A New Dawn

Job 38: 12, 13 "Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?”

For some, it may appear as though last week, just before dawn, this verse from Job was fulfilled. When Saddam Hussein was led to the gallows and executed by his own people, it may have seemed in Iraq that the earth had indeed been taken by the edges and the wicked shaken from it. I guess if members of my family had been tortured or murdered by his regime, then his death would have justly compensated for it.

But shaking the wicked from the earth is like sweeping a house clean and leaving it empty. All that you create is a power vacuum, which is usually filled, according to Christ, with seven more wicked devils (Matthew 12:43-45). The Iraqi people, as a sovereign nation, may have gotten rid of Saddam Hussein, but now they have to struggle in the void. And unless all sides are willing to co-operate, the demons that may arise amongst them could be worse than anything they have previously encountered.

So, in these early days of 2007, we need to keep praying for the Iraqi people. At the moment, they are like sheep without a shepherd and there are wolves amongst the flock. If we are serious about peace, then we need to pray that God raises a peacemaker amongst them because, whether or not foreign troops remain in their country, in the end the realization of peace remains in their own hands.

Prayer: Lord God Almighty, in these troubled days of this New Year, we pray for peace across the Iraqi nation and amongst its diverse peoples. We pray that the common bonds of nationality, geography, and birth bring them together. Lead them to a unity that will overcome hostility and insecurity, terrorism and schism. In Christ’s Holy Name, we pray. Amen.