I have been reading Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik’s Providence and Power: Ten Portraits in Jewish Statesmanship. It is a remarkable read, for in it he surveys the leadership qualities of King David, Queen Esther, Benjamin Disraeli and Abraham Lincoln, among others. He makes two profound observations that are so helpful for 2024

Saul hits his spiritual bottom by going to a medium for counsel and David hits his spiritual bottom by his plans to join the Philistines in a war against his own people.

What motivates the rulers of Iran? Why do they invest billions of dollars in arming themselves and their proxies (e.g., Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis of Yemen, etc.) against Israel? Is it simply to destroy the growing acceptance of Israel by several Arab nations? Was the 7 October genocidal attack designed to thwart the seemingly imminent recognition by Saudi Arabia of Israel? Or was it something more egregious, more dastardly?

In his confrontation with Nabal, God uses Abigail to teach David to trust God to deal with his enemies, not with vengeance but with justice.

Columnist Daniel Henninger correctly observes that “There was a time when most American schoolchildren had a functioning knowledge of the Holocaust and the camps. No longer. Universities’ hiring and enabling of activist left-wing professors—proponents of the anti-Israel movement called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions—has affected a generation of students. A Quinnipiac poll found 51% of Democrats younger than 35 don’t support sending military aid to Israel after Hamas’s attack.”

The ethical case against abortion rests on the proposition that life begins at conception—and that killing a baby in the womb is ethically wrong. The life of the baby in the womb is as valuable in the eyes of God as that of the mother. However, since the 1970s, abortion has been defended on the grounds of privacy and bodily autonomy: “my body, my choice.” The legal and philosophical debates that culminated in Roe v. Wade (1973) considered abortion in terms of competing rights: the woman’s right to control her body against the baby’s right not to be killed.

After Saul kills the priests at Nob, David’s contrite heart results in a growing dependence on God and profound lesson in leadership.

We live in a world where one of the few constants in life is change. I recently read media theorist Douglas Rushkoff’s book, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. It captures quite effectively the unsettledness and disorientation many feel in our postmodern, post-Christian, media-saturated culture. Rushkoff’s analysis is brilliant, but he offers few solutions and little comfort in a world of religious skepticism, moral/cultural progressivism and animosity toward traditional values and religious convictions.

God continues His work of shaping David’s character and deepening his faith.

I have come to appreciate David French, a columnist for the New York Times and an evangelical Christian. Writing in one of the most liberal newspapers in America, his voice is surprisingly refreshing and wise. Recently, he wrote a column highlighting the difference between a libertarian and a libertine.