel’s history show us: the key thing is repentance and faith in Christ.

And no, regeneration does not obliterate ethnic differences or put them all into a blender. Not all cultures and ethnicities will work well together immediately. But true conversion means they are on that path.

Neither Jew nor Greek

Finally, the attempt to shove ethnic difference into the same category as sexual difference is like trying to put diesel in your unleaded engine. That dog won’t hunt. And this really is the clearest example of the inverted liberal exegesis at work.

The liberals took a verse about the equality we share in Christ, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28), and said, look, slavery and racism are abolished, therefore so are sexual differences, and presto: egalitarianism! And thoughtful, Bible-believing Christians said, wait a minute, the same Paul who wrote this also said that wives must submit to their own husbands and that it is shameful for a woman to speak or exercise authority over men in church. But the homo-nationalists, apparently listening to the liberals intently and scribbling notes furiously, said, wait a second, that means slavery and racial divisions are good too!

Both sides have accepted the same premise: that the three pairs in Galatians 3:28 are the same kind of thing and must stand or fall together. The liberals knock all three down; the homo-nationalists prop all three up. This is what’s known in middle school logic classes as the fallacy of false equivalence.

But these are three different kinds of divisions. 

Sexual difference is permanent and rooted in creation. God made them male and female before the fall, and when Paul teaches male headship, he never grounds it in culture or custom but in the order of creation: Adam was formed first, then Eve (1 Tim. 2:13; 1 Cor. 11:8–9). Christ redeems creation; He doesn’t abolish it. So in Christ, men and women are equally heirs of the grace of life, and men are still men and women are still women.

Slavery is a product of the fall. Scripture regulates it, restrains it, and condemns its worst forms (manstealing is a capital crime in Ex. 21:16 and is listed among the lawless in 1 Tim. 1:10), but God never instituted it. Paul tells slaves to gain their freedom if they can (1 Cor. 7:21) and tells Philemon to receive Onesimus back “not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.” The gospel slowly leavens that institution out of existence.

Ethnic difference comes through Babel and the scattering of the nations, a judgment that was also a mercy. And in Christ, ethnic difference is neither erased nor ranked; it is redeemed. At Pentecost, the curse of Babel is reversed, not by making everyone speak one language, but by every man hearing the gospel in his own tongue (Acts 2:6–11).

So those are three different kinds of divisions. You are not a Bible-believing “anti-egalitarian” simply because you found a church father sounding like biology is a significant factor in destiny. You might actually be an anti-realist while calling yourself a “race realist.” What I mean is that race is as real as God says it is, and not a bit more.

Conclusion

There is no room before God for white pride or black pride. There is no room for white masochism or black masochism. America has murdered more than 60 million babies and counting, and the Supreme Court justice who has most consistently and vehemently condemned that atrocity is a black man. Blood never saved anyone, except the blood of Jesus. But blood can certainly damn – and Adam’s has. 

But the blood of Christ is what is gathering the nations. John saw the end of history: a great multitude that no man could number, “of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,” standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Rev. 7:9). Their differences are still visible. They are not ranked, and they are not erased. They are singing (in harmonies we cannot imagine). That is what “race” is for, and that is where all of this is going. Any “realism” that can’t sing that song isn’t realism at all.

This section of Psalm 16 presents two right hands: David’s right hand and God’s right hand. David says that he has set the Lord always before him, and therefore, the Lord is at his right hand, so he shall not be moved. Then the Psalm closes with David saying that God will show him the path of life – in His presence is fulness of joy – at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. 

Throughout the Bible, the right hand symbolizes strength and blessing. In the Exodus, Israel sang that it was God’s right hand that had become glorious in power; God’s right hand dashed the enemy in pieces (Ex. 15). God’s right hand caused the Egyptians to be swallowed up. Later, Scripture says that the fiery law was given on Mt. Sinai by God’s right hand (Dt. 33:2). And many times in the New Testament, Jesus is said to have been raised from the dead and He sits at God’s right hand. As Psalm 16 insists, at God’s right hand are pleasures and blessings and strength forever. 

But the task of evangelical faith is to constantly make sure that God is at our right hand. This means that God’s plan is the best one. His right hand is always right. And faith submits our plans to His plans; faith submits our right hand to His right hand. 

Nowhere is that more important than when Christians face death itself. And that is what this Psalm does. David says that the Lord is at his right hand, and therefore his heart is glad and his flesh rests in hope. David knows that his soul is safe even in death, and he will not be abandoned to the grave. This is because God’s Holy One will not see corruption. As the apostles pointed out in the New Testament, that can’t be talking about David since he died and his body did decomposed, like all ordinary human bodies do. Yet they pointed out that Jesus went into the grave, but His body did not see any corruption. On the third day, He rose from the dead, alive forever. And that is how we know that at God’s right hand are pleasures forevermore. This is the path of life. At God’s right hand is Jesus, the resurrection and the life. At God’s right hand is the fullness of joy. 

When old, blind Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons just before he died, Joseph tried to set his older son in front of Jacob’s right hand to make sure he received the greater blessing as the firstborn, but Jacob crossed his hands at the last minute and set his right hand on the younger son’s head. Of course Joseph objected, but Jacob knew what he was doing. He had wrestled with God his entire life, and he knew that he served the God of plot twists and surprise endings. But he also knew that even though God sometimes crosses His hands, His right hand is still always full of blessing. 

And so that is our sure and certain hope here today. God, in His infinite goodness and wisdom, has crossed His hands, by taking this little child to Himself sooner than we expected or hoped, and we are tempted to object. But because of the resurrection of Jesus, we are absolutely certain that this little one is safe in His presence experiencing the fullness of joy, beyond what we can imagine, pleasures forevermore. God has crossed His hands, but His right hand is still full of blessing and strength and pleasures forevermore because Jesus is at His right hand, and we have set Jesus at our right hand, so that we shall not be moved. 

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. 

Prayer: Father, I ask that You would impress upon us this morning Your wonderful, sovereign love. I pray that it would be potent in our lives, in our marriages and families and community, for Jesus’ sake, Amen. 

Introduction

A version of Psalm 18 is also found in 2 Samuel 22 right before the last words of David, at the end of his life, and so the title is often taken to be referring to the rest he enjoyed at the very end of his life. 

When David looked back over his life, what did he see? What did he think? Even though he was aware of things that were not right (2 Sam. 23:5ff), his main thought was that he loved the Lord because He had been so faithful through all the storms and battles and therefore David sings. This Psalm opens with David’s love for God and closes with God’s love for David. 

The Text: “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said, I will love thee, O LORD, my strength…” (Ps. 18:1-50)

Summary of the Text

Psalm 18 opens with a jubilant cry of love and praise because God is his rock and deliverer (Ps. 18:1-6). David describes God’s deliverance as a terrible storm that simultaneously scatters and terrifies his enemies and saves him and puts him on solid ground – like a combination of the Flood, the Exodus, and Jonah all wrapped into one (Ps. 18:7-19). David sings that God’s deliverance is proof of God’s assessment of him – that he is righteous and clean in his sight (Ps. 18:20-28). He describes God’s deliverance again but this time in terms of actual battle – this was how God’s storm appeared and saved him (Ps. 18:29-42). Finally, David sings that this is how God will subdue all his enemies, showing mercy (covenant lovingkindness) to His anointed (Messiah), to David’s seed forever (Ps. 18:43-50). 

