A THOUGHT FOR SHABBAT (THE WEEKEND)

As I write this the USA is preparing for presidential elections. It seems as if Barack Obama will win. His first name means 'blessed' (short for Mubarak In Arabic) but also sounds like 'thunderbolt' (Hebrew Barak/q). If and when he wins the election, will he be a blessing or a curse to the world? Will he be a man of peace or a man of war? As the self-proclaimed "Leader of the Free World", the US President and those Americans who vote for him place the rest of the "Free World", including Israel, in a position where they need to consider why they should follow a leader they have not chosen or elected. We have been disenfranchised - left without a vote. We can only pray and hope.

Here in Finland, I am called upon to vote in the next week or so. As a foreigner I cannot vote in presidential or parliamentary elections, and as an expatriate I have not voted in British elections since the 1970s.

But I CAN vote in the municipal elections. I am in a quandary as to whom to vote for. How can I trust people whom I've never met or seen to represent my interests or the interests of the town where I live?

The Bible tells us to pray for the town/city that we live in and seek its peace, its prosperity. Jeremiah 29:7 "And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace" (KJV).

Here in Finland we are very happy that former President Martti Ahtisaari has at last won the Nobel Peace Prize. As a Jewish friend wrote to me recently,

"It's always a relief when a true creator of peace wins it rather that such peace-loving murderers and encouragers of murder, not to mention the embezzler of public funds from the EU for his personal use by such former winners as Yasir Arafat. Such Nobel Prize winners make a joke of the entire process."

In the Hebrew Bible the God of Israel is given many titles. In Deut.15:3 He is described as ish milchama ('a man of war'). In Isa. 9:6 the Messiah is described as sar shalom (a/the prince of peace).

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (sar shalom). How can God be both ish milchama and sar shalom? At first sight it seems to be a contradiction in terms, yet if you think about it, only He has the means, the will and the wisdom to make perfect war and perfect peace. Our peace is only a pale imitation, an imperfect peace.

Jeremiah, whom I quoted above, also said:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9) And that goes for you and me, for Barack Obama, the leaders of Israel, Finnish politicians and Nobel prize-winners.

Do our leaders really care about the countries and people they are leading? I cannot see into their hearts - I know that I don't like what I see in my own.

Will America care enough to defend Israel? Will the US or the EU defend Finland if Russia continues attacking its neighbours, as it did recently in Georgia? Remember that the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations for attacking Finland in 1939-40 - but that symbolic act of the global community didn't stop the Second World War or the Shoah (Holocaust).

In spite of all this, our God, the Creator, the God of Israel, is a man of war and the prince of peace, and He is ultimately in control. Let us rejoice in this.

Shabbat shalom!

Have a good weekend

Michael