1 Samuel, Chapter
28, Verse 20
Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, in great
fear because of Samuel’s message. He had no strength left, since he had eaten
nothing all that day and night.
Christ is the strength of the weak and the humble
confidence of those who trust in him. Christ says to us, “My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I
know them, and they follow me. (Jn. 10:27) Saul was in great fear because the
spirit of God had long ago left him and he no longer heard the voice of God. In
desperation now that Samuel had died was to have the witch of Endor act as a
medium to conjure up the spirit of Samuel to help save him from the
Philistines. Saul broke his own laws by seeking the aid of a sorcerer. The
Israelites were a Holy people and Saul could not understand the Ends never justify the means. No we must
be calm and listen to the voice of he that was the epitome of fairness and
justice that took upon Himself our sins to the cross and thus bearing our guilt
to make us a Holy people.
America is now at the
threshold of history. We see the camps of the Philistines. The gut instinct is
to do battle, but what is the Lord calling us to do? American’s are a just
people and fair people and our hearts go out to the world.
Many years ago while
reviewing the CIA handbook I noticed that economically all of the nations that
have been giving us the most trouble militarily were also on the list of those
countries with the worst per capita income: people who make less than 200 dollars
a year. I thought rather than do battle with a number of of these people in
some way if we were to bring the economic power of America to these people and
help them to improve their lives and rid themselves of the gangs and dictators.
Thus bringing up their per capita income; what would the effect be on those who
we may have to embattle? I questioned would improving their lives in their own country
decrease our need to do battle? I decided to do an experiment. With a little
research I invested in one of the stocks from one of the poorest countries Zimbabwe.
After three months I sold my stock after doubling my money. My point is perhaps
we as America’s can do more by helping the downtrodden in building up their own
countries. American’s are fair people.
According to John McCain
a person or nations character determines its destiny. In our book study of Character
is Destiny[1],
John points out the person who most exemplifies the characteristic of fairness
is that of Martin Luther King, Jr.
John says of King:
From a
jail cell he wrote a letter that is one of the most celebrated documents in
American history, and summoned his country to the cause of justice. “My Dear Fellow Clergymen,” it
began. Recognizing that his correspondents were “men of genuine good will and
your criticisms sincerely set forth,” he promised to respond in patient and
reasonable terms. They were reasonable terms, and undeniably fair, but patient
they were not.
We have
waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. . .
. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, “Wait.” But
when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and
drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled
policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you
see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an
airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly
find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to
your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that
has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes
when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous
clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her
beginning to distort her personality by developing unconscious bitterness
toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son
who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when
you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night
in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept
you; when you are
humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”;
when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however
old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are
never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted
by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance,
never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and
outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of
“nobodiness” then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There
comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing
to be plunged into the abyss of despair.
America
still struggles internally and externally to arrive at the place Dr. King had
summoned us to, that exalted place that had been the highest ambition of our
Founding Fathers and the highest value we recommend to the rest of the world;
the place where all people are recognized as equal, and endowed by their
Creator with inalienable rights. African Americans recognize the debt they owe
Dr. King’s courage, wisdom, and unshakable sense of fairness. But Americans of
European descent owe him a greater one. At the cost of his life, he helped save
us from a terrible disgrace, the betrayal of our country, and the principles
that have ennobled our history. And that is a debt we must happily bear forever.
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