The Ten Year Response

You know how it is: ten years after you hear something, you find the response you might have made right then.  For example, Dr. Martin at IWU placed George Washington on a pedestal (from what I hear, quite literally: he had a bust of George in his house), and saw Abraham Lincoln as worse than Saddam Hussein.  Hmm... I wasn't very convinced until he mentioned that Marx wrote Lincoln a letter congratulating him for his revolution.  When I heard that I was horrified and began doubting the honesty of Mr. Lincoln.
     But today, fresh news.  Well, I mean, it's over two hundred years old, but it gives me a fresh perspective.  A council of the French revolutionaries elected William Wilberforce and George Washington as citizens of France. 
    Now if ever there was a dubious honor, this was it.  The Frenchies may have had their king in the Bastille at that point, or it might have come later.  In any case, who would want to be elected an honorary citizen of a country that was butchering its actual citizens?  But what were Will and George to do?  After all, they had no control over what the revolutionaries voted on!
     So, I am less hard on Abe for getting his congratulations from Marx.  The question "did he deserve it?" is still open, but the question "did he have control over it?" is closed.  I wonder what Martin would say...
    Another example of "The Ten Year Response" came today when I was listening to the radio.  Tony Evans was speaking about Esther, and how she and her maidservants prayed and fasted together before she went to the king.  "Prayed and fasted."  Hmm... I'd heard some people claim that the book of Esther glorified man because God wasn't mentioned.  I didn't know what to say at the time, but now it's clear: God is glorified through that book.  This wasn't a story of empowered woman finding her voice.  This was a story of a humble woman leaning on her God.  Wow: wish I'd realized that at the time.  But hey -- at least I realize it now!