Christians don’t need the world’s help
God’s nation was under existential threat. Their enemies were poised to conquer them. So they sought to protect themselves with force. The more power on their side, the better, right? How else are they going to fight an army?
Well, those who know their Bible should know what God thought of this plan.
The nation was Judah, the threat was from the Assyrians, and the proposed solution was to seek help from Egypt. Here’s what God said about that in Isaiah 30:
1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord,
“Who take counsel, but not of Me,
And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit,
That they may add sin to sin;
2 Who walk to go down to Egypt,
And have not asked My advice,
To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh
Shall be your shame,
And trust in the shadow of Egypt
Shall be your humiliation.”
And in Isaiah 31:
1 “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
And rely on horses,
Who trust in chariots because they are many,
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
Nor seek the Lord!
2 Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster,
And will not call back His words,
But will arise against the house of evildoers,
And against the help of those who work iniquity.
3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God;
And their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out His hand,
Both he who helps will fall,
And he who is helped will fall down;
They all will perish together.”
The first thing these passages say about Judah’s plan is that it is entirely their own idea, their own volition, their own wisdom. It’s their own understanding, which many Christians know we’re not to lean on (Proverbs 3:5).
The texts acknowledge the logic of the thinking: Pharaoh is strong (30:2). Egypt has many chariots and mighty horsemen (31:1). How is it not good to have as much military power on your side as possible? That’s just common sense.
Exactly, and that’s the problem. It’s common. It’s strictly human. It’s the way of the world. Which means it’s not the way of God, who is uncommon. Their thoughts leave Him out; it’s an utter lack of trust and faith in the Lord, who has done so much for them throughout their history. It’s saying there’s more hope in men than in God; more hope in flesh than in spirit.
That’s why His judgment is harsh — shame, humiliation, disaster, death. The plot to increase their chance of survival only results in their doom.
We see a similar situation in 2 Chronicles 16, when Baasha, king of Israel, built a blockade to cut off Asa, king of Judah. Asa responded by seeking a treaty with Syria that basically bribed its king to stop supporting Israel. The plan seemed to work; Syria’s armies turned on Israel, and Baasha abandoned his project. All good, right?
Not with God:
7 And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him: “Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. 8 Were the Ethiopians and the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. 9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.” 10 Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him because of this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.
In seeking the help of pagans, Asa showed disloyalty and distrust toward God, who had given His nation victory over powerful foes before. Asa’s reaction to the prophet revealed the hard, violent heart of someone who values the world’s strength over God’s.
The problem today
Frankly, I see that rotten fruit in many of those today who profess Christ but fix their eyes on the power of this world. They just assume that the carnal power of earthly politics and government is the only answer to the crises of our nation and culture.
They constantly spout their own opinions, wisdom, and logic without stopping to ask, is this what God wants us to do? It doesn’t even seem to occur to them that Christians are in covenant relationship with the Most High God of the universe, who already has all authority in heaven and on earth. We forget that we bear the power of the Holy Spirit, who alone can change hearts through the good news of the message of the cross, which is the power of God (Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 1:18).
To not trust in that is to deny who the Lord is, what He can do and what He has done. It’s practical deism or even atheism. It’s acting as though God didn’t exist, as if it’s all on us to solve our problems using only the tactics of the world that we’re trying to resist. Christians are called to be God’s holy people, standing out from the nations, but instead, with our cries for strongmen to save us, we’re like the Israelites who wanted to be like the nations (1 Samuel 8).
Related: When God’s people wanted a strongman to fight for them
It’s understandable, then, that the Lord detests this mindset. His righteous judgment of their mistrust is perhaps most bluntly expressed in Jeremiah 17 and its stark contrast between those who trust in man and those who trust in the Lord:
5 Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.”
We trust in men because we fear men. We fear men more than God. But for those who trust in the Lord, whom shall we fear?
When we trust in the Creator who spoke the universe and all of its terrors into existence, and upholds every atom of every nation, and loves us as His children, what gain is there in the help of mere men? It’s laughable when you think about it for two seconds; I can imagine the chortling of the psalmist when he wrote this:
3 Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
4 His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day his plans perish.
5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
6 Who made heaven and earth,
The sea, and all that is in them;
Who keeps truth forever,
7 Who executes justice for the oppressed,
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners. (Psalm 146)
We see this theme recur throughout the psalms:
16 No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
17 A horse is a vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. (Psalm 33)
8 It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in man.
9 It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in princes. (Psalm 118)
7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. (Psalm 20)
But Cyrus
Some Christians point to Cyrus, the Medo-Persian king who released the Hebrews after 70 years of exile. God’s people were delivered by a pagan leader, so some Christians invoke his name to justify our alliance with worldly strongmen. Here are some things to keep in mind when talking about Cyrus:
Cyrus was God’s chosen means to carry out His specific plan for a specific nation that He elected to play an extraordinary role in redemptive history. Bringing Israel back to the promised land set the geographical stage for the coming of their true King. It was not meant as a prescriptive template for Christians today.
That’s because the church has what Israel did not: the fully revealed gospel of Jesus Christ and the mass filling of the Holy Spirit. That’s our strength. This is why Jesus and the apostles never sought the power of the state nor instructed future Christians to do that. They never even set foot in the halls of the government unless they were compelled to. They turned the world upside with none of Caesar’s authority. They didn’t need a Cyrus.
Related: Why God no longer works through nation-states
Cyrus was a christ. He was a mashiach, an anointed one (Isaiah 45:1). Therefore, when we call someone a Cyrus, we’re calling him a christ. We already have a Christ, the ultimate Christ. Jesus is our Cyrus, the greater Cyrus. He is our help and deliverer.
None of this is to say that we shouldn’t take advantage of the civil authorities available to us. If our house catches fire, we need the world’s fire departments to put it out. We need the world’s police to enforce the world’s laws. We drive on the world’s roads and use the world’s agencies. This is only right, because we pay the world’s taxes. We fund the authorities that God has established to restrain the world’s evil by force (Romans 13:1-7), so we have every right to partake of and participate in those systems where we can. While Paul never tried to acquire the power of an office, he did use his civil rights to his advantage (Acts 16:35-40, 21:39, 22:23-29, 25:10-11).
Related: Christians don’t have a land
But this becomes a major problem when Christians think of this in a meta sense — when geopolitical conquest becomes our emphasis. When we constantly talk about “winning.” When we speak of our mission in terms of government, ground, land, blood, soil, heritage, culture, and a “home.” When our goal is to make America a “Christian nation.” When Christianity becomes Christendom, which are two very different things. Those ambitions wield and come about through worldly power, to such extent that it’s another gospel that fits all of the Lord’s condemnations that this piece has gone over.
Related: There is no such thing as a Christian nation
Jesus builds His church, and the gates of hell cannot stop Him. He can use whatever or whomever He wishes, but He has not authorized us to desperately seek the powers of this world to help us at any cost. Nothing is worth the inevitable compromise of our holiness, integrity, and witness when we partner with pagans. The ends do not justify the means.
Related: Holiness is more important to God than victory
We see throughout the Bible that the Lord uses the lowly and the weak to accomplish His purposes. He chose to bless a tiny nation surrounded by powerful enemies. He chose a young shepherd to be its greatest king. He chose uneducated fishermen to lead His followers, and they changed the world with no armies or kings. As with Zerubbabel’s temple, the Lord builds His house not by might, not by power, but by His Spirit.
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