Prayer and Politics

Today's readings are from 2 Kings 18 & 19

18.5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.

The story of Hezekiah as King is a story of a leader whose trust in God is unparalleled in it's depth of commitment. The summary statement at the beginning of 2 Kings 18 is amplified in the story that follows. The northern 10 tribes - Israel - come under the invasion threat of the Assyrian Kingdom led by the armies of Sennacherib. Hezekiah is King of Judah in the southern territories. It's interesting that Hezekiah, even though listed as King of Judah, is said to have trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel.
Israel was the name given to those northern tribes. It was the failure of the Northern tribes to follow the Lord that ultimately led to their demise. It's a simple principle, but an important one - choose to live without God and a person, or in this case, an entire group of people invite warfare.

Over the last few years there's been a tug and pull between voices that have argued for an against Christian involvement in political power and the mechanizations of government. Some have argued that "if good people do nothing, then evil will ultimately prevail"; and others, that "the idolatry of political power is much different than the work of the Kingdom of God." The pendulum of involvement and withdrawal never seem to end. The Kingdom of the World is concerned with power, control, material wealth and it's own survival. The Kingdom of God is above all of the Kingdoms of the World. It is neither part of it, nor subject to it. It alone has authority and power over all things - in spite of the lack of muscle flexing and saber rattling. There will always be those who see their primary role to be in the halls of politics, and there will always be those who see their primary role to be quietly in the background working for Christ outside of the politics. Those who want to argue for the dualism one way or the other probably fail to appreciate the depth of commitment God has made for restoration in creation. Politics, under Christ, might seem to be an impossible, or oxymoron, choice. Why? Has there ever been an area of the world where God has seemingly been indifferent towards?

Hezekiah sees his role as a leader to primarily lead through prayerful trust in God. Sennacherib's armies come to the gate of Jerusalem, boasting of their overwhelming success in accomplishing whatever they have wanted to in the past.
31 "Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern,
32 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death!
"Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, 'The Lord will deliver us.'33 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

The truth is that up until that time the Assyrian armies have prevailed every time. What has been seems to dictate what will be...so we think.

At what point do we both lean back into a trust of God? In 2 Kings 19:1...
1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord...
15 ...And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: "Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.16 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
17 "It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands.18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.19 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.".

It is not easy to navigate our faith in the midst of worldly concerns. We take sides, we have opinions, and, most of all we want to imagine a world where God truly rules. It seems that we have to navigate carefully between working for God and working within the reality of the world around us for God's purposes. The question is: what does that look like? A prayerful process that is directed by trust in God, and not in the power structures of the world must be - for us as followers of Jesus - to rule the day.