Independence Day Musings

There are times when it seems that we have created a God who is too small for world He has created.  Of course, it is a bit odd to speak of creating God, but such is what we do.  The God we create is not really the God of the Sacred Word, but our version of Him.  As we read the Old Testament we see a God who takes an active role in the affairs of nations.  He makes them and He breaks them.  He uses leaders who have the faithful heart like David and men like Cyrus who pay Him no attention at all.  Our created version of God is One who has separated Himself from such political looking activities.

 

While we may not consider the possibility that God is the ruler and the controller of nations, it does not mean that He no longer is about such work in the world.  Admittedly, it raises all sorts of thorny issues for us to handle.  There are cruel oppressive dictators loose in the world and there are always a bevy of ego seeking politicians who seek the power of leadership.  To say that what is happening in the realm of nations equals God at work is too big a stretch for many of the political activists of today.

 

Some will dismiss this whole way of thinking as something which makes no sense, or is something which is made not valid because it comes from the Old Testament.  However, God used the doings of nations and political leaders in the days of Jesus.  We must never forget that Jesus died not because His life was taken from Him, but because He willingly gave it.  But, it is also true that the means of that death involved a host of different political processes and leaders of nations.  God may not have ordained Pontius Pilate to be a leader, but He certainly used Him for divine purposes.