They Will Reap What They Sow!!!
Rulers as a form of God's wrath on evil people...
Many of us are patriotic towards our nation, and many others are proud of their new country that they migrated to. Most of us who enjoy the freedoms that seem to be rapidly ebbing away do so in democratic nations. And so Christians in democratic nations seem to forget what it is like to live under a tyrannical rule of a despot leader.
What they also forget is that God will use enemy nations and tyrannical rulers to discipline and judge a nation.
Our western nations are rapidly, and violently moving away from the Judea-Christian roots that were established from the founding of many of those nations. And God will punish those nations (including our own - be it Australia, USA, Canada, England etc) who are embracing evil and unrighteousness.
John Calvin wrote in the mid-1500’s that “…they who rule unjustly and incompetently have been raised up by him to punish the wickedness of the people…a wicked king is the Lord’s wrath upon the earth”
Is there biblical evidence of Calvin’s view?
In short - yes…here are a few!!!
1 Samuel 8:10-18 “So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. And he said, “This will be the behaviour of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”
In these verses we see the time in the history of Israel when they begged God to provide them with a king, just like all the nations (which were evil) around them. Instead of allowing the ‘Judges’ (who were often spirit led people of action and wisdom) to rule over them, they wanted a top heavy monarchy. So God relented…he gave them a king.
God relented - not because we mere mortal humans can change the will of God, but rather because sometimes God gives us what we want just to teach a a very hard, but much needed lesson to us.
But have a look at all the attributes that the human king would have in connection to their relationship with the people they would rule over. Nations have gone to war with each other, and revolutions have been started over far less.
What is interesting to note in these verses is what was said to end the warning. Samuel warned that God (Yahweh) would not hear their cries, pleas and prayers regarding the tyrannical rule - why? Because the people got what they wanted.
They wanted what everyone else had, and they thought that their king, their ruler would be different. The problem was that the “Good” kings of Israel were few and faw between, while the evil, ungodly and idolaterous kings were plentiful.
This should be a fair warning for believers, and the nations we inhabit. The rulers we get, are because they are elected in - meaning that the ‘people’ chose them - therefore the nation will receive the leader they want and suffer the consequences of their folly.
Hosea 13:11 “In my anger I gave you kings, and in my fury I took them away.”
Hosea the prophet was warning the Northern Kingdom of Israel in regards to their wickedness and their disobedience towards God and HIS word, while they worshipped false idols and did evil in the sight of the LORD.
So, Hosea spoke what he had been told by God, and informed the norhtern Kingdom of Israel that in God’s wrath HE will give you the kings you deserve, and HE will also take kings from you.
Our nations are worshipping false idols of sexuality, of wealth, of political power, of pleasure and leisure and the ‘rights of man’ - it is not a stretch of the imagination that God will judge our nations too as they slide further into their darkness.
Isaiah 3:4-5 “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. The people will be oppressed, Every one by another and every one by his neighbour; The child will be insolent toward the elder, and the base toward the honourable.”
These verses should be very famliar to us - if not in their words, but in what they describe - as they describe much of what we see in the behaviours and the views of our political and business leaders.
The key point is that again (like Hosea) God is speaking through HIS prophet (Isaiah) in presenting Israel with a warning. Isaiah warns that God gives leaders like this to nations who are evil and disobedient as a form of wrath, and that they will be oppressed under tyranny and from external nations.
Many of our political/business leaders act like petulent children, throwing hissy fits when they don’t get their way, or if people speak up aganst their views. And many are swinging towards tyrannical rule in our governments.
Yet, some of the leaders we have had in the recent past, as well as those we shall have in the not to distant future will be such as described in these verses - and just like God acting against a disobedient Israel, so to shall it be in our day.
Jeremiah 23:19 “Look! The Lord’s anger bursts out like a storm, a whirlwind that swirls down on the heads of the wicked.”Many modern Christians believe that the Old Testament is not valid, nor is it something that we shall learn or hold the scirptures to be true. This is far from the truth. For if we remove the Old Testamament and the godly truths it contains then we limit and omit the authority it brings to much of what Jesus said and did.
Therefore, we must take every verse that is in the Old Testament at face value as the inspired word of God.
Hence, these words uttered by the Prophet Jeremiah should ring true for us today as they did over 2500 years ago.
Today many Christians have fallen into the new age, quasi-spirituality movement where Jesus is just a very wise spiritual leader who only wants to love on people and will accept all sorts of behaviours and personal viewpoints. This is a false and ungodly position to have.
