Saturday 12 June 2010

God will sort it out

Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it. Let the LORD judge between you and me, and let the LORD avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you. – 1 Samuel 24v11-12

There is a lot of talk going on at the moment amongst American Christians about the current political climate. Folks are not happy with the way things are going. Christians are an integral part of the Tea Party movement. At most of their rallies you will see posters and slogans that mixing faith and politics. There is even growing discussion, even among believers, of a second American Revolution. Disparaging remarks, silly aspersions, and childish name cling are some of the ways that God’s people are dealing with the present administration.

This concerns me because I find that so much that happens in the American church quickly spreads to the rest of the world.

As I compare this attitude to scripture, trying to lay aside by prejudices and bias I have a hard time reconciling it with what we find in the word of God. Here, for example, we have David. He was constantly under a death threat by the king. He was running scared. He was constantly being hunted down. It appears that God had sorted it out by giving David a chance to kill Saul. David couldn’t do it. All he could do was to cut off a piece of Saul’s robe.

What was David’s attitude regarding the entire matter? ‘Let the Lord deal with it. I will not raise my hand against you.’

David had a kind of faith that too many of us lack. He had the kind of faith that said that he did not have to conform to the world’s way of dealing with authority. He had the kind of faith that says. ‘The Lord will sort it out.’

Where is that kind of faith in the church today?

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