If you read any old books, and by old here I mean anything from roughly 600 AD to 1900 AD, one of the things you realize is that all the authors – even the ones not known for their orthodoxy – know their scriptures. And they appeal or allude to those scriptures in nuanced ways. Ways that we either miss completely, or might even say “nah, that can’t be the allusion.” I was thinking about that while reflecting on the Old Testament reading for today – Ezekiel 17:22-24 – and the recent flag absurdity.
If you are blessedly unaware of that absurdity, Mrs. Alito, wife of the Supreme Court justice, likes to fly flags. One of the flags she has flown was the Revolutionary War era “Appeal to Heaven” flag (pasted in somewhere near here.) It was commissioned by George Washington for the small six boat Continental Navy. The pine tree was a symbol of New England – Pines being quite common. The phrase, “An Appeal to Heaven,” is a reference to John Locke. Locke was the English enlightenment philosopher whose thought probably did more to inspire early America and its governance than anybody else. Maybe even more than the Bible, although that could be argued. In this case Locke argued in his Second Treatise on Civil Government, “where the Body of the People, or any single Man, is deprived of their Right, or is under the Exercise of a power without right, and have no Appeal on Earth, there they have a liberty to appeal to Heaven, whenever they judge the Cause of sufficient moment.” In that quote you can hear such later American phrases as “endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.” There is also the foundational American idea of the Social Compact, think the Mayflower Compact. The governments are established to ensure rights. If those governments deprive citizens of rights, they have broken the compact, and there is a right to “an appeal to heaven” or revolution.
That is all hardcore enlightenment. But Washington paired the sentiment with the image of the tree. Washington liked Biblical tree images. And they all liked the Old Testament better than the new. (They all thought they were the new Israel. In Lincoln’s phrase, “a semi-chosen people”.) Washington would leave the Presidency quoting Micah 4:4, “they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.” It was his turn to sit under his; His work was complete. But long before that work was complete, before he even knew if it would be successful, he tied the enlightenment thinking of an appeal to heaven to a lone tree.
God says in Ezekiel 17, “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out…I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain…and under it will dwell every kind of bird…and all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree…I have spoken, and I will do it.” I don’t think it is a mighty leap for someone committing treason if it fails, who could easily consider himself a clipping off the top of the mighty British Empire, as making an appeal to heaven for the LORD to lift them up. For the LORD to create a place for every kind of bird under this new order being brought forth.
Washington never fails to tear me up. The greatest man history ever produced. And as an enlightenment amalgam it isn’t a bad vision. And I almost daily give thanks for being one of Washington’s “distant posterity.” But the sprig is not from any earthly empire. He is from the remains of Israel. And the high and lofty mountain is not a glorious capitol, not even the Acropolis or Mt. Zion, but Mt. Calvary. Our Appeal to Heaven – the eternal appeal to Heaven – free us from our sin wrought chains was answered. The rebellion against Satan, the World and our own flesh not only was started, but was successful. And under Christ’s branches, every kind may dwell and produce fruit and become noble.
The LORD promised he would do this. The LORD keeps his promises.