I was still a teenager, not terribly nuanced in my thinking, when Iraq and Iran went to war against each other. Thinking strictly in terms of geo-politics, and shamefully without a thought for families on either side my assessment was as simple as it was heartless, “Good, let them pummel each other to insignificance.” It was Bonaparte who sagely said, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” When two of your enemies are making the same mistake, the sentiment is doubly true.
When, however, Iraq went to war with Kuwait suddenly we were supposed to paint Kuwait as the sainted heroes and Iraq the black hatted villains. Certainly I can see that Kuwait was more friendly to the United States than Iran was. What I can’t see is that they, Iraq, Iran or the US have ever been perfect. We all wear black hats to one degree or another.
Once again the world is in an upheaval as one larger country invades a smaller one. Once again we have determined that one side is the devil, while the other is nothing but sunshine and roses. I have half a complaint. One side is the devil. But so is the other. I can easily concede that Putin is a monster, that the Ukraine is being victimized by them. That doesn’t mean, contra the victimology hustlers, that Ukraine is a true friend of the Christian or even the United States. It doesn’t mean that the other side isn’t the devil.
There is, behind every human battle, the great battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). There are innumerable battle lines between these two armies. One seeks rebellion against God’s Word, the other submission to it. One is in the first Adam, the other in the last Adam. One seeks the glory of the serpent, the other the glory of the Seed of the Woman. There is, however, also this that separates them- one is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and united in Jesus. The other is indwelt by the spirit of death and is so corrupt that it is in union with no one.
The seed of the serpent may have an army vastly larger than the Seed of the Woman. The seed of the serpent may control far greater lands than the Seed of the Woman. While the Seed of the Woman faces one such powerful enemy, the seed of the serpent faces multiple enemies. First, it faces the Seed of the Woman. Second, it faces every one of its “allies” and fellow soldiers. They cannot fight together because every one of them has nothing but self inside them.
God didn’t, at Babel, send a conquering army to stop their project. He sent instead a spirit of confusion that broke up the alliance of evil into a billion individual pieces. Bonds may be forged, as when Germany and the USSR signed their early alliance. They cannot, however, hold. Our calling, however, isn’t merely to sit and watch while they destroy themselves but to call them to lay down their arms and join the army of One.