According to the Bible, it is the God of Israel who places leaders in positions of power, and it is the God of Israel who removes them.
He changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings and raises up kings… (Daniel 2:21)
Those leaders whom the Lord raises up are exhorted to practise godly wisdom, and to be open to receiving godly instruction.
They have been given power and authority over their subjects, and they need to know that they will be held accountable by God for the way in which they exercise that power. For they have been given their office to serve God, not themselves.
Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. (Psalm 2:10-11)
Our concern on these pages is how these leaders relate to Israel.
For the last 50 plus years, events in the Middle East have forced presidents and prime ministers to engage the region in an attempt to stabilize a conflict situation that threatens to ignite another world war.
While some of them may have had sound motives, the unwillingness of most to recognize God’s sovereignty in the rebirth of the State of Israel on the one hand, and their readiness to compromise the security of the tiny Jewish state in the face of overwhelming Islamic Arab hostility on the other, has set these leaders on a collision course with the Almighty.
God said He would use events in and around Jerusalem to trouble the leaders of the world:
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is in her palaces; he is known as her refuge. For behold, the kings assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled; they were troubled, they hastened away. Fear took hold of them there, and pain, as of a woman in birth pangs... (Psalm 48:1-6)
Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure: “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.”(Psalm 2:1-6)
And what lies ahead for those rulers who oppose God’s purposes?
The Lord …shall execute kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the nations, he shall fill the places with dead bodies, he shall execute the heads of many countries. (Ps 110:5-6)
Believers who fear the Lord are instructed to speak His Word fearlessly into the ears of world leaders, especially now, given the increasing focus on the Middle East and the growing consensus among the world’s leaders that a State of Palestine must arise in part of the land promised to the Jews.
I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. (Psalm 119:46)
What is His testimony concerning the Land of Israel?
He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance.” (Psalm 105:8-11)
These pages will carry selected letters of appeal and of warning from Bible believers to today’s world leaders.
In the end, these powerful men should not be able to stand and say: “I never knew.”
As you read these prophetic letters, please go to prayer for all the world leaders, especially for President George W. Bush, that he will not fail in God’s given task for him.
