The stories regarding Archelaus early acts, those of the Passover subsequent to Herod's death, are rather varied, depending upon which text one chooses to read. Odd, that. They all seem to be founded on the source of Josephus' text, yet the interpretation of events is, in some cases, radically different. One puts the issue down to the people discussing a pair of martyred men in a positive light. Another notes that there was a bit of a ruckus. Yet another claims that there was an all-out riot going on at the Temple, and it was the Jews themselves who sought Archelaus' intervention. Whatever the cause, his intervention came, and it came down hard.

This scene seems to lay out the course of his entire reign. He was consistently harsh in his rule, and the people were consistently stirred against him. It is noted that opposition to Archelaus even united the Samarians and the Jews for a time. Conspicuous in their absence in that note are the Idumeans. They also seem to have escaped the harshness of his rule, if we can read that into the silence of the texts. Well and good, he was a son of his father, fully inheriting the demons that drove that one. However, what is it we can and should learn from the life of Archelaus?

One thing of interest in the coverage of his brief rule is the note that when the Jews and the Samaritans sent their joint embassy to Rome, Archelaus was 'warned by a dream,' that his rule was endangered, and so proceeded to Rome to defend himself. What I find in this that should be of some concern for us is the simple fact that the 'dreams and visions' phenomena is not something limited to the righteous. It is not just those under God's care who are so led. The dreams and visions given by the imposter are just as real in the information conveyed. Dreams and visions are not a guarantee of godliness. It is for this reason that we are warned against being led by such things. Dreams and visions are not to be ignored, but they must ever be checked against the revealed Word of God. We must ensure the source of the information before we dare accept its validity in our lives.

Was the dream of Archelaus somehow evil? That, I suppose, depends on one's perspective. The warning given was not evil in itself, the information conveyed was accurate. Yet, the source was not, I dare say, the courts of heaven. Here was a man who had caused the defiling of the Temple both by the slaughter of his own people, and by his manipulation of the most holy office of high priest. He had, in every way, sought to corrupt the right worship of the One True God, and was God, then, likely to be working overtime to protect him? I rather think not. No, it was that one who wanted the throne occupied by his own man, the one seeking to keep Messiah from His place, that was sending the warnings, and in that sense, the dreams were indeed evil dreams.

The larger lesson I find in Archelaus, however, lies beneath the history just a bit. His lineage united the blood of Edom to the blood of Samaria. His subjects included both of these, and Judea as well. It is interesting to me that the embassy that succeeded in his removal had no representatives from Edom, at least as far as the texts show. Consider this from the perspective of Biblical history. Indeed, here was the fulfillment of yet another prophecy! Through Malachi, God spoke to Israel, saying "Though Esau was Jacob's brother, I have hated him, even as I have loved Jacob. I have laid waste his lands, given over his inheritance to jackals. Edom declares that he will return and rebuild the ruins, and so he may. But, I will tear it all down, and they will be known as a wicked people in a wicked land, and My indignation towards them is eternal. Seeing this, you will know that the LORD has been shown great to outsiders" (Mal 1:2-5).

All that bitterness that had been Edom's inheritance for long ages welled up in Archelaus. As had been done to his forebears, so he would do to these peoples, now that they were under his feet. Two kingdoms were struggling still for dominance in Israel. The kingdom of God was come to man, but so too was the kingdom of man. The one continued the course of longstanding promises, declared that their fulfillment was imminent. The other was caught up in rights, insisted on having its demands met immediately.

The same struggle continues today. We live in a society bent on having its rights, bent on having instant and complete gratification of every demand. There is no concern, by and large, over whether those rights are deserved, whether they're really even rights. We demand equal outcome as a right! On what basis? Mostly, on the basis of envy and pride. They have it, therefore, I should have it, too. This is world rule. This is Edom on the throne, a shadow king of the true ruling triumvirate of pride, envy, and jealousy.

Against this order stands the kingdom of Christ. The King makes clear from the outset that His subjects really have no rights. He makes it clear that there is little they can expect while in this foreign land other than abuse. Yet, His instructions are not to retaliate in kind, but to overcome in kindness. How odd! How utterly alien to the mindset in which we were raised! Yet, how utterly powerful!

