Proverbs 21:1. The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
The phrase stream of water is better understood to be an irrigation canal. Farmers would dig irrigation canals to direct the water wherever they wanted it to go. God does the same thing with the heart of the king. He directs them wherever he wants them to go.
We get detailed examples of this in the stories of the Bible and history. God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and directed him to let God’s people go. God turned Tiglath-Pileser’s heart against Israel, and Nebuchadnezzar’s heart against Judah. God turned Cyrus’s and Artaxerxes hearts toward Judah, in allowing them to return and rebuild in the Promised Land.
The principle still holds today. Every ruler on the face of the earth is under the supervision of God. Even the wicked ones. Even the most wicked of rulers (Pilate and Herod), on the most evil of days (Good Friday), were under the direct providence of God.
Acts 4:27-28. 27for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
What does this truth mean for the Christian? It should significantly remove fear and despair in the political realm. No leader has ever been elected that God has not first chosen himself. No president has been in office that has not been used for the ultimate good of the church of Christ. No king has ever taken power away from the King of Kings.
Christ our king allowed his heart to be placed in the hand of the Lord, Yahweh. His destiny was determined before the foundation of the world, like every other king’s. But unlike every other earthly king, the heart of Christ was placed into the hands of the Father of his own free will. Jesus was obedient to the Father in all things, not because of God’s providence, but because of his own presenting of his life to God.
In Christ, we now live as God’s royal priests on earth. Kings and queens of the planet, our hearts, like the heart of Jesus, under the direction of the Lord. His guiding providential hand and our faithful submission to his plan combine to make a life of obedience to God by grace through faith. A faith that pleases him while proving his good and perfect will.
In the hands of God, we know that wherever Jesus turns our hearts it will be for his glory and our good. And for the good of others. Our lives now an irrigation canal carrying the stream of living water into the desert hearts around us.
You: Do earthly rulers stress you out? Cause you to worry?
You in Christ: How does being in Christ remove fear of earthly kings, while allowing you to be the royal priest that God wants you to be?
Christ in you: Where can you see Jesus guiding your heart on a day to day basis?
Pray: Father, I recognize your rule over all rulers. Help me also to recognize your rule over my own heart, as you conform it more and more to the heart of Jesus. Amen.
To Live is Christ 