Editorial - Exaltations from the LORD

In the account of Job's testings, and in the midst of all his sufferings – loss of family, loss of house, loss of goods and livestock, terrible boils over his whole body, and to cap all his adversities and miseries the "words without knowledge" he had to endure from his three so-called comforters – Job yet demonstrated great integrity.

He refused to rail against the Lord, and he spoke some words that were good advice for all leaders, who when all's said and done are in positions of authority and power only because the Lord has ordained it so: "For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the desert. But God is the Judge; he puts down one, and exalts another" (Psalm 75:6,7).

There is a very real sense in which leaders who are elected into positions of authority as today's prime ministers and presidents, or who are appointed to a position of authority as was King Solomon by his father David before his death, are there only by the grace of God, as "he puts down one and exalts another."

Job reminds us that "God draws the mighty away with his power; he rises up, but no one is sure of life. He gives them security, and they rely on it; yet his eyes are on their ways. They are exalted for a little while, then they are gone" (Job 24:22-24).

It is important therefore that we pray constantly for our leaders, for they are accountable to God, and on them rests the responsibility for good government. In the New Testament Paul in his First Letter to Timothy says: "Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence" (2:1,2).

Exaltation is from the Lord. Responsibility too is from the Lord, both for leaders and for the people generally, for "when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan" (Proverbs 29:2).

There is One who has already been exalted to the position from where He will one day rule in righteousness. "God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus (Yeshua) every knee should bow . . . every tongue should confess that Jesus the Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Letter to the Philippians 2:9-11).