You can’t build God’s kingdom with the enemy’s tools

When the people on the platform are promoting violence and hate, Christians should have no part in the protest, says Dr Helen Paynter. As King Ahaz learned, forging shady alliances with those in power will not build God’s kingdom

One day, long ago, in a time of great political uncertainty not unlike our own, a man had a vision.

His vision was so transformative that it set him on a course that would bring him into conflict with the leaders of his day. It was a vision that emboldened him to speak courageous words to power. It was a vision that still inspires many of us today.

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord,” says Isaiah (6:1). “And he was high and lifted up…and the whole earth was full of his glory.” A little later, Isaiah got the chance to apply this to a very real, very troubling, situation.

King Ahaz was considering his options in the face of a threat. “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what it fears,” Isaiah told him (8:12). God, through Isaiah, was instructing the king not to use the logic of human power and strength; not to make his decision based on the pragmatics of army size or wealth; but to trust the God who is seated on the throne above the heavens and the earth and fills the earth with his glory.