Prayer for Syria and America

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Listening to the news this morning, I felt I had to stop and pray for the Syrians trapped in the last province held by al-Assad rebels.  The news this morning, and for the last few days, is ominous.  Government forces, with their Russian and Iranian allies, seem poised to crush the last rebel stronghold in Idlib province.

Of course only a few of the several million people in Idlib are armed rebels.  The vast majority are non-combatants.  The number of non-combatants in the province has been increased by the probably-million refugees who have fled there to escape previous war-zones.

It's not clear whether or not Turkey will accept more hundreds of thousands of fleeing Syrians when the government offensive begins.  It seems fairly clear that the world community will really do nothing to stop the offensive, although one NGO has characterized Idlib as a "death-trap" for those living there.

It's those non-combatants and refugees, families and women and children, I'm praying for.

I'm not at all praying for the politics of the situation.  Politics created the situation: why do we think politics will heal it ?  And how much is a prayer that "our side" win in accordance with God's heart: especially in a war, when we're asking Him to kill a bunch of people we don't like ?  Realizing in his Psalms David did so, his prayers were usually based on the fact those people were enemies of God, which was the reason they afflicted God's people.

We already know how God has said He will deal with His enemies (whom we should also consider our enemies): the only question is when.  I doubt we're out-of-line to ask Him to bring His righteous judgement on His enemies, crushing them so completely and quickly that His absolute sovereignty is manifest, and praised, by all who see.

That's quite a different prayer than, "God, kill those people I don't like."

Bashar al-Assad has been a worse ruler than most, for a long time.  Even at his best, he was contemptuous of God's command that a ruler be "a minister of God for good" to his subjects.  And when his hold on power was threatened, he showed himself ready to bomb and poison-gas his own people indiscriminately...children and mothers and families along with those in armed rebellion against him.

There's probably no greater measure of the man's evil than that hospitals were especially targeted by al-Assad's forces.  Even when we saw videos of horribly-wounded people and children gasping for air laying in the halls of medical facilities, doctors could do little to help as medical supplies dwindled under al-Assad's blockade of rebel areas.  His war-policy was to destroy even those facilities, to ensure there be no hope whatever for his victims.  Policy also to follow a bombing with a second bombing when medical personnel came out to treat the victims of the first.

In one sense, the current president of the United States is pursuing a similar policy.  His attacks on Truth extend to those whose work is to heal the wounds he inflicts: "the failing New York Times," and all "the fake media," that accurately report his words are lies.

After Bob Woodward's recent book detailing the danger and idiocy he's made of the presidency, he's renewed his call for libel laws that would enable him to sue anyone who publishes stories "told to make the president look bad."  And no doubt his followers, like al-Assad's, will follow his evil orders.

I doubt they will succeed: God guarantees evil will not triumph.  But sometimes He waits for evil men to fill "the cup of His wrath" to the brim before He unleashes His judgement on them.  He may do so in Syria, and He may do so in America.

But however and whenever God destroys the murderers and liars, the children of satan (John 8:44) who seek to kill men or kill truth, and seek even to kill those who would heal the wounded, God's righteous rule will be glorified, and His Name will be praised by all who see it.

May all God's people pray with David,

^"Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered,
And let those who hate Him flee before Him.
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away;
As wax melts before the fire,
So let the wicked perish before God.
But let the righteous be glad; let them exult before God;Yes, let them rejoice with gladness."

Psalms 68:1-3


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Syria

Can anyone see or hear about the sufferings of Syrians caught in their nation's civil war without being moved to tears and prayers for them ?.

Can anyone who claims to have the heart and mind of Jesus not be moved to pray for peace and mercy for these sufferers ?

But politicians tend to see all things in political terms: the wrong priority when it overrides acting in mercy.  Bill Clinton's greatest moral failing was not his hidden adulterous immorality: it was his failure to use America's power to protect Rwandans from genocide as the whole world watched, day after day.

Politicians' delusional self-interest is not news.  And it would be no more than dust on the scales, weighed against the sufferings of Syrians: except that how politicians view that tragedy will determine how they act toward it.

And that, of course, many in the politically-enslaved American Church will quickly adopt the view of their politician-de-jour, and baptize his actions as "Christian."

(The unrighteous "Christian" faction that rules my state is ahead of that curve.  They have been posturing their rebelliousness for a year, trumpeting that our state will not accept any of the Syrians to whom President Obama gave refuge in his America-hating "tyranny."

God bless my state's former Methodist Bishop Scott Jones, who publicly called on congregations to act in Jesus' mercy, and help Syrian refugees relocate here.  I admire his courage for standing against the politicians: and even more his courage for standing against the members of those congregations, the majority of whom undoubtedly take the politicians' view more than Jesus' view.)

I have little hope America will act for peace or mercy in Syria.  The little our incoming-president has said about Syrians' suffering is that the military forces of Russia, Iran, and Syria's President Assad are "killing ISIS."

We all know Donald Trump lies.  And one consequence for those who choose to follow lies is that they themselves come to believe lies.  First their own (for all deception begins in self-deception), then those of greater liars than themselves: and in both, ultimately the "father of lies" himself (John 8:44).

We all know Donald Trump believes lies.  What crushes any hope that America will act mercifully toward suffering Syrians is that Trump shows he believes the lies of deceivers more deceitful than himself.

Trump, and America, will undoubtedly act on Russian lies, Iranian lies, and Assad's lies.  That the people suffering so horribly in Syria's war are evil people, ISIS people...who deserve to suffer horribly, and die horribly.