Looking at the nations over which Archelaus held sway, we might see things like this. In Edom, we have the world order embodied. Here are the people who have rejected God's promise, and dwell in the rejection of God. They have chosen not to have Him, and He has honored their choice. As they will not have Him, He will not have them. Indeed, theirs is an inheritance of desolation. Then, there is Judea. In them, we find the embodiment of the promise. To them, in spite of their almost constant failure, God's promise has stood fast, will always stand fast. Clearly, the promise does not hold because of them, but solely because of Him! As the desolation that is Edom magnifies God outside the camp, so their weakness makes God's strength evident within the camp.

Samaria is caught in the middle. It stands as representative of the undecided, the agnostic. This was a synthetic people, a people created by the manipulation of those who had controlled the region. They were not quite Arabs - Edom would not have them. They were not quite Jews - Judea would not have them. They were faithful to God in their own way, yet their faithfulness was tinged with disobedience. These were a people held in the balance. More strongly than any other, they felt the tug upon their allegiance as these two kingdoms struggled for dominance in the land. Indeed, they were the swing state! These were a people accepted by the citizens of neither kingdom, but attracted to both. To whom would they give their allegiance?

Edom had cause, I suppose, to harbor deep anger against Judea. The children of Jacob had, after all, received an inheritance stolen by trickery from the father of Edom. Yet, Esau had signed away that inheritance already. The deceiving of Isaac only finalized the agreement Esau had already made with Jacob. But, memories tend to cast events in the colors most favorable to us! Samaria also had reason to be aggrieved with Judea, and its reason were of a far more recent vintage. Daily, they withstood the insults. Daily, they felt the rejection of what had once been their own people. The Edomites had been grafted in by the efforts of John Hyrcanus. The Samarians had been lopped off the family tree for no greater crime than having remained in the land while the rest of the nation went into exile. This was through no choice of their own, as both Samaria and Judea understood, yet Judea chose to show its superiority by snubbing these lesser mortals.

Because of Judea's treatment of Samaria, what should have been a natural ally was only brought into alliance by the outrageousness of worldly offense against them. Only when Edom's sins reached monstrous proportions, and only as his outrages were turned on Samaria proper, were they convinced to side with the righteous.

The parallels here are incredible! One can see the same divisions playing out on the world stage again. One could cast the whole war on terrorism in this light and not be far off. The sons of Edom are once again seeking the inheritance they willingly gave away. The children of righteousness are once again under attack, suffering abuse at the hands of wicked rulers. And in the middle, undecided sits European Samaria. They are half in Edom and half in Judea, yet not really of either. They have not yet been so immediately stung by Edom's violence oppression that they feel a need to stand against it. They have been offended by their cousins in Judea, and so feel no particular need to stand with them. Their indecision cannot last. God will not suffer us to sit on the fence for long. He will require a decision of us. Having decided, He will abide by our decision, even as He abided with Edom's decision. That's not always a good thing!

More critical, perhaps, is the parallel to the Church in society. There's a whole world order out there that wants nothing to do with God, wants its own way, however awful the consequences might be. Another Edom - decidedly against God, and abandoned by Him to its own condemnation. Then, there's the Church of the Redeemed, its ranks swelled to some degree by the Church of the Ambivalent. The Redeemed have long since committed themselves to the Kingdom of promise. They have seen that Promise fulfilled, and know that the remaining promises are equally sure. They understand that their lot in this life may not be pretty, will surely be painful, but they also understand that there's more to it than this present life.

Then there's the Samaria that encompasses not only the ranks of the Ambivalent within the church, but also vast numbers of equally ambivalent folk outside the church. They have one foot in the world, but the world has not so richly received them that they feel any particular allegiance to it. They may, perhaps, have one foot in the Church, but the Church has not exactly received them with open arms, either. They are the undecided, but they won't remain so. They will necessarily come to a crisis point. They will have to decide either for God or for the world.

