“THE SUCCESS OF ANY PRESIDENT AND NATION DEPENDS ON IT’S ALLEGIANCE TO GOD’S LAW”

With the upcoming-November 2024 elections in the United States and 65% of all nations across the globe, the future of the U.S. and world will be defined by those results.

Today, I am going to show you through the Book of 1 Kings, that the success of any leader and nation depends on their commitment to God’s law as laid out in the biblical record. And that failure to adhere to God’s law results in decline and captivity of that nation. Let’s get started.

As we move out of the Book of Samuel, we will now move into 1 Kings. 1 Kings, author uncertain. 1 Kings was written circa 550 A.D. by a person who most likely  was one of the exiles who lived in Babylon, perhaps on unknown one, Ezra or Ezekiel or Jeremiah (through someone other than Jeremiah would have had to write the last chapter of 2 Kings, since Jeremiah apparently died in Egypt, not Babylon: (Jeremiah 43:6-7).

1 Kings opens with the struggle for Accession of Solomon in (1:1-3) to the final charge of David to Solomon in 2:1-12. The wisdom of Solomon in 3:2-4:34, the Temple of Solomon to the rise of fame of Solomon, the DOWNFALL of Solomon for failing to keep God’s ways and law (11:1-43) to finally, the DIVIDED KINGDOM in (12:1-22:53). It’s within this context that I would like to give a general, Birdseye view of our journey into 1 Kings in light of the fact that the success of any king, president or nation depends on their allegiance to God’s Word.

BASIC FOUNDATION

1 Kings is a historical narrative of Israel and a Judah and includes interaction with the surrounding nations, the disasters of following false prophets, and the tragic Babylonian captivity. The historical narrative of Kings records the 19 kings of Israel (all bad) and 20 kings of Judah, (only eight of which were good). 1 Kings was written FIRST, for the Jewish people in Babylon in 560 B.C., later for the Jewish community, and lastly, for you and I today, as reading of 1 and 2 Kings would provide insight into their circumstances, explaining the cause of the Babylonian conquest. It’s important to note that the nation was taken into captivity for their wicked practice of idolatry: setting up a corrupted worship of the Lord with the Golden calves in the north kingdom, worshipping the gods of the pagan nations around them on high places and in Jerusalem, and even sacrifice their children to Moloch, SIMILIAR to today’s abortion epidemic. Please note that after the return from exile, Israel would never again practice idolatry.

IN CONCLUSION: 1 and 2 Kings:

1. Reveal that each king failed, even the good kings of Judah, to be the ultimate heir to the Davidic throne promised by God in the Davidic convent (2 Samuel 7:8-17).
2. In the end, 1 Kings was provided by God as an understanding of Kings to give the Jewish people, and all readers up to date, renewed opportunity to fear God, live in devotion to Him.
3. For us to look for the messianic King.
4. So, let’s pray people awaken to the true God of the Scriptures, as the success of any president or king (any of the nation as a whole)depends on the measure of his/their allegiance to God’s law. And failure results in decline and captivity.

In the end, the fate of our country and freedom rests in how we as the Christian community and world at large embraces the true God of the universe and our allegiance to His Law.

Business is about the numbers but character is about success. And success is all about how you get to those numbers, right or wrong.

Today, I am going to show you that while numbers are necessary for running a sales organization, or any organization for that matter, including our family budget and personal lives-the lack of good character in achieving those numbers is false success. It also leads to a heartless soul organizationally and personally speaking through wrongly, ill-gained profit. On the other hand, godly character leads to God-dependent success. That success must be coupled with our obedience to work hard, smart and ethically-moral.

I was in outside sales for many years and can attest to the fact that marketplace success is based on numbers.  In sales, success is measured and driven by the NUMBER of cold calls, appointments, presentations and closed deals. In the end, the value of a sales-person is based on how much money a salesperson bring as defined by closed sales at the end of each month.

