How Does God View Political Entities?

6 · Uses America as a historical test case for the Genesis 12:3 principle: America's unparalleled prosperity is attributed not to democracy, capitalism, or natural resources, but to its founding function as a sanctuary for God's people

Now, I think America stands out as clear evidence that this kind of thing is true. We are truly the most blessed nation in the history of the world. Why? Well, here, you know, the democracy lovers need to be careful because it would be very foolish, very easy, but very foolish to credit America's success to its form. But that's not really a coherent explanation. The form has merely followed a function, a specific function in which America was founded. You know, to begin with, to do. And that function is to be a blessing to God's people. In fact, just to be a worship, a sanctuary of worship for God's people. We are the most blessed nation in the world. Not because we, you know, cracked a code and constructed an ideal governmental algorithm that we now call democracy. There have been other democracies before, nor it's because of our natural resources or because of capitalism. We are the most blessed nation in the world simply because of this. Our nation was uniquely established to be a blessing to God's people. And God is simply being faithful to the Word he gave in Genesis 12:3, that when people, whether they be families or nations, whatever divisible unit you'd like to pick is good to God's people. When they are good to God's people, God blesses them.

7 · Anticipates and rebuts the objection that governmental favor toward Christians would be unjust favoritism

Now, at this point, and by the way, none of this is actually the main point of this podcast, but I just wanted to maybe touch on some of the controversy of the day by just reminding you of this sort of form versus function issue. So I think that like the best thing a government could ever do is to just be good to God's people. Now I can imagine a non believer feeling really squeamish about this and saying, well, it seems really unfair that a government would give favor to one particular group of people over another. But you know, it turns out that Christians are terrible at hoarding the favor they receive. They're terrible at it. Every time someone is good to a Christian, they look to their non Christian neighbor and say, well, be good to them as well. I think this is extremely unique to Christians compared to Jews or Muslims or whatever. And that is is that Christians are bound by their God to love their unbelieving neighbor as themselves. And because they are now, because they're people, they're sinners, Christians are still imperfect. We can find plenty of evidence of them failing to do this, but I won't get into it here, but the historical evidence of this unique redistribution of blessings onto those who are not God's people at the time, it's profound. It's just absolutely profound. Christians are terrible at hoarding God's blessings. If a nation were to show favorite status to Christians in a relatively short period of time, those same Christians or those Christians kids would be like, well, yeah, but you got to help my neighbor. I mean, I know he's not a Christian, but you should be nice to him too.

8 · Signals the end of the contemporary application section and pivots back to the exegetical purpose announced in the introduction

My point is that I think that the essential form of government or essential function of government is to be good to God's people. And I think that what that could do for us as we discuss the questions of form is if we understand being good to God's people as the function, well, then you begin to look through sort of what are our options in terms of governmental form and sort out, well, this one seems to do the function best in this particular environment. A chair outside is going to have a different form than a chair that's made for the inside. And a chair that's made to relax in A reading kind of posture is going to be built differently. It's going to have a different form than a chair meant for being an eating type chair, a chair you eat on. Form can vary wildly depending on the particular people who are using the thing, the context in which it is used, the resources available to build the thing, and so on and so forth. I think that form is not the main point. I think that there are probably a lot of ways to govern people that are reasonably good at doing the function, that function being to be good to God's people. Now, again, I didn't actually want to do this podcast talking about this stuff, but I thought, well, let me just introduce some of those thoughts, let them percolate a little bit in your head. We can talk about them in some of our, you know, in person gatherings, whether it be around fire pit or wherever. What I really set out to do was to use this same line of thinking to explain what God is doing in Egypt.

9 · Introduces Peter Leithart's threefold taxonomy of governments based on Genesis 12:3: Guardians (protective of God's people), Babels (generically evil but not anti-Christian), and Beasts (specifically hostile to God's people)

I started thinking about all this because, you know, friend of Providence Logan Thune has been here a number of times to preach from, from up in Emmaus Road in Sioux Falls. He passed on an article to me from Joe Rigney going back to 2013. And in that article, Rigney cites something that Peter Lightheart, the theologian, had written related to the way that God views nations. And I want to talk about that as I. As we walk through Exodus, because I think it gives us some clarity there as well. Theologian Peter Leithart puts it like this. The key question for Scripture is how does the political entity treat the people of God? That's Genesis 12:3. And in this regard, Light Heart says that there are three kinds of nations in the Scriptures. There are guardians. These are governments that may or may not be explicitly Christian, but they are in general friendly toward and protective toward God's people. And here you could say this was Egypt in the time of Joseph, thanks in large part to Joseph. And from Guardians, you have Babels. A Babel like empire is a religious project. This is Light Heart, the political form of an aspiration to divinity. A Babel like empire is not interested in God. It's interested in being God. It's an evil empire, but it is generically evil. It is not specifically antagonistic toward the people of God. And so in Egypt, this would have been Egypt before Joseph, and this would be Egypt after the death of Joseph, going all the way up to the beginning of Exodus. So you've got Guardians and Babels, and then the third empire that Light Heart identifies in Scripture is the beast the bestial empire. And these are those that demonstrate violent hostility to the people of God. Babbles become beasts, basically, when instead of just being generically evil, they single out the people of God for persecution, or their generic evil accidentally hems in on the people of God. And this would be Egypt in the time of Moses.

