Lord of the Flies

And I will make mere boys their leaders, and mischievous children will rule over them, and the people will be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; the youth will assault the elder, and the contemptible person will assault the one honored.  Isaiah 3:4-5  NASB

Youth/ contemptible – These two verses in Isaiah could have been the inspiration for the famous book, Lord of the Flies.  In the chaotic collapse of social order, the inexperienced and immature become leaders.  Children determining policy for adults.  Rogues ruling the righteous.  When God says that He is coming to judge Israel, He describes a world where all the true leaders and true warriors are to be replaced by those who have no capacity for administration or guidance of the public.  What is the result?  Well, you don’t have to look far to see it today.  Our leaders might not be young in age, but they certainly act like children.  Pouty children.  “If you don’t play by my rules then I’ll take my ball and go home” is pretty much the standard operating procedure in our world.  “Agree with me or else,” and in a world where children run armies and police forces, the “or else” becomes quite terrifying.  Apparently Isaiah’s world isn’t so far from ours.

God has decided to cause Jerusalem to stumble.  He has determined that Judah will fall.  You might ask why.  The answer is societal immorality.  I don’t mean that everyone in Israel was corrupt and reprobate.  Actually, far from it.  Most people were still trying to do the right thing, but God looked at the leadership, and since it was filled with disobedience, andralamousia followed.  We might reconsider the lesson of Israel’s collapse.  Yehezkel Kaufmann’s insights are telling:

“To the prophets, righteousness and justice were the burning issues of the hour; the fate of the nation hung in their balance.”[1]

“Empirically speaking, Jerusalem fell because the might of Babylonian arms overwhelmed the small state of Judah which was abandoned in the field by all its allies.  Biblical tradition, of course, gives another answer.  In the belief that the destiny of Israel is controlled by a special providence the Bible regards the fall as a unique event.  It was punishment, first for the sin of idolatry, and second for moral sin; both were violations of the covenant which entailed—as Israel had been forewarned they would—political collapse and exile.  This view is justified from the standpoint of biblical faith, but it can hardly be of service to the empirical historian, who deals only with factors that operate equally in the history of all societies.  Since Idolatry or polytheism in themselves have nowhere been the causes of a national political collapse he cannot simply adopt the biblical theory and regard them in this case as causes of Israel’s fall.”[2]

“In the work of the literary prophets, Israelite religion reached a new height.  They were the first to conceive of the doctrine of the primacy of morality, the idea that the essence of God’s demand of man is not cultic, but moral.  This doctrine regards human goodness as the realization of the will of God on earth.  It negates the intrinsic, transcendent value of the cult. . . This doctrine provided a new basis for prophetic reproof.  Morality was regarded by the prophets as decisive for the destiny of Israel.  The  older view was that the fate of the people was determined by their religious practice; idolatry entailed national punishment.  But the prophets conceived the idea that moral corruption too was a national historical factor.  Moreover, they have a new evaluation of social morality: not merely bloodshed and sexual crimes, but injustice, taking bribes, and oppressing the poor and defenseless are crucial for the fate of the nation.  The moral factor is taken account of in eschatology as well.”[3]

We must ask if a “lord of the flies” isn’t buzzing around our socio-political environment today.  Do we really expect God to turn a blind eye to the degrading of moral righteousness, to the slaughter of millions before they are born, to the dehumanization of the poor, the exploitation of have-nots?  Kaufmann writes something quite astounding about Israel; something I suggest portends the fate of the West:

“The fall of Jerusalem is the great watershed of the history of Israelite religion.  The life of the people of Israel came to an end; the history of Judaism began.  To be sure, the people lived on and were creative after the fall, but the form of their life and the conditions of their existence and creativity were radically transformed.  Israel ceased to be a normal nation and became a religious community.”[4]

Are we not close behind?

Topical Index:  morality, judgment, Israel, leadership, andralamousia, Isaiah 3:4-5

[1] Yehezkel Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel, p. 163.

[2] Ibid., p. 401.

[3] Ibid., p. 345.

[4] Ibid., p. 447.