The Commoditization of Man and "Death by Comparison"

Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven,  a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the LORD your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has promised you.

Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

(Deuteronomy 9:1-5, ESV, bold emphasis added)

 

There's a tendency among us to look at whatever blessings we might have and boast about them. To parade them around, like status symbols, or to think that for whatever reason we deserve what God's given us, as if it's on account of our faithfulness that God has blessed our lives.

I've even heard some prosperity teachers push this idea.

This line of thinking is closer to karma than the truth of God's mercies and faithfulness that we see reflected above.

Make no bones about it. Karma is a diabolical idea, though many people cling to it as some kind of moral absolute. An alternative to a God-oriented morality and ethic that's really a shoddy and pathetic replacement.

In many parts of the world, however, karama is used precisely to kill love and charity. It is the basis of systemic oppression and discrimination... which makes it ironic that so many who are constantly railing against systemic oppression in the Western world unwittingly endorse the idea of karma.

I'm talking from real-world conversations with a friend of mine (I've written about him before) who is a leader of the rapidly growing Christian church in Nepal. There, the faith is exploding among those who are considered "untouchable," the dalits, the lowest-of-the-low on the (now illegal, but unofficially real) social ladder/caste system. One reason the dalits remain in destitution and poverty decades after the official end of the caste system in both India and Nepal is because of their belief in karma.

If you're born into the "low class," it's believed that you or one of your ancestors did something to deserve it.  To them, it's actually wrong to be charitable, because it violates their warped view of karmic justice.

The truth is, we do inherit some advantages or disadvantages from our parents. But those things need not define us, unless we choose to allow them to do so.

We can do that here, too, even if there isn't a strong cultural/religious system that supports the idea of karma in America. We tend to turn a blind eye to people we think must be in their situation because they must've done something to deserve it. 

We unwittingly adopt that worldview when we turn a blind-eye to the migrants, or color them with a singular color that says they're all criminals. We do that when we assume that if we give something to the homeless they'll just "spend it on drugs and alcohol any way."

So what's going on in Deuteronomy 9? On the surface it sounds like that's what God's telling the people of Israel when he says it's on account of their wickedness (not Israel's righteousness) that he's using Israel to judge them, to expel them from the land.

In this case, it's not karma at work, but justice. The people in the land aren't getting what they "deserve" because of this sin, or that sin. They're reaping the fruits of what was more than 400 years of human sacrifice, especially child sacrifice, perversion, injustice, and pure evil.

in Genesis 15:16, God states the reason for the delay in the Israelites possessing Canaan: "And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." The Amorites were one of the Canaanite tribes inhabiting the land.  

This verse indicates that God was waiting for the sin of the Amorites (and by extension, the other Canaanite nations) to reach a certain point before bringing judgment upon them and giving their land to the Israelites. The 400-year period of the Israelites' affliction in Egypt coincides with this time of waiting for the iniquity of the Canaanites to become "complete."

This wasn't destiny, or God predestining the Canaanite people to judgment. Quite the opposite. It's because of their own wickedness, we saw in Deuteronomy 9, that they're being judged. But God knew long before that it would happen. And during that time when he allowed the Canaanites time to repent... he allowed Israel, his chosen people to suffer unjust oppression and slavery in Egypt.

In my newest book, Dead State, David is struggling as a Christian senator who mostly aligns with the President's agenda how to move forward with a bill pertaining to Immigration. He's struggling with it because of his faith. Here are the verses my character looks to:

 

Exodus 22:21 “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

 

Leviticus 19:33-34 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

 

Deuteronomy 10:18-19: “[God] executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

 

Look at that. The experience of Israel in Egypt was used to cultivate a love for migrants, for sojourners, to train/teach the people of Israel to be just and merciful once they came into their promised land. 

Now, the actual conquest narrative of Joshua can be difficult, because in ancient Hebrew style, there's a lot of exaggeration that seems to suggest a very vicious conquest. There are some hints in the actual narrative, though, that this was mostly hyperbolic language. I could get into that, but it's the topic of another e-mail.

