Proverbs 20:28-21:1 –
Love and faithfulness keep a king
safe; through love his throne is made secure. The glory of young
men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old. Blows
and wounds scrub away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being. In
the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of
water that he channels toward all who please him.
Isaiah
45:1-2 – “This is
what the Lord says to his anointed, to
Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to
subdue nations before him and to strip kings of
their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will
not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of
iron.
Romans 13:3 – For rulers hold
no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be
free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be
commended.
Proverbs 16:4 – The Lord works out everything to its proper end—even the wicked
for a day of disaster.
Application:
- · Benevolence and kindness endear a king to his people and encourage them to be loyal subjects.
- · God controls the lives and actions even of kings, such as Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus.
- · Cyrus, a foreign emperor, is called “his anointed” just as he is called “my shepherd”, because God had appointed him to carry out a divine commission in his role as king.
- · When civil rulers overstep their proper function, the Christian is to obey God rather than human authorities.
- · God is sovereign in every life and in all of history. God displays His power even through the wicked, and all evil will be judged.
All Scripture verses taken from NIV
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