The Rebellions of Youth
By the Rev. Dr. William R. Woofenden -- Sunday, June 21, 1998

Letter From Your Editor, June 1998

Bible Reading

In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). All these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Dead Sea). Twelve years they had served Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

In the fourteenth year Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and subdued the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and the Horites in the hill country of Seir as far as El Paran on the edge of the desert; then they turned back and came to Enmishpat (that is, Kadesh), and subdued all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazoth Tamar.

Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim with Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five. Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits; and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country. So the enemy took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way; they also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. (Genesis 14:1-12)

Reading from Swedenborg

We fight evil and falsity mainly from the good and true things that have been impressed upon us; from these we make decisions about what is evil and false. (Arcana Coelestia #1661.3)

Sermon

In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). . . . four kings against five. (Genesis 14:1-2, 9)

We think of the Bible as the book of life; yet I wonder how often we are aware of just how true this is. It is easy to see when we read the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, where he tells us plainly that the words he speaks to us are spirit and life. But it is a different matter when we read the historical narrative of the Old Testament. Here we often have to search consciously for the relationship between the story and our lives today.

The fourteenth chapter of Genesis records the first war in the Bible. What spiritual message could be contained in this story that would help us to live better, more intelligent lives today? To help us in this search, let us review the account of this battle.

Nine kings--four against five--met with their armies down near the shores of the Dead Sea. The setting was near those cities of evil repute, Sodom and Gomorrah. These two wicked cities, along with three others, had earlier been invaded by a king from the east named Kedorlaomer; ever since that time the cities of the plain had been paying tribute to their conquerors.

For twelve years the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and the three other kings paid the tribute. Then they decided they would rather fight than pay. A message was sent. The king of Elam took up the challenge, gathered allies around him, and soon he and three of his neighboring kings and their armies were on the march. They were evidently a strong force, for the record tells us that en route from Elam they overcame enemy after enemy. They subdued the Rephaim, the Zuzim, the Emim, the Amalekites, and the Amorites. It was an astonishing march of triumphant conquest. At last they approached the Valley of Siddim, close to where the Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea--the lowest piece of land in the world. It was a treacherous place to fight a battle, being full of slime pits. There the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their three allies waited to do battle with the four kings from the east under the banner of Kedorlaomer.

The war proved disastrous for the cities of the plain. Their armies were driven back and utterly defeated. Many sank out of sight in the slime pits, while those who escaped fled in terror to the mountains. Then, with the brevity that often characterizes Bible stories, it says that the victors "took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way."

A capable writer of fiction would find enough material here to write a full length novel based on this page out of one of the most primitive and ruthless periods in history. It was a time when sword and spear were all-important, and every city and village was an armed camp. The odds are that this ancient battle account is historically true, and that these things actually did take place. But important as that may be, the real value of this record does not lie in its literal historic truth. Its real meaning to us today lies in the spiritual situation that it symbolizes. This, as part of God's Word, is history with a definite spiritual message.

In seeking to read this message, our first thought should be that this is a story of war: a story of a struggle for dominance between two groups of kings and their followers. Like every other battle described in the Bible, it must symbolize some spiritual conflict, some struggle between spiritual forces of good and evil for mastery of the human soul.

What might these opposing forces be? One is a coalition led by the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, cities whose inhabitants were "wicked and sinners before God exceedingly" (Gen. 13:13). Even the nature of the land down near the Dead Sea, full of holes with springs of bitumen (like the asphalt used in paving), gives us a clue that they represent some treacherous evils that are a menace to human life and happiness. And that is precisely what they stand for here in this story: deep, treacherous tendencies to evil that lie hidden in every human heart--a part of our heredity from past generations. These are the very evils that keep the world in a turmoil of fear and conflict; that have sent untold thousands to untimely deaths in past wars; that fill our prisons and psychopathic hospital wards. These are the devilish influences that lure men and women into committing deeds that shock us, and cause us to wonder how human beings can sink so low.

All of this, and undoubtedly much more, is represented by those five kings who lived in the valley near the Dead Sea, and who defied the kings from the east. Let us, then, try to connect this battle scene with the realities of our lives today.

The Bible tells us that everyone is born with the tendency to yield to all kinds of evils. As early as Noah's time the Lord saw that "the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). And yet, the Bible also tells us that no one is born into a state of actual guilt or sin; no one is condemned for his or her heredity. The Lord speaking through Ezekiel tells us: "If a man bears a son who sees all the sins that his father has done, considers, and does not do likewise . . . he shall not die for his father's iniquity. . . . The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father" (Ezek. 18:14, 17, 20).

But while we are not condemned for our heredity, it does strongly influence us. We more easily follow a selfish, unworthy course than an unselfish one. The weaknesses in our nature that we receive from our parents cause a susceptibility to attack by the forces of evil, which want nothing more than to induce us to yield to these inherent weaknesses and sink to their level.

These hereditary shortcomings must be met head-on and overcome some day if we are to make any progress in spiritual living. But this takes time and a certain degree of maturity. In our early formative years, a kind of compromise is reached. Those weaknesses in our inherited natures--represented by the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their allies--are largely held in check during our childhood and youth, when spiritual life is just beginning to stir within us. The Lord uses every means available to build up in a child a strong sense of justice and fairness.

However, this depends very much on adult influences. We cannot overemphasize the importance of the love and guidance of father and mother in the home, and the good work of teachers in the Sunday School--especially that of imparting the teachings of the Bible about right and wrong. Most children learn eagerly and accept without question principles of right and justice as they are taught. Their tendencies toward waywardness and evil are largely kept under control by these and other good influences and habits, and are not permitted to break out into the light.

