Daily Devotional For June 15, 2025
And I saw and I heard a vulture flying in mid-heaven saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe, to those who live on the earth because of the rest of the sounds of the three angels who are about to blow their trumpets.” Rev 8:13.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,” US administrator Paul Bremer told journalists in Baghdad, to loud cheers from Iraqis in the audience. Saddam Hussein had just been found in a tiny cellar at a farmhouse about 15km (10 miles) south of his hometown Tikrit. Saddam was the most wanted man on a list issued by US authorities, but had not been seen since Baghdad fell to US forces seven months before.
After receiving a tip from a member of Hussein’s family, US forces located a “rural farmhouse” and cordoned off the area. The Iraqi strongman, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands over a 34-year reign of terror, was found cowering in a “spider hole,” a tiny cellar. Access to the hiding place was a narrow hole covered with a rug, bricks and dirt and about six to eight feet (1.8m to 2.5m) deep. In one last show of bravado, he announced to his captors, “I am Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq, and I am ready to negotiate.” A quick-minded American soldier rejoindered, “I bring you greetings from President George Bush.”
Video footage released by the US military showed a disheveled-looking Saddam with a long, black and grey beard in custody, receiving a medical check-up. Hussein emerged from his hiding place “very much bewildered” and said “hardly anything at first,” according to Major-General Raymond Odierno. Soon after, people began celebrating the capture of their former president in the streets of Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk by sounding their horns and firing into the air.
The hut where Hussein had been living was made up of two very small rooms. There was a bedroom cluttered with clothes, some of them new and still in their wrappers, and a kitchen with running water. In spite of his record, I was touched with some sympathy for the man.1
Christians suffering at the hand of evil rulers should never envy the position of those who persecute them. The seven trumpets are poured out on “those who live on the earth,” the very ones who persecuted the faithful, as described in the seals (Rev 6:9-10). Those who have hurt or killed the faithful people of God are marked in the “books,” and if they do not repent, they will suffer as much as or even more than those they persecuted. It isn’t a pretty picture. I’d rather face the wrath of man than the wrath of God.
Lord, help me not to judge reality by who is up or down in the power polls. Help me to see that human power is temporary and so is the suffering it causes. Help me to trust that You will soon make everything right.
1 Based on BBC news report, December 14, 2003, posted at www.bbc.co.uk.