Alliances Or Crocodile Tears

Today, we live in a world in which there are few absolutes...things seem to be neither black or white, and everything gets a kind of dirty gray.

Sometimes our politics and world government gets this way too. It all depends on which side you are on, as to whether something is right or wrong. In Biblical times, the prophet Isaiah spoke to King Ahaz about this. Israel was being pushed and taxed by powers from the East. The only solution the King saw was an alliance with Egypt to the south‑west.

To remain at risk did not seem absolutely right, but to deal with the foreign power Egypt, was not absolutely wrong either. Isaiah said the King's sin was not that he chose one or the other of two possible evils, but that he failed to consider a third alternative altogether, namely to ask, "What is the Lord's will?"

Ahaz was running scared. He was looking for security from somewhere. And Isaiah proclaimed, "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord". (Is. 31:1)

In life, we have to ask the question, "Where can I place my trust? What is real?" But we have faith in the wrong things. We have tried to buy our safety with warfare, and military might. We have assumed that strong banks and Savings and Loans could save us. And suddenly we discover that we are under greater jeopardy than before. Who needs a good educational system? Just give our kids a good time, and they'll turn out O.K. Why worry about morality or Christian faith? You can't eat it. We are much like the business‑man with a sign on his back, that read: "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts!" And so we claim to have our minds made up. We believe in Christianity and the ways of love, but we believe more in armies and in guns. We know that love is the will and the way of God, but we practice hatred and suspicion. Just don't "confuse me with the facts!"

We are making our secular alliances, but we are not placing our trust in God. And yet, God is the only Reality. Our alliances with money, and securities, and the morality of the movies, and the violence of the drug crowd, leaves us shedding great alligator tears.

With God, we need not fear. The depression can hurt us. The lack of jobs can break us. The wages of crime will haunt us. The enmity of nations will cause us distress. And yet, all of this will pass. But in God's great classroom of life, will you and I pass? This is the only question that really matters.