The King's Choice

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him.

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding.

The Spirit of counsel and might,

The Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord.

 

His delight is in the fear of the Lord,

And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,

Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;

But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,

And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

 

He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,

And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,

and faithfulness the belt of His waist (Is. 11: 1-5)

 

The first reading for the Second Sunday of Advent in the Catholic Church was the passage from Isaiah quoted above.  Though the whole nation of Israel was condemned by Isaiah for injustice, for its "preference for the rich" and for its cruelty and neglect of the poor, the prophet predicted a messianic reign where the 'lion' would lie down with the 'lamb,' and where justice and peace would prevail.  This era of peace would be bought about by the Messiah, the One in Whom the Spirit of the Lord would dwell.

 

Throughout the Old Testament, we see men and women chosen by God to rule the nation and to bring about the reign of God -- a reign of peace and safety where people would not be afraid to leave their homes, a reign where fields would bear harvest and vineyards would produce grape -- all without fear of destruction and terror.  And God's choice for judges and rulers was never man's choice--He did not 'judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears,' in the words of Isaiah.  God's choice was always on those whose "delight was in the fear of the Lord."  David was considered the least of his brothers -- and yet he was anointed by God to rule Israel and to defeat the enemies of the peace of Israel.  In every case, it was the least likely person who was chosen by God to reign -- but in every case, it was the person who was most likely to consult the Lord for his or her decisions.

 



In our "day," so to speak, Abraham Lincoln was probably the most unlikely candidate to guide the nation through the crisis of the Civil War.  Lincoln was by all of man's judgments ugly, ungainly, with a high-pitched voice -- not very impressive by man's measures.  Yet, Lincoln was a man who sought the judgment of God in his private deliberations.  He sought wisdom from God's perspective, not man's.  And after years of agony and struggle to avoid the crisis of war, he slowly came to the realization that 'every drop of blood drawn by the lash would be avenged by blood drawn from the sword."  In his prayer, he came to realize that war was inevitable, given the hardness of men's hearts and their penchant for greed.

 

Having just finished reading The King's Speech by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi, I was once again struck by God's choice of a ruler, in this case, for England.  George VI was a shy, withdrawn man whose stutter made speaking an agony for him.  In the eyes of the world, his older brother, King Edward VIII was a much better choice for king:  No British sovereign ascended the throne with more accumulated goodwill than Edward, the eldest son of George V.  Whether because of his courage, his radiant good looks, or his avowed concern for the ordinary man (and woman), the new King seemed to embody all that was best about the twentieth century....he was called "the Golden Prince," and Diana Vreeland, a well-connected fashion columnist, declared that all women of her generation were in love with him (p.107).  Edward's reign, however, lasted less than a year, and his younger brother George, though terribly ill-prepared to be king, ended up guiding the nation through its most terrible years of resisting the evil of Hitler's world-aggression.

 

George's outstanding characteristic was probably that of humility.  All of his life, he had suffered from an inability to speak clearly and to communicate his ideas -- a quality despised by his father, George V.  He had to combat fear of speaking in public all the days of his life -- and especially when it came to speaking about the inevitable war with Germany.  But the King was able to encourage his people to seek the help of God and to hope for victory in their darkest days.  Lionel Logue, his therapist, was summoned to help the king prepare a speech prior to D-day, a speech he was told would be "a call to prayer."  On the evening of D-Day, June 6, 1944, George concluded his speech with the words of Psalm 29: The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.  Later, after the nation responded to the king's speech with pride and gratitude, George replied, "I am glad you liked my broadcast; it was a great opportunity to call everybody to prayer.  I have wanted to do it for a long time" (p. 196).

 

With a nation at prayer, the tide began to turn for the Allies.  I have to wonder what the end result might have been had Edward -- the flighty playboy -- remained on the throne of England.  All through Scripture, there is a theme: How blessed is the nation for whom God/Yahweh is the Lord.  Along with that theme is the theme of rulers and kings -- that a nation has the leadership it deserves, for example, and that under a just ruler, the people thrive, but under an unjust ruler, the people perish.  I look at our country today and wonder where is the "just" man, upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests, who has the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of knowledge and of counsel, and whose delight is the fear of the Lord.  I just don't know.