No matter the election results . . .

2 Kings 15; Psalms 123–125; Hosea 8; Titus 1

With the USA election dominating most of the news, my mind keeps comparing Old Testament history with modern shenanigans. As with most who do not live in the US, I’m trying to have the attitude that no matter who wins, or who I think should win, I want God’s will.

Not knowing what His will is for this election, I’m looking at how God reveals Himself in the past. For that, the OT gives me two contrasting options. Neither are based on political views or election promises. Instead, both are about the way God responds to His people, not the general population but those who claim to have the same faith as Abraham. These are people who have heard God speak, believe Him, and have put their faith in His saving power.

In the OT, God made promises of grace and protection from evil threats and anything that would keep His people from living uprightly. He said:

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore. For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong. Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts! But those who turn aside to their crooked ways the Lord will lead away with evildoers! Peace be upon Israel! (Psalm 125:1–5)

However, the other option is judgment. In OT history, God’s people did not always obey Him. When they did not have the godly lives that represented Him to the rest of the world, He responded taking them from their comfortable life and brought into bondage. It was not a happy time for them but necessary. They needed to learn the significance to God of what they had been doing:

Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. To me they cry, “My God, we—Israel—know you.” Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him. They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction . . . . For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour; if it were to yield, strangers would devour it. Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel . . . . Though they hire allies among the nations, I will soon gather them up. And the king and princes shall soon writhe because of the tribute . . . . Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing. As for my sacrificial offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but the Lord does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt. For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour her strongholds. (Hosea 8:1-4; 7-8; 10; 12-14)

 Their idolatry brought them to severe chastening and after seventy years in bondage, they learned their lesson and never returned to that idolatrous life. However, the people of God today are not without problems. One of them is the danger of false teaching that lures them back into living by their old nature and its sinful ways rather than walking in the Spirit of God. In the NT, they were told things like this:

For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach . . . .Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. (Titus 1:10–16)

APPLY: God has not changed. He still wants His people to display His character. None are to turn away from trusting Him to trusting ourselves or putting what we want above what He wants. This means if God puts a leader in place that goes against my wishes, I’m must continue to trust Him, not grumble or protest and certainly not resort to rioting and violence. If anyone does that, it only proves that His discipline is necessary. I cannot vote but am very aware that God wants me to pray. My American family and friends are in a place of decision. May the Lord lead all of us them to trust Him deeply, no matter the results of the vote.