God’s Judgement as Salvation

God’s judgement is described here as a terrible storm: earthquakes (Ps. 18:7), lightning and wildfires (Ps. 18:8), deep dark clouds and hurricane winds (Ps. 18:9-10), torrents of rain and hail stones (Ps. 18:11-12), terrifying thunders and lightnings and hail (Ps. 18:13-14), and fierce flooding (Ps. 18:15). 

But what is remarkable is that David sings that in that terrible storm God sent from above and took him and drew him out of many waters and delivered him and brought him out and set him on a broad and solid place (Ps. 18:16-19). 

We serve the true Storm God – every detail of every inch of wind and waves and lightning obey Him perfectly (1 Kgs. 18:38, 45, Ps. 46, Ps. 107:25, Mk. 4:41). His judgments fall with laser precision and perfect justice (Gen. 18:23ff). This is why David loves God: because of God’s amazing love for him. And this includes all kinds of storms: political/cultural storms, medical/health storms, and family/marriage storms. But if you know Christ, Christ is with you in the boat. This is the love of God for you. 

Standing in Grace

David says that God has dealt with him according to his righteousness (Ps. 18:20-25). God’s precision care demonstrated God’s assessment of him – righteous and blameless. How is this possible for a fallen, sinful creature to sing? David hints at the answer: with the purified, God shows Himself pure (Ps. 18:26), He saves the humble (Ps. 18:27), and God is His light (Ps. 18:28). How can a man be pure? Through humble confession of sin and walking in the light of forgiveness (1 Jn. 1:7-9). David’s righteousness, in other words, is a gift, but it is a true gift. True humility accepts this gift. It would be weird to receive a gift for your birthday and then to keep going around saying that it isn’t really yours. Of course it would be equally weird to pretend you got it all by yourself. 

Paul makes the same point in Romans: Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, and we stand in grace (Rom. 5:1-2). God’s grace in Jesus Christ is not merely a shelter we stand under (sort of cowering). We stand in grace and rejoice in hope of the glory of God – not only that, we rejoice even in our suffering (in the storms), knowing that God is working character and virtue into us and we will not be put to shame (Rom. 5:3-5). Grace is the most solid rock. Grace is God Himself with you and for you. This is why David sings, “By You I can run through a troop and by my God, I can leap over a wall” (Ps. 18:29). God and His grace is David’s strength and armor (Ps. 18:30-42). So of course he sings. He loves God because God loves him. 

Conclusion & Applications

This is why worship is warfare – our Lord’s Day worship here but also singing Psalms around your dinner table and in the car. Never forget that as we read and sing the Psalms, the Bible teaches that these are the “words of Christ” – the Songs of Christ, dwelling in us richly with all wisdom (Col. 3:16). 

There is a difference between merely “going to church” or “doing family worship” and aiming your weapon into the storm, singing into the storm – this is the faith that overcomes, faith that expects to see God’s steadfast love to us and to our children forever in Christ in your life, in your story. When the storm clouds get dark, do you panic or do you sing? If His words are in us, then He is with us, and our enemies will submit or fade away (Ps. 18:44-45). He sings and fights for us (Zeph. 3:17). 

This is not a limp or tentative faith; it is a living faith that works by love. David knows that it is God who upholds him, God who lights his lamp, God whose storm is scattering all his enemies, and therefore, David is active. David is singing and working, singing and fighting. Why? Because Christ is. This is what love does: it imitates, it obeys from the heart, with a song. We are all called to this kind of love, and parents, you are required by God to teach this to your children, and the most important way you teach this is by doing it. 

Prayer: Father, please cause Your Spirit to confirm Your great love for us so that we may have that kind fiercely singing and working love. Guard us from trying to gin this up on our own; turn our eyes to Jesus. And so we pray as He taught us…

Prayer: Father, teach us to pray and live with the right kind of urgency. Guard us from presumption and apathy and despair. Give us true faith that believes Your Word and claims Your promises, and asks great things with great confidence – and so be pleased to send Reformation and Revival on our land, in Jesus name, Amen.

Introduction

Psalm 17 is an urgent prayer for a judicial vindication in the face of false accusations and persecution – perhaps while David is on the run from Saul. While David knows that his ultimate peace and satisfaction will come in Heaven and at the resurrection, this does not make him apathetic or ambivalent about his enemies; it makes him the right kind of urgent, the right kind of persistent. 

The Text: “A Prayer of David. Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips…”

Summary of the Text

David prays that God would hear his just cause – literally his “righteousness” and that a verdict would come directly from God, who is the perfect standard of justice (Ps. 17:1-2). And in this appeal, David swears that he is the innocent party; and despite the actions of men, God’s word has guarded him from taking up the tactics of his enemies – he has not returned evil for evil (Ps. 17:3-4). Therefore, David prays that God’s vindication would be his preservation – saving him from his enemies and guarding his path by His marvelous covenant-mercy – like at the Red Sea crossing (Ps. 17:5-7). 

David appeals to God’s own covenant identity with him – to keep His people as the apple of His eye and under the shadow of His wings – which means an attack on him is an attack on God Himself (Ps. 17:8, cf. Dt. 32:10-11, Acts 9:4). David finds himself surrounded by violent and arrogant enemies, enclosed in their own fat (i.e. heartless), who are hunting him like hungry lions (Ps. 17:9-12). So David’s prayer is that God would arise and run out in front of him and fight for him against these men of the world, who seem to be enjoying their lives, even the gifts of children and generational longevity (Ps. 17:13-14). But David asks for this knowing that these troubles are only for a moment, and when he wakes up in glory, he will see God’s face and be like Him (Ps. 17:15). 

Unfeigned Lips

One of the striking lessons of the psalms is the objective righteous status of God’s covenant people. The Psalms know man’s intrinsic guilt in Adam (Ps. 14:1, 51:5), but the Psalms also know God’s covenant mercy – that those who know that their only good is in God’s grace – are reckoned righteous (justification) and have begun to be conformed to that righteous status (sanctification). And David appeals to that righteousness here when he insists that God has tested his heart and examined him and could find nothing to charge him with (Ps. 17:3). This is an astounding thing to pray. Elsewhere, the psalmist acknowledges, “if thou shouldst mark iniquities, who could stand?” (Ps. 130:3) Therefore, biblical fidelity must hold these two things together: considered only in ourselves, we have nothing to stand on and God could find plenty to sentence us to Hell, but considered in Christ, we stand on a solid rock that cannot be moved and we must learn to pray that in Christ, God cannot find any sin. 

The key here is an honest commitment to dealing with every sin in Christ – confessing every sin we know about, having a truly clean conscience – those are unfeigned lips. And since this is God’s righteousness that is at stake, David pleads urgently for God to act. Do you pray like this?

