Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

It appears that for many Christians, faith doesn’t extend much beyond a verbal profession; God is considered to be a private or personal matter that deals only with the inward man and the “spiritual realm” of believing and praying. It’s as if His word doesn’t really have anything to say about how we should live our lives, the laws of economics and social order, the kingdom of God, the nature of man’s devices (kingdoms, democracies, inventions, policies, institutions), or our responsibilities before the Lord. 

Many people appear scared to go any further than a confession of faith. They don’t appear to consider, beyond lip service, that God gave us ethics, an economic law, social duties, responsibilities to our neighbors and communities, divine counsel for long and rewarding lives on earth, a way to redemption, and the offer of rewards beyond salvation both here and after. (Perhaps a greater ethical element to God is ignored because it would indict many for their inaction or even reveal a willful ignorance of their own transgressions of these commandments and heavenly instructions). 

Political theory is often considered out-of-bounds for the average Christian who prefers to think of Jesus as having been unconcerned with political problems and supposedly calling His people to an apolitical life. (Once again, because they might find themselves actively strapping on boots for these evil systems, voting at its altars, or otherwise idolizing the beast). It isn’t thought that we should really be doing anything more in this world than believing. 

But the scriptures do speak of blessings coming to those who follow God’s commandments (Deuteronomy 28:1-2), judgment coming upon those who forget God’s word and trust in evil (Isaiah 30:12), societies falling apart because men walk away from God (Isaiah 59:13), men forgetting God due to worldly luxury (Hosea 13:6), society being destroyed due to our dependence on oppression and deceit (Psalm 55:11), a lack of people even calling for justice (Isaiah 59:4), men trusting in violence and oppression rather than God’s way (Psalm 58:2), justice being perverted because men forgot God’s law, (Habakkuk 1:4) man-made law systems playing a part in corrupting societies (Isaiah 10:1), men trusting in false gods to provide for them instead of God (Hosea 7:14), trusting in God to avoid the dangerous follies of statism (Jeremiah 39:18), trusting in God rather than fearing men (2 Samuel 22:3), God bringing us to safety from the tyrants if we trust in Him (Psalm 12:5), God rescuing us from oppressors (Psalm 72:14), not trusting in plunderers or wanting to partake with them (Psalm 62:10), not following others on the path of violence (Proverbs 16:29), not participating in robing the poor as government agents do (Proverbs 22:22), being called to righteousness (Isaiah 42:6), freeing our people from slavery (Isaiah 42:7), doing what is just and right and keeping our people from being robbed (Jeremiah 22:3), not walking like everyone else does (Ephesians 4:17), leaving behind the old ways of the world (Ephesians 2:2), giving up our old ways in general (Ephesians 4:22), etc. 

But with all the various eschatological views out there, it seems most Christians assume that we might as well just be waitin’ on a rapture. I guess men suppose that rising up out of chairs and doing the works which God had prepared for us is futile and we can just grill and watch television until we’re evacuated to heaven? Hardly a finger should be lifted in the cause of advancing God’s kingdom.

We may well be slain by the beast (Revelation 13:7), but let it not be said that we have contributed to the destruction that it will bring about upon society or forsook our duty to do what God wants of us.

What then are we to be doing?

It’s notable what the Lord told Jeremiah his purpose was as a prophet. Because it is rather radical and actively society-transforming.

God told the prophet,

“I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10).

“Over nations and kingdoms” — to preach to everyone, the rulers and those fooled by them, about the follies of statist organization and the alternative kingdom of God.

“To root out, pull down, and destroy” — to do away with these systems through one’s preaching of God’s word and the salvation of the Lord. 

“To throw down, to build, and to plant” — to raise up the alternative society in place of the violent political one that is doomed to destruction and failure.

It would seem that if we adopt the job of the prophet, we are to be preaching the word of God to both the people and the rulers telling them that statist societies destroy and come falling down and that the only societies that can work are those that obey God and do not erect false god States that come to dominate them.

Changing the world with the word

Preaching alone requires getting out there, and a lot of courage to do it. The prophets were put up by God against kingdoms of men by God who were, like our people, presumably the same sort of flag-waving idolaters singing national anthems and championing the rulers in their wars and preaching the glories of their kingdoms and their own captivity. 

But the word of God is itself transformative for men and societies and threatens the corrupt and evil ways of the world that men have ignored, and even loved and worshiped, for so long. (It’s no wonder that, despite it permeating the pages of scripture, this political element has been suppressed and everything is confined to the narrow “spiritual realm” of organized worship, prayer, or devotion, if even any of that). The word of God can reveal to men the truth. 

