When God created the heavens and the earth, He set in place the Garden of Eden. In that garden he placed two human beings – one male and one female. In that garden He also placed two trees one brought death and the other brought life. And He told them not to eat from the tree of knowing good and evil. By that very act – the creation of the tree and the advisement not to eat from it – He gave them a gift: the gift of sovereignty over their own destiny. But He also gave them the gift of this advice: Not to eat from the tree of knowing good and evil. It was advice to maintain, even be jealous over their own innocence – innocence to know only good. Innocence to know only the goodness of life.
Sovereignty over our own destiny is at the very core of defining the word Freedom. Control is the antithesis of Freedom. Rules that facilitate and shepherd sovereignty are meant to be the guardrails of Freedom - enablers for all to choose their own destiny. Control crushes Freedom. Sadly our history is fraught with humans who have sought and achieved control over vast multitudes. From the Jewish slaves of Egypt to the Conquistadors of South America. From the Nazis of Germany to the many forced re-locations of Natives Americans. From the Pharisees of the Jewish elite to the Inquisitions of Roman Catholicism. From global human trafficking and slavery to Islamic oppression in the east. The list is far from exhaustive, for human history is replete with our lust for denying others the God-given gift of exercising sovereignty over our own destiny.
But to quote Bob Dylan, “Ya gotta serve somebody”. There's no getting around it. There is only one God, and He alone can be served. All others are counterfeits. Forgeries. Impostors. Posers. In the end all are either serving the darkness or Jahweh – the Ancient of Days. Creator of all. King of all kings. Freedom also lies in the sovereignty to choose which one to serve.
The United States Declaration of Independence and their Constitution, at its bedrock is a framework to enforce the freedom that God – not man – had willfully given us: the freedom for individuals and a nation to determine our own destiny. From the country's inception, the question was then laid before her: “Where will her destiny end – to serve God, or to serve darkness?”
On the back of the President of the Continental Convention's chair, there is a carving of a sun hovering halfway above the horizon. James Madison reported Benjamin Franklin as saying upon the final day of the signing of the Declaration of Independence: “I have often looked at that behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now I... know that it is a rising...sun.” I wonder if Mr. Franklin overstepped himself by answering the question; maybe the question and answer should have been reworded instead “I have often looked at that behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But at least now we have declared that it is up to us to decide.”
Every day, the question has always hung and still hangs over us as a nation. “Is that sun rising or setting?
In many ways our nation is progressively and sadly devolving into the book of Judges, where everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6, 21:25). We are sadly, progressively and rapidly growing further away from choosing God's ways and serving the darkness instead. As a result, we are sadly, progressively and rapidly answering the question. I leave it to the reader to figure out whether the sun is rising or setting on this nation. We do not want that answer.
We to not want that answer, but if that's what compels people to turn to Jahweh, then let it be!
of the line of the Lamb will remain
'til He establish His reign
Be counted in that lineage! Let us be the ones who are ready to receive those people who turn in amazing, joyous numbers to serve and worship the Creator of all.
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