True Enemies

Far too many Christians have been lulled into a spiritual lethargy by teachers and preachers who downplay the idea of enemies. But the Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation there is a great war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). And here David teaches us to see and appeal to God for vindication from our enemies in this world. Our enemies are all of those in rebellion against the God of Heaven – knowing full well that we were all once in that position (Rom. 5:10). And therefore, we must fight our enemies bound by God’s law and not take up the tactics of darkness (Ps. 17:4) – we are not to return evil for evil but we are to overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21) – but this doesn’t’ merely mean making them cupcakes – it can also include good legislation, good lawsuits, good arguments, good mockery and jokes, and good works of every sort. But when they attack us, they are attacking God, and therefore the cruelty and violence of our enemies heightens our urgency for God to act. And we should tell God about their cruelty in our prayers. (“They are murdering babies; they are mutilating the bodies of confused children; they are plundering the houses of orphans and widows…”)

Some translations have David praying that God would rise up and deliver him with His sword/by His hand (Ps. 17:13-14), but the Hebrew suggests that the wicked is God’s sword/hand. David could have Saul in mind who turned into an enemy, but who was also in fact God’s anointed (bearing God’s sword) (Rom. 13:4). This also underlines the urgency – God’s sword in this world is supposed to execute justice, but when it is turned to evil, it does great harm (Eccl. 8:11). David is pointing out that God’s justice is being perverted. 

Applications

David also points out that these wicked men seem to be enjoying God’s good gifts in this life (Ps. 17:14). On the one hand, we know that God is that kind of generous to the good and the evil (Mt. 5:45). And we know that these gifts are meant to be burning coals on their heads (Rom. 12:20-21), convicting them of their sin – a form of grace, we are called to imitate (Mt. 5:46). 

But it seems likely that David is also raising this as an argument for why God should act now. There comes a point where it really is subsidizing evil (2 Chron. 19:2, Eph. 5:11, 2 Thess. 3:10-15). Of course, God knows that point perfectly, but we need to learn to pray and plead with God to remember this. 

Nevertheless, David knows that when he awakes, he will see God’s face in perfect “righteousness.” He knows that he will be completely satisfied. David asks for justice with absolute confidence that God is perfectly just. When He gets to Heaven he will see with his own eyes perfect justice. This is the right kind of urgency: it cries out to God for justice because of His righteousness and because of the horrific evil of our enemies and their complacency – the current contradictions we see in this world. And it is utterly certain that Heaven will reveal a righteousness that solves these contradictions beyond all satisfaction. 

Husbands, a particular application of this is found in 1 Pet. 3:7: “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” Your job is to listen and love and lead in imitation of our faithful God – knowing that your prayers will be heard like that. 

But this text says that as you lean-in to know your wife, to honor her, you will learn to pray rightly and you will be assured that your prayers are heard. Don’t be functional Deists, picturing an aloof who God is far off. Picture the Triune God who sent His Son, who sent His Spirit, who hears and acts. 

Prayer: Father, we want to apply this message now, and so we plead with You to look down upon our situation, where our enemies surround us, taunting Bible-believing Christians, threatening to take our children, seeking to corrupt them with perversion and confusion, and they accuse us of hate and bigotry and violence, but we are innocent of these false accusations, and we are Your righteous ones – not in our selves, but in Your perfect Son, Jesus, and so we are bold to ask for you to act now for us. Vindicate Your name which You have placed upon us and demonstrate to the world that You are God and there is no other, and we pray this knowing that in only a blink of an eye, we will wake up in Your glory and see Your face, and so we pray, as Jesus taught us…

While Wiley suggests that he is a glass half-full kind of a guy, I think his real gift is a prophetic eye for seeing the ways in which things can go (or have gone) wrong. I mean, he’s a relatively cheerful cynic, but he’s at his best when he’s pointing out threats and liabilities — what we have lost, or what we are potentially in danger of losing. While he affirms his postmillennial bonafides at the end of the book, he does so by citing Jonathan Edwards dying of an experimental smallpox vaccine — again, pro-future, but not a sentimentalist — a keen eye for how things can go sideways. 

As with good conversation partners, the fun is in the friendly back and forth — the what-a-bouts, what-do-you-means, etc. 

So here are a few thoughts and questions that I have been chewing on, stimulated by Chris’s book. 

Derivative & Digital
First, what does it mean that what men make is less real? I know what Plato and the Greeks seemed to mean by it, and I know that Christians have played with this notion as well. And maybe time has something to do with it. Maybe our creations are more provisional — they take longer to establish their reality. But I do wonder if perhaps some of what is manmade will last and be granted a sort of honorary status alongside the things that God has made. Something like this seems to be implied in the creation narrative, when God, having created and named, turns and asks Adam to begin naming the animals. While Adam is not creating ex nihilo, he is in some sense joining in God’s creative work. Tolkien called us “sub-creators.” Or what does it mean that the kings of the nations will bring their treasures into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24)? This was implied by the rough map God drew for Adam in the garden: four rivers leading to different lands, with treasures down the rivers. Man’s work was designed by God to make/build/invent, and while it is certainly derivative, some of it is worthy to bring back to God.   

If language is the fundamental type of this imitation (naming), perhaps this maps onto the analogue vs. digital distinction Wiley discusses. I wonder if what we’re learning is a new language (digital) that is better for some things and worse for others. Language has more literal modes and more metaphorical modes. Analogue is a more literal, continuous mapping of the world, whereas digital is more metaphorical, representing a particular shape of reality. As we have descended into our postmodern trash heap, if you try to explain everything by use of metaphor, you descend into meaninglessness (including your claim that everything is metaphor). The same thing would be true of digital. Some things need to be analogue. But everything depends on *what* it is we are talking about. It also depends on what our duties are in any given moment. Sometimes it would be degrading and disobedient to translate an analogue into a digital representation. God prohibits something like this for Himself in the Second Commandment: God is so glorious and other, He requires a perfect analogue, but all of our attempts are clunky digital representations and therefore are idolatrous. Only Jesus is the perfect analogue. And I would argue something analogous (ha) for replacing real flesh and blood preachers with digital/video sermons — in general, that’s an unhelpful downgrade. But sometimes, perhaps on the mission field or in evangelistic settings, obedience may require playing the video sermon as better than nothing.    

Manmade Holiness
We see something of this in the tabernacle and temple which are full of artistic works. On the one hand, there was no chisel heard near the building site of the temple (that probably indicates something about our topic), but clearly many tools and technologies were employed in the construction of these holy places. Gold, timber, bronze, metallurgy, architecture, sculpture, weaving, dyes, etc. And the point here would simply be to underline the possible connection between of manmade products and holiness. Holiness not only inhabits God’s creations, but the logic of redemptive history is that God’s holiness will also inhabit (some of?) man’s creations. God’s people were forbidden from making any kind of carved or molded image of God, but they were commanded to carve and mold other images to represent the holiness of God (e.g. cherubim, palm trees). 

Of course the golden calf is the great cautionary tale, and this lines up with the Babel temptation. Humanistic man is constantly tempted to consolidate power (Babel) and misuse the gifts of God (idols). This is why I think Wiley’s opening fable/parable about a world in which neuro-robots and demons/idols are indistinguishable is a very fair warning. I also appreciated his later story that pictured a thoughtful Christian family using AI/robots with care and discipline. But the story that was missing is the one in which Christians are thoughtfully using the new technologies for confident dominion and conquest, in which secular humanistic schemes are being undermined by intelligent Christians — or one in which we say God loves this. It is holy to Him. 

