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| Photo by Daniel von Appen on Unsplash |
Many agree that building a wall to
keep out the enemy is a good idea. I support building a wall on our border if
it can actually keep terrorists and intruders out of the country.
But there are problems with this
concept. Historically, walls of this magnitude are not always impregnable and
tend to give an enemy even more incentive to try to overcome them.
France had its Maginot Line which
was initiated after World War I. It was strong and invincible at the German
border but was weak along the Northeastern borders of France where there were
neutral countries. Germany, under Hitler, came in through the lowlands of the
Belgian border, where the wall was weak, to quickly come in and overtake
France.
The Great Wall of China, thick and
high, constructed by approximately 1,000,000 laborers, is said to be over 13,000
miles in length and constructed over hundreds of years. But we are told:
Several
strong nomadic tribes in history had managed passage across the barrier. For
instance, in 13th century, the Mongols led by Genghis Khan breached the wall
and subjugated north and central China for nearly 100 years; in 1644, the
Manchus, entering from Shanhaiguan resulted in the collapse of the Ming
Dynasty.[i]
There is the old story of Troy, who
also had a great wall (said to be 17 feet high and almost as thick at the
bottom). As we know the story, the Greeks overtook them by getting inside
through a large constructed horse on wheels under the guise of a gift. Once
inside the gate, Greek soldiers sprung lose and began to fight and overcome the
Trojans.
The point here is that it really
doesn’t do much good to build a wall to keep problematic people out of our
country if there is already great evil inside the country.
Nehemiah led the Israelis of his
time to help him build a wall around Jerusalem (approximately 444-425 BC) to
keep enemies out. This was accomplished swiftly by great effort, but Nehemiah
knew that keeping enemies away from without was not enough. He emphasized their
Spiritual condition as well. He knew it would be of no use to keep away
invaders from the outside as long as there was still corruption inside.
In the book of Nehemiah, Ezra, the
Scribe stood and read from God’s law to all the people for hours. Then it says:
And Ezra
opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all
the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed
the LORD, the great God. Then all the people answered, "Amen, Amen!"
while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD
with their faces to the ground.[ii]
This began not only a Spiritual
awakening among God’s people but also a reformation in which laws were put in
place which were imperative for the people to live by.
Nikita Khrushchev, the Premiere of
the old Soviet Union (Russia and its conquered states) was quoted to have said:
“We will take America without firing a shot” and “We do not have to invade the
U.S. - We will destroy you from within...”[iii]
That was in 1956. Ironically, the Soviet Union no longer exists and America
still does, but today, opposition is creating havoc once again for our country
and the Marxist scheme of destroying America from within still rages on. This
is real – not imagined!
Our country needs to become as
concerned about what’s going on inside as we are about what’s going on around
us. We should concern ourselves about some of the words being spoken by academia,
Hollywood, the media and politicians inside America as much as about what Kim Jong
Un is saying across the world.
If we apply this concept to our
individual lives, we realize that “We have met the enemy and he is us.”[iv]
In the words of the Lord Jesus, What
good does it do to “make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but
within they are full of extortion and excess.” Then he adds, “Thou blind
Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also.” [v]
By another analogy; what good does
it do us if we clean the outside of our bodies but on the inside we are racked
by deathly disease?
Our bodies may look healthy
outwardly but it is important for us all, through God’s word, to get a
Spiritual angiogram. What does our heart look like? We are told in Proverbs to
“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”
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