One of my favorite Christian authors is Gene Edward Veith, Provost and Professor of literature at Patrick Henry College. Cleverly, Veith has put together a Catechism written by advocates of our secular culture. He follows the typical catechism questions found in many Reformation documents.
David is crowned king of all 12 tribes, makes Jerusalem his capital, neutralizes the Philistine threat and brings the Ark to Jerusalem.
Within the Christian church, broadly speaking, the LGBTQIA movement and the growth of same-sex marriages have caused controversy, division and divisiveness.
The civil war between the House of David and the House of Saul ends with murder, assassination and bloodshed, but David begins to unify the 12 tribes with grace, compassion and justice.
As year 2024 begins, wars are raging in Africa, Israel and Gaza and Ukraine. These are indeed explosive and most troubling. In addition, the US presidential race has begun, with two diametrically opposed political parties. The isolationist tilt of some in the Republican Party is worrisome. This will be a “make-or-break year for the post-1945 world order.” The new dynamic is one of increasing instability. The Economist argues that “In the 1990s many countries aspired to a self-reinforcing cycle of freedom, market economics and rules-based globalization. Now there is an unpredictable cycle of populism, interventionist economics and transactional globalization. As a result, three threats loom in 2024.”
David is crowned king in Hebron but must deal with the civil war orchestrated by Abner.
A new poll from YouGov/The Economist points out that young Americans appear to be remarkably ignorant about one of modern history’s greatest crimes. Some 20% of respondents aged 18-29 think that the Holocaust is a myth, compared with 8% of those aged 30-44. An additional 30% of young Americans said they do not know whether the Holocaust is a myth. “Many respondents espouse the canard that Jews wield too much power in America: young people are nearly five times more likely to think this than are those aged 65 and older.”
God’s discipline of David re-energizes his walk with God and Saul dies on Mt. Gilboa.
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.
