When we examine the totality of the Bible, it becomes clear that God most often uses men who have many faults. Abraham, the father of faith who heard what God said and believed Him and this was accounted to him as righteousness—had stunning moments of terrible faith.

FAITH: Genesis 15:6 And Abram believed the LORD and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.

Paul included Abraham as a great example of what faith is:

FAITH: Hebrews 11:8-9 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith

And yet, when it was most important, while on the journey that God was taking Abraham, his faith was not perfect. Twice, Abraham was afraid that he would be killed by those who wanted to take his wife, Sarai, as their own:

LACK OF FAITH: Genesis 12:10-13 At that time a severe famine struck the land of Canaan, forcing Abram to go down to Egypt, where he lived as a foreigner. As he was approaching the border of Egypt, Abram said to his wife, Sarai, “Look, you are a very beautiful woman. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife. Let’s kill him; then we can have her!’ So please tell them you are my sister. Then they will spare my life and treat me well because of their interest in you.”

LACK OF FAITH: Genesis 20:1-2 Abraham moved south to the Negev and lived for a while between Kadesh and Shur, and then he moved on to Gerar. While living there as a foreigner, Abraham introduced his wife, Sarah, by saying, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar sent for Sarah and had her brought to him at his palace.

In other places, Abraham had great faith and confidence in the power and ability of the Lord.

None of the men that God used for great purposes were morally perfect, but some were yielded to God:

David committed adultery murder, and lied about his crimes. But God said of David that he will obey me when I speak to him and do what I ask.

2 Samuel 11:2-5 Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her… Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.”

2 Samuel 11:14-15 …David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.”

Despite these horrible sins, notice what the Lord said about David:

1 Samuel 13:4 The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”

1 Kings 14:8 But you (Saul) have not been like my servant David, who obeyed my commands and followed me with all his heart and always did according to my will.

Notice how God described David to the prophet Ezekiel: “My servant”

Ezekiel 34:23 And I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David. He will feed them and be a shepherd to them.

19 times in the Old Testament, God calls David: “My Servant.”

When David’s son, Solomon, was appointed as the king of Israel, notice what God said to Him regarding his father, David:

1 Kings 9:4-5 Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

When we examine Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon and Cyrus King of the Persian Empire, both men were severely flawed. What was it that God saw in these two pagan kings that caused Him to choose these men to accomplish His will?

These are mysteries that only God knows, but we do know from the scriptures that God often chooses leaders that people in the world reject. Hebrew scholar Paul tells us in the book of Romans that God often chooses people before they are born for his own purposes and that this choice is NOT based upon their good or bad works.

Romans 9:10-12 This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.

Notice how God describes both Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus:

What God told Jeremiah to tell the people of Israel: Nebuchadnezzar is God’s servant:

Jeremiah 27:4-8 Give them this message for their masters: ‘This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: With my great strength and powerful arm I made the earth and all its people and every animal. I can give these things of mine to anyone I choose. Now, I will give your countries to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who is my servant. I have put everything, even the wild animals, under his control. All the nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until his time is up. Then many nations and great kings will conquer and rule over Babylon. So you must submit to Babylon’s king and serve him; put your neck under Babylon’s yoke! I will punish any nation that refuses to be his slave, says the LORD. I will send war, famine, and disease upon that nation until Babylon has conquered it.

God tells the people of Israel that He is the one who chooses leaders, and when He does, we should not think this is happenstance or the result of the people’s choices. God raised up a pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar, to rule over the Israelites, place them into captivity for 70 years, and then release them when God’s time in prophecy had been finished.

God tells Jeremiah to tell the people of Israel: “So you must submit to Babylon’s king and serve him.”

Notice the response of Daniel when Nebuchadnezzar calls him into his chambers and asks him to interpret the dream Nebuchadnezzar had:

Daniel 2:19-21 That night the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven. He said, “Praise the name of God forever and ever, for he has all wisdom and power. He controls the course of world events; he removes kings and sets up other kings.

For 490 years, Israel failed to let the land rest one year in seven. Because the land had not been allowed its Sabbath for 490 years, Israel owed God a land-rest debt of 70 years.

God warned Israel, through Jeremiah the prophet, that if they would not honor Him and listen to Him, they would be destroyed by a foreign nation. Nebuchadnezzar was permitted by God to take Israel captive, and remove the best and brightest young men from their land and carry them back to Babylon for 70 years. This is the exact period of time that was owed to God for the land the rest of Israel had failed to observe. God put the entire nation into captivity to serve another nation simply because they had failed to give one year, in seven, to rest.

If we should ever think that the commandments of the Lord are optional, we might think again, considering what God did to Israel for their disobedience.

Nevertheless, though Israel was the people God chose when they disobeyed Him, He sent a pagan king of His choosing to take the nation captive for 70 years. God does not consult with us about who we think should be the leader of a nation. He rules according to His wisdom and unlimited knowledge of all things.

God spoke of Cyrus, king of Babylon, 150 years before He was born.

Isaiah 45:3: Thus says the LORD to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held—To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut: “I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, I Am the God of Israel.

Cyrus would be the method by which the Lord would return His people to Israel. In calling Cyrus by name before he was born, when this prophecy was brought to the attention of the king by Daniel, Cyrus immediately did exactly as the Lord commanded him. Cyrus was so impressed by the God of the Hebrews, that he did not hesitate nor cease in fulfilling all that God asked of him.

