“In God We Trust”

            The new United State dollar coin, being minted without the words “In God We Trust,” has polarized opinion.  And while I have my own opinion, when I first heard about it my mind went down a different path: the history of the Hebrew nation.

            When, as a group, they trusted God, He miraculously sent the angel of death through Egypt to take every firstborn, freed them from the Egyptian captivity, and took them safely through the Red Sea.  When, as a group, they failed to trust God, He confounded their travel and they wandered in the desert for forty years until that generation passed away.

            When they trusted God, He blessed them with the ability to conquer the land promised to the patriarch Abraham, a land flowing with milk and honey, a homeland.  When they did not trust God, there remained a remnant of the gentile nations with whom they intermarried and who became a snare to God’s chosen and blessed people.

            When they trusted God, He gave them the Law and the judges to guide them.  When they didn’t trust Him they wanted a King just like other nations.  After a mixed start with King Saul, the Hebrew nation reached its zenith under Kings David and Solomon, but even still there were clouds in the future as each king failed to trust God at some point.

            That on-going lack of trust led to the divided kingdoms, years of strife and warfare, God’s sending of prophets to warn about this lack of trust, and periods of repentance and peace.  Yet this lack of trust led to God using first the Assyrians to bring Israel into exile, then the Babylonians to bring Judea into exile.

            Hmm, I wonder if history has any lessons for us as our coinage begins to no longer proclaim our trust in God?

Paul Neighbors