Today in the news I read that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, are beginning talks for a peace agreement in Ukraine. This is in hopes of negotiating a potential meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During the Biden administration we only heard of Ukraine and the awful things Russia was doing to them, and Russia was doing awful things. We read of money being given to Ukraine to defend themselves. Now a new administration is in Washington D.C. and they want to talk to Russia. It appears to me at a cursory glance that a 180 degree shift in position from Washigton is being done and I wondered why, so I took a brief look at the fairly recent history of Ukraine.
"Between 1918 and 1921 an estimated 100,000 Jewish people were killed, maimed or tortured in pogroms in Ukraine. Hundreds of Jewish communities were burned to the ground and hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless and destitute, including orphaned children. A number of groups were responsible for these brutal attacks, including the Volunteer Army, a faction of the Russian White Army. The Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-19: Prelude to the Holocaust is a vivid and horrifying account of the atrocities committed by the Volunteer Army, written by Nokhem Shtif, an eminent Yiddish linguist and social activist who joined the relief efforts on behalf of the pogrom survivors in Kiev. Shtif's testimony, published in 1923, was born from his encounters there and from the weighty archive of documentation amassed by the relief workers. This was one of the earliest efforts to systematically record human rights atrocities on a mass scale. Originally written in Yiddish and here skillfully translated and introduced by Maurice Wolfthal, The Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-19 brings to light a terrible and historically neglected series of persecutions that foreshadowed the Holocaust by twenty years. It is essential reading for academics and students in the fields of human rights, Jewish studies, Russian and Soviet studies, and Ukraine studies."--Publisher's website.
The pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-19 : prelude to the Holocaust
Shṭif, Naḥum, 1879-1933, author.
Wolfthal, Maurice, translator, editor.
Open Book Publishers, Publisher
Corruption is a significant issue in Ukrainian society going back to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. After declaring independence from the Soviet Union, Ukraine faced a series of politicians from different sides of the political spectrum, as well as criminal bosses and oligarchs, who used the corruption of police, political parties, and industry to gain power. Despite improvements, corruption remains an obstacle to joining the European Union. - Wikipedia
I have read before of the persecution of Ukraine's Jews in Golda Meir's biography, My Life, as her family came from the Ukraine. As I began to pray for Ukraine when the Russian invasion of Ukraine started in 2022 I thought about the persecution of the Jews in Ukraine and I wondered as I prayed about that. The United States has certainly reaped some curses from the sin of slavery and mistreatment. Haiti's cruel oppression by France on the slaves of that nation and carried over by the elite that came to power after the revolution has caused great tragedy on that country. The complexity of history.
Yet what we see and experience in the world around us affects us. So the question is how much are we going to let it? Another question would be how much do we really know about the issues? And a third question, how much should we let it affect us?
This website is focused on our walk with Jesus in this life so what does this information on Russia, Ukraine, and United States governments have to do with our spiritual lives?
Quite a bit in my opinion because as we are so intent on proving ourselves right and others wrong, where is the love that Jesus spoke of that the world would know we are Christians...by our love. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” - John 13:35
It burdens me to see Christians all caught up in a political party and then arguing that their party of choice is the most loved by God, or supported by God. As just average citizens with the information that is presented to us by established media sources, are we getting the whole story or just the first words? What I mean by the first words is, for example, if you were to receive a letter and when you open it up and begin to read you don't finish the letter, would you have a clear understanding of what the writer had meant to convey? Jesus was perfect and was always in the right. Jesus was always about the Father's business. Yet Jesus avoided taking the side of the world. His kingdom was in heaven and He went about spreading the news of that kingdom. When He departed and left the Holy Spirit for us to continue on His work, He did not intend that we fuss and fight about the right side, the more-right side, the less-right side. What He did say was to go and make disciples of all nations.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20
This is not to say we shouldn't stand on the right side of moral issues. Not at all. Where would we be if people just remained silent and allowed atrocities to happen? I am not saying that we should be passive in the face of injustice, but as we engage, remember the story of Joshua as he lead the children of Israel into the promised land.
Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Joshua 5:13-15
God's heavenly hosts are always on God's side, and they have read the entire letter.
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