Why might God allow the wicked to win elections?

The midterm results have left some Christians wrestling with a difficult question: Why would God allow this to happen?

In Texas, Democrat James Talarico won a Senate seat after defending abortion rights and transgender policies with references to Scripture. He once said that God is nonbinary, a comment he later admitted was intended to provoke.

In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. He thanked Allah in his victory speech.

Meanwhile, Christians who hoped to see biblical principles reflected in public life experienced major political losses. Why does God permit this? Why do people who reject His truth sometimes prosper while those who profess His name suffer?

It’s an ancient question. Psalm 73 offers a more useful way to approach it than simply blaming the results on election night.

The problem of Psalm 73

The psalmist Asaph watched arrogant people prosper. They spoke boastfully, while he endured hardship, and he began to wonder whether trying to live with a clean heart had been pointless. But when he entered God’s sanctuary, he considered where their lives were headed.

Their success, he realized, would not last. Their sense of security was an illusion. More importantly, Asaph saw that he had been longing for the wrong thing.

He writes that God is all he needs in heaven, and that there is nothing on earth he desires more than Him.

The wicked may have political influence, money, and public admiration. But they do not have the greatest good: fellowship with the living God. That blessing, unlike an election win, lasts forever.

Learning to read providence

It’s easy to assume that a victory proves God’s favor and a defeat means His judgment. But Puritan writers Jeremiah Burroughs and Thomas Watson, along with Scottish theologian Thomas Boston, recognized that God may have many reasons for allowing His people to suffer.

We can’t know exactly why God permitted a particular election outcome. Still, their writings point to several lessons Christians might consider.

1. To show whether we love God more than success

In “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment,” Jeremiah Burroughs argues that contentment depends on God, not on circumstances that are always changing.

Do we love Christ because He gives us political victories, or because He is worthy of our love? Defeat can reveal whether our trust is in God Himself or in the benefits we hope to receive from Him.

2. To expose sin among God’s people

Thomas Watson writes in “All Things for Good” that hardship can uncover and weaken the sin that remains in us. Christians may speak forcefully against wrongdoing in society while overlooking it in their own lives. Asaph, too, had to face his envy.

Do we defend biblical morality in public while making compromises in private? Have we let entertainment crowd out reverence? Maybe a political defeat calls for less strategizing and more prayer, fasting, and repentance.

3. To teach humility and dependence on God

In “The Crook in the Lot,” Thomas Boston describes how adversity can humble believers.

Political success can lead Christians to think the church’s future rests on the right candidate, party, or strategy. A loss can remind us that Christ is the one who builds His church. No election can take the place of God’s power.

4. To strengthen faith through adversity

Watson also teaches that God can use hardship to strengthen the faith and character of His people. Faith that has never been tested may not yet be mature.

Political defeat gives Christians a chance to practice patience, courage, and perseverance, and to hold on to God’s promises. It’s easy to talk about His sovereignty when your candidate wins. The harder test comes after a loss, especially when political opposition begins to affect daily life.

5. To turn our hopes toward eternal things

Burroughs reminds readers that believers have a treasure greater than anything the world can offer. God may take away earthly comforts to remind us that they were never our highest good.

Political victories don’t last. Governments change, and nations rise and decline. Communion with God endures. Do you seek Him each day through His Word?

The victory that cannot be taken away

None of this means Christians should withdraw from politics. Government is established by God, and Christians should work for justice and righteousness. But an election result cannot tell us everything about God’s purposes.

A victory does not, by itself, prove that God approves of those celebrating. And Christians who grieve a loss have not thereby shown that God is displeased with them. Psalm 73 urges readers to view events on earth in light of eternity.

The question is not only why God allowed our candidates to lose. It is also what He might be teaching us through that loss.

Perhaps the greatest victory He has in store for His people is a deeper knowledge of Himself.