Today’s Scripture Reading (October 5, 2019): Proverbs
16
As the “Impeachment of Donald
Trump” continues, all I can see in my mind is a scene from my childhood; Richard
Nixon, waving a peace sign and stressing “I am not a crook.” It is interesting
to listen to the partisans argue over various issues in the current case
involving Donald Trump as to whether or not a crime has been committed. There
have been three impeachment inquiries during my life. Richard Nixon over his
involvement in the Watergate break-ins, Bill Clinton with regard, primarily, to
the obstruction that happened around his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, and
finally Donald Trump, over a phone call that he had with the President of
Ukraine that seems to indicate the President of the United States, at the very
least, wanted Ukraine to believe that aid which had been approved by the
Congress would not flow to the Eastern European nation unless they agreed to
investigate allegations against Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
If I had a hotline to Donald
Trump and could offer the current impeachment victim some advice as he begins
his journey it might be this; what got Clinton into trouble and what sunk
Nixon’s team was not the crime, it was the obstruction and cover-up. And the
reason for the obstruction was that none of them, like Trump, believed that
they had done anything wrong. Even today, the opinion over Bill Clinton’s guilt
is mixed, and often divided along party lines. Richard Nixon did not fare as
well, and yet, I am convinced that inside of the Former President until the day
he died stood a man, holding up two fingers on each hand and waving them at his
audience, insisting that “I am not a crook.”
Solomon hits on this
phenomenon. Left to our own judgments, we believe that we are innocent. Our
ways are pure, at least to us. Maybe we are self-deceived, but our ways are
judged right in our eyes. I have absolutely no doubt that the current occupant
of the White House believes that the things he has done are just the things
that other Presidents do in the ordinary course of carrying out their duties.
At least, in this case, he is not lying; he is just doing his job.
And it is a note of caution for
all of us. What seems right to us might not be right to others, or God. We need
to be willing to examine the real motives we have for our actions, listening to
the voice of God, and the views of those on the journey with us through life,
as God convicts us of our sin. Without God’s voice speaking to us about our
actions, then there is nothing that we do that is not right in our eyes.
Everything is proper for us.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 17
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