Honestly, the question is going to come down to what's been made more attractive, or perhaps what's been made least reprehensible. The world has any number of attractions to offer, and apart from the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the average Samaritan is not going to see them as anything but attractive. Christianity, by and large, has been cast in a light of bigotry with hints of the ignorance. For the most part, Christianity has done little to counter that image. So be it. The truth of the matter is that we're not going to win the Samaritans by attractiveness. Attractiveness has created the Church of the Ambivalent, after all! This is what seeker-friendly service has succeeded in, swelling the ranks of the Church with Samarians no more committed to the kingdom of God than they were before they came. They show up week after week, but their concerns are more for social interaction than for God. They show up week after week, so long as the worship's entertaining, the messages not too longwinded, and no great offense has come. At the first sign of change in this status quo, they'll be outta here! These aren't converts. These aren't true believers. These are no more decided than they were before. The only benefit of drawing them into the building at all is that it increases the chance that they might hear something of the Truth, but from many pulpits, today, even that's not guaranteed!

Too many churches have been so swollen by the ranks of Ambivalence that the Remnant has departed entirely for healthier ground. The message is a message of Ambivalence, and those who hear it are in hearty agreement. Why commit? What harm has the world ever done them? What good has heaven ever done them? They're good Joes. No need for a Savior. They can make it on their own. The very heartland of Samaria! Eventually, they're going to have to choose. If the attractiveness of Judea isn't going to sway them, what will? Sadly, just as it was in Israel then, it's going to take the same thing now. It's going to take the world becoming so utterly worldly that its offensiveness can no longer be ignored. It's going to take the criminal tyranny of the world powers being turned against the Ambivalent right alongside the Remnant to shake them out of their ambivalence.

This does not give the Church leave to stop seeking those outside their walls. It does not give the Church leave to let the harvest whither in the fields. No way! Through our God, we shall do mightily! He has commissioned us to go out into the world, into the very heart of Edom's territory, and make disciples. He has called us to call those whom He is calling, to be His voice in the wilderness of Edom's inheritance. He has called us to save our brothers and sisters from the jackals, to bring them safely home. He has called us to preach the true Word of God to the Ambivalent, that they might hear His voice. He has called us to live Joshua's demand: "Choose you this day whom you will serve: Whether the God who Is, or the dead gods of the world in which you are living" (Jos 24:15). With that demand, we are called to live out our own answer in Spirit and in Truth: "As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

That is the power that will lead Samaria to decide! All our efforts to look beautiful to them have succeeded only in making us look like harlots. Samaria is not so foolish as to be deceived by false charms! Neither are they so foolish that they cannot recognize true beauty when it is before their eyes. True beauty is going to be found in the life that shouts out: "I serve the LORD!" True beauty is going to be found in a life that testifies to the truth of underlying faith. True beauty will be found in those who are not ashamed of the Gospel, who will declare it's truth with their voice, and live out its truth with their every breath. It will take both. The words without the example will not persuade the undecided to seek the kingdom of heaven, indeed, will push them into the world's arms. The example without the words will do little or nothing. It needs both.

Jesus, this has been a weakness in me for too long. Let this be the end of that weakness! Too many times, Lord, I've had opportunity to declare Your glory and yet turned the conversation in other directions. Too many times, I've seen the example I set, and the example of the Idumeans around me, and been embarrassed by my own poor showing. Oh, I could write this off to wounded pride, but it's not my pride that's wounded. Pride is, indeed, the very thing that keeps it so. Lord, forgive me. Jesus, cleanse the throne of my heart from these interlopers, and take Your place. Take Your place with authority, my King. Wash my spirit once again, that my obedience to You might be unquestioning and unquestionable. Holy Spirit, fill me with the boldness to declare the truth of things. Where there is any amazement at the things I may accomplish at work, let me rightly point to You as the reason. Let the example I set today truly be that of a godly man, a child of God. Guard my tongue that it might speak no evil word. Guard my thoughts, that I might remain centered on You, on whatever is good and lovely and praiseworthy and true. Guard my ears, Lord, that I might never cease hearing Your voice. Let everything about me today declare that I serve You, my God, my Lord, my King, my Friend.