Who are you voting for? Are you concerned about this presidential election? Are you praying for a specific candidate to win? Have you had any fallout with friends or family from conflicts surrounding political discussions?
No doubt that this election season is highly controversial, and there’s an abundance of strong opinions and intense debate. In the midst of all of this, it’s important that we think about God’s participation in national leadership and look to the Bible for some insights and encouragement. To that end, I’m starting a blog series that will look at various leaders in the Bible, noting that some are ungodly, and all are flawed—just like the presidential candidates that are currently running for office in our nation.
So what about ungodly leaders? Does God use leaders who aren’t principled, who aim to win at all costs and have less-than-impressive track records?
In thinking about these questions, let’s consider Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon we read about in the book of Daniel. To be honest, I’m intrigued by Nebuchadnezzar for a variety of reasons. Consider reading Daniel chapters one through four to get some insight into this very powerful leader. In each of these chapters, you’ll see that several Jewish leaders (Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel) went against the king’s directives and rules. They didn’t follow the eating plan for his leaders, they didn’t succumb to his worship demands and they didn’t conform to popular traditions.
With regard to the choices and values of these Jewish men, they demonstrated a sharp contrast to Nebuchadnezzar’s leadership. Perhaps their actions exposed him to be an ungodly leader. Nevertheless, these men held positions of leadership within the realm of Nebuchadnezzar, and they didn’t shrivel up or shrink down in their convictions and devotion to God. At one point, in a massively heated exchange, Nebuchadnezzar looked into a burning furnace where he had thrown three of these Jewish men to punish them for defying his worship proclamation. When Nebuchadnezzar looked into the fiery furnace, he expected to see them being burned alive. Instead, he saw four men walking around the furnace, and the fourth Man looked like the Son of God (Daniel 3:25).
It’s interesting to observe that in the exchanges between Nebuchadnezzar and these Jewish men, he was always confronted with the true God through their actions and words. In Daniel four, Nebuchadnezzar has an extremely powerful experience with God, where he is tremendously humbled and comes to praise, exalt and honor the true God (Daniel 4:37).
In reading about Nebuchadnezzar, who began as a very ungodly leader, we see that God didn’t dismiss or give up on him. Instead, I suggest that God worked with Nebuchadnezzar on several occasions through the exchanges he had with these Jewish leaders. In a culminating experience, Nebuchadnezzar lost his sanity for seven years but was restored when he looked up and acknowledged the true God.
Just because we have an ungodly leader doesn’t mean that God isn’t engaged, working behind the scenes and participating in that leader’s life. If there’s any take-away I’d want you to have from this blog, I’d ask you to commit to pray for our president, full stop. Our complaining and worrying, and even political feuds we might have, are never as effective as committed prayer.
