From Proverbs 24:
21 My son, fear the Lord and the king;
Do not associate with those given to change;
22 For their calamity will rise suddenly,
And who knows the ruin those two can bring?
Romans 13:1
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
On this Veterans' Day, I can't help but think of the verses I came across in Proverbs yesterday, in the 24th Proverb. The men and women that have served our nation during war time and peace time, all did so because powers that be, under the authority of God, told them to do so. Regardless of your political stance, the truth is that these men and women served us because an appointed authority deemed their service necessary, and they should be appreciated. But as I have also reminisced often of my grandfather who was a veteran in WWII, and my childhood memories of one of my best friends who served as a Marine in Iraq, where the war in the desert impacted his life permanently - I realized a lot of the reasons behind those vets' service was due to the very things mentioned in Proverbs 24; calamity and change.
When I first read the proverb, I thought perhaps "the ruin those two could bring" was calamity and change. At a quick glance at the words again, I realized "those two" are referring to the Lord and the king. I realized that due to the fact that every soul is subject to governing authorities, kings, emperors, presidents and the like can bring about ruin. And there is example after example found in both the Old Testament, and the promises in the New Testament of the upcoming ruin of the old world by the Wrath of God. At this brief epiphany, I found a certain sense of futility in it all, similar to what King Solomon described when he wrote about all the meaninglessness in Ecclesiastes.
But then I reminded myself of the wonderful words from Christ Himself. He tells us that despite the fact that we will definitely have trouble in this world, we should take comfort, for He has overcome the world. He came and died on the cross, to deliver the ultimate victory against the unseen forces of evil that have been in rebellion against God our Father since before the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden. This promise from Christ is one of the many verses that have given me courage to work in law enforcement. This promise should make all the things that we all worry about from day to day, or all the things that cause fear about the future, or all the hardships brought about by certain governing authorities, take a back seat - because the same God who literally spoke our world into existence, came to Earth in the form of Yeshua, as the only perfect sacrifice to forgive us all of sin, allowing us to be in His holy presence.
Yes - I said that; me, the guy who has obsessed at times over who wins what elections, and who leans this way or that way in politics. My human nature to want to be right because I realized this, or I was aware of that, while others weren't, has unfortunately won out against my better judgement of perhaps remaining quiet about certain conspiratorial topics.
The truth of the matter is there is a certain futility in it all, if we know the outcome, and the ending of God's history that is promised in Revelation and various prophecy scattered throughout the scriptures. But the futility isn't in living out each day, 'praying for the end of time to hurry up and arrive' (yes, I threw in a MeatLoaf song reference for my fellow 'oldies' fans out there). The futility is in the worry and the fear. Some translations quote the verse from John 16:33 as "Take heart;" some say "take courage."
Here is the message I'd like to share that comes out through all of this overthinking of mine after reading these verses; Jesus Christ is our hope. He is our ONLY hope, but at the same time he is 100% assured to overcome, because He already has. The fact that He duped Satan by dying on the cross, and then came back to join God the Father at His right side is all we need to know. So if you're like me, and you've spent too much time lately worrying about fraudulent elections, or the constant push for the parts of the elite 'war machines' of the military industrial complex to keep moving, or the fact that authorities appointed by God may have been involved with a conspiracy to curse humanity with world-wide viruses... take heart!
It's all been happening for a reason, God is outside of Time and knows what He is doing and has done and will do. Christ has overcome the world; calamity and change will continue to happen, and will get a lot worse according to prophecy.
But in the end, God wins - and so do we, if we simply follow His instructions and continue to spread that good news to the ends of the earth, until He comes again.