I’m thinking of the end of Zechariah’s apocalyptic prophecy, where he says everything in Jerusalem will be inscribed with “Holy to the Lord.,” not only the pots and pans but even the bells on the horses (Zech. 14:20). That’s remarkable. That’s human technology that God says is now “holy” to Him, set apart, sacred, and what is meant is that it is able (and fitting) to draw people closer to Him. I would argue that cars are certainly in that category now. If the bells on the horses alerted people to where horses and carriages and plows were and would one day serve holy purposes, how much more so automobiles carrying millions of people to their jobs, missionary work, and church every Lord’s Day? — and yes, even with their bells and alerts (although I would argue that the seatbelt alert seems rather Philistine).   

The Enoch Factor
Wiley argues that Christians must stay grounded in God’s creation and the reality He has made. All of our creative work must be done in humble submission to His original creative work. Our work must glorify and extend His creative work, not deform or modify with Babylonian hubris. As Lewis pointed out, humanistic hubris is ultimately a kind of animalistic self-destruction (think Nebuchadnezzar in the fields howling at the moon) — but this really can do a fair bit of damage before it completely unravels. Revelation says that those who are filthy will continue in their filthiness, and those who are righteous will continue in their righteousness. So evil men will grow in their evil, even if it will eventually sputter out. But God’s people were made to fight and resist that kind of madness — growing in wisdom and maturity. 

Many years ago, James Jordan wrote an essay called “The Enoch Factor,” in which he pointed out that because pagans are not bound by the law of God (or at least try to rebel against it) and are impatient people, they often build cities and invent technologies before God’s people (see Genesis 4). 

He writes: “For a variety of reasons, the heathen often make more rapid initial cultural gains than do the righteous. The heathen are willing to enslave other people to work for them. The heathen don’t take one day in seven to rest. The heathen expend no psychological energy in repentance and striving against sin. Thus, the heathen get there first. This is what I call “the Enoch Factor.”

We see the Enoch Factor in Genesis 4. Not only did Cain build the first city, but his descendants became “fathers” (experts, teachers) of the sciences of animal husbandry, music, and metallurgy. The first poem in the Bible is put on the lips of a descendant of Cain (Genesis 4:20-24).

The Enoch Factor means that very often great advances in technique (not in philosophy) come from pagan sources. Usually the heathen get there first, and then the believers come after.”

Unbelievers can sacrifice marriages and children for their careers. They can lie, steal, cheat, and kill to build their cities, make their discoveries, and craft their technologies and works of art. God’s people are called to take dominion and be creative, but we are required to honor God’s law at every step of the way, and to even retrace our steps in repentance when something goes sideways. 

Pagans hand their kids smart phones when they are in elementary school and do not think about how to protect them from the dangers. Pagans have free access to internet and AI in every room in the house with no protections or accountability. Pagans build cities and practice the corporate theft of “eminent domain.” Pagans dive into in vitro fertilization and do not scruple the destruction of millions of tiny human beings. Pagans deform healthy bodies with plastic surgeries, sex change operations, and hormone therapies. 

But Christians understand the way God made the world. It takes time. It takes wisdom. Of course this can degenerate into cowardice and laziness. Christians must be courageous, bold, militant, and creative, but we must also honor God in all of our dominion pursuits. And this means honoring marriage vows, raising our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, telling the truth, refusing to steal, protecting all human life, and honoring the Lord’s Day. 

God made the world in such a way that it works best when we work and draw and invent in harmony with His canvas — with these limits firmly in place. But, and this is the part that takes faith, within those limits, Christians should go hard. Within those limits, Christians should go the hardest — with nuclear, with AI, with robots, with weather and fertility and the arts. 

Our Comparative Advantage
Maybe the sharpest, brightest dividing line in how Christians approach technology is the firm conviction that only the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ takes away human sin and corruption. Only His death and resurrection overcomes the curse of death. All the humanistic (and transhumanistic) attempts to achieve eternal life are clearly false gospels. Those are golden calves promising life and health without submission to Christ, but of course they never do.  

But what does it mean that God took on a human body? God the Creator became a sub-creator. And it cannot be an accident that that He was a carpenter! He built things, designed things, made things, like Noah, like Bezalel, like Solomon, like Galileo, the Wright Brothers, and Elon Musk. I’m not sure I agree that anything a human can do for himself he should do for himself. I mean, a man could walk to the store for himself, but why should he not drive? Well, I would say that it all depends. A man might decide to walk to the store because he knows he needs the exercise or because his wife loves it when he walks with her and holds her hand. On the other hand, a romantic sentimentalist may prefer walking, but he really should drive because he has other responsibilities to honor and what he *should* do is use his time in a more productive way. I borrowed a friend’s excavator this last summer, and man, am I thankful for diesel engines and hydraulic power. I *could* have dug that long ditch over many days (and months), but I don’t think I *should* have. But I do agree with the principle that there must be touch points with God’s reality. It would not be wise or productive for everyone to be farmers or mechanics, but some men ought to be. The economic principles of specialization, comparative advantage, and division of labor are biblical and Christian principles, so long as they are not abstracted from the rest of the biblical worldview. We are not machines; we are human beings made in the image of God.  

Conclusion: Our Sherwood Forest
I like to think that maybe when it comes to technology, Christians should think of themselves as living in Sherwood Forest, slowly building communities of wisdom and creativity — I think this probably fits with Wiley’s use of St. Anthony in the desert. We are the outlaws because we are constantly fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil. But we are not escapist communities; we are communities of resistance, communities of true science and learning and technology and the arts. But we are not aiming these gifts at primarily serving ourselves or our own hubris, but primarily we are thinking about the mission of God, the design He has embedded in the universe, and how we may continue to sub-create with Him — naming/creating in imitation of His naming/creating. But we should also constantly have battalions of our merry men focused on sabotaging the evil around us. I can imagine armies of software engineers using AI to hack into the porn industry, constantly bringing down their servers with bots and viruses. I imagine the use of AI and robots deftly assisting accountants in finding every loophole in IRS code to evade every unlawful tax. I can imagine, technology that helps Christians rescue babies from murder. Maybe in some dystopian future, women go to fully automated, robotically run abortion mills. And maybe Christians hack the servers so that the babies that are “aborted” are actually saved and rescued, like the early Christians did on the hillsides outside of Rome.  

Of course, we will have the Bible translated into every known human language with the help of AI in the next few years, and then we can turn our efforts to building out full libraries of the greatest poetry and literature ever written, making them accessible to every language. And maybe some AI analysis helps evangelists and missionaries reach cultures in new and unexpected ways. AI and robots cannot (must not) replace the image of God, but they can assist us, just like God’s creations (animals, plants) always have. In the Christian AI future, Christians are constantly going back to the God’s good creation, studying what He has made and what He has said about it — constantly checking our work against His work and going slowly enough to double check and erase our mistakes. But in the AI future, Christians use robots to sabotage evil and create good, true, and beautiful things that assist human beings in taking dominion. 

It really is a mystery how a man and a woman come together. In Proverbs 30:18-19, it says, “There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.” The word there means miraculous, difficult, hidden, and it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to say “mysterious.” 

Everything from the first time you met, and how you met, and all the circumstances that led to that moment. And the details that followed, the dates, the conversations, the prayers – a million details that go into it all. Sometimes movies like to play with going back in time and imagine what happens if one or two details are changed and what might not have been. What if Alahna hadn’t been welcoming people and handing out bulletins one random Sunday at church? What a mystery.

