BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Legalized Sin We saw one example of this several years ago during a U.S. presidential election. Only an estimated 50% of born-again Americans voted. That’s sad, especially when you consider that less than 600 ballots in the state of Florida determined the outcome of the entire election. It was a clear case of believers having the authority and power to “make a difference,” yet not all of them taking it seriously. Why didn’t they? Apart from sheer laziness, I suspect a lot of Christians truly believe that God just picks whomever He wants to be in a political office and then shoves them in there. The thinking is: God is God. He calls all the shots. Who am I to think I have any influence in the process? Where would Christians get such an idea? Well, probably from the sermons many of us have heard preached from the portion of Daniel 4:25 that says, “...the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.” This is the passage where Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed he lost his vast kingdom for a time due to his pride. In the end, because he did not heed Daniel’s warning and he refused to acknowledge that “the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will,” his nightmare became reality. At first glance we could interpret that scripture to mean, “God just gives positions of authority to whomever He pleases—and that’s that.” But that’s not the whole truth of the matter. To understand this passage, we must interpret it in light of the rest of God’s WORD. To do that, let’s review the biblical account of another king. In 1 Samuel 8, we find that the people of Israel wanted to be like the other nations of the world. They wanted a king. Prior to that, God had used His prophets—His spokesmen—to lead them. Men like Moses, Joshua and Samuel heard the voice of The LORD concerning the affairs of Israel and they relayed The WORD of God to the people. God was their king. Eventually, however, that way of running things got old in their eyes and the Israelites wanted something new, something different. Their attitude became: Let the government do it! Here God had given His people the opportunity to seek Him personally for themselves and for the good of their nation, but they wanted to pass the responsibility off to someone else. The Israelites didn’t want to go face to face with God. If the truth be known, they really wanted someone not quite so “spiritual” as a prophet to lead them—perhaps someone who might actually sin a little now and then and, consequently, not be so hard on them. In short, they were trying to unload their spiritual responsibility onto someone else so they could drink when they wanted to drink, be immoral when they wanted to be immoral…and sin when they wanted to sin. Long Live the King! When Samuel approached The LORD with Israel’s request, God gave them what they wanted, but with this warning: "This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen...to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war.... And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.... And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day" (verses 11-18). In spite of this warning, the people of Israel still demanded, “We will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles” (verses 19-20). What they failed to realize was that sin will kill you whether you have a king for a leader, or God Himself. Either way, the wages of sin is still death. So God told Samuel, “Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king” (verse 22). In other words, “Go ahead and give them what they want.” BVOV : 21

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