Understanding the essence of God's Rod in the Earth

Understanding the essence of God’s Rod in the Earth.

Micah 6:9:  The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

The Rod and What it Means.

Theme: Developing an eternal perspective and understanding of situations in life, thereby producing a fitting spiritual response rather than just being moved by what you see, hear or have been taught to believe.  

Introduction:

‘Nothing happens by chance’, is a phrase often stated by all and sundry in reference to things that befall us from time to time or happen in the world around us. The phrase ‘nothing happens by chance’ also implies that all events are interconnected and have a reason, even if that reason isn't immediately apparent. It suggests that there's a deeper order or causality to life, rather than randomness. The exact nature of and reason for the causality tends to differ depending on one’s philosophical view of life.

Author John Owen in a theological echoing of this phrase in his book ‘Spiritual Mindedness’, articulates that according to Micah 6:9, in every disastrous event, interpreted as God’s Rod (irrespective of how bad it is), God declares His wisdom, His holiness, His power and His greatness. He further states that by every disastrous event God calls men to repentance and the spiritually minded person will do his best to understand and obey that call, as God is greatly provoked when men take no notice of the message He is sending. In supporting his claim, Owen references Isaiah 26:11 which says: Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them’. Owen therefore advises that the first object of our spiritual thoughts (when things happen), should be to consider what God is saying to us in the daily circumstances of life because as spiritual people we should understand that nothing happens by chance. Permit me to use the theological echoes mentioned above regarding this phrase ‘nothing happens by chance’, to explore the crux of God’s Rod in the Earth and what it means. In exploring this important subject, I want us, as Owen suggests, to consider what God is saying to us in light of things happening in our lives and around us and what our response needs to be. I sincerely believe that such a consideration will benefit us in many ways. Firstly, it will help us in developing a clear biblical understanding and interpretation of God’s word in light of prevailing circumstances. Secondly, our faith, trust, and confidence in the sovereignty of God, even in times of perplexity and difficulty, will increase and thirdly, each time something happens, rather than lose our peace of mind and become panicked, fearful or reactionary, our minds will be trained to look firstly to God for answers as to what message He is sending and how He want us to respond.

In exploring this topic however, one cannot ignore the unavoidable implications of this statement that, because nothing happens by chance, in every disastrous event God is declaring His greatness, wisdom, holiness, and power. Even for the most devoted theist, such statements take getting used to especially in light of the untold pain and suffering currently manifesting in our world. As I write, there is the war in Gaza as well as the war in Ukraine. Literally hundreds of thousands have died or are suffering. Women are being raped, children kidnapped, babies slaughtered, hunger and famine know no end and death brings faster and more lasting relief than does international aid.  Further afield, especially across Sub-Saharan Africa and around the developing world, untold millions more are dying from war, strife, political oppression, famine, ideological extremism, brutal dictatorships and the capitalist golden child of corporate-greed where methods used in extracting precious minerals and dumping unwanted waste disproportionately affects the poor and defenceless, often ‘shuffling off their mortal coil’. The question therefore comes how can we placate all these as God’s Rod, especially when the fallout excessively impacts the innocent? Yet this might be all the more reason Owen encourages us to take time to grasp what God is really saying and what our response needs to be.

Let me stop here and insert my disclaimer: I am not here advocating a pure theological voluntarism which contends that God's actions are not constrained by any prior moral or metaphysical principles, and His commands are not justified by any objective reason, which is to say that God simply wills whatever He chooses without any intelligible reason, including the death of innocent human beings. Rather, what am saying is that no matter what evils are contained within God’s providence, including the demise of the just, that God is working out a greater good, natural or supernatural. And when this is balanced against man’s temporal existence, what we deem good or moral pales in comparison. Apostle Paul in Romans 8:18 puts it this way, ‘For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us’. In essence this means that the temporary, earthly sufferings of believers are insignificant when compared to the immense, eternal glory they will experience in the future. This knowledge offers encouragement and a perspective on the challenges of life, emphasising that our current hardships are not a cause for discouragement, but rather a stepping stone towards a greater reward. Nonetheless, I accept that because we exist in a temporal state, such reasoning in and of itself may at times be very hard to bear, which is all the more reason to find out what God is saying so that we may appropriately respond.

In the Old Testament, the Rod (a sturdy wooden stick) was a tool shepherds used to guide and protect their sheep, defend them from predators and even to keep count of them. The Rod often symbolised authority, discipline, protection, and guidance, particularly in the context of a shepherd's tools and God's role as a shepherd to His people. During the sojourn of the Children of Israel in Egypt, Moses’ Rod became a symbol of authority over the Israelites. In Proverbs the Rod is also associated with discipline and correction, as seen in Proverbs 13:24, which states, he that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. In Psalms, the Rod symbolises God’s protection, guidance, care and comfort. Psalm 23:4:  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

In Micah 6:9, as mentioned previously, the phrase ‘Rod and One who appointed it’ signifies God's power, authority and His ability to bring judgment or correction to those who disobey. It also underlines a threefold process governing God’s use of the Rod in the earth. Firstly, God sends His Word and His warnings to which there is a need for people to pay attention. Secondly, failure to heed the warning and obey God’s word always brings God’s displeasure and punishment as a direct consequence of being disobedient to God's instructions. Thirdly, the hearers eventual come to the understanding that it is God, Who judges and punishes those who are disobedient or defiant to His command as He is the only One with the power to do so.  

