I tremble for Christians who can read the prophets without fearing for our country. God called it “great wickedness” to look to a human deliverer years ago. What will He say to us if we do the same and expect Him to bless our plans?

Our country is in crisis. As election day approaches, I am reminded of a crisis in Israel’s history from the prophet Samuel’s day. Israel sinned greatly by seeking a human deliverer instead of God. Are American Christians in danger of doing the same?

Trust God, not man!

Samuel served as Israel’s last pre-monarchic judge and then anointed her first king. This made Samuel a major transitional figure in Israel’s history. When he was old, the Ammonites on her southeastern border seriously menaced Jabesh Gilead, the first major city within Israel. Her elders demanded that Samuel give them a king, a government military champion (1 Samuel 8:4-5, 12:12).

Samuel was displeased, but God told Samuel to obey their voice. He also told Samuel to relay to them His accusation that they’d sought other gods ever since He delivered them from Egypt. Note also that Samuel, with opportunity to observe royal abuses all his public life, needed no divine revelation to warn the people they’d be unhappy, but they refused to listen (1 Samuel 8:7-19).

After heeding their wishes, Samuel summarized the familiar pattern that we can follow in the Book of Judges: Whenever Israel sinned and God gave her over to an enemy, she cried out and God raised up a deliverer, a judge (1 Samuel 12:6-12).

Sometimes Israel didn’t repent when crying for deliverance. The book of Judges mentions only one such instance (Judges 10:10). Samuel was more generous. He cited three (1 Samuel 12:9-11), the last one under his leadership, within many of his hearers’ living memory (7:5-6).

This time, however, Israel’s elders worsened their rebellion against God. They replaced that ca. 400-year tried-and-true formula, from the wilderness wanderings to their own lifetime, with a monarchy. Never mind that this form of government, Samuel warned, had failed the nations they wanted to emulate.

Samuel was blunt. He told them, in their new king Saul’s presence (!), “Your wickedness is great”. He then immediately called on God to witness His anger with an out-of-season thunder and rainstorm (1 Samuel 12:17-18).

Saul, with the help of God’s Spirit, decisively solved the problem for which the elders had demanded a king (1 Samuel 11). Nevertheless, he soon proved unworthy, and God replaced His Spirit upon Saul with an evil one (1 Samuel 16:14).

Who wants a president or governor harassed by a demon?

Then Saul murdered all the priests (except one who escaped) and wiped out their entire city, including babies and animals, over an irrational treason charge (1 Samuel 22:11-19). This left no official priest to intercede for king or country, or to offer the sacrifices that prefigured Christ.

Finally, Saul’s insane rift between him and his best general David proved disastrous – his Philistine archenemies overwhelmed him in battle at Mount Gilboa. They not only killed the very king Israel had wickedly sought, but also occupied significant territory captured in the battle.

Did Israel learn?

Did subsequent Israelite generations learn the lesson? No! David, the man after God’s own heart, succeeded Saul but sinned greatly by ordering a census. He wanted to know how large an army he (not God) could count on to deliver Israel (2 Samuel 24, especially v. 9-10). God drastically reduced that force with a plague (v. 15).

Judah’s King Ahaz was a far worse king. He sought the superpower Assyrian king’s deliverance from Judah’s small neighbors, Syria and Israel (2 Kings 16:5-9). Assyria solved Ahaz’ immediate problem but at the price of invading her with a massive occupation army (Isaiah 7:17-20).

Ahaz’ son Hezekiah was a far better king, but his foreign policy was no better. He allied with Egypt to free the country from that mess his father had left him, but Egypt failed to prevent Assyria from a massive invasion. It was God, not Egypt, who destroyed 185,000 of that army (Isaiah 37:36).

Isaiah severely chastised Hezekiah indirectly by chastising his envoys:

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses,
Who trust in chariots because they are many,
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
Nor seek the Lord! (Isaiah 31:1; see also 30:1-3)

Our Upcoming Elections

How can we think biblically as we prepare to vote in November? Yes, the Old Testament theocracy is finished, but the New Testament informs us that the Old was written for our admonition (1 Corinthians 10:6, 11). How can that not include Israel’s “great wickedness” in demanding a king?

Politicians routinely promise that we will be better off if they win. That reminds me of a lady who told her granddaughter, “Not all fairy tales begin with ‘once upon a time.’ Most of them begin with ‘if elected, I promise’.”

How can we believe any such promises when we consider our nation’s immoralities, violent crime, divorce rate, and widespread addiction to sports, materialism, drugs, and alcohol? Not to mention homosexuality, 70 million abortions, transgender folly? How can any presidential candidate realistically fulfill such a promise in light of the prophets?

To cite just one example: “Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: ‘There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed’” (Hosea 4:1-2).

I tremble for Christians who can read the prophets without fearing for our country. God called it “great wickedness” to look to a human deliverer years ago. What will He say to us if we do the same and expect Him to bless our plans?

God redeemed Israel’s mess

But God be praised. He took Israel’s wickedness and raised up King David. He penned those wonderful Messianic Psalms and sired King Jesus.

God can redeem the American church despite our folly; but how much more effectively can we pray “Thy kingdom come” if we don’t repeat the wickedness of our Israelite fathers?

“Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help…Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God” (Psalm 146:3, 5).

John E. Taylor is a lifelong Presbyterian, first by birth (to missionary parents in Japan), then by conviction. He currently is a member of Coddle Creek Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Mooresville, NC. He blogs at blog.thetaylorhome.org.