Just so we realize how much the world has changed, the book of Chronicles (1:14:16) tells us that David defeated the Philistines from Gezer to Gibeon and that all the nations around became fearful of David. Today we can ask the question who is afraid of the Israeli prime minister and discover that not even the Palestinians, trampled and demoted from being people, are afraid. We can have some confidence that David, now enthroned on high in the person of the great Saving-king, is not being hateful or xenophobic when he pleads for God to put fear into the nations. No matter what wonders of art or warfare the nations possess David, the lad who faced the Philistine giant with a slingshot, would have had no doubt that superpowers in the twenty-first century are mere mortals.

Arise, O Lord, do not let man (enosh) prevail; Let the nations be judged before You.

Put them in fear, O Lord; Let the nations know that they are but men (enosh). Selah.

Psalms 9:19-20, NASB

This is positive proof that there are nations wanting to be more than mere mortals; they want to be treated as decent people have been known to treat God. There is only one God, and all else that people call God are really human inventions. God will definitely trim all the nations to the point where all can see what they really are; nothing to be feared, nothing to be given the respect which should go to God alone.

Witting and unwittting servants of God

Where is Roman imperial power today? It is confined to a disturbing right wing governemnt, stirring memories of papal power, and a major contribution to languages across the globe. We can also see that Greece, Persia and Babylon are smouldering wicks from lamps that truly lit the known world. They all were in contact with Israel’s GOD; all were his unwilling servants, even when one of the heads was conscious of the divine demands and respectful of the divine plan for the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

The kings who want nothing to do with divine supervision hear God’s derisive laugh and mine.

No “God” guides any nation; mortals run the show

American and British interference in Palestine is not due to imperial authority. God did not authorize the Balfour Declaration, and American support for the modern state of Israel, often thought to be a high ground of morality due to the lead undertaken by the United States in prosecution of anti-Jewish racism, fascism and tyranny, is simply bad politics. We can all see that neither US nor UK have prosecuted racism in their own societies to any level deserving global acclaim. Some high ground! Even Israel has open racists and xenophobes. Mere mortals are still in charge of the planet.

The wannabe superpowers

Russia, China, Islamic Repiblics, and the axis of economoc giants do ot stand a cghance of impressing anyone but the gullible that they are something more than mere mortals, and definiotely not superpowers. The lessons learned by Babylon and Rome as they pursued their rles as superpowers do not guide what is left of their empires today. We should expect nothing more than mortal weakness and moral wavering between idols and the true God.