I Samuel 8:7  And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

Yesterday I watched a piece of a report regarding the day after the debate. On camera was Mr. Poilievre. He had a very serious face. I believe that Mr. Poilievre cares about his family and this country. He has given some twenty years of life to government. He seems to be different than many politicians. I do not believe he is always truthful, but I do not believe he is the snake oil salesman that is so common in politics. Some of his policies are honourable. You can see from his face that he actually believes that he can change the economic course of this country if he were given the opportunity. You do not see that in the face of Mr. Carney. That man is a fraudster who, in a just world, would be classified as a mobster. He would have been hunted down and imprisoned in a just world. We do not live in a just world, nor in a just Canada.
In spite of the “good” things that Mr. Poilievre says, there is a key element that is missing in his life. That key element is Biblical salvation. He will never see the real problem this country is facing, unless he gets saved.
A number of years ago I attended a political rally for Mr. Harper. I do not remember now if it was a campaign stop or if he was running for leader of the party. He gave a speech that was very impressive. After the meeting, I went to the front to meet the man. Back then his security was not that tight and others were there as well. I did get to meet the man and shake his hand. I gave him a Gospel tract and encouraged him to read it and told him I would be praying for him. He had this stunned look on his face as I was talking to him. I do not believe many people came to him with such an approach.
Mr. Harper had a sharp pencil. He knew economics and he kept Canada in much better shape during the 2008 financial crisis, than the U.S. I highly doubt that Mr. Harper was or is a Christian man. His love for the Beatles betrays the possibility that he could be a saved man. A saved man cannot promote such a vile group with such clarity as that man did. His rejection of the sanctity of life also shows he is a lost man.
I also understand that politicians in our country are not preachers. Somehow we have determined that true Christianity does not belong in government. The Old Testament teaches us that God sets up kings and He removes kings. He designed Israel to be governed by Him. He gave them a leader in Moses, who is called a prophet. He gave them the priesthood and established Aaron as the first high priest. He gave them the laws needed to govern that nation in a proper manner. At the end of Samuel’s life, the nation was tired of God’s rule. They demanded a king like the nations around them. Samuel was rightfully upset with the people due to what they asked for. God spoke to Samuel and told him to honour their request. God told Samuel the people had not rejected him, but rather they had rejected Him from ruling over them.
It is interesting who God chose as the first king of the nation of Israel. Keep in mind that Israel was to be a “theocracy”. God was to be their king. The first king God gave the nation of Israel was Saul. He seemed to be a very humble man who respected his father and had a degree of respect for Samuel. After he became king, he slowly but steadily changed to show who he truly was. He did not recognize that he had been made king by God. He jealously guarded his place in defiance of God’s will. He sought to kill the man he knew would be his replacement.
Saul had enough understanding of rulership that he expected to be the first in a dynasty. He assumed that his son Jonathan would be the next king and so on down the line. He did not understand that the only way there could have been a dynasty would have been if he would have walked in the fear of the Lord. He also did not understand that the sceptre would be in the tribe of Judah. Saul was a Benjamite.
God showed the people early on in their desire for a king, that when you reject God, you have trouble. King Saul wasted the time and energy of some of the strongest men in the nation of Israel to chase after God’s chosen replacement for king Saul. That was a futile effort. David had some things to learn about trusting in God as well, but God determined he would be the next king and no man would stand in God’s way.
The Old Testament also records the history of many pagan nations. Some of them became quite powerful and quite wealthy. However, they all failed in that they rejected the true God. The nation of Israel is a floundering nation today because they are still living in rebellion against God. They are heavily dependent upon the U.S. and are looking for other nations that will help prop them up. In the secular world they want to live in, they would never survive. However, the secular aspect of the world is just a small part of the world.
There is a spiritual aspect that is far greater and of greater significance than the secular world that occupies so much of our time. That is what is missing in our country as well. We are not Israel. However, the same God that chose Abram and changed his name to Abraham, is the same God Who is God over the entire world and all of creation.
As I watched that scene of Mr. Poilievre speaking with such concern about what he sees in our country, I felt sorry for him. He is trying so hard. Different people have picked him apart and tried to analyze why he is not more popular and why the Liberals are so far ahead in the polls. I am not a prophet and I do not know who is going to be the P.M. after April 28. It might be Mr. Poilievre. I do not trust the polls. They are a propaganda tool designed to sway people’s minds. Most people do not think with conviction. They think with their pocket book and they are heavily motivated by peer pressure. Years ago I spoke with a man about the corrupt Liberal party and that man talked of the financial advantages that he and his family had experienced due to the Liberal party policies. It did not matter to him that the Liberal party was extremely corrupt then as it is now. This man was a professing Christian man.
We have mentioned before that there are at least three things that are causing the Conservatives to be so poorly received. We know the Liberals are corrupt and should never form government. Yet they have been the dominant party in this country. The Conservatives have nothing better to offer us on the issues that matter.
The issue of abortion (murder of unborn children) has come up in this campaign. Mr. Poilievre has stated that he will not bring that issue up nor allow any changes to the “right of women to choose” what they do with their bodies. The murder of unborn children is not a matter of choice over the woman’s body. She had that choice when she chose to go to bed with a man. God created the man and the woman to be fruitful and multiply. That is the normal result of intimacy between a man and a woman.
When a political party cannot recognize the basic fact that a child in the womb is a living human being that must be protected, not murdered, God cannot bless that party or that nation. When a party will not respect the fact that God made them “male and female”, and accepts the sodomite agenda; God cannot bless that nation.
When a nation protects the cursing of Israel, God cannot bless that nation. The struggles of the Conservative party are directly linked to their unwillingness to acknowledge the true God as their God. They want to change this country and try to make it great without having the God of creation as their God. Without Him, no country will ever be great over the long haul. Nations have been powerful and wealthy in the past. Where are those nations today?
We have been studying the book of Ezekiel in our Wednesday evening Bible study. At the end of chapter 28, God says He will sanctify Israel in the land that He gave to Jacob. Israel will one day be a nation far superior to the nation of Israel in the days of king David or the early part of Solomon’s reign. Israel will be a nation that will be the greatest of all nations when they acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah, Saviour and King. That day is coming. I will not see that day from this side of heaven. It will come.
Canada will never be a great nation. It will never rise to the level it has had in the past. It is too far gone and there is no interest in turning it around. Too many pulpits have become quiet on the things that really matter to God. Too many churches are already in the back pocket of the government through registration for the purposes of greed. True churches do not need tax breaks to do the Lord’s work. True churches need to rely on God just as the disciples were told to do in yesterday’s devotional.
Those who are truly born again need to understand Who is in charge. The god of this world has blinded the mind of those who do not believe in God. Those who are saved, are not supposed to be blind. Our eyes have been opened by the new birth. We need to draw nigh to God and be a light in this dark world. That light will be shocking to the “eyes” of the blind. It will cause a few to stop and rethink their course. A few will be saved. The majority will rise up against the truth. The truth will prevail.
Pastor Bartel