“He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats" (Matthew 25:32).
As the election looms, confusion reigns: If character matters, what candidate has the requisite character? If policy matters, what party rests on a platform that most nearly approximates God‘s concerns?
These are the questions that trouble us, made more difficult by the fact that no human candidate or platform can fully satisfy the demands of justice. All fall short of the glory of God.
But we, on our part, can acquaint ourselves with both candidates and the platforms their parties embrace and prayerfully lay both candidates and platforms alongside the Word of God, our ultimate source of the knowledge of good and evil. And as we search the scriptures we can ask for wisdom from above for God alone knows the facts and latent forces that lie beyond our ken. And then we can cast our vote, praying that God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
There will always be a measure of uncertainty in our decisions, for we “know in part,” and thus we cannot know all that we need to know. But we can know that we have sought God’s will and not our own. And that’s the best that anyone can do.
In my own heart, O master, in my thought,
Betwixt the woolly sheep and hairy goat
Not clearly I distinguish; but I think
Thou knowest that I fight upon thy side. —George MacDonald
David Roper
9.30.20
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