A Wise Man Builds His House on the Rock

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples...." John 8:31, ESV

The new year and the new decade have begun with a bang – a very, very loud bang in the form of a US air strike that killed a top Iranian military leader, an explosion which is now reverberating around the world. The explosion has shaken the confidence of global stock markets and is causing the price of oil to rise. Both the United States and the United Kingdom are urging their nationals to leave the Mid-East where they are natural targets for reprisal.

Christians in the Mid-East who have suffered greatly at the hands of the Islamic State will also be targeted. Iranian Christians who are often accused of being agents of the United States will experience even greater persecution than they have been experiencing. I must wonder whether those who were involved in the decision to authorize this attack gave any thought to these two groups when the US military was given the green light to launch the attack.

The US military has had a number of previous opportunities to eliminate these leaders if they posed a significant threat to the United States. The question is, “Why now?” The administration has yet to provide any substantiation of the imminence or seriousness of the threat.

Skeptics are raising the possibility that the strike was motivated by the desire of a president in a election year to be seen acting decisively against an enemy of the United States. History is full of political leaders who have started wars to expand their power, to enhance their prestige, or to divert attention from domestic issues. Only those who were involved in the decision know whether this desire played a part in the decision and it is doubtful whether they will be forthcoming.

A second question is, “Did the president over-react to what has been a longstanding threat that did not warrant such action and where such action would escalate conflict in the region?” Here again skeptics are raising the possibility that this show of force was largely a political act intended to garner political capital with US voters and not a part of a coherent strategy in the Mid-East.  At worst it was the knee-jerk reaction of a president who has not learned to pull his punches when he needs to.

Something that is often overlooked in the announcement of “decapitation” strikes is that the gains that they yield are short-lived. Any setback that this particular strike will cause Tehran will be temporary. It has not only provided Iran and its allies with two martyrs but also justification for retaliatory strikes of their own. Tehran may not respond right away and its eventual response may surprise us. Some of the movements reported in the media may be simply feints designed to create confusion and identify vulnerable targets. One thing we can expect is that Iranian intelligence will be actively seeking to dig up anything that it can to expose the weaknesses of the president and to cause him serious political damage.

Iran has what is known as “a culture of honor.” Those who were involved in the decision to authorize the strike I suspect were oblivious to this reality. “A culture of honor is a culture in which a person (usually a man) feels obliged to protect his or her reputation by answering insults, affronts, and threats, oftentimes using violence.” Tehran will feel honor-bound to strike back. The Iranian leadership may defer striking back to a time and place of their own choosing, but they will strike back. The president’s threats of reprisals, if Iran attacks US assets or Americans, will fall on deaf ears.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismissed the concerns of the French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian that the attack made the world less safe. While the strike may have thwarted an “immanent attack” as Secretary Pompeo claims, it is certainly not going to discourage future attacks. On contrary it is likely to inspire a widening of the kinds of attacks that France and other European countries have been experiencing. It will make the work of missionaries and non-governmental organizations operating in foreign countries even more dangerous and difficult.

The strike will also have a negative impact upon Christian refugees seeking admission to the United States from Muslim countries. Under the more restrictive US refuge policies of the last three years the number of Christians fleeing persecution in Muslim countries to the United States has been reduced to a trickle. Anyone coming from a Muslim country is viewed with suspicion even though that individual may not be a Muslim. Since the Iranian leaders may choose to delay their response to what they and the Shiite world view as a US provocation, we can expect the distrust with which those coming from Muslim countries are viewed to rise to paranoid levels. This may lead to acts of violence against Christian and Muslim refugees from these countries already in the United States.

The challenge that faces Christians in the United States is not to become caught up in the hysteria surrounding the strike. Whether it was really justified is something that we may never know. To many it looks like an unnecessary escalation of what was an avoidable conflict.

Some evangelicals may desire a war in the Mid-East, believing that it will lead to the parousia. Jesus, however, will return in God’s time. We cannot force his second coming.

What is important is for those who profess to be disciples of Jesus to live his teachings and to follow his example. If we are truly his followers, our first loyalty is to him and to no other. As Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven .“ (Matt. 7:21, ESV)

Jesus further taught:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matt. 7:24-26)

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus also said these words. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matt. 5:9, ESV) He would go on to say:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5: 43-48, ESV)

These are words upon which we need not only reflect but also act in what may become a far more turbulent decade of the twenty-first century than the two preceding decades. Jesus did not promise his disciples an easy life. He did not promise them riches or positions of power. But he did promise to abide with those who abide in his word. We can trust him to fulfill that promise.