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July 28, 2022

What is a nation?  That is the question.

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In the book of Genesis — whether you take it literally or metaphorically — a nation is essentially an extended family.  Genesis Chapter Ten, often referred to as the Table of Nations, lists the peoples of the Earth, from Israel’s perspective, along with their lineages. The number, apart from Israel, came to 70.

Each particular nation was traceable back to an ancestor.  Mankind was told to fill up the whole Earth, but disobeyed, and started to build the Tower of Babel, where, in Chapter Eleven, the languages of men were confounded, and the peoples were forced to scatter and separate.

Again, whether taken literally or metaphorically, the principle is that the deity did not want a uniform world, a one-size-fits-all culture and language, precisely because — given the nature of men — they will conspire to do evil.

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And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. —Gen. 11:6

There was a purpose for this scattering.  It was to keep men out of trouble.

There is real divine wisdom to this.  Things may run slower when nations exist, but they run smoother.  With mankind broken up into little portions or nations, each competing against one another, there are checks and balances in the world, with the chance of a major dictator taking over being reduced.

Leaders do not see it that way.  One nation creates a successful society, a better way of doing things, in contrast to its neighbors, and decides to conquer.  The reasons are multifarious.

The conquest can be simply for loot — the Spanish sought gold.  It can be for glory — think France.  It can be for revenge — Alexander the Great wanted to avenge the Greeks on the Persians.  Or it can be just sheer monstrous brutality — think the Assyrians or the Nazis.

Of course, the most pernicious motive is that, being the carrier of a superior way of life, the empire will be improving the lives of the people conquered, and thus doing them a favor.  The Romans thought they were bringing good order to the world.  The British thought they were bringing decency and law.  A lot of American foreign policy has been shipwrecked trying to impose democracy on people who don’t want it.