By State Representative Mesha Mainor (R-Atlanta)
Families across the globe mourn for loved ones lost to war. Whether it is 10,000 in Gaza, 2,000 in Israel, 200,000 in Yemen or half a million in Ukraine-Russia, God is not counting. Rather, God sees every life the same as we are each his child. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5).
In the Middle East, Europe, Mexico, Asia, Africa, North America or beyond, we weep the same tears. The global chant for peace in the Middle East began in 1880 B.C. during the first biblical war. It was a war among family members, and Abraham was the patriarch.
Abraham lived in the West Bank amongst his Palestinian relatives, and his sons lived throughout the world, except Isaac who stayed near him. Abraham’s sons became the prophets of the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Abraham’s son, Ishmael, lived farther away at the Mecca in Saudi Arabia and became the prophet of Islam. Abraham’s son Isaac, the leader of the Jewish people and father of Judaism, lived in the Promised Land.
All of Abraham’s children received God’s blessings and became great nations. Isaac and his children were set apart as the heir of Abraham’s covenant with God. The covenant demanded that the Jewish people follow God’s law or their blessings would be revoked. The prophet Jeremiah and others delivered this message to the Jewish people saying if you deviate from God’s laws, your covenant with God will be broken.
Today, the Promised Land is Palestine, Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and other adjoining areas. The Arabs and Jews have always fought each other, as Ishmael was destined in Scripture to live in conflict with his brother Isaac, while still being blessed by God to be fruitful as a son of Abraham. Abraham’s sons ruled nations, and like most siblings, they fought. Their wars were over land and religion. Nearly 4,000 years later, the same family members, our family members, fight for the same land and religion. Thousands were killed in 1880 B.C., and thousands are being killed today.
Our distant Middle East cousin’s family wars are not about how many died, were tormented, held hostage or deprived of life; rather, it is about God’s word and our choice to follow Him or not. Our world is volatile and repeats itself millennia after millennia, raging wars amongst families. These battles are surface level fights compared to the fight we were born to have. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
These surface level fights seek to enhance our self-worth with values that we place upon ourselves. We tell ourselves the titles we bestow, whether transgender, Black, Asian, white, Jewish, Muslim, Christian or more, fail to compare to the title of God’s servant. We forget that the hierarchy we choose is not God’s. He is not keeping score.
E Pluribus Unum: out of many, we are one. With the same Father, Alpha and Omega, we are one: God’s child. Our only purpose is to serve and fight for our Sovereign with Scripture as our weapon. In God We Trust, the American motto, is forgotten.
In this season, we rejoice the harvest God gives, sowing and reaping God’s will. The farmer who blames the soil for a poor harvest must ask himself if he asked God for rain. Like every Thanksgiving, we may be living through sadness or loss, but grace, mercy and God’s word is always there, omnipresent. Look past yesterday’s dry soil that did not reap fruit and ask God for His water to help you plant your harvest to come.
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).
Today and every day, pray for our entire family, every descendant of Abraham and for peace in the Middle East. Ezekiel prophesied in 37:21, “And give them this message from the Sovereign LORD: I will gather the people of Israel from among the nations. I will bring them home to their own land from the places where they have been scattered.”
Home is in your heart, where God lives. Our purpose, obeying Abrahamic law, is not picking and choosing the parts of God’s word that are convenient for today. Half-truths lead to war, where we fight family instead of fighting for God. Our purpose lies within God’s words, not within the calculations of war. God does not ask who killed the most. God asks, “Who follows me” (Joshua 24:15)?
Representative Mesha Mainor represents the citizens of District 56, which includes portions of Fulton County. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 2020 and currently serves on the Education, Governmental Affairs, Regulated Industries and State Planning & Community Affairs committees.
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