Editor's note: It's Independence Day in America! Today is also a special July 4th because it's our 250th anniversary—the semiquincentennial! Enjoy today's devotion from 100 Bible Verses That Made America by Robert J. Morgan.
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April 19, 1775
For they have shed innocent blood... — Joel 3:19
The opening shots of the American Revolution were aimed at a preacher and his congregation, who, bolstered by Scripture, were ready for the moment.
Jonas Clark preached in the village of Lexington, Massachusetts, “with uncommon energy and zeal.” His voice “extended far beyond the bounds of his meeting house and could be heard distinctly by those who were anywhere in the immediate neighborhood.”1 Many of his sermons lasted an hour, and one of his public prayers extended beyond two hours.2
But he preached Scripture, and he preached freedom.
As tensions rose with Britain, Pastor Clark taught his church about “personal, civil, and religious liberty.”3 One historian said, “Long before it was certain that the quarrel must come to blows, he had so thoroughly indoctrinated his people with these great truths that no better spot on the continent could have been found” for the Revolution to begin.4
His preaching... had been... preparation for the noble stand taken by his people on the morning of the 19th of April. The militia on the Common, that morning, were the same who filled the pews of the meeting house on the night before... [Because of Clark’s sermons] no population within the compass of the Colonies were better prepared for the events of the 19th of April than the people of Lexington; no people to whom the events of that day could more safely have been entrusted... No single individual probably did so much to educate the people up to that point... as their honored and beloved pastor.5
As the British occupied Boston, General Horatio Gates took out after Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were sequestered in Pastor Clark’s farmhouse. Late on April 18, Paul Revere galloped in with news the British were coming. Adams and Hancock turned to Clark and asked if the people of Lexington would stand up to the invaders. The pastor replied,
“I have trained them for this very hour. They will fight and, if need be, die under the very shadow of the house of God.”6
The village awoke, and the seventy or so men mustered at the church. As the sky turned from black to gray, hundreds of scarlet uniforms appeared. For a moment the two sides were frozen in silence.
Then a gun fired—the shot heard round the world.
After the battle seven of Pastor Clark’s members lay dead under the windows of the church. Their innocent blood drenched the ground.
“The teachings of the pulpit of Lexington,” it was said, “caused the first blow to be struck for American Independence.”7
A year later, on the first anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, Clark preached a sermon from Joel 3:19–21, a passage in which the prophet condemned the nations of Egypt and Edom because they had attacked Judah and “shed innocent blood” in the land. To Clark, the attack of the British Army had been against innocent farmers and church members who wanted nothing more than peace and liberty. The American Colonies faced the same kind of hostile treatment Joel had condemned long ago, but the same God who helped Judah would help America. Clark went on to reassure his people that God was still in control. In the eloquent language employed by the colonial New England clergy, he said,
To be impressed with a sense of the divine providence, to realize that God is Governor among the nations, that His government is wise and just, and that all our times and changes are in His hands and at His disposal, will have the happiest tendency to [produce] the most grateful acknowledgments of His goodness in prosperity, the most cordial resignation to His paternal discipline in adversity, and equanimity of mind in all the changing scenes of life.
Inspired with this divine principle, we shall contemplate with grateful wonder and delight the goodness of God in prosperous events, and devoutly acknowledge and adore His sovereign hand in days of darkness and perplexity and when the greatest difficulties press...
Yea, however dark and mysterious the ways of providence may appear; yet nothing shall overwhelm the mind or destroy the truth and hope of those that realize the government of Heaven... that an all-wise God is seated on the throne and that all things are well appointed for His chosen people—for them that fear Him.8
In our days of sound bites and tweets, I find this old language refreshing. Apply these thoughts to your own life today—be impressed with a sense of God’s providence and remember He is Governor among the nations. Remind yourself that your times are in His hands and at His disposal. This will have the “happiest tendency” to produce grateful acknowledgment in your heart when things go well, and cordial resignation when things don’t go as you’d like.
Nothing will overwhelm the mind of those who remember an all-wise God is still on His throne.
1. William Buell Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. 1 (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1866), 515, https://archive.org/details/annalsofamerican01spra/page/515.
2. Sprague, Annals, 516.
3. J. T. Headley, The Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution (New York: Charles Scribner, 1864), 75.
4. Headley, Chaplains and Clergy, 75.
5. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, 517–18.
6. Eleanor Lexington, “Clark,” The Spirit of ’76, vol. 11, no. 4 (December 1904), 41.
7. Headley, The Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution, 82.
8. Jonas Clark, “The Fate of Blood-Thirsty Oppressors and God’s Tender Care of His Distressed People” (sermon, Lexington, KY, April 19, 1776) (Boston: Powars and Willis, 1786), 3–4, http://ota.ox.ac.uk/tcp/headers/N11/N11617.html.
Excerpted with permission from 100 Bible Verses That Made America by Robert J. Morgan, copyright Robert J. Morgan.
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Your Turn
Happy Semiquincentennial! Happy 250th, America! Let’s continue to preach the gospel and preach freedom! ~ Devotionals Daily