10 · Traces Egypt's escalating anti-Israelite policies in Exodus 1 (enslavement, midwife-commanded infanticide, Nile drownings) as evidence of crossing from Babel to Beast status

I think this is important, you know. Yes, the Exodus is a story of God. It's the story of the people being freed. It's the story of Moses. It's actually also the story of Egypt's judgment. And that judgment is predicated on them turning from a Babel in which they are just this, you know, this generically evil empire consumed with the worship of false gods and so on and so forth. They transition from Babel to a beast where the people of Israel grow too big and Pharaoh sets out to consume them in particular. So in chapter one, he moves from enslavement and hard labor. That doesn't work. They're still being fruitful. He then orders the midwives to kill the babies. That doesn't work. And then he orders all the baby boys to be thrown into the Nile. A thing to understand from this, this view that light heart is commending is that at some point Egypt crossed a line and it entered into. It had gone from being a generically evil state to a place that was singling out the people of God to hurt them. And so God springs into Genesis 12:3, action. I will bless those who bless you, and those who dishonor you, I will curse. So God is provoked. This is the way that the book, this is the way Exodus begins. God is now provoked in a unique way. One way to think about it, this was God hates the shedding of innocent blood in general, and he will eventually avenge them. But when a nation begins to explicitly hurt the people of God, Rigney says it this way, the blood of the saints fills up the cup of God's wrath more quickly than any other evil the state could or does commit.

11 · Applies the Guardian/Babel/Beast taxonomy to contemporary cultural moment, suggesting America may be transitioning from Babel toward either Beast or back to Guardian status

Why does this matter? Well, I mean, it matters for a lot of reasons. Number one, if you want to understand your particular times, you could use this matrix and say, well, you know, the government can be one of three things. It can be a guardian for God's people, it can be a Babel, or it can be a beast. And by the way, this maps on really well onto Aaron Ren's three worlds model. You've got positive world, neutral world, and negative world. Okay? So if you want to understand your times, you might start just looking around for this crucial pivot From Babel to beast or from Babel back to guardian status. Say what you want about Christian nationalism and so on and so forth, and whether you think that's the appropriate form for our government, say what you want about that. But I do suspect there are some within that movement who have a sense that the Babel is about to become something else. And if it, it can either go back into a guardianship type status or it will go into the bestial mode. So if you want to understand your times, you need to maybe just understand is this nation moving in the direction toward bestial status, where they are going to be in particular hard on Christians? And if so, then I would expect the fall to go quickly and I'll maybe support that here in a moment.

12 · Validates the Guardian/Babel/Beast taxonomy by showing it explains multiple biblical judgment narratives: Babylon (used to discipline Israel, then destroyed for becoming bestial), the three Herods (all dying shortly after harming God's people), and Jerusalem in 70 AD (judged for crucifying Christ and stoning Stephen)

The second reason I thought this would be helpful is it just helps you to understand God's work amongst the nations more clearly. This harmonizes, really, as far as I can understand, most of what I know about God's dealings with the nations. This seems to work. For instance, why would God use a nation like Babylon to discipline his people? Well, I think he's doing two things there as best as I understand the biblical data. On the one hand, he's rebuking his own people, he's disciplining them, but he's also allowing Babylon to become bestial so that he can judge them into extinction. Another interesting place to look at is the Herods. So from the beginning of the Gospels up to Acts 12, we have three Herods ruling. And we have Herod the Great, who enters his bestial mode when he kills the baby boys in Bethlehem. And shortly thereafter that Herod dies, literally, guys of gangrene of the groin. Gangrene of the groin. From there we have Herod Antipas. This is the one who beheaded John the Baptist and played a crucial role in the crucifixion of Jesus. We don't know how he died, but he died at 39 years old and he was in exile. Herod Agrippa. This is the Herod that killed James and Peter. And we know from Acts and also the accounts of Josephus how Herod Agrippa died after reigning less than three years. He developed extreme stomach pain, which was probably for parasites, and he died. This also explains why God judged Jerusalem in 70 AD. The rulers of the city had gone from just being sort of wayward and stubborn and money changers in the temple and all that kind of stuff into beasts. They had consumed Christ, they had consumed Stephen.

