As goes the king

Steve and Teena Qualls

As goes the king, so goes the country. The future and well-being of the organization is found in the heart of the leadership.

We just finished primary voting last week. People went to the polls and elected their candidates for the upcoming future. Leaders from across our nation have taken one step closer to their respective positions. Have we chosen wisely, because the fate of the people will lie in the heart of the leaders we elect.

 In the Old Testament book of Esther, a little Hebrew girl, who’s identity had been kept secret, found herself holding the fate and future of her people in one hand and the judgment of the king in the other. Hadassah was her name, but the king and the people of the land knew her as Queen Esther. The world today reverberates her story and remembers her as Esther, the woman who saved a nation. But the irony in this telling is that her story is very much unlike the Hollywood images supplanted into our minds in that she does not rule the empire through a puppet king from her lofty position of authority. Let’s break this down.

As chauvinistic as it sounds, it remains true that Esther was handpicked from a large group of potential candidates over a period of many months to be what many would consider the Miss Congeniality of the Persian pageant and subsequently became the new queen. Parallels between the days of Esther and today can be uncovered as the story unfolds. First, the future of their race depended on the decisions of the king. Secondly, there was an inner working by high-ranking officials to destroy God’s people. Third, only God could repair what was broken, and, fourth on the list, “as goes the king, so goes the country.”

The evil that spoke into the king’s ear was a man by the name of Hamaan. He hated the Jewish people and everything they stood for. He schemed a plan to annihilate them, and he used the king’s authority to do it. He set into motion the extermination of the Jews, legalizing it with a decree from the king, gave it the king’s royal signature, and his evil dream would take place on a select day in the coming months.

Esther wasn’t the king and neither was her family, her maid servants, or the nation of Israel. There was only one thing they could do to possibly keep this genocide from happening and that was to engage in energizing prayer. The responsibility fell to Esther to save her people, but there was a problem. She would have to be granted access to the king in order to speak with him on behalf of her people. If she entered his presence uninvited, she would be executed without question. So she requested her people to join her in prayer and fasting for three days for the king’s heart to be anointed. They prayed for God to move upon their leader. She knew that the fate of her people lay in the heart and mind of their leader. They knew that God would have to change the mind of the king in order to change the direction of the nation. The king wasn’t from their nationality. He wasn’t a minister, Christian or scholar. But they knew that what God would do through the king, would directly affect the nation of Israel as a whole. They fasted for their way of life, for their future, and their very lives.

Now let’s fast forward to good ole America, in 2020. We are being divided by our nation’s leaders as we speak. Some are in full attack mode against the church. Some stand in defense of the gospel, while others fight to burn Bibles, monuments, businesses, and places of worship. However the enemy is not our elected officials; the enemy is the same evil that spoke into the ear of the king all the way back in the days of Esther. It’s the presence that wants to silence the voice of God at all cost. But what can we do as one man or one woman? The answer again lies in the book of Esther and that is prayer and fasting to change the heart of the leaders. It seems the few will never be able to change the minds of the many, but change comes through God. He is not calling us to march, write letters, or protest. He’s simply calling us to effectual and fervent prayer, because, through that type of diligence and energizing prayer, God will remove the ones that need to be removed, change those that will accept change, and anoint those with favor that will follow his lead.

As goes the king, so goes the country. So why would we not pray and fast over our leaders. Let’s come together in prayer to change our nation one leader at a time. The fate of the people lies in the heart of the king. Let’s pray those hearts are given to Almighty God.

Let’s talk more at Christpoint Church. We’re on the square, in Sparta, and you can find us open for business at 9:15 a.m. and 11 a.m. this Sunday. We’re real people, living real lives, serving a real God. Welcome home.