The first instance we find in scripture of God’s Rod is in the book of Genesis. This incident, though quite egregious, not only demonstrates God’s Rod but also His wisdom, holiness, power and greatness as alluded to by Owen. This account is recorded in Genesis3:1-12. In this narrative, Adam and his wife Eve at the prompting of the serpent, in direct contradiction to God’s word and warning, disobey God’s warning and eat from the tree of Knowledge of God and Evil which God had expressly forbidden them to eat of. The immediate consequence of this action was loss of innocence, separation from God, a cursing of their environment resulting in the introduction of thorns and thistles and the onset of physical death on mankind. Additionally, Adam and his wife Eve are expelled from the garden. However, before their expulsion, God prevented them accessing the tree of life, thereby denying Adam and by extension all mankind everlasting life in his fallen state. This access to the tree of life, from which it appears that man could have eaten freely before the fall and live forever, is now gone. In its place is the non-negotiable, inescapable deterioration, death and destruction of humanity. As bad as this appears however, the removal of the tree from man in his fallen state represents God’s first blow to Satan’s grab for power over mankind. Had Satan been able to convince the first Adam to eat of the tree of life in his fallen state, before God’s intervention after having eaten of the tree of good and evil, which I feel certain Satan would have moved mankind to do, Satan would have been able to ensure that he would have control over mankind for all eternity as there would have been no hope of redemption. Can you imagine what it would be like to have eternal life added to man’s corrupted evil nature? Can you imagine what it would be like to have evil men and seducers waxing worse, venting their evil upon human kind but yet cannot die? Can you really imagine that? Do you know that Bible scholars believe that 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 1:6 describe fallen angels (or demons) so vile that they are kept or reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, awaiting the judgment of the great day? These verses suggest that these particular demons are so revolting that God has bound or restrained these fallen angels (demons) in a place of darkness, awaiting the final judgment. And they will never see the light of day.  This suggest that these demons don’t have an ounce of rational thought in them. I don’t know if intrinsically these demons are more evil than Satan, or if it is that Satan gets to roam the earth because he’s more measured in his cunning, or maybe it’s just that he is the leader. Either way, the point I am making is that when I think of man in his corrupted evil nature being able to live forever in that evil state, I think of those evil demons God has locked away. Imagine Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, or Roman emperors: Caligula, Nero, Commodus, and Domitian being alive today and peddling their evil craft. But thankfully, God spared mankind by bringing death upon mankind in denying him access to the tree of life. The Devil must have been furious that God, even in using the Rod, not only demonstrated His punishment and justice but also His wisdom, His holiness, His power and His greatness in sending man back to the dust to be resurrected one day with a new body. How ingenious is that?  

Hence, God’s Rod is never only about justice and punishment but is also a clear revelation of His divine wisdom, holiness, and greatness, even when it’s undetectable by human reasoning, which is why we are encouraged to take heed and try to understand what God is saying and how we ought to respond whether we feel inclined to do so or not. Thus, reviewing the events in the Garden of Eden demonstrates and re-emphasises the principles governing the outworking of God’s Rod in the earth which we looked at earlier. Firstly, God gives His word, as in the case of Adam and Eve. When we disobey, as Adam and Eve did, it results in judgement and punishment until finally we are forced, as they were, to acknowledge that God is supreme and failure to obey brings His displeasure and judgement.  

With this in mind, I want for a moment to reflect briefly on a really tragic event in our world which raises many questions surround God’s Rod in the earth. On October 7, 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launched co-ordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza territory of southern Israel. At least 1,139 people were killed during the Hamas-led assault and more than 200 were taken captive. The slaughter was horrendous. Neither elderly, children nor babies were spared.   

After the initial shock, Israel responded with devastating military strikes targeting Hamas and its allies. In the following 15 months, a reportedly 46,707 Palestinians were killed including around 18,000 children. An additional 110,265 people were reportedly injured with an estimated 22,500 of these people having life-altering injuries requiring but not receiving the rehabilitative treatment these life altering injuries require. The loss of life and injuries is staggering, continuing to devastate the lives of all those impacted by the conflict.  

Frpm the day of the initial tragedy until now, many of the leading Pastors and Church Leaders, beyond making the mundane talking points or soundbites, have had very little to say. Maybe it’s because they don’t know exactly how to respond appropriately or they are afraid of what they say being misrepresented by one or both sides, or maybe they are just fearful of alienation from their supporters in an increasingly intertwined society, unsure of what position individual members of their congregation hold on the topic. On the other hand, there are those who openly proclaim their support for one side or the other and boldly state their views.

