A DIVIDING WALL

The Church and Trump's Wall

After posting a photo on Facebook of a migrant woman and her children fleeing tear gas at the border wall between Mexico and the U.S., I witnessed a caustic interchange of opinion that lasted for several days on my timeline. Most of the responders claim to be Christian, but their perspectives spanned the gamut of viewpoints, regarding how these migrants should be dealt with. Several days passed after that lively debate, before I received a link to an article discussing the issue of the wall, itself. The article insinuated that anyone who did not support the building of the wall was fighting against the will of God. It used the story of Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, five centuries before Christ, as evidence that God would want a wall built at the American/Mexican border.

At first, I chose to ignore the link, but it had been sent by a long time Facebook friend, who I reckoned sent it as an invitation to reply. To build or not to build a wall is, apparently, an important issue to many of my readers, so here is my view on the issue:

I will begin by saying that I am neither for nor against the building of a wall at the southern border of the U.S. I do not see a wall as a moral or immoral, loving or unloving, move on the part of our people or government. I do not believe that I have ever taken a side on that particular issue in the immigration/migrant/caravan debate. My main concern has been the treatment of the migrants themselves.

What concerns me re: the issue of the wall is the fact that it is apparently becoming yet another nexus around which Christians are taking sides, judging one another, as to their rightness/wrongness/spirituality/maturity/immaturity, etc. We have plenty of such points of controversy already, which are dividing brothers and sisters from one another. The issue of a wall, a physical barrier along our national border, is becoming a metaphysical hot point for the Church.

Regarding the particular arguments put forth in the article, what I see is the all-too-common use of Scripture to validate a particular viewpoint in an essentially political (if not completely secular) debate. In order to accept that the story of Nehemiah, for example, can be applied to our own situation, one must first agree to compare the U.S. (or any region) to ancient Jerusalem. The fact that God encouraged the rebuilding of the Jerusalem wall is extrapolated into an endorsement to do the same on our southern border 2500 years later. I, frankly, do not see the comparison, except that any wall we would build is meant to protect our interior, just as Nehemiah’s wall was meant to protect Jerusalem. I do not understand making the spiritual application in the way the article seems to imply, that God wants the U.S. to do the same, unless the U.S. is some sort of New Jerusalem, revealed in our time.

As for what God wants, I believe walls can be either in or out of his will. I am not sure they are always good or always bad. What I think matters to God is the hearts of the people who would build them (or not). Fear of invasion can be a wise motivating factor, or it can be lack of faith. Jeremiah predicted there would come a time when God would “deliver into the hand of the enemy” the walls of Jerusalem’s palaces. Only God knows the hearts of the region’s inhabitants or its leaders.

But, let’s agree, for the sake of argument, that the U.S. is a holy nation, chosen of God, just as Jerusalem was (and is) the Holy City. If this is true, can we necessarily apply the story of Nehemiah to our own country? If we are going to do that, we must be very sure that we are in a “Nehemiahan” age. We are coming out of some era of prolonged punishment into an era of blessing, and God wants us to “rebuild” walls that have been broken down. We have decided to devote ourselves to righteousness and to put aside all that brought our suffering upon us in the first place. The people opposing the wall are, by inference, unspiritual opponents of God himself.

The story of Nehemiah takes place toward the end of the Babylonian Captivity, 152 years after King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and broke down its walls. The current King, Artaxerxes, of what was then called Persia, is allowing his Hebrew cupbearer, Nehemiah, to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the ancient walls. The Jews have sufficiently repented of their sins that God orchestrates this blessing.

Keep in mind that God had also orchestrated the destruction of Jerusalem itself and had prompted Nebuchadnezzar to take the Jews captive a century-and-a-half earlier. Always, God is in charge in overseeing what happens to the Jews (and to all things in this world and among its people).

So, are we in a Nehemiahan age? I do not think so. We have certainly not suffered much for our national sins. We have not come out of some prolonged punishment, found repentance and devoted ourselves to righteousness. From my perspective, we are setting ourselves up for some sort of retribution yet to come. God is not real proud of America, in my opinion. While there is always a“remnant” of the righteous, our national character has wandered far astray from the principles that made it great once upon a time. We are nowhere near a Nehemiahan age. We have not even experienced the wrath of God, to any great degree. We presently have an administration that wants us to become “great again,” that takes proper strides on some matters. But, the definition of “great” is not always a godly one, and too often we and our leaders, like Israel and Judah, have fits of revival only to fall back again.

I do agree that the story of Jerusalem can be applicable to many places and times. Jerusalem is always an object lesson for the world, just as the Jews themselves are. As for its walls, they are a visible record in stone of how God has dealt with unrighteousness and righteousness in a nation. One glance at the layers of stone that make up the wall will tell the story of conquest, destruction, and continual rebuilding that follow the moral history of the nation.

As for whether Jesus himself would help build Trump’s wall, I guess your take on this depends on how far you want to stretch the allegory of Jerusalem and the U.S. The one time Jesus discussed walls and buildings was just before his death, when he was walking in the Temple with his disciples. They were marveling at the magnificent structures, which would have doubtless included the encircling walls of the Temple Mount. Jesus saw their awestruck faces and warned them that the time was coming when not one stone would be left upon another that would not be thrown down. The fulfillment of that prophecy came in 70 A.D., when the Romans so razed the city that later visitors could scarcely believe it had ever been a city at all. It was rebuilt as Aelia Capitolina, a Roman colony, and remained that way for 600 years. Jews were not even permitted within its borders, on penalty of death.

So, if the U.S. is to be compared with Jerusalem, in an effort to support Trump’s wall, we must be sure we are in a Nehemiahan revival, and not due for an Aelia Capitolinan disgrace.

One more thing (and I say this knowing it will offend some), when we picture Jesus helping to build the celebrated wall, is he also among those standing at the top, lobbing tear gas canisters at those trying to scale it? 

In conclusion: I do not see the wall as an issue of important debate among Christians; I see the hearts of our nation, our people and our leaders as of far more importance in the eyes of God.