As I read about the current conditions in Sudan, I can barely catch my breath. There’s almost no healthcare available to the people. Horrific conflict is escalating from every side. Thousands have died. Thousands more are injured. Millions are homeless. And then I check on things in Haiti, a country I’ve had the joy of visiting – and where I’ve been privileged to preach and serve the people – and it’s more of the same human suffering. Not only are the casualties mounting (including a couple of American Christian missionaries), and not only is the dangerous political instability widening, but it’s becoming nearly impossible for outside help to reach the people who need it most.
Two very different countries. Two very different histories. One tragic moment in time.
Sadly, I’ve just scratched the surface. And I didn’t even try to tackle the Middle East, or Russia, or China. It raises for me questions even more overwhelming. How can conditions on this planet – anywhere on this planet – be so terribly broken? How can God’s fellow image-bearers brutalize each other without an ounce of mercy? How can anyone be content to have as their highest aim the destruction of other people? Is there any hope for a human race like ours?
If I understand the overarching framework of the Bible, the first gospel promise appears way back in Genesis 3:15 – in the Bible’s accounting of our original sin. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent is more than a snake, and in fact represents Satan. Here is God’s Word to the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
One particular offspring is in view. We know that because of the singular pronouns “he” and “his.” (And to think that, back in the day, you barely paid attention to those lessons on pronouns.) Friends, this “he” is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God – God the Son – will be “bruised” on the cross, but He will triumph via an empty tomb! And our Christ will triumph, in the end, over all of human history.
Though somewhat difficult to grasp in all its fullness, one of the grand themes of Genesis is the absolute sovereignty of God in preserving the promised Messianic Seed, even as Satan attempts repeatedly to destroy it. By Genesis 6:11, the earth is “corrupt in God’s sight” and “filled with violence.” That didn’t take long. If you’re a numbers person, it took about 1600 years. Sin, from Adam onward, proved to be very costly. As the population exploded, from Adam and Eve onward, so did the accompanying evil.
God was grieved (Genesis 6:6). His heart was filled with pain. I can’t imagine a God so invested in the welfare of people that He allows Himself to suffer because of our selfish choices. But that’s the God we serve. He is, thankfully, abundantly full of mercy and grace.
Now, back to our own world of corruption and violence. It’s not the Advent or Christmas season, but I can’t stop thinking about a stanza from Charles Wesley’s famous “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” The phrase that’s capturing me today is “Come, Desire of nations, come!” That plea to God feels to me to be very urgent, and very insistent. And that’s precisely how I feel.
Jesus is called the “desire of all nations” in the Book of Haggai, where God speaks of “shaking the heavens and the earth” (2:6-7). Rarely would we think about God “shaking” the earth without thinking about His righteous judgment. But this seems to me to be a message of great hope. The Lord seems to be promising that nations which one spurned His ways will submit to His holy authority. There is a future definitiveness here – not just some random wishful thinking. I don’t think I’m stretching the truth when I tell you that Christ is the Desire of every nation – whether they realize their “desire” or not! He is who they’re looking for!
The complex problems that plague the human condition started early on, and they’ve continued unabated. Though complex on one level, they’re all at their root some version of pride and rebellion. Very early in our history, the judgment of Almighty God was deserved and impending. And, just as an ark would prove to be the only way of salvation for Noah and his family, Christ is your only hope, and mine. There is no other rescue. There is no other Way.
So there’s hope for Sudan. There’s hope for Haiti. And there’s hope for us. Knowing that Christ is the highest and noblest longing of every human heart ought to compel you and me to take His good news to the ends of the earth.
“At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11). Even where Christ is still an unknown God, He is Lord of all. And I am persuaded that the Desire of Nations remains the only hope for our deeply troubled world.
Pastor Charles
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