We’re on the home stretch of the next presidential election, and we’re left with three possible candidates: Bernie “Feel the Bern” Sanders, Hillary “Email Extraordinaire” Clinton, and Donald “I Have Big Hands” Trump.
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I don’t fully identify with any particular candidate (though I do have my leanings, of course.) I certainly want the leader that not only represents me best in their speeches, but mostly in their actions.
I want a president that will bring back the job market, lower my tuition, decrease crime, help the poor, seek justice, defend the oppressed, and will stop making us the laughing stock of other countries.
I often look at other countries and wonder, “Why can’t we be more like them? Why don’t we have better systems in place like we do? Give us someone like them.” And as I was reading through 1 Samuel again, it hit me:
“’…Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.’ 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them…’” 1 Samuel 8:5b-7
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s appropriate to want a good candidate for your country seeing as we do live in a democracy, but something still pulled at me. Maybe myself, and some others out there I’m sure, are a little too invested in the race. Just how contingent are our hopes for the future on the candidates we have before us? How will any of these candidates cure any of the worlds’ ailments?
Being president of the United States is often coined with also being the single most powerful human on the entire planet, but can someone who is only flesh and blood deal with the evil we so daringly trust our leaders to dispatch of?
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
Throughout the narrative of Israel post-Samuel 8 we see Israel rise and fall. The key phrase is always either the king being evil and rejecting God and thus hurling Israel into another downward spiral, or that the king was righteous and that God delivered him and gave him victory in everything he did. All of the ailments in the world reflected a spiritual reality. The successes and failures of Israel were determined purely by whether God chose to deliver his people or not, which was usually contingent upon whether the king was evil or righteous, just as God warns Israel in chapter 12.
So what does that mean for us as Christians in the year 2016 in a secular nation? Do we need a Christian president, lest our country delves into evil (as if it ever had any other trajectory)?
In my honest opinion, it doesn’t matter to us. Or shouldn’t, at least. I think we’re all too guilty of chasing comfort and that uneasiness we currently feel is the slipping from our privileged status as Evangelicals. The state might get rough for us, but Paul was beheaded, Peter crucified (upside down mind you), and John was almost boiled to death before being exiled. But their eyes were not fixed on the state of their country, but the Cross. So are we trying to find change in the world among our peers and looking everywhere but the Cross?
We, as a people, were given one true King, who is Jesus, and are foreigners in another land for the time being. Why should we be caught up in the worries of what we have no stock in? Our goal is simple: Preach the Gospel and love your neighbor.
The epistles are largely disinterested with their modern politics other than reminding people to keep their eyes on Christ and to remind them who is actually in control. Evil rulers were puppets of Satan, whereas righteous people would be servants of Christ, and both could never extend their reach outside of God’s sovereignty.
Our goal and our understanding should remain clear: Preach the Gospel, love one another, keep your eyes and hope set on Jesus alone. To finish with a quote I think sums it up rather well:
“Even the worst of mankind can’t disrupt sovereignty.” – August Burns Red
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