Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and the Kingdom of God

Lincoln, King and the Kingdom: what’s the relationship?  I’ve always wondered who in the government decided to put Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) together.  Although my students will tell you that sometimes I get a little preachy when I teach history, I’ve always tried to not lecture history from the pulpit.  This time, I’m going to ask that you indulge me just a little bit.

It’s always around this time of year that my American History class studies the Civil War.  It just so happens that right in the middle of that, my wife and I visited D.C. over the Christmas break.  I stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and looked across the reflection pool toward the Washington Monument.  The words of the Gettysburg Address are carved into Lincoln’s memorial in 12″ letters.  It’s hard not to come back and say something about it.

On the Issue of Slavery

“And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.”  Numbers 20:5 

In Numbers chapter 20 the Hebrews are complaining to Moses that he has brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness.  You see, even though they had been slaves in Egypt, the Hebrews were used to having certain things.  There they had lived in houses, not tents.  There was plenty of water to drink via the Nile River.  And one thing they brought up a lot was the food.  The Hebrews missed the pomegranates of all things.  Egypt had those.