An allegory is a a story that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. It is noteworthy that this President would achieve his greatest triumph on Palm Sunday (when Lee surrendered to Grant, ending the War), only to be quickly followed by his assassination on Good Friday.
Today is the 154th Good Friday “since the assassination of the youthful skeptic who became the most religious of all Presidents and who strove like no other to know and do the will of God.” (WI Family Council).
That skeptic, Abraham Lincoln, was in the Oval Office before Phineas Gurley was able to lead him to the Lord after the death of his second son, Willie. (Marvin Olasky)
In our post-Christian nation, many may not be interested in the message of Good Friday and Easter. But perhaps the interesting parallels of the Civil War may help you point your skeptic friends to the Savior.
Abraham Lincoln saw the Civil War as a form of atonement for the nation’s sins. He knew that sin must be atoned for with a blood sacrifice.
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
Second Inaugural Address, March 4th 1865
This would be a substitutionary atoning sacrifice – people not directly involved in the sin would die – similar to that of 1 Chronicles 21.
So how can man receive the benefits of atonement? Lincoln shows the key to national, and personal healing as he called the nation to prayer, with a prayer that we can still pray today!
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
Genuine repentance and dependence upon God – another way of saying what Jesus said as He began His ministry:
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Mark 1:15
Let’s pray today that our loved ones will repent and believe as well!
Let us pray also that our nation may return to the LORD God!
