Watching the election from Lynden, WA

How far did you go to vote?  Mark and I drove five hours to Lynden, WA to vote.  We are registered here but discovered last week that our registrations had become inactive.  We updated our addresses, but it was too late to get an absentee ballot, so here we are.

In case you don’t already know this, Mark is a Republican and I am a Democrat.  It has made for a little tension in our corner of paradise.  (That’s an understatement!)  I have been listening to both sides and what I’ve been hearing during the campaign is that supporters on each side have been demonizing the other candidate.  So how do we go on from here?

For the last three years I’ve been reading through the Bible in a year, but this is the first year I’ve been getting helps to understand it.  I have gone through a transformation in the last year as I’ve been understanding what I’ve been reading and applying it to my life.  So what does this have to do with the election?

Lately, I’ve been reading the Old Testament book of Jeremiah and the epistles of Paul.  Let me start with Jeremiah…

Jeremiah was a prophet during the last five kings in Judah before the exile into Babylon.  God told him to warn them for forty years that if they didn’t change their ways they would be destroyed.  For his troubles, Jeremiah was beaten, imprisoned, and his life was threatened more than once.  While Babylon was laying siege on Jerusalem, Jeremiah was counseling the people to surrender to Babylon.  The false prophets were saying that Babylon would never conquer Jerusalem because the temple was there, but they continued to do the things that caused God to turn His back on the temple.  When Babylon conquered Jerusalem and took all the rich and powerful to Babylon, they left the poor to take over the vineyards and farms under a governor that Babylon put in place.  The governor was assassinated and a group of Israelites wanted to take the remnant to Egypt for protection, but they asked Jeremiah to ask God what He wanted.  God told them to stay in Judah, but rather than listening they headed to Egypt and forced Jeremiah to go with them.  In Egypt, Jeremiah prophesied that Babylon would conquer Egypt and leave very few Jews alive.  This happened a few years later.

Now I go to Isaiah.  Isaiah also tried to warn the Israelites to change their ways or they would be carried away into captivity.  But he also told them that there would come a time when a king named Cyrus would allow them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.  God actually used Cyrus’s name and called him His servant.  It took two hundred years, but the Persians eventually overthrew the Babylonians and there was a Persian king named Cyrus who decreed that the Jews could return and rebuild the temple.  He gave them back all the utensils that had been taken from the temple by the Babylonians.

What do I learn from this?  God is in control.  No matter who wins, it has been known by God in advance and perhaps even orchestrated by Him.  Who am I to question Him?

In Paul’s epistles:

Romans 13:1,2 – Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.  The authorities that exist have been established by God.  Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 – I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all these in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.  This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Titus 3:1,2 – Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.

At Aunt Marg’s house, we’ve been watching the election results for several hours.  When I first started writing, Hillary Clinton was predicted to give Donald Trump a run for his money.  It has taken me a while to look up the above references and in that time it’s looking bad for her.  So before knowing this, I was aiming to tell both sides, “Whoever wins, let’s try looking at this from God’s point of view.  Can’t we all just get along?”

This might have sounded smug if Hillary had won, but I’m speaking as a Democrat who thinks of Trump as really scary.  If I can tell the Christians in my party to pray for the president, even if it is Trump, I am calling on Christians to be Christian.  Do as Paul says.  Embrace the Republicans you know.  This is like Jeremiah telling the Israelites to yield to Babylon and live in peace.  This is like Paul pleading with the church to submit to Roman authority.   We may not agree on politics, but we are all one body, as Paul so often said.  We are all under one true Head, Christ.  We are to love one another as brothers and sisters.  I ask the Republican Christians to be kind and generous.  I ask the Democratic Christians to be forgiving and gracefully yielding.  I ask that all Christians “…make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:2-4)  In other words, treat each other lovingly and peacefully.  Let’s move on from here.

It’s not the end of the world, and it’s not the beginning of a new era.  The things of this earth aren’t what’s important.  “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)  Look to God for what this all means.  God is not a Republican and God isn’t a Democrat.  God has the big picture that we don’t have.  Our job is to look at spreading God’s kingdom, not the Republican party or the Democratic party.  Let us Christians be an example to the world of how to live in Christian love.  Reach out to those who voted differently from you and put this behind you.  As Christ said, forgive seventy times seven times.

 

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