Stephen
Terry, Director
A
Heavenly Citizenship
Commentary
for the February 14, 2026, Sabbath School Lesson
"Naked
I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the
Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." Job 1:21
All too often in this world,
great power comes with great arrogance. The wealthy forget that childbirth for
the poor and the powerful is the same. Pain and blood are the lot of both child
and mother, and the child is dependent upon the adults that surround it, for it
has nothing to sustain it, and the child of rich and poor alike would wallow in
misery and filth if left to its own devices. Some children grow up to
understand how much they owe to others for life and the advantages that brought
them to adulthood and model those same behaviors to their own children. While
on the other hand, others grow up with a sense of entitlement to advantage
where anything not immediately claimed by others is theirs by right, and even those
things that can be wrested from others because they do not have the strength to
prevent such appropriation are theirs as well. Such a person may spend their
entire life grasping for what others hold, avaricious desire ruling out any factual
basis in need.
History is replete with both
types of people. The first type is may even be murdered
by the second type because their charity and compassion condemn the latter for their
greed and cruelty and the rage of the powerful burns hotly, especially when
others point out the differences between saint and sinner. The power of the
sinner is challenged when humanity is drawn to the compassionate, leaving the
haughty surrounded only by sycophants. If they cannot compel the people to
abandon the saint and return to worship their own venality, they will imprison
and even kill the saint as they did with John the Baptist, the apostles Paul
and Peter, and the prophet Isaiah. This they have continued to do to the present.
A man will strike a woman to the ground and when another man assists her to her
feet, will murder that compassionate person for daring to ameliorate the trauma
caused by the evil man's act. Disavowing their responsibility for such a bloody
act, they will blame the saint for causing his own death, asserting the claimed
right of every oppressor to make their account the official version, and devil
take the one who does not accept it.
John the Baptist challenged
wicked King Herod Antipas for stealing his brother Philip's wife, Herodias. For
speaking truth to power, she had John beheaded. Paul and Peter both denied the
divinity of the Roman Caesars and were executed by Nero for their temerity. The
prophet Isaiah rebuked King Manasseh, son of Hezekiah for his unbridled
wickedness and murders that had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood from one
end to the other. Manasseh had him sawn in two in a hollow tree trunk where he
had been hiding from the evil king's wrath. The prophet Habakkuk cried out to
God asking why he was indifferent to such evil. The saints have suffered so
much at the hands of the wicked that this has become a common lament, even an
excuse for denying the existence of God. But God revealed that he was doing
something about the problem. Ironically, when Habakkuk learned whom God was
calling up to deal with the evil in Jerusalem, he asked how he could use such
people who were even worse than the Jews? The prophet decided it is better to
keep silent and let God deal with evil than to try to call up an immediate
response to evil.
The wicked believe that they
alone have the right to ride upon the high places of the earth, and all must do
obeisance to them. They claim godlike ownership of everything. The Pharoah who
claimed the right to enslave all the Israelites in Egypt lived as a god on the
largesse that had been accumulated when the Israelite slave, Joseph, centuries
before, used a seven-year famine to transfer the ownership of all the land in
Egypt, save that owned by the priests, to Pharoah. He felt untouchable when he
drove those Israelites to build his treasure cities and they cried out under
his oppression. Eventually, God brought forth Moses to deliver the people. But
Moses had been raised in Pharoah's palace and was taught that killing those who
oppose you is the answer, and he acted accordingly when he killed his first
Egyptian. However, he learned that violence only produces a violent response
from those who are used to prevailing against all opposition. Decades later he
had learned that God is deliverer and the oppressed need only be still to see
his deliverance. (Exodus
14:14) Pharoah and his host seeking to recapture the escaped slaves and
going forth as a mighty army, met death and defeat instead, not from the Israelites,
but from God who will not be gainsaid.
Later another ruler, also feeling
himself omnipotent, arose to rule over Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar became God's
special project, and four Jewish boys were instrumental in his education. He
dreamed of a statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of sliver, belly of
brass, and legs of iron. (Daniel
2) While no one could show him the import of the dream, Daniel and his
three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego prayed to God, and Daniel was
able to decode the statue for the king. He revealed that the head of gold
represented Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar and each of the remaining metals represented
lesser kingdoms to follow. The king understood Daniel's interpretation to be
correct and rewarded him. However, he was unwilling to admit that any other
kingdom would eventually follow Babylon. To further that point of view, he
constructed a statue all of gold and demanded that all bow down before the statue
to demonstrate acceptance of the official view regarding his kingship and the
future of Babylon. (Daniel
3) Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused. The king, in a rage over their
obdurance, sought to burn them alive. When they were delivered unharmed from
the fire, he was forced to admit that there was a power greater than his, and
he spared their lives.
But not everyone is spared the
martyr's death then or now. John the Revelator speaks of these when the fifth
seal is opened in (Revelation
6:9-11) as martyred souls under the altar in heaven crying out for God to
take vengeance on their behalf. But God tells them that there are more yet to
be martyred before the end. The mighty of the earth have long opposed the
Kingdom of God, beginning with Cain who slew his brother Abel and continuing to
the present with every innocent gunned down in our streets or imprisoned in our
hellish, modern dungeons where torture and mental and physical abuse abound. We
read of conditions before the Noahic flood where every thought of humanity was
only evil all the time. (Genesis
6:5) And Jesus told his disciples it will be like Noah's day again before
he returns. (Matthew
24:37-39) Not only will evil be unrestrained, but people will be living
their lives as though everything is normal despite it being anything but.
Some have opined that the United
States has a significant part to play in all of this. Among these are those who
think that part is to establish some kind of holy kingdom for God, an empire of
crusader knights conquering the world for Christ. But God has not called us to
seek wealth and power in this world. We are to leave as we came, with nothing. But
despite billions having died through the centuries with no one able to take
anything with them beyond death's door, many, even
among those who profess to follow Christ nonetheless grasp all the power and
wealth they can, even claiming they are doing it for God. But while they are
busy grabbing at the golden ring on the carousel ride of life, oblivious to the
fact that the ride will eventually end, they will discover that the gold is only
brass. All whom they have trampled in the process will be a chain of witnesses
against them on that day when our deeds bear fruit for either the joy of
eternal life or the finality of death.
As a nation, the United States
has a higher percentage of its population in prison than almost every other
country. We have honored the strong preying upon the weak for so long, it has
become a way of life with people living in fear of those who would take what they
have, even their lives. But that fear is not only the fear of common robbers
and thieves. We have come to feel the fear that other nations have been feeling
for a long time, the fear that even their government, taken over by oligarchs,
will take the lives of the innocent and call it justified. Evil stalks the earth
and goes unpunished as the powerful prey upon the weak with kidnapping, murder,
rape, and pedophilia. The crimes against children are the most unconscionable
of all. And instead of justice for those victimized, the law has been bent
toward vengeance against those who dare to speak truth to power. As John revealed,
the number of those to be martyred in our streets is not yet full. When it is,
God will speak, and as John also said, the powerful will beg for the mountains
and the rocks to fall upon them and hide them from the face of God. (Revelation
6:15-17)