The Character of the People is the Soul of the Nation

Image Attribution: kait jarbeau/flickr

Fateful Choices

How does the character of the people become the soul of the nation? With the election less than two weeks away, Facebook posts are dragging out in long strings of snarky comments, many which are made by desperate contenders. We are informed with near hysterics that this is the most important election in our lifetimes and that … oh you know, America may never recover if we choose poorly. That claim may be precisely accurate, or it could be electioneering hype. Maybe a few voters who “just don’t get it” will ruin everything for the rest of us.

Fear is the controlling emotion this election as everybody fears everybody. Will the election quiet our internal strife or increase it? I will not try to predict the outcome but only note a few of our choices that have brought us to this fateful hour in our national existence.

Things Happen for a Reason

It is no error from Providence or chance that we are asked to choose between two of the most biblically unqualified candidates ever to run for public office. Granted there have been some pretty sordid candidates for president in the past. I just cannot remember when we were asked to choose between two such contenders in iniquity. Often there is a candidate that at least marginally fulfills the demands God has given for civil magistrates that they be, “able men, who fear God, hate evil, and do not take bribes” (Exodus 18, Deuteronomy 1).  But now upon our political stage strut two people who are so far removed from these core demands that we are uncertain if we should retch or puke. The prophet Daniel stated concerning the Lord that:

It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding (Daniel 2:21)

This dispels any possibility that civil rulers arrive in their offices by anything other than the providence of God. It may distress us at the cusp of “the most important election of our lifetimes” but there it is blurted out on the sacred page so what can we do?  Man chooses but God elects. We hate that truth, we do not understand how it can be so, logic will not figure this one out, and it chanks our crank that God is sovereign. Do we think otherwise? If so we think foolishly.

How Did We Get Here?

I am not trying to promote fatalism here, just a biblical view of providence. We can let the theologians keep whacking at this question about the sovereignty of God and the will of man for millennia into the future. Meanwhile maybe we can make a little progress in figuring out how we arrived at such a state as this election brings us. It is right to assume that when we depart from obedience to God’s commands, when our character is characterized by contention with His will, we ought to expect that God is going to judge us with lousy rulers. God told Hosea “I gave you a king in My anger” (Hosea 13:11) referring to King Saul, one of the worst kings on the planet. The sovereign will of God as an explanation for our leadership woes should not be overlooked. We are a people under judgment.

The character of the people speaks about our commitment to respect and obey God’s law in all things. What kind of people are we? Do we speak the truth? Have we tithed unto the Lord? Are our neighbors helped by us? Are we kingdom builders who seek at every turn in life to build the kingdom of God? Are we lazy? Are we visionless? Are we distracted with useless activities? Have we searched for the hidden treasure and spent all we have to obtain it? Do we teach our children when we rise up, when we are in our houses, when we walk in the way, and when we lie down? Have we renounced the idol of central government and all others? Do we desire security over obedience and liberty? What kind of people are we? What is the mettle of our character? Do we pray with the psalmist “My soul waits in silence for God only: From Him is my salvation?” Or do we pray to our idols for salvation from our earthly troubles?

What Do We Believe?

What kind of people are we? What is the mettle of our character? Do we believe what is written about Christ?

And the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this (Isaiah 9:6–7).

Have we believed His word that there will be no end to the increase of His government? Do we seek with self conscious diligence this justice and righteousness on the earth? Have our souls, “longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord?” Or are we satisfied with the courts of godless men? Will the zeal of the Lord of hosts accomplish this?

What is the mettle of our character? What kind of people are we? Are we in near despair like the psalmist who wrote, ‘Many are saying of my soul “There is no deliverance for him in God?”  Or have we moved ahead in the faith asking, “Why are you in despair O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God …” Have we become morally compromised advancing from fear to fear as we rush headlong into the arms of our idols, of terrors’ children? What will a man give in exchange for his soul?

What Have We Done?

Be assured that the character of the people becomes the soul of the nation. When I speak of the soul of the nation I mean not just our national actions but our perceptions about them. Do we sense an underlying righteousness behind most of our nations’ doings? Do we believe our wars are, essentially, just? Are our politicians typically truthful? Are they ever truthful? Are they thankful? Are they thankful to the God of the Bible?  Do we delight in the actions of our government? When we measure with Scripture do we see our civil government fulfilling the Bible’s righteous precepts? When we read the prophets can we say, “I am glad our nation is not like the ones God judged?” What is the mettle of our character? What is the condition of our national soul? Will we soon return to God?

The soul of our nation would be greatly improved if we could honestly say with the writer of Hebrews:

But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul (Hebrews 10:39).

May the Lord preserve our souls.