I recently finished a review of the of history of the blogging on this site: Looking Back at 13 Years of Navigating By Faith. One article stands high above the rest in the sheer number of people who have read/viewed it.
I wrote that article, Who Were the Sons of Issachar? And What Might They Mean for Us Today?, during Donald Trump’s second presidential campaign. Christian support for Donald Trump was characterized by a sense of urgency and high stakes. State COVID restrictions jeopardized religious liberty. BLM aroused woke, liberal, mobs in streets around the country. Christians sounded the alarm that people of faith would be canceled by the most anti-faith Democratic ticket in years if Trump didn’t win.
Prominent Christian leaders like Robert Jeffress and Franklin Graham argued that Trump was a “strongman” needed to protect the nation from “anarchy” and “socialism.” Jeffress excused Trump’s obvious flaws, saying that American Christians didn’t need a “Sunday School teacher” but a “fighter” who would protect Christian interests in a hostile culture. Lance Wallnau framed Trump as a modern King Cyrus—the Persian king used by God to protect His people and restore them to the promised land.
Support for Donald Trump was increasingly framed as a battle against “darkness” and “anti-Christian” forces. While many traditional evangelicals focused on policy, the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) was mobilized by prophecy, spiritual warfare, and the “Seven Mountain Mandate.” Dozens of self-identified prophets in this network insisted that Trump’s re-election was divinely mandated in a cosmic battle between good and evil controlled by a demonically influenced “deep state.” The current was strong, and a large number of Christians were swept along with it.
A conversation with my best friend from college, who I loved more than a brother, and who I trusted implicitly, left me in full spiritual crisis mode. He expressed his continued support of Trump on the basis of those prophetic claims predicting another presidential victory and the belief that God ordained Donald Trump for this time. My friend urged my to be like the sons of Issachar “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” (1 Chronicles 12:32)
I have a healthy respect for God’s ability to speak through people in what we call prophecy. The Apostle Paul commands us not to despise prophecy, but to test everything, hold fast to what is good, and abstain from every evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:20-22) I resolved to give Donald Trump another look and to reconsider him.
I had written in 2020 about wolves in sheep’s clothing with Donald Trump expressly in mind. Jesus said we would know falsehood by its fruit, and the fruit I saw in Donald Trump belied the claims of God’s providential blessing.
That a president is not a pastor made some sense. God can use anyone, even a donkey, right? Maybe Trump is like the Persian King Cyrus who is divinely appointed to restore the Christian heritage of the United States….
A year earlier, in 2019, I reflected on those claims that Trump is like a King Cyrus, and I came to a different conclusion. Trump seemed to me more like a King Saul, the king God’s people wanted – the king they wanted because they did not trust God. They wanted a king like all the other nations, though the Prophet Samuel warned them against it. God gave them the king His people wanted, even though they were rejecting God to ask for a king:
“[W]hen they said, ‘Give us a king to lead us,’ this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: ‘Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.‘”
1 Samuel 8:6-9
God gave them the king they wanted in the same way that God gives people over “to the sinful desires of their heats.” (Romans 1:24) The people were rejecting God as their king, so God gave them over to the king they wanted.
People of that day might have assumed that God was blessing them to give them the king they wanted, but that was not the case. Samuel warned them against it, but they insisted anyway.
King Saul was rebellious, insecure, self-absorbed, and psychotic. He failed to obey God’s commands. He became obsessed with his power and reputation among the people, and he became jealous of David.
Though Saul remained king, God had already rejected him and anointed David to succeed him. Saul tried to take David’s life multiple times in fits of jealous rage, and David escaped into the wilderness.
This is where the Sons of Issachar entered the picture. Though Saul was still king, they “understood the times.” They could see the proverbial writing on the wall. They knew that David was God’s man, and Saul’s reign was ending.
Many people have argued that Donald Trump is like the foreign king, Cyrus, who protected and funded the nation of Israel to return to the Promised Land. I have argued that Donald Trump is not like the foreign king, Cyrus, but like the Israelite King Saul. Donald Trump is the king that God’s people wanted.
David was a contrast in character to Saul. Saul was tall and had the right background. He was an obvious choice to be king. David was the youngest in his clan and didn’t even merit his father’s own consideration when Samuel came calling.
David was loyal to Saul and refused to dishonor him. Multiple times, David had the opportunity to kill Saul and refused to take the deciding action against him. David had principals and integrity. David did not sacrifice his principals or integrity on the alter of ambition, fortune, or power.
David had faith and trusted in God. David was not tempted to seize the throne. He believed that God would establish him, in God’s time, as God promised. David would not resort to raw power to get what he wanted – or to rush what God promised. David was a man after God’s heart, which meant that Dave wanted what God wanted.
Instead of trusting God to be sovereign in our history and following Jesus faithfully as he taught us to live and lead, American Christians wanted a king who would give us back the influence and power that seems to have been lost in an increasingly secular and pluralized world. Instead of trusting the story to God, we have tried to take the kingdom by force, as Jesus said men are wont to do.
We have put God on the banner at the front of our crusade, but God is not with us in our zeal to accomplish it. Like Saul, Trump is wielding power and control to make a name for himself. Like Saul, Trump is quick to lash out against anyone who is perceived as a threat to him. Like Saul, Trump does not display the character or integrity of a man of God – yet we have made him our king. Like Saul, Trump is becoming increasingly unhinged.
I don’t know who King David is in our time. Frankly, all analogies break down at some point. Perhaps our King David is simply King Jesus himself, whose kingdom is not of this world. David was a precursor to the Messiah – an archetype. Jesus is the real King.
We need to discern the times like the sons of Issachar and devote our allegiance to Jesus and to his kingdom, as those sons of Issachar devoted their allegiance to David. Like the sons of Issachar, we should devote ourselves to a king who is not (yet) reigning and to a kingdom that has not (yet) been established, believing that God will establish it in His time.
