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Who made this guy king?

Ryan Scott Carrell · October 1, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Let’s talk about bad interpretations for a second. You’ll often see verses like this one ripped out of context and randomly tossed into arguments during election seasons.

“He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;” – Daniel 2:21

A divine appointment is a way ancient people understood the concept of monarchy. Those monarchies were cruel and used gods as justification or excuse for their actions. When an evil king fell, people applied the judgment of the gods as the reason and reveled in their freedom until a new king climbed to the throne and became just as cruel, and the pattern continued.

I won’t get into all the details here, but this pattern setup the desire for a good king, a messiah, a true king, one who possessed love, justice, and mercy. (Hint: Jesus).

Verses like this have to be understood within an ancient context and most definitely does not apply to a secular democracy in which people vote. This is why you can’t just grab a verse, but need to peel back and layers and ask good questions.

Bottom line: I encourage you to pray for wisdom, discernment, and common sense as you make decisions that impact our neighbors, society, and world. Avoid ordaining cruelty in the ballot box. And remember, the only real king is Jesus, and we live in his kingdom when we show his love, mercy, and compassion in our world.

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About Ryan Scott Carrell

Ryan is the founder and lead pastor of Southeast, a church community on the southeast side of Indianapolis. Having grown up as a preacher’s kid, and a preacher’s grandkid, the stories of the Bible, often told with flannel-graph, were always familiar but not always meaningful. Ryan’s hope is to peel back the layers of unfamiliarity to discover the truly incredible things the scriptures can teach us about God and what it means to follow the way of Jesus.

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