When Jesus rode a donkey’s colt into Jerusalem, the accompanying crowds recited Messianic psalms (Matthew 21:9), heralding Jesus as the promised king whom they hoped would throw off the yoke of Roman oppression. Five days later, that same Jerusalem crowd demanded that Rome’s oppressive governor execute Jesus by the hated method of crucifixion, even though he had committed no crime (Matthew 27:20-23).

While certainly not the main takeaway from Matthew’s narrative, these details do illustrate the fickle whims of human nature — easily turned, reversed, or led astray. Since God turns the hearts of kings (Proverbs 21:1) and crowds alike to his purposes, why would you put your trust in the fickle passions of fallible people?

No present example illustrates this point better than the results of the 2025 elections, when American voters handed Democrats a number of key wins — 12 months after delivering Donald Trump and Republicans to power in Washington.

“Talking heads in the media are going to be saying, ‘Hey, this is a foretaste of what’s to come in the midterm elections.’ Could be, but it’s not for certain,” analyzed Family Research Council President Tony Perkins in a Facebook Live post Wednesday morning. “Elections are really based upon the changing preferences of people. Where is your hope this morning?”

Perkins pointed viewers back to the word of God, which is chock-full of fickle crowds oscillating wildly from one pole to its opposite.

At Mount Sinai, the people of Israel affirmed together, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). This wise decision was based on their recent experience of Yahweh’s stunning power: the 10 plagues on Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and the provision of manna and water in the wilderness.

Yet, only weeks later, the people told Aaron, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us” (Exodus 32:1). God’s character didn’t change; their memory of his deliverance didn’t change. The only thing that changed is that they became impatient waiting for Moses to come down the mountain.

Luke records how the Apostle Paul also suffered from the whiplash of fickle crowds. When Paul healed a crippled man at Lystra, the crowds reasoned that “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” (Acts 14:11). It was all Paul and Barnabas could do to dissuade the crowds from offering pagan sacrifices to them (Acts 14:18).

A short time later, however, Paul’s Jewish persecutors caught up to him and “persuaded the crowds,” who then stoned him and left him for dead (Acts 14:19). Luke provides no details of how the men of Lystra so quickly changed from viewing Paul as an immortal god to viewing him as a criminal deserving death. His readers are simply left with the astonishing fact. (Near the end of the book, the inhabitants of Malta draw similar conclusions about Paul, in reverse order (Acts 28:4-6).)

Of course, the Bible records history from ancient cultures in far-distant lands, and not every detail is transferable across cultures. However, the fickleness of crowds are a constant phenomenon across history. The examples of Israel at Sinai and Paul at Lystra are especially relevant to an American context because they occur against a backdrop of self-government.

At Sinai, Israel had just escaped from slavery in Egypt and was wandering around in the wilderness. They had no government except Yahweh, Moses, and the judges Moses had recently selected (Exodus 18:25-26). In appointing Aaron to make a calf, they reject the government of Yahweh through Moses and establish their own government.

In the first century, Lystra was a Roman colony that enjoyed the right of self-government. It participated in the tradition of self-governing Greek city-states, the birthplaces of democracy, many of which dotted the lands once ruled by Alexander the Great and his successors.

Thus, fickleness is not a foible unique to subjected people, or those with no tradition of self-government. It happened in ancient Israel, in slightly-less-ancient Lystra, and even in contemporary America.

“I’ve been involved in this for over three decades,” reflected Perkins. “I have won elections, and I’ve lost some. But my hope is not based on politics. It’s not even based on our government. It’s based on the never changing eternal promises of God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“As Paul wrote to the Philippians,” he continued, “‘Be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus’ [Philippians 4:6-7]. What a promise. And remember Paul wrote that from prison.”

“That’s why we need to be praying,” Perkins concluded. “We need to be voting when we have that opportunity. And we need to stand for biblical truth, regardless of what the election results will be.”