Wisdom is too high for fools;
    in the assembly at the gate they must not open their mouths.

 God and Local Politics

A person who does not know God is less likely to have something truly constructive to offer local politics.  However, if a person is looking for God’s will for a community they will have something to say.  In ancient Israel a person would openly refernce God and the scriptures in public debates and settlements.  In modern society God has been pushed away from law courts, local city councils, and trade tribunals.  The results are the current seperation of God and state.  The creation, not of a state free from the control of the church, but more than that.  The result is a state increasingly unaware of the voice of God.  It may be that those who oppose current trends are seen as living on the ‘wrong side of history’.  However, when Rome adopted more lacivious paths and pleasure-seeking laws – they momentarily made life easier on themselves, but as they departed from wisdom and acted selfishly toward their slaves and neighbours they became ripe for rebellion and invasion.  The West is trying to link philanthropy with consumerism and the church is playing along in many cases.  We are marketing ourselves as the best option in self-help rather than the only avenue of spiritual life and health.

We need more people to bring a Christian mind to local politics and local discussions.  In such a grass roots approach the fire of God’s truth may be fanned into flame again and burn in hearts of fire that might redeem a nation that embraces moral and ethical decline and calls it progress.

Questions

1. What is too high for whom?
2. What should fools refrain from doing?
3. What, by implication, would the wise be doing at the city gate?
4. The city gate was the location for local politics.  What is the modern equivalent?
5. What could God use you to bring to local politics?