“And he rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, he flew fast upon the wings of the wind!” Psalms 18: 10-11.
“This is what the Lord Jehovah says: Remove the turban and take off the crown; what is shall be no more. Exalt that which is low and abase that which is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it! This also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it to Him” Ezekiel 26.
Roman exceptionalism: I remember some ascriptions about Ancient Rome such as “the dream and the glory that was Rome” or the supposed standard or greeting “Strength and honor” and many such. Men admire Rome, but to God Rome was a ravening wild beast: “and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns” Daniel 7. To the prophetic eye of Daniel, Rome with all its terrifying power was a wild animal that looked down and around, but did not look up to God, a wild beast tearing the other animals to pieces! Rome did not acknowledge God; it gave highest honor to Zeus, demon-god of fortresses. It was an official from this beastly entity called Rome, who authorized the execution of the Lord Jesus.
Rome executed Christ then persecuted the Christians, “I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days” Rev 2, particularly during the reign of ten Emperors from Nero to Diocletian. The Christians “joined” Rome under Constantine to escape the pressure. They declared it the “holy Roman Empire”, a veritable gift of God to mankind! It was supposed to be permanent! But alas it fell, taking with it the pretensions of being “holy” and leaving its litter, the European nations, to fight and tear at each other and at the rest of the world. Yes, when seen through the discerning prism of prophecy, the proudest and most brutally powerful empire in human history was just a wild beast, untamed and cruel. Man’s greatest imperial glory was the glory of a brute beast, a rogue elephant or an enraged rhino, made indeed to be caught and destroyed!
Ancient Israel, the people of God in that time, had a different Glory! The Glory of Israel under Solomon far outshone the bestial glory of the gentile superpowers before…more glorious than Nimrod’s Babel or necromancy-preoccupied Egypt!) Israel’s glory under Solomon outshone the gentile world empires which came after; Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome! It certainly outshines any of the capitalist hegemonies that now fill up the time until the resurgence of the Roman beast. Israel’s Glory consisted of this: “Jehovah Shammah”, the Lord was there! The gold and silver and other material things were just the icing on the cake! Without the Lord, material possessions or the abundance of capital is just fluff, gluttony and vanity! The Lord’s presence was there in the holiest chamber of the temple, sitting on the “mercy-seat” i.e. the cover of the ark; the glory of the Lord was there! Solomon was regent, “he sat on the throne of the Lord as king”.
The Lord’s presence was in the temple, Solomon ruled for the Lord over Israel outside the temple. Israel did not attack its neighbors to bring “knowledge of the true God” or “the law of the Lord”. They certainly did not attack their neighbors to spread “capitalism” or “democracy”! Such things which are nowadays being touted as the panacea for all human governmental ills did not exist in those days. (Was God keeping back the goodies from Abraham and David and Solomon and all the others?) Israel under Solomon was morally “light of the world”, “salt of the earth” and “the city set on a hill which could not be hidden”! They did not attack folks, but their fame spread out to all nations who including Makeda the queen of Sheba, came up to see and hear and learn from Solomon. Israel did not subvert their friends and enemies to gain advantage over them; Israel did not engage in economic or military warfare against their neighbors as is the norm in the world that we live in!
The Godly governmental principles under which Israel operated are in stark contrast to the behavior of Rome and her litter that has inherited the pieces that still remain of the empire. Some of the litter are weak, some strong, “the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay” Daniel 2:41.
Daniel gives a clear picture of Europe through the ages, despite of the efforts of Napoleon and Hitler to unify it once again into one Empire. By God’s grace the animal character of the roman cubs i.e. the European nations, has at times and to varied extents been attenuated by the godly influence of Christians living among them. But the brutishness has often burst out in dramatic fashion e.g. in the inhumane way they went about their slave trade as well as the subjugation and outright genocide of others, often doing it “in the name of the Lord”, and the viciousness of tyrants and would be emperors like Napoleon and Hitler. Their animal character also surfaces insidiously in the growing atheism, the resurgence of paganism, the immorality as well as the various divisions of their science, notably in the theory of evolution.
The Lord, he who rides upon the Cherub, put the bit and the bridle on mighty Rome! He rode upon this last and most powerful and cruel world empire of men. He used the Pax Romana, the cruel Roman “peace” (it was not really peace but pacification by the iron boot of Rome on your neck) to enhance the spreading of the gospel all over the oikoumene, the known habitable world! Rome’s glory is gone for now, but the glory of the divine horseman remains! Rome has had her religious as well as her political children in the European kingdoms and empires that took its place.
The Christians of those times remained attached to the Roman whelps who ruled Europe, just as their spiritual ancestors had joined affinity with Rome under Constantine. These Christians often participated in the centuries of internecine wars, killing fellow believers in the process! The residue of Rome talked about the divine right of kings and the assumed permanence of their empires; they were just as arrogant or more than the world empires that preceded them but lacking the concomitant glory. For example, the British crowed “The sun never sets on the British empire”, and Spain, Portugal and the others prosecuted the wars of conquest/genocide and enslavement of the heathen in the new world in the name of the Lord! the sun has on the British Empire and the colonies in the Americas have long thrown off the yoke of their European masters!
But He who rides cherub like a warhorse has also used the European empires the same way he used Rome. Just as he rode the Roman beast and he also rode on the backs of Rome’s whelps! He piggybacked the spread of the gospel on their imperial expansion around the globe! He brings good out of evil! “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet”: Judges 14.
Today we have Rome’s muscular step-grandson on the western continent is asserting his exceptionalism! He is so strong (that is comparing himself to his neighbors as a standard of strength) and he is so rich that he assumes that he must have been chosen of God to replace Israel! His brand of worldliness is democracy and capitalism, relatively innocuous in their mild forms but just as cruel and rapacious when taken to the extreme. Every effort is made to force God into the national mythology and into the national preoccupation and lust after material things. Just as Christians participated in the centuries of wars on the European continent, and just as Christians participated in the European imperial expansion into the world as well as the gross system of slavery, today many Christians are eager conscripts in the ideological army of this arrogant grand step-son of Rome, justifying military and economic wars of aggression, and also helping to drive the bizarre and outrageous propaganda machine.
“And he rode upon a cherub and did fly; and he was seen upon the wings of the wind”. Just like in previous times when he utilized the glory of man to accomplish his will, the divine horseman does the same today. He rides this most swift and powerful horse to the accomplishment of his will! He uses the wealth of the current muscular “sole world power” to spread his word all over the world. He does it by providentially allowing events to occur and through the active participation of his people scattered among the population. They support missionary and charitable activities all over the globe. I remember visiting Togo in West Africa some years ago. My friend took me way up into the mountain area and we drove up the trail around a bend in the trees and came face to face with a Baptist school for the blind! Way out there! This kind of thing is duplicated in many places by many groups of Christians, not just Baptists.
Daniel 12: 9 speaks of another time soon to come when “Many of the wise shall understand”. Today many do understand! They have asked for and received wisdom liberally from the Father. They use their resources and influence to spread the word of God. They serve God right here in Babylon, morally abstaining from the political meats of either side of the spectrum, eating only spiritual food!
Makiliwè Colin Younge
December 22, 2013