Atrocity, after atrocity. Hamas attacks. Young men murder strangers because old men hate other old men. Where is the border? People divorce others they claimed to love for years. Abortion. There is never enough. Another cancer victim. Lust and lies. A friend sends a nasty text. We stand at the door with an umbrella, looking at the rain. We want the sun, we hated a month ago, to return. We are never satisfied. When there is an attack the other retaliates. It is our way. So – why are images of broken buildings shocking when you sent the bombs to do that to someone else in the first place? I think you started it and now those around you suffer. They are running for their lives. Why do we invite death?
The psalms are filled with cries for help. God, stop my enemy! Hello somebody, how do I turn the other cheek when you killed my friend? How does it end if I retaliate? Psalm 1:1-4a reads, “Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so,…”. Then in Psalm 2:4, “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision”. To me it sounds like, no matter how right we think we are about a bomb, a text, retaliation, and the such, God assesses every notion and will of man. God decides. He sees the suffering from evil and will fix it – once and for all but that may not be today. We should do our part to block evil too. That rain will fall on the just and the unjust and so might bombs. Keep an umbrella near, vote, help the needy, listen to God’s voice, and wage the invisible war too because Jesus is our substitute.
