Of God – Nations – Insects – Dwarfs
Nations Compared To God – Nothing But Flies And Bees
Sometimes God speaks to us in truths that are both bitter and sweet at the same time. He speaks to us in terms of both warning and comfort simultaneously. He has an unequaled knack in doing that throughout His Word. We hear Him speaking that exact way in Isaiah 7:18 where He says through the prophet Isaiah to King Ahaz of Judah, “And it will come about in that day, that the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the remotest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.”
In Isaiah’s time of world history, about 700 years before the birth of Christ, Egypt and Assyria were formidable military powers and great threats to the children of God as well as to the whole world. God warns His rebellious, disobedient, wicked, and idolatrous people who have abandoned the Lord (Isaiah 1:4) that these pagan nations will come and consume and devastate their land like armies of locusts.
This will not be like human parent’s traditional over-the-knee spanking of their naughty children. This will be all-consuming judgment, and I am sure that the feel-good, smiley-faced “preachers and prophets” of the modern world and “no-spanking churches” would refuse to preach it or allow it to be preached, but instead would recommend to God some far milder and much more gentle recommendations. You know, like a heart-to-heart talk in private perhaps.
That’s the bitter news, but the sweet news in it all is that God has these nations totally under His control and completely whistle-trained like dogs. More on that later! The choice of the designations by God of both flies and the bees to describe entire nations and their formidable military might is not casual but rather Divinely intentional. It has even greater significance when God likens entire nations and their military prowess to a single fly and a single bee.
So much for the couplet used to describe the elite nations of the world as “Super Powers!” There is only one “Super Power” in the world, and His name is “Almighty God.” Compared to God, all of the “Super Powers” in this world are nothing but pipsqueaks. Americans and their politicians have for years gloated in their assertion that “America Is The Greatest Super Power” in the world. What a joke! America in fact compared to God is not even a “Superfly” or a “Superbee.” Just a fly or a bee. Take your pick! That by the way is exactly the joke that God is laughing at when He says in Psalm 2:1 and 4,
“Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing?…
He who sits in the heavens laughs….”
This is God enabling us to see the nations of the world from the Divine perspective and not from man’s perspective. God views entire nations of the world and each one of these nations, whether it be the United States of America, China, Russia, Iran, or whatever nation, as but a fly and a bee, whose demise is just one God-swat away.
Here through Isaiah God mentions two nations that are totally pagan – Egypt and Assyria. They don’t know God, nor do they want to know God. And here is the Sovereign God, who can command at will these nations and any nation on earth to simply “Buzz In” or Buzz Off” to accomplish His purposes on earth anywhere at anytime. Can you imagine? The modern, tumultuous, swarming nations of the world being reduced by God to nothing more than a house fly and a honey bee! Are you kidding? To mankind, the firepower of nations is like a cosmic sonic boom. To God it is no more than the “zzzz” of a fly or bee. It is all so nationally demeaning and degrading to proud nationalists all over the world to be likened to a little insect, and that is exactly the point.
It all sounds and looks ridiculous, but is in fact the reality of any and all national prominence at any given moment or circumstance of world history. Between God and the nations, the comparison is too disproportionate to even be made. Under heaven, the parade of the nations at the Summer or Winter Olympics, so full of pomp and circumstance, is in fact nothing but the parade of insects. No wonder that God says what He says through the psalmist in Psalm 2:4,
“…the Lord scoffs at them.”
I don’t pretend to know just exactly how the tumult and furor of the nations will evolve in the last days of earthly nations and kingdoms. But in the Revelation of John, chapters 3 and 4, the majestic picture of God’s throne and God’s rule above the chaos and confusion of this world is shared by the Revelator to give God’s people here on earth yet alive, a sense of eternal security and order that we have in Jesus Christ. And we join with the hosts in Heaven in the highest act of worship as we proclaim that only Jesus Christ has and is eternally worthy of the three things that men and nations most seek:
“GLORY – HONOR – POWER.”
So then when you and I are moved to ask, “WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?”, let Revelation 1:4-7 tell us WHAT THE WORLD IS COMING TO:
“Grace to you from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; and from
the seven Spirits Who are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, the
faithful witness, the first-born from the dead, and the ruler of the
kings of the earth. To Him Who loves us, and released us from
our sins by His blood…to Him be the glory and dominion
forever and ever…Behold He is coming with the
clouds, and every eye will see Him….”
That is what the world is coming to!!!
And mark this well, namely, that the Bible tells us clearly that:
“WHEN HISTORY CLOSES HERE ON EARTH (AND IT WILL), THE PRAISE AND
WORSHIP OF THE KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS IS ALONE THE
PRAISE AND WORSHIP THAT WILL CONTINUE INTO AND FOR ALL ETERNITY.”
