“Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way, until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses.”  Daniel 4:32

Mid-term elections are Tuesday.  Many votes have already been cast.  All of us are sick of the mailers, the door hangers, and the television and radio ads.  We are ready for it to be over.  Somehow, I matriculated onto an email list that I cannot get off of and receive up to five emails a day from across the aisle. 

I received another email this week from a follower of Jesus heralding a clarion call to actively participate in this election.  I appreciated the call, albeit the temperament of the rhetoric I am still pondering.  How many sequential election cycles do we have to pass through before the language of “this is the most consequential election in our lifetime” begins to be diminished in substance?

Now, first, I appreciate the call to participate.  Elections matter.  There is a lot at stake.  While never looking toward Pennsylvania Avenue or Constitution Avenue for my security or comfort in life, political decisions affect our way of life and our freedoms or encroachment upon our freedoms.  Ordered liberty is being vanquished by mob rule and the demise of our great republic.  Voting matters, I agree.  My charge is to fill your conscience with the Word of God and become acquainted with the issues and think through them like a gospel Christian; and go vote with your conscience captive to the Word of God.  Let’s vote!

The issues matter.  I have been on the ground for weeks in Eastern Europe and Africa where communism ravaged the countries with abuses in power. Communist socialism stole every initiative from the industrious worker with promises of everything for all. The zeitgeist of American political momentum feels more like the mantra at the end of a favorite Oprah program, “And a new car for you! And a new car for you! And a new car for you!…” Reasonable people who are realistic understand that entitlement and gross assumption cannot drive the future of a great nation. Responsible self-governing, industry, and a work ethic offering the energies of our life back to our Creator who has given us the privilege to breathe make up the drive that forges a great nation-a peoples whose God is the Lord. What our country needs is Jesus and His way of life; fear of God, love of neighbor, others first, responsible stewardship, compassionate use of accumulated wealth (voluntarily given by the blessed of God), and a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

So, I will go vote my conscience and then, come home and sleep like a baby on Tuesday night.  Proverbs 16:33 says, “The Lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”  God already knows the outcomes, yay!  He has ordained the outcomes for our good and His glory.  He has made a habit of using even evil men to His ends in the world to accomplish His purposes.  He used an ancient pagan Babylonian King name Nebuchadnezzar to accomplish His intended plan for His people Israel.  Then he taught that ancient King a thing or two or three about whom held the ultimate authority in the universe. 

Nebuchadnezzar was a maniacal egomaniac.  He was driven by the overweening desire to have everyone recognize him and his authority and greatness.  His empire boasted of his great military exploits and hanging gardens-one of the wonders of the ancient world.  In the sixth century B.C. he was directed by God to come against the people of God.  Israel had forsaken their allegiance to Yahweh, the one true God.  So, God led Nebuchadnezzar to come down and destroy the Temple and take the Jewish leaders of the emerging generation back for indoctrination.  The prophet Daniel was one of those elite exiles.  He, of course, has this meteoric rise and rules for some seventy years.  He serves in the upper tiers of the Babylonian empire and then, when it fell, rose to rule in the Medo-Persian rule.  He had an extraordinary career.  His fear of God and allegiance to Him defined His life and career…the definition of all successful men and women…and nations (Proverbs 33:12).

In Daniel 4, after the glorious vision God gave him and Daniel interpreted for him in Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar went out of his mind in his love of self, love of rule and power, and admiration of his own greatness. God humbled him, and told him ahead of time that it was coming.  Egomaniacs beware! Out of his mind, he passed through a seven-year season of insanity, accompanied by animalistic traits. But, as predicted by Daniel, at the end of the seven years of humiliation, Nebuchadnezzar was restored-back to health and back to rule.

His post-restoration confession is instructive and helps me live through election cycles, even ones I care about a great deal.  Daniel 4:34-35 record, “After this time had passed, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven.  My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one who lives forever.  His rule is everlasting, and his kingdom is eternal.  All the people of the earth are nothing compared to him.  He does as He pleases among the angels of heaven and among the people of the earth.  No one can stop him or say to him, ‘What do you mean by doing these things?’”

So, let’s pray.  Our country needs God’s people to pray.  Let’s vote.  Our country needs gospel people to vote.  And then, let’s rest in the disposal of His will and the ways which will emerge in the outcomes of the election.  His ways are still passed finding out. 

Let’s have joy all week this week.  Let’s read Psalm 2 and kiss the son and sleep well in this first week of this fall’s time change.  “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed…He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision…Now therefore, O kings be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.  Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.  Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”  2:1-2,4,10-12.  Let’s be found bowing down and kissing the Son all week…Jesus is worthy of our allegiance!