P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

HUMAN POKER CHIPS

Have you ever said to yourself, “I’m being used”? “I’m not even a person to that individual; I’m nothing more than a bargaining chip”?

There’s a conversation that maybe you recall going back about a quarter century, found in the bestseller: Jaws. Actually, if I recall correctly, this particular exchange happened in the BOOK by Peter Benchley, and didn’t make it into the big-screen adaptation starring Roy Scheider and a very large fish. But maybe you remember how the sheriff there in Amity was determined to close the beaches. There was a shark out there; they had to shut down the swimming areas, even if the Fourth of July was coming up. And the mayor and his business friends said, “No, you’re NOT
going to shut down the beaches.” “Yes, I am.” “No, you’re not.” Etc.

Well, the mayor wins out. The beaches are open. People go swimming. And a little boy named Alex Kintner is killed by the shark, just swallowed right off of his little floating mattress. And there’s this horrible scene later where the mother, dressed in black, comes up to the sheriff and slaps him in the face. “You knew,” she says. “You knew there was a shark. You knew people had been killed. And you didn’t close the beaches. Why?” It’s a horrible moment of conscience-stricken guilt.

In the book version, though, the mayor comes over to the sheriff. It’s really HIS fault, of course. And he says to Martin: “Look, we took a gamble and lost. That’s all there is to it. We thought the shark had gone away and it hadn’t. We gambled, we lost.” And the sheriff looks at him, angry, and says, “Yeah. Great. We played a poker game and we lost. Now go tell Mrs. Kintner that we’re sorry we used her son as chips in the game.”

And you know, that exchange right there about people being “chips” is sobering, isn’t it? Sometimes we use the term “pawns” instead. You and I are just “pawns” in this great chess game, this struggle between good and evil. And the people who hurt most, those who pay the price, those who are chewed up by the sharks of greed and war and death . . . are the innocent Alex Kintners of the world. And we feel used.

Back in December, 1999, we did a radio program called God’s Christmas Card to Slobodan Milosevic. And do you know what struck us in researching and reading world opinion about this tyrant from Serbia? Time after time, different global leaders said with a shake of their heads that this Mr. Milosevic just does not care about people. People are tools to him. They’re pawns. Poker chips. In fact, Joschka Fisher, the foreign minister for Germany, was quoted in Newsweek magazine using that exact metaphor.

“He’s completely cynical,” he said, referring to Milosevic. “He’s playing — he likes to play cards. But PEOPLE are at stake, not money.”

I suppose in a military sense, there is always an element of “chips.” If your enemy has five thousand troops, and you’ve got ten thousand, well, you’re probably going to win tomorrow’s battle. But you might well lose ONE thousand of your men in the process. One thousand men . . . in order to take such-and-such hill. And the general has to muse to himself: “I need that hill. Is the loss of one thousand men worth it?” And the answer’s yes. So they charge the hill, they take it, and it costs them the lives of one thousand men who are husbands and daddies, and some grieving mothers’ sons. That’s high-stakes poker, and sometimes, when you’ve got to take a hill, you make that bet, hoping to win.

But in the case of Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, those people are spent as poker chips for a much more selfish purpose: just to further the personal perks and power and position and prestige of HIMSELF. He’s stripping people of their self-worth, and then spending them just for HIM.

Elie Wiesel, the great Holocaust survivor, says this about Milosevic:

“It is no accident that he is nicknamed ‘the Butcher.’ He is interested not in peace, but in absolute domination. But what about the cost in lives, including those of his own people? They are of NO CONCERN to him; his personal power alone matters.”

Our former U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia, a man named Warren Zimmerman, takes note as well of this “chips” attitude of Milosevic’s:

“He is the COLDEST person I’ve ever met . . . He seems to see people as pawns in a great strategic GAME, as ABSTRACTIONS, as OBJECTS to be controlled and manipulated, not as flesh-and-blood humans.” Then he adds: “I believe that this sinister coldness has made it easy for him to order or condone the mass killings that have earned him his place in history.”

