By Robin G. Jordan
Beginning next week I will be scaling back coverage of the
2016 US presidential election.
Why?
I will be beginning a Fall class at a local university where
I am learning to speak, understand, read, and write Japanese. I am a second year student. This class
requires a major investment of my time.
I also believe that my more than daily posting of news
reports and commentary on the election distracts from the original purpose of
my blog.
The election is raising a number of issues that affect
Christians. Among these issues is whether Christians should support candidates
whose attitudes and behavior or commitments are inconsistent with the teaching
of Jesus Christ.
In reading the many articles posted on the Internet I have
been repeatedly reminded of our Lord’s teaching to return good for evil, not to
let the sun go down on our anger, not to bear grudges, and to show forgiveness,
kindness and mercy toward others.
I have also been reminded of what God said through
his servant David in Psalm 146: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son
of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his
earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”
One of the themes that runs through the Old Testament is that
the people of Israel wanted a king like the Pharaohs of Egypt and the kings of
the Hittites. They wanted a man for their ruler instead of God. God gave them
what they wanted and it was to their undoing.
Rather than looking to the leadership of a frail being like
themselves, Christians should learn from
what happened to the people of Israel and look to the one true King.
“Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God:
Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:
Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners:
The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous:
The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord.”
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