Earth and Water and Antichrists
Jesus, the True Lord of Heaven and Earth
In Herodotus’s Histories we are told the story of a Medo-Persian emperor, Xerxes by name, who attempted to conquer the Greeks. He amassed to himself a 5,000,000 man army, an army so large that Herodotus claims, between the men and their livestock, that they dried up more than one small river due to the need for drinking water. The reports of this tremendous invading force were, to put it mildly, alarming to the Greeks.
Some time in advance of the army itself there came messengers from Xerxes to the various city-states of Greece. The message that these men carried was simple enough. Essentially they said, “Give Earth and Water and you will be untouched by Xerxes, the Lord of all men.” You see, “Earth and Water” were tokens of submission, expressions of willingness (even if begrudging willingness) to become tributaries to Persia and acknowledge the lordship of Xerxes.1
Xerxes very much believed himself to be the true Lord of all the earth. Nowhere may this be better displayed than in the following somewhat humorous, though also brutal, anecdote which Herodotus relates.
Towards this tongue of land then, the men to whom the business was assigned carried out a double bridge from Abydos; and while the Phoenicians constructed one line with cables of white flax, the Egyptians in the other used ropes made of papyrus. Now it is seven furlongs across from Abydos to the opposite coast. When, therefore, the channel had been bridged successfully, it happened that a great storm arising broke the whole work to pieces, and destroyed all that had been done.
So when Xerxes heard of it he was full of wrath, and straightway gave orders that the Hellespont should receive three hundred lashes, and that a pair of fetters should be cast into it. Nay, I have even heard it said that he bade the branders take their irons and therewith brand the Hellespont. It is certain that he commanded those who scourged the waters to utter, as they lashed them, these barbarian and wicked words: "Thou bitter water, thy lord lays on thee this punishment because thou hast wronged him without a cause, having suffered no evil at his hands. Verily King Xerxes will cross thee, whether thou wilt or no. Well dost thou deserve that no man should honour thee with sacrifice; for thou art of a truth a treacherous and unsavoury river." While the sea was thus punished by his orders, he likewise commanded that the overseers of the work should lose their heads.2
In case you are not familiar, the Hellespont (now called the “Strait of Gallipoli” or “Dardanelles”) is a slim body of water or strait that lies between modern day Turkey (then part of the Medo-Persian domain) and Greece. Xerxes is personally affronted by these waters and their defiance of his lordship! How dare the winds and waves not obey him?
As it turned out, Xerxes was in for a great deal more disappointment before this episode of invasion into Greece came to an end. You’ll have to read Herodotus (and you most certainly should) for all the exciting details, but Xerxes’ invasion fails rather spectacularly due to the fortitude of the Spartans, Athenians, and a number of other Greek city-states. Xerxes was sent packing by the Greeks (with a pretty heavy dose of humility to take home with him). Xerxes was not, in fact, the lord of heaven and earth… and now he knew it.
Of course it’s not just Xerxes who has had a false appraisal of himself in this way. There were others before him (be it Pharaoh in Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, etc.) and there have been plenty since his time also (be it any number of the Roman emperors, Napoleon, or Hitler). Time and time again throughout history there have been men who saw themselves as God’s gift to the world, come to rule, and some even who thought of themselves as a very god on earth. They have come proclaiming the gospel of themselves, the “good news” of their inevitable reign and the subjection of all others. But, where are they now?
Pharaoh was brutally stripped of his claim to deity before the Egyptian people’s eyes and slapped with ten plagues, Nebuchadnezzar was driven mad to live as a cow, Cyrus acknowledged the primacy of the God of the Hebrews and paid for them to rebuild their temple, Xerxes was spanked and sent home (just in time to marry a Jewish girl named Hadassah, a.k.a Esther), the Roman Empire with all of its imperial cults fell to the preaching of peasants who wouldn’t stop talking about a Jewish carpenter, and Hitler is burning in Hell right now after taking his own life. None of these men were the Lord of Heaven and earth. Though they demanded absolute submission, they demanded “Earth and Water” be brought to them from every nation under heaven, they all perished and their impotence typically showed up long before their death.
