Today on the podcast: how do politics work? Do we elect our officials or does God put them in place?
Do we get to choose who we elect?
It all depends on how you look at it.
Paul tells us in Romans 13:1 that God has ordained and appointed all governmental leaders. That means that He is the one calling the shots. He is the one who votes. In fact, He is the only one who votes.
That doesn’t make us powerless and it certainly doesn’t mean we shouldn’t vote or take part in the democratic process. It means that as believers, we should take our charge all the more seriously.
We must remember that politicians have never been nor will ever provide the answers or healing our nation needs. They are, however, often the chosen vessel the Lord uses in orchestrating His plan for nations. We see just how clearly The Lord uses them when we look at Rehoboam in 1 Kings 12.
Here we find that Rehoboam was “set up” by God to fail to bring about the prophetic Word of God given to Solomon his father. Rehoboam was spurred on by God to make a total mess of his kingdom.
We find this same kind of thing in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 where David called for a census of his fighting men. The accounts are parallel, looking at two aspects of the same story. One thing is clear from Samuel: God was angry with the Israelites and had determined to judge them. Why? We don’t know, but it was established.
God’s chosen vessel to bring about that judgment was David. God allowed Satan to entice David to sin and bring about the national shame that God had already seen in Israel’s people.
I’ll discuss this more in a future article, but David’s actions reflected God’s setup of him as a political leader. When we place ourselves in positions of power and authority, we open ourselves up as vessels to be used by God in a greater measure for good or bad, depending on God’s will for a nation.
Today, we like to blame our politicians for making stupid decisions all the time. But are their decisions stupid because they’re bad leaders, or because God has “set them up” to fail because of our sin as a nation?
I don’t hear many people asking that question because that turns things back on us…
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I am a writer, author and purveyor of ink on paper. I also preach, teach and create Excel spreadsheets.