To be blunt, compensating people on performance is the best way to reward sales people, but selling based on one’s character is the right and best model. If a person is honest, hard working, driven, fair, thinks of the other person first, that salesperson will in most cases perform more highly than if strictly driven by numbers. To be fair, there are many lazy and dishonest sales people (and people in general) in the marketplace and world in general. Laziness is slothfulness, and that goes back to character. If doing business and closing sales with a foundation of good character sounds like a pipe dream, it’s not. It’s the way that Americans business used operate and in some cases, still is. While character driven business has never been perfectly executed in America or in any culture, it was executed with a high level of success up until the 1990’s.

When a company judges a person strictly by their sales numbers, they create an environment based on a lack of character and a lack of moral values. More specifically, a lack of Christian values which used to be the values of the United States in particular. It’s important to understand that nothing acts or operates in a vacuum. If Christian values such as “do not steal, murder, lie, honor other people as you would want to be honored”, etc. are no longer the cultural foundation of business ethics, what is? The two main choices are as follows: ATHEISM: (Communism or Socialism-every man and woman for him or herself with the government running the economy). Or ISLAM: (which is communism under a theocracy). These two worldviews have already taken over much of the world’s economic philosophies, but Christian values based on character still exist and can make a come back! Indonesia has the highest number of Muslims in the world of any country. They never sent a missionary or religious people to accomplish that. They sent business people to start businesses.

GOALS:

Sales is not for everybody, but everybody sells and should have goals. We should all have goals, including stay at home moms, teenagers, the president of companies and the president and leaders of countries, as well as sales managers, sales people and sales teams. But one’s value system ought never be attached to a number, and one’s character ought never be judged by their numerical success. I agree that if your numbers aren’t met after a specific time, perhaps that person ought to look for another job-probably outside of sales. This goes back to character and ego. I

In our next episode, I am going to tie this into the Bible through 2 Samuel whereby we read about David’s taking a CENSUS in numbering of the people, which was usually done for the purposes of taxation or military draft. David’s sin was in putting his faith in NUMBERS rather than in God. This is the danger of measuring  success strictly by numbers without biblical character. To be fair, numbers are necessary in living out our lives, including how organizations run their sales organization. With that in mind, God is today with out us today as He was with king David in 2 Samuel that there are occasions whereby we are not to use numbers. In David’s case, he was not to measure the numbers of citizens due to the fact that it would puff up David’s ego and give him a false sense of his own worth, power and success as opposed to depending on God and giving him the glory, honor and credit. This will be the subject of part two!

CONCLUSION:

In the end, building a business and a successful sales team must be by numbers. That being said, they must also be driven by character and personal development and understanding, based on biblical character. The final determiner of true success in God’s eyes boils down to how the person, manager or organization gets to those numbers. While numbers are necessary for running an organization, our family budgets and personal lives, the lack of good character in achieving those numbers leads only to a heartless organization and wrongly driven profits. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In our next episode we are going to look at what happens through the biblical story of king David’s ordering of a numerical census for personal ego and trying to achieve numbers apart from God.

Many over the years have compared America to Rome. Some think that there is little if any comparison while others see the life cycle of all great empires being played out as America runs out of gas. Today, I am going to provide a brief introduction comparison of Ancient Rome and modern America as two empires running the paces, from start to finish, as all great empires do. Let’s get started.

I want to open with side by side quotes of the words of the famous Roman poet “VERGIL” and the first woman to hold the position of U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. Let’s start with Vergil.

Vergil is the most famous poet in Roman history. “VIRGIL” (Full name Publius Vergilius Maro was Born October 15, 70 BC, near Mantua (ITALY) and died September 21, 19 B.C. He was best known for his national EPIC, the “AENEID” which went unfinished until his death. He is still regarded today as he was by ancient Romans to be Rome’s and Italy’s greatest poet. He is called Virgil or Vergil, the Aeneid.

Let's compare Vergil’s words regarding Rome’s view of self to that America through the American diplomat and political scientist Madeleine Albright who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. Albright was a member of the Democratic Party, and she was the first woman in U.S. history to hold the position of U.S. Secretary of State.

Listen carefully to what each are saying, and how they are eerily similar.

