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A STRATEGIC RETREAT: ETHOS, PART II
By Garry J. Moes
The Psalmist Asaph, in his plaintive Psalm 73, has struck a responsive chord in many a godly man living in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. Since our own seems as wicked and perverse as any, Asaph's contemplation of the relative fates of the wicked and the righteous is as contemporary as ever.
Overwhelmed by the apparent triumphs of wicked men in his generation, the psalmist was on the verge of despair — until he retreated to the "sanctuary" of his God and once again saw the world from the Divine perspective (vss. 16-17).
I had a similar experience within days of writing the last issue of this newsletter, in which I explored the "ethos" of our present culture and referenced the recent assessment of long-time cultural warrior Paul Weyrich.
You may recall that Weyrich concluded in a widely reported message that defenders of America's historic Christian ethos have all but lost their cultural war with the forces of darkness. Weyrich judged that the United States has become dominated by an "alien ideology" which has plunged our society into an "ever-wider sewer." This sea-change of "historic proportions" has been so overwhelming that Christians have little choice but to withdraw from the larger culture and attempt to establish a godly parallel one of their own, he suggested.
In our last discussion of this issue, we proposed that, indeed, a time of vast Divine judgment mayu have come upon us and that a strategic retreat in the face of it may be called for.
If this is so, the word "strategic" needs substantial emphasis. A strategic retreat, in any war, is not an unconditional surrender. It is not even an admission of conclusive defeat. It is, rather, a realistic assessment of a combatant's present situation, with an eye toward ultimate re-engagement and victory, perhaps after a necessary respite.
My own Asaph experience came, as his did, in the sanctuary of God's house. Within days after my issuance of the last Gauntlet, my then pastor, John Vroegindewey of Oak Hill Presbyterian Church (Sonora, Calif.), delivered a marvelous sermon from the book of I Samuel which seemed to address this very issue in a most encouraging way.
The passage under consideration that particular Lord's Day was I Samuel 19, one of the several tales of King Saul's crazed campaign to murder David, God's anointed successor to Israel's throne. In this chapter, Pastor Vroegindewey pointed out, David finds three points of sanctuary crucial to his safety, his cause and his refreshment for the battles which lay ahead. The three sources of encouragement were his friend Jonathan, his wife Michel, and his spiritual mentor Samuel.
Overwhelmed as we are in our own spiritual warfare, what better places could we look to for hope and inspiration in a time of strategic retreat:
Centuries later, another prophet of God, Zechariah, was confronted with a series of visions, the seventh of which provided him — and, by extension, us who inhabit a similar epoch — with powerful encouragement in the face of pervasive evil (Zech. 5:1-11).
This vision, as commentator Peter Craigie points out, "reveals the depths of the divine concern for the moral state of the nation." For here we see God's reaction to a culture permeated with a spirit (ethos) of wickedness. We see here a Sovereign God who, in His just determination, judges wickedness as He must, but then, in His time of mercy, contains it and exiles it to the desert, redeeming His people in the process.
John Calvin, in commenting on Zechariah's vision, observed:
"We see that God ... gives here a token of favour; for he says that wickedness was shut up in a measure [the covered ephah in Zechariah's vision]. Though then he had spoken hitherto severely, that he might shake the Jews with dread, it was yet his purpose soon to add some alleviation: for it was enough that they were proved guilty of their sins, that they might humble themselves and suppliantly flee to God's mercy, and also that repentance might really touch them, lest they should murmur, as we know they had done, but submit themselves to God and confess that they had suffered justly....
"For as wickedness is hateful to God, his vengeance against the Jews could not have ceased except by cleansing them from their sins, and by renewing them by his Spirit. For they had carried on war with him in such a way, that there was no means of pacifying him but by departing from their sins. And whenever God reconciles himself to men, he at the same time renews them by his Spirit; he not only blots out their sins, as to the guilt, but also regenerates those who were before devoted to sin and the devil, so that he may treat them kindly and paternally."
We must, of course, be cautious in drawing parallels between ancient Israel and any modern civil nation, for the parallel of Scripture is always between Israel and Church, the People of His grace in the Old and New dispensations. Yet a powerful principle of God's handiwork in human history is revealed in this vision. To again use Calvin's words, it is this: "As God then designed to be propitious to his people, he justly says, that he would cause wickedness to disappear from the midst of them."
If God's people in our generation must face a period of exile and retreat, let it be with this understanding: that He has given us powerful resources — the communion of the saints, the love and support of family, and the flooding force of His efficacious Word and Spirit — to prepare us for triumph in the cause of His kingdom. And He Himself will in His time fully encompass and banish wickedness from our midst.