“The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). 

Jesus explains that the “parable of the sower” was about spreading the kingdom of God through the word — planting the seeds of God’s word around and hoping they will take root. As he concluded,

“The parable is this: The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11). 

The power of the word God is that it can tear down the plunder scheme of statism and expose it to everyone. And it shows men how to have a godly order in its place (i.e., repent and abstain from violence against your neighbor). It shows men that the State they have been caught idolizing is an enemy to God’s kingdom. Sharing the word of God is kingdom work. (And it might be increasingly considered “seditious” by the tyrants because God exposes the plunderers for who they are: lying and evil schemers who imposed violence systems on men and made them believe it was for their own good). 

This is why we must minister the word of God to others: that men might quit being hard-headed, that they may wake up from their sleep before disaster strikes, quit walking in the paths of evil, and therefore quit providing the sin needed for the beast to feed on. Egypt needs the seared consciences of unfaithful and covetous idolaters. Babylon needs people to plunder for breakfast who think plunderous and coercive political systems are necessary for “law and order” and protection from theft and enemies. 

Christian ethics should lead to one’s actions to reflect the kingdom of God, and such things are not without real-world impact. Showing everyone that the Lord is on our side against the tyrants can bring men away from their foolish and downright sinful trust in political systems. 

How Babylonian plunder systems “work”

Our Babylonian captors do not rule by force alone. They have to trick men into eating at their table (Proverbs 23:3). The plunderers can’t just nakedly plunder men, but have to make them believe that they have come to bring something like “law and order” or “freedom” when they have violence on their minds.

As one prophet said,

“Their tongue is a deadly arrow, It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him” (Jeremiah 9:8).

The domination system can’t just show up with the most swords and punk everyone else into obeying it indefinitely; this would eventually be put down and could never transform into the type of plunder gang that is possible when you have trained proud slaves who wave the flag of the rulers. It needs fools and cowards who justify and defend their masters, telling any dissenter that “Pharaoh is a good guy” and that “most of Pharaoh’s horsemen are good…there are only a few bad apples.” State slavery needs people waving “thin blue line” flags and believing that they’re not socialists. They are empowered by propagandized “patriots,” “thin blue line” centurion worshipers, and “lesser evil” voters who think they’ll make a difference this time around.

Our Babylonian society “works” because it has millions of men with evil desires in their hearts, who love her lies and abuses and even want to partake in them themselves. She raises millions to dream of kicking in doors with their local bootboys in the belief they’re “the good guys” who are “fighting crime” against “the bad guys,” instead of committing crimes themselves. Pharaoh doesn’t just beat everyone and they obey. Men have to be made to love their chains.

Accompanying any State is the sin in men’s hearts of idolatry, support for theft (taxation) and murder (war), etc. Accompanying any State is false god worship and men who have walked away from God. This is why we’re told,

“Beware that your hearts are not deceived and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them” (Deuteronomy 11:16).

If men repented from their evils, quit walking on the wicked path and living in spiritual Egypt, and served God instead, there could be no Egypt. Her strength isn’t her chariots and horsemen, of which there are many. She lives on fools who have not known that the Lord is God. Men have confused the matter when they say, “We could never win against Pharaoh and his army…they’re too strong…they have fighter jets.” This is also what the Israelites thought when they were scared to walk with Moses out of Egypt. But it fails to recognize that the number of weapons or operators isn’t why Egypt still stands. And men are already defeated when they think this way.

It is the fighter-jet worshipers, not the fighter jets themselves, that empower Egypt. It is men who think we need fighter jets and tanks and chariots and horsemen who are a danger to God’s liberty, not those things in and of themselves. And it is God, not the stockpiling of arms, that gets us out of Egypt.

And so we must work to spread the word of God. Pharaoh can’t rule unless he has people who bow to false gods and fear their footmen, and the scriptures will show a man what a fool he was to ever do it — to ever pledge allegiance to Egypt’s flag, join its military, enforce its bogus “laws,” teach its lies, or offer support for the system that far exceeds what is demanded. 

Babylon is coming down. We have been marked for destruction. If we had been working on God’s kingdom this whole time, and building up our neighbors, communities, and churches into a voluntary network of exchange of goods and services, instead of worshiping the coercive systems of men and believing that this is the only way to organize society (and indeed, they believed in it as a god), we might have been better prepared to withstand its fall.

But it’s never too late. It’s time to get to work…”to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10).