Though David was not yet king, his kingdom had already been determined and established by God. It was established, but it was not yet evident and not yet a reality when the sons of Issachar joined him. That is like the kingdom of God.
Jesus sent his 12 disciples out to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God. He sent 72 followers out to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God. He sent the Church out to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth, to proclaim the Gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God and to make disciples of God’s kingdom.
Jesus announced that the kingdom is here now in our midst, but it is yet to come. That kingdom will not be fully established until Christ comes again and establishes his reign on Earth in the new Jerusalem.
When the new Jerusalem comes and God’s kingdom is established on this earth, it will not be established with a human king or ushered in by human armies. That “Holy City” will come down out of heaven “from God.” (Revelation 21:1-2 and Revelation 21:9-11) Seated on that throne will be Jesus, and he will say:
“It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.”
Revelation 21:6-7
Water for the thirsty and the victorious who will inherit the earth echoes back to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:3,5-6)
The earth is not inherited by the strong and mighty, but by the poor, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Doing the right things and trusting God is not the way of the world, but it is the way of Jesus.
The sons of Issachar who knew the times did not align with the powerful king; they aligned with the shepherd boy and future king that God would establish in His time.
Of course, God anointed Saul as king before David, and God gave Saul authority to rule, but Saul ruled in his own might. He succumbed to jealousy, and insecurity, and the allure allure of power. He did not follow God’s instruction. He was focused on his own reputation.
God made Saul King, but he was the king the people wanted. He was the king Samuel warned them about. Just as God gave the people wandering in the wilderness so much meat in response to their complaining that they vomited out their nostrils, God gave the people Saul, the king they wanted.
God gave the people what they wanted, but God was still in control. He used the Davidic line to set up His own incarnation into the world. God was looking down the road and working to accomplish what he wanted, but anyone who aligned with Saul was on the wrong side of God’s plans.
If we “know the times,” we know that earthly power and influence is fleeting, but God is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is working His sovereign will out in time.
We know that a thousand years is like a day for God. We know that only God knows the beginning from the end. We know that God’s plans are often accomplished despite us. We know that our own generation is not indispensable to God’s plans. To “know the times” is to sense what God is doing and trust Him, knowing that faithfulness is all that God asks from us.
Abraham and men and women of faith are commended by God for being content to dwell temporarily, like aliens and strangers, in the Promised Land, waiting for that city the architect and maker of which is God. None of them lived to see it.
They knew the times. They knew that the promises of God were upon them, but the fulfillment was yet to come.
True children of Abraham do not give their ultimate allegiance to any earthly kingdom, because they are citizens of a heavenly one. Their politics are kingdom politics. Their focus is God’s kingdom first. Their involvement in the political systems of this world are subservient to King Jesus and to his kingdom.
This world is fallen, and it is ruled by fallen men who are subject to powers and principalities that presently possess this world. God will establish His kingdom when the time is right, just as he inserted Himself into the world as a man when the time was right.
The question that lingers is whether He will find faithful servants and faithful citizens of His kingdom when He comes? I, for one, want to be counted among that faithful. I do not want to be so caught up in the power trip of King Saul that I fail to align with the people who know the times and are following King Jesus who has already been anointed King of the New Jerusalem that God will establish in His time, but is not yet.
Navigating by Faith 
God bless you my brother. You sound pretty caught up to me. The simple truth according to the Word is, God set up Kings and He moves them for His will and purpose. God allowed King Saul to be King didn’t He? And He removed him also. We can debate the character of Kings but the bottom line is still God allowed whoever to be President/King because He is sovereign and only He reigns supreme!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s all true
LikeLike
Excellent post! I’m remind of Psalm 146 which says in a paraphrased portion, ‘put no confidence in princes, nor for help on men depend. They shall die, to dust returning, and their purposes shall end’…
LikeLiked by 1 person
It my reading of 2Ch 12:32, the discovery of the 200 sons of Issachar was not only for immediate, but was a clarion choice for all future choices and priorities. The metaphor is established: the house of Saul is the house of men’s choosing (flesh), while the house of David is God’s choosing (spirit). Out of the whole of Issachar, only 200 saw that the house of David was the one in whom their hopes reside. We see it was not only then, but ANY time man’s choice is favored over God’s.
The Church wanted a king – our selfishness got us a politician of our choosing to feed our selfishness. Paul established the principle in 1Co 15: first that which is natural (or of the flesh), and then that which is spiritual. First was the immediate, fleshly choice: Saul – then, and only then came the choice of the Spirit: David.
And we need to remember that Jesus is clearly spoken of as “David” throughout the old testament:
In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it— one from the house of David (Jesus) — one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness. Isaiah 16:5
I will place on his (Jesus) shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. Isaiah 22:22
Instead, they will serve the LORD their God and David their king (Jesus), whom I will raise up for them. Jeremiah 30:9
I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David (Jesus), and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken. Ezekiel 34:23-24
Scripture is ripe with the continual call from God for us to seek His face and only His face: 1 Chronicles 16:11, 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 24:6, 27:8; Proverbs 7:15; Amos 5:6-8
Our choice is clear: either trust in the arm of the flesh, or we trust in God. These are the only 2 choices: Jeremiah said it best: cursed is the man that trusts in the arm of the flesh (Jeremiah 17:5-9).
Before the captivity as he saw the inevitable approaching, Jeremiah’s prayer was this: “We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You.” Jeremiah 14:20-22.
After the captivity, Nehemiah prayed the same prayer: “Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You…” Nehemiah 1:4-11
Father, forgive us all for our selfishness in choosing what WE want instead of choosing YOU!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Amen! You could have written this more compellingly than I have.
LikeLike