But it’s not just the meeting and the dating and the courtship, it includes this day. How is that by vows before God and witnesses and a sexual union that God actually makes two people into one? It’s what the Bible calls a covenantal union, but it’s a real union. It’s not just a contract. You can sign a contract on a rental house or to take a job, and if it doesn’t work out later, you can mutually agree to rip up the contract and no harm, no foul. But in a covenant, you can’t break it without doing violence. No matter how hard moderns try to pretend that they can do this surgery casually: “We’ve mutually decided on a new chapter for our family.” What God joins together, you cannot separate without great violence and pain. 

But the union doesn’t stop after a few months or years. When you meet couples who have been married for many years, you begin to notice so many similarities between them. Sometimes couples even begin to look like one another in certain respects. 

And Paul says, this is all a glorious mystery, but the really astonishing thing is that this points to the covenantal union between Christ and His Church. It’s remarkable enough to think that a man from one family can join together with a woman from another family and that God actually unites them in a true covenantal bond that begins a lifelong process of becoming like one another, but stop and think: as wonderful as that is, it’s still two people, two human beings. 

But the Bible teaches that that is a picture of what God has determined to do with His people. The infinite God, the Creator God, Absolute Goodness, Absolute Purity, Absolute Exhilarating Life has determined to be united with people. Now that’s a mystery. That’s a miracle, a glory – it seems impossible. 

And that’s exactly what John saw in his vision: a new heavens and a new earth, and the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. 21:2). And he heard a voice declaring from heaven, Behold, they are husband and wife: they shall be His people, and He shall dwell with them and be their God. And of course, when that Great Wedding Day comes, all of the tears will be wiped from every eye – there will be no more death, no sorrow, no crying (at least not the sad kind), no more pain, because Jesus Christ will have made all things new – the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. 

And so today, as we celebrate this covenant union, we look in faith not only to God’s great blessing on Levi and Alahna, we look in faith to the Great and Final Wedding Day of history, when we are fully united to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. There was just another family wedding two weeks ago, and Levi and Alahna, no doubt you were very happy to be there, but I do not doubt that you were also thinking about this day in anticipation. And so all of us at every wedding are invited to think about the Last Wedding, the Final Wedding. For we are the betrothed. This whole world – God’s creation is engaged to be married. The covenant has been signed in the blood of Jesus Christ, and that day is coming. The dead shall rise and the bells shall ring and the trumpets will sound. And all will be well. 

So Levi, your job is to love Alahna like all of this is true. Love Alahna like that Great Wedding really is coming. Love her like Christ loved Church and gave Himself for her. Love Alahna and lead her in greater holiness. Teach her about the love of Jesus in what you say, and how you say it, and in what you do, and how you do it. Let the shape of this ceremony and this day influence every day to come: you’ve left your father and mother and are being joined to your wife. She is your own flesh and blood. She is your own body. Take responsibility for her; care for her – like Christ loves the church. 

Alahna, your job is to respect Levi and to submit to him like this vision of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is true. Look to Levi like the Great Wedding really is coming. Respect him and honor him as the Church respects and honors Christ. Listen carefully to Levi just as the Church listens carefully to Christ. A bride is adorned in a glorious dress because you are the glory of man, and today you become the particular glory of this man. Just as you are adorned today, let this glory influence every day to come: this is your glory to glorify God by glorifying your husband and his home. And let the center of that glory be the glory of grace – the glory of free grace. Which is what all of this is – pure gift, undeserved blessing from the hand of a supremely kind God. Thanks be to God. 

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. 

“But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Mt. 23:5-12).

There’s a little pharisee lurking in every human heart — the desire to be seen by men, respected by men, exalted by men — desiring to please other men. 

“The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe” (Prov. 29:25). The fear of man is caring what men think and allowing their opinions to dominate your thoughts and decisions. It’s allowing whether you are likely to receive praise or blame, love or hate, affirmation or criticism – it’s allowing that to affect what you say, what you do. 

When Jesus had healed the blind man and they cast him out of the synagogue, it says, “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (Jn. 12:42-43). This love of the praise of man interferes with obedience and courage.

But the irony is that aiming at the praise of man is a great way to be less useful, less helpful, less potent. Jesus points here at the path of true greatness, true usefulness, true exaltation. It has to do with keeping your eyes fixed on who the True Teacher is, who the real Master is, who your faithful Father is – that is what true humility and service is. 

Of course the evangelical longhouse has created a culture that pretends humility: a servant is someone who does whatever the women’s committee demands or whatever all the respectable guys say. But Jesus wasn’t a snowflake, and He made a lot of people mad. Jesus didn’t go around doing whatever anyone demanded of Him. Neither should we.

“I receive not honor from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?” (Jn. 5:41-44) Again, notice how seeking the honor of men gets in the way of really believing, true obedience. Jesus did the Father’s will perfectly and faithfully because he did not receive honor from men. But He did seek the honor that comes from God alone. He did seek that glory.  

Clearly there is a duty to honor faithful men, fathers, pastors, and others in authority over us, but there is a corresponding duty for those men not to “receive” honor. I think it was John Bunyan who when he had finished preaching and had come down from the pulpit was told by someone that it he had just preached a very fine message, and Bunyan replied that he knew because the Devil had already told him. 

But to be a servant, a true servant, you are grateful when your service blesses other people, but you don’t do it for the kudos. You don’t do it for the “likes” or for the “shares” or for the “follows,” for the recognition, for the praise. A servant does it for His Master, and a servant does it because he knows it needs to be done. Think about all the ordinary things that have to be done to keep your house running, the church running, and you do them all the time and you would do them even if no one noticed. Occasionally someone might notice and thanks you, but you don’t “receive” that honor like some kind of feather in your cap.  

“So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10). 

So a servant is someone who concentrates on their assignments and duties because a servant understands that he is a man under orders. Those assignments and duties come chiefly from God. This is the danger of titles and greetings. Trying to please men is a great way to not get much done because everyone has a different idea of what you ought to do. Trying to keep everyone happy with you is an exhausting, not to mention, impossible task. It’s distracting, confusing, disappointing, and frustrating. The most effective leaders are men who keep God as their Father and Christ as their Master and Teacher. They strain all of their energy into completing His assignments.  

I don’t understand Jesus to be absolutely forbidding the title “teacher” or “father,” since elsewhere the apostles use those very words, but like the admonition to cut off hands and pluck out eyes, the point is to do whatever it takes to kill this sin. Do whatever it takes to cut off the lust for the praise of man. Do whatever it takes to keep your eyes fixed on Your Master, to seek the honor that comes from the Father. This is true humility. It is not doing whatever anyone asks of you. It is doing whatever Your Master and Father command You. And it is that humility that God loves to exalt. Amen.

I’m not sure why I hear these questions in the King James Version, but I’m just reporting. 

Of course, around these questions are accusations of checks for 7K and collaborating with Mossad to exterminate Palestinians and perpetuate wars with Iran and lack of courage to stand against Zionism, and other such bits of nonsense. Apparently, people are not aware of the paid trips I have taken to Ireland, Canada, and just recently, Iowa. And let me just tell you, Iowa is full of cornfields. I don’t think people are paying close enough attention to those cornfields. Totally sus.  

