A Godly People Deserve a Godly Leader

 

A godly people deserve a godly leader; but does the opposite hold true? What does it say if we get another ungodly leader?

In my devotions lately, I have been reading in 1 Samuel. Besides the story of how Samuel came to be born and to serve the Lord, the other thing that the story of Samuel is known for is the institution of an earthly kingdom for the nation of Israel. That is to say that they received their first king to rule over them, a human monarchy. It was God's intention that Israel would operate as a theocracy, that is that God would be their king. They would have no earthly ruler over them, but God's will would come to the people through the prophets and the judges that God would send to them.

The problem is that people don't do well when they cannot see and converse with those who are put in a position of leadership over them. It didn't help that all of the nations surrounding Israel had kings who did the bidding of the nations. I suppose there may have been a certain status that the Israelites felt that they had not achieved because they did not have a king with his accompanying palace and army, accumulated wealth and servants. There are trappings that come with a central government and these trappings are used to present a certain image of power and success. We see that all the time with our earthly governments and their extravagant spending on themselves.

To this end, I remember a conversation that I had with an acquaintance while I was undertaking a job at his workplace. He looked at me and said, "Hey, you're self-employed; why don't you drive a $40,000 truck?" My response to him was, "Because I want to stay self-employed." I had another friend who was also self-employed at the time in a different type of business try to tell me that I shouldn't be driving an older truck as my company vehicle because it doesn't send the right message to my customers and potential customers. Apparently it is all about image. It doesn't matter if you can't actually afford to drive a new truck, you should present the image that you can afford to drive a new truck. I guess this was the mindset of the Israelites at this time regarding the status that a king would give them.

This was no surprise to God. If we look back to Deuteronomy, we see it prophesied. Deuteronomy is Moses' last words to the people of Israel whom he had lead out of Egypt and through the wilderness for 40 years. He knew his time on earth was coming to a close, so he gathered the people to him and shared a message with them, reminding them of all that God had brought them through and impressing on them the importance of continuing to follow God wholeheartedly. But in his message we find this prophecy in Deuteronomy 17:14-20; "“When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. 16 Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ 17 He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

18 “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel."

Through Moses, God told the Israelites that they would desire to have a king over them, thereby rejecting God as their ruler. Earlier in 1 Samuel God tells Samuel that the people have not rejected Samuel, but God; 1 Samuel 8:7-8, "The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. 8 Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day—in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also." But God sets rules around the king, things that he should and should not do. The king must be from the people of Israel; no foreigner was to rule over them. The king was not to build a stable full of horses, nor a house full of wives or a vault full of wealth. The king received a requirement from God to write out, for himself, a copy of God's law, and this was to be done in the presence of the priests. He was to keep it with him and read it. This was to ensure that the king would remember that he was on the throne at the will of the Father, that he was not above other men except in office only, and that he was supposed to lead according to God's law and statutes. 

My memory tells me that there may have been one king who actually did write out God's law as directed, but I don't remember who it was, and I could definitely be wrong about that. We do know that successive kings strayed from these commands to further and further degrees. Even the beloved King David had horses and riches and many wives and concubines. Solomon took David's excesses to an extreme level.

I will make a note here, again from memory, that I believe at some point in Scripture, God states that the reason that the kings were not to accumulate horses was that the kings would come to trust the strength of their own arm through the stables of horses prepared for battle, rather than to trust in the arm of God to overcome their enemies. This would cause them to take counsel from their military leaders rather than from God. The same went for the accumulation of wealth, which they would see as the foundation of their power, rather than their obedience to God.

The reason that I am writing about this today has partly to do with the recent American and current Canadian federal elections and the ramifications of choosing our own leaders. I think that the Americans got the President that they needed at this time, and that had the Democrats won the election, the U.S. would quickly have been consumed from the inside out by horrendous policies and actions. I have reservations about some of President Trump's words and actions as well as some of his interests and the people that he has around him, but we'll have to see what happens. I suspect that while Trump was the only viable option in November, he may well pave the way for infrastructure that supports the coming anti-christ to get built under his tenure, setting the world up for the coming end times. It is possible that God allowed such a horrible previous administration in order for the people to choose and support this current administration overwhelmingly, and to be blindly lead into the apocalypse.

