God's Sovereignty through a Clay Vessel

These events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia. 

King Xerxes

The celebration lasted 180 days—a tremendous display of the opulent wealth of his empire and the pomp and splendor of his majesty.(Esther 1:1,4 NLT).

Xerxes was a proud and somewhat egotistical King, yet God used him to deliver the Jewish people.  I would like to suggest to you that President Donald Trump may be a similar figure.  Some Christians may be a bit surprised in how President Trump does things but are pleased in what he does.  God often uses unlikely people to accomplish his purposes. 

If I may, let me compare our current President with his predecessor, President Obama.  President Obama made a Christian profession and I, in no way question his faith, yet in his policy decisions, he violated several fundamental Christian values.  First, he parted with the understanding that marriage was to be between one man and one woman.  Second, was his view of the State of Israel.  Concerning the former, Obama flip-flopped and supported gay marriage. His support for Israel, at best, can only be described as lukewarm.  Granted, Obama was a little smoother around the edges than Trump, and at times did things with more tact.  The question is, do we want a President that is polite, or right?  Neither, Trump nor Obama would I like to be my pastor, but we did not elect a religious leader, but a political one.  Do we want a President who says the right things and carries his Bible to church, but then makes policy decisions that are anti-biblical?  Or do we want a President that is not always politically correct, but in the end, does the right thing, consistent with a world Christian view?  The choice is fairly obvious to me.

President Trump’s critics are telling Christians that we should be ashamed to support a man of such a checkered past. In answer to these questions, I point you back to the story in the Book of Esther.  Mordecai, a righteous Jew, allows his niece, Esther to be involved in Xerxes’s harem. The King, one by one, took beautiful women to his bed to choose his Queen.  This violated the law of creation of one man with one woman.  Esther was not meant to be read as a moral document. God is not once mentioned, yet his hand in the background accomplishing his purposes through flawed people and even unrighteous practices.  In speaking about this story, the commentator Matthew Henry once wrote, “This shows how God serves his own purposes even by our sins and foolish ways.”  Evangelical Christians’ support for our President should not be misconstrued as an endorsement of his past, or all of his actions today. It’s merely a recognition that God has raised up a political leader to affect changes that were desperately needed in this country.  One change has been bringing a greater balance to our Supreme Court.  Another, the long-awaited move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem in Israel.  This move may be the most significant event towards fulfilling Bible prophecy that we have seen in our generation.  Read the Book, it all happens on Mount Zion.

It is not my purpose to justify sin.  Donald Trump along with the rest of us, barring forgiveness through Jesus Christ, will be held accountable for all our actions.  In spite of this, in a national or global sense, it is difficult to argue that Donald Trump has not been a change agent for things that Christians have been seeking for many years.  We evangelical Christians have had this cookie-cutter mentality concerning who God can use to accomplish his purposes.  We have tried to support people who aligned with our religious preferences and moral constraints in a political world, and it did not work.  Yes, he is a man of the earth, with bigger clay feet than most, yet God has been sovereign enough to use this human wrecking ball to affect his (God’s) purposes on the earth.  I am not much of a prophet and what I am going to say next is not a prophecy, just a suggestion.  As Xerxes is known as the political leader that God used to help save his people from extermination, maybe Donald Trump will be remembered as the secular leader who spurred Israel on to the glorious things God has in store for Jerusalem, God’s holy city. Who knows?   

Images used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com