But there are answers, people. There are answers for anyone who would like to, you know, actually know the answers. 

Five Answers
First, I’m still waiting for my first $7K check that many people have told me is most certainly coming. And let me just tell you if this is how Israeli corruption works, there is no way they’re getting anything done. I think we’re going to be OK, people. 

Second, we do affirm with all orthodox believers that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life – no one comes to the Father except through Jesus the Messiah. Jews must accept Jesus, just like Hindus, Muslims, and atheists, and Mormons have to accept that Jesus is the one and only God come in the flesh and not a normal dude who became a god and got his own planet. 

When I visited the Wailing Wall, it was one of the saddest things I ever saw — perhaps the closest I’ve come to feeling Paul’s intense provocation at all the religious zeal (in Athens) directed in utter and complete ignorance and idolatry. The One they seek has come, and He is not bound by temples made with human hands. They search the Scriptures thinking they will find eternal life, but they speak of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. There were no warm, fuzzy feelings for me there: just a deep sorrow for a lost and blind people, some of whom became my friends. If that’s Zionism, well, we could use lot more of it.

Third, we are not dispensationalists who believe that the Jews have some kind of parallel track going on. The promises of God to the Jewish people are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and all of those who trust in Jesus Christ are the true Israel of God. Jesus is not waiting in Heaven for the Jews to reestablish bloody sacrifices in some new temple in Jerusalem before He can return. No, Jesus will return after He has put all of His enemies beneath His feet (1 Cor. 15:25). He is reigning in Heaven now, and the last enemy He will put down is death itself when He returns and raises the dead (1 Cor. 15:26). Of course, among those He is putting under His feet are unbelievers of every tribe and nation, including modern Israel and the Jews. 

Fourth, the modern nation state of Israel is not synonymous with the ancient nation of Israel. They are no longer “God’s people,” in the same sense that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were. They have rejected their Messiah, which puts them at odds with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see Him. It may be that God intends to give that estranged people that same land forever, but that promise cannot be fully fulfilled in any kind of good way while they continue to reject the center of that blessing, which is their Messiah. 

Fifth, and this is where, as they say, the foot really touches the banana peel. The New Testament insists that Jews be considered “enemies for your sakes” concerning the gospel but as touching the election, “beloved for the fathers’ sakes” (Rom. 11:28). This is why thoughtful, Bible-believing Christians cannot simply lump all unbelievers into the same basket of lamentables. God’s Word makes a distinction. It is true that every son of Adam and daughter of Eve is lost apart from faith in Jesus the Messiah. But the Jews have a history that matters, that God Himself insists matters. All the other nations of the earth are under the wrath of God until or unless they repent, as are the Jews, but the Jews have the added notoriety of having previously been elected as God’s special, chosen people. And the Bible says that matters. God remembers that history, and He loves that history, and we are required to as well. 

Our Apostate Older Brother
The Jews are branches that have been cut out of the covenantal vine because of their unbelief. There is some debate among Christians about how/when they may be grafted back into the vine (Rom. 11:24). But regardless of those details, the Jews are to be regarded as estranged family members of the covenant, our apostate older brother. 

Imagine if Jesus had told a parable about this. He might have described a man who had two sons. And let’s say the younger son was a real hellion, and he demanded his inheritance and ran off and wasted everything on prostitutes and booze until he came to his senses and came home to his father begging for forgiveness. And let’s just say for the sake of argument that in the story the father took the younger son back, and threw a huge, extravagant party for him. But let’s say that the older son in the story who had remained with the father the whole time became extremely angry and bitter and refused to enter the party. It would be just like that – and here we are: mostly Gentiles, younger brothers all, descended from blue-faced pagans, received by the Father with full forgiveness, and the party’s been going for about 2,000 years, but our older brother is still largely kicking stones out in the driveway. 

He really does need to come in to the party and quit his fussing, but he really isn’t just like all the other unbelieving nations of the earth. To the extent that he continues to study Torah and identify with that broken and severed covenant, he is beloved for the sake of the fathers, and to the extent that he continues in his hard-hearted rebellion, an enemy of the gospel.

Sons of Belial & A Book Recommendation
Now add to this one more phenomenon, and that is the tendency of the nations to hate that older brother. And I don’t mean telling the truth that the older brother needs to repent and accept Jesus and come into the party. And I don’t mean calling out particular evils or sins committed by our older brother. By “hate,” I mean ethnic and cultural malice. I mean spiteful prejudice. I mean unjust treatment. I mean vile invective. I mean blaming that ethnic people collectively for the evils of the world. 

This means that faithful, Bible believing Christians have at least two duties in this situation. Christians must continue to tell the truth about the lost position the Jews are in, and we must do it in a way that does not hand rocks to the sons of Belial with dog eyes who are talking and seething like that one mob in Gibeah.

Our loyalties must be aligned with God’s, and that means whatever corruption is laced through the Israeli government ought to be completely exposed and condemned, and unbelief in Jesus the Messiah ought to be confronted. But wherever there is common grace sanity, especially of the sort based on Old Testament morals, we are cobelligerents against progressive-woke paganism, Islamic jihadism, and every form of civilizational nihilism. 

While I do not doubt that atrocities have sometimes occurred, the brain-virus that claims that Israel is committing “genocide” is simply ridiculous. There are Palestinians in Israel that are respected citizens. I rode a bus into the West Bank several times and walked through Palestinian-run cities and settlements. If that’s a “genocide,” they are doing a really bad job of it. 

And yes, I’ve read that a school got bombed as well, and assuming that’s true, that is awful, horrific and every civilian, non-combatant life that was taken is an absolute tragedy. Every instance of non-combatants being harmed is awful. I am pro-life in every nation, and no nation gets a pass. But there’s a massive difference between aiming to kill unborn babies (like Planned Parenthood) and aiming to stop the terrorism and attacks. That’s not some “special status.” That’s simply the right to defend yourself. And even if you think Israel “occupied” the land unjustly back in the day, that does not justify random vigilante attacks on Israeli civilians, any more than the Nez Perce Indians have the right to start randomly blowing up civilians in Idaho for stealing their land (which we did). 

But if anyone really wants to know what I really think, I would recommend the book Son of Hamas, written by a Palestinian man who grew up in a devout Muslim family in the West Bank, and slowly came to change his mind about the Israelis (without sugar-coating real failures and abuses), and eventually converted to Christianity.

Post Script
And since some of you are hanging around hoping I will actually address the issue of “paid trips to Israel,” let me just say that it all depends — same with taking donations from various sources and donors, having certain vendors at your conferences, or being friends with the rich and the powerful. It all depends on whether there are actually any strings attached, whether you are carrying any water for them or not, and whether you have any integrity or not. But if you are primarily obsessed with the potential hooks coming from a particular nation and ethnic group, the chances are really good that you actually have hooks in you from some other direction that you’re studiously ignoring.