13 · Establishes Moses's dual mission from Exodus 4:21-23: redemption for Israel and judgment on Pharaoh

So I think understanding this threefold pattern helps you understand the Scriptures in general in the sense of how God actually interacts with the nations. Finally, I think this is also going to help us understand Moses mission, which is a twofold mission. Yes, Moses is sent as an instrument of redemption for his people, but he's also sent as an instrument of judgment upon Pharaoh and the bestial government of Egypt. We see that in chapter four of Exodus in verse 21. And the Lord said to Moses, when do you go back to Egypt? See that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall to Sarah. Then you shall say to Pharaoh. Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son. And God says this over and over and over again, that he will harden pharaoh's heart. Exodus 7, 13, 22, Exodus 8, 15 and 32 and 9, 12 and 35 and 10, 1 and 14, 8. Why is God set his heart to judge Pharaoh? Because Egypt crossed the line. They went from being a generically evil empire to one that specifically was feeding on the blood of the saints. This is all tying in, you know. In Luke 18, Jesus says, this is in the parable of the insistent widow. He says, and will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.

14 · Makes the theological claim that God identifies so intimately with His people that attacks on them are experienced as attacks on Himself (Damascus road example)

You got to remember how God sees an attack on his people. The most famous example that shows you how God sees an attack on his people is when he stops Saul on the road to Damascus. And what does he say? Why do you persecute me? So God has a very intimate connection with his people. He identifies with them. And so when someone, when a government, when a leader, when someone attacks his people, he sees it as an attack on himself, he immediately, like Joe Rigney said, the cup of wrath gets filled rather quickly. So as we progress into the next several chapters of Exodus, we're going to see wave after wave of God's wrath pour down on Egypt. And you got to remember what's going on here. God is provoked by their cruelty to his people. And here we are touching, by the way, just on the very nature of God, because he's both a redeemer and an avenger. Eventually we will get to chapter 34, where God appears to Moses in a cloud and proclaims the Lord pass before him and proclaim The Lord. The Lord, a God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin and transgression, but who will by no means clear the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. By the way, that's the gospel. That's the whole gospel. This is who God is. This is the God of the psalms. You know, when we read the Psalms, we tend to go in for all the stuff about God abounding in steadfast love. But you'll rarely find a psalm that does not also include something about the wrath and vengeance of God. And we tend to get kind of embarrassed by those sections. But they're just as true representations of the nature of God than the other thing. Psalm 37 is one of those psalms that just really clearly alternates between his care for his people and his judgment on The Wicked. Verse 12. The Wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him. But the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.

15 · Applies the dual-purpose mission (redemption and judgment) to Christian evangelism: believers are simultaneously instruments of salvation and condemnation, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 2

Now, there's another personal application to make with all this, and that would be that when you go into the world sharing the gospel, you are fulfilling those two purposes, not just one. God aims to save those he wants to save and condemn those he wants to condemn. And this is also, by the way, like, a really clear explanation behind what's going on with persecution. Why does God allow persecution? Well, if God has already decided to destroy a nation, one way he could choose to do that is by allowing them to go into beast mode. Remember, God himself is the blesser and the cursor of Genesis 12. 3. When Paul, you know, when Paul goes out into evangelism, he says he smells like life to some and death to others. Why? Because he is. So when Moses goes to Pharaoh and demands that he let the people go, and Pharaoh responds by making the people's lives much worse because he essentially, in chapter five, multiplies their miseries. Why did Pharaoh act that way? Because God had already determined to destroy Pharaoh. And every drop of Hebrew blood shed is quickening the end of Pharaoh. And so now we're kind of, you know, going into stuff we talked about last Sunday during the sermon, how God's revelatory purposes are at work in the book of Exodus. He means to teach the nations about his nature and his superiority and sovereignty over all other gods. He's showing that he's A unique God at a time when he wouldn't have been thought of that way. He would have been thought of as a regional God, if anything at all. And so what is God doing in the Exodus by both by saving his people and by destroying Pharaoh, he's showing his uniqueness, his holiness to the world. That's in Exodus 9 when he talks about Pharaoh. But for this purpose, I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. So God's revelatory purposes are at work in both his saving and his condemning. That's actually what we see speaking of Bible passages that are in chapter 9s of things. That's what we see in Romans 9 as well. What if God wants to show his mercy? His revelatory action includes preparing vessels for wrath.

