Demoting earth’s blind guides
Behind all the voices clamoring for our loyalty stand the gods ruling earth’s peoples. Those spiritual authorities invariably side with the powerful against the weak. But thankfully, God is the judge of all.
An Asaph psalm.
1 God takes the floor in the divine assembly
to pronounce his judgment on the gods:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and rule in favor of the wicked?
3 Defend the vulnerable and the orphan
vindicate the destitute and afflicted.
4 Rescue the poor and needy
free them from the clutches of the wicked.
5 Ignorant and undiscerning
they wander blindly in the dark
while the earth is shaken to its foundations.
6 I declare that, though you are gods
all of you ruling like sons of the Most High
7 you’ll perish like mere mortals
and fall like every other ruler does.”
8 Come and judge the earth, O God
for all the nations belong to you!
The Canaanites said their high god El kept all the other gods in line by presiding over an annual “council of the gods.” The psalmist counters this assertion by picturing Israel’s God not just presiding over all the gods, but also hauling them into the dock, judging them, and demoting them to the level of mere humans.
While the Hebrew scriptures insist that YHWH alone deserves our worship, they don’t deny the existence of the surrounding nations’ gods, which the New Testament refers to as powers and authorities. God’s judgment here also relates to the self-seeking human judges and other leaders who worship and serve these gods.
Acting as both prosecutor and judge, God indicts the offenders for siding with powerful oppressors against their victims. With skewed moral compasses, they withhold justice from the weak and vulnerable. They wander in the dark, as lost as the peoples they rule. Israel’s God alone challenges their honor-shame bias against the downtrodden. Destroying human community, the gods’ rampant injustice shakes earth to its core. Thus, God’s verdict is that these offenders will all fall from power and perish like mere mortals.
Many Christians in the secular West accept the Bible’s teaching on demonic powers in theory, but they distance themselves from it in practice. Yet the invisible battle against evil in our world is as real as the visible one, whether we know it or not.
But thankfully, the battle’s final outcome is predetermined since, in his passion, Jesus judged and disarmed the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, regaining all the authority Adam and Eve lost in the fall. So, while we fight with courage and stamina, we also fight in faith, confident that he who triumphed will yet reign over all the earth.
Prayer:
Thank you, Jesus, that you disarmed the evil powers bent on destroying me and all of your creation. Following your lead, fighting in defence of the weak and the vulnerable, I fight in confidence that I’m on the winning side. Give me courage and your heart for the oppressed, Lord, I pray. Amen.
During your free moments today, pray this:
Come and judge the earth, O God
for all the nations belong to you!
