Musing 44

There are many people who are quick to call out many concerns about the attacks on Iran. Whether those concerns are good, bad, valid, or invalid is in many cases beyond the scope of my knowledge to comment well on.

But there is 1 thing that I see that I do think concerning - an attitude along the lines of “our taking out of Iran’s leader was a good thing, so we are unequivocally good guys in this conflict.” Which Biblically speaking, is not so clear.

For the sake of argument, let’s set aside all questions of whether it was appropriate for the US to attack and assume it was. Does that mean we are without sin in the attack? I would caution any who immediately think the answer is “yes” to be careful.

Isaiah 10 speaks very much to this situation. In speaking of the nation of Assyria, in the same breath God says He commanded the nation (who, remember was a blatantly pagan nation) to go against the people with whom God is angry, and then judges Assyria for his bloodlust and arrogance.

Yes, we should absolutely rejoice when evil is removed from the world. The earth itself demands that God bring justice when the blood of innocents is spilled. But we also need to check our own hearts to see if the actions of our leaders are done in righteousness or in sin, lest we find ourselves the next to be broken.

To blindly assume that we are in the right because another is in the wrong is a quick way to arrogance. May we maintain humility in the face of our God who has the right to lift up and bring down. May we not trust in our own power, but recognize we are stewards of amounts of power thought only available to divinity just a few short decades ago and that just as we were lifted up to be a superpower, so may we be brought low because of our rebelliousness.