We face similar winds in Canada with our currently running federal election campaign. Pierre Poilievre is the only viable option for reasonable and thinking people. We have seen the division created by and the economic collapse that has occurred under the previous Trudeau Liberal government, and one does not have to look very hard or dig very far to see and understand that what Trudeau pursued and accomplished in ruining this country will only expand and accelerate under Mark Carney should he actually gain the Prime Minister's seat through an election. When you elect a clown (Trudeau), you get a circus; and every circus needs a Carney. We need to shut down this circus with it's carnie; this country will not survive another Liberal government.

But we cannot look at the world around us and assume that just electing 'the right' leader will mean smooth sailing for us. I have much more trust in Poilievre than in any other option, but given the assumed time frame that we live in, I have to assume that Poilievre may very well make decisions that I won't agree with and that may align us with forces and leaders that will put us on the wrong side of history as we enter the end times. There is little time left for wiggling and still fulfilling the prophecies that we find in Scripture. The world will be mislead, and leaders will make decisions to that end, but, I think that, as Canadians, we need to take responsibility for the outcome. It may be that we have corporately brought this on ourselves.

I base this on what I read in 1 Samuel 12:14, "If you will fear the Lord and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the Lord, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God." IF we, the people, will fear the Lord, serve Him, listen to Him and obey Him, THEN even the king who reigns over us will follow God. That is not to say that whoever holds the seat of power will come to know God, though I put nothing outside of God's ability, but I believe that if we as the people of the nation would submit ourselves to God's will, then He would provide for us a leader whose heart is also submitted to Him.

Can we honestly say that we, as a nation, have honoured God? I don't think so. There is an argument to be made that the government that we are currently trying to rid ourselves of has enacted laws and policies against the will of the people of this country, and also against God. Trudeau and his Liberals have repeatedly claimed over the last nine years that they have been listening to the people and enacting what the people have been telling them that we want, but I know almost nobody who has agreed with the Liberal policies and laws that we now have to deal with. There will definitely be some Canadians who have agreed completely with the direction that this country has gone, but I suspect the truth of the matter is that the government listened only to the voices that they agreed with and ignored the dissenters. This has been obvious to most of the people who live in the prairies, and it appears as though the country is about to make it's judgment on the government of Justin Trudeau. Unfortunately, the coward has left and has escaped the direct judgment of the people, instead leaving others to bear the brunt while he jets off to parts unknown. It is a shame that Canada has been stripped of it's opportunity to judge Justin. I suspect that it will remain as a wound that will never quite heal because as a country we are being denied closure. But I am growing optimistic that, despite what the media and the polls are telling us, we will see an end to this iteration of the Liberal government.

But returning to the point of this article, if the people of the land do not recognize God as our true sovereign, why should He provide us with good human governance? There is no reason for Him to do so. I hope that the last nine years have been our punishment for turning away from Him, and that a new page will soon be turned. I just don't know if this country has turned back to God sufficiently or not for Him to allow us a reprieve from our downward spiral as a country. As I laid out in my last article, God sometimes allows us to suffer in order to bring us back to Him, but has our suffering been sufficient and our return to Him been equally sufficient that He will restore our fortunes and save us from calamity? I guess we will soon find out. I am afraid that if the people get this wrong and re-elect the Liberals to continue to lead us, it may be the end of this once wonderful country. There is no exaggeration in that statement; this election may actually be existential to us.

So I implore everybody in this big, beautiful country of ours, to examine your own lives and your relationship with God the Father. Turn your hearts to Him and commit yourselves fully to obedience to whatever He calls you to do. Pray about the outcome of this election and seek His direction regarding who you should cast a ballot for. Perhaps God will relent and give us a questionably deserved reprieve from devastation from within.

Please share this article and these sentiments with those you know and love. This is a call to action for a nation that is approaching the brink.