Select A President Who Is Godly & Capable

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.’ (Exodus 18:21); ‘Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.’ (1 Timothy 3:1)

As Election Day draws near, we remember those who previously served as President to our great United States since the implementation of the US Constitution in 1789 (having been written in 1787 and ratified in 1788).  Under the Articles of Confederation (1781-1789), the US had no single person who would be the ‘executive figure’ or leader of the nation; the US was run by committee and often could not reach consensus among the 13 states to do things, like pay bills or collect taxes.  (It could print ‘national’ money but there was no national treasury backing the money up, sort of like today.) 

The US Constitution corrected these deficiencies by creating the three equal branches of government:

• Judicial (Supreme Court with a varied set of justices, currently at 9) to clarify and ‘impartially judge’ the laws
• Legislative (the bicameral Congress, or two equal groups, the House of Representatives (based on population) and the Senate (based on equal representation of the states), to debate, modify existing laws and create new laws
• Executive (the President, the US Military, and most Federal officials and agencies) to execute and enforce the laws

The President’s duties and responsibilities, while somewhat described in the Constitution in Article II, were best defined by the actions of our 1^st President, George Washington, who exercised restraint in not vetoing many bills passed by Congress and only serving 2 terms as President (a standard held to by future Presidents until our 32^nd President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, served 3 terms and the start of a 4^th until he died in April 1945, and now 2 terms are enforced via the 22^nd Amendment).

Washington was adept in showing his leadership backbone by stopping the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 and in forcing Thomas Jefferson (later the 3^rd President of the US) to resign from his Cabinet in 1793 for an escalation in his disputes over government operations with Alexander Hamilton (who never became President and died during a duel with our 2^nd President John Adams’ Vice President, Aaron Burr, so perhaps George was on the wrong side of this debate). 

The aforementioned FDR was our longest-tenured president at just over 12 years, and our shortest-tenured president was our 9^th President, William Henry Harrison, who served just 31 days in 1841, after refusing to wear a coat at his inauguration in March (it was a ‘cold & wet day’), later caught pneumonia, and died a month later.  Harrison is 1 of 4 who died in office of natural causes (12^th President Zachary Taylor, 29^th President Warren G. Harding, and Franklin Roosevelt were the others).

4 others were assassinated (16^th President Abraham Lincoln, 20^th President James Garfield, 25^th President William McKinley, and 35^th President John F. Kennedy).  Grover Cleveland was the only President (so far) to have two separate terms (22^nd and 24^th) , and was one of 3 who got married while in office, with 10^th President John Tyler and 28^th President Woodrow Wilson being the others.

There is of course much more trivia we could bring up for our Presidents, and while we don’t necessarily have to approve of our Presidents’ platforms or presentation (in whole or part), with an obligation as a citizen to criticize (positively and negatively) their actions, we need to respect and support our President, and most importantly, pray for him (or in the future, her) for the Lord to provide His guidance and leadership for our President to follow.

We the people, when selecting our President, need to ensure we use Godly principles in selecting our leaders.  Also, those who desire to lead should mirror those principles.  Jethro gave Moses the advice of Exodus 18:21 in selecting men as leaders over the Israelites; God-fearing men who were trustworthy, honest and had integrity, and had shown leadership skills to oversee the divisions of the tribes.  Paul tells Timothy in his first letter to him that those who seek office should desire the role as a calling from God.  While 1 Timothy 3 is dealing primarily with the qualifications of an Elder or Deacon, the qualifications listed in 3:2-5 have merits with political office as well. 

Recently, superficial and secular reasons are seen as the pursuit of Presidents and Congressional Office seekers; what is their stance on abortion, taxes, the border, energy costs, and more.  We the people look at party without looking at the platform of the candidate, or the temperament of the individual running for office.  Many office holders today are either in it for self-enrichment of them and the ‘oligarchy’ they are a part of, and not for the benefit of the people they are suppose to serve. 

It is time to hold our political leaders (all of them, not just our President) to a higher standard.  The standard we need to hold those in a political office to are those within Scriptures; like George Washington (far from a perfect man) we should look for honesty, integrity, a pursuit of community over a pursuit of self, and above all else a person who fears God and puts God first, nation second, and self-interests coming in third. 

Never forget, one duty of an American citizen is to vote; corporately Americans together will vote for the President we desire, and corporately Americans together will vote for President we deserve. Pray the one we corporately choose is Godly and capable.