We can thank God that they are, for if we were allowed free rein in our formative years, we would become unreasonable monsters, and all spirituality within us would be destroyed. We do occasionally hear of revolting acts committed by children. But these are not the result of the degeneration of the mind in a deliberate and practiced way, as with many adult crimes. Children's minds are not capable of realizing the full implications in these cases. Their thoughts and feelings, though distorted, are those of childhood, and not the result of adult malevolence. Our civil law recognizes this: we do not try delinquent children as criminals.

During our early years, our tendencies to evil are kept in check to a greater or lesser degree. As far as I'm concerned, the exceptions only prove the rule. The evil forces that will later try to arouse those hereditary evil desires are compelled to refrain from carrying out their desires during our childhood period.

Notice how this is illustrated and represented in our Bible reading by the statement that the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah served (that is, paid tribute to) Kedorlaomer for twelve years. Kedorlaomer and his confederates were kings of the east. In the Bible narrative, the east denotes a state of nearness to the Lord. "The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east" (Gen. 2:8). When Jesus was born, "wise men came from the east to worship him" (Matt. 2:1). There are many other examples. For the childhood period of our lives, our lower desires are kept under control by good influences--the rules of custom and propriety. These rules and customs are represented by the kings of the east.

The kings of the plain served the kings of the east for twelve years. We need not tie this literally to the time a child reaches his or her thirteenth birthday, but rather to the time when a human being passes from being a child and becomes a responsible youth. Children do not develop all at the same rate; the years are immaterial. With some sooner, with some later, the beginning of a new state occurs, when the child becomes adult to the extent that he or she feels the awakening desire to be freed from restraint, to make personal decisions without parental restriction.

Parents know how difficult and anxious that time is for them. It is equally difficult for the young people. The rebellions of youth are a time of crisis. The tendencies toward self-exaltation that have remained more or less quiet for years suddenly assert themselves; the good, obedient child suddenly becomes a belligerent, overbearing know-it-all.

Our only help or hope at this time is the degree to which the rules of conduct and the customs of society (represented by the kings of the east) have been impressed upon our child's mind in earlier years. If we as parents have lived up to our responsibility to see that our children are carefully brought up and instructed in the teachings of the Bible, the odds are with us that the battle will take the right turn, that the forces on God's side will prevail in the child's life, and that the insurgent evil tendencies will for the time being be choked and suffocated by their own nature, just as many of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were swallowed up by the slime pits. If the battle, as it occurs in us and our children, takes this turn, we have much to be grateful for.

Yet we should not be lulled into a false sense of security if we are so fortunate. Many a child makes a brave effort to maintain order in his life--or to bring it back into order--on the basis of immature motives and the rules of propriety that he knows and understands. How often we as adults wish that we could transmit to young people at such times something of our own experience to help and guide them. To a degree, their efforts succeed, just as the kings of the east to a degree subdued the cities of the plain.

But the work was not perfect. The king of Sodom escaped, and Lot, Abraham's nephew, was taken captive--meaning that at this early stage in spiritual development, the root of the evil (represented by the king) is not reached, and many good things of our outward life which should be preserved (represented by Lot) are swept off with the evil. How often this happens in first efforts to reform. How often young people, in their desire to do what they believe is right, get the idea that the only good life is one that has no pleasures left in it at all.

In the case of the Bible narrative, Abram had to come to the rescue. The same is true in real life today in struggling with the rebellions of youth. A higher, more enlightened level of thinking must take hold, with more consciousness of the need of divine help and more of the light of heaven, to complete the victory over Sodom and to restore Lot to his proper place.

How well have we trained our own children to seek divine help at such times--to turn to the Lord and pray for his help at these critical times in their lives? To what extent have we fortified them with the knowledge that as long as we live in this world, the battle of life is never won--that decisive battles against the evils that lie deep within our souls are things we must expect repeatedly throughout our life? So long as we live in this world, there is a progression of temptation struggles, each based at least in part on the remnant, or incompletely overcome, tendency of the last struggle. How can we communicate this truth of life to our young people without seeming to offer them a hopeless outlook?

Here, I think, we must turn to the Christian Gospel. The unending battle of life would be completely discouraging except for one thing: our Lord and Savior has gone before us to show us the way. We can and should assure our children that there is no struggle of the soul that we must face which has not already been faced and overcome by our Lord. In his victories he created a reservoir of strength that he makes available to all who trust in him. This is our only hope and salvation--for young and old alike.

Whether it is the youthful battle of nine kings--the early battle we face against the diabolical inherited tendencies we have, some of which will plague us all our days--or whether it is the last temptation of mature life before we leave this earthly proving ground for our eternal home, the Lord Jesus Christ is beside us all the way, offering us his help and strength. This is the great faith of the Christian; this is the final answer to all our fears. Amen.

Bill Woofenden has had an active ministry serving as a Swedenborgian pastor, writing, and editing many books and publications. He continues to serve on the board of the Swedenborg Foundation. (Updated 8/2004)

Prayer

Dear Lord, we turn to you in the midst of our life's battles, looking for strength from you, our Savior. Help us overcome our evil tendencies from your strength, so that we may set a good example for those under our care. Especially, O Lord, give us the wisdom, compassion, and depth of character to be supportive and helpful in guiding our young people. Make us your messengers to them, acting not from our own fears, but from a trust that we are all under your care, and that through your strength we can each overcome the evils within, and build a life of love and joy. Amen.