Kings...

I am reading 2 Kings right now, from the Bible, you know. It is all about the kings of Israel messing up and messing up and messing up. It is all about the kings of Judah messing up, sort of messing up and messing up again. Whenever one king is killed the new king likes to kill all of that king's family, advisers, priests, etc. Clean house so a new administration can start. The funny thing is that the new administration continues the work of the old administration. Now, things might be a little bit different, the health care plan might be more substantial, or this king might like reform on this issue. Yet, the pattern is the same. There might be changes but none of the changes get the people or the administration out of their rut of continual sinning. They may get rid of one bad policy but they replace it with another. They might make one good choice but in turn they make three bad ones.

Does that sound at all familiar? Does that sound like our world? I think so. We continue to make the same choices--different administration, different policies, same pattern. Sin.

Throughout 2 Kings and in countless other passages of scripture the people are called on to kill one another. To destroy, to maim, to annihilate. Now, I have my opinions about all of that but I will save that for another post. The deal is when they do this killing it doesn't change anything. The people don't get better, they don't make right choices, just because they killed. Maybe that is something we should learn from.

The Israelites asked God for a king so they could be like everyone else. The king, God told them, would subject them to all kinds of kingly things--taxes, taking their daughters, enlisting their sons. The people didn't care. Give us our king, give us our king. And with a king comes killing because a king, after all, has a lot to protect. Protect our borders, our stockpiles, our people, our way of life says the king. When God was ruler there was a lot to protect too. Protect widows, the poor, the raped, the alien, protect them God said.

We need to let God be our ruler again. We need to operate in God's protective plan.

As of 2005--that's a long time ago, now--our nation had spent $160 billion on the war in Iraq. That is a lot of money. On the website "war by the numbers" you will find these statistics in regards to the kind of impact this spending could have on the world. With $160 billion we could pay for:

• 6 years of global anti-hunger programs

• 1,446,714 additional units of public housing in the USA

• basic immunization for every child in the world for 53 years

• paid for 21,281,000 kids in Head Start

• funded worldwide AIDS programs for 16 years

Appalling really. You are welcome to have whatever view you want politically. That is how it works. The issue is this, as a Christian I am not free to view things however I want, I am to view them through the eyes of God. What does God see? Hungry people, sick kids, families who need shelter, kids who need an education, the sick in need of medicine.

Maybe we should adopt a nation. One that is struggling. Instead of offering them democracy let's offer them health care. Instead of Western ideas let's get them some clean water. Instead of being their overbearing father, let's be their friend and share ideas, methods, plans, one with another. Instead of killing them, let's offer life. That would be different than the pattern of ancient Israel and our pattern too. I'm ready for something different, aren't you?