16 · Identifies the cross as the ultimate expression of the pattern: God allows enemies to strike His people (the crucifixion), which becomes the means of their own defeat (Colossians 2's disarming of rulers and authorities)

So it just turns out that one key way God destroys that which he has destined to destroy is by allowing them to strike the heel of his chosen people, so that his chosen people can then now crush what he has already decreed should be crushed. And of course, this happens most completely at the cross. Colossians 2. And you were dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. And as you know, I'm fond of reminding you that Psalm 119 is the most quoted Old Testament scripture in the New Testament Psalm. Did I say Psalm 119 just? Then Psalm 110, just in case Psalm 110 is the most quoted Old Testament scripture in the New Testament. And that's where we see the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Now, I think there's a lot of reasons why this psalm is the most quoted psalmist, but one of those reasons is that it's basically the purpose statement of the new covenant. The purpose statement of the new covenant is to turn all the enemies into his footstool. How does he do that? It's the gospel. It's the redeeming act of the gospel, and it's the condemning act of the gospel. Or you could say this. He turns some of his enemies into his sons, and he uses those sons to crush the serpent so that in the end all of the enemies are handled, all the enemies will be footstools. Some of them will become footstools by being converted, and some of them will be footstools by being condemned.

17 · Brings the Exodus narrative to resolution: God's judgment on Egypt was revelatory—showing both Israel (Exodus 19:4) and outsiders like Jethro (Exodus 18) that Yahweh is supreme

So when it's all said and done and Egypt lies in ruins, God says to his people, I showed you. I showed you. Exodus 19:4. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And this is what happens with Jethro. When Jethro is reunited with Moses in chapter 18, he says, I saw what God did for you and against Pharaoh. And now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods because in this affair, they dealt arrogantly with the people. So this blessing and cursing thing is, like, all over the place. And it really is, I think, a key insight into understanding God's interactions with the nations. And we could wrap it up there. But let me just say one more thing. We could look at this data at the. At the highest level and understand the purpose of the devil. He is a vessel of wrath prepared in advance for destruction. But his existence is allowed so that in due time, God can step on him and reveal his superiority above all things. And of course, you know, what's even crazier is that God's going to use the church to do that. As Jesus tells Peter, upon this rock I will build my church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. We often miss the offensive language there. The gates of hell. We're at the gates of hell. Romans 16. The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. And then, of course, Revelation 12. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have Come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. For they love not their lives, even unto death.

18 · Offers a tentative typological reading of Moses's two signs in Exodus 4 (staff-to-serpent, leprous hand healed) as symbolic of the gospel's dual work: subduing enemies (serpent-crushing) and healing enemies (redemption from sin/disease)

Now, I want to leave you with this pure conjecture, and I don't have any idea if I'm right at all, but it'll leave you with a good word picture if nothing else. So you know, when Moses in chapter four, when God sends Moses in Chapter four into Egypt, you know, he got him two signs. The first sign is to turn the staff into a serpent. And then Moses is supposed to grasp it and subdue it, essentially. And then the second sign is his hand turns leprous, and then it's healed. Well, I mean, in the end, this is true that all of God's enemies will be either healed or handled. He will subdue the serpents, he will heal the sick. Some he will grasp and destroy, and some he will heal of their iniquities and their sins, which is commonly referred to in Old Testament language as disease. So in the end, all of God's enemies will be healed or handled. I think that's kind of why Psalm 110 features so prominently. And it's all tying into this basic idea of God blessing and cursing. Romans 12 or Genesis 12:3. And there's some political stuff in there that is all coherent with the overall message of God's word.

19 · Closes by reiterating the sermon's meta-theme: Scripture is coherent, and political theology is not exempt from that coherence

That's probably a good place to leave this. It's like, it's all coherent, guys. We might not always see its coherence, but it's all coherent. Politics doesn't get some kind of strange, odd exemption to the rest of the Christian life. It all is supposed to work together. Like we saw this Sunday when we talked about the advent of monotheism and the unlikely, Unlikely Companions book that I referenced, where not only in Lewis, but others have identified the rise of monotheism as a. As preceding the rise of science. And as Lewis said, you know, we found that there was just one lawgiver, and then we realized that nature was coherent, and then we began to look for the coherent laws in nature. It's all connected. And God's word, if we're diligent in looking at it, it will show us the connections. We'll find the connections in there. I think that just understanding the function of a government, rather than straining to do the form conversation, I think this could be helpful to us. It'll certainly be helpful as we progress into Exodus and understand what is God doing. God has gotten. God is just done with Egypt. Why? Because they were bad to his kids. I think that's something we can all understand. Praise God that he loves us like that, because we sure don't deserve it. But he's faithful. All right, well, that's the promised podcast on the politics of Exodus. Be well this week and look forward to meeting up with you this Sunday. Worshiping the Lord together. God bless.