Seeking Signs on Election Night

I have been casting about lately, looking for some sign that God is still active in human affairs. When you study Isaiah, as my Sunday School class just did, you can’t help but be impressed with the level of God’s working in history. I’m not referring to “religious” history, because Isaiah’s record makes it crystal clear that God directs all of human endeavor, not just that of his “chosen” people. Granted, the context of Isaiah reveals how God dealt with other people as they related to Israel, but the fact remains: the fate of entire nations rested squarely in the almighty hands of the Creator of the universe.

Having recently finished Almost a Miracle, by John E. Ferling, I am fresh from the thought that the success of the American Revolution and subsequent founding of this nation was either a case of multiple serendipities or divine intervention. The same conclusion can be drawn from events in more recent history such as weather “coincidences” at Dunkirk and D-day and countless more. The problem with all of these is that we don’t have an Isaiah predicting them hundreds of years in advance so we can read later how clearly they were God’s orchestration.

Jump to my present-day search for signs. A report on WND by Garth Kant points to a “coincidence” that occurred during the evening of our recent Presidential election. Kant reports the observation by former US Representative Michele Bachmann that at precisely the time when millions of Christians began to pray very specifically about the election, the tide turned. Clinton had appeared to be winning handily as the first returns came in; then a sudden, dramatic shift occurred in the post-election polls: Trump began rising as Clinton fell precipitously. That dual trend never changed. Significantly, the graphic you see here was created by the New York Times, not WND or Fox News.

Christians who are repulsed by the thought that God may have chosen Trump need to remember that the “apple of God’s eye,” David, was an adulterer and murderer. Cyrus the Persian who released the Jews from Babylonian captivity was a pagan. Peter insisted that the Jewish rulers who crucified their Messiah were doing God’s work. The ruler Paul declared to be “ordained by God” was the tyrant Nero. God doesn’t need perfect people to do his work; he doesn’t even need willing people. As the Psalmist once observed, “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathens; I will be exalted in the earth!” End of line.

In light of all this, I ask myself if I am being too critical or cynical or just blind. I wish I could jump for joy with Bachmann and say, “Look what God did with our prayers.” I may be overthinking this, but I think if Trump was God’s man for this hour, Trump would have won whether we prayed or not. I cannot convince myself that America is God’s chosen nation. Theologically, I can’t conceive of any nation being chosen. According to Peter, the holy nation is believers, not Americans. “But you [believers] are… a holy nation, a people for his own possession.... Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.”

So here is the irony. God will accomplish His purpose with or without us. Yet if we wish to be “God’s people” (aka believers), we must attempt to align ourselves with his purpose. Jesus said His followers would keep His commandments out of love. He also said that he counted certain ones as his “family” because they did the will of His Father. The only way we can know the commandments of Jesus or the will of His Father is to study God’s Word. And then pray.

I think C.S. Lewis summed up the need to pray best when he said, “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time – waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God – it changes me.” I don’t know whether Trump won because people prayed, but I am encouraged that people prayed. We should keep on praying. I should keep on praying, not to change election results, but to change my heart. That’s the sign I should be looking for.