FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART / OP-ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
Will you permit me to share a moment of transparency about a prayer I offered up a few days ago? Thanks for allowing me. I called a friend, and in the call, I shared with him how much I was hurting because of the war in Ukraine and how I saw Mr. Putin of Russia as a hateful monster.
I told my friend how mortified I was at the sight of the bomb ravaged villages and the millions of refugees running away from their homes. I did not report to my friend the other thoughts hurting me. For example, the numbing pain I was feeling for elderly people in the nursing homes being hurried away to where they do not know, and many unaware of what is happening to them.
I also think of the women and children being separated from their husbands, who fight in the war. Then my thoughts are also on the conscripted young men in the Russian Army who are inflicting death or being sent on the path of death. In addition to what I have mentioned, I cannot forget the courageous protesters in Russia who are being arrested.
No, I did not tell my friend everything in my mind, but I told him that I was so angry that I prayed a certain prayer for the death of Mr. Putin, and then I said, “God, forgive if I am wrong.” My friend said to me, “He would not pray that prayer.” And I repeated, “Well, I prayed it and will ask the Lord to forgive me if I am wrong.”
I cannot justify my prayer, but I remember that as one part of the promise of God to Abraham in his first recital of the Covenant blessing, God said, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3 NIV)
I do not know whether one might apply the blessing to President Zelensky (since Mr. Zelensky is a Jew) and the Ukrainian people. And I do not say that the curse is to be applied to Mr. Putin and the Russian people. If I should draw a straight line, you might say that would be preposterous. But here is what I know. History has taught us that any person or nation that oppresses those who have been blessed by God have been put under a curse. Do I need to start naming peoples or nations?
Just think of all the notorious leaders of the world, including the Pharaohs, the Caesars, the Czars, the Presidents and Captains, the Alexander(s) the Great(s) the Herod(s), the Napoleon(s), the Hitler(s), the Hussein(s) and all, and what has happened to them? Many have died brutal deaths, like “Pharaoh and his army that drowned into the Red Sea” (Exodus 15:4).
I do not know that anyone was praying for their deaths, but I read in Exodus about the people of God when they were enslaved in Egypt. It is this, “Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” (Exodus 2:23-24 NKJV).
I am not going to call every nation of earth that has been oppressed “the chosen” people of God to make a point about the curse on those who curse Abraham and his heritage. But this is what I know from my years of scriptural study and my own encounter with God and his children everywhere, is that the blessing of Abraham belongs to all who turn to God in faith and obey his will. And that in the same way that those who abuse the children of God in any place are under a curse, as well.
Yes, those individuals and nations who oppress, abuse, enslave, and brutalize people in wars or otherwise, will pay the price. This, I said, is a clear promise of God when it is said that God sends his rain on the just and on the unjust.
I do not know how to rationalize it all, but I cannot believe that God is not hearing the cries of the little children and their mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, and all who are being bombed out of their homes and driven away into places that they do not know. I cannot think of a God who does not care about the people arrested in Russia. I cannot think of a God who does not see the dead bodies on the streets of Ukraine. If there is such a god, then it must be an idol.
All that I have learned and experienced about the Eternal God is that he is a God who cares. He sees the abuse, the feelings of powerlessness, the loss of freedom, the destruction of dignity, the brutality, and the betrayal that is taking place in Ukraine and all across the world. He sees and hears of all those suffering in the world, and He cares.
At times, because I do not see what God is doing about the situation, I become very impatient and pray for the destruction of the perpetrators of cruelties. But I am waiting for God to act as I know other children of God in the world are doing. I am not able to tell how long I need to wait to see what God is going to do about “the curse” on those who are now carrying out the egregious acts of this war, but I have every certainty that God is going to do what needs to be done about it.
I will keep praying and giving financial support to provide food and other necessities to the refugees. But I know that I must pray and wait on God to act because he promised the world a just judgment. So, as I read in my Bible, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14 KJV), I hold fast to the promise and wait.
