To Your Tents, O Israel!

One of the saddest points in world history, let alone Biblical History is the division of Israel into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. This schism was the result of God’s decree – but it also occurred because of VERY human choices. When we look at I Kings 12 we can see that although the people were willing to submit to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, they desired that the government shrink. Solomon massively expanded government and although the nation was exceedingly financially prosperous, the breakneck pace of nation-building was exhausting. Multitudes were involved in building up the army and the cavalry and all the King’s various building projects. People were neglecting their own farms and fields – they were neglecting their own inheritances to serve the King and devote themselves to public works. Although taxes weren’t the problem, the non-stop demands on the people were.

And the people demand a respite.

And Rehaboam – more fool he – decided to double down and refuse to hear their pleas and said that his little finger was bigger than Solomon’s waist (N.B. waist is a euphemism). He said Solomon whipped them, but he’d scourge them with scorpions. He was going to not lighten their load but make it heavier and heavier. He thought that the way to keep them down was to threaten to put his boot on their necks.

The plan backfired.

Rehoboam was nothing like his father. He was a chump. And Israel knew he was a chump. And then we hear a man shout out from the crowd some very poetic and ominous words:

“What share do we have in David,

               what part in Jesse’s son?

To your tents, O Israel!

               Look after your own house, David!”

And upon these words the nation was divided – and only Messiah will reunite the people of Israel.

Fast forward to right now. What do we have? We have division. We have the kind of division that is not merely superficial, and not merely heated, but he have divisions that cannot be crossed. We, as a nation, are so different in our overall outlook on the world, our metaphysical commitments and presuppositions are so at odds that there is no realistic chance for reunion. There are, so far as I can see things, only 3 options: Wokeism and radical, Statist, Secular Paganism is going to conquer; Christianity, and Theistic Classical Liberalism are going to conquer; or the country is going to be divided – because it can’t keep going like this.

The way I see it, something is about to change. For years and years Blue States have flouted the Federal Government – think of Sanctuary Cities, federal property destruction, et cetera – and they’ve done so with impunity – though it did impugn their character.

But my, my, my how the turn tables. Now with all the corruption and Socialism leaking into the Federal Governement, Red States are going to have to answer a simple question: are they going to allow the Federal Government to govern against the will of their sovereign states, or are they going to refuse to comply or capitulate? Will Red States play Calvinball with the Feds or will they go home?

I believe that some states – particularly very red states that have enough internal wealth to not be “greenmailed” into compliance will simply disobey. And when push comes to shove, states like Texas and Utah are gonna say, “What share have we in Washington? what inheritance in the Feds? To your tents, O Red States; look after yourselves, Commies!” Or, I dunno, something like that.

The fact of the matter is that sooner or later push does come to shove. And what happens then, no one can foresee. But I believe that the days of the Union may not be many. I can easily see us moving towards a Confederation – maybe not de jure, but de facto. I’m not, of course, advocating the dissolution of the Union. While I would PREFER a Confederacy, we don’t’ live in one. We live in a Constitutional Union. I’m a Unionist because I don’t have a time machine to go back and warn Hamilton and the Federalists of what will some day come to pass.

But a few things do seem clear to me. Nothing in this world lasts forever – and that includes governments. All human institutions have a shelf life. Moreover, sometimes phoenixes are born out of the ashes. It is the foolish folly of fools to think that America will last forever. It will not – at least not in its current form. Three question seem exceedingly important for us as a body politic to come to terms with: what can it become? what should it become? and what will it become? All three matter, and while we can never answer them perfectly I can say with confidence that if America doesn’t find some kind of way to cross the chasms that divide us, soon and very soon, some Stentorian voice will cry out above the din of the disaffected and call us hence, and with clarity we will heed the clarion and we will obey that voice out of the wilderness and we will depart, never to return.