Well, maybe the ravages of that particular war in the Balkans seem like a long ways away. There aren’t any bullets flying over and around and through your neighborhood or mine. But friend, I know full well that this feeling of being used, of not being a person but just a poker chip, or a plaything, or an expendable resource, is something that hits MUCH closer to home. Because we get it in your letters. We hear it from people who are taking our Discover Bible Course. We get it from prisoners, who sometimes feel like they’ve been reduced to a number, not a name. This is the human condition, isn’t it?

Well, I want to tell you the ironic thing. Because it’s realistic, I suppose, that the higher up you are on the authority chain of command, the more likely it would be that you would TEND to use people as chips. Kings simply have to; so do generals. You spend a thousand men, or ten thousand, or a hundred thousand, to win that war.

But again, here’s the irony. Jesus Christ, the King of ALL kings, and who is involved in the biggest war, the greatest controversy, the universe has ever witnessed — and who could be forgiven for adopting this “poker chips” attitude toward us — DOESN’T! Friend, you and I are not “things” to Him, or toys to be traded away.

Let’s start with small and work up from there. Do you recall a story where a woman was taken in adultery, and the big shots of the day dragged her through the dust and dumped her off in front of Jesus? Now, obviously, SOMEBODY had been treating this woman like a THING, like a twenty-shekel toy. She was nothing but flesh to them, a commodity to be used, either for sexual pleasure, or to score a debate point with this Jesus character. These guys would use her for sin or for sanctimony; they really didn’t care which.

But what happens? Jesus values her. He defends her. He spares her dignity. He lifts her up and wipes away her tears and tells her He doesn’t condemn her. He looks beyond the skin, the torn dress, the near-nudity, the sorry saga of sexual servitude. And He sees a PERSON, a treasure, a rare and redeemable jewel for His kingdom. He doesn’t use her or abuse her or bargain her away in a debate with the Pharisees. No, even though she’s an army of ONE, He goes to battle to protect and save that army.

Or let’s take the broader view. In fact, let’s expand our scope to take in our entire planet, with its six billion citizens. Plus all members of the human race who have EVER lived. Wouldn’t a five-star general like the Lord Jesus Christ take the attitude: “Okay, win some, lose some. I’ll save a few million to live in the New Jerusalem; the others can go to hell for all I care”?

Well, friend, there undoubtedly WILL be those who reject salvation and miss the joys of the New Jerusalem. But not because Jesus bargained them away! Over in II Peter 3:8, 9 we find the strongest possible statement that Jesus Christ doesn’t trade away His trophies; He doesn’t bargain us off like one-dollar poker chips. Listen to this:

“With God, time is not a factor — one day or a thousand years — it makes no difference in His purposes. This doesn’t mean that the Lord is slow in keeping His promises, or that He does things only when He gets around to it. Time has gone on ONLY because of God’s patience and kindness. He loves EVERYONE, even the wicked, and He doesn’t want ANYONE to lose out on heaven but to turn from their sins and be saved.”

“Not willing that ANY should perish,” says the good old King James. Listen, friend, God doesn’t grade on the curve, and shrug off a third or half of the class, giving them F’s. He’d be glad to save EVERYONE. You and I absolutely are NOT just chips to Him; He wants to save ME — right now. And YOU right now too.

We mentioned in that Christmas program how Milosevic not only treated people as bargaining chips, as tools to be traded, as human shields for his factories and bridges, but he also systematically tried to strip people of their IDs. He took their passports, their papers, their drivers licenses, their government documents. He purposely MADE people into Nowhere Men and Nowhere Women; he WANTED to make them feel stateless and homeless. Not just chips, but SPENT chips, discarded chips.

And then . . . God steps in. He gives us new names. He writes those new names in glory, in His Book of Life, it says in Revelation. Friend, that’s better than a passport, isn’t it? He restores us to our homes; in fact, He gives us new homes — mansions, even.

The only way HE uses us is to forever fill up His loving heart. And you know, I could get used to THAT.