Today’s Scripture Reading (November 8, 2016): 2 Kings 8
Today, the most powerful nation in the world casts its votes for the person who will lead them for the next four years. Friends have asked me why this election is important to me – after all, I am not an American Citizen. I am a proud Canadian. I have no say, but it is not lost on me the significant power that the President of the United States wields. And that power extends not just over the people of the United States, but over North America, of which I am a citizen – yes, I am an American in that sense of the word – and ultimately over the entire world. What wars will be fought or not fought that will affect my sense of peace, what economic policies will the United States enact that will have an effect on my wallet. I have enjoyed making fun of Donald Trump’s wall building, but the truth is simple. If President Trump, should he win, wants to build a wall around the United States and shut that nation off from the rest of the world, then the power vacuum that will be created would be filled by someone else – most likely either China or Russia. (Maybe now is the time to start learning Russian.) More than any other decisions made by politicians around the world, the decisions raised in the Oval Office in Washington D.C., or the non-decisions made, carry global impact. And so, yes, I care.
Most pundits, or doomsday fortune tellers, believe that the next four years are going to be hard ones no matter who wins this election. Because, for the four next four years, the occupant of the White House will be without the moral authority and constitution to govern. We have never seen unfavorables in the polls as high as the unfavorables maintained by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. And that foretells of global instability and trouble that will send shockwaves through the world for the next four years. It is hard to convince Christian Republicans that they would one day look fondly back on the glory days of Barak Obama, but in two years I believe that that might be the case. The future is now securely in the hands of God, in whom American money reminds us that we must trust. In the worst of the days ahead, we need to remind ourselves of that one truth.
Jehoram reigned in Jerusalem for eight years. He did evil in the sight of the Lord. I have no idea what his unfavorables might have been, but I guess that with his ties to the Kings of Israel they were high. Not that anyone could do anything about that. But God chose not to destroy Judah because of Jehoram’s evil actions. Because Jehoram was a member of the House of David, Judah was saved.
But from our vantage point in history, we know a little more about this enduring Kingdom of Judah. They were not always guaranteed safe and healthy times because of David. This verse does not promise that – just that they would not be destroyed. Jehoram did evil, but Judah was not destroyed. Babylon carried Judah into exile, and yet Judah was not destroyed. Judah emerged from captivity to be a pawn of the great powers in the world in that era, and yet Judah was not destroyed. The Romans conquered Judah and placed an Edomite King on the throne who had no relation to David, and yet Judah was not destroyed. The Romans would destroy Jerusalem once again and take the name of Israel away from them, and yet Judah was not destroyed. For 1900 years they would live without a country of their own, and yet Judah was not destroyed.
But we also know what the writer of Kings did not know. The true fulfillment of God’s promise to maintain a lamp for the descendants of David would ultimately be fulfilled in coming of the Messiah to a broken world. He was a descendant of David, and he still provides a light for this world and all of its broken nations. And that was true yesterday, and it will still be true when the voting ends today. Our salvation can only be found in him.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 9
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