Voters wait in line 25 minutes in Chattanooga for early voting at a convention center in Hixson. (Photo David Tulis)
A woman signs her name on a state form so she can vote in a federal presidential election. (Photo David Tulis)
[Here is my talk Tuesday night giving a devotional before the boys and dads at Trail Life USA meeting in Hixson.]
Trump? Clinton? Boys, you’ve been hearing a lot of talk at the table and among parents and adults at church about the coming election.
Elections are somewhat like renewing a contract between people and government. But elections represent not merely a contract, which is an arrangement between two equals. They are not merely a decision of whom will represent the people in government.
By David Tulis / AM 1240 Hot News Talk Radio
Elections are part of a covenant. We know about the idea of covenant because we have an Old Testament and the New Testament, an old covenant and a new covenant. In the new covenant, the promises of forgiveness and Grace given to Israel are broadly poured out across all the world’s peoples.
A covenant in the Bible is unilateral. That means it’s a one-way street. It’s a one-way arrangement that God imposes, and men obey.
Elections reflect how men are doing vis a vis God. A godly people has godly candidates and godly options, officers who will remember God’s law and seek the general good. An ungodly people have evil choices in elections, those who are lawless, ungodly and self-seeking.
Elections reflect what men say of about God’s covenant with man
The covenant among God, the people and king is subject to God’s law, summarized in the Ten Commandments and detailed in underlying case law. You will find many of these statutes in books such as Deuteronomy in Leviticus.
If we love God much, we obey Him in terms of His laws, not daring to offend Him in them. If we the people love God too little, we obey him too little. If we reject God’s covenant, our futures as a people or nation are shortened, impoverished, marked by blood, chains and 1040 forms. About these forms? Just ask your dad.
Elections let God laugh. They show He has a sense of humor. God lets an ungodly people choose the man they want to abuse them. We elect our master, and the greater are seen as a people under the Covenant, the worst that master proves to be.
The Bible is full of teachings about God’s sovereignty, His unlimited jurisdiction. The word jurisdiction comes from Latin juris, law, and diction, which means “to say.” A judge has jurisdiction over a criminal defendant before him. God has jurisdiction over each man and over mankind in general. God’s sovereignty asks us to think His thoughts after Him and to obey Him. There are many Bible verses that talk about God’s sovereign government over man. Not one atom in the universe is independent or autonomous of His will. If it were, it would overthrow God.
Psalm 75:6, 7 says, “For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge. He puts down one, and exalts another.” Nearby there is this: “By me Kings reign, and rulers decree of justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, all the judges of the earth.” Proverbs 8:15, 16. We have Nebuchadnezzar’s claims about God’s authority, the famous passage by Paul in Romans 13 about the magistrate as a necessity for mankind, given our fall into sin.
Why elections matter
What do elections have to do with you? You’re too young to vote, yet you know they are important. Does the fact that we have elections matter to you?
The answer is yes. The lesson you should take about elections is that they are reminders of the covenant that has three parties. The parties again are God, the magistrate or state, and the people.
You, too, are subject to government. The main government in your life is thst your parents. You did not elect them, nor did they elect you. You are together in a family as part of God’s providence. Your duty is to be godly under their government so that God may bless that relationship of obedience and faithfulness one to the other.
The blessing on your family, or the withdrawal of blessing on your family is reflected in national elections. As a people turn away from God, God turns away from them and gives them wicked rulers. In your family, if the head turns away from God, there will be wicked circumstances in your everyday life at home.
If you the son turn away from God and rebel against your parent’s lawful authority and against God, there will be wicked circumstances in your life at home.
