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And the Government…

By November 6, 2013August 30th, 2022Lost in Translation

…shall be on his shoulders… No, I’m not talking about the prophecies concerning the coming of Jesus. I’m speaking about elections. For those of you who don’t realize it, yesterday was a voting day for some races across the country. So I was was doing a little investigation on what happened this date, the 6th, in history and was surprised to find out the Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama were all elected to the highest office in the land on this date. Ronald Reagan and others who have served as President also made significant historical contributions on this date – signing important legislation into law.

By the way, even Jefferson Davis was elected to a 6 year term as President of the Confederacy on this date in 1861 – one year after Lincoln was elected. So as you can see, this day in history is quite an important date to us as a country. And regardless of what political leaning you have, both sides have successfully acquired the Presidency on this date. So where did this whole idea of government come from? No, I don’t mean democracy – I am talking about government in its generic definition, regardless of the specific form of government. And the answer is, of course, the Bible. God instituted the whole idea of judges and political systems.

Most theologians agree that the first references that appear in the Scripture regarding the accountability of man for one another came in the Genesis, the first book of the Bible. This led to the creation of governments and, of course, we still govern from these ancient roots even today. God mandated this accounting after the story of Noah and the ark. When the ark came to rest, Noah and his family gave thanks, provided a sacrifice to the Lord and God blessed the sons of Noah. Many folks believe this first entry has to do with the creation of the idea of the death penalty and we know from Leviticus and other books that Jewish law did provide for punishment for some crimes by death.

Our verse for the evening highlights the original references to this concept of government. We are told, in Gen 9:4-6, “And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.”

Notice that this excerpt also includes the fact that God has created man in His own image. My encouragement this evening is that regardless of where you stand in the political spectrum, it’s difficult to deny that God has mandated that we are to respect those in office and as you can see, many of our Presidents have been elected on this date in history. My prayer is that you will always respect the process we use even if your candidate doesn’t get elected to office. Because even if you don’t have personal respect for the winners, they deserve our positional respect based on the their accomplishments ascending to the highest office we have. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…

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