I do not envy those, who are forced to be cautious and measured in their responses in the midst of this crisis; as words are often easily misquoted and amplified bringing untold damage to reputations and careers, a situation made worse by the use and abuse of technology, particularly, social media. However, I do believe that God speaks to us concerning these matters as He does on all other matters and as spiritual minded people, we need to try to understand what God is saying when these things happen and know how we ought to respond.

It becomes rather difficult trying to understand this horrible incident in light of what we have been discussing so far that nothing happens by chance. And if, indeed, we are to take from Micah and Isaiah the belief that in every disastrous event, interpreted as God’s Rod, God is declaring His wisdom, holiness, power and  greatness as well as calling men to repentance, then, what  we are forced to ponder is possibly saying firstly to both Israel  the Palestinians and their respective allies directly involved in the conflict, and by extension to the wider world, what lessons is God intent on teaching us by allowing these events to play out under His providence?    

In attempting to understand this conflict in relation to our topic, I find myself peering intently at the major players in the conflict, the Israelis and the Palestinians. The first thing which becomes glaringly obvious is that it is a religious conflict between Judaism and Islam. It is a conflict in which two religious sects, Jews and Muslims, are unable to coexist peacefully. Ironically, while both factions lay claim to being descendants of Abraham and children of Jehovah, there is no brotherly love as seemingly irreconcilable differences exist between them. What is also very clear is that neither sect, under any circumstance accepts the Judeo-Christian belief in Jesus Christ as the revealed son of God the Messiah. On the one hand, orthodox Jews do not view Jesus as the Messiah, a prophet, or the Son of God. They dismiss claims of His divinity and believe that to worship Him is idolatry. They insist that Jesus did not fulfill the prophecies associated with the Messiah, and His claims to being equal with God go against the core Jewish belief in the singular, indivisible God. They therefore reject the Christian concept of the Trinity, which postulates that Jesus Christ is part of a triune God, as it departs from the Jewish principle of strict monotheism, which emphasises the absolute unity and singularity of God. On the other hand, in Islam, though Jesus is regarded as a prophet and messenger of God (Allah), and is regarded as a significant figure, He is not considered divine. Rather, He is well thought of as a human being, chosen by God for a specific mission. They accept the concept of His virgin birth and believe that He will return to earth before the Day of Judgment.   

Thus, the heartbreak of the positions held by both these descendants of Abraham is a clear rejection of Jesus Christ the God-man Whom God has sent. Interestingly, Theologian John Owens notes, ‘it’s difficult to find in the earth a closer allegiance to atheism than those who despise and reject the Christ Child’. This is because as Christians we accept that Jesus Christ is the fullest revelation of Himself that God has ever made and it is the last that He will ever make in this world. This is fully borne out by Hebrews 1:1-3 where it says: ‘God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high’ This passage clearly highlights God's progressive revelation to humanity. Previously, God communicated through prophets, but now He speaks through His Son, Jesus, Who is the ultimate and final word. Jesus is described as the radiance of God's glory and the exact imprint of His nature, upholding the universe by His word of power. This passage thus emphasises the superiority and divine nature of Jesus as the ultimate expression of God's revelation. When therefore this revelation of God through Jesus Christ is despised and rejected and its truth rebelled against, nothing can insulate us from the sadistic extremes of beliefs or actions of which the unregenerate human heart is capable. Hence, it appears that these two descendants of Abraham, having received God’s word to which they needed to pay attention, and having failed to obey that word, just as Adam and Eve did, and as we all do from time to time, now find themselves facing God’s displeasure as a direct consequence of being disobedient to God’s instruction. It is a displeasure being expressed in part in a senseless battle between themselves, a battle that knows no end even though it makes no sense. Henceforth, even though it drains both sides of resources and lives because God is out of their thoughts or ‘not in their reasoning’ as Psalm 10:4 says, their contemplating and striving for solutions outside of the scope of God’s leading remains only futile. Sadly, this regretful state of man has become all too common and all too deadly. Such individuals, blind to God’s will, go on allowing their reasoning to be influenced by worldly wisdom that clashes with God’s divine plan. Their unregenerate minds are not receptive to spiritual truths. I therefore wonder if part of what God is communicating now not just to Israel and the Palestinians but to the rest of humanity, is that the Rod which brings with it the horrific events plaguing humanity and in spite of all our safeguards, whether it be our weapons, defences, allies, peace treaties, alliances, technological advancements in science, medicine or technology, only God can really protect us from it.  In all that’s transpired, is God asking humanity to take a second look at Psalm 127 where it says: ‘Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it, except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain’. In the midst of all the mayhem on earth, is God saying to Adam’s descendants, you can choose to listen to me or you can go on fighting. My Rod is really in your hands.