Prayer and War on the Korean Peninsula

Kim Jong Un is a third-generation dictator of North Korea. He makes me think of that saying: The first generation earns; the second generation learns; the third generation burns. Mr. Kim's privileged upbringing might make him wildly detached from reality. And dangerously likely to bring burning to his corner of the word.

1. Danger.

The news magazine The Economist says this:

Even by its own aggressive standards, North Korea’s actions over the past couple of weeks have been extraordinary. Kim Jong Un, the country’s young dictator, has threatened the United States with nuclear Armageddon, promising to rain missiles on mainland America and military bases in Hawaii and Guam; declared a "state of war" with South Korea; announced that he would restart a plutonium-producing reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear site, while enriching uranium to build more nuclear weapons; and barred South Korean managers from entering the Kaesong industrial complex, almost the only instance of North-South co-operation. All this comes after the regime set off a nuclear test, its third, in February. Tensions are the worst on the peninsula since 1994, when North Korea and America were a hair’s breadth from war.
Things easily could get out-of-hand. What might a delusional upstart do with a fanatical million-man army and artillery trained on populous Seoul, the capital city of South Korea? There’s no telling.

We can’t control a tyrant who might be seduced by megalomania into mass murder. But we can do our part. Because war on the Korean peninsula would spread death and suffering deep and wide, time spent in prayer is time well spent.

2. The first prayer: guidance.

How do you pray against a Korean holocaust? Do you pray for removal of the agent of danger? God could do that. Do you pray for his temperance? God could do that, too.

But maybe the first thing to do is to ask God what to pray for and hope in his prayer-guidance. Maybe prayer begins with listening for the still, quiet voice of the Holy Spirit, perhaps a mental hesitation that says, "Not that way; this way." Prayers are more potent when they petition for the will of God to be done. I don't doubt that God can direct our prayers according to his will.

3. The second prayer: raising an army.

It’s an old joke that if you are given three wishes, the first thing you should wish for is more wishes. But maybe that works in prayer.

When I pray for Barack Obama, I often pray for God to raise up more people to pray for him, for his wisdom, and for protection for him and for his family. And, you know? After I had prayed that for some time, after the 2012 election, conservative Evangelical-leader Franklin Graham publicly called for Evangelicals to pray for their president.

Did I have anything to do with that? Maybe, maybe not. Certainly not alone; maybe God chose to hear my prayers combined with the prayers of many others and did, in fact, raise an Evangelical army of pray-ors for the president.

So pray for God to stir other people to pray, so that blood won’t be poured out on the Korean peninsula.

3. The third prayer: blessings.

Maybe God will have directed your prayers in one way or another. If so, good. But if you do not feel otherwise guided, what harm can come if you pray for blessings?

Pray for peace.

Pray for the one-to-two-hundred thousand political prisoners who suffer in cruel conditions in Korean concentration camps.

And for the millions of farmers groaning in hopeless labor on collective farms in communist Korea.

Pray for light to come to the dark place that is North Korea. Pray for the North Korean people, for their freedom of self-determination, their freedom of mind, their freedom of speech, and their freedom of worship. They are a people severely oppressed. It's a crime in North Korea to sing any song that doesn't extol its leader.

Pray for safety, prosperity, and godliness for the people of South Korea.

It seems right to pray for blessings for a people, more than to pray for harm to any person, however odious and cruel that person might be. I would rather intercede for blessing than judgment.

5. The fourth prayer: guidance.

I suggested that this cycle of prayer begin with a prayer for guidance. Perhaps it should end, also, with a prayer for guidance – guidance for leaders who must make choices about the turmoil on the Korean peninsula, and about the turmoil in the world caused by that.

Pray for the president, and for his military leaders, and for the intelligence community, and for everybody in the American government who will shape policy about North Korea and South Korea. Pray for them to be guided by wisdom and discernment.

Pray for the leaders of other nation, that there may be harmony among nations and wisdom in the preservation of peace on the Korean peninsula. And, beyond the present foment, pray that the nations will be wise toward each other, and toward North Korea, and compassionate toward the North Korean people.

Pray that they will be compassionate, as I believe that God yearns to show his compassion, and as you are compassionate by praying for the welfare of a people that you do not know.

If you choose to take up this burden of prayer, I hope that God blesses you in it.