God Is Not Surprised

He never intended change to happen through the ballot box.

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash (edited)

I’m writing this piece on Monday, November 4th and yet I can say with confidence and without knowing the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election that God is not surprised.

Whether or not a president-elect has been declared at the time this publishes, whether your candidate of choice has to your own surprise won or lost, God has not been caught off guard.

In Daniel 2 Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon is startled awake by a disturbing dream. He calls the magicians and wise men of the kingdom to interpret its meaning. He is so intent on receiving the accurate message of the dream that he insists his counselors tell him the dream and its interpretation. When no one can deliver, he commands them all to be executed.

Daniel and his friends, though not present to hear the king’s demand, are rounded up to be killed with the rest of the wise men. When he hears the reason for this mass execution he asks the captain of the king’s guard for an audience with the king. While waiting to be summoned he prays and asks God to reveal the dream and its interpretation to him.

On Sunday I drove to the local library while our little M napped and our big M built with Lego on the living room floor. After failing to receive my mail-in ballot, the only chance of performing my civic privilege was to visit the senior election officials in the community room where my toddlers assemble crafts with beads and popsicle sticks every Thursday afternoon. I checked in, providing my name and address. When my name was not found on the roll of voters, I dutifully filled out a new voter registration application. I signed on several lines to acknowledge that voter fraud is a felony.

Finally, I was taken to a voting booth, a touch screen and printer on the desk. I tapped through my ballot, digitally checking boxes rather than filling in bubbles. I couldn’t see a single person from behind the portable partition as I aligned myself with certain causes or candidates, as I said my silent prayers and tapped “next” in the bottom right-hand corner. I do not know how each of the others in that room pledged their allegiances, though I might be able to make stereotyped guesses based on age, race, or gender.

My choices confirmed, the printer quietly returned my choices to me. I folded the paper in half, tucked it inside a neon orange envelope reserved for provisional ballots, and dropped it into the box beside the door. With a “thank you” and a “have a good day” to people I will likely never see again, I discharged my civic duty. Only God and myself need know my choices or how they might affect anyone else.

God revealed to Daniel in a vision the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, in which rulers and their empires came to power and were just as swiftly destroyed. His response was not anxiety, despair, or hubris. His immediate response, even before relaying the dream and its interpretation to the King was,

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
to whom belong wisdom and might.
He changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;
he reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what is in the darkness
and the light dwells with him. (Dan 2:20-22)

Before I sat in a voting booth on Sunday, I sat in a sanctuary. I turned a single oyster cracker over and over in my palm as I listened to our pastor recite, “the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you’” (1 Cor 11:23-34). I traced the edge of the tiny, juice-filled cup with my index finger and heard, “In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me’” (11:25).

Around me heads were bowed, heads topped with shiny curls, carefully maintained weaves, a long black braid down one man’s back, my own wavy auburn hidden inside my head covering. The scent of cigarette smoke reached out from the woman to my right, a teenager with autism vocalized in the back row. Together we pledged our allegiance, publicly proclaiming our Lord’s death until He comes again. Mysteriously, miraculously united by Jesus’s body and blood we declared that bread has primacy over the ballot box and that this wine is more potent than whoever might win our votes.

Daniel lived to see Babylon fall. He continued on to serve in the royal courts of the Medes and Persians. Later, the Greeks would conquer them, and afterward the Romans would rise to power. 600 years later, in an insignificant Jewish territory occupied by Rome, the words of the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

The stone Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, “cut out by no human hand” (Dan 2:34), has crushed the kingdoms of the earth. It has grown into “a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” That stone has also been called the Cornerstone, and that mountain has been called the Church (Eph. 2:19-22).¹

As rulers and kingdoms continue to rise and fall, our God is neither surprised nor shaken. Thanks be to God that in Christ, neither are we.

In pursuit of Beauty,

1. The interpretation of Daniel 2 is disputed by biblical scholars, and this is a minority position. If you’re interested to learn more about how I arrived at this view, just hit reply to this email. I’d love to chat about it!