The Case for the Nations (or Why Do We Have an Immigration Problem?)

I am hearing a lot these days about the importance of uniting the people of the world.  In the immigration debate, some have expressed that it is a national duty to welcome down trodden people into one’s country, most especially because there is no real right to have an established border which is designed to keep people out.

The idea of a nationless world is indeed attractive.  John Lennon’s “Imagine” puts it this way:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace,

The notion of a borderless world has captivated human imagination (pun intended) all the way back to Genesis 11.  Human beings have always been tempted to build for themselves a borderless world without God (no countries and no religion too).  Consider Genesis 11:1-4:

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ² And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³ And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

There is the unity of language here.  There is the use of makeshift materials for the building of a unifying center.  There are the words, “come, let us” repeated as a plaintive desire for unity and peace.  Who of us cannot relate to that desire?  Why do we have nations?  Don’t they just get in the way of peace?

However, if we look a bit more deeply, we discover that the reason the people at Babel sought borderless unity was really for us humans to build a kingdom without God.  We want to build a kingdom without God and for our own fame, glory, and self-centeredness.  Human beings are to be the center of the universe.  As Humanist Manifesto II states, “No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.”  We long to be important; we long to make a name for ourselves.  We think that the unity of the world, no matter how that unity is achieved, would be a wonderful and great thing.  We think that anything that scatters the human race, especially where we would not understand one another, would be a very wrong thing indeed.

God thinks otherwise.  He will not tolerate the building of anyone’s kingdom but His own.  Consider Genesis 11:5-9:

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. ⁶ And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” ⁸ So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Notice that God “came down,” not as a rival but with a Creator’s and father’s concern.  God knows that this plan of human kingdom building without Him would be only the beginning of horrible apostasies.  God now says (v. 7), “Let us go down.”  The Trinity is a far, far more powerful gathering than the gathering of all the human race!  The arithmetic of heaven is that 3-in-1 is more than billions of people.

Nationalism, according to verses 8-9, is God’s appropriate discipline on an unruly race.  Notice how in verses 7-9, the words, “confused” and “dispersed” are each used twice, emphasizing that God has done something on purpose to thwart human unity without Him.  The half-built Tower of Babel is a monument to the glory of man without God.  It is the end game for those who want to “Imagine.” 

That there are different races, different nations, different peoples is an insuperable fact.  No amount of “imagining” is going to eliminate it.  Nations are born and die, of course, but the idea of a one world government is not only undesirable, it is impossible.  Even though there may be times when people feel like they are close to achieving the humanist dream, that cause will never triumph.  God will always stop it.

God will always stop it for two important reasons.  First, it is not in our best interests for it to triumph.  A life lived without God is a disaster.  A culture or people without God is a horror.  An entire world without God?  Well, God simply refuses to allow that to happen.[1]  Such is the nature of His love for the rebellious human race.  Second, God wills that He be glorified by His creation.  He will have the glory due to Him.  Some who have considered this think it arrogant of God, even selfish of Him, to will that He be glorified.  However, when one considers the true nature of God in all of His manifold attributes, we are brought low.  We are undone.  We bow before the rightful ruler of the universe Who alone is good and worthy of praise.

In a very real sense, then, nationalism, the creation of nations, cultures, races, languages is a punishment from God for our hubris, our belief that we could create a kingdom without Him.  This fact of the nations is what is behind many of the troubles that we face.  Nations do not understand one another or want what another nation has and so go to war.  Innocents caught up in the war are displaced and run to other nations.  Those other nations now must figure out whether to receive these from war torn lands.  Further complicating matters, the people who are warring can disguise themselves as innocents and try to spread their hate elsewhere while pretending to be refugees.

This is what is behind the immigration debate.  How does a nation respond to hurting people?  Should a nation try to preserve its distinct national identity?  These are questions that especially are facing many European countries, but they are also facing us.  They are not easy to answer.  However, the answer is not and cannot be that nations do not matter, that nations are some sort of obstacle to humanity.  Rather, different nations and cultures exist precisely because God so has ordained it.

How does this affect our own nation?  Well, apart from God, the United States is doomed to failure.  “E Pluribus Unum” without “In God We Trust” is a tower of Babel that God will confuse into collapse.  I frankly do not know how to resolve the refugee and immigration challenges that our country faces, even though I have very good friends on all sides who seem to know exactly what to do.  However, I know that the idea of a borderless world is not from God.  I know that it is national suicide to think that we can admit without limit those who are committed to defying our laws.  I know that it is wrong to turn our backs on helpless people who will die without our aid.  I know that God always calls me to love my neighbor as I love myself.

I am not so much interested in this article about how to resolve the current immigration debate as I am in getting out there that the NATIONS matter to God.  God has decisive control over the affairs of the human race.  The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD (Proverbs 21:1); a man may plot his way, but the LORD determines his steps (Proverbs 16:9); the plans of man are many, but the purpose of the LORD will stand (Proverbs 19:21).  God works out everything after the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11).  Jesus is the only one able to open the scroll of the destiny of the world (Revelation 5:5).  This means that the nations that He Himself ordained are in His hands.  The Apostle Paul spoke of the glory of God in creating and controlling the nations this way, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ²⁶ And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, ²⁷ that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, (Acts 17:24-27).  God has appointed the times and boundaries of the nations so that they will seek Him and find Him.

 

God will one day reunite the peoples of the earth and reverse the punishment of Babel, but the basis of that unity will not be the glory of the human race.  It will be the glory of the God-Man, Jesus Christ. 

“For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
    to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
    and serve him with one accord.” Zephaniah 3:9

And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
    from every tribe and language and people and nation,
¹⁰ and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
    and they shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:9-10

A day will come when the nations (as we understand them) will be no more. That day is not yet.  Let us not wish that there were no nations.  Rather, let us thank God that even the confusion of nations draws us to the real King—to God Himself.

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[1] At least, He will refuse to allow a one world government without Him to happen until the Day of the Lord.  There will come a time when the Lord will defeat the combined forces of the world unified against Him. See especially Revelation 17-20.