The false dichotomy of a vengeful Old Testament God versus a ultra-loving New Testament God is wrong.
Hebrews 13:8 informs us that… “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
The same Jesus that showed up at times in the Old Testament is the same Jesus that spoke to the woman at the well, is the same Jesus that died on the cross and rose again - and is the same Jesus that is coming back to detroy Lucifer and his minions and the evil they spread forever!!!
And in that day the words of Jeremiah will come true. God’s anger will be poured out on the nations, and the people within them for the evil they do.
Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
Mockery…it has become ubiquitous in today’s social media, narcissistic driven culture we live in today.
And it appears that mocking the truth - especially God’s truth - is at the top of the list of things to mock.
People mock God in what they do, say and think. They mock God in their daily lives in private, they mock HIM in public with their displays of evil.
But they are not taking into account the words of the Apostle Paul to the church in Galatia. Here he tells them not to worry because God will not be mocked, and the things a person does, says and thinks that are evil towards God - well they will pay their due in their alloted time.
This goes the same for our national leaders. Those leaders that mock God, and God’s holy words in the Bible will recieve their dues in the days and years to come.
God will judge them, and judge them harshly for their wickedness.
Genesis 12:3
"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”This is a promise to the Hebrews and the Israelites - this promise still stands.
Nations and their leaders need to beware of how they treat and interct with the nation of Israel.
If they aim to do harm to Israel then God will judge them severely.
If they bless Israel - then God will bless that nation.
Just something that political leaders need to be aware of.
Psalm 146:2-5 “I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”
This psalm should reflect the view that we should have of human political leadership, and the divine authority of God (Yahweh).
Our trust should not be in leaders - no matter how flamboyant, or reflective of our beliefs and values they may be.
Our trust should be - totally be - unreservedly be - fully in God. Nothing more, nothing less.
Only God is eternal, only God is totally honest, only God is good, and only God is righteous.
As the old hymn goes “All else is sinking sand!!!”…
Do not forget that God used the Babylonian Empire to judge the rebellious and idolatrous nation of Israel (in particular the southern nation of Judah). However, Then God used the Medo-Persian Empire to bring the Babylonians to their knees. And after that the Macedonian/Greek Empire brought it down.
God will use other nations (who HE in turn judges and bring down) to judge those who proclaimed that they worship and trust in God (Yahweh), yet turn around and are disobedient and follow the ways of the world around them.
So, what does this all mean for us…all these thousands of years later. In an age when monarchies and royalty are at best, expensive figureheads - how does the concept of God using kings and other nations to pass his judgement.
Well it means that as ungodliness and evil rise to the fore in our nations, God’s judgement will be upon them soon (if it hasn’t already started). And by extension God’s wrath will be felt by the populace of that nation - be that through the tyranny of the leaders being corrupt, weak, and greedy, or through internal turmoil that weakens the nation so much that another nation can attack it at will.
As we edge ever closer to the return of Jesus Christ our nations are going to spiral out of control. They must in order for a supreme tyrannical leader to emerge once the church and the full influence of the Holy Spirit is removed from the Earth.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 "Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
The ‘Son of Perdition’, or the ‘Lawless One’ - this is the ant-christ figure. The ruler of the entire Earth.
Some people have said they can’t see that happening. Yet, if we look closely at the major nations around the world the level of national pride is diminishing with each passing day, the fervour for wickedness is increasing with each passing day. The amount of anger and violence around the world grows, so too does the lack of security.
In the very near future I can envisage a world where people are sick of politicians and governments not doing what they need to, they will be sick of the violence in their communities, and in their nations, and all the wars that will pick up in their intensity. Fear will drive them to accept a ‘ruler’ who will promise everything they ever wanted - and they will follow him and worship him.
And also in relation to the church and the believers of Jesus Christ, the Bible says…
1 Thessalonians 5:9 "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." and... Revelation 3:10 "Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth."
These verses are part of the promised hope in Jesus Christ. That those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God, the one who died and rose again, the one who bore our sins - they will be spared the full wrath of God just as Noah and his family were spared.
As Christians we need to pray for our nation and its leaders that they repent and turn to God for salvation, rather than relying on the collective knowledge of a fallen humanity for rescue. We also need to pray for wisdom in how to act and think in these times so that we can protect and provide for our families and those around us. We need to place all our trust in God and not the political systems of the world around us.