Hands Of The Wicked

By Dennis Rowan

"When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he blindfolds its judges." Job 9:24 (NIV)

Early this morning I heard a well known Christian make an appeal to radio listeners reguarding the upcoming elections in November. He said that the next president of the United States could possibly appoint two to four judges to the Supreme Court. Thus, he admonished us to consider that and then vote accordingly. Haven't I seen this movie before? Let's review. The president appoints people to serve as judges, but the U.S. Senate must approve these appointments. Haven't we just witnessed the minority party, the Democrats, essentially block President George W. Bush's appointments to other federal judgeships?

Let's review something else. The people elect representatives to Congress to make our laws. The people also elect the president and vice-president. The Executive branch executes and administers the laws, and the Judicial branch decides arguments about the meaning of laws and thus interprets law. Judicial activism is now commonplace when judges make such wild and unreasonable interpretation. That's the reason Christians in particular are trying to stop the law making by judges by getting better judges appointed.

It is tempting to throw the hands up and say, "What does it matter when honorable people are blocked from serving and those without honor decide Jesus Christ is out and baby killing is in just to site a couple issues"? The Bible says, "When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he (God) blindfolds its judges." (Job 9:24) I guess you could say God knows where the blame lies. In other words, "we, the people" are responsible for the blindfolds on the judges.

I appreciate the efforts of Christian activists who zero in on the problems in our culture and then take steps to change the culture. However, we Christians would do well to recognize the reallity that no amount of voting will change the wicked, and trying to recruit the righteous to out vote the wicked is not a quick fix. You see, if our judges have blindfolds it is because the people in the land are wicked.

Do we want righteousness in the land to replace wickedness? Fine, but voting won't do it especially when the righteous are in the minority. How about taking a good look at the fact that most of the children from Christian homes are being trained in public schools. Who in his right mind would pretend that righteousness reigns in that environment? Perhaps judges are not the only ones who are blindfolded. Or perhaps we Christians are ignorant of the wickedness that prevails and are blinded to the fact that a concerted effort to properly train our children is far more important than political activism. How about discerning which things come first? Political activism is okay, but its a real wild card so long as our children sit at the foot of Caesar for their training.