And say to Amasa, 'Are you not my own flesh and blood? May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if you are not the commander of my army for life in place of Joab.'" – 2 Samuel 19:13

Today's Scripture Reading (September 26, 2022): 2 Samuel 19

Sometimes, a national crisis can make us re-evaluate our priorities. And that was precisely what happened during the American Civil War. In 1864, Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, decided to ask Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, to be his running mate. The two men were the new leaders of the National Union Party. This short-lived political party was formed during the civil war, and it dreamed of a "united" United States after the terrible division that the nation had suffered during the war. Essentially, the new party was a merger of three political parties; the Republican Party, the Unionist Party, and the War Democratic Party. In reality, the National Union Party wasn't a new political party that had appeared on the American Stage; it was simply the Republican Party existing under a different name in the hope of attracting Democrats, border state voters, and Unionist voters. The name change was hoped to give the Republicans a wider voting base. It featured a lifelong Republican, Abraham Lincoln, and a lifelong Democratic, Andrew Johnson, on the national ticket for the 1864 presidential election. It is the only time in history that a Republican and a Democrat ran for President and Vice-president on the same ballot. After the dissolution of the National Union Party in 1868, Andrew Johnson returned to his Democratic roots. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, so he essentially never left the Republican Party. Crisis makes us do strange things.

The idea of the National Unionist Party may not be as wild as it seems. For the past few decades, a group of centralists from both parties has worked together to get things done within the wider political structure of the United States. I believe these centralist politicians exist in almost every political system, working hard to get things done. And maybe the hope of our divided system is if this centralist group can grow large enough to wrest control of governments away from the left and right extremes. Perhaps they could form a new National Union Party, allowing the centralists from seemingly opposite philosophies to agree to get things done.

David has won the war, but now David understands that he has to heal a nation. For Israel to heal, it needs to be brought back together; both those who follow David and those who had chosen to follow David's son, Absalom. And so, David does something remarkable. He decides to elevate Amasa to the position of commander of the army, the same officer that Amasa had occupied in Absalom's government. The hope was that in raising Amasa to Commander of the Army, that action would help to bring the nation back together, much like the election of Abraham Lincoln (Republican) and Andrew Johnson (Democrat) was hoped to put a broken United States back together again.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 20