Opus 2021-051: Reflection on Day Two, Part 1 of 2, The Hope

My first draft of this was on January 21, thus “day two”.

When I look at the fact that I am an American citizen I have a certain heaviness of heart.  When I look at the fact that I am a child of God, my spirit is set free.  That does not mean that all will be rosy.  The Bible is not the document of Pollyana, it is the revelation of God.  One of the places we can look for understanding of what is to happen is the history of Israel.  Today I was reading Proverbs 21 which this month correlates with Psalm 81.  I saw both hope and reason for concern.

Lets start with the hope.  It was found in Proverbs 21:1,

(Pro 21:1 KJV) The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

You might wonder where I found hope in that.  It reminded me that God worked through the mind of historic pagan kings as well as the believers.  Pharaoh eventually let Israel go.  If you know your Bible, the whole process took 400 years, but it happened.  Joseph had to go through his own personal trials but eventually he was in a position to be used of God.  Who are the Josephs today?  They are out there.

Cyrus allowed Jews to return and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.  Again you need to note that it did not happen overnight and it was not an easy process.  I think we all want to live in the times of recovery but we tend to find ourselves in the period of decadence which led to God’s people being in captivity in the first place.  During the bad time you have the story of Esther and Mordecai.  You have Daniel in the lions den.  Eventually you have Ezra and Nehemiah that were used in the restoration.  You might be called to be a Daniel or Esther.  Ezra may be out their getting prepared.  We don’t know how the hand of God will work.

There are numerous other examples.  Extra Biblical examples could go back to the defeat of Hannibal by the Romans.  Both were pagans but if Carthage had emerged victorious we would be performing child sacrifice on a regular basis instead of hiding in the shadows like the pedophiles are still forced to do.  You might consider the incredibly stupid decisions of Hitler that made it possible for the allies to defeat him.  Invade Russia?  Sure, why not.  It worked so well for Napoleon.  Most people don’t think about the way the the preaching of John Wesley kept England from following the French in revolution.  

So I have hope even though the new Occupant of the White House (OWH) is more in tune with Ahab than Hezekiah.  

To be continued...

homo unius libri