VERGIL: “Remember, Roman, that it is yours to lead other people. It is your special gift” - Virgil, The Aeneid

MS. ALBRIGHT: “We are the indespensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.” - Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

It seems clear that while Vergil and Albright used different words to describe the Italian and American empires, they said much the same thing in that that each saw themselves as the invincible leaders of the world. I am reminded of Proverbs 16:18 which says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”.

In what is most likely king David’s last formal utterance, in 2 Samuel, he wrote this:

“WHEN ONE RULES JUSTLY OVER MEN, RULING IN THE FEAR OF GOD HE DAWNS ON THEM LIKE THE MORNING LIGHT, LIKE THE SUN SHINING FORTH ON A CLOUDLESS MORNING, LIKE RAIN THAT TMAKES GRASS TO SPROUT FROM THE EARTH” (2 Samuel 23:3b-4 ESV).

David opens with addressing, “HE WHO RULES OVER MEN”. David in his last breath found it important to voice God’s expectations for rulers in comparison to the expectations of the rulers themselves. David made clear that if these rulers would follow God’s was as outlined in the Judaea-Christian Scriptures that it would bring blessing upon them and the citizens like the light dawn after the rain, like a clear morning, like tender grass. Each of these similes speaks of of “NEW LIFE, PURITY, and REFRESHMENT”.

David also made clear that the function of the king was not to impoverish the nation. Instead, the king was to enable the people as he presented to them the refreshing will of God. I am baffled as to why Americans politicians and political leaders around the world are bent on impoverishing their citizens, which otherwise would provide tax revenues to much greater levels than they would by subduing them-killing their spirit to succeed and ability to produce greater taxes for the king, or government heads themselves. The answer is simple in that when rulers become too comfortable with their power, they lust after that power, abusing the every citizen with the end goal of controlling them on all sides. This is the same story of communism that has been played out over 200 times in world history-and which has failed over 200 times in world history.

Today, we find very little fear of God in American and European - Christian culture. Proverb’s 22 makes clear this: “DO NOT ROB THE POOR, BECAUSE HE IS POOR, OR CRUSH THE AFFLICTED AT THE GATE, FOR THE LORD WILL PLEAD THEIR CAUSE AND ROB OF LIFE THOSE WHO ROB THEM” (Proverbs 22:22-23 ESV).

Let’s remember that the “FALL OF ROME” was not violent at all, but a smooth transition of power from the elites to the barbarians. There was no social implosion after the seize of power and no raping or pillage going on. Rome didn’t “FALL” the way the Carthage had side centuries earlier, when he Romans slaughtered the inhabitants and razed the city, or the way Berlin would with the fall of the iron wall would, fifteen centuries later, blasted into rubble. Let’s pray and hope that America follows the model of the Fall of Rome and not the uncivil chaos of violent national rebellion.

IN CONCLUSION: Many over the years have compared America to Rome. Some think that there is little if any comparison while others see the life cycle of all great empires being played out as America runs out of gas. We can now conclude that America and Ancient Rome-Italy are much the same as two empires running the paces, as all earthly empire do-from start to finish. The only perfect Kingdom to ever exist has not yet been created. That will happen when God creates the New Heaven and Earth-the New Jerusalem (See Book of Revelation). In the mean while, we are stuck with imperfect, sinful men and women trying and succeeding temporarily with creating new and great empires-until sinful, lustful, and evil desires permeates and takes over the souls of the leaders and many of it’s citizens to the point of the demise of their temporal empire.

In closing, it all boils down to God’s perfect ways over man’s temporal, sinful ways. And the best way to the best empires are with the timeless, living Word of God. “WHEN ONE RULES JUSTLY OVER MEN, RULING IN THE FEAR OF GOD HE DAWNS ON THEM LIKE THE MORNING LIGHT, LIKE THE SUN SHINING FORTH ON A CLOUDLESS MORNING, LIKE RAIN THAT TMAKES GRASS TO SPROUT FROM THE EARTH” (2 Samuel 23:3b-4 ESV).