Kings at the table

"The two kings, with their hearts bent on evil, will sit at the same table and lie to each other, but to no avail, because an end will still come at the appointed time" (Daniel 11:27).

Quite a picture, isn't it? A deadpan description of the typical geo-political summit, business meeting, or session of Congress-leaders sitting around a table lying to each other. And in this prophecy of the end times, we learn that as it has ever been since Adam and Eve, so will it ever be till the last curtain.

Ever thought about what a lie is? It's a house built on thin air. It's a way of living where nothing is real. C.S. Lewis painted a striking picture of it in The Great Divorce. A man who stumbles into a town in hell is briefed on the situation by an entrepreneurial man in the know who is hoping to make a killing by marketing some real commodities:

'But look here,' said I, 'if they can get everything just by imagining it, why would they want any real things, as you call them?' 'Eh? Oh well, they'd like houses that really kept out the rain.' 'Their present houses don't?' 'Well of course not. How could they?' 'What the devil is the use of building them then?' The Intelligent Man put his head close to mine. 'Safety again,' he muttered. 'At least the feeling of safety. It's all right now: but later on … you understand.' 'What?' said I, almost involuntarily sinking my own voice to a whisper. He articulated noiselessly as if expecting that I understood lip-reading. I put my ear close to his mouth. 'Speak up,' I said. 'It will be dark presently,' he mouthed.