A Saturday Evening Post

 As a result of the recent decisions of world leaders, we are seeing tension building on the Ukrainian border once again.

   Ukraine is pivotal in Europe as it is a bridge from Russia to the rest of Europe. It is rich in natural resources. Once called the breadbasket of the Soviet Union, Ukraine’s resources and strategic location are why NATO wants it to join, but an alliance with NATO would be a threat to Russia, or that is what Putin is telling us (He has no interest in Ukraine’s wealth, of course). Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has been steeped in one political shenanigan after another. The country has never managed to establish itself as a truly independent republic on par with other European nations.  

In 1999, Putin the current president of Russia was appointed prime minister. Four months after being appointed as prime minister Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned and named Putin acting president while still holding office of Prime Minister. In 2012 Vlad was elected president. In 2021 he signed a constitutional amendment allotting himself two more terms as President. Graciously taking on the grueling responsibilities of running the country until 2036!  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-Putin

Russian people describe their country as a soft dictatorship. The Russian government does not make it impossible for them to meet, but Christians are harassed on a regular basis. Residents in Moscow describe services where the police came and detained everyone, while they checked documents. In other instances, the police invited worshipers down to the station for a ‘conversation.’ Likely conversations are resolved with authorities being compensated, and worshipers are released until the police take advantage of them again.  

Russia has an extremely strict law on foreign agents. Anyone receiving funding from abroad is considered a foreign agent and is accused of being a spy. Conditions for Christians in Russia are unfavorable, but not impossible.  

But this has happened before. At the end of recorded Old Testament History, Antiochus Epiphanes harassed the Jews in a similar fashion. He failed in a humiliating defeat in Egypt and returned from battle and attacked Judah in a self-vindication. He ravaged the Jewish people, eighty-thousand Jews were lost, with forty thousand being killed and the same number being taken into captivity. He outlawed Jewish rites and traditions and ordered the worship of Zeus. This affected the revolt of the Maccabees who eventually threw off the Greek tyranny. Interestingly Judah was already in a civil war of Hellenist Jews fighting the more conservative Orthodox Jews. When Antiochus attacked, however, the common enemy caused the two sides to join to fight off the new threat.  

Antiochus created the perfect pitch for Jesus to come in on the scene. Everyone spoke Greek which was soon to be a dead language so the scripture could be preserved. He ended the civil war in Judah, the people were more porous and ready to accept the message God had for them.  

I cannot understand God’s purpose. God has been operating this universe for a few thousand years without my advice. Is God using Russia to bring about His purpose in Ukraine? Ukraine has plenty of inner turmoil of its own. But whatever it is, he causes all things to work for the good of those that love Him.  

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4 

James writes this from Jerusalem an earlier book when persecutions had begun in earnest following Stephen’s martyrdom. Again, God used the persecution of the early church as a catalyst to bring the Gospel message to the far reaches of the earth. He knows the suffering of His people in Russia and in Ukraine. Pray for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.