Should We Sit Down, Shut Up and Let God Handle It?

Every time a Christian gets up on his hind legs to protest the election of someone's favorite candidate (you know who you are), another gets up and tells us that we shouldn't worry about such things; that God has everything in his hands and that whoever is elected, it will be at Gods will.

While God might make the best out of it for his faithful whatever miserable situation it puts us in, that "best" is, like God, best seen in the light of eternity. Bible and human history has shown that often, God allows his people to experience a good deal of the mortal misery our bad decisions cause. It's heaven's version of tough love. There is plenty of evidence for how that happens in Scripture.

If you remember, the nation of Israel made some choices against the Will of God and paid dearly for it. They wanted a King. Samuel acting on behalf of God warned them against it. They demanded a king and God gave them one. It turned out very badly, just as God warned even though he did send them a good king. The story of Hezekiah is instructive here. King Hezekiah was told to prepare himself for death. He pleaded with God to extend his life. The whole nation begged God to extend his life. God relented and extended his life.

During that time that God granted to Hezekiah, he had another son, Manasseh, who for 55 long years was the worst king Judah ever had. Just because God gives us what we demand, doesn't mean it's what He wanted for us. Christians who should know better are demanding Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton for our leader. God may allow them what they want, but given how close we are to the end of days, I kind of expect that at some point God will no longer protect us from our own greed and stupidity and let us reap the rewards of our disobedience and self will. If you remember, Daniel and the Revelation, Isaiah, Ezekiel and even Jesus Himself said it would go badly at the end.

While we may rejoice at Christ's soon return, we cannot in good conscience rejoice at the misery of our friends, neighbors and loved ones, even if they brought it upon themselves with us standing behind them warning them of the consequences of their poor choices. We should be careful about sitting on our backsides counting on God to correct our stupid decisions. In general, God asks us to stand in the breach and defend the right, not wait like spoiled children for Daddy to bail them out of the predicament they got themselves into.

So, I will continue to speak out against the evils of our two apparently inevitable presidential candidates. As a Christian man, I cannot go quietly down to Sodom and I certainly won't vote for that sort of change. God help us all.

© 2016 by Tom King