The very short version is that when God’s people gathered for corporate worship in the Old Testament, they often offered specific sacrifices in a specific order: sin offerings, ascension (whole burnt) offerings, and then peace offerings – which included a meal (e.g. Lev. 9, Ex. 24, 2 Chron. 29). When the New Covenant urges Christians to offer their bodies as living sacrifices and to “draw near” to the presence of God by faith, these are not just generic metaphors; the best way to understand those invitations is through the theology of the sacrifices and covenant making ceremonies. We do not offer bloody sacrifices, but we draw near by confessing our sins, consecrating our entire lives to Christ (through Scripture reading and the sermon), and by communing with Him (at the Lord’s Supper). Add to this the Call to Worship at the beginning of the service and the Commissioning/Benediction at the end, and you have what is sometimes called the 5 C’s of Covenant Renewal Worship. This pattern is faithful to the Protestant regulative principle and honors historic and traditional precedent, and I am an advocate for all Christians to embrace this general order and theology. 

The Temptation to Overcorrect
At the same time, I believe some of the churches that have embraced Covenant Renewal Worship suffer from what I would call the Saul’s Armor Problem. There was nothing wrong with Saul’s armor that we know of. It was perfectly good bronze age armor, probably some of the best that money could buy. But it didn’t fit David. It was too heavy. It was too clunky. It would have gotten in the way.

I say this as someone who has been fully embedded in the liturgical renewal work of the last few decades. I say this as someone who grew up in some of the tensions of the traditional vs. contemporary worship battles. John Frame was my worship pastor when I was little kid. And while I appreciate some of his concerns, I’ve definitely landed firmly on the traditional side of things. I am fully committed to recovering predominant Psalmody – learning to sing all the Psalms, our primary prayer book. Weekly communion should be normal, just like John Calvin tried to convince Geneva to practice (unsuccessfully). 

Nevertheless, whenever a renewal movement breaks out, the temptation is to overcorrect. If one is good, then three is better, and if three is good, why not seven or fifty-seven? But what I have experienced in my circles is a tendency to put every liturgical option into every service. And I’m assuming all the best motives here, but it’s like going to a restaurant and having them bring you plates of prime rib, turkey, ham, and a hamburger all at the same meal. It all looks good, but it’s just too much for one meal. And the kinds of things I mean are: processions, robes, candles, congregational prayers and responses, chants, etc. 

Worship should clearly be full of the Psalms, prayers, Bible reading, a message explaining a passage of Scripture, and a simple celebration of the Lord’s Supper. And the congregation should be engaged and involved in the service of worship. It is not a performance up front; it is more like an army being led into battle. But there’s a difference between a joyfully ordered simplicity that helps a people worship in spirit and in truth (on the one hand) and a complicated, ponderous, heavy burden that can make all kinds of theological sense on paper but just doesn’t fly. 

I certainly want to leave room for some cultural differences as well as personality differences. One pastor may be able to lead a liturgy that is a little heavier in a way that everyone is blessed, but I fear that many pastors have adopted forms more because if one is good, two is better rather than what is actually edifying and prudent. A strong case can be made for congregational participation in worship. But the Bible does not say that means they must say something at every part of the service. The Bible encourages thoughtful prayers, but that doesn’t mean every single one must be scripted and read by the congregation. And if a prayer is based on a psalm has been set to very memorable music, doesn’t that count? A congregational hymn is a congregational response.

Something Else Going on?
Sometimes there’s something else going on; it isn’t just honest liturgical renewal. Sometimes there’s something gnawing in a man’s soul and he thinks if he just keeps tinkering with the liturgy something will click. And so it tends to get increasingly strange or esoteric and generally more ceremonial and ornate. Maybe more robes. Maybe candles. Maybe incense or some kind of processional. Maybe another chanted psalm. If it feels ancient and awkward maybe it will do something to my soul. But not only is that superstitious and will-worship, it’s incredibly unkind to the people who are gathering who actually want to meet with their Maker. While Protestant worship has sometimes erred on the side of austerity, there is a true glory in simplicity. 

Yes, worship is the work of the people, but it’s supposed to be Sabbath work – restful and rejuvenating work. And some liturgies are simply too heavy, too complicated, too ornate, too busy, and they do not allow God’s people to simply hear the Word read and explained, offer their prayers and praises, and celebrate communion with their God. Yes, all that may be technically done, but there’s so much clutter and busy-ness that it’s buried in making sure you’re reading along with all the responses and not losing your place in the worship book that is nearing the length of a Russian novel. OK, I slightly exaggerate. 

I grant that some communities and cultures may truly feel right at home in a slightly more complicated liturgy, and if it really is from the heart and seeking the Lord and not merely playing dress up, then praise God and I do not object. But perhaps in our fear of seeker-sensitive entertainment worship, we have sometimes veered into an opposite ditch of theologically-esoteric worship – the kind that can only be understood after many years at seminary and several shots of James Jordan – and I say that with all kinds of gratitude for what I’ve learned from James Jordan. 

But I would argue that worship should be “high folk,” meaning it should be orderly, biblical, reverent, and the highest expression of glory that ordinary folks can muster honestly. I grant that there is a real wisdom call here, and again, I want to emphasize that I think there is real freedom here within the constraints of Scripture. But the question I would ask is whether we are loving the sheep in front of us and the scattered sheep in our land well. We are required to obey God in worship. We are not allowed to do whatever the sheep demand. But given the constraints of God’s word, are we ministering that word in our worship services in the most effective ways? Or are we following the words of well-intentioned scholars or theologians?

Conclusion
Maybe some services could use Saul’s sword or shield; maybe others would be perfectly fine with just the five smooth stones of Covenant Renewal Worship. Pastors wisely consider the time of the meeting, how long the meeting lasts (or at least they should!), and so it’s perfectly fine to consider how many prayers, how many responses, how many parts do we need to remember. 

In the American context in particular, where we suffer from an anti-liturgical, low evangelicalism, wise pastors should ask how to help their people use the means God has provided to meet with their God. John Frame’s concern back in the 1980s with traditional worship was that it might be unintelligible to modern people. He argued that the forms of contemporary worship spoke in a language that the common people could understand. I think he took that principle too far and underestimated the ability of folks to learn to speak in more biblical dialects as well as underestimated the potency of certain cultural forms to dumb down and distort biblical worship (see Neil Postman). But I do think he was making a fair point that we should take on board as we seek a true reformation in worship. 

Christ commanded us to feed His sheep. We do not believe that means the sheep are allowed to dictate what they will eat, but neither does it mean that various ideas of “gourmet” get to dictate the menu either. Sometimes parents err by letting their kids run the show, but sometimes parents err by not remembering their kids’ frames.

Prayer: Father, we ask You to make this Word living and powerful in our lives – show us clear and meaningful applications and obedience so that we would not be merely hearers of the Word but doers, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction
This chapter continues the story of the corruption of Gibeah and the tribe of Benjamin, with judgment falling on them and on the rest of Israel. This teaches lessons about the covenant, just war, and the difference between punishment and discipline. 

The Text: “Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh…” (Judges 20:1-48)

Summary of the Text
Having sent the pieces of his murdered wife to the tribes of Israel, 400,000 Israelite soldiers gathered together at Mizpah to find out what had happened (Judges 20:1-3). The Levite explained that the men of Gibeah had attacked him and killed his concubine and asked them to give their verdict (Judges 20:4-7). Israel made plans to support their army and sent messengers to Benjamin demanding that the men of Gibeah be turned over to be tried for their crimes, but Benjamin refused and gathered together 26,000 soldiers, plus the 700 left-handed slingers of Gibeah (Judges 20:8-17). 

