Exercising our Right to Bare Arms
Some of our forefathers were a little slow in catching on to new ideas. One was “the right to arm bears.” When that cry first went up there was a collective “deer-in-the-lanternlight” look in their eyes. Arm bears? They called a town hall meeting. Once the screaming died down they realized the writer of the original idea had been drinking rum. The line was changed to “the right to bear arms.”
There was continued disbelief and a lot of awkward silence. Finally, one brave soul eventually asked some questions that were on everyone’s patriotic lips. What kind of bears will the arms come from? How will we get the arms off of? What is wrong with the arms we were born with? After a lengthy but interesting discussion they passed the Second Amendment to our Constitution, the right to end a sentence with a preposition.
If you think the Bible is silent on this issue you are wrong. Go to the book of Isaiah and read 52:9-1 where it says, “Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he had redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”
Ion this passage we read about the wall around Jerusalem. Watchmen stood on the wall to help defend the city by looking for the enemy. As you might expect there was not a whole lot to do on the wall in those days except sit, squat, stand, or fall. Humpty Dumpty was the first to take the third option. It did not take a lot of intelligence to be a watchman. Sometimes they would get recruits who were a little flaky. They were classified as “watchmen-off-the-wall.”
On one particular day one of the watchmen saw messengers returning from Babylon. Much like the mall on the day after Thanksgiving people seldom came out of Babylon alive so this was a good sign that Yahweh was returning to Zion. Redeeming the people of Zion is a major theme in the 52nd chapter and restoration of the Temple is the ultimate sign. The phrase, “bared his holy arm,” is a reference to that restoration. The people in Isaiah’s day were a troubled people in a time of exile. This news was a sign to them that God still reigned and they sang for joy.
What a tremendous message for us today! How many of you are under stress or in difficult circumstances? Guess what? God still reigns! Do you have joy? Our church has been through a rough time with Covid-19 cases. Guess what? God still reigns. It can be a stressful time but it can also be a time of joy because we know what we need to be doing – worshipping and serving God, reaching people, and meeting needs.
Galatians 5:6 says, “The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself through love” (NIV). All we have to do is roll up our sleeves and go to work, expressing our faith through acts of love. Sure, we have a right in this country to bear arms . . . but we have a duty to God to bare them.