A book titled The Jungle Grows Back is an indicator of prophetic advancement, and can be used as an analogy for our own personal spiritual lives. These are my words, not the author’s, as I draw the analogy.
The jungle represents the Babylonian system of human government; a system developed post-flood and is the underlying system throughout the four world-ruling kingdoms as revealed by the image of Daniel 2. From the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to the kingdoms existing at the return of Jesus Christ is the jungle.
The jungle also serves as a good analogy for the world of today in which God’s people live. It’s a very complex world which can be divided into those nations which descend from Abraham and those who don’t. It can also be understood in terms of those called by God and those who are not.
The premise of the book is the role of America on the world stage. Here is a bit of a flavor of The Jungle Grows Back:
“A brilliant and visionary argument for America’s role as the defender of peace and order throughout the world – and what is likely to happen if we abandon our long-term commitments.”
“Recent years have brought deeply disturbing developments around the globe, from declining democracy to growing geopolitical competition. American sentiment seems to be leaning increasingly toward going it alone or withdrawing in the face of such disarray.”
“In this powerful, urgent essay, Robert Kagan elucidates the reasons that American withdrawal or a selfish unilateralism would be the worst possible response, based on a fundamental and dangerous misreading of the world.”
“…The freedom, prosperity, and general peace the world has enjoyed for decades are threatened today by natural and eternal forces of human nature and the international system that, like a jungle, constantly seek to undermine and overwhelm all that we have accomplished.”
Part of the problem is the last statement, “that we have accomplished”. God is not acknowledged as the One who has provided these benefits. That is why Genesis 49:1,24-26 and Deuteronomy 28:10-13 are so important. It’s talking about Joseph’s children becoming very strong. That they would play a large part in the role of world affairs “in the last days”.
Continuing:
“World order is one of those things people don’t think about until it is gone. The experience of the 1930s and World War II taught Americans that. They learned, and we have now forgotten, that when things start to go wrong, they can go wrong very quickly, that once a world order breaks down, the worst qualities of humanity emerge from under the rocks and run wild.
“There are signs all around us today that the jungle is growing back. History is returning. Nations are reverting to old habits and traditions. This should not be a surprise. Those habits and traditions are shaped by powerful forces: an unchanging geography, shared history and experiences, and often by spiritual and ideological beliefs that defy modern reason. Peoples and nations tend to revert to type.”
Breaking into a section on Asia:
“The danger will come if and when Chinese leaders perceive that the United States is too weak or is simply unwilling to continue upholding the liberal order in East Asia. Taking aggressive action would still be a gamble, but it is the kind of gamble rising powers are sometimes prone to take.
The problem today is not that geopolitics have returned, that Russia and China have begun to pursue old ambitions which had briefly been in abeyance. That was inevitable. The problem is that the liberal world order itself may no longer be healthy enough and coherent enough to continue containing and discouraging such ambitions as it has for the last seven decades. The will and capacity to resist these natural forces are declining in the United States and elsewhere. Nations and peoples within the order are themselves slipping back into old ruts, and in some respects the United States has been hastening the process.”
And in a March/April 2020 edition of Foreign Affairs an article titled “Learning to Live with Despots” states:
“Until the nineteenth century, no country had the rule of law; at best, countries had rule by law, in which formal laws applied only to some. For most people, regardless of their social rank, violence was endemic. Only in the last century or two has per capita income grown significantly. Most humans who have ever lived have done so under despotic regimes.
Most still do. Consolidated democracy, in which the arbitrary power of the state is constrained and almost all residents have access to the rule of law, is a recent and unique development. The experience of people living in wealthy industrialized democracies since the end of World War II, with lives relatively free of violence, is the exception.”
And these two separate authors say it is coming to an end. And it is all too easy for us to live in our complacent little “Church bubbles” and not see the jungle slowly growing back. It’s an imperceptible growth, but it is a growth. So, what is our response to obvious prophetic advancement?
“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:35–40 (NKJV).
“Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. (Some action required.) Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you” (Revelation 3:2-3).
“Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame” (Revelation 16:15).
These are clear statements from Jesus Christ about preparation, being ready, using the time that we are given with a sense of urgency. From the beginning, God expected and intended man to work to maintain his environment, the Garden of Eden and His way of life. And as the population increased, then the scope of this garden would increase out around the earth. As man grew to the point he could move out further and further, he was to take that garden that God had created as a prototype with him and spread it out over the earth. Instead of a garden, we ended up with a jungle.
And Jesus Christ addressed the law of the jungle: “…The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way” (Matthew 13:24-25). Whenever God plants good seed, Satan plants thorns and thistles in the same ground to compete against the good seed that God has planted.
When Abraham’s descendants had grown in number, God cleared them a space in the jungle, a jungle of Nimrod’s making. His kingdom was centered in Babel where he built a tower and instigated a system. It was a political and religious system that began to permeate man’s world. So, as Israel was being prepared to go into the land that God had promised them, it was a jungle occupied by pagan nations who were not in any way open to the concept of God and God’s law (Exodus 23:23-30; Deuteronomy 7:1-5, 25-26).
Ancient Israel’s task was very clear. God cleared a patch of land for them and they were to push that jungle back as they obeyed God. They were to advance God’s civilization forward wherever they lived (Deuteronomy 12:1-5).
This requirement is on the Church to remain in a cleared space in the jungle. We are not to allow the “spiritual” jungle to come back over us from generation to generation. One of the tests upon the Church, in a very simple spiritual sense is the faith in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, accepting that it is a personal sacrifice for us in that we are forgiven of our lawless deeds. Our sins are covered.
God is clearing a patch in the jungle by the circumcision of hearts (Romans 2:25-29; Colossians 2:11-12). It is a spiritual relationship between us and God the Father through Jesus Christ. The spiritual Garden of Eden is created by the “circumcision of Christ.” It’s a reconciled relationship with the Father allowing His character and nature to take root in a human life. We are to put off the “old man” with his deeds and put on the “new man” (Colossians 3:4-9, 12-15).
In baptism we die, and a new life is formed in Jesus Christ. Our spiritual garden is to be tended and kept. It is to be expanded; it is to be used to push back against the satanic jungle that’s represented by this world. The seed God has planted is a new life. To allow that new life to thrive, to grow and to develop within us, we are set apart by truth. And God is with those who every step of the way continue in the process of developing His character and nature.
Brian Orchard