February 22, 2022 - Good Morning! It's Tuesday, February 22.
Yesterday - on President's Day - we looked at the religious affiliations of our chief executives. We found that all but three were officially connected to some denomination, to some church. These three included Andrew Johnson, Thomas Jefferson, and, surprisingly, Abraham Lincoln. I say surprisingly, because no other president, no other politician for that matter, has so powerfully used the Bible in their speeches, as did Lincoln.
We cannot know the nature of Lincoln's relationship with God. But there is much evidence about his relationship with God's Word. From an early age, and throughout his life, Lincoln read the Bible regularly. He was said to have committed large portions of it to memory. He would often, in conversation, and in political debate, respond by quoting scripture. But, perhaps, we most clearly see Lincoln's connection to the Bible when we look at his speeches.
In 1858, Lincoln was nominated to the U.S. Senate. His acceptance speech included the phrase "a house divided against itself cannot stand." Many people do not realize that that phrase is a direct quote of Jesus in Matthew 12:25. Lincoln's two greatest speeches are inscribed on the side walls of his Memorial in Washington D.C. When you stand before his statue and look to the left you see the 272 words of the Gettysburg Address. This classic speech, although it does not directly quote the Bible, is a perfect example of the way that Lincoln often used a biblical "style." The opening line, "four score and seven years ago," is a direct allusion to Psalm 90:10, "the days of our lives are three score years and ten." He goes on to use dozens of words like "brought forth," "consecrate," "under God," "perish," and "new birth" that have the sound and style of the Word.
If you look to the right at the Memorial you see the words of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. And here he directly quotes verse after verse -
- Bind up the nation's wounds (Psalm 147:3)
- Care for the widows and orphans (James 1:27)
- Judge not, that ye be not judged (Matthew 7:1)
- The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether (Psalm 19:9)
Forty days (a biblical number) after Lincoln delivered that speech, he fell underneath an assassin's bullet. He never got to go on the trip that he had planned to take when his second term was over - a trip to the Holy Land. His immortal speeches live on. And this quote -
"The Bible is God's best gift to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world is communicated in its pages."
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
