Homeland Security
Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation. Isaiah 30:3
Humiliation – Israel had to learn a very hard lesson. It took the complete destruction of its civilization to accomplish the teaching. National, public shame was the grist of the mill that finally brought repentance. Their history is well worth investigating because the God of Israel hasn’t changed His mind in the last three thousand years.
In context, Isaiah’s word from the Lord is about Israel’s attempt to find military and political safe haven by aligning with Egypt. The leaders of God’s people looked at the threat of Babylon and thought that they were too small and too weak to go it alone. So, they clamored for treaties with Pharaoh instead of turning to the only One Who could protect them. Of course, it doesn’t look like God is able to secure the borders. After all, where is His army and His military machine? Who can rely on the invisible for physical security?
Israel forgot, much to their chagrin, that God is the God of all reality, seen and unseen. As a result of their sin – yes, that’s right, their pursuit of military solutions to security problems was a sin – God reversed all their plans and brought them to the edge of extinction. Was God too harsh? Hardly! Their decision to rely on human strength was a direct affront to God, an acknowledgement of their apostasy and evidence of their unfaithful disobedience.
We could write this off as a historical capsule. God would never bring His own church into ke’limmah(humiliation). He loves His ekklesia (His called out ones). Absolutely! That is precisely why humiliation is always an option. God is not willing to let theologically corrupt thinking pass as nothing more than nationalism. When we start to act as though the TSA will save us, watch out! We stand at the edge of the Nile, yearning to cross over into Egypt. We are no different than Israel, whom God loves eternally. And God will use whatever is necessary to teach His people the truth – to sanctify them with His word.
Ke’limmah is a Hebrew noun for shame, humiliation and disgrace. By the way, it almost always means public shame, humiliation and disgrace. There is no more effective means of rewriting our security plans than finding them exposed as frauds. Don’t make the same mistake that the children of Israel made. Your safety, and the safety of your nation, has nothing to do with arms, metal detectors, tanks or spies. You can’t rely on an Early Warning System. What you need is the invisible shield of the Lord of hosts. No nation can stand without acknowledgement of the King of kings. Not one! But God has used pagan nations in the past to being the faithful to full repentance. Will He do it again? Yes, He will – if it is needed.
