Who’s in charge?
Harris or Trump? Cleverly or Badenoch? Well, we know the answer to that one. It’s Badenoch. But the other one hangs in the balance. And given how powerful the USA is, and how much global events seem to be shaped by who is in the Oval Office, it feels a pretty big one.
And it always does, doesn’t it? The UK General Election earlier this year felt big. The Presidential Election always feels big. Brexit felt big. It’s all pretty big!
This newsletter isn’t going to weigh in on what the result should be. Instead, I hope to offer some encouragement about the posture we can have whenever these big elections come up. And it all boils down to this: who’s in charge?
Who sits on the throne?
In January, the USA will have a new (or returning) President. A lot will be shaped by that, and these times of waiting and polls and results and October surprises can feel nervy. Because changes of power are always nervy. It is a time when a nation’s present and future feel fragile, hanging on a knife’s edge.
In the first section of my book, all about having confidence in God over all else, I write about Acts 4 when the early Christians were facing persecution. They come together in prayer and a lot of their prayer is taken up with quoting from Psalm 2. It’s a coronation Psalm used when Israel crowned a new king. And in it, we read these words:
Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord and against his anointed… (Psalm 2:1-2)
When Israel’s king had died and a new king was to be appointed, the other nations saw that the country was weak and would plot. Maybe this is the time they could strike while Israel is distracted, weak and kingless. But, of course, Israel was never kingless. The Psalm carries on…
The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
He rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
“I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.” (Psalm 2:4-6)
Israel always had a king. He hadn’t been born as a human yet. But the Son of God has always sat on the throne, so the idea of other nations rising up and overthrowing the one anointed by God himself was laughable. As the persecuted Christians of Acts 4 prayed these words, they were taking comfort and finding confidence that Jesus was still that king, was still enthroned, and could still not be defeated by any human power.
What I’m NOT saying!
I am not saying that the US President or the Leader of the Conservative Party is as important as the Kings of Israel were in the Old Testament. They aren’t. Theologically, they are just in a totally different category. These things feel big to us, and they do matter. If you’re American, go and vote. But they don’t matter nearly as much as we sometimes allow them to.
What I AM saying
What I do want to say, simply, is this. Jesus is on the throne. A lot of the coverage makes it seem as though the whole world hangs in the balance here. It doesn’t. Jesus Christ sits on the throne by his Father’s side. He will one day come to restore and redeem all things, to judge the world (including Donald Trump and Kamala Harris) and all will be made right.
It’s a relief, right?