What the contrast says about our nation and our souls
Thousands of people took to the streets across America yesterday in May Day protests against the Trump administration. The protests were organized under the banner of the 50501 movement, which stands for “fifty protests, fifty states, one movement,” which seeks to “uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach.” More than a thousand protests were organized in cities and towns across the country.
Like the US, Israel has seen large anti-government protests in recent years—first against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reforms and then to demand the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza. This past March, more than one hundred thousand people turned out at such protests.
But there is a key difference between the two nations, one that reveals a principle vital to our future and the flourishing of our souls.
“Trump’s Single Stroke of Brilliance”
Columnist David Brooks, a longtime critic of Donald Trump, wrote a recent New York Times article surprisingly titled, “Trump’s Single Stroke of Brilliance.” His column is as critical of the president as we would expect. However, Brooks credits the administration for its energy: “It is flooding the zone, firing on all cylinders, moving rapidly on all fronts at once. It is operating at a tremendous tempo, taking the initiative in one sphere after another.”
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In his view, those opposed to Mr. Trump need to match his “clarity of purpose” with a “one-sentence mission statement” and a clear strategy for implementing it.
By contrast, historian Gil Troy writes in Jewish News Service that by the start of their May 1 Independence Day, “Israelis will have been bonding culturally, patriotically, and existentially for eighteen intense days already.” I have been in Israel on this day many times over the years. It is deeply moving to see Israeli flags decorating the nation’s balconies and cars. Families gather at beaches, parks, and other spots for picnics, concerts, and parades celebrating the nation, its history, and its future.
Troy notes that 96 percent of Israeli Jews participated in the Passover seder on April 12; some 71 percent avoided bread throughout Passover week. On April 24, the country stood in place for two minutes at 10 a.m. as sirens sounded for Yom Hashoah—Holocaust Remembrance Day—memorializing six million Jews murdered by the Nazis. Then came Wednesday’s Memorial Day, when Israelis honored their war dead and terrorism victims.
On these memorial days, as Troy notes, “regular television programming stops. Cafes, restaurants, theaters, and sports arenas close. Millions light memorial candles.”
Troy reminds us that these annual observances reflect biblical rhythms and are intended “to consecrate, to commemorate, to connect.” They “personalized, popularized, and democratized—and thereby immortalized—ideas, values, and historical events.”
Everything Israelis observed across these weeks centered on their national mission: “to live as a free people in our homeland, the land of Zion.”
What is our national mission?
If you ask five Americans to define our national mission and strategy for fulfilling it, how many answers do you think you’d hear?
What would be your answer to the question?
For America’s Founders, our mission is to advance the “self-evident” truth “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Our strategy fulfills this mission: “To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government.”
Like Israel’s recent memorials and celebrations, America’s founding mission and strategy are derived from biblical principles. Our mission protects and promotes the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness “endowed by [our] Creator.” Our strategy creates a government by consent of the governed, reflecting the sanctity of all life as created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
In both cases, the Founders were adamant that our flourishing depends on the blessing and providence of our Lord. For example, as Dr. Ryan Denison noted in his Daily Article yesterday, the National Day of Prayer observed by many across the country has its antecedents in a congressional appeal in 1775 for the colonies to join in “a Day of public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” for God’s blessing on their revolution for independence.
The modern state of Israel has not lost sight of its founding mission and strategy across its seventy-seven years of existence.
As America approaches our 250th anniversary, have we?
How to find “rest for your souls”
America’s Founders could conceive of such a biblical mission and strategy because America’s first “Great Awakening” unified the colonies, elevated the humanity of all people (including African slaves), and inspired Americans to deep repentance and personal godliness.
How can you and I experience and catalyze such an awakening for the sake of our nation and our souls?
In Matthew 11, Jesus invites us,
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (vv. 28–30).
In Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did, pastor and author John Mark Comer notes that the “yoke” was a Hebrew idiom used by a rabbi for “his set of teachings, his way of reading Scripture, his take on how to thrive as a human being in God’s good world.” To “take my yoke upon you” means to live holistically by Jesus’ teaching as our life mission. To “learn” from him is the strategy by which we fulfill this mission as we seek his guidance in every dimension of our lives.
When we do this, we discover that our Lord is “gentle and lowly in heart,” meaning that he is kind and humble, wanting only our best in every dimension of our lives. The more we live by his word and will, the more we find “rest for [our] souls,” a peace that transcends all circumstances. This is because Jesus’ yoke is “easy,” a word meaning to be useful and best for us, while the “burden” or work he intends for us is “easy to bear” in his power and purpose.
So I’ll close by asking:
- When last did you consciously and intentionally choose Jesus’ “yoke” and no other?
- When last did you determine to live by his word and will alone?
- When last did you seek his help in wearing his yoke and bearing his burden?
- When last did you find “rest for your soul”?
Why not today?
Quote for the day:
“The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
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