Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“‘So perish all your enemies, O Lord! But may your friends be like the sun as it rises in its might.’ And the land had rest forty years.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, September 6, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This is the end of the story of Deborah and Jael. In the days of the Judges, God’s people faced the threat of Sisera, the general of King Jabin of Canaan. Deborah, a judge and prophetess, summoned Barak to raise an army of 10,000 soldiers to fight Sisera, but in the end, it was not Barak who defeated Sisera. Instead, it was Jael, a Kenite, who lulled Sisera into complacency and then killed him. God chose a woman and a gentile to bring low the great general who threatened God’s people. Because of her bravery and heroism, God’s people enjoyed forty years of freedom for conflict.
I, for one, would love to prevent conflict in the first place, rather than having to subdue and destroy my enemies in order to bring peace. I believe that is God’s will for us as God’s beloved humanity, created in God’s image. But—as cynical as this sounds—I probably have to accept that such a state will only happen at the end of time, when God brings all things to fruition.
Do I believe we will ever achieve world peace? How do I reconcile my thoughts about this with my faith?
