Today's Scripture Reading (December 27, 2021): Numbers 31
Over the past few decades, we have seen the rise of autocratic
leaders. Maybe "rise" isn't quite the right word. Authoritarian leaders, or political rulers who believed that they
were the final say and above the law of the land, have been the norm throughout
our race's
history. But recently, we have seen
democracies fall into the trap of autocracy. Even the United States has flirted
with the concept of autocracy in recent years. The familiar word of the anthem
of the United States finishes with a question.
O say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave
O'er
the land of the free and the home of the brave?
The answer to the question might no longer be yes;
the flag is still there, but generation by generation, it appears to be waving
over a less and less free nation. The next few elections in the United States
will tell the story of the fight between democracy and autocracy. But with the
continuing battle over who is allowed to vote and the tendencies of the
inhabitant of the Oval Office, enhanced by racial and class tensions within the
society, the United States might no longer be the home of the free. And the brave?
Only time will tell.
There is no doubt that Moses was essentially an
autocratic leader. No one elected him to his position; God had called and assigned
him. And if you don't believe that God exists, then no one appointed him. He
simply grabbed power and ruled the emerging nation of Israel with nothing but
his whims to guide him.
And some in Israel seemed to believe exactly that.
This Moses was nothing more than an upstart, an autocratic leader who had seen
an opportunity to seize control of the nation and had done just that. In a
world that knew nothing of democracy, they often seemed to want to overthrow
the leadership of Moses and install someone else as a new autocratic leader.
But that was not Moses's point of view. Moses
remembered the day when the old shepherd found the burning bush. He remembered
the struggle he had with the God who called himself "I am that I am"
or "I will be what I will be." Moses remembered his reluctance to
lead this group of people out of Egypt and God's insistence about what lay
ahead. Moses knew that he was not an autocratic leader; he was nothing more than
a servant of God.
And as a servant, Moses, the leader, brought tribute
to Eleazer, the priest. On earth, Eleazer was Moses's nephew. But it was not
his nephew to whom Moses bowed his knee. Eleazer stood in for the presence of
God, and because of that, Moses brought tribute to him. While his enemies might
have believed that he was an autocratic leader, Moses knew precisely who he was
and who was leading the nation; God.
Our political leaders are often called "Civil
Servants." The terminology is more important than we often believe. Our political
leaders need to understand that they are servants; if not servants of God, then
they are at least servants of the people. Because any other belief can only end
in autocracy and the failure of the fragile political system that we call
democracy, a political leader that believes, deep in his being, that he serves
no one can never be a democratic leader. And it will be in their hands that our
democracies will die.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 32
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