Recently, the news has been filled with descriptions of the meeting between U.S. President Trump and Chinese President Xi. Because the meeting is between the highest officials of both countries, it is called a “summit.” Issues of concern to both countries are on the agenda, as is the opportunity to further some kind of relationship between the world leaders. While much of the meeting is surrounded with the usual pomp and circumstance befitting heads of state, there is always hope that such a meeting will lead to substantive agreements.
When I thought about such meetings between world leaders, I remembered times I have personally had my own “summits” with such people. I actually met the following political celebrities, though I doubt they considered our meetings as “summits,” nor that they even remember them: Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Martti Ahtisaari (President of Finland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate), and Boris Yeltsin.
Of course, meetings between political leaders are not true summits. To have a real summit meeting, you have to go to the real summit – the Creator and Ruler of the universe. True summits require encounters with God himself, because there is no one higher than God. So anyone meeting with him is not a meeting between equals, because he has no equals!
The Bible records several such “summits,” and how they worked out.
1. First, there was the summit between Adam and Eve and God. It started wonderfully, but ended badly. The state dinner began with all kinds of fruit and veggies, and a close relationship between the parties. But when the guests broke protocol and ate the one food forbidden them, things went downhill fast. First, they tried to hide from the host in his garden. Then, they were dressed improperly. Then they tried to blame everyone else, including the host, for their mistakes. What had begun with such promise, ended with exile and a death sentence.
2. Later, Satan had a summit with God (Job 1), in which Satan suggested that if the righteous man Job were to lose all his wealth and blessings, he would curse God. In other words, the only reason Job was loyal to God was because God had blessed him. Satan (whose name fittingly means “accuser”) was sure his plan would work, but in spite of losing wealth, family, and health, Job remained loyal (Job 1:22). God showed who was in charge by allowing the test and limiting what Satan would do to Job (Job 1:12). And restoring what Job had lost.
3. The first patriarch, Abraham, had a summit with God and two of his angels. Genesis 18 tells of this meeting by the oaks of Mamre. The Lord was on his way with the angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, but Abraham negotiated with God to spare the cities if a certain number of righteous people were found in them. The negotiations began with fifty righteous and reduced to ten; but because there were not even ten, God destroyed the cities anyway. God controlled the conversation, and the result; he was the ultimate judge, jury, and executioner.
4. An unusual summit was held between Jacob and God near the river Jabbok (Genesis 32:22-32). It was more than a meeting; it was a wrestling match! God appeared to him in human form, called “a man.” This is considered one of the pre-incarnate appearances of Christ. They wrestled all night until the man touched Jacob’s hip and dislocated it. Because Jacob didn’t give up, God changed his name to “Israel,” because he had “striven with God and with men, and have prevailed” (32:28). Just imagine if current leaders settled their differences in the boxing ring or in cage matches? Or in single combat like David and Goliath? There would be fewer wars, and shorter ones.
5. The Book of Daniel has several encounters that could be considered summits in which God demonstrated his power over pagan gods and protection of his people. But a true summit between a pagan king and the King of king is described in Daniel 4. King Nebuchadnezzar surveyed his city from the roof of his palace, and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30) Taking the glory for himself, he was struck insane and crawled around, eating grass like an ox, until he finally admitted it was not his doing, but God’s. When he at last praised God’s dominion, saying all “the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,” (Daniel 4: 35) God restored his mind and fortunes. In other words, he realized there was a God, and it wasn’t him.
6. In 2 Kings 19, we read the story of the Assyrian King Sennacherib defying the true God, saying that God could not deliver Jerusalem from his victorious army. Verse 10 quotes the Assyrian king’s taunt: “Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” God’s answer to Sennacherib concluded with, “Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come into my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.” The result of the summit was, God struck down all 185,000 men of the Assyrian army in one night, causing the king to flee beck to Nineveh – where he was murdered by his own sons.
7. Another direct encounter between kings was when the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4). The ruler of this world (John 12:31), the devil, came to tempt Jesus when the latter was hungry from fasting. The devil suggested Jesus turn some stones into bread, jump from the temple’s pinnacle to prove he was God, and worship the devil in return for all the kingdoms of the world (I wonder if any of today’s rulers could turn that offer down!) Jesus countered the devil’s temptation by quoting Scripture, preserving his mission to save mankind.
8. Finally, there is a summit to which we are all invited. We are dressed for the occasion, dressed in robes of righteousness given to us by the host. Our state dinner will be filled with good things: “And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow” (Isaiah 25:6). By receiving and believing in him we have the power to become children of God (John 1:12). As his children we can give our burdens to him and receive the inheritance of heaven.
Our summits with God are greater than any earthly meeting between rulers, because our ruler is the King of kings, the only King that matters. By his grace we can come to him, no matter how lowly a sinner we are, or what station we have in life. He welcomes us, with loving arms, having made the way open through the gift of his Son: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Now, that’s one summit I am happy to attend! But in reality, we as Christians already have that opportunity daily, when we read God’s word and call on him in prayer, when we unburden our concerns to Jesus and walk in his ways.
Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.
Read: Job 1; 2 Kings 19; Daniel 4; Matthew 4.