Israel inquired of the Lord who should the lead the attack, and the Lord said Judah, and the next day they attacked and were defeated with the loss of 22,000 men (Judges 20:18-21). They wept before the Lord and sought His counsel once more, and the following day they attacked again and were defeated again, losing another 18,000 (Judges 20:22-25) – a loss now totaling 10% of the army. Israel once more wept before the Lord and offered sacrifices, with Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, leading the worship, and the Lord promised to deliver Benjamin into their hands (Judges 20:26-28). For this third attack, Israel set an ambush for Gibeah, and after drawing the main force out of the city, closed the trap and the Lord destroyed them (Judges 20:29-39). The city was utterly destroyed and burned, and the soldiers who fled were tracked down and put to the sword (Judges 20:40-48). 

Cutting Covenant
In the Old Testament, the word for “make” covenant is literally “cut” a covenant, going back at least to God’s covenant with Abraham where God passed through the cut-up parts of animals (Gen. 15:9-17). In this sense, every sacrifice was a mini-covenant ceremony, with animals cut up and offered to the Lord (Lev. 1-3, Ps. 50:5). At Sinai, God cut His covenant with Israel: God’s fiery presence came down on the mountain, and the people “cut” sacrifices to seal the covenant (Ex. 19-24). 

The meaning was at least two-fold: on the one hand, there is a complete consecration to God in the covenant: God’s fiery presence passes through the parts of the animal and the idea is that God intends to fill and entirely claim His people (cf. Rom. 12:1-2). God wants all that we are. This is what your baptism means. He wants your words, your thoughts, your work, your money, your marriage, your parenting, your household culture, your politics. 

At the same time, there’s a warning: In Jeremiah 34, Zedekiah makes a covenant with the people of Jerusalem and as part of that covenant, the men of the city promised to release their slaves, which they did initially and then apparently took them back. God says that when they made that covenant, they “cut the calf in two and passed between the parts” (Jer. 34:18), and therefore God will destroy them because they have broken the covenant. 

It seems likely that the Levite is drawing from this imagery when he calls Israel with the pieces of his wife. King Saul will do a similar thing with a heifer in 1 Samuel 11, calling all of Israel to war. The symbolism is that the covenant has been broken and therefore justice must be done, with the threat that if you don’t muster, you will be breaking covenant and complicit with the covenant breakers and liable to the same punishment (1 Sam. 11:7, Jer. 34:20). Covenant is inescapable, loyalty is inescapable: who’s side are you on?

Holy War & Just War
In the Old Covenant, God sometimes supernaturally destroyed horrifically evil peoples (e.g. the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah). Later, God gave special authorization to His people to do this in the land of Canaan because of its great wickedness (Gen. 15:16, Dt. 7:1-2, 20:16-18). The language God used was “devote to destruction” [haram], and Jericho is the clearest example (Josh. 6). This is in a very strict sense what is called a “holy war” – the battle is likened to a whole burnt offering – everything goes on the altar and burned. 

But remember at Jericho Achan who took some of the “devoted” things, and when Israel went up against Ai, they were defeated (Josh. 7). After Achan’s sin was found out, he and his family were destroyed (like Jericho) (Josh. 7:25). Then, on the second attempt, Joshua planned an ambush attack almost exactly like the one we have here in the third battle of Gibeah in Judges 20. 

Putting all of this together, the first two battles of Gibeah indicate that Israel had not reckoned with their own complicity in Gibeah’s sin, and therefore God sovereignly disciplines them by taking a “tithe” of their soldiers: they had not faithfully driven out the Canaanites and they broke covenant going after other gods (Judges 1-2). The fact that Phinehas is mentioned (Judges 20:28), tells us that this event happened early in the days of the Judges (Josh. 24:33), and it underlines the problem running through the whole book. 

When Jesus came He taught that because of the gospel and the pouring out of the Spirit, wars of “utter destruction” are no longer necessary or allowed (cf. Lk. 9:54-56). But in a fallen world, ordinary war will still sometimes be required. This distinction was already being introduced in the law of Moses (Dt. 20:10-15, 19-20). Just wars require legitimate authority to use force as well as a just cause (Rom. 13:1-4), specifically the principles of punishing criminals and defending the innocent and weak and judicious with proportionality (Gen. 14:13-16, Ex. 21:22-25, Dt. 19:18-21, Amos 1:3-13), as well as pure intentions for true good and peace (Rom. 12, Mt. 5).

The Lord Jesus rules over all the nations of men, and therefore our wars must be just, and in that sense, holy or else He will judge us and destroy us. The warning stands: with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Do you who say that a man should not commit adultery – do you commit adultery (Rom. 2:22)? Do you who say that a nation should not commit genocide commit genocide against the unborn? Jesus said that it will be easier for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than the cities that refused to believe in Him. Our gruesome slaughter of babies makes the Nazis look tame. And the solution is repentance. 

Applications & Conclusion
Every Lord’s Day, we pass the “cut up” parts of the body of the Lord among us. What are we doing? It a proclamation of the broken covenant in Adam: all have sinned. All have “Achaned” and troubled Israel. 

It’s also a summons to war against all evil – beginning with your own. Are you on the Lord’s side or on the side of Gibeah? Are you on the side of Jesus or the Devil? If you don’t join the war, you are complicit in the wickedness of the land. But if you join, you must leave all of your wickedness behind. If you bring any of that sin with you into the camp, we will be defeated by our enemies. It is not enough to be “conservative” or “anti-liberal.” We cannot win without God’s blessing. 

In Genesis 15, when God made the covenant with Abraham, the most striking thing about the ceremony is that only God passed through the cut parts of the animals. And so when we had broken the covenant, God Himself came and was “cut up” for us on the Cross. 

Hell is the ultimate punishment for sin – it is God’s ultimate Holy War, which Christ took for all who trust in Him. But in this world, God still disciplines the sons that He loves (Heb. 12:6ff) – as witnessed by the two initial defeats of the armies of Israel. Sometimes God presses upon us because of specific sins we need to deal with, and sometimes He presses upon us to simply train us in greater holiness – but it is His covenant love – it is His determination to make us holy and happy. 

And it is important that we understand and teach this distinction to our children. There is a massive difference between parenting based on covenant loyalty and parenting based on individualistic autonomy. Are your children just other people in your house doing things or are they your body, part of Christ’s body, little saints for whom Christ died? This means intense teaching and correction in the early years but with eyes of faith and hearts full of patience. 

Children are little mirrors showing you your own weaknesses and sins, and you can either resent that or you can smile and thank God for giving You exactly what You need and stay in the fight. 

Prayer: Father, we thank you for Your covenant faithfulness to us, for sending Your only Son to take the penalty for our covenant breaking, so that we might not be destroyed. Father, we cry out to You for our covenant breaking nation: we know that we deserve Your righteous judgment. But if you had mercy on Sodom when only Lot was there, how much more so, will you have mercy on our land? So we ask for Reformation and Revival. We ask for You to destroy the Sons of Belial in our midst and that You would establish Your justice. Raise up generations of faithful men who raise faithful children, in Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray…