We were wrong. Only God saves. And neither the Republican party nor the Democratic party, nor any political group or person, is God. Indeed, political fighting, rather than bringing any increased godliness, seems only to make things worse.
"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance,
And the hills in a pair of scales?
Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,
Or as His counselor has informed Him?
With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding?
And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge,
And informed Him of the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
All the nations are as nothing before Him,
They are regarded by him as less than nothing
and meaningless."
"He it is who reduces rulers to nothing,
Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
Scarcely have they been planted,
Scarcely have they been sown,
Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth
But He merely blows on them, and they wither
And the storm carries them away like stubble."
Isa. 40:12-17, 23-24
Since Christians already have a King, and a kingdom, and a citizenship in another country, why do we expend so much energy and allegiance on kings, nations, and citizenship that God has said are meaningless? Our only concern for our worldly leaders should be that they be like the real King, to be godly. And as Isaiah also says, when God sits in judgment as a king, the result is the salvation of the humble, the vindication of the poor.
I am saddened when I see Christian friends whose focus is so much on earthly matters that they are of little heavenly good. Let's keep our worldly politics in eternal perspective.
3 comments:
But I think we are also called on to be a part of the Kingdom of God here, where we are, and sometimes that requires us to get a little political, protesting (in a prayerfully considered way) against unfair taxation or the whittling away of healthcare.
Yes, we CAN get too wrapped up in earthly politics and forget who is directing this world, but I don't think we can ignore politics completely. I think I need to think about this a little more...
So wise, both of you. I do wish I understood American politics better!
Oh, Mags -- you're so lucky you're not over here in our messy politics ... except, you're in Ireland, which I guess might be worse (wry grin, as Sandra would say).
D.M. -- I readily admit that pretty much all my conservative Christian friends in the U.S. will take some exception what this post. I would have, a few years ago :) It's just, the only admonition I find in Scripture about really involving my heart in my country's politics, is in Jeremiah where the Jews are admonished to seek the welfare of our "nation of exile." Even in that, I am an exile in a strange land, here on this earth. And the very greatest good I think of, to week for the U.S., is for the church to be more righteous, and to pray for godly leaders. But I'm to the point where i really don't trust either party to deliver anything more than what will serve to get them reelected. It's been a hard, slow, ugly lesson to learn.
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