HAND PICKED LEADERS

The Bible is filled with examples of how God used government leaders, both good and bad, to accomplish His will, and thereby, work out the plan He had from the beginning of time.  There was the "good Pharaoh," whose promotion of Joseph provided for the family of Jacob (Gen. 41:41), and the "bad Pharaoh" who began what was to be the four hundred years of bondage of God's people (Ex. 1:8).  There was the "bad king" of Israel (Saul - 1 Sam. 9:17-13:13), and his replacement, the "good king" who was a "man after God's own heart (David - 1 Sam. 13:14-16:12).  God used Cyrus, King of Persia, to rebuild Jerusalem after the seventy year bondage of Israel in Babylon (Ezra 1:1-3), and He used Pilate, Governor of Judea, to sentence His only begotten Son to death (Jn. 3:16; 19:6)!

With all the biblical evidence that God is in control, it puzzles me how I, and most born again believers, are astounded by the election of less-than-perfect men to be President of the United States.  It is as though we believe God is soverign, and yet our elections are controlled by "ignorant fools" as one person wrote on Facebook!  Either God is in control, or He is not.  If we forget this, we fail to truly believe He is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent in the affairs of men.  In other words, our view of God is more like that of a glorified absentee landlord, than He is the ever-present Lord of lords!   

Perhaps the best passage in Scripture to confirm God's control in the affairs of man, is found in the Book of Daniel, which says, "O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour:  and for the majesty that He gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.  But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:  and he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that He appointeth over it whomsoever He will" (Dan. 5:18-21).

Don't protest against God's chosen; pray for him!