Xerxes tried to whip and shackle the Hellespont, but the true Lord of heaven and earth simply told the winds and the waves to be still and they obeyed him. The gospel of these men, the news and tidings that they had come to reign and put the world in subjection under their feet was absolute arrogance and foolishness because they were simply not who they thought themselves to be. They were just men trying to be gods.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is another story, although it is the same story. I mean to say, Jesus came preaching the gospel that he is the one true Lord of heaven and earth (the same story), but he actually demonstrated that he is what he claimed to be (therefore, a different story from the fakers). It needs to be said, a lot more than it is said today in the modern church, that the gospel message is first and foremost that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” He is the Lord. It’s not that he wants to be or that he is asking you if you’ll make him your Lord. Jesus is the one who walked on hushed storms and walked upon waters. Jesus is the one who healed the sick, cast our demons, raised the dead, and conquered sin and death itself in his resurrection. Jesus conquered the Roman Empire and continues to conquer the world by the preaching of his word.
One of the major failures of the contemporary church is that we have failed to do what we are supposed to do as heralds of Jesus Christ. We have reduced the gospel to merely be a message about the forgiveness of sins. We have reduced the gospel to pure pietism, private faith, between just us and Jesus and no one else. Don’t get me wrong, personal faith in Christ and forgiveness of our sins is very much a part of the message, but it is not the whole message. Indeed, salvation is a consequence of the primary message of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
As Christians we are supposed to be demanding “Earth and Water” from the whole world on behalf of the true Lord of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ. If the church has become impotent in the West it is because we seem to have forgotten this. We are to confidently sneer at every false claim to lordship made by civil authorities which do not recognize Jesus as the Lord of their lordship. We are to ignore every demand that we be silent about him, to refuse to submit to anything not in line with Christ and his commandments. We are to look our rulers in the eye and steadily and calmly proclaim that “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.”3 Every ruler on earth is but a sub-regent of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus. We are to tell our neighbors, with love and conviction that Jesus is their lord, his will is not to be denied, and they risk their very souls by persisting in the rejection of his reign. We demand earth and water from all.
Quite possibly many of my fellow Christian brethren think I am being a bit extreme here, but I think they may need to read their Bible a little more closely if they think I am being extreme or saying more than the Bible itself would say. Matthew couches the gospel that Jesus preached as “the gospel of the kingdom.” Right after Jesus starts his public ministry and calls some of his first disciples it says, “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” (Matthew 4:23) Mark also states, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15) Remember that John the Baptist was sent to be a herald, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, clear the way of the Lord.” Consider also Paul’s message to the Greek philosophers in Athens. After explaining to them that God is not like their idols but is the maker of all and had absolute sovereignty over the affairs of men he said, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31) No punches pulled. No “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” Just a message of sovereignty and lordship and the need for people to accept the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus is the true Lord of all.
It is arrogance for every other man to call himself the Lord of heaven and earth because they simply are not, but Jesus is. He has demonstrated this time and again, “he makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love.” He has invaded the earth from his heavenly kingdom and his soldiers, soldiers who simply speak truth and draw no sword, are sent to proclaim his eminence and reign. The good news is that although we have been held in captivity by the enemy of our souls, and have been in subjection to the evil ruler of this world (the Devil) and his sub-regents (the godless kingdoms of men), no longer will the domain of darkness have sway! Why? For the true King has come to set the captives free! He is driving back the darkness until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father! All who recognize his Lordship will have their sins truly forgiven, pardoned of all their disloyalty, they will be transferred into the kingdom of light and be made to reign and rule under the authority of Christ.
You see the gospel is simply this, Jesus alone is Lord of heaven and earth. So, repent and believe and you will be saved! Bring your earth and water. Jesus demands all, all of you and all of me and every square inch of this universe, because it is his. He is Lord.
Xerxes did not, however, send messengers to Athens or Sparta due to the reception messengers from Darius (Xerxes predecessor) had received some years earlier. These two city states became two of the most prominent resistors to the Persian invasion. Herodotus wrote, “King Xerxes had sent no heralds either to Athens or Sparta to ask earth and water, for a reason which I will now relate. When Darius some time before sent messengers for the same purpose, they were thrown, at Athens, into the pit of punishment, at Sparta into a well, and bidden to take therefrom earth and water for themselves, and carry it to their king. On this account Xerxes did not send to ask them.” (Herodotus, Histories, Book VII)
Herodotus, Histories, Book VII
John 19:11