Talarico Casts Himself as David and Jesus in Victory Speech: 'Time to Start Flipping Tables'

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Election night in Texas came with a sermon. As reported by The Christian Post, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico compared his U.S. Senate victory over Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton to David defeating Goliath, and then compared his political movement to Jesus overturning the tables in the temple.

Talarico, 37, is a Presbyterian seminarian who made Christian language a centerpiece of his campaign. Speaking to supporters in Austin shortly before midnight on November 3, he retold the story of the shepherd boy and the giant, said his campaign had faced "our own Goliaths," and told the crowd, "The people of Texas were my slingshot."

He closed with a line he had used throughout the campaign. According to a transcript of the speech, he said that when "the people at the top hurt his neighbors, that barefoot rabbi didn't stay in his room and pray," but walked into the seat of power and "flipped over the tables of injustice." Then he told the crowd, "Texas, it's time to start flipping tables."

The Christian Post reports that Talarico won with 55 percent of the vote. It was the first statewide Democratic win in Texas since 1994 and the party's first U.S. Senate win there since 1988. He will be the youngest member of the Senate when he is sworn in next year.

A Bible Believing Response

Let's start with what the Bible actually says happened in the temple. Jesus "cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers" and said, "It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves" (Matthew 21:12-13). In John's account He said, "make not my Father's house an house of merchandise" and His disciples remembered, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up" (John 2:16-17).

Jesus was not storming a capitol. He was cleansing His Father's house of people who had turned worship into a business. The target was corrupt religion, not a political party, and the motive was zeal for God's holiness, not a legislative agenda. Turning that passage into a campaign slogan for any party, left or right, twists Scripture.

And notice the jab that Jesus "didn't stay in his room and pray." The Lord Jesus is the One who said, "when thou prayest, enter into thy closet" (Matthew 6:6). He prayed all night before choosing the twelve (Luke 6:12). He prayed in Gethsemane before the cross (Luke 22:41-44). Prayer was never a substitute for obedience in His life. It was the engine of it.

The same goes for David. David did not win because he "had hope" in the people. He told Goliath, "I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts" and "the battle is the LORD's" (1 Samuel 17:45, 47). The point of that chapter is that God gets the glory, not the voters or the candidate.

Jesus said plainly, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). When politicians from any side borrow His name to sell a platform, Bible believing Christians need to know their Bibles well enough to spot it. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1).

Sources: The Christian Post and Rev.com speech transcript.

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