In the process, God greatly magnified the kingdom of this Persian king. He gained great military strength; all of the Persian tribes followed him without dispute. He secured an ally while in Babylon with the Medes. Two armies of the Medes came to join Cyrus instead of his enemies. When Cyrus was on his way to conquer Babylon, his generosity caused him to march through Armenia without opposition while winning a stunning victory over the Lydians. As Cyrus came into Lydia, the smell of the Persian camels alarmed their horses and caused confusion that worked in Cyrus’ favor. When Cyrus arrived at Babylon, he devised a plan to divert the mighty Euphrates River and lower its level sufficiently to go under the double iron gates of the city. By the time Cyrus and his army were detected inside Babylon, the battle was already over. The iron gates of the city were easily opened, just as God told Cyrus, and he won a quick and bloodless victory. ~Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, 34- 51.

• In Daniel Chapter 7, we see four kingdoms represented by a great statue.
• In Daniel Chapter 2, we see four kingdoms represented by four great beasts.

What men see, in Chapter 7, as power, prestige, and wealth, represented by a great statue, God sees, in Chapter 4, as four vicious beasts. The people on earth see these four kingdoms as great and mighty, wealthy and influential. The Lord, from heaven, sees these kingdoms for what they are: wild beasts that tear, kill, and destroy the lives of people.

This is a common principle of the Bible that people see themselves differently from how God sees them. In each of the seven churches, Jesus reveals a different perspective of the believers than the view they have of themselves.

1. Ephesus: extremely active and busy, Jesus sees them as forgetting their first love.
2. Smyrna: great tribulation and poverty, Jesus sees them as rich.
3. Pergamos: martyrs, Jesus sees them as holding fast and not denying His name.
4. Thyatira: many works, love, service, Jesus sees their worship of idols.
5. Sardis: they have a famous name, Jesus says they are dead.
6. Philadelphia: little strength, kept His word, Jesus will keep them from the Great Tribulation.
7. Laodicea: rich, wealthy, in need of nothing—Jesus says they are poor, wretched, miserable, blind, and naked.

God sees the leaders He chooses differently than we see them because He knows all things and the direction in which He wants a nation to go.

It is stunning enough that the Bible could predict the four kingdoms of the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, but God also describes these kingdoms hundreds of years before they existed:

Daniel 2:31-33 You, O king, were watching; and behold a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,  its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

In the last days, when Jesus returns to earth at the end of the seven-year Tribulation, a revival of the old Roman Empire will exist under the authority of the antichrist.

Daniel 2:44-45: And in the days of these kings (Revived Roman Empire) the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone (Jesus, the Rock) was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”

When Jesus returns, He will be seen as “The Rock” that Daniel predicted—a mighty force that easily destroys this final kingdom. In its place, Jesus will establish His perfect kingdom of righteousness.

Daniel 2:34: You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.

As Daniel observes these four kingdoms of the last days, he also notices a stone, not cut with human hands (not by human will). The final kingdom will be from God, not by the will of men. The term “stone” or “rock” throughout the Bible is always used as an illustration for Jesus Christ. When Paul wrote in describing Israel’s experience through the desert, he tells the church at Corinth that the rock they all drank from, which poured forth water, was really Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:4: And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

Daniel sees this Rock as He returns to earth at the end of the fourth kingdom consisting of a revived Roman empire under a new world leader called “the antichrist.” This kingdom will be made up of the ten toes, or ten nations, described as a mixture of iron and clay. These two elements are not naturally compatible. By the mixing of iron and clay, the language suggests that this kingdom will be partly strong (iron) and partly weak (clay). Seven nations will be strong and continue; three will be found weak and fall away.

Daniel saw a Stone, descriptive of Jesus the Messiah, who would arrive during the time of the final seven nations under the antichrist and break them to pieces. The Messiah will establish an eternal kingdom promised to His father David, that will never end.

Do you think that the people who were alive during the time that God did these incredible things by Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, men that people thought were not qualified to be kings and leaders, that they knew that God was working and not happenstance or their own choices?

If God only chose the people we think should lead us—His will would not be accomplished.

Only Noah, Joseph, Daniel, and Jesus are described in the Bible as blameless; Jesus is described as sinless.

Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus were pagan kings who came to know God as He displayed His Mighty Power before them. God called these men His shepherd, His anointed, His servants. God fulfilled His promises recorded in the Messianic Prophecies by releasing the Hebrew people from their 70 years of captivity and bringing them back into their land once again.

Even in speaking to these men and using them to accomplish His will, these men were far from perfect.

If God only used perfect men, He would have no one to use

In answer to our prayers, God has again sent us an imperfect man: The new President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. His past is filled with errors; his mouth is often boisterous and crude, but He is the servant God chose for this time.

• When Trump Glorifies God: Images Of Nebuchadnezzar And Cyrus
• The Reason Donald Trump Did Not Win A Second Term As President in 2020

Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard lesson that God alone raises up kings and presidents for His purposes. We can believe this truth, or we can fight against it by our own understanding and intellect. We will find ourselves fighting against God, as Gamaliel told the leaders of Israel concerning Jesus.

We prayed; we petitioned heaven. We asked God to turn America back to God. We prayed that the trend of insanity that has been brought to our nation would end.

God has heard us and answered.

We have asked God for one more glorious outpouring of His Holy Spirit to save millions before Jesus comes again. It appears that He has heard us and will do what we have asked.

Get ready to see the Glory of God in these last of the Last Days.

Categories: Robert Clifton Robinson

Tags: Eschatology: The Last Days Salvation Of Israel, Israel's 70th Anniversary, King Cyrus and Donald Trump, The Last Days, Trump and Nebuchadnezzar, Trump Impeachment, Trump Peace Plan