Raging Nations

July 3, 2020

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed...”

We are witnessing a lot of raging lately. It’s not as bad as in the ‘40s when the entire world was engulfed in a conflagration that destroyed millions upon millions of people, but we hear a constant barrage of angry words from people raging and plotting against the very hand that feeds them. “Why,” the psalmist asks, “do they rage?”

Many reasons can be given, but one I think is often overlooked is rooted in the “spiritual forces of wickedness” (as our baptismal vows puts it) that are behind all national structures. The Bible is pretty clear, especially in Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation, that the national and international powers we see have behind them spiritual entities as real as they are unseen and unnoticed. What we see in the political, economic, educational, and scientific world is not neutral. These fields are where the “principalities, authorities, the rulers of this world in heavenly places,” as Paul puts it in Ephesians, engage in very real battle for the loyalty and souls of mankind.

Why do they rage? The answer is given later in the psalm:

I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.””

—Psalm 2:1-2, 7-9 ESV

The nations rage for the same reason the devil raged in Revelation 12:12—“Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!””

Here is tonight’s Good News: The raging of the nations, the violence of the mobs, the antagonism to Christian faith and worldview doesn’t appear likely to go away anytime soon, but on the other hand, it may be soon, for the more raging we see, the more we know the devil’s time is getting shorter. So take heart, O my soul! Rejoice and give thanks, for Jesus the Son rejected the devil’s temptation to receive the nations on temptation’s terms, but has been given them by the Father who will break them and usher in the eternal Kingdom of God.