Fog of War

1 Samuel 6:2 ESV

And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place”

My brother and I had been saving up all our money for the summer. We had a jar and mowing money went into it, allowance money went into it, and even birthday money went into it. We finally saved up the necessary amount for the video game. It was a strategy game that pitted very different groups against each other. To master it you would go from quest-to-quest building cities and defenses while either attacking or defending depending on necessity. As we started to play the game, we found there was a specific feature that was very annoying. It was called “the-fog-of-war” when turned on you could go and explore but the knowledge you had would be dated to what you saw, and anything could change. How should I defend when I do not know what the other guy is preparing? How should I attack when I do not know what his defenses are? That level of reality was not something we enjoyed in the game so we found the setting and turned it off, free to enjoy our game with out the frustration of reality.

That frustration is what we see with the Philistines. As they have found themselves in possession of a religious artifact that they wanted to use for propaganda they found a lot of odd things started to happen. At first it was the desecration of their temple, then the disease, then the reality that both of those seemed to travel with the ark. They did not want to seem superstitious but the evidence was mounting and they had to do something! So, they asked the question everyone wants to know, “How should I act to gain the end I desire?” The child that watched their parents go through a painful divorce, and was shuffled from one house to another, grows up and wants to know what they should do so that does not happen to them or their children. Seeking to achieve a particular goal we act in the way we believe will help us attain that goal. This goes for the Christian and pagan alike. The unknown faces us how should we act? God has placed us in the bounds of time such that even in-action is an action that has effect. We are always acting, those actions may passive or active, but it is action.

The Philistine lords asked the question and were given an answer that was reasonable. The God of Israel was punishing them and so they must reverently return his ark to his people. Yet, even in this they would make sure that it was true. They stacked the deck against the outcome they thought was true. The cows, full of milk, would return to their balling calves to have gain the relief they desired. The unnatural behavior of the cows proved the spiritual realities of what was happening to the Philistines, to them and to all. That is also still true today. When we see unnatural behavior, we must understand that a spiritual reality is guiding it. When we see men and women forsake natural relations, we must recognize that it is a spiritual reality in their soul that is binding them. That is true for those that would deny themselves food that they might fast, drawing close to God, and for those that would deny woman was made for man.

When all the facts are known and believed the action is obvious. I heard this morning that ninety-five percent of monkey pox cases occur with gay men, and ninety-nine percent are with men in general. If this is an epidemic that requires action by the government it is obvious what the action should be. Outlaw gay sex for four weeks (the illness lasts 4 weeks) “to flatten the curve.” If you wished to pursue public health the knowledge that cervical-cancer is overwhelmingly found in women with multiple sexual partners should lead to further government action, perhaps, for public health, monogamous heterosexual relations should be the “law of the land.”

When you realize that the government knows this and recommends measures that are least effective and/or often counter productive you must ask “what would cause them to deny the NATURAL response to the problem?” Their goal is truly the destruction of man through the destruction of our society, a society that has fostered human flourishing in the past. To be a bible believing Christian we must confront the reality that we have an enemy set against immortal souls and those institutions that would allow for mortal man to see clearly the facts of his life.

Cruce, Dum Spiro, Fido