I don’t believe I have ever written or spoken publicly about the military dominance of the United States of America. But it has been a reality for nearly a hundred years. And we need to see it as a blessing and a responsibility that God has given us.
Among the sons of Jacob Judah was given dominance. In verses 8-10 of Genesis 49 we read these words prophesied for Judah that can be applied to us.
“Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father's sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion's cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Some of these words will apply to positions of power that any of you may have obtained. You will give an account to God about how faithfully you carry out your responsibility. And it is important to see this from the larger perspective of our country.
While there is some truth to books like The Ugly American which pointed out reasons for the rest of the world to hate us, we have held a special place of respect in the eyes of much of the world. We have been a proponent of human rights around the world. We have sought to defend the weak. We have not sought to enlarge our borders by military force. While we have unblushingly promoted democracy, which is not something we could force upon other nations in the same way that totalitarian governments have been. This is not to say that we have always been righteous in our goals or behavior, but we have sought truth and goodness, even at our own expense.
And dominance will remain in our hands, even as the balance of power is being shaken around the world.
It is important for us to see that there is a difficulty in interpreting or translating verse 10. The E.S.V. has this footnote. Genesis 49:10 By a slight revocalization; a slight emendation yields (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Targum) until he comes to whom it belongs; Hebrew until Shiloh comes, or until he comes to Shiloh.
However we interpret this, it is important to remember that our dominance in the world is on loan from Him to whom it really belongs. It is foolish to imagine that peace and safety in the world belong to us. Psalm 33:16-17 reads,
“The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.”
For many years America held the modernist view that everything was getting better and better. That is a dangerous misconception of reality. The picture of end times in the Bible is not sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows everywhere. In 1 Thessalonians 5:3, the Bible says,
“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”
However, we can seek to use the dominance in truth and righteousness. This comes from God. We must seek Him to keep ourselves from using our dominance for vainglory and selfish advantage.
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