Deuteronomy 16:20 English Standard Version (ESV) Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

This is a spiritual document and it is so hard in these present times to keep on track and avoid entering into the political arena. In order to achieve that, I can only address those portions of Scripture that lead us to understanding what is just, not political.

We can compare America to Israel spiritually. God was at the forefront of both adventures in history. American came about because people sought religious freedom and displaced the people who had possessed these lands for thousands of years. That is not political, that is historical.

The bible is full of history and we can learn from that history as it relates to God’s spiritual commands and man’s inability to keep His commands. There are consequences for both obedience and disobedience. One results in a blessing the other a curse.

If we look at what is just then we must accept that our consequences are tied to what God has said and if we can be obedient to keep God’s commands. The only difference between Israel and America is Christ, the Old Covenant vs the New Covenant. Consequences remain the same.

As long as we seek justice according to God’s standards of what is just, we will be blessed. Waiver from it and we will suffer the consequences. That is as much historical as it is spiritual. 

Israel as a nation suffered the consequences for disobedience and the bible shows us that. It was not the fault of the remnant that remained faithful to God but it was nationalistic. Daniel was faithful to God but was carried away to Babylon with all the others.

Being faithful to God has us in that same precarious situation, those of us that are faithful to God are being dragged along into history because of the disobedience of the nation.

Answering how that came about carries us into the politics which I must avoid.

So what are we to do? Remain faithful to our Lord and obey, just like Daniel did.

Philippians 3:8-9 English Standard Version

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Let us focus on the last line of text here and ponder this issue of dependency.

Paul’s comment of counting all things as loss places him in a position of dependency. He learned this because he came to know Christ as being all he needed to live his life and accomplish his mission.

In the book “The Intercessor” Rees Howell gave up the money he needed for his mission because someone else needed it. He stood on the train platform with nothing more than faith in the promises of God to provide for his needs. The funds he needed arrived in time for his journey from an unexpected source. God kept His promise and that is a clear demonstration of faith in the sufficiency of Christ in the face of an uncertain future because he depended on God’s Word beyond what his eyes could see.

That is an extraordinary case of faith and most of us will not have to face such testing of our faith. However we do face smaller tests of dependency in which our faith can play a role to give us the peace to do what is required of us.

We might not think of faith as an issue of dependency because we have been taught to be self-reliant and to make our own way in the world. That is the world but it is not this life of faith which we enjoy in Christ. We walk by faith in a world that cannot understand faith until they might come to see it because of us and how we react to the stressors we face in this world.

We cannot help those who do not see our acts of faith but to those who ask why we act differently than others in those situations, we have an answer. It is because of who we are in Christ. We have a witness for them about a life changing experience.

Christ makes the difference and we depend on Him and Him alone.