Posted on 01/20/2022 9:55:32 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1 KJV).
The Lord controlled the heart of Ahasuerus in the life of Esther (Est 2:17), and God turned it to accomplish His own purposes. God establishes the kingdoms, and the rulers (Rom 13:1-2), God establishes them and ordains the powers that be. Rulers are to be a terror to evil, not good works. When a man is evil, God directs the heart of the king to bring punishment upon that evildoer.
If a king is wicked, and rebels against the authority of God, since the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, the Lord will harden. If that heart rebels against God, or rejects the revelation of God, or the will of God—the Lord will harden that heart—just as He did to Pharaoh in Ex 4:21. God will use that man for His own purpose to bring judgment, and then bring judgment upon that man as He did with the Assyrian in Isa 10:5-7:
“O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation [He uses Assyria to bring judgment upon a rebellious Israel], and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few” (Isa 10:5-7 KJV).
It isn’t really in the king to do that, but God led him to do it—made him do it—because God chose to use him to bring judgment. There again, God searches the heart, and give to the individual what he deserves and the fruit of his doings.
What you want to learn about verse 1 is the Lord’s will for you as determined by your attitude. Not only is the king’s heart in the hand of the Lord, your heart is too. God knows the way of the heart, and you can just get into a pile of trouble by disobeying God. That’s all I can say. You can get into a pile of trouble by rejecting light, rejecting truth, because He gives to you what you deserve and what you really want.
If a man wants the truth, God will show him the truth, if a man doesn’t want the truth—God will blind him so that he can not see the truth.
“And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thessalonians 2:10-12).
In Ezekiel 14, God will even send a false prophet to you to deceive you because of the idols in your heart. If a man turns against the Lord, the Lord will turn even more against him.
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