Did the Almighty Intervene to Protect Donald Trump?

Transcript:

One of the questions that people are asking about the attempted assassination of President Trump last Saturday is whether it shows that there is special divine protection for Donald Trump. There have been dozens of articles written on this subject, with many theologians and pastors and even people who are not particular fans of President Trump saying his survival, with a bullet that came within 1/4 of an inch of doing serious damage to his brain, represents a modern-day miracle.

To answer the question about what this all means, there’s no better place to turn than the Bible. In the book of Exodus, chapter 33, there is a haunting passage that gives us a hint of an answer. Moses has been leading the Jewish people in the wilderness. Meanwhile, he wants to see God’s face. He’s heard God’s voice frequently, but he wants to see the face of the Lord.

The text says, “Then the Lord said, ‘There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen.'”

Now, what does this have to do with miracles that occur in American history, very often to the benefit of the United States? It has everything to do with it. Because unless you take it as a given that the scripture is only a reflection of very primitive anthropomorphism, you have to ask what it means to be able to not see God’s face but to see His back. One of the traditional interpretations of what that all means is that seeing His face is watching God as He does His work–creating and running the world. Seeing His back means to see the impact of that work, to see the reality of creation, and yes, even the reality of deliverance.

What this means is that we may be able to say some 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 100 years from now, that yes, it was a miracle to save Donald Trump. But we’ll be able to say that if he goes on to be elected president of the United States and he does a spectacular and redemptive job, indicating that he was an instrument of God’s will–he believes that he is, and that he deserved and earned the protection that he received.

There are so many different examples of people who assume that there is divine intervention, but you don’t know it until after the impact of that intervention has been achieved. In other words, even for the Hebrew people wandering in the wilderness on their way from Egyptian bondage, obviously there is divine intervention. But is it intervention to keep them in the desert for 40 years? Or is it intervention to help them achieve a normal life in a land of their own?

They won’t know that while they’re wandering in the desert, subsisting on manna and watching for a pillar of cloud to guard them during the day and a pillar of fire to guide them at night. All of this is supernatural and divine, but whether the purpose is for their benefit or their confusion, it’s not entirely clear.

This is true of other big incidents in American history. I’ve written two books about this: The American Miracle and its sequel, God’s Hand on America. They are about incidents in our history that end up, years later, appearing to be illustrations of God’s protection for the United States. One of the points that I argue is that a pattern of happy accidents is still a pattern. However, you don’t know which of these make the best case for divine intervention until years elapse and the impact of that intervention is clear and unmistakable.

One example involves the survival of Secretary of State William Henry Seward, who survived a carriage accident less than two weeks before the Lincoln assassination. The carriage accident led to terrible damage to his face and neck as he fell out of a carriage trying to steady it after the horses had bolted forward. He was riding with his daughter in that carriage while he was Secretary of State in the very last days of the Civil War. For his recovery, the doctors strapped a metal plate over his neck so that his bones could heal and he wouldn’t be handicapped. That basic plate, that was strapped to him by canvas, saved his life. It saved his life when Lewis Payne, on the night of Lincoln’s assassination—part of the John Wilkes Booth conspiracy to basically disable the United States government—also attacked Seward in his bedroom where he was recovering. Payne brought a knife down time and again, and time and again it struck the plate around Seward’s neck.

At one point, you could say, “Wow, this is an amazing intervention.” But God did not intervene in saving Lincoln, who died the same night. So what does all that mean? What it means is the United States acquired Alaska two years later. It was solely the initiative of William Henry Seward that made it possible. Then, 150 years after that, Vladimir Putin and his associates said it was because of the land grab that took Alaska for the United States that Russia lost the Cold War.

There are patterns in history. There are times when you think this could only have happened through some kind of a miraculous disposition. I think the acquisition of Alaska is one of them. The survival of Seward is one of them. Whether Trump’s escape is another, let’s see what happens with this election and with any potential Trump administration. At that point, the search for a miracle and for a miraculous interpretation of dangerous and significant events can be answered with much more certainty and conviction.

To hear more on this issue, which is profound in our past, present, and future, check out the American Miracle Podcast series wherever you get your podcasts.