The point is that the people in Canaan had earned their judgment. Several generations were all given the chance to change course, and the people living in the land were guilty not of karma, but of deliberately furthering and deepening the evils of the generations that came before them. I mean, we can read about some of their practices, like sacrificing babies on hollowed-out copper statues that baked under the sun, that had fires blazing inside, literally sizzling their babies in sacrifice to their false gods.

That's the context (really) behind the hyperbolic language of judgment in the conquest narrative in Joshua.

But we can't forget Deuteronomy.

Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’

There's no room for boasting at other's expense. Especially when our blessing comes as a cost to someone else.

God's judging the Canaanites for the evil. Centuries later, Israel would be similarly judged for their evils, and God would use another wayward people (The Babylonians) to do it. The prophet Habakkuk wrested with that idea... why use a wicked people to judge us? Aren't the Babylonians worse than we are? That was the complaint. Habakkuk tells the people of God that to rest assured, the Babylonians will be judged in due season. The judgment against them is just... they've reaped the "reward" of their wickedness.

The Deuteronomy passage also gives a second reason why the wayward people who'd so often grumbled and fallen in the wilderness were receiving the land--because of God's promise: that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

In other words, they were blessed because of God's choice, His promise, and His mercy... not because of their own merits or righteousness.

You see, a part of the problem here was the "comparison" trap. We all fall into it from time to time.

Have you ever looked at someone who's better off than you and harbored sorrow, angst, or envy because they were more successful, or had something you wished you had?

Comparison robs us of our joy.

Then, have you ever looked at someone who is worse off than you, people who are suffering, and turned a blind-eye, imagining that you're better off because you didn't make their mistakes, because you were responsible, because you're more righteous than they are...

Comparison rubs us of our humility.

And in the end, it's the death of love, the death of charity, and the death of gratitude.

What we're given, we don't deserve. What others have now (the Canaanites were far more blessed by worldly standards living in that land while the people of Israel were slaves for 400+ years!) isn't indicative of their superiority, or their righteousness.

God's justice isn't on our timelines. His mercies and blessings aren't, either. We don't receive any good things purely because we "deserve them," we receive them because God is gracious and merciful. Likewise, even when we endure evil that we don't deserve (e.g. Israel being slaves for 400+ years) it's not that God isn't just. The truth is, in this world, we deserve nothing. We're owed nothing. Everything is a gift.

It very well may be that God is using that trial we're enduring to prepare us for something greater... to change us into the people He's blessed us to become.

 

Now, I don't like to get into politics here much... and I'm not going to take a side here...

 

But I've been seeing some people online freak out about the new American Pope. I'm not Catholic, but I still care about who the man is who millions will look to as a representative of Christ.

In America, the far-right is freaking out because the Pope is pro-migrant and in the past has been critical of the President's immigration policy. On the woke-left, people are upset about his history on issues like abortion and homosexuality.

Here's the truth. We should be wary of any religious leader who is too cozy with any political party, platform, or president. I suspect, if Jesus came back today (and he might!) he'd also be rejected by the politics of our day... just as he was when he came the first time.

I don't know enough about the new Pope to know what will happen in the years to come. But I can say that the reasons some people are decrying him already (when they don't even know him) aren't all that surprising. I fully expect that anyone who follows the path of Christ will find enemies on all sides, the right and the left, and even a lot of those who hover in the middle.

The bottom line, as a people who believe that we're created in the image of God, we can never treat people like economic units.

The commoditization of man (in certain policies that condition acceptance/immigration on merit, rather than compassion is just an echo of the original sin, the objectification of the other, the origin of "original shame," the reason why in the Garden man and woman covered themselves with fig-leaves. It's because sin had bent them inward, reducing the other to an object to use, a commodity, an economic unit.

I'll write more about "the commoditization of man" tomorrow. Suffice it to say... 

As Christians, we should never be in lock-step with any worldly politic. We're called to be a peculiar people. If the world hated Jesus before us, surely they'll hate those of us who follow in His steps. We'll have a morality that alienates some people, and a sense of charity and compassion that alienates others, that doesn't "bend" or "warp" in adjustment to people's fears and insecurities.

Behind all of that is the problem of comparison. Don't compare yourself to the world, to any political position. Don't wave the flags of this world with so much vigor that you lose sight of the true banner of righteousness, the one carried by the Crucified One.

 

In Jesus' name,

Judah