By way of stark contrast, insects don’t live very long. I am told that most do not live more than a year, and many much less than that. However, they so often do make a big noise and fuss about themselves while they are alive. So do rulers and their nations! Blinded by pride and sickened with fiendishness, so many rulers throughout history like Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin have mistaken themselves for lions, when in fact they were and are little bugs who live out their tiny time on earth until they are squashed by Almighty God like all the rest of them – Hussein, Gaddafi, bin Laden. Oh yes, they trample down so many for a season, only to be trampled upon themselves by Almighty God. They sting others for awhile, only to be stung to death like the little buzzing bees they really are. Then the “zzzz” is silenced forever.
Does this mean that we can endorse the murder for instance of Gaddafi at the hands of bloodsuckers in their slaughterhouse tactics? No we do not, and neither may our national leaders which in fact they shamefully did. That ought to cause us great concern and disgust. The butchers and their butcheries of rulers and kings without due process make a mockery of international justice and law. if you will:
“IT SHOULD MAKE GADDAFI’S ASSASSINS AS INFAMOUS AS HIS OWN VICES,
AS HIS LAST WORDS RING OUT, ‘DON’T SHOOT, DON’T SHOOT,’
AND THEN THEY EXECUTED HIM ON THE SPOT.”
GIANTS AND DWARFS
I am often reminded of the adventure that has been read to the children in Sunday School for hundreds of years. It has come to be looked upon more as a fairy tale than one of the great, true stories and divine lessons of history. It has been viewed mostly as the tale of the little engine that could. It is all set in the military conflict between Israel and the Philistines, which climaxed in the showdown between young David and the giant Goliath.
Oh yes, Goliath was one big fella. Huge by human standards! A human colossus and a freak of nature! He is the type of monstrosity who would make a sword and a shield look like a spoon and dish. He was a tower of a man and that in the literal sense. If you will, the original “Incredible Hulk!” David was just your average size teenager. It was truly “Mutt vs Jeff’ and then some – the “Mutteist vs the Jeffeist.”
Goliath was a Philistine, and the Philistines were ferociously set against God and against God’s people. They were like the Muslims of the modern world set against Israel and Israel’s God. Goliath taunted the people of God and the military of King Saul, all who were wetting their armor into rust. All but one of them barely dared to look at Goliath, and were rehearsing over and over again in their minds, “He’ll Kill Us – He’ll Kill Us Not,” and the last petal of the mental flower was always ending on “He’ll Kill Us.” Frankly, they were all longing to be home with mommy and getting from her that extra-special love hug in which they had always felt so warm and safe. Soldiers who are facing death or are dying in battle have often been heard to cry “Mother.“
David’s countrymen kept their eyes on Goliath who represented the Philistines. David kept His eyes on his God who represented His covenant people. David remembered something that his fellow Israelites had forgotten, namely, that the mighty strong God, the God of Israel, was with them. It really wasn’t the fact that David was such a good sling-shot shooter! I have no idea how accurate a marksman he was, or how much he had practiced. For that matter, as things stood, a sling-shot against that brute was like a peashooter against a modern army tank anyway, however you compare it. No, that wasn’t it!
David let the cat out of the bag before he took the stone out of the pouch. He said in I Samuel 17:45 to this vicious, menacing barbarian named Goliath from the city of Gath – “Goliath the Gathian,”
“…You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in
the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel,
whom you have taunted.”
Oh my, this is bad news for Goliath. Immanuel, the Mighty Strong God is on the scene, and He is standing with David against Goliath, and the fact of the matter is that Goliath the Gathian, ole GG, could have been a mile high and football field wide, but it would have done him no good. Why? Because even a tiny baby plus God is a vastly unfair majority against millions! Without God, to send David out to battle against this gargantuan would have been like blindfolding a toddler and arming him with a straight pin. But with God on his side, for David, toppling the giant would be as easy as sticking a sharpened pencil through a paper cup. As easy as a sharp, warm knife through butter!
Anyway, this thing had been staged by God long beforehand. David didn’t know that, but God did. It was in that regard nothing but an ancient episode of modern professional wrestling. In the midst of this miracle, I am reminded of the words of Max Lucado:
“GOD APPEARING IN THE STRANGEST PLACES DOING THE STRANGEST THINGS.
STRETCHING SMILES WHERE THERE WERE ONLY TEARS. HANGING A BRIGHT
STAR IN A DARK SKY. ARCHING RAINBOWS IN THE MIDST OF THUNDER
CLOUDS. JESUS CALLING NAMES IN A CEMETERY.”
I am sure you know the rest of the story. Goliath is dead from a sling-shot stone buried between his eyes, and then his head is cut off. The giant proved to be only a gnat after all. All of the Philistines ran for their lives, scattering like bugs in the dark when the light is turned on. It reminds me of the words of the great 19th century missionary to India by the name of William Carey who said:
“ATTEMPT GREAT THINGS FOR GOD – EXPECT GREAT THINGS FROM GOD.”
The American military found the dictator, Saddam Hussein, in a hole hiding in the earth like an insect on Dec.13, 2003. All Fuhrers prove to be flies in the end. The giant turns out to be a dwarf. Most tyrannical rulers rarely hold their greatness for the span of their lives. The vast majority of them live to see their empires crumble before them! They then meet the indignation of men and the vengeance of God. The savage, cruel tyrants and governments of the world throughout history remind me of storm cells, full of furious wind, but very brief. They soon run out of breath and blow themselves out by their own violence. A few huffs and puffs, and eventually they exhale their last and are gone.
D. Martin Lloyd Jones states it so succinctly when he writes about the nations of history: “They fail to understand the true meaning of history. Great powers have been raised up and have conquered for a while, but they have always become drunk with their own successes. And suddenly, they in turn have found themselves cast down. The real significance of history never dawns upon them.”
The ultimate truth of history is that God controls all nations, and that no nation or ruler, just or unjust, will ultimately go unrewarded or unpunished. When the tyrannical and demonized Muslim leaders and terrorists seem to be getting away with mass murder around the world, we must get a strong foothold of faith on that fact.
THE WHISTLING GOD
The truth is not only for our consolation, but serves as a warning as well. Isaiah 7:18 reveals something that is not easily related to God, namely, that God is a whistling God. Specifically, God whistles for nations. Isaiah says,
“…the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the remotest part of the rivers
of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.”
Here are two nations, and at the sound of the whistling God, they come running. Why? To do the bidding of God, and to fulfill His global purposes! Amazing! What is more, they don’t even know that they are doing the will of Almighty God.
This is more than stunning, for even when we whistle for our dogs, they so often won’t obey. They don’t come but instead many times they run the other way. God whistles for entire nations, and they respond to the sovereign will of God in march step and precise formation. Did you ever try to whistle for a fly or a bee to come to you? Lots of luck! The nations and armies of the world, that is, the flies and the bees, don’t realize this, but ultimately their whistling-commanding General is Almighty God the Lord of hosts, the WHISTLE TRAINER OF THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD.
For what reason does God whistle for heathen nations? In this case, to bring judgment upon the Jewish people and the holy land, because they had turned away from God and forgotten about Him. They had given themselves to false gods and wickedness. God whistles for foreign nations and armies to punish His chosen people, the Jews. God says in Isaiah 7:20 that these pagan invaders will sweep over the land and wipe everything away as when a man shaves his beard off with a razor. The principle which is reiterated throughout Scripture is this:
“GOD WILL EMPLOY ANY NATION HE CHOOSES, TO GIVE
ANY OTHER GODLESS AND WICKED NATION A SOUND
SPANKING, WHENEVER AND HOWEVER HE WILLS.”
If you miss that principle in history, you are disqualified from being a historian. President George W. Bush said more than once that America does not need a permission slip from the United Nations in order to be able to defend itself. Then certainly God does not need the endorsement of earth to carry out the judgment of heaven anywhere, at anytime, by any means, against anyone. It is not in the United Nations, but in Heaven’s High Court Of Justice where kings and kingdoms are arraigned, tried, and justly judged. How God carries out the sentences is up to His whistling perfect wisdom and will.
The above principle has been carried out by God over and over again throughout history. The ancient and proud city of Tyre was one of the most prosperous cities in the Mediterranean in ancient times. According to historical testimony, Tyre was at one time a city on the mainland. But in the course of time, for safety against besiegers, it was relocated to a neighboring island. The people of Tyre became so proud, that they equated themselves with Divinity. God said to them in Ezekiel 28:2,
“…because your heart is lifted up and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the
seat of gods, in the heart of the seas;’ yet you are a man and not God,
although you make your heart like the heart of God.”
Then God goes on to say in Ezekiel 28:7-8,
“Therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon you, the most ruthless of the
nations. And they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom
and defile your splendor. They will bring you down to the pit, and you will
die the death of those who are slain in the heart of the seas.”
Today, nothing remains of the glory of Tyre. It was first captured by the Muslims, and then later reduced to a pile of stones. He that has ears, let him hear what the Spirit of God is saying to America! Amen!
