WWDD - What would David do?

And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became sick. David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in and lay all night upon the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, "Behold, while the child was yet alive we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us; how then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm." But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" They said, "He is dead." Then David arose from the earth and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord, and worshiped... - 2 Samuel 12:15b-2oa

Many of us have undoubtedly been fasting and praying for weeks, perhaps months, for yesterday's election. We besought God to be gracious to us and have mercy on our country, to forgive our sin and save us from the destruction towards which we are rushing. And as an answer we get... Obama?

Could it be that "Yes we can" is louder than "Lord have mercy?" Is it possible that, as one friend told me only yesterday, "a vote and a veto go much farther than prayer in this world"? Well darlin', that's just ridiculous.

In 2 Samuel we read about David's response to the death of the child of his affair with Bathsheba. The child becomes ill, and David fasts and prays for a week - seemingly to no avail. The child dies. But rather than rant about the ineffectiveness of prayer, rather than blame God for the death of his child, rather than curse the heavens for this apparent lack of answer, what does David do? He gets up, washes and anoints himself, and goes into the house of the Lord to worship. David didn't seem to get what he wanted out of prayer, but he recognized the answer and accepted the sovereignty and mysterious goodness of that answer.

Hard as it may be, unreasonable as it may seem, can we not do the same? The election is over. God has answered our prayers regarding the election, albeit not in the way most of us had hoped. But it is an answer, and we will find infinitely more comfort in worshipping Him and trusting that He knows what He is doing than in moaning about the next four years.

This is not, however, to say that our fasting and praying is done. Now it has a new direction and it is not only our best choice but in fact our moral and patriotic duty to pray for president-elect Obama. It is also not to imply that because we prayed, and because Obama won, he must be God's favorite. I firmly believe that God has answered our prayers according to His divine will, but it is also clear that few, if any, of Obama's policies are in accord with that divine will. We have done all we could to affect who will be in the White House, now we must switch gears and do all we can to affect how he will govern.

For govern he will, and that brings us to another series of edifying episodes of David's life.

To set the stage, let us recall that in 1 Samuel 9 Saul is anointed king (actually the Hebrew word here is neged, prince - not melek, king, but that's a different discussion) over Israel. Over the course of the next several chapters he disobeys God in three major ways and as a result God rejects Saul from being king over Israel and gives the kingship to another (1 Samuel 15:26-28). That other is, of course, David. The kingdom will be taken from Saul's house and given to David; but Saul is allowed to finish his reign as king even after David is anointed.

David knows that he is God's chosen king; he knows that God has rejected Saul. And it is clear to David, as it is clear to the reader of 1 Samuel, that Saul is not being a good king. In fact the second half of 1 Samuel depicts Saul's steady descent into madness. But David refuses to go against the Lord's anointed. He does not return evil for evil, despite Saul's many attempts to kill him and his own many opportunities to easily do away with the mad king. He does not claim the throne during Saul's life. He continues to acknowledge and respect Saul as his king despite differences in policy, personality, etc. In no way does David condone the evil that Saul does, but he shows proper respect for the office of king. Which is only fitting, as he will soon hold that office.

Romans 13:1-2, 7 says:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no
authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God
Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and
those who resist will incur judgment. ... Pay all of them their dues, taxes to
whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is
due, honor to whom honor is due.

Not what I want to hear today. At all. But as difficult as this may be for us today, imagine being a Christian in Rome nearly 2000 years ago and being told this. We may often read this passage in light of our modern democractic tradition, and it certainly applies to us today. But St. Paul was writing about obedience to an authority which was persecuting Christians. For over 300 years the Church lived under a government which was almost constantly persecuting it. And how did the early Church react? With protests and sit-ins? By staging a coup? Attempting to overthrow the evil dictators who were killing them? No! The heroes of the early Church were not political revolutionaries in the modern sense - they were martyrs. The Church cheerfully obeyed the Empire as long as obedience to the Empire did not conflict with obedience to God. She certainly spoke out against the evils of the Empire (including abortion) and this set Christians apart from pagans. But she was faithful to St. Paul's directive and gave due respect to authority.

Can we do the same? Giving due respect may be as simple as making a conscious effort to refer to "President Obama." It may mean being willing to see good that may come out of his presidency. It does not mean not criticizing those things worthy of criticism, but it does mean doing so without bashing (as satisfying as a good bashing is...).

As this ties in so closely with the virtue of justice it means giving due respect - not more. "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" (Mark 12:17). It certainly does not mean placing our HOPE in any political entity. When we do that, we shall be rewarded exactly according to the measure of our hope - and that is not a happy thought. (We are looking more and more like Rome leading up to its fall - infanticide, emperor-worship, hedonism... but that is also another discussion).

"A nation that kills its children is a nation without hope." - Pope John Paul the Great