from Pleasant Grove Baptist Church https://ift.tt/31Qxl4S
via IFTTT God's man is not always a good man, and not always someone that should be supported. This is a great paradox! Consider pharaoh. Scripture says God Himself raised him up God appointed Pharaoh, leader of Egypt. God chose him and set him in power as the most powerful man across the Earth. God blessed him with riches and power beyond everyone else on Earth at that time. God's chosen man! Why? To create unprecedented opposition to Moses over the Hebrew slaves. Pharaoh was an evil man, drunk on power and riches, considering himself God. He keeps the Hebrews slaves and fought Moses and God through the plagues. Wait .. pharaoh was God's chosen leader, to fight against God? Yes. Let that one sink in. This wasn't the first time either, several times God says that He raised and enriched a nation or ruler specifically to conquer an errant Israel. God raised up an anti God ruler and nation to discipline and correct Israel. So, flash forward to today. When a nation like the USA walks away from truth, God may bring a strong successful but proud and abusive leader to achieve the goal of someone who will oppose God's errant people. Someone who will expose apostate beliefs and lives. In today's world, do we vote for that chosen man? Pharaoh was obviously an evil man, worshipping idols and abusing slaves. Yet God had his finger on this man for winning any election. But do you vote for a man who opposes God and God's law? If you do not vote for him, you are voting against God's chosen man. Voting against God's plan! If you do vote for him, you are voting for an evil man to be ruler and bring misery. What to do? How can you vote if you know God is raising a pharaoh to do evil? And herein is wisdom. A vote cast is our personal obedience to scripture. Who wins is up to God, not our vote. God alone appoints rulers, for blessing or curse. Our vote then, is our personal obedience to scripture. If we were in Egypt voting it would be wrong, even sin, to vote for the pharaoh God was raising up to win the election. God's chosen man, can just as well be evil as good. Our job is to discern which and vote according to scripture principles. Our vote is a statement, a prayer, telling God who we think meets biblical qualifications for public service. Who wins, is in His sovereign hands. Pharaoh was indeed God's man. He was brought to power by God himself. And through the pride and evil of this man God destroyed the nation that supported him. It is quite conceited for us today to think that God's chosen man would bring blessings only. Throughout history God punished errant nations through leaders who represented what was wrong with that nation. God chose and raised those men specifically to demonstrate His greater power and crush the people that praised man over God. America is unique. We have the ability, the responsibility to choose civil leaders. But we must realize that God's chosen winner is just as likely to bring curse as blessing, death as life. Our vote must be according to God's principles of faith and evidence of proper fruit. But the winner of an election, good or bad, is always God's chosen man or woman. He alone appoints authority. Think back over each and every elected official during your lifetime. God chose them for the time, to bring blessing or curse. God is sovereign. He is God. He chooses who He wants to work out His purpose. It is not the place of the church to tell anyone who to vote for or not, but is absolutely the place of the church to speak clear Bible principles of how we should decide who to vote for. Our chosen candidate must meet clear minimum requirements for civil servants as laid out in scripture. Only then can we consider casting our vote. Not from fear, but from faith. Faith that God is in control and appoints each leader. Our job is to choose who to support wisely according to scripture and not be driven by man's fallible wisdom nor fear of any outcome. We stand on principle and relax, leaving the outcome to God. And if God raises up another pharoah, so be it. We do not support such an evil man, we oppose him, even though we may know that God chose him. How do we know that God chose him? Because he won. How do we know not to support him nor vote for him? Because he is evil and does not meet minimum qualifications laid out in scripture. Vote according the scripture. Faith, not fear
