In just a few days, we here in America will be choosing our leaders for the next few years. In fact, that process has already begun in most states through early voting. But what may surprise a lot of people is that as far back as the Book of Deuteronomy, God was speaking to his people about a day when they would set up their own leaders just as we are doing now. Deuteronomy 17:14-15 says, “When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.”
Ten times in Scripture we find the phrase “[they] made him king.” Many more times we find similar phrases. Sometimes they did as Deuteronomy 17:14-15 instructed and chose wisely; many other times, they chose poorly. But in every case, the entire course of a nation was altered to one degree or another; it always is when new rulers are chosen.
They had one ruler to choose: a king. We in America have it a teensy bit more difficult than that. We choose a president, vice president, senators, congressmen, governors, lieutenant governors, attorneys general, auditors, commissioners of agriculture, commissioners of insurance, commissioner of labor, secretaries of state, superintendents of public instruction, treasurers, judges, justices, magistrates, sheriffs, state senators, state representatives, county commissioners, boards of education, water and soil district supervisors, and also vote on referendums galore. And we have to make all of those choices through the noise of multitudinous and wildly contradictory radio, TV and social-media ads, mailers, texts, emails and even the occasional unhinged lunatic who thinks that screaming in people’s faces is an excellent way to win friends and influence people.
Scratch that “teensy bit” thing: We have it way more difficult than they did.
Many years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, explaining what he would like to see our country become. I could never top the oratory of his speech, but I would like to do something at least of a similar nature. Rather than add here to the cacophony of “vote for my side because everyone else is Hitler/Satan/The kid that bullied you in the third grade,” let me just tell you what I would love to see for and in the land I love.