Shan Dai Advocacy

Nahum

March 23, 2007 on 1:03 pm | In His First Bible, Old Testament, PrayerGrams |

Picture your neighborhood; your home, neighbors, the church where you worship; the school where your children learn. Imagine that during dinner one evening your country’s military enters your neighborhood with loaded weapons, forcing everyone to leave their home. The strong are enslaved with unbearable labor, children are separated from parents, women are violated, and the elderly are brutally killed. Neither you nor your neighbors have broken any law; the government wants your community weakened, so they destroy it. The military controls the media; no news of this atrocity will reach the outside world. Who will help? Pain and suffering wear you down until you are no longer an asset. You die of starvation; another body thrown on the heap of those who have perished before you. What you have just pictured is actually happening in present day Myanmar (Burma). Hundreds of Shan neighborhoods have been invaded by the Burmese military. Some Shan people have escaped and are living in Thailand as refugees, seeking to piece together a life. The less fortunate Shan live each day in endless brutality. The prophet Nahum wrote of the stunning cruelty experienced by God’s people from the ruthless Ninevites. Just like in Myanmar, even if CNN had been there broadcasting, it would be difficult to believe. As a seemingly elusive promise, the Lord assures ultimate deliverance. Just revenge will come at the hand of the Lord to the oppressors. We plead for the suffering Shan